Oh, the flavor of sweet Italian basil! It took years to create this amazingly aromatic, easy-to-grow Italian sweet basil plant that’s about to become the star of your herb garden. Its incredible vigor and resistance to downy mildew means you will have plenty to harvest for fresh pasta dishes, bruschetta and more all summer long. Expect each sweet Italian basil plant to reach 18-30” tall and spread up to 2’ before flowering.

Harvest sprays of leaves by cutting stems just above two new sprouting lateral branches to get lush regrowth. One of the most common disease issues in basil is downy mildew, but the good news is, this basil is a downy mildew resistant basil and has little to no seed set. If it does happen to produce a few flowers, pinch them off and it will continue to produce leaves to use in your kitchen.

Pesto Besto basil plants will reach full size in about 4-6 weeks after transplanting them from a 4” container into the landscape or a larger pot. Your location and temperatures can impact how quickly the plant grows for you. In any case, you should be able to start harvesting from your plant pretty regularly within a few weeks after transplanting to your garden or patio planter.  Pesto Besto basil is usually late to flower, but flowers may sporadically appear. The flowers can easily be pinched off.  You’ll be making pesto to your hearts content in no time with this perfect basil for pesto.

Pesto Besto basil can also be grown from seed. 

Start indoors 6 weeks before the last frost, then transplant outdoors once temperatures consistently remain above 65°. To maximize germination ,keep the soil moist at 70°F to stimulate sprouting.

Basics:

• Days to Germinate – 5-10 days
• Transplant to Harvest – 40-50 days
• Planting Depth – 1/4”
• Plant Spacing After Thinning – 12”
• Row Spacing – 24”
• Exposure – Full sun (6⁺ hours)