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| Italian Basil |
Of all the questions I’ve been asked about gardening thus
far, the most common question I get in Cambodia revolves around growing basil. Not just any basil either, at least not right away, but
specifically Italian Basil. There is
just something about its sweet minty and peppery flavor that makes it pair
perfectly with tomato dishes, salads, and other Mediterranean foods that other
forms of basil just can’t quite mimic.
You can generally identify it because its leaves have a more rounded and
wrinkly appearance, whereas other forms of basil have much flatter leaves with
ends that appear much more pointed.
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| Holy Basil |
There are so many different types of Basil though apart from
what we have in Cambodia and Italian Basil.
Holy Basil, Thai Basil, Sweet Basil, Lemon Basil, Lime Basil, Christmas
Basil, Opal Basil, Cinnamon Basil, etc. However, when you go to the market and ask for
basil you are most likely going to end up with Thai Basil. In Khmer they simply refer to it as Chee
Grahom, which loosely translated means Red Herb. Also referred to as Sweet Thai Basil it has a
strong pleasant aroma seemingly with a hint of clove.
As we work our way through the different basils you can grow out here though, keep in mind where you keep your seedlings. No matter what kind of basil you try to grow, basil seedlings don't do well if over-watered. Meaning, if you are growing in a space outdoors be careful where your pots or planters are. Especially in rainy season, a single heavy rain can inundate your plants and kill many of them off, however, once you're plants are around 10 centimeters tall they will be much more tolerant of excess water so long as the soil has adequate drainage. Also remember, that Thai Basil (usually labeled as Sweet Basil), Holy Basil, and Lemon Basil (strangely labeled as Hairy Basil) are the only varieties you'll be able to easily find seed for locally. Anything else you most likely need to plan on finding outside of Cambodia.
Super Simple, Easy To Grow
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Chee Grahom
Sweet Thai Basil |
Since Thai Basil is native to Southeast Asia it’s become a
staple of Asian dishes and is the most easily grown variety of basil in
Cambodia. In fact, I don’t even bother
planting it most of the time because it grows wild in the yard around my house
in multitudinous groves, especially in the rainy season. If I need basil I just walk into the backyard
and grab a few handfuls. If you do want
to grow it at home though, all you need are a pot with some dirt and a commitment
to watering daily. Thai Basil grows so
well out here that so long as you remember to water it you won’t really need to
do much else. However, if you don’t pay
attention to your plants you can expect occasional gaps in having fresh herb
leaves available.
Once basil plants produce flowers and seeds they will
usually just drop their seeds in the vicinity near where they are planted and
start growing new plants. However, a
once a basil plant has gone to seed the stems will harden, the leaves will be
less flavorful, and the plant will eventually die. You can prevent this by simply pinching off
the buds with your fingers as they form, allowing the plant to keep producing
aromatic leaves longer.
Straightforward, Moderate Difficulty to Grow
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| Hairy Basil??? |
Other forms of basil that can be grown in Cambodia with little
difficulty are Holy Basil and Lemon Basil.
Holy Basil has more of a spicy or peppery taste to it than normal Sweet
Thai Basil and Lemon Basil is as its name implies, it has a refreshing lemon flavor to it. If you are looking for seeds, Lemon Basil is
also often sold as Hairy Basil, which makes no sense to me, but that’s how it
gets labelled. These forms of basil will
require more nutrients than untreated soils, so some compost or good potting
mix are needed, but otherwise require very little maintenance and there is little you need to do that is different from Thai Basil.
Kind of Tricky, High Difficulty to Grow
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| Opal Basil |
Other types of basil I’ve grown at home include Opal Basil
and Cinnamon Basil. Opal basil has a
flavor similar to Holy Basil but stands out because of its unique dark purple
leaves. Cinnamon Basil has a hint of
cinnamon to it that pairs well with salads or sweeter foods. Because it has a minty/cinnamony/spicy flavor
to it, it can actually be pureed and used in frostings or chopped and added to
fruit salads.
With either of these forms of basil you need to pay careful
attention to watering, sunlight, and temperature. These varieties don’t do well in too much
heat, but at the same time prefer to get as much sunshine as possible. They also don’t tolerate being over watered
very well. A good sunny window is
probably the best place for these plants and you will want to pour a moderate amount of water directly into the dirt every evening so as to keep the dirt about as moist
as a wrung out sponge. Further down we'll get to why you need to water directly on the dirt instead of spraying the whole plant.
Stress Inducing, Insanely Complicated Level of Difficulty to Grow
Now, finally, we get to the most difficult type of basil to
grow in Cambodia, Sweet Italian Basil.
This form of basil is so difficult to grow consistently that getting
fresh leaves of it is as close to impossible as it gets here. It’s not because it is an especially
demanding plant, under normal conditions it’s a very easy plant to grow, but
usually before you can get any useable basil leaves off the plants it will
start to show signs of Downy Mildew.
