Tulsi (Holy Basil)

Growing Tulsi (Holy Basil) in Indian apartments

Tulsi handles Jaipur-style heat better than almost anything else on a sunny balcony, but the failure mode isn't the sun itself, it's the pot. A black plastic nursery pot left on a west-facing ledge through May and June cooks the root zone from the outside even while the leaves still look fine, and the plant collapses within a day or two once the roots finally give out. Switching to a terracotta pot, or at minimum moving black plastic pots out of direct afternoon sun during peak summer, avoids most of this. The other common failure is the opposite problem after the monsoon breaks: waterlogged soil in a pot without real drainage brings on root rot and blackened stems fast, since tulsi actually wants the top inch of soil to dry between waterings rather than staying constantly moist. Krishna tulsi (the purple-leaved variety) tolerates heat and dry spells noticeably better than Rama tulsi (green-leaved), worth choosing if the balcony gets brutal afternoon sun with no relief. Pinch the flower spikes the moment they appear rather than waiting, since letting tulsi go to seed slows leaf production for weeks and the plant often doesn't recover its earlier bushiness that season.