Light
- Tulasī Devī develops and is maintained best in natural sunlight.
- Ideally, she should be given three to five hours of direct sunlight daily.
- The morning to early afternoon sunlight is best.
- The results of insufficient light are:
- a. Thin weak stems.
- b. Long-stemmed branches between the leaves.
- c. Large pale green leaves, and few or no flowers.
- d. Leaves that may fall and branches that may die.
- Tulasī Devī can thrive well indoors when placed before a window that gets the required amount of sunlight.
- Daily, turn Tulasī Devī’s pot about one fourth of its circumference. This will enable her to grow straight and her branches to develop symetrically (as opposed to leaning over onesidedly in the sun’s direction).
- When you don’t have a window that offers adequate light:
- a. Use daylight tubes and natural white florescent tubes; or daylight tubes with “gro-lux” or “gro-lite” tubes.
- b. She has to be encircled by light.
- c. In three separate lighting fixtures, hang two forty watt tubes above, to the left, and to the right of her. Place them very close, but without touching, her.
- d. Leave these lights on fourteen to sixteen hours daily (but less if she is getting some sun).
- When Tulasī Devī has been indoors all winter and the weather becomes warm enough to take her outside for direct sunlight, make the transition gradually:
- a. At first, allow her to stay outside an hour or so daily.
- b. Increase the length of her stay gradually.
- c. Otherwise, too much sun too fast will “sunburn” and shock her.
- d. This results in her leaf areas turning bronze or white, then dying and turning brown; sometimes her lower leaves may even suddenly fall off.
