How to Harvest Basil

The single biggest mistake people make when growing basil is not harvesting the leaves often enough. A single basil plant can yield 12 or more cups of leaves in a single season, but you must frequently prune back the plant in order to encourage branching and more leaf production. Harvesting leaves also helps prevent the plant from flowering. When basil flowers, the plant stops producing new leaves and the flavor of the remaining leaves changes (and not for the better!). Here's how to get the big, bushy, very productive basil plants!

Difficulty:

Easy

Instructions

1. Plant your basil in the garden or in a container in late spring or early summer when all danger of frost has passed. Space the plants about 12 inches apart. After planting, take a close look at your basil plant. You'll notice that basil leaves grow in sets of two and that the leaves are positioned exactly opposite from each other on the stem.

2. 

   When your basil plant develops three sets of leaves, it's time to make your first harvest. If you examine the point where the sets of leaves meet the stem, you should see two sets of tiny leaves growing out of the leaf junctions. Pinch of the top set of leaves directly about those tiny leaves. When you do so, the plant signals the tiny leaves to start growing into branches.

3. When those new branches develop three sets of leaves, pinch off the top set as described above. Repeat this process one more time. At this point you should have a plant with at least 16 branches. You can now let those branches grow, pinching back the stems as needed (and to keep them from flowering).

4. If your basil plant gets really big, lanky, or you just need a lot of leaves at once, you can cut it down by half in midsummer. Just remember, it's important to make your pinch directly above a set of leaves whenever you're harvesting. Fertilize the plants once a month by watering them with diluted fish fertilizer. As long as you continue to harvest frequently, the plant will grow and produce leaves until it is killed by frost in the fall.

Resources

• DigginFood