Ocimum Pesto Besto™ (Sweet Italian Basil)

Pesto Besto is the most amazing seed basil you’ve ever seen. This is truly a game-changing plant—it is the most downy mildew resistant seed grown Italian sweet basil. Downy mildew is a disease that often plagues basil. This large, vigorous plant produces a high yield of usable, deliciously aromatic leaves. The more you harvest, the better it grows. It’s time to make the switch from your old basil to Pesto Besto. You’ll never look back!

Basil is notorious for being quite susceptible to downy mildew. Pesto Besto, however, has excellent resistance to Downy Mildew, which will keep plants growing and producing for home gardeners throughout the entire season. This is an amazing improvement in basil.

        

 For best flavor and leaf production, harvest and or pinch regularly to promote fresh tender growth.  If heavy flowering happens late in the season that will likely affect taste, but when it is actively growing new leaves and shoots it will have its best flavor. 

 

Harvest sprays of leaves by cutting stems just above two new sprouting lateral branches to get lush regrowth. One of the most common disease issues in basil is downy dildew.  This basil is downy mildew resistant and has little to no seed set. If it does happen to produce a few flowers, pinch them off and it will continue to produce leaves to use in your kitchen.

Pesto Besto plants will reach full size in about 4-6 weeks after transplanting them from a 4” container into the landscape or a larger pot. Your location and temperatures can impact how quickly the plant grows for you. In any case, you should be able to start harvesting from your plant pretty regularly within a few weeks after transplanting to your garden or patio planter.  Pesto Besto is usually late to flower, but flowers may sporadically appear. The flowers can easily be pinched off.  You’ll be making pesto to your hearts content in no time!