Sweet Basil...harvesting seeds...

[McGuiver]

Well I have dried out my flowering Basil. I only cut the flowering parts off after the it flowered and then wilted. Well it was fertilized. I have seeds. From each Basil Flower you can get a four seed cluster.

The seeds are small. Yes, one seed on the head of a penny. I use a dental pick to help free the seeds. They tend to shoot out like jumping fleas.

Here is a Basil flower stock. Dried and ready for seed removal.

Here are a cluster of flowered buds that need to be separated.

To get a size of the cluster.

To get the size of a seed pod cluster with 4 small seeds inside.

Last of all my hard work of the seeds. Several hundred.

I love Sweet Basil to make pesto.

 

[filmost]

It's a lot easier to get the seeds if you wait until those stalks have turned brown. I always just rub them and the seeds fall out. At one point I got really lazy and just stripped the stalks of all the seed pods and stored as is.

 

[McGuiver]

Yup. This is my first time harvesting the seeds. I did it on my kitchen table. Smelled wonderful. My hands have the aroma of Sweet Basil.

I wait a little longer next time.
Well tonight after separating seeds, I had 3 Sweet Basil cuttings propagating in water. I transplanted them to potting soil. Sunshine #4.

One in the back is a cutting about 30 days old.

 

[filmost]

Nice! You know if you pinch the flowering tip, it'll bush out. For each tip you pinch, two more stems grow out if I am correct. I grew 4 Thai basil plants last year and each grew to about 2ft tall and a 1-1.5ft wide.

 

[Zoli]

I think my method is the laziest of all. I grow my basil outside in the garden and let the seeds fall to the ground. Winter ends, basil grows again

 

[Weed]

It's a lot easier to get the seeds if you wait until those stalks have turned brown. I always just rub them and the seeds fall out. At one point I got really lazy and just stripped the stalks of all the seed pods and stored as is.

 
What he said. If everything is dry you can just crumble it over a plate or bowl or whatever and the seeds will be at the bottom.

 

[McGuiver]

Nice! You know if you pinch the flowering tip, it'll bush out. For each tip you pinch, two more stems grow out if I am correct. I grew 4 Thai basil plants last year and each grew to about 2ft tall and a 1-1.5ft wide.

I wait a little while before I cut it off. I don't pinch them. Then I save and dry them. I love Sweet Basil.