Cutting basil to reproduce or repot?

[Rhuma8]

Hello everyone,
I am very new to gardening and feeling a bit overwhelmed with my basil plant. It was growing very fast and I repotted it from my little pot to a bigger one. It’s been doing great but recently I noticed there’s stems that are growing out of the pot and dropping down to the sides of the pot. The stems also has little roots looking things along the bottom of the stem. Do I need to repot it to a bigger pot? Or is it ok to cut the bigger stem coming out the side and plant it on its own? I am afraid if I cut the thick stem my plant will die. The stem that’s growing out of the soil and dropping down started to grow flower on it as well. I am not sure what I can do. I am thinking maybe it’s my fault because I didn’t trim it much when it was growing rapidly. Please help I am adding some pictures in case I didn’t explain correctly. Thank you for reading.

 

[Rhuma8]

Just want to add this is the worst the plant leaves have ever looked. Its started to become a droopy

 

[Ginger with Roots]

Time to make some pesto! It just needs a haircut. See the little leaves near base of stems? Those will grow into bigger one, too. Remove a few inches all around (like the first 1-3 leaf sets). The flowers mean it's going to seed instead of making more leaves. After cutting it back, it should get bushier.

 

[Rock]

Rhuma, I joined this forum solely to learn about growing herbs and it stemmed (no pun intended) from becoming obsessed with pesto and realizing it was kind of expensive to keep buying basil so I decided to start growing it.

You may have watched a lot of basil videos but I found this one to really be a good guide and explain things well:

Envious of the plant you have but it looks like you could trim a lot of basil, and do a lot of wonderful thing with those leaves, and then have a gorgeous plant!

 

[big rockpile]

Basil is good for detering Bugs. Right now my whole garden smells like Basil.

I'm thinking mine will reseed and French Marigolds.

Just learning to.

Here is one row of Basil.

big rockpile

 

[Rhuma8]

Thank you everyone! I have been trimming the plant and it’s growing beautifully! I also planted on of them stems in a separate container and made another basil plant Happy growing!

 

[Ruderunner]

Rockpile grows basil like I do, free range.

Basil will only grow to the size of the pot, so for a year round plant, think indoor size pot.

Basil also needs to be constantly groomed or it will go to seed. Many people will pinch off new shoots daily. This is fine, the plant will grow more.

 

[oneeye]

You are doing a good job growing basil. When basil starts flowering the plants' growth will slow way down. The reason is the plant has changed its metabolism from making leaves to flowers. If you have a basil plant in full veg. then you can divide and split the root ball in half making two plants. If the basil plant has started flowering I wouldn't do anything to it except keep the flowers picked off to keep the plant actively growing.