So, what happens if you don’t prune your basil? First you likely end up with a tall leggy basil plant that produce very little leaves. Then the plant will go to flower and the leaves will start to taste bitter as it focuses its energy on producing flowers and seeds. Pinching or cutting back basil plants regularly encourages full, bushy plants and better tasting leaves. Cut back seedlings when they’re at least 6-8 inches tall always trim just above two leaf nodes, where the stem and leaf meet. Ne