Many people are starting to get interested in learning how to grow hydroponic basil, and you can simplify it into four easy steps. Basil is an herb that is not only satisfying our taste buds, but you can also benefit from its health properties. Therefore, it’s not surprising that this herb’s interest is always consistent, making it an excellent profitable choice for herbs to cultivate.
The greenhouse is a convenient location to ensure the productivity of basil plants. However, you can stand out from the competition and grow hydroponic basil. This innovation for growing crops is genuinely sustainable in the long run, so it’s only right to take advantage of it for cultivating basil plants.
How To Grow Hydroponic Basil Easy and Quick
Hydroponics offers many advantages, including higher yields and overcoming limitations in locations such as water supply and land space. More so, it’s possible to achieve year-round productivity, which is more manageable when you combine using a greenhouse for your basil plants. However, those who are not yet experts in the area can get overwhelmed with its in and outs.
When growing hydroponic basil, you can save yourself the information overload and focus on four areas instead. First, identify the best basil plant suitable for hydroponic systems and learn about the successful cultivation requirements. Third, understand the proper way to harvest basil, and lastly, apply different tips from experienced hydroponic basil farmers to your system.
What is the best basil for hydroponics?
Hydroponics, by definition, is the process of gardening in the absence of soil. Instead, you can choose from water and medium culture either via an open or closed system. Therefore, one cannot just blindly select their basil plant for hydroponics. The good news, though, is that all basil varieties should work in hydroponics.
However, the American Society for Horticultural Science concluded that cultivar selection affects yield more than what specific hydroponic system you’ll choose. They’ve found that sweet, holy, and lemon basil produces the most followed by bush, cinnamon, thai, and large-leaf cultivars.
Know your requirements
To grow hydroponic successfully, you must remember the ideal conditions beforehand. For example, you want the temperatures to be between 65 to 95°F, humidity between 40 to 60%, and a pH range of 5.6 to 6.6. It would also be best to have the electrical conductivity within your nutrient solution at 1.6 to 2.2.
Will basil benefit from supplemental lighting? You might notice better growth when you add light, and many gardeners have noted the love basil has for light. Before you get overwhelmed with these requirements, take comfort in knowing that basil is still one of the easiest herbs to grow hydroponically.
After all, you can easily adjust and maintain these requirements using a greenhouse. The importance of following these requirements is to help you grow and achieve high yield. And more than the numbers, consider basic management practices like removing dying leaves, pruning, and cleanliness as requirements for your basil too.
Experienced gardeners know that consistent removal of broken stems and challenging growth will prevent you from harvesting bitter basil.
How to harvest hydroponic basil
If you’re harvesting basil for the first time, cut above the second pair of lateral buds. This will prevent issues with moisture, airflow, and light later on. Additionally, don’t forget that pruning plays a significant role in better harvests, and you’ll notice a higher yield by being consistent with it.
You can even prune your basil to change the way it grows from upward to lateral. To do so, clip the stem above the lateral buds. This way, these lateral buds will grow instead of the plant growing upward from the main stalk.
You’ll be benefiting twice from this: better basil plant shape and higher production.
Tips for growing basil in the hydroponic system
Starting
You have a choice of starting basil either from seeds or cuttings. The greenhouse makes a good location for starting the plants because you can maintain the ideal conditions for germination or support cutting growth. And in the discussion of planting, don’t forget to space your plants 6 inches apart.
Planting
This way, the plants will have enough space for airflow and prevent fungal growth. But since hydroponics is growing in the absence of soil, what makes a suitable medium for growing basil? You can sterilize peat moss or perlite, but Rockwool blocks are the most common for this herb.
Feeding
The essential nutrients for hydroponic basil include calcium, magnesium, potassium, nitrogen for high leaf yield, and magnesium for flavor and aroma. The nutrient ratio for feeding basil is not constant and will eventually change as the plant matures. Nonetheless, remember that basil is one of those plants we like for their vegetative growth, so feeding the plants will not be complicated.
Conclusion
Hydroponics is truly one of the most innovative gardening solutions, so it’s not surprising that many people consider using it for cultivating herbs like basil. But is it challenging to learn how to grow hydroponic basil? Basil is generally easy to grow, and using a hydroponic system is as straightforward.
One must remember four steps: knowing the best basil for hydroponics, the requirements it will need, proper harvesting, and tips for starting, planting, and feeding. When researching how to grow hydroponic basil, you only need to focus on these areas.