I took cuttings from the three stems on the purchased lettuce leaf basil plant. Always use a sharp knife or pruners to take a cutting. You don’t want to bruise the end you are inserting in the moist potting soil. You can also use sand to root cuttings. The photo on the left shows the cuttings enclosed in a plastic bag and tied shut. The pink piece of flagging tells me that this plant has been growing outside and/or at a nursery and might have some insect eggs on a leaf that I don’t want to bring into my light garden. So I’ll take it outside when I want to open the bag and check on the cuttings. The photo on the right shows the three cuttings safely tucked into a four-compartment market pack. Putting each cutting in its own compartment will make for easier transplanting later. In about a week they will be ready to move into a sheltered spot outdoors and gradually exposed to less humidity. Sunlight will come later. I’ll keep the new plants shaded until they are have a good root system. Then I’ll gradually expose them to more light. If these plants had never been outdoors and exposed to insects, I would not move them outside so quickly. I would open the plastic bag and gradually accustom them to less humidity eventually removing the bag entirely while keeping them under the grow lights. -Sandy
