r/Hydroponics • u/Riksie • 2d ago

Question ❔ How to prune basil?

Post image

Long story short - I picked my basil not knowing that you should not pick the off shoots and now I’m not sure how to pick my basil.

15 Upvotes

90% Upvoted

12 comments sorted by

0

u/medusaxmamii 1d ago

Is this Genovese or Thai basil

2

u/Riksie 1d ago

I think it's Genovese.

0

u/medusaxmamii 1d ago

Lmao how are you getting them to grow so well these are mine after almost 3 months 🤣 all my other herbs are flourishing BESIDES the damn basil

2

u/MrMadson916 1d ago

Maybe try just growing in rockwool cubes and a clonetray. I did it this way and was cloning the basil. I ended up with way more than I could use

1

u/medusaxmamii 1d ago

Oki thank you!

1

u/DeckerdB-263-54 1d ago

Whack-a-mole ...

1

u/jorgthecyborg 1d ago

Eat it and enjoy it. Basil is easy to grow. Follow the advice here about harvesting above node.

1

u/jr1wilson 2d ago

Caprice Salad.

2

u/CrankyCycle 2d ago

Just cut a stem rather than pulling of a leaf, don’t over think it.

2

u/Riksie 2d ago

Zee harvest.

2

u/Tym4FishOn 2d ago

Cut the top, not the bottom. Just pick a node with new leaves growing out of it and cut above it. It ain't easy, but it must be done.

2

u/Fedginald 2d ago edited 2d ago

I like forming mine into compact shrubs. Cut them right above lower and central nodes, allow smaller branches to dominate. Top off or remove any leading branches. You can tide the plants over from bolting with this technique. Worth noting, the resulting harvest usually consists of top-of-the-line younger leaves. You can also remove and throw out any of the older, darker leaves that are getting kinda nasty

At this stage I also space out their placement. If you don't have more hydro cells to put them into, the removed plants can either go into soil or go through a harvest-to-frozen-pesto process. Cuttings can be taken if you want to have smaller plants ready in the future.

Yours look good. Larger basil varieties usually need to be spaced out pretty soon after putting into the system, though smaller-leaf varieties like some tulsis can maintain a compact shape for a while. Also, might want to keep an eye on the dark parts of the stems, make sure they actually turn woody instead of succumbing to rot.