On Thu, 27 May 2004 20:53:22 -0400, DaveH
wrote:

On Wed, 26 May 2004 21:09:40 -0600, Janice
wrote:

On Tue, 25 May 2004 23:05:21 +0000 (UTC),
(Jake Wildstrom) wrote:

First off, let me know if I'm in the wrong place, please: the posts
I've seen here are mostly outdoor and fruit/vegetable-gardening, and
I'm doing (as the subject lines imply) herbs in indoor planters. i
live in an apartment, so outdoor transplantation isn't viable, else I
probably would.

Doesn't bother me if you're asking about growing stuff indoor, some
might, but ignore 'em. ;-) Most of us have grown plants inside too.
snip
Janice--
I believe I'm correct in assuming that basil is generally not a
hybrid?
DaveH

Did I say it was? Don't recall doing so. If I did, it must have been
a misunderstanding, I do sleep type at times, but can't tell I don't
have what I wrote, so can't tell what you're referring to. ;-)

Janice

snip
Did I say it was? Don't recall doing so. If I did, it must have been
a misunderstanding, I do sleep type at times, but can't tell I don't
have what I wrote, so can't tell what you're referring to. ;-)

Janice

No, no. I had an odd experience with some saved Basil seed--the leaves
tasted like the resulting plants weren't coming true. You seem quite
knowledgeable so I posed the question, somewhat out of the blue.
DaveH

On Mon, 31 May 2004 11:57:41 -0400, DaveH
wrote:

snip
Did I say it was? Don't recall doing so. If I did, it must have been
a misunderstanding, I do sleep type at times, but can't tell I don't
have what I wrote, so can't tell what you're referring to. ;-)

Janice

No, no. I had an odd experience with some saved Basil seed--the leaves
tasted like the resulting plants weren't coming true. You seem quite
knowledgeable so I posed the question, somewhat out of the blue.
DaveH

Ahhh ok. ;-) Well, yes any basil grown next to others can and
probably will cross, forming a hybrid offspring, a naturally
occurring, but a hybrid none-the-less, so that when you plant the seed
that occurs, you're in a crap shoot as to what the resulting plant
will taste like...if you have a bunch of different kinds of basil
growing in close proximity. And there *are* a lot of different kinds
of basils, sweet, cinnamon, lemon, some that are like camphor scents.

In general, if you think you will want to save seed from some
particular type of basil, and you want it to be true, you will need to
somehow keep pollen from other types from getting to the flowers of
the type you wish to save. There are different ways of doing that.

You could just grow that one kind of basil. Or , you could just keep
all blossom spikes on other kinds from forming, just pinch or trim
them off any time you see them, until the one you want to save seed
from has finished blooming and has set seed. Then you could allow
another to flower.. and set seed, keeping any others shorn, and so on.

You could also just cover the developing flower spike *before* the
buds have opened, with a very fine material like nylon stockings, or a
tightly woven cheesecloth (not the loop kind).. whatever you choose,
it needs to exclude pollen and insects. Then chose another flower
head on another of the same type..in the same stage of development.
Once you see the pollen grains on the anthers being ready..powdery and
will come off and use a soft brush like a small water color brush and
brush the flowers and brush onto other flowers. I would think they
would be too small to actually take anthers from flowers and applying
them to pistils on others. They may even be self pollinating, but I
think just making sure only one kind is allowed to bloom at a time is
the easiest way.

It's best to use, pick for drying, or freezing the basil and most
herbs just as they're about to bloom, that's when they're supposed to
be most flavorful. Once they bloom they're going to put their energy
to producing flowers and then seeds and the rest of the plant tends to
lose quality, leaves are smaller, paler, stalk woodier.