Basil . . .

You may pick a sprig of rosemary or thyme, or a few fronds of parsley or dill, but you'll pick an armload of basil.

Basil can be treated like fresh cut flowers in the kitchen.  Place the stemmed basil in a vase or jar
and frequently change the water.

Basil likes a fertile soil, though it tolerates a wide range of pH (4.5 to 6.5).   Basil grows and looks better if it's fed at planting time, and again during the season,  after a heavy picking.

Like most herbs, basil has few pests.

*A devestating disease, fusarium wilt of basil, reached North America via infected seed in the 1990s. Symptoms include sudden wilting and leaf drop, accompanied by dark streaks on the stems, usually in weather above 80°F. If you notice the symptoms, quickly dig up the infected plant, along with all soil around the roots, and discard it.

** Most diseases are soil borne.  Clean your tools to keep from introducing problems from one area to another.**

Basil is also susceptible to a few bacterial rots that show up on stems or leaf clusters, usually in cool, wet weather, in winter greenhouse production, or late in the season. Planting in well-drained soil, spacing plants so they dry out after they're watered, and practicing good garden sanitation are the keys to control.

The optimum time to harvest basil is just before it flowers.

Basil is programmed to begin flowering when it has six pairs of leaves on a stalk. Cut back to two leaves per stem. Don't let it get past four pairs. You can harvest the entire plant about every three weeks, and at the end of the season there will be 12 to 24 lateral branches.

Basil actually keeps longest if it is picked as late in the day as possible and put in a perferoated bag at room temperature (lasting upto 14 days).The optimum storage temperature is 60°F. (refrigerator temperature, which is about 41°F)