Downy Mildew is a fungal infection that can affect all varieties of
basil in places all over the world, but here in Cambodia, Italian Basil is
especially susceptible to it and it will drive you nuts just trying to get rid of it.
There are a lot of theories about Downy Mildew, but the most
common is that it comes from fungal spores that lie in wait in the soil. Local Asian varieties of Basil have developed
tolerances to local strains and generally are less likely to be affected, especially when grown in
ideal conditions with sufficient sunlight, but Italian Basil has no tolerance
for local strains of mildew and the plant is almost always dead before you can
ever use it. A few times I've been lucky to have a good looking plant and get some basil off it, but more often than not the mildew strikes as soon as the leaves start appearing.
Some of the more difficult varieties of basil I’ve grown,
such as Cinnamon Basil, have been affected by mildew, but the simplest solution
is to make sure you are growing in a space with full sunlight and to water the
dirt directly instead of broadcast watering and letting moisture get all over
the leaves and stems. By reducing the
amount of moisture available on the outside of the plant the fungus can’t get a
good foothold on the plant and with enough sunlight it eventually dies. However, Downy Mildew just seems to love
Italian Basil and no matter what I’ve tried I haven’t found a simple way to
keep it at bay.
Do not give up hope though!
If you are determined to grow Italian Basil, much as I am, there are
ways to make it work! Just no simple
ways.
In theory, the best way to grow Italian Basil without
problems from mildew is to grow using hydroponics. The fungal spores are laying in wait in the
soil, so if you take the soil out of the equation you don’t have the spores in
the first place. Water is also being
delivered directly to the roots and usually there is a transparent plastic
cover over the system so there is plenty of sunlight and you don’t need to
worry about excess moisture on the leaves and stems allowing the mildew to get
a foothold. However, I totally
understand that most people have neither the time nor the patience to build a
hydroponic system in their own home. I
am not one of those people so you can eventually expect me to write about
building a hydroponic system.
If you are growing Italian Basil at home the best option is
to carefully treat your plants with an appropriate fungicide and to carefully
attend to your plants by carefully watering the soil directly and ensuring
enough direct sunlight to your plant.
There are a number of chemical fungicides available at the farm supply
shops around town, but I don’t really recommend those if you are trying to keep
your plants safe and organic. I also can’t
tell you how well they work because I really don’t want to use strange
chemicals on my plants if I don’t have to.
Now I’m assuming that if you plan to grow Italian Basil, you
must have brought the seeds with you from outside Cambodia as they are nowhere
to be found in this country. When you
get ahold of your seeds, check with whatever supplier you are at about buying a
copper based fungicide as this is not something you can easily find locally. Copper is already a micronutrient that plants
need in the process of photosynthesis and is not harmful to humans. Your body already uses a small amount of
copper in various functions of your metabolism and removes excess copper from
your body by way of your liver and kidneys so treating your plants with copper
is not going to be dangerous to you. In fact,
most copper based plant treatments are approved for organic farming in general. If you want to know all the science behind
copper you’ll need to get in touch with me for beers as that is not something I
have the time to type out for you.
However, I can say it is pretty interesting and it all comes down to
some history about how the original Copper based fungicide was invented in France
as a safe way to protect grape vines and is at least partially responsible for
why French wine is so famous.
I have been using Copper Octanoate fungicide on my plants and
have been very encouraged to see that many of my infected plants have begun
recovering and are now growing healthy looking leaves that I will soon be
eating. Basically I use a heavily
diluted solution, put it into a spray bottle, and about once a week I spray the
leaves on my plants. Also, now that they are in recovery and showing healthy leaves I'll start to pinch off and remove all the old infected leaves with black spots. This mildew usually ends up infecting every leave, even if you are proactively pinching off the bad ones in an effort to keep ahead of it. If you decide to use a fungicide to fight the infection I'd suggest leaving at least a few leaves on until your plant begins to show signs of recovery or else it will have no leaves for photosynthesis and making food to keep growing.
In the future I can also let you know about other approaches
I’m trying, but as I only started this experiment 10 days ago I can’t tell you
how well different approaches are working yet.
I’ve got about 5 different planters going to check out other approaches
and products. Recently I stumbled upon a plant treatment from Thailand that is meant to be sprayed on fruit trees,
but its primary ingredient is Copper and the next ingredient is Boron which is
also a necessary micronutrient for plants. You can typically identify copper products from the blue coloring.
So in two planters I have taken a diluted solution of either one of my
copper products and mixed it thouroughly with all the soil, in two other
planters I’ve just sprayed the solutions on the surface, and in one more I’m
just growing normally but plan to treat the plants with the Copper/Boron solution
when I see signs of mildew like I've already done with my existing planter. If any of
these work you can expect to hear about it on this blog in the near future, so
keep on reading!
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