Welcome to this post about how you can rehydrate basil. Sometimes basil might need to pull so much moisture from the ground that it goes faster than you can check on it. When this happens it’s important to be ready and give it some water. It mostly happens on summer days when the sun is just schiring hot and the ground is very dry. This is when probably all your plants will need a shower of water. But basil is a herb that manages fine when the weather is very hot. So don’t fear if it has started to wilt slightly after those days, it’s perfectly normal.
Have you managed to save up a bunch of basil at home and need a good way to make some use of it. In this article we talk about making pesto with dried basil. You can find it here, Can I Make Pesto With Dried Basil.
How To Rehydrate Basil
It’s usually never too late to rehydrate your basil and have it back on track growing again. The only cases when it has gone too far is when the plant is clearly wilted and starting to go either gray or even black. Then the probability of it coming back for round two is very slim..
But if you see that it is wilted and a bit matt from the burning sun then you need to water it. Most likely the plant is very exhausted at this point and just needs some help. We often recommend people growing the basil in a pot to have the ability to move it around. Outside basil only really needs between 6 – 8 hours. Of course it can handle a few more but after a while it will be exhausted from the heat. Then it can be nice to let it rest a little bit in the shade instead.
But when it comes to the watering part or rehydrating the plant again you can’t do it all at once. That will probably drown the plant because it’s hard to wing it. The best approach is doing it in small bursts or amounts instead. Let it then sit for maybe 30 minutes and then water again. Keep doing this until it shows some signs of life. You can look at the soil too, it should be moist or damp at this point. If the plant is not showing any strength but you have watered enough for the soil, then you should wait. It’s not worth overwatering and causing unnecessary stress from that.
How Do You Make Dried Basil Taste Fresh
Can you rehydrate dried basil leaves? This is a pretty common question that we get a lot. For most cases it’s not really worth dehydrating it. Because we have dried it changes the uses we can have for it. Instead of having it on a salad it’s better used in sauce where it can rehydrate from the liquid there. Most likely the texture will be very unappealing if you simply rehydrate the dried basil leaves with water.
Let’s summarize a bit again on what we have been talking about here. Basil is a herb that really likes moist and damp soil and on some hot summer days this can be a challenge keeping up with. Fortunately is fairly easy to just rehydrate the soil in small amounts at a time. A good tip or practice to take advantage of is putting the basil in the shade for a couple of hours during the warmest part of the day. This will let it rest for a bit and won’t stress the plant as much.
Have you ever wondered what the difference between basil and parsley is. Maybe it’s obvious in terms of look but in this article we look closer at the way they grow and taste. Check it out here, Difference Between Basil And Parsley.
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