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Serious question, why did no one tell me my basil was bolting until it was too late?
I was at my community garden plot last August after a 12 hour shift and found my basil had gone to seed with these tiny white flowers everywhere, so I spent 45 minutes pinching them all off and only got half the harvest I expected, has anyone else had a plant just suddenly turn on you without warning?
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chen.adam1mo ago
Oh man, I totally used to think basil was like the easy mode of gardening, just throw it in dirt and forget about it. But then I had a patch completely bolt on me last summer while I was traveling for a week, came back to a forest of flowers and bitter leaves. The weird thing is once I actually started paying attention I realized it was kinda my fault for not pinching the tops more often, not like the plant was trying to betray me or anything. Hard lesson learned though, now I'm way more careful about checking the tips and keeping them trimmed back.
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umar591mo agoMost Upvoted
Hold on, is pinching the tops really the solution everyone thinks it is though? Basil bolts because of heat and stress, not because you didn't prune it enough. You can pinch all you want but if a heatwave hits and you slack on watering for two days the plant is going to throw flowers anyway. Plus constantly trimming the tops just means you get a bushier plant with smaller leaves, which is fine if you want garnish but not great for making pesto. Letting one or two plants bolt and go to seed is actually a smart move if you want free plants for next year without buying new ones. Maybe the real lesson is that basil is supposed to be a short lived annual and we have too high of expectations for it.
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hannahm391mo ago
Pinching the tops is a bandaid, not a cure. Once the heat hits and the plant decides it's time to reproduce, no amount of trimming is going to stop it. Better to accept basil as a short lived annual that's gonna bolt eventually and just plan for it. Let one plant go to seed so you have free starts for next year, keeps the cycle going without the frustration. People treat basil like it's a perennial houseplant but it's really just a weed with good PR. That bitter leaf taste is nature's way of saying you missed the window, plain and simple.
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