Something is wrong with my Basil

[solar flick]

Hi all, first post here, and my first attempt at growing Basil in a container.

It's been doing well for a couple of months. A few seeds grew about 6 inches high, and had loads of leaves that looked healthy and abundant.

I began harvesting them - taking larger leaves from the bottom, and pinching off a couple of cms from the very top of the stems - thinking this would encourage it to grow back in thicker. But it hasn't.

What I'm getting now, at the tops of each and every stem, are leaves that are growing in 'odd'. Like little twisted up, stunted, curly leaves.

I keep pinching them out, but they keep coming back, and the plant is not producing any more of the nice big 'normal' leaves'.

What's gone wrong? And what can I do about it?

Should I just plant some more seeds and try to grow a new plant?

Thanks.

[Billy]

It might be going into flower, but it seems awfully early for that. Do the new leaves look like little collars that go around the stem?

[Boron Elgar]

Basil is pretty resilient to severe cut back/pinch back. It is also one of the easiest and quickest garden herbs to grow from seed, so if you keep a packet or two of basil around, you can easily re-seed as the season progresses if you find that your plants are faltering a bit. Assuming your growing conditions are correct, this will work well.

Boron

[Billy]

The flowers make the best pesto. I only use leaves, if there aren't enough flowers.