Hi all, first post here, and my first attempt at growing Basil in a container.

It's been doing well for a couple of months. A few seeds grew about 6 inches high, and had loads of leaves that looked healthy and abundant.

I began harvesting them - taking larger leaves from the bottom, and pinching off a couple of cms from the very top of the stems - thinking this would encourage it to grow back in thicker. But it hasn't.

What I'm getting now, at the tops of each and every stem, are leaves that are growing in 'odd'. Like little twisted up, stunted, curly leaves.

I keep pinching them out, but they keep coming back, and the plant is not producing any more of the nice big 'normal' leaves'.

What's gone wrong? And what can I do about it?

Should I just plant some more seeds and try to grow a new plant?

Thanks.

solar flick wrote:
Hi all, first post here, and my first attempt at growing Basil in a
container.

It's been doing well for a couple of months. A few seeds grew about 6
inches high, and had loads of leaves that looked healthy and abundant.

I began harvesting them - taking larger leaves from the bottom, and
pinching off a couple of cms from the very top of the stems - thinking
this would encourage it to grow back in thicker. But it hasn't.

What I'm getting now, at the tops of each and every stem, are leaves
that are growing in 'odd'. Like little twisted up, stunted, curly
leaves.

I keep pinching them out, but they keep coming back, and the plant is
not producing any more of the nice big 'normal' leaves'.

What's gone wrong? And what can I do about it?

Should I just plant some more seeds and try to grow a new plant?

Thanks.

The normal practice is to cut the ends of stalks to make it bush and to use
the new leaves just down from the tip for cooking. Particularly in salads
the younger leaves are more attractive. The stunted new leaves indicate
that the plant is under stress and not growing strongly. You haven't told
us anything about the environment so any explanation of why will be a guess.

David

On Fri, 1 Jun 2012 07:06:09 -0500, barbie gee
wrote:



On Thu, 31 May 2012, Billy wrote:

In article ,
solar flick wrote:

Hi all, first post here, and my first attempt at growing Basil in a
container.

It's been doing well for a couple of months. A few seeds grew about 6
inches high, and had loads of leaves that looked healthy and abundant.

I began harvesting them - taking larger leaves from the bottom, and
pinching off a couple of cms from the very top of the stems - thinking
this would encourage it to grow back in thicker. But it hasn't.

What I'm getting now, at the tops of each and every stem, are leaves
that are growing in 'odd'. Like little twisted up, stunted, curly
leaves.

I keep pinching them out, but they keep coming back, and the plant is
not producing any more of the nice big 'normal' leaves'.

What's gone wrong? And what can I do about it?

Should I just plant some more seeds and try to grow a new plant?

Thanks.

It might be going into flower, but it seems awfully early for that. Do
the new leaves look like little collars that go around the stem?

this is what I was thinking. I picked up a small Greek Basil plant
recently, and was dismayed to find it already trying to flower. Is there
anything other than continuous pinching I can do to get it to stop? Chop
it back?


Basil is pretty resilient to severe cut back/pinch back. It is also
one of the easiest and quickest garden herbs to grow from seed, so if
you keep a packet or two of basil around, you can easily re-seed as
the season progresses if you find that your plants are faltering a
bit. Assuming your growing conditions are correct, this will work
well.

Boron