When do harvest basil

Here are three methods to freeze your basil to use all through the winter in your favorite recipes:. Frozen pesto base is probably the best way to store basil for year round use. A food processor quickly combines the clean basil leaves with olive oil allow one-fourth cup olive oil for 2 cups of loosely packed basil leaves and a little salt. The puree can be thawed and remade into real pesto see recipe below by adding garlic, parmesan cheese and nuts, or it can be taken in another direction and be used to flavor Thai dishes.

Frozen pesto base freezing method;. Frozen ice cubes loaded with chopped basil are less messy than making frozen pesto, and are an easy way to store basil for several months. Simply chop leaves, stuff them into ice cube trays, cover with cold water, and freeze. Clean and store fresh basil. After you collect basil, examine it and remove any dead or yellow leaves that you find. Rinse it thoroughly to remove any dirt or debris.

Allow it to air dry, or pat it dry with a paper towel. Then, put it in an airtight container like a ziplock bag or plastic storage container. Just use the leaves or break pieces off as necessary. Blanch and freeze the leaves. Remove basil leaves from their stem and drop them in a pot of boiling water for five to ten seconds.

Remove them with a slotted spoon and transfer them directly to a large bowl with water and ice in it. After several minutes, remove the leaves and lay them out flat to dry on paper towels before storing them in the freezer.

Basil leaves will keep in the freezer for several months. Dry your basil. Place basil stems in a dry paper bag and place the bag in a warm dry place, such as an attic or kitchen cupboard. Let them dry for one or two weeks, then remove the leaves from the stems.

Keep the leaves as intact as possible and store them in canning jars. Pull off any yellow or spotted leaves before drying your bail. Dried basil should be kept for about a year, or as long as it keeps the same distinct aroma. You can also dry basil by hanging it up in bunches in a warm, dry room. Keep fresh basil in water. Clean stems of basil and trim off their bases. Place them in a glass jar with about 1 inch 2.

Basil stems will keep for up to two weeks if they are kept at room temperature and out of direct sunlight. Process this mixture until the basil leaves are in small bits, then add 1 tablespoon 15 ml water and process again to make a paste. Pack the mixture tightly into an ice cube tray and freeze it. You can add basil cubes to sauces, soups, and curries for easy seasoning. Basil cubes will keep in the freezer for approximately three to four months. Maggie Moran.

It is best to just pick a few leaves off of each plant. Simply pinch them off at the stem. Not Helpful 2 Helpful Don't pick all the leaves off one plant or cut off the entire stem.

Instead, pinch off the small tips to help the plant fill out. Not Helpful 3 Helpful 9. To cut fresh basil, use a sharp knife and cut the leaves as fine as you need to. Not Helpful 3 Helpful You can harvest basil at any time throughout the season.

Keep in mind that it is better to harvest early in the morning. Artemisia Nursery. Harvest your basil when the plant starts to flower. Just follow the stem back to where there are two leaves emerging from a node and cut just above that. That will encourage your plant to grow bushier and fuller. Not Helpful 4 Helpful 4. Ursula Kiener Ford. Basil seeds which are very tiny! Cut off the flower once it is brown and let them dry in a warm and dry location.

You can put the dried flowers in a paper bag and shake it, then crush it or simply crush them over a colander. Pick out the old petals and any chaff protective casings of seeds and keep your seeds until you are ready to plant. Not Helpful 0 Helpful 1. Include your email address to get a message when this question is answered.

By using this service, some information may be shared with YouTube. Before the first frost, harvest all your basil leaves and cut the stems down to the ground. The plant will sprout again in the spring. For other uses, one or two basil plants yields plenty. A tomato plant center growing alongside basil.

See our post about basil varieties in the garden. Make herbal vinegar using basil; it retains the flavor and makes a great gift! My basil leaves appear to have some sunburn. Are there any remedies to help once some of the leaves are already burnt?

