Herb / Warm season
Genovese Basil
Kitchen herb containers, tomato beds, and pollinator flowers if allowed to bloom.
Classic sweet basil aroma with clove and anise notes.
Seed spacing and maturity
- Days to maturity
- 68
- Germination temperature
- 70-85F
- Seed depth
- 0.25 inches
- Spacing
- 10 inches
- Row spacing
- 18 inches
- Start method
- Either
Frost-date timing
- Indoor start
- 5 weeks before last frost
- Direct sow
- 14 days after last frost
- Transplant
- 14 days after last frost
- Succession interval
- repeat every 21 days
Action plan
- Can I plant this now?
- Use your local last-frost, first-frost, and soil-temperature checks before treating this crop as plantable today.
- Start indoors or direct sow?
- Direct sow or transplant depending on your soil warmth, bed readiness, and frost-risk plan.
- How much space?
- 10 inches in-row spacing, 18 inches between rows, and 0.25 inch seed depth.
- Best companions?
- Use this as part of a diverse flowering or herb planting, and treat companion claims as site-specific rather than guaranteed pest control.
- Common failure modes?
- Cold nights blacken basil; wait until weather is genuinely warm. Even moisture; pinch regularly. Warm, fertile, well-drained soil.
Growing profile
- Sun
- Full sun
- Water
- Even moisture; pinch regularly.
- Soil
- Warm, fertile, well-drained soil.
- Watch
- Cold nights blacken basil; wait until weather is genuinely warm.
- herb
- containers
- pollinators
- pesto
Browse context
- Herb Catalog Category collection
- Mint Family Rotation and family context
- Warm Season Seeds Season collection
- Either Seeds Start-method collection
- Container-Friendly Seeds Practical trait collection
- Beginner-Friendly Seeds Practical trait collection
- High Pollinator Value Seeds Practical trait collection
- Succession Sowing Seeds Practical trait collection
Related varieties
- Common Lemon Balm Mint family · Warm season · 70 days
- Red Stem Malabar Spinach Basella family · Warm season · 70 days
- Sorghum-Sudangrass Cover Crop Grass family · Warm season · 70 days
- Toma Verde Tomatillo Nightshade family · Warm season · 70 days
- California Wonder Pepper Nightshade family · Warm season · 72 days
- Broadleaf Sage Mint family · Warm season · 75 days
Source: UMN starting seeds indoors