Basil?

[big rockpile]

Will Basil reseed?

big rockpile

 

[Oliver Buckle]

I save basil seeds, I let them flower and run to seed and then cut the heads and put them upside down in a paper bag before they actually start to lose seed. The seeds are pretty small, and I get a fair bit of small, dried leaf rubbish with them, but it doesn't seem to hinder them germinating. Left to itself I am not sure, probably not in my climate, too wet, but maybe it would in yours

 

[MiTmite9]

Mine always does, but I'm in Zone 10b.

 

[Oliver Buckle]

I came to zones late in life and I am still getting my head round them. I think of basil as a Mediterranean plant, from a climate quite a bit warmer and dryer than this little island sandwiched between the Atlantic and the North Sea. You continentals have climate, we have weather

 

[Anniekay]

In Missouri you probably need to save basil seed for next season. In a climate similar to where it grows wild, you don't need to, they'll come up and some will come up even if not growing in similar climatic conditions.

Seeds of all kinds plus heirloom varieties are being stored frozen in huge seed saving banks in different countries around the world to preserve them in case the varieties we have now become devastated by disease.

As long as they don't stay wet and rot before spring, they'll come up. How else would we have plants found in the wild if they couldn't reproduce without being tucked into a paper sack?