African Blue Basil sounds interesting! Since it’s sterile, I’m assuming it’s propagated by cuttings?
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Yes, both African Blue Basil and Wild Magic Basil are both sterile hybrids, and perennials that can only be started by cuttings.
We are waiting for Wild Magic to come back in stock. They are sold out everywhere
I absolutely love adding blue spice basil to tea blends. Toss in some anise hyssop as well. Mm!
For basil this year we have blue spice, Baker Creek’s lettuce leaf, Genovese, dark opal, and Tulsi.
I will probably grow the Tulsi and Blue spice together but away from everyone else. Excited for tasty tea basil. 
A grex would be great! I’ll have more energy for that next year when I get a feel for our land and gardening here for the first time this year. As it is, I’ll happily let them cross and save seeds from the heartiest/hardiest plants.
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Maybe a tangential observation on my part, but this has been my preferred method of planting for at least a season or two. I can’t do it with grains, squash, and some other seeds of high interest to local wildlife. As you know one neat option if you grow in clay is when it cracks during dry periods, these highly sought after seeds can often go in the cracks. Seems to me one tradeoff is they’re going both further down and into a kind of micro-swale while the earth stays cracked, so if you’re in wetter conditions trying to get arid climate plants to produce a first generation,you might be working against yourself.
I heard broadcasting technique come up recently in a thread and am really curious about how I might broadcast more effectively with the seeds I can plant this way. I might start a broadcasting thread soon if there seems to be strong community interest or I naturally get around to it.
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Considering how much I love my anise hyssop tea, that sounds divine!
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I would be extremely interested in that. Especially hearing successes other growers have had. I feel this style of planting would be beyond useful for folks with physical mobility limitations. I have a pic of a pea from last Spring. I’ve had alot of success tossing them into mulched beds and they seem to find their way. I hadn’t even begun to ponder the behavioral conditioning aspects broadcasting seed could have versus a planted seed.
Most definitely would be interested!
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If yall come up with a nice little dwarf version of basil I would be interested. I like growing basil with my tomato plants as both seem to benefit BUT a 2 ft basil dwarfs and shades out my micro dwarfs… Greek Basil is a nice sized companion to them so I try growing it in their pots. Otherwise I try to grow Genovese and a lettuce leaf. I will have to try some of the others mentioned in here but so far basil doesn’t seem to like my growing condition.
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Have you tried any of the Globe Basil varieties? They’re usually a bit shorter and dense.
yes but the version I had of the Greek Basil was a bit smaller with finer leaves. My littles range from 6 to 12 inches tall when full grown for the most part. A really large oversize variety might hit 16 inches when grown in a 5 gallon bucket. I grow most of them in 2 or 3 gallon grow bags with my smallest going into 1 gallon grow bags or even 6 inch pots. So if I put companion plants with them they need to be tiny miniatures also. These are actually taller and rangier then wanted but are from an F2 growout… and you can see their size or rather lack of size.
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How cute! I’ve never seen tomato dwarves that small.
I can see why you’d have to be very particular about their pot mates. I suppose if you were really tenacious with the pruners you might be able to keep a basil plant short and bushy by topping it repeatedly… 
Probably not a good long term solution though. Hopefully someone can get a dwarf basil going and help you!
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Actually I think I have room to try basil crosses and see if I can keep/get the small size in my blend. I mean why not add basil to my littles breeding program as it makes a great companion. The littles are aimed at inside gardeners for winter or city growing so working on a basil that would grow well under those conditions also could be a good goal. AND it makes sense to work on it along side my tomatoes.
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Basil tea is delicious! We love to grow our basil for cooking Italian (and want to start cooking Thai) food, and especially love their flowers!
We have a collection of 100+ basils. The majority of them are Ocimum basilicum, a handful of Ocimum tenuiflorum varieties and two varieties of Ocimum gratissimum. We want to grow out 3x into there own separate mixes, and are separating them by:
- Large leaf & sweet Italian basil types,
- Thai (Anise & Licorice flavored) basil types
- Red & purple Basil types
And a possible,
- Perennial basil mix. This would consist of: Ocimum tenuiflorum: Rama, Kapoor, and Krishna.
Ocimum gratissimum: Vana, and Africa Nanum (Oregano basil, clove basil, African basil, and wild basil)
We might just put those, as well as the lemon, lime, and all small leaf types of basil into the Serendipity Seed Box.
We mostly use the first two Basil mixes when we cook Italian and Asian food. The thrid one is just to look pretty. At some point we might mix 1) & 3) together? But so far, we want to keep the colors separated.
We can participate in any ongoing Basil mixes once we are producing seed. And we are interested in these three Basil mixes. A possible perennial basil mix also interests us.
