Ok I have a question..I use my herbs daily to cook with and I just run out and pluck em off the plant so the question is do I pluck towards the base or towards the top? I was just taking the tops off the dill but the empty stems just got way to tall cause they kept growing. Same with the chives..so if someone could help me out here and tell me if I'm doing this right or not...
Thanks
Saint
How to pick herbs
If you keep removing the top of the plant, it should have more of a tendency to grow in a bushy shape. If you remove the leaves at the base of the plant instead, then the plant may grow tall and leggy.
However, either way some plants may eventually bolt, especially in warm weather.
Thanks very much.
Saint
With dill and chives, I think the only thing is not to cut back all of the stalks/leaves in a clump at the same time, so they'll resprout. With other herbs, the more you pinch, the more they'll grow, and they'll get nice & bushy. Leaving just 2 pairs of leaves per stem will produce a nice, bushy basil plant for example, and will also keep the plant from flowering (going to seed makes basil a little bitter). This is probably easier to demo than to describe, but..... imagine that you have a seedling that has formed a single stem and has 3 pairs of "true" leaves. Pinch back the stem just above the second pair of leaves. The stem will branch to form 2 new stems. When those stems have 3 pairs of leaves, you can pinch the last pair off the same way, and then your plant will develop 4 stems, and so on. Often, you'll be able to see the leaves for the new stems already forming at the base of the leaf where you are pinching. It is important to pinch or cut off the stem at that point, not just pluck off the leaves, or you won't get branching.