Last year when I wintered over cuttings of Pesto Perpetuo basil, I put all 4 cuttings in one container and left them there until they outgrew the container and had to be separated. At that point, the root systems were large and tangled and hard to separate. The poor plants not only had to endure transplant shock but additionally having their roots ripped apart.

I learned my lesson and this year didn’t wait so long to transplant my cuttings into their own containers. As soon as they started producing new growth (a sure way to tell if they have roots or not), I separated them and transplanted them into clean pots with fresh soil.

Speaking of fresh soil, I store my potting soil in an outdoor shed. When I use it during cold weather, I always bring it indoors the day before to warm up. I didn’t plan well this time, so the soil didn’t make it indoors until I needed it.

Basils and peppers are tropical plants. I didn’t want to transplant them into cold soil, so I tried watering with warm water to warm it up. Hope it works!

Far Right: Tulsi Basil – two out of three cuttings survived. Unfortunately when I removed the plants from the pot, one of them broke. I’m trying to re-root it.

Middle: Spice Basil – all three cuttings survived. Interestingly, only two of them have new growth where I pruned them. The third one is growing from the bottom.

Far Left: Clove Basil – sadly only one cutting survived. This one had a surprise for me also. Despite the fact that it doesn’t appear to have any new top growth, it has a well-developed root system. Not sure what’s going on there.

And here they are in their new homes:

And in the other window . . .

Right: Pesto Perpetuo Basil – two out of the three cuttings survived. No surprises here. Both plants have new top growth and healthy root systems.

Left: Thai Dragon Pepper – Two out of the three cuttings survived like its basil sillmate. I think I may have transplanted too early. They don’t appear to have much new growth and when I removed them from the pot, neither one had roots. So both have new pots, a new dose of rooting hormone and an admonishment to get going and grow roots.