I have been seeing these tiny greenish-yellowish nodes on the stem of my basil plants. They don't appear on leaves just the stems. I can peel off the nodes and crush it. Does the photo below show an infestation of aphids, whiteflies or just something that happens naturally with basil?
Here's a photo of the node I peeled off the stem.
It's nice to see a post about potential infestation and being able to calm the poster:
These are adventitious root stubs, or in other words, tiny roots starting to form. There are a number of reasons why that can happen. In this case, the damage at the split stem might be a cause.
Your photos are a bit blurry, but I would expect a tiny wound where you broke off your sample.
There is no need to remove the rootlets, but if you consider taking cuttings and propagating your basil, these parts are a good starting point.
Looks like scale insects. They hide under the shell that you see, and suck sap from the plant tissues. If you only have a few plants you can pick them off quite easily. Greenish yellow usually means that they are immature and will not have done much damage so far. Once they turn brown they are into reproductive capacity. Pick them soon, otherwise they will become numerous and destroy the plant.
See similar problem at What is this brown, shell-like thing growing on the stalk of my avocado plant?
