Growing Thai Basil From Cuttings - ไทย โหระพา

Thai Basil Cuttings

First off you need to find someone who has some Thai Basil Plants to take some cuttings, these came from our garden in Thailand, the local birds here seem to enjoy snacking on our Basil but in more temperate climates I think the birds will leave them alone.
With a sharp knife cut off sprigs of about 4 inches, don't try to pinch or use scissors for your cuttings.

Pinching off Basil Leaves

Pinch off bottom leaves and any flowers or buds, you don't want your basil plant trying to produce flowers whilst you are waiting for it to produce roots, also this is a good time to pinch off any damaged leaves.

Starting Your Basil

Place the Basil cuttings into a glass or jar with water, every 2 or 3 days replace the water, obviously rain water is the best but we used tap water that had been left to stand for 48 hours.

Basil Growth Rates

With these 2 cuttings they were kept in a light airy room with an ambient temperature of high 70's, they got about 2 hours of direct sunlight perday in the late afternoon which caused them to wilt a bit but they soon perk up in the early evening.
On the 3rd day the smaller plant on the right started growing roots, by the 4th day these were about 10mm long, the larger Basil Plant started to sprout roots on the 4th day.
The larger plant I believe was slower as it had about 10 tiny little buds which were leaves, these I didn't notice when I took the initial cuttings but noticed on the 4th day.
By the 6th day the small basil plant had around 15 roots of up to 5 cm long, the larger plant was struggling with a couple of small roots and putting its efforts into growing the leaves, (should really have pinched them off).

Potting Your Basil

We just buy the bags of black soil from our local Thai nursery, it's around 20baht per bag and will fill quite a few pots.
At around 10 to 14 days your basil plants should be ready for potting, although a few more days won't hurt them and give them a bit more root growth.
Loosely fill a pot with damp soil, push your finger into the middle, place your basil plant in the hole and carefully push the soil back into place, give it a light watering to help settle the soil.
If your are in Thailand or a similar hot sunny country keep your basil plant out of direct sunlight for the first few days till it settles in to its new home.

Preserving Basil

Cooking with Basil