This year we have some thigh high basil 😳

Basil is very cold tender, so you will want to harvest whatever you desire before first frost. You can take cuttings and propagate them inside. Pot up the cutting once it has some roots and keep it inside with a grow light for the winter. Basil seeds are tiny, take a long time to sprout, and are very slow to grow, but you can start new ones from seed.

When you say stems, do you mean stalks from the same root? Or six different plants? If they're separate plants, there are probably too many in one pot. If they're all stems from the same root, don't cut them apart and plant them in separate pots. Parsley has a deep tap root (it's related to a carrot) and doesn't usually like being transplanted. How much light and water is your plant receiving? Parsley needs plenty of light and water. It needs plenty of water, but make sure the soil doesn't stay soggy. Finally, how long have you had the plant? It can take plants a few weeks to settle in after repotting. It will seem like they're not doing much, then all of a sudden they start growing a lot. Your summer weather in Ontario should be fine for parsley. I really hope that's helpful!

@@appalachianwoodhomestead Thanks for your quick reply. It is not parsley, it is sweet basil. No idea if the 6 stems or shoots are separate or from one ball, as I just took the 3 inches diameter nursery plant and repotted it in an 8 inch diameter by 8 inches deep pot. It is out in the balcony 24/7 & gets full sun from 1 p.m.till 9 p.m. I water it every 3 days or so. Please advise.

@@Elvis-dw7ux I'm sorry! I thought this comment was on the parsley video for some reason. Your weather should be fine for basil, too. It also needs full sun and ample water, which is why the parsley and basil were together in one container in the video. Unfortunately, if the plant flowered then the leaves are likely going to be tough and less tasty. I'm not sure how successful you will be at getting your plant to be tasty and vigorous if it's already flowered. Basil is a fairly short-lived plant. If you have at least three sets of leaves, you can help your plant bush up by punching back at a leaf node (as shown in the video). Basil *does* root and transplant fairly easily if you want to. You can cut off a stem, take off all but the last leaves, and try rooting it in a glass of water. Submerge as many leaf nodes as you can, but don't let the leaves get wet. Change the water every couple of days and you should see roots in about two weeks (or less). You can then pot the newly rooted stem up to see if your can get better growth. This is also an easy way to get several plants from one plant, if you want more basil plants. Make sure you remove flower heads as soon as they start to form. Flowering basil is good for pollinators, though, so you could let this basil flower to keep your local bees and butterflies happy. It won't bring you tasty basil, but it will benefit other plants you or your neighbors are growing. I'm sorry, I don't know if that's particularly helpful, but I hope it helps a little bit.

@@appalachianwoodhomestead Great - will try all of the above and let you know!

I dry the extra basil and compost the stems.