Gardening: My Sweet Basil

I bough my sweet basil plant almost two months ago. When I first bought it, the leaves were yellowing, I guess they didn't take good care of it. Today it's growing big and green. It smells really good too.

This is a picture 1-2 weeks when i bought it. I cut off the long stems and change it to a bigger pot. I have taken few stems for stem propagation. I also made pesto sauce twice from this plant. It's turning out great and am so happy! =)

Caring for this sweet basil is very straight forward. It needs water once a day. It likes its soil to be moist but not wet. I used rice water 4-5 times a week and normal water in between. The water needs to be room temperature or a little warmer. It doesn't like cold water!!! I normally water it in the morning. It needs at least 6 hours of sun. Since we got a lot of sun here in San Antonio. So it totally likes it.

If they start growing flower, cut it off so that they don't die. Also, when they grow flowers and you want to make pesto from their leaves, most likely the taste will be bitter. This is because they are old. So, if you want your basil to grow longer, take off their flowers. They will grow busier if you cut their stems once a month. and they branch out more.

I had mentioned, I was experimenting stem propagation. There were two method I experimented with which are 1. putting stems inside a cup of water and 2. plotting stem in the soil and cover it with plastic bag without exposing to sunlight. I believe both should have worked. But I must have done something as a result the second method didn't work.The 1st method works by doing this:
I cut the old stems and put it in a water for 2-3 weeks. They will start growing roots and once they start rooting, they you can put in a pot with soils. You can multiply your plants. Give it a try!!