Posted on CHAKRA - October 17, 2006
http://www.chakra.org/discussions/ODiscOct17_06.html

Taking care of Tulsi Plant is a very responsible duty. Tulsi is a person, a pure devotee of the Lord. She should not be put outside spring, summer, fall or winter. Not anytime. When raising Tulsi from a baby plant, find a nice warm very sunny area to place her. She must be in the sun everyday, all day until the sun sets. You must water her everyday because she needs water daily. Tulsi will start growing very fast and will spread. As she spreads she will grow manjaries. When the manjaries are dryed out and turning brown, clip them off with a pair of sissors between the two small leaves at the bottom of the manjary. This must be done everytime a manjary dries and is ready to groom off of the plant. Another manjary will grow again and the leaves will expand and continue to grow. Tulsi will continue to grow and expand as long as you groom the manjaries when they are ready and water her daily.

Loving her is very important. You must worship her everyday with love and devotion and never leave her for more than a day. If you are traveling, you must have another devotee keep her.

Now, why you should not ever put her outside. Tulsi has two ways of growing. If you live in a warm or hot state year round and it never gets cold, then Tulsi will grow outside in the ground into a large hedge. She grows like that in Hawaii. She will remain there and stay. As long as she is getting plenty of sun and watering. Never put her outside in a pot. She must be planted in the ground. But if she is in a cold state that changes tempertures from season to season, then she is not to go outside. When you put her outside, she will develop a hedge like state and grow a thin bark like a small tree. But if you keep her inside her thin stems will remain green and she will grow like a inside house plant. She will not bark up and become hedge like. You can not put an inside house plant outside when it is cold or it will die. In the fall of the year, trees and hedges shed their leaves. So if Tulsi is used to going outside, she will think she is a outside hedge and will start to bark up and shed her leaves. She would have taken on the identity of an outside hedge. She will die when you bring her into the house.

A green stem Tulsi will grow and remain for years. She will continue to grow manjaries and spread as long as you groom her well with alot of love, devotion and daily watering. Love your Tulsi because she loves and wants to be in your home in a nice sunny window.