How One Simple Cut Makes Herbs Bushier Fast (Video)

Transcript

Did you know a single cut can double your herb stems?

Did you know a single cut can double your herb stems?

Pruning Herbs for Bushier Growth

Learn the single trick that turns skinny basil, mint or tulsi into a lush, bushy plant, and stay for the final tip that makes it happen.

Why herbs get leggy

A leggy herb looks tall, thin and bare at the bottom. It happens when the plant reaches for light or when the growing tip never gets cut, so all energy goes upward.

Where to cut

Think of a stem as a ladder. Each rung is a node where a leaf pair emerges. Cut a little above that node, about half a centimetre, so you leave a fresh leaf pair behind.

Basil & Tulsi pruning

When basil or tulsi have three or four leaf pairs, pinch off the top tip. Keep snipping flower spikes as soon as they appear, and never take more than a third of the leaves in a week.

Mint routine

Mint loves to be trimmed. Snip stems a few leaf pairs above a node, and new shoots appear in a week. When the pot looks woody, cut everything back to about five centimetres and feed it a bit of compost.

Curry leaf tip

A lone curry leaf plant stays a single pole. When it reaches thirty to forty-five centimetres, pinch the tip and it will branch from the leaf joints below. Harvest whole leaf stalks from the new branches.

Stem cut height

A hard cut back to five centimetres revives a tired mint plant and encourages fresh growth.

The one cut that turns a stem into a bush

Always cut just above a leaf pair. That single snip makes two new shoots sprout, and two weeks later you repeat the same cut on each new stem. Soon a single stalk becomes a full, leafy bush.

Like, subscribe and comment

Useful? Like and subscribe, and tell us in the comments what we should check next.

Read the full guide

The full guide is on thecareonline.com. General information only, so check with your doctor for your own case.