To cultivate basil at home you need an equatorial facing window and few plants from your local grocery store. The number of plants depends on how much of basil one uses. Here is the way to handle them.
From the shop bought basil in a pot divide them so that you have several batches of five same size plants . Use the biggest plants for food but plant the rest in pots five to pot. Normal small pots that can sit on windowsill can handle five plants nicely. Water them daily and watch them grow.
When you next time need basil nip half of your plants selecting the largest ones from two thirds from the top of the stem and remove the two lower leafings for use. Totally butcher the rest. That’s the basil you use. The nipped tops, minus the two lower leafings, are then stuck into the pots that were vacated.
Now in future you use totally the ones that have no terminal bud and cut those that have terminal buds from two thirds down from the top and remove the two lower leafings. Then plant the tops in the vacated pots.
Whenever you see flower stem forming nip it in the bud as if you let the basil flower the leaves will lose their taste.
As longs as you can keep this going you never need buy more basil from the store.
brian:
August 13th, 2013 at 8:57 pm
As far as I thought, Nip it in the Bud came from Bonsi tree growers. When a tree becomes a seedling, remove it from the pot and nip off the BUD root. The biggest root. This hampers the tree and its leaves from growing. It only gets more girth.
Jennie:
August 2nd, 2019 at 1:00 am
I had a coworker use that phrase in a meeting, except she thought it was ‘Nip it in the butt,’ we all had a good laugh as we explained it to her
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Topi:
April 29th, 2010 at 4:38 pm
To cultivate basil at home you need an equatorial facing window and few plants from your local grocery store. The number of plants depends on how much of basil one uses. Here is the way to handle them.
From the shop bought basil in a pot divide them so that you have several batches of five same size plants . Use the biggest plants for food but plant the rest in pots five to pot. Normal small pots that can sit on windowsill can handle five plants nicely. Water them daily and watch them grow.
When you next time need basil nip half of your plants selecting the largest ones from two thirds from the top of the stem and remove the two lower leafings for use. Totally butcher the rest. That’s the basil you use. The nipped tops, minus the two lower leafings, are then stuck into the pots that were vacated.
Now in future you use totally the ones that have no terminal bud and cut those that have terminal buds from two thirds down from the top and remove the two lower leafings. Then plant the tops in the vacated pots.
Whenever you see flower stem forming nip it in the bud as if you let the basil flower the leaves will lose their taste.
As longs as you can keep this going you never need buy more basil from the store.
brian:
August 13th, 2013 at 8:57 pm
As far as I thought, Nip it in the Bud came from Bonsi tree growers. When a tree becomes a seedling, remove it from the pot and nip off the BUD root. The biggest root. This hampers the tree and its leaves from growing. It only gets more girth.
Jennie:
August 2nd, 2019 at 1:00 am
I had a coworker use that phrase in a meeting, except she thought it was ‘Nip it in the butt,’ we all had a good laugh as we explained it to her