Genovese Basil

This heirloom variety has large, shiny leaves and is excellent in all things Italian, especially pesto! Start indoors mid-April to mid-May; seed 1cm deep. Plant in full sun when the soil is warm. Also does great in containers and can be kept indoors, given enough light. 70 days.

Certified organic in British Columbia. IOPA # 1606, 1105, 1920.

How to Harvest Basil Seeds

Fast Facts

Latin: Ocimum basilicum

Cross Pollination: Other basil varieties

Learn more about cross pollination, isolation distance and population size, and why they matter in our blog post Seed Saving 101

Seeding and Care

Transplant at 12” spacing. Pinch off leaders a couple of times to encourage bushy plant growth but don’t pick excessively, allow plants to get large and bushy. Care for plants as usual and rogue out small, deformed, sickly or fast-bolting plants. Flowering stalks will attract all kinds of bees and beneficial pollinators to your garden! 

Seed Maturity

Basil seeds will mature from the base of the flowering stalk upwards, in the same order that their flowers emerge. As the seeds at the bottom begin to dry and turn black they will drop to the ground, but the tops of the stalks may still be flowering. Gently turn the flowering stalk upside down to check the seed maturity. When the very bottom seeds have dropped and most of the seeds in the middle of the stalk have formed and begun to turn brown but not yet turned black, cut the stalks and gently transfer to a tarp. Allow the plant material to dry and seeds to ripen. 

Seed Cleaning

Thresh the seeds by laying the entire dry seed stalks on a tarp and stomping and shuffling on the plants to crack open the pods and detach the seeds. Since basil seeds are so small, you may choose to do the threshing inside a bag to prevent seeds from rolling off the tarp. It’s important that seeds are very dry at this stage to prevent them being crushed by the threshing process. Shake the threshed material through a screen, allowing the seeds to pass through and the larger debris to remain on the top. Then, winnow using wind or a fan, pouring seeds from one container to another while allowing the lighter chaff to blow away.