Market Farming

[Alex McGregor <waldenfarm AT sprintmail.com>]

Sue,

I harvest the leaf clusters at the end of the stems and leave the other 
leaves on. This is fast,
you get multiple leaves with one snip. It also stimulates the plants to grow 
2 leaf clusters on
the end of the branches. I harvest lightly when the plants are medium size 
and take off all
terminal clusters when they're large or start developing flower buds. I cut 
off all leaves right
before frost for selling and drying.

Alex McGregor
Walden Farm
Walden Ridge, TN

Sue wrote:

> I grew some basil- about 100 plants last year to try to expand into the 
> herb market.  My
> problem was with the harvesting.  I would cut the new growth off every 
> couple days or so.  I
> wasn't very systematic but would snip off a couple inches worth of stem and 
> leaves.  I think
> I might of been a little protective of the plants and didn't snip off 
> enough.  It seemed very
> labor intensive to pick basil this way.  About how big can you make the cut 
> on basil with out
> it being too much?