Is there a "best way" to harvest basil?

[CindyJ]

My basil is doing beautifully this year. I've got about 6-7 plants in containers on my deck. When I go out to snip some, I never know whether it's better to snip fewer stems at a point further down, or more stems just from the tops of the plants. I'm trying to stop them from flowering these days, so I'm tempted to snip from the tops, but my long-term goal is to keep my plants prolific until tomato season is over. Any advice?

[Bacardi1]

Definitely clip stems from the top - as long a stem as you need. This will not only help to longer stave off the plant flowering, but will also make it bushier as it sends up more stems in the hope of getting to flower & produce seed.

Always keep in mind that producing seed is any annual's driven quest. Once the plant flowers & seed is produced,new leaf production pretty much stops entirely.

[tcamp]

I go for more stems, less on each stem, thus keeping the plant somewhat bushy and each stem roughly the same length. Don't know if that is the *right* way but it serves to prevent flowering on the entire plant and keeps the plant manageable in size. Also, I think the top most leaves, the older ones, have more flavor.

[Njchicaa]

I was taught to just pinch the leaves off of the stems, not to actually cut the stems.

[CindyJ]

Interesting. How does the plant grow in response to the leaf-pinching?

[cazort]

I've found that if you pinch off the stem, it often sprouts out and grows bushier, whereas if you just pluck off individual leaves, it often gets leggy.

[kengk]

When the first few leaves are ready to take I'm out on the deck with a pair of fine scissors cutting my leaves off just so. By this time of year I'm more in the "whack it off" mode with pruning shears.

[boogiebaby]

I read somewhere that you should snip towards the top, just above a set of leaves as that promotes more leaf growth. I've been doing that for the past month and have noticed my basil is growing fuller now.

[Crockett67]

+1. I also try to use larger leaves that block lower branches first when I just need a few leaves for a salad.

[cazort]

The larger leaves, grown in low light, can also be more tender. Although basil tends to be a light-loving plant and cannot take as much shade as many herbs, I find that if the leaves are too tough, growing it in a slightly shadier location increases the size of the leaves and makes them thinner and more tender.

[janniecooks]

Eventually the plant will bloom. I have basil growing in just one small pot, wasn't using it regularly so it became leggy and flowered. I just ignored it, though I did keep it well watered. Once the stems became woody I figured it was a lost cause and cut off all but the bottom three inches or so of woody stem and planned on replacing that with a new plant. Much to my surprise within a few weeks these seemingly dead woody stems have sprouted lots of new growth. So depending in your climate, even when your basil seems spent, you may be able to get a whole new robust plant.

[CindyJ]

Ahhh... don't'cha love it?

[cazort]

Yeah...the plant becoming woody is not necessarily a sign that it's gone. I've seen fairly woody basil plants continually resprout and be good for sustained harvesting, and I've also seen basil plants with tender stems flower and either die down or go unpleasantly bitter.

[janniecooks]

I've been growing basil either in my garden or in containers since....well never mind that. In all that time it never occurred to me that new growth might sprout from apparently dried up dead stems - that's what the woody stems looked like to me. And the woody stems usually occurred at the end of summer, when I would clean them up along with the rest of the garden detritus. I learned something new by being lazy and not replacing what I thought was a spent plant. Such a pleasant surprise.

[CanadaGirl]

I agree; just keep if from blooming.

[MrsJonesey]

I was waiting to see what others said, but I'll go ahead and put my 2 cents in. The main thing is to keep the blooms from forming and as long as you're diligent with that, you should be okay. Isn't fresh basil a wonderful thing?