Downy Mildew of Basil

manda99 7/7/2014, 9:53 am

I bought some seedlings at Home Depot that ended up having this new disease - Downy Mildew of Basil - and now I've found that almost everyone in my neighborhood that bought starters from the local Home Depot have it as well. I reported my incident to researchers and they are looking for other reports and specimens --

http://vegetablemdonline.ppath.cornell.edu/NewsArticles/BasilDowny.html

Luckily, I'd started some from seed in pots and had just bought the seedlings as a jump start while I waited for my others to grow. Unfortunately, it was planted in my SFG so now the soil is contaminated with the fungus. Sad

yolos 7/7/2014, 11:22 am

I may be wrong, but downy mildew is air borne. I do not think it will be left in the soil over winter if you clean the debris out of the beds. From reading your link, it seems that the pathogen is carried on the seed or air.

mollyhespra 7/7/2014, 11:37 am

I feel for you, Manda. It's happened to me before, and I learned a hard lesson: start my own seeds or buy from a local nursery that I *know* starts their own seeds (vs. buys from a commercial supplier). It's just too easy to spread diseases or pests nowadays when buying from a place that trucks in their plants from somewhere else.

This same issue was covered in this thread. You might find it interesting reading.

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