Basil can be easily grown, whether from seed or cuttings, indoors or outdoors. This beautiful herb just keeps on rewarding you and you´ll be glad that you have found a place for it in your own home garden. However, like every other plant, Basil requires certain growing environment, i.e. suitable conditions and in this case that primarily means enough warmth and light.
Pinching or pruning is a very important feature of basil growing and a necessary practice, especially if you want to make the most of your garden. Once your small basil plants have grown and established a quality root system, it´s time for pinching! You have to pinch the top of the plant to promote branching and prevent early flowering. Eventually, flowers will start to grow and again you have to cut those off! By doing so, you are delaying flowering and channeling the energy of the plant from flower production into leaf production. However, it is smart to let your basil flower eventually, because it will reward you with fresh seeds for the next season. Great leaf production is what we are after an interestingly enough, Basil reacts very well when we clip some of those(not all) leaves off and again it produces more and more.
Grow your own Basil and you´re about to have a great growing experience and a constant supply of your own fresh herb! Here are a few photographs that should help you visualize how to pinch a flower off your basil plant! It´s very simple, take a look!
Pinching flowers off my basil plant
3 comments:
Thanks for stopping by my blog and leaving a comment! Looks like I am going to get lots of hints and tips from you here!! :o)
Thanxs for the pictures and advice! Very helpful indeed :) I just planted a small herb garden and in less than a week my basil is happily leafing out. I was curious though, do I pinch/prune from the tops only? This one is the healthiest in the box so far, but next to it is a happy lemon balm herb too~may I do the same to it?
I understand we need to pinch out the top; how about the little leaves that form in the crotch of the lower leaves? Do we leave these to grow? (In a tomato plant, I know we are supposed to pinch them out, but perhaps we want them in a Basil plant?)
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