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Old April 10, 2012   #9
RayR
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Join Date: Jun 2010
Location: Cheektowaga, NY
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Basil loves heat and sun. 50°F-60°F is cool weather for Basil and they'll just sulk. Once the weather warms up, they'll take off. I just seeded mine 3 days ago and some have popped already. I pot them up like tomatoes after they get true leaves and keep them under lights inside unless there are some warm days where they can get some real sunlight. They'll grow some, but the growth really won't explode until the days and nights are nice and warm. Cold weather and frost will kill them, so it's not a good idea to plant them out too early.

Parsley is the same way, but they are cold hardy, the curly types are more so than the Italian flat leaf types. The curly parsley is a biennial up north and readily self seeds, the flat leaf parsley rarely survives the winter up here.

Cilantro needs a good amount of light and like the temps on the cool side, they'll bolt in hot temps. I had some Cilantro seeded in late summer survive the winter this year which has never happened before, which shows how mild the winter was. Don't transplant Cilantro, they don't like their roots disturbed, it will make them bolt much earlier.
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