Why is basil described as two crops rather than one?

Because of how it is sold. 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. A cut crop is grown to a harvested weight and runs on density and a pack line. Almost nothing carries across between the two.

Why does lighting weigh so heavily in a basil specification?

Basil responds strongly to light intensity and spectrum, more than most greenhouse crops, and it turns over fast, so lighting and turnover dominate the economics. The lamps are specified together with the screening and the heating layout rather than added afterwards.

Basil — DutchGreenhouses

Q: Does a basil greenhouse also cover purple, Thai or lemon basil?

Not automatically. Sweet and Genovese types are the commercial core; purple, Thai and lemon basils are separate crops with their own growth habit and market, and each is specified on its own terms.

Basil is the highest-value fresh herb in most European markets and the one most often proposed for a controlled-environment project. It is sold as a potted plant and as cut leaf, and those are effectively two crops: one is grown to a finished plant a consumer keeps alive, the other to a harvested weight that goes into a pack.

What the crop needs

The crop is sensitive to cold in a way most greenhouse crops are not, and chilling damage shows on the leaf, which is the product. It also responds strongly to light spectrum and intensity, which makes lighting a larger part of a basil specification than it is for most greenhouse crops.

Pot or cut: two different buildings

Sale form splits the crop in two, and the two need different buildings. A potted crop is grown to a finished plant the consumer keeps, so the house handles pots, spaces them as the plant grows and runs on benches or moving gutters. A cut crop is grown to a harvested weight and runs on density and a pack line. Sweet and Genovese types are the commercial core; purple, Thai and lemon basils are separate crops with their own habit and market.

DutchGreenhouses® designs the structure, climate, lighting and irrigation around the herb, its sale form and the local climate, rather than transferring a result from one system to another. Get in touch to discuss a basil project.

Basil

The varieties

Sweet basil

The highest-value fresh herb, and effectively two crops.

Sold alive, or sold quickly

Basil is bought for its scent. The volatile oils that carry it are held in the leaf, and they begin to leave from the moment the stem is cut. A basil leaf that has spent a week in transit still looks like basil. It no longer smells like it.

Cold is the usual answer to a long journey, and basil is the crop that refuses it. Chilling marks the leaf, and the leaf is the product, so a long chain has to choose between losing aroma to time and losing appearance to the cold that would slow it. A grower delivering the same week faces neither choice.

Sold as a living potted plant, the argument goes further. The crop is not preserved on its way to the buyer, it is simply still growing, and the last part of the harvest happens in the kitchen. A plant that arrives alive has to be grown close to the people who keep it alive. Cut leaf follows the same rule in a shorter form: near the market, it reaches the pack with the aroma it had on the plant.