My basil plants are thriving too much.
This is my thai basil:
And in the same pot lemon basil:
I’ve topped them quite a lot, as you can see in the bushy growth pattern.
They already started flowering months ago, even before I put them into the big pot. I read online that you just have to snip them off, and done.
But there are basically only flowers coming, and I don’t want them to waste all their power into developing seeds.
Is this normal and just a part of their lives when they reach a certain size?
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That’s called bolting. Here is a website that can help you since it could be any of a few different things causing them to bolt.
Thanks!
You’re very welcome. Good luck in your gardening endeavours!
It is normal and yeah once they start it can be hard to stop. You can try cutting them back more aggressively to see if that helps, but ultimately basil is a short lived plant and eventually it will flower and die.
Thai basil is completely fine to let flower, but you want to pinch the tops early on lemon basil (and traditional genovese) so they keep producing leaves and don’t go bitter.
That lemon basil is a writeoff; you have to be proactive about the pinching or the plant will go all-in on dumping seeds.
I agree about proactive nature…when mine gets going, I pinch flower nodes off daily, Sometimes twice depending on how it’s doing.
Try to keep the soil cooler, water with cold water. It looks like it’s in a very shallow planter right now so keeping the soil cool will be difficult. I’d put the plant in a deeper pot with more soil volume and wrap the pot in foil to reflect sunlight if the pot is in a place it gets sun all day. It might not solve the issue now that it’s already started but keeping the soil cool and moist will help slow it down or prevent it all together if you’re doing it from the start.
I generally don’t as they are perennial not annual. Yeas I suppose you can too them but you aren’t getting much for this. I guess top if you please but I’ve found letting them go with flowers gets me overall.move leaves and its one less chore.
You have perennial basil?
You dont?
I’ve got some basils that have been around for 6+ years.
There are so many basil seeds in my yard at this point its one of my main weeds.
Basil is an annual anywhere it gets below freezing.
I’m aware. But even when I lived in places it got below freezing I kept basil perennially. I’d move it into pots in the winter and put it in a sunny window. After drenching it in neem/ citrus oil to kill of the bugs.
Im near certain Ive seen people cultivate basil into little trees. Ive no luck growing it, but you can keep annuals alive through winters doing like you suggest.
Nuclear winter
