The Easy Pruning Trick For Growing The Biggest Lemon Basil Plants

If you haven't yet tried growing this aromatic herb, there are plenty of good reasons you'll want to add lemon basil to your garden, but you might find that it starts to flower and go to seed fairly quickly in warmer weather. Not only will this reduce your harvest, it may also cause the leaves to develop a slightly bitter taste. But have no fear; there's a super easy pruning trick that you can do regularly to encourage your plants to grow huge and reward you with many more of those scrumptious leaves you can use in your cooking. This trick is known as tip pruning, and it can be used not just on lemon basil, but on plenty of other herbs and garden plants as well.

Tip pruning involves removing the small growing tips of each stem down to a set of leaves or growth buds. This clever trimming method stops the plant from putting its energy into producing flowers and seeds and instead, encourages it to focus on producing more leaves and branches. When you tip prune, you'll notice that there are two new growth points where you made the cut or pinched off the tip. Each of these will produce a new stem with foliage. Instead of having just one branch, when you pinch off the tip growth, your plant will respond by growing two new stems in its place. This is going to make your lemon basil much bushier and provide you with a continuous and bountiful harvest.

Tip pruning is really simple. First, look at a main stem on your plant and identify the newest set of leaves branching from an upper node below your blooms. Using your thumb and forefinger, pinch off the tip of the plant down to this set of leaves. You could also use a tool like the Vivosun Gardening Scissors to cut the tips. Do this all over your plant and you'll be amazed at how much fuller it gets when the new growth comes in. This is exactly the result you want to achieve, especially if you're trying to increase your yield or establish a basil "barrier" as your garden's best natural defense against bugs.

But don't just do this once. You should continue the tip pruning process throughout the growing season. This means going over your plant about once every two to three weeks and pinching out all the tips on the new growth, especially if any flowers start to appear. Keeping up with this habit will result in the biggest lemon basil plants you're ever grown. Finally, don't waste any of those tips you've removed. You can use them in the kitchen to flavor your favorite dishes or to make a delicious herbal tea. Now that you have this clever pruning trick to produce bushier plants, you might also want to explore other helpful tips for growing basil to ensure a bountiful harvest.