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Help! My Basil is bolting too soon!
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Posted by
Bloomin_Onion 2/3 (
My Page) on
Wed, Jul 16, 14 at 14:22
| I just realized yesterday that my pesto basil is bolting. And now, I walk outside to see that my classic italian basil is bolting too! It's my husbands favourite herb, I don't want to go without it for the rest of the summer and fall... What do I do?? Is there a way I can delay this from happening? Starting a cutting I don't think will give me enough basil fast enough... we literally eat herbs like salad in my house. Help! Oh... and how do I harvest the seeds? thanks! |
Follow-Up Postings:
RE: Help! My Basil is bolting too soon!
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| I just pinch off the blossoms; it's an ongoing task for the rest of the summer. It encourages the plant to branch out a bit more if you take a few leaves at the same time since secondary stems will start from the leaf axils. |
RE: Help! My Basil is bolting too soon!
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| Mine is bolting too. Sometimes I just put a one leaf stem in water in the kitchen, and those things root like crazy! New plants! I just keep em going. They never end up in the compost heap. |
RE: Help! My Basil is bolting too soon!
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| I just clip off the top 3rd of mine and let it regrow. |
RE: Help! My Basil is bolting too soon!
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- Posted by digdirt 6b-7a North AR (My Page) on
Wed, Jul 16, 14 at 15:39
| Yep trim it back well, root cuttings for new plants (the folks on the Herb forum here really recommend this method) or plant new seeds. That's all you can do. Dave |
RE: Help! My Basil is bolting too soon!
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| Keep the blooms clipped off. The plant should start to go ape stuff. Every time I trim off 50 buds. 100 more grow back. |
RE: Help! My Basil is bolting too soon!
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| Pull the buds off with your fingers. Clip the top off with shears. It will keep growing like mad. Budding does not kill the plant. It dies if it sets seed. I have to remove buds 2 or 3 times a week most times from summer until the first frost hits. |
RE: Help! My Basil is bolting too soon!
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| I always leave some seed pods/flowers for the honey bees and butterflies. |
RE: Help! My Basil is bolting too soon!
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| My main concern is the plant flavour turning nasty, somewhat like the entire cilantro plant changed when it went to flower. Does basil do that? Once it starts bolting, will the leaves change flavour? |
RE: Help! My Basil is bolting too soon!
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| Not that I've ever noticed with basil. |
RE: Help! My Basil is bolting too soon!
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| Zackey, isn't it fabulous how the bees love those basil flowers? |
RE: Help! My Basil is bolting too soon!
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If you dont pick/harvest, they will bloom and produce seeds.
It is different from bolting like lettuce, spinach. Some basils flower all the time, example : Thai Basil. You keep pinching the top they will have no chance to flower. Even if they did, the flower branch is also edible and it is packed with more flavor and aroma than leaves. |
RE: Help! My Basil is bolting too soon!
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| At a farmer's market once I watched a guy who was selling his homemade pesto. He was picking leaves off his (harvested) basil plants. They were all waaaay bolted with long flower stalks. I figure it must not adversely affect the flavor if he, as a professional basil grower, let his basil do that. I just keep mine cut back, as everyone says above. Didn't know about rooting the cuttings -- great idea! |
RE: Help! My Basil is bolting too soon!
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| I have thai basil actually that's also bolting, so I went and cut off all the flowers. I also munched on some, they didn't really taste any different, in fact the flowers were a little bland but maybe I waited too long. :) I cut off the basil flowers as you see in the pic and put them in water. Maybe they'll die, maybe they'll bloom but I'm excited to see what happens! |
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