A Gardeners Forum Forums Gardening Reference Gardening in 2006 how long do I have to wait?

So I planted Spearamint, Sage andd Basil seeds in my harb garden about 2- 3 weeks ago...I am pretty sure I see the basil just starting to pop thru and the spearamint and sage are definatley comming up. So how long do I have to wait till I will be able to use the basil on some pasta for dinner?

Well to get the bushiest plant possible I do pinch the tops off of the plant to promote branching. This means more harvest later but does delay the harvest somewhat. Mine was probably giving a good harvest at about 6 months but I don't use a lot of fertilizer so I'm sure you could probably do better. I know my landlord does really well getting plants to grow using miracle gro.

What do you do with the pieces you pinch off? Can they be used? My Sage is very fragrant now but long rather than bushy. I started six different herbs from seeds and most have grown quite well but they still look young and floppy. (2-3 months old) What do I do to make them look like the healthy plants I see in stores?

the best time to harvest herbs is early in the morning--i dont know exactly why, but doing that seemingly makes them "tastier" you can harvest most herbs when the stalk is around 8 inches tall, standing up straight.

Hi Jlapey,

Usually pinching the top of the plant will cause branching which will make it bushier. And they will end up looking even better than what you find at the store. At least the stores around here. Yes you can use the leaves that you prune.

In the case of my Basil which is a lovely bush now after a year. It was about 6 months before I was able to harvest enough to make it count before that I was basically just pinching off the ends of branches to make them split so the bush would be very full.