I took some cuttings from my basil plant to make a new plant but they flowered when I had them in water to grew roots. The new plants leaves have grown and looks and smell great but it's not growing tall. Will it eventually grow taller and is there anything I can do to help? Thanks.
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1Can you clarify your question please - when you say 'new plant' do you mean the cuttings you took, or are you meaning new leaves on the original plant? and what did you do when the cuttings flowered - leave them on or nip them off? Are they still sitting in water, or in pots, or something else?– BambooJun 26, 2017 at 23:02
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Thanks for your prompt reply, Yes I meant the cuttings took when I said 'new plant'. I nipped the flowers off as sion as i seen them but had been away for the weekend and came home to find them. They grew roots in water really well and I planted 3 cuttings in a small pot and took them to my work for the nursery garden. They were in the small pot for 2 weeks. Today I moved the plant into a tyre planter, the roots looks good but did think plant looked a bit stunted compared to my original plantThe bottom leaves have grown but top not doing much since pinching out flowers.– LunaJun 26, 2017 at 23:14
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Well hopefully, now there's plenty of space for them, the roots will spread and the plants will grow taller, as well as putting out new stems. Add a photo for a clearer answer - but there might not be a clearer answer!– BambooJun 26, 2017 at 23:19
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2 Answers
From my experience (as well as a number of resources I found like this one), whenever a basil plant starts flowering, it stops growing (in fact, it is recommended that you pinch off any buds if you want it to keep growing.
Not sure if there's anything you can do to make it grow taller at this point unfortunately.
Your new baby vegatatively grown basil plants have no memory of early bolting. Not to worry. The best way to inhibit reproductive growth is by only using a balanced fertilizer where the N is lower in percentage than the phosphorous and potassium. Otherwise, cutting the reproductive growth off will help.
Basil is an annual...above the tropic of Capricorn. Annuals have one job in life; to produce seed. That is why they are so profuse with flowers. But once an annual produces seed its life is done. The best way to deal with this is via proper balanced fertilizer with N lower in percentage than P and K...and cutting those babies off!. The energy is diverted back to the entire plant.
How did you culture your new basil plants? Are they in garden soil? Are they in pots far too large? Did you fertilize? Answers to these questions will help to define the problem. Please send pictures!
