The road to a fuller and bushier basil has never been this easy.
There’s nothing more satisfying to a plant grower’s eyes than to see plants growing beautifully. When we talk about a beautiful plant, it must be rich in color, has a bunch of leaves or flowers, and it must be full and bushy.
For seasonal plants, that’s definitely hard to do. Thankfully, there are lots of tips and tricks on the internet that teach people how to effectively grow their plants.
They say nothing lasts forever but Kevin Espiritu of Epic Gardening proves otherwise.
View this post on Instagram
Pruning.
It’s a process where you selectively remove certain parts of a plant, such as branches, buds, or roots. Pruning targets the
“diseased, damaged, dead, non-productive, structurally unsound, or otherwise unwanted plant material from crop and landscape plants.”
However, little do people know, pruning is also used to redirect or control a plant’s growth.
That’s exactly what this video is all about.
Growing basil forever?
It may be hard to believe but Kevin here wants to make a point. Yes, technically speaking, basil is a seasonal plant so it peaks at a certain point. However, what he wants to show people is that they can make them grow for a long period of time.
As the video’s description reads:
“Pruning basil to promote growth is one of the easiest and best ways to have an unlimited supply of basil in your garden. Basil absolutely loves aggressive pruning, so with a few clever techniques it’s simple to create basil that is bushy, productive, and delicious.”
Controlling a plant’s growth.
Kevin shows how to effectively prune basil and redistribute growth. First, he goes by showing an already pruned stem. He pruned the main step on top to cut the growth hormones in it so it gets redistributed to the two sub stems growing beneath it.
This way, instead of just the top stem growing, two other stems will grow. Basically, it will bring more leaves to the basil and in no time will give the plant a fuller bush of leaves.
In its simplest term, you are cutting down 1 stem to give way to 2 stems.
The gist of it isn’t too complicated to understand, right?
Repeat the pruning process to other stems as needed.
Just make sure to pick the best candidates for the stems that you wish to cut. There must be two (or more) sub-stems underneath it for the growth hormone redistribution.
Now, where do those trimmed basil stems go? Easy, bring them to the kitchen.
“Basil comes from a plant family of mints, Ocimum basilicum, with an extremely fragrant scent. It is an annually grown plant whose leaves are commonly used as seasoning for a variety of foods.”
Stick with the basics.
Of course, in growing a plant, you must also stick to the fundamentals of plant growing like giving plants water and feeding them sunlight. It goes without saying plants need complete care and sources of food and minerals.
One online viewer even pointed out how Kevin made the explanation easier to understand:
“Thank you for that! Your description of “a man with arm going straight up in the air” made it easy for me to recognize where to cut. You’re awesome. :)”
You may visit Epic Gardening’s YouTube channel to see and learn more tips about gardening.
See the video below to learn how you can keep rolling in the pesto all summer long!
Please SHARE this with your friends and family.
