How to Grow Thai Basil? A Complete Guide to Planting Methods and Tips

Thai basil, also known as basil, jinbuhuan, St. Joseph's wort, and sweet basil, is an aromatic seasoning. It is also fairly easy to grow. So how do you grow Thai basil?

1. Choose a variety

Choose the variety you want to grow. Thai basil has many varieties, and each one has a different fragrance. Look up the relevant information and find one or several varieties you like to grow. You can buy the corresponding seeds from a flower shop. First, take a look at our recommendations:

1. Cinnamon basil has a sweet fragrance and produces beautiful, intoxicatingly fragrant flowers.

2. Lemon basil contains citral. Citral is the aroma compound in citrus fruits, and lemon basil also smells strongly of lemon.

3. Purple basil is mostly grown for ornamental purposes, with a captivating fragrance and vivid flowers.

4. Some Thai basil varieties are perennial and will continue to grow the following year after withering. Examples include African blue basil (this type of basil has blue veins on its leaves) and Thai basil. However, most Thai basil is annual, and you must plant a new batch every year.

5. Greek basil and spicy globe basil are relatively difficult to grow, but they produce compact little clumps of leaves and are suitable for ornamental use and gardening.

2. Sowing

Sow indoors. Sow indoors 4-6 weeks before the last frost. Thai basil likes warmth and sun, so sowing indoors is safer and can prevent Thai basil from being damaged by frost.

1. If you live in a relatively hot area, you can also sow outdoors.

2. If you do not know when the last frost is, you can check a perpetual calendar or ask a local gardener.

Prepare the sowing containers and soil. Fill square pots or individual containers with equal parts vermiculite, perlite, and peat moss. Press the soil lightly to remove air. Moisten the soil with water to prepare a suitable environment for seed germination.

Bury one to two seeds in each container, then gently cover them with a layer of soil. Wrap the pots with plastic film to keep the soil moist. Place the pots under a sunny window, uncover the film twice a day, and sprinkle water into the soil to keep it moist.

Remove the plastic film after the seeds germinate. When you see the first curled green sprouts emerging from the soil, it is time to remove the film. Water the young sprouts twice a day, and never let the soil dry out completely. When the plants grow to a few centimeters tall and the leaves gradually mature, you can transplant the Thai basil into a larger container.

3. Transplanting

When the Thai basil has grown 1-2 sets of mature leaves, you can transplant it into the garden or a proper flower pot. Thai basil is not frost-tolerant, so do not move it outdoors too early. It is best to transplant Thai basil to a spot with ample sunlight and plant it in well-drained soil.

1. If you want to grow Thai basil in the garden, dig a hole every 15 cm, bury the roots of the Thai basil in the hole, and fill the soil up to the stem. Tamp the soil down slightly to remove air from the soil.

2. If you want to grow Thai basil in some kind of container, make sure the container is large enough to hold all the Thai basil you are growing. Because Thai basil grows quite large, leave at least 15 cm of space between each plant.

4. Care

1. Keep the soil moist, but do not let it become soggy. Thai basil grows well only in well-drained soil and cannot stay waterlogged all the time. For mature Thai basil, water once every morning to give the plant enough time to absorb and evaporate the water and prevent the soil from drying out at night.

2. When Thai basil blooms, pinch off the flowers and the two leaves below them. Flowering changes the hormones in Thai basil, reducing its fragrance and causing it to produce fewer leaves. This flowering and seeding phenomenon mostly occurs under particularly ample sunlight. If you do not pinch off the flower buds, you will find that the leaves of the Thai basil become increasingly slender and no longer as rich in fragrance as before.

3. Thai basil easily attracts Japanese beetles. The best way to deal with the pest problem is to pick the beetles off by hand. If your Thai basil tends to be affected by mold, that proves it may not be getting enough sunlight or may be growing too densely. Dig out the small Thai basil plants and give the larger Thai basil enough space to grow.

Growing Thai basil is fairly simple, and when grown it is also surrounded by fragrance, making it a very good ornamental flowering plant.