How to Prune Basil Plants for a Bigger Harvest

Not only does pruning basil help the plant grow bushier, but it also helps you by giving you more leaves to use or preserve.

The best reason to prune basil is that it helps to stimulate more growth.

Don't get confused because of the wording; pruning means harvesting basil. When you trim your basil plants, you harvest the leaves and branches.

All basil plants produce basil flowers, but allowing your plant to flower slows down the growth and causes the plant to bolt, or go to seed.  Removing the basil flowers by pruning back the plant before the flowers form, slows the flowering process.

-Using dull pruning shears -Removing the biggest leaves

The Wrong Way to Harvest

How to Prune Basil

-Prune basil seedlings -Prune to promote growth -Pinch basil flowers -Take off the top of each branch

Gardeners start to harvest basil as soon as the plant has six sets of leaves. After that, harvest basil as often as you want.

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