Harvesting and Pruning Basil

Dale shows us how to make your basil grow big and bushy instead of leggy and stemmy! Note, if your basil is even more stemmy than the one in the video, you can go down 2-3 more layers of leaves, removing the top section for your use.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• basil
• thinning
• personal family farmers
• garden

[lennyf1957]

thanks for the info. i'd like your opinion on something. I'm growing about 20 really nice looking basil plants that I grew from seed. these seeds I took off basil plants I bought from the home center last year. the plants produced tons of seeds which I have to constantly pinch off, so I dried a bunch and planted them last spring.

the problem is they look great but the pesto I made tastes like crap. also these plants produces hardly any seeds at all. the plants are about 18-20" tall.

[PersonalFamilyFarmer]

@lennyf1957 I don't know much regarding seed saving. How did the pesto taste last year?

[PersonalFamilyFarmer]

yes you can. if there is a place on the bottom that has a stem in the middle of two others. then by all means cut. It may feel like you are taking to much or cutting a hardy stem that seems fundamental to the plants growth but not so. This often accelerates the rate of growth.

[PersonalFamilyFarmer]

I notice that yourself and only one other person has commented on our video. After reading yours and the other, I realize that self righteousness seems to be quite a motivator for giving feedback. 

[AndreN10021]

there's this function on the camera called "focus." you should check it out!

Seriously, thanks for the tip. Gonna use it.

[CobinRain]

ooops...too late for this summer! But thanks for the lesson. I grow a lot of basil, it always goes to flower before I can eat it. So thanks again

[summyb]

Drat...I wish I'd watched this earlier in the season. I did pinch off the beginnings of flowers, which did make my basil plant crazy big and bushy, but this makes a lot more sense. Thanks for the tip!

[lennyf1957]

@AndreN10021

FYI,  most modern cams Auto focus.

[lennyf1957]

@corndog420

this applies to many different plants, even wacky weed. ;)

[lennyf1957]

@stardust1282

the younger the leaves, the tastier.

[lennyf1957]

@PersonalFamilyFarmer

I have been making pesto for years and it has always tasted great.

thanks

[stardust1282]

is the top section the only part you can harvest basil? Can you harvest from the bottom of the stem? It just doesn't seem like you get a lot of basil leaves to eat from one stem if you only harvest the top part.