Basil cuttings
It’s looking like we’re going to have a great year for basil. I’m growing two types this year, large leaf (left above)and Greek basil (on the right). Basil is a plant that really benefits from pinching. First, it prevents the plant from going to seed too early and makes for a fuller, bushier plant. Second, the pinchings can be easily rooted in water, allowing you to have a totally free and super low hassle way to get new plants throughout the season. You can see the Greek basil on the left has formed new roots. I’m going to plant these new starts today.
Here’s a quick basil pinching tutorial.
Spider eggs
Doing my basil pinching this morning, I came across the above nasty looking blob wrapped in a few large leaf basil leaves. I’m guessing spider eggs. What is your guess?
Sandy
The 10 Year Challenge 
Thanks for the pinching tip. We just can’t get enough basil so being able to make more is ALWAYS good.
I need to remember to pinch my basil- it tends to get huge by the end of the summer and take over the world!
My basil plants were getting tall, so I recently gave them a good pinching back. Never rooted out the pinched ends before though, and I need to try that! No idea what that blob was in the leaves. Will be interested to find out if your guess of spider eggs is right.
Laura, it just takes a couple of weeks to grow a decent root system. Then it is pretty easy to have a continuous supply of basil through the summer as the original plants push hard to go to flower.
Sandy
I had forgotten about pinching basil. I just sowed some more yesterday from seed instead of trying to root some of the older plants. I will wait a couple of weeks and try that too. You can never have to much basil.
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