Question about sweet basil?

Question

I have a sweet basil plant and was wondering when it will be ready to use. It's a lighter shade of green (I've never grown sweet basil so I don't know if that's normal or if it needs to mature and become darker) and about 6-8 inches tall. Any tips would be great.

Answer 1

You can use the leaves at any time now. The cool thing about basil plants, though, is that it will keep growing if you don't strip off all the leaves, so you can harvest basil all summer. However, you have to make sure it doesn't go to seed (which will cause the leaves to be less flavorful and make the plant stop growing).

To prevent it from going to seed, pinch off the flower heads when they appear (they look like little Christmas trees on the top of the stalks that will develop white flowers). Also, pinching growth at the top of the plants will make them grow bushy and produce more leaves.

Basil is very easy to grow and tend. Just give the plants enough water or the leaves will droop.