Who doesn’t love the basil plant especially for its amazing taste and pleasant aroma when it comes to cooking? Now, if you’re wondering how to trim basil to promote healthy growth, just follow our tips and your basil will enjoy optimal growth.
Basil plants are popularly grown for their flavored attribute. They add a blend of that sweet basil taste and aroma to your meal and they will offer great benefits to your health. Therefore, growing basil plant in your garden is pretty rewarding and trimming is one essential procedure for you to enjoy maximum yield.
Keep reading to learn more on how to trim basil to promote growth.
How to Trim Basil to Promote Growth
As we know, pruning basil plants promotes growth. All types of basil plants (be it lemon basil, Thai basil, Genovese basil, etc) benefits from efficient pruning. Trimming your basil plants is important even if you’re growing them in containers or garden beds.
Tips to Pruning Basil Plants
Trimming basil leaves is crucial for the health of your plant growth. Follow the tips below to learn how to trim basil plants to promote abundant growth.
1. Get a pair of scissors to trim your basil plant. We recommend you always use a blunt tool like scissors. Never use your hands to pinch them so you don’t tear the stem and risk harming your basil plant.
2. Aim to trim the main stem so it will result in the redistribution of growth hormone close to the plants and yield fuller or thicker basil.
3. Around the main stem, you should see some tiny leaves developing. When the main stem is trimmed, optimal growth is directed towards the tiny basil leaves developing. Ensure you don’t disturb those little buddies as you trim the basil around them.
4. After a couple of weeks, these tiny leaves will develop into a new branch. This will then allow you to trim the new branches again around or above the new set of basil leaves. Thus, new branches will develop giving you endless yield as you trim over and over.
5. Ensure you remain some set of large leaves towards the end of the basil plant as this is essential. This way, these plants will be in charge of converting sunlight into energy for continuous growth.
6. Trim from the top crown and move a little to the bottom. Depending on how many branches you have, trim the basil plants on each branch to achieve a fuller plant.
Read more about Growing Microgreens Hydroponically
When to Trim Basil Plants to Promote Growth
Basil plants are easy to grow in both growing beds and hydroponics gardens and they are fast growers. This is why trimming should be done as early as their seedling stage.
The appropriate period to trim your basil plant to promote growth is early in the season. Trim when your basil plant is about 6 to 8 inches and with about 6 to 8 leaves.
When necessary, you should always trim your basil plant every two to three weeks all through the season to promote growth.
Check out When to Harvest Broccoli
Advantages of Trimming Basil Plants
The various benefits your basil plant stand to gain from trimming are as follows:
- When you trim your basil plants frequently, you enjoy optimal growth of amazing vegetation all through the season.
- Trimming your basil plants allows the growth hormone of the pruned main stem to be redistributed all over the plants around the trimmed basil.
- Your basil plant will always produce vegetation when trimmed rather than producing flowers.
- You can even go ahead and make use of the pruned main stem for your cooking. So, you see, there isn’t much waste from pruning basil!
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Tips for Buying Basil Plants
When you want to purchase basil plants, we recommend you preferably go for the trimmed ones. You should preferably opt for the short and bushy basil plant.
FAQ’s
Does pruning basil help it grow?
If you're growing your own basil, then you've probably already heard about how beneficial pruning can be to the plants. But did you know that you could also help basil grow better by pruning it? If you've got some basil plants in pots on your patio or in your garden, then you can keep them healthy and attractive with a few pruning techniques.
You might be thinking that you don’t have to prune basil at all, but that’s not true. When you prune your basil, you’ll help it grow stronger and healthier.
Here are just a few of the benefits of pruning basil:
1. It Grows Better
By removing dead or damaged parts of the plant, you can encourage new growth.
2. It Keeps the Plant Strong and Healthy
When you prune your basil, you can help prevent pest problems.
3. It Lengthens the Growing Season
If you want to enjoy fresh basil all summer long, you should prune your plants once a week.
4. It Makes Your Leaves Perfectly Curled T
he perfect way to present your leaves is when you prune them. If you leave too much leaf, it will look messy.
5. It Allows for More Flowers to Grow
When you prune your plants, you’ll make room for more flowers.
Does trimming help basil grow flowers?
Yes, if you cut back the stems of your basil plants in the late winter or early spring, they will have more energy to produce leaves and flowers. You should wait until after the last frost date for your area. If you do not want to wait that long, you can prune in the summer, but you must wait until all of the leaves on the plant are brown.
You can prune basil to make it grow better, but you don’t have to.
It is best to let your basil grow as big as possible. The more you use, the more it will produce. However, if you want to make it grow larger, you can prune the main stem of your basil back in early summer. This will help the plant grow more bushy and produce more leaves.
How do you trim basil to make it bushy?
Cut off the bottom leaves The bottom leaves on your basil plants are called “crowns.” They can grow up to 4-6 inches in length, but they don’t get as big or bushy as the leaves that grow at the top of the plant.
You can use the knife, scissors or a pair of clippers to cut the stems. A pair of clippers is probably the easiest and most effective. The clippers have an adjustable blade that can be used for different thicknesses of stems.
You can cut back the top as well. The reason for this is that if the plant gets too large, the top can't support itself anymore and it will fall over. If you cut the top back to where it can support itself, it will stay upright.
Pruning Basil
By the end of the season, you should have that wide, full, and tall basil plants with many branches. Therefore, trimming your basil plants offers you an endless harvest.
The goal of trimming the basil plant is to prevent it from entering the flowering phase. Therefore, it will always continue to produce some good leaves which is what we want.
Although most growers would like to have basil leaves forever: it may come to a point where we might not be able to control such forever. They might later start to grow flowers thereby, halting or reducing vegetative production. But such comes at a much later period and we would have already enjoyed plenty of basil leaves for a long time.
Eunice is an enthusiastic gardener with a passion for growing beautiful flowers. She loves nothing more than spending time in her garden, tending to her plants and enjoying the outdoors. Eunice has been gardening for over 15 years and has developed a unique style of landscaping that is both practical and aesthetically pleasing. She is especially fond of growing roses and enjoys experimenting with different varieties and colors. Eunice takes great pride in her garden and often shares the fruits of her labor with friends and family. In her spare time, she enjoys reading gardening magazines and attending local horticulture events. Eunice is passionate about her hobby and is always eager to share her knowledge and experience with others.
