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stepfreakess

Basil Differences

stepfreakess
13 years ago

My father and I own and run our own plants and produce business, and we're about a year old now with this. I've been growing herbs quite a bit, and basil is my most popular seller. The only trouble is that when my father planted some basil seeds, he put the same tag in both.. In that, we couldn't figure out which was which. But I figured that I was right when they sprouted enough.

But now, looking at them, something just seems different. Help! They look so different, but I can't seem to find out anywhere just what the differences are so that I can properly tag these basil plants I continue to sell.

The one that I have with the tag of "Basil - Ocimum Basilicum" looks like this. The leaves just get larger and larger, and they grow a bit apart.

The one tagged with "Sweet Basil - Ocimum Basilicum 'Genovese'" looks like this. As you can see, it's much more compact, and the leaves continue to stay small.. I saw someone who's various basils were all the size of the first one, even though they were different kinds. So now I question if this is the same basil, it's growing wrong, or if it's really just some other basil and I didn't realize it.

When the second basil gets bigger, the leaves space more, but stay generally small, and look like this. I'm very confused as to just why they're growing the way they are. I've used both kind already to cook with, and they do well. But I'm concerned that I am getting them mixed up, or it turns out that we ended up with a different basil seed than planned.

Can anyone help me out on this? The pictures I posted are of my own plants, so I figure getting a good look at those will help out some.

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