Sweet, Sweet Basil: How to Pinch Back Basil and Make Pesto

Reader Contribution by Ilene White Freedman
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Sweet basil is a taste of summertime. Do you have some in your garden? Do you have a nice bushy

plant? For years, I had tall spindly plants until my brother Ron taught me how to pinch the basil leaves back to bush out the plant. Until then, I had top-heavy basil plants that bushed out at the top when I finally started picking it. When you pinch the basil tops early on, the plant bushes out with new stems for a plant full of basil tops.

Here’s how it works: Under each basil top is a set of two leaves and a mini basil top in the “armpit,” between the stem and the leaf, on either side of the stem. When you pinch off the basil top, that stem heals and the two armpit clusters on either side of it become new stems, broadening the plant.


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