Basil is flower and no I can’t pinch the flowers any further
I need some help!
Pertinent info: zone 10a, sunset 22, weather is 55-85 lately, young mammoth basil in a raised bed with raised bed bagged mix / compost / perlite Morning sun from 7-2, afternoon shade afterwards.
I want to grow this mammoth basil but it is flowering, or at least budding. The classic advice is to pinch the bud and let the side shoots grow. Right. It reduces apical dominance and all that. But there is no space to pinch the bud. You can see in the picture that I pinched the plant, the side shoot has grown, and immediately budded without growing out at all. I could technically pinch this bud but I’m so pessimistic about it that I’m posting on Reddit instead. What am I supposed to do here? If this keeps going in this pattern of bud pinch bud pinch, I end up with no basil, just twice as many flower pinches every week. (This is not a joke, I did that last time I tried to grow basil. Not fun!!)
I don’t believe it’s heat. the highs are only 85 and the plant is in half shade. It’s getting watered deeply whenever the soil is somewhat dry. There’s no pest pressure at the moment. I’m using high nitrogen fertilizer on the packet schedule.
My dream is for someone to hold my hand and go, tealeaf egg, don’t worry, that bud is actually just tricking you and if you just do nothing it will turn into basil leaves. You are driving yourself insane for no reason.
Anyway, if you got down here, thank you so much. Please drop your basil growing advice.