herbs and sun

maus · Sat Jul 02, 2011 12:58 am

To keep chipmunks out of my basil any ideas if I put them in the middle of the lawn and my plants live in plastic pots

rainbowgardener · Sat Jul 02, 2011 6:58 am

Have you ever seen the chipmunks bother the basil? One of the nice things about growing herbs is that pests (of the four legged or six legged varieties) usually don't like them. I don't have chipmunks in my yard, but I have lots of squirrels, plus raccoons, groundhogs, etc and none of them have the least interest in the basil, which is all over the yard.

maus · Sat Jul 02, 2011 7:43 am

I moved them out on the yard and when should I start taking leaves off my plants are still only like 4 inches or so tall

maus · Sat Jul 02, 2011 7:50 am

Oh except that I'm growing catnip so once and while ill see cats

rainbowgardener · Sat Jul 02, 2011 8:33 am

Yeah.. cats. I don't grow catnip because of that. I started some from seed one time and put it out as a big healthy plant. The cats just rolled it to death. They didn't chew it. At first it would spring back after awhile after being rolled on, but eventually they just loved it to death.

If your basil is 4" tall and healthy, leafy not leggy, then pinch off the top pair of leaves. That will cause the stem to branch in two at that point. Let it grow some more and then keep taking top leaves like that. It will make your plant bushier and leafier.

maus · Sat Jul 02, 2011 8:47 am

Pinch off the top leaves only? I'm new to basil so I have no idea how to grow it . Do you mean the pair that appear in the middle

rainbowgardener · Sat Jul 02, 2011 10:58 am

No when I say top, I don't mean middle!

I mean the very top pair, even if they are tiny (and only if your plant already has at least 3 pair of leaves).

Here's a little more about it:

https://www.helpfulgardener.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=196574#196574

When you cut the top pair of leaves off with the growing tip, the plant will branch at that point. You aren't worrying about harvesting yet, you are encouraging your plant to get bushier, so you will have lots more to harvest later.

maus · Sat Jul 02, 2011 11:13 am

So remove the leaves that are new growth or the ones that are developing two leaves? That kind of confused me. I don't expect them to get super huge and here is a picture of them

[img]https://i1177.photobucket.com/albums/x352/mausNstuff/261204_10150696949215265_527640264_19073777_1225432_n.jpg[/img]