I JUST watered it. I do the "finger test" before I water it (get your mind out of the gutter) I go down in the soil about 2 inches (25.4mm to all my non-Murica' friends) to see if the soil is dry and it almost always is and I water it heavily with a lot of water, but the finger test tells me I'm not overwatering it. However, I did get great basil from this plant a couple of months ago, and it's been producing less and less since, so maybe it's just ending its life cycle. Should I just get a new plant and, instead of putting it in the ground, get a terracotta pot with a hole in the bottom to also help if I accidentally overwater it in the future?
Barriehie
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It's flowering and the stems are getting woody. It's trying to end. Mine has woody stems but that pot gets 2 cups of water twice a week and it gets trimmed off the top as needed. I generally get a handful at a time.
That looks a hell of a lot better than mine.
JAS_OH1
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You know these things will root quite easily in water? You can try cutting it off above the woody part of the stem and putting it in water and in a fairly sunny place in your house, then when the roots sprout (about a week), plant it in soil again. Or go buy another one if you can find one. It's hard to find them here.
I think we are going to have an extended growing season again where we don't get frost until mid October. I could be wrong, of course (that's happened before a few times in my life, shhh don't tell my husband).
I think we are going to have an extended growing season again where we don't get frost until mid October. I could be wrong, of course (that's happened before a few times in my life, shhh don't tell my husband).
Barriehie
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Thank you. I think yours is getting too much water. Most plants will start to yellow with that. Does it have little root nodules at the bottom of the stem, above ground?
The craziest s#!t just happened. I watched a video and paid attention, and then used that information in my own relatable situation. WTF? Do other people know about this sorcery? I learned about pruning basil. Turns out, just clawing at it and grabbing leaves doesn't always work for the best.
I feel I can laugh, because I’ve been in your shoes. I used to just cut it wherever whenever I needed some, and I could never understand how basil plants others would post would look so…voluminous compared to mine.
Watched (probably) the same videos you did, and now I’m drowning in basil, from the same number of plants I’ve always had (3).
I'm gonna try to get this plant back to life. I saw a video of a plant worse off than mine that flourished. I already added some used coffee grounds, since the leaves love nitrogen.
Barriehie
Forum GOD!
Yes, there's a way to prune plants so that they produce more. Puggles You can go to Home Depot, or wherever, and get some fertilizer called Bloom Booster. It makes the plant produce flowers. Really good on tomatoes and such but here it will encourage growth and you just have to keep up with pruning. Some plant food, your favorite brand, is usually good every 2 weeks while you're harvesting. 
I don't want to propagate right now, I just want to get them to grow leaves and produce volume, and from what I saw, flowers are bad in that respect, meaning the plant is focusing on producing flowers instead of focusing on producing leaves. I want the plant's attention on producing leaves for right now. That's why I'm pruning at the double node.Yes, there's a way to prune plants so that they produce more. Puggles You can go to Home Depot, or wherever, and get some fertilizer called Bloom Booster. It makes the plant produce flowers. Really good on tomatoes and such but here it will encourage growth and you just have to keep up with pruning. Some plant food, your favorite brand, is usually good every 2 weeks while you're harvesting.
Barriehie
Forum GOD!
See these "rooty" looking parts? Those are root nodules. My plant doesn't have a lot since it's not wanting a lot. If it's needy these will be growing higher and higher up the stem(s).
My African purple basil grows over 4ft ( around 1.3 mts) tall. When that happens, I trim off the top third of the plant, remove some of the lowest branches and it just grows back again. If I've got jars, I make loads of pesto; if I haven't, I leave a box filled with little bags of fresh basil, alert the neighbours and WHOOSH! - in 15 minutes, it's all gone.