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This is the first time hearing about the Blue Spice Basil. What is the flavor like? Is it similar in flavor to the Italian/Sweet Basil types or the Thai kind?
Hmm… it’s like a sweet vanilla… cherry vanilla aroma? A bit fruity, smooth, floral. Hard to pin down. But I love it in tea.
It was a free seed packet from Baker Creek that we didn’t know anything about and we were nonchalant about, but the flower spikes were so fragrant and are really tasty to infuse. I don’t think we even harvested the leaves…? Didn’t really pay attention to the plant until we noticed the flowers. 
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It is still winter here and will be for a few more months but I found a couple of basils in my seed collection that be part of my mix. One packet simply says basil blend, the other is Window Box Basil. I ordered the Mrihani x opal seeds from EFN and a “basil blend” from another store that simply says there is a red basil, green Genovese basil and a serrated green leaf. Now to find Summerlong which was the tiny basil I loved in the past. So far everyone has been sold out…
Mrihani x Opal from EFN completely moved my basil landrace with its diversity of form. It’s a very good hybrid.
Does anyone know a typical Genoese basil variety that would be high enough in size? I find my landrace a little small, I would like more opulence to shade the soil at the foot of the plants.
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I really dig your micro dwarfs! They produce fruit at such a tiny size? Amazing. That could be really helpful for container growing and for folks that are limited in gardening space.
Umm yeah see that middle back plate that was from a 9 inch tall plant that still had more tomatoes on it but they weren’t ripe yet. I think I got over 70 nice sized cherry tomatoes from that single plant… Actually all of those plates are from micro dwarf tomatoes. They are separated by variety and in the case of Pygmy by plants… some I only had one or two plants others I had up to 4 plants of. Oh and um some I ate most of before this harvest due to an early snow.
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I’m working on putting together a mix of varieties to start a first year basil grex for my growing conditions here in the maritime pacific northwest (Seattle, WA). We have a long extended spring of cool damp nights that makes basil slow to thrive here in my experience and I’m tired of starting it in flats and babying it for months before planting it out only for it to still get a slow start in the ground.
Thinking I will try direct seeding a wide variety of genetics at a few different times starting in April up through transplanting my tomatoes in mid/late May to give it a range of conditions for germination and see what does well enough to produce a viable crop. At the tail end of our season, the maritime air moderates our nighttime temperatures and can extend the growing season long enough to get viable basil seed even from slower growing plants, so this feels like a project with a reasonable chance of success given a few years of mass selection.
Ultimately, I’d like to end up with a diverse population that includes both sweet leaf types good for pestos and standard Italian dishes as well as a range of interesting flavors for soups, teas, vinegars, garnishes, etc. Primarily I’ll be selecting for good germination rates and ability to tolerate cool/damp conditions early in its lifecycle, as well as disease resistance. Once I have a population that germinates well enough and has early season vigor, I’ll start selecting for later bolting and honing in on specific flavor profiles.
I was excited to find the links shared above for the Lofthouse grex along with some of the offerings from the EFN, they should give me access to a fairly wide genetic base without spending a fortune on seed packets. If anyone has advice based on their own experiences growing basil (especially if you share a similar climate), I’d love to hear it. I’d also be happy to accept seed donations if you have a diverse population you’re willing to share from. Once I get a viable breeding population, I’ll be happy to share seeds either informally here or through Going to Seed if a basil seed project gets off the ground. Thanks for the resources!
So far, I’m planning to include seeds from the following sources:
Lofthouse grex from Buffalo Seed Co
Georgian Sweet Landrace II from Buffalo Seed Co, for range of colors and genetic diversity
Iraqi ‘Reehan’ from EFN (seed source is grown locally to me on Vashon Island, so should be somewhat adapted to my climate already)
‘Opalescent’ from Adaptive Seeds (F6 breeding population selected from Mrihani x Opal cross)
‘Italian Mountain Sweet’ from Adaptive Seeds (for cold tolerance and early season vigor)
‘Persian’ from Baker Creek Seeds for color and interesting flavor profile
Random genovese/sweet basil seeds from my local garden seed swaps
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I decided to take a multiple strategies approach this first season to give myself the best chance of maturing a wide range of varieties and getting bulk crossed seed for a heavier selection in year 2.
So, I started some of each variety listed above in flats with supplemental light and heat, and will also direct seed with remaining seeds in multiple sowings over the next 6 weeks to select for cool soil germination and early vigor while dialing in the appropriate time for direct seeding here.
Mrihani x Opal F4 (EFN)
Lofthouse Grex (Buffalo Seeds)
‘Persian’ (Baker Creek) and ‘Georgian Landrace II’ (Buffalo Seeds)
‘Italian Mountain Sweet’ ( Adaptive Seeds) and ‘Iraqi Reehan’ (EFN)
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