How You Can Save Money By Turning One Basil Plant Into A Never-Ending Supply

The verdant perfume from a beautiful bouquet of basil is one of home cooking's loveliest sensory rewards. And you can make it last forever, with a little extra effort. Although it's non-invasive, many folks who have planted a little patch of the leafy herb outdoors can attest to how quickly its seeds will spread and sprout anew. And with a little propagation, you can approximate a similarly never-ending basil effect indoors, too, regardless of how much terra firma you actually have access to.

Propagating your basil plants is only marginally more work than letting them expand naturally. One snip in the right spot, and a single botanical will produce new basil for so long that it might just send you into an existential tailspin. You will, of course, need a basil plant to begin with. Pick a healthy stem a little longer than your index finger. Then, identify its node, the petite, pear-like part of the shoot from which new growth emerges and cut below that node. Remove the lower leaves to a pizza or bowl of pasta, or use them to make a compound butter, then place the stem in a glass of water with the top leaves above the surface. Left in a decently sunny spot, they'll produce roots hearty enough to pot after a few weeks.

As pretty as it might appear, propagated basil won't thrive in water alone. Once its roots have gained a couple of inches in length, you'll need to plant it in soil for perpetuity. You can do so right in the garden, if you've got one, or in a pot that's about 6 inches wide with adequate drainage at the bottom. Once the new growth abounds, you can continue to repeat this process more or less into infinity.

Being that a small potted basil plant retails for around $6 at major retailers, propagating the herb can actually make a bit of a financial impact, provided you cook with basil somewhat regularly. A single plant can produce about a ½ cup of basil per week. Even if you pack in the pine nuts, a single batch of pesto will more than wipe out that supply. Once you multiply that by all of its other delicious use cases, having fresh basil always at the ready becomes a somewhat expensive pursuit. Growing your own is a great way to save some green on these greens.