solar flick wrote:
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.

The normal practice is to cut the ends of stalks to make it bush and to use
the new leaves just down from the tip for cooking. Particularly in salads
the younger leaves are more attractive. The stunted new leaves indicate
that the plant is under stress and not growing strongly. You haven't told
us anything about the environment so any explanation of why will be a guess.

David