Q.My Homegrown Basil Doesn’t Taste Good
I bought a sweet basil plant for the first time and planted it in my garden. It looks wonderful, but it is anything but sweet! My husband insists that the plant smells like marijuana, and the taste is spicy hot. What happened?
Nikki
Certified GKH Gardening Expert
Certified GKH Gardening Expert
Answered on July 8, 2011
It sounds like your basil may have gone to seed. When a basil plant flowers, the leaves become bitter. It is important to the flavor to remove flowers as soon as you see them.
The other possibility is that the plant was mislabled. There are several kinds of Asian basil that have spicy flavor.
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