Sweet, Sweet Basil: Pruning Basil to Make it Bushy

Pinch back your basil to keep it compact and producing plenty of leaves for all your recipes.

Reader Contribution by Ilene White Freedman
Updated on June 28, 2024
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Adobe Stock/Angela Bragato

Learn about pruning basil to make it bushy, and then use this quick pesto recipe to make make delicious basil pesto with your harvest.

Sweet basil (Ocimum basilicum) 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 will bush out with new stems for a plant full of basil tops.

Pruning Basil to Make it Bushy

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 will heal and the two armpit clusters on either side of it will become new stems, broadening the plant.

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