My store-bought basil plant obviously went to flowers before to leaves, and then it dried up, even though watered. Any purpose to dried flowers other than for its smell? Hi, Susan. The flowers on a basil plant are edible. If yours are dried now, try using them in cooking. After I have frozen my basil leaves, what is the best way to defrost them when I want to use them?

Just leave them out til they thaw? Should I take the frozen leaves out of the baggie to thaw, or leave them in? Currently I have two basil plants that smell and taste quite different. I would not be as surprised if the second plant did not come from a cutting of the first. Plant A has a sweet, very spicy smell. Plant B smells much more green and grass-like, almost like fresh pesto. Plant A is in the shade quite a bit and has a sandy soil that has not been given mulch or compost.

It is in a medium sized pot. Plant B is in a raised bed with my peppers and tomatoes. It is in a clay soil thoroughly mixed with sand and compost, with mulch on the top.

It receives much more sunlight than Plant A. As we understand it, the volatile essential oils in the basil leaf are largely what provides flavor, and there are many different compounds in those oils. Some compounds are produced more under certain conditions, or with certain genetics, affecting the composition of the oil. The flavor of basil can definitely vary with variety, but other factors are also in play even if two plants are the same type. Growing conditions, such as soil nutrients, temperature keep consistently warm, and not too cool or hot , water a mild drought stress may enhance flavor but can lower yield , etc.

Some compounds that produce flavor are created by the plant as UV protection, so sunlight duration, intensity, and quality can affect flavor; shade can sometimes reduce favorable compounds for flavor.

One study suggests that yellow or green mulch can encourage the development of certain compounds that may favorably affect aroma and flavor. The health of a plant is another factor—if one is under more stress, or starting to flower, the flavor can change, sometimes becoming bitter. The age of the leaves also plays a part: Newer leaves usually have more flavor. How soon you taste the leaves after harvesting, and how you store them, can also make a difference. What plants are growing nearby can also affect certain plants not always.

Basil grown indoors is said to be less flavorful. Some Cooperative Extension sites advise not to over-fertilize, as lush growth can lessen the flavor. Hope this helps! I bought a basil plant at the market, it is about 10 inches high looks and smells so good. How do I keep it from dying?? I have a patio but no trees.

Please help Basil likes summer temperatures, up to a max of about 90 degrees F. If higher temperatures are forecast for your area, you can help the plant to keep cool by keeping up with the watering but making sure soil is well-drained , providing mulch which keeps soil cool and moist , and providing shade cloth or row covers—or for single plants, an umbrella or laundry basket with large holes for ventilation will do. High heat may encourage basil to flower, so pinch any flower buds that appear to help prolong harvesting of the leaves.

It is not clear to me where on the plant we should "start picking. Is that what you mean? Hey Guys, 2nd year gardener and my basil plants, the main stems have turned brown like the color of wood, the leaves are small and under-sized and underperforming on those plants, but I care for all 12 of my basil plants in half gallon pottery clay pots. I move them out of full sun by 2 pm as I live in SoCal zone 9 and it gets super hot here, I water using a gauge, not just daily, watering when it's dead-center on the gauge.

When I transplanted from the plastic garden center containers I used quality soil and a bit of food small pellet type What am I doing wrong? Is brown stems a bad thing, maybe I'm being impatient Thanks my new friends.

The first is that your basil plants might be getting too much sun, despite your precautions. Give your plants only 3 to 4 hours of sun for a week or two and see if there is a change.

The second possibility is less likely, but your basil plants could be infected with Fusarium Fungus, an incurable disease that will eventually kill the plants. This may not be the case, however, and your plants may just need more time to adjust. Further signs that it is Fusarium Fungus would be that the growth will be stunted, and leaves will turn yellow and then brown before falling off.

I got an aerogarden as a present. When my Thai basil grew it developed what we were sure were scale it fit pretty much perfectly and then it seemed to move to the common basil, dill and thyme were unaffected. In a hail mary effort we cut off healthy branches and removed the infected bases.

The rice like stuff could maybe be roots except for how they pop off and the pods go too high to be roots. I'm very confused at this point.