Sweet basil.

The highest-value fresh herb, and effectively two crops

Sweet basil, including the Genovese types, is the highest-value fresh herb in most European markets. It is sold as a living potted plant and as cut leaf, and those are effectively two crops: one grown to a finished plant the consumer keeps, the other to a harvested weight destined for a pack.

What the crop needs

Basil is sensitive to cold in a way most greenhouse crops are not, and chilling damage appears on the leaf, which is the product being sold. It also responds strongly to light intensity and spectrum, which makes lighting a larger part of the specification than it is for most greenhouse crops. Whether the crop is cut once or cut and regrown follows from the sale form, and it changes the layout.

What the greenhouse has to do

Potted basil and cut basil are two different buildings. A potted crop is grown to a finished plant the consumer keeps alive, which means pot handling, spacing as the plant grows and a bench or moving-gutter system built for moving pots. A cut crop is grown to a harvested weight and runs on density and a pack line. That decision comes first, because almost nothing carries across.

Both are light-hungry and both are fast, so lighting and turnover dominate the economics. Basil wants warmth and will not tolerate a cold floor, which puts an unusual weight on even heat distribution — a cool corner in a herb house does not grow a slower crop, it grows an unsaleable one. Screening, heating layout and lighting are specified together for that reason.

DutchGreenhouses® designs the structure, climate, lighting and irrigation around the herb, its sale form and the local climate, so the crop matches the shelf it is grown for. Get in touch to discuss a basil project.