Basil - is it really all THAT disease prone?

11 years ago

I ask because I have never (until recently, and I think I had them too close to the fluorescents) had a problem with basil, but when I talked to a plant pathologist recently he informed me that basil is extremely disease prone.

I suspect he thinks this because as a pathologist most of the plants he gets to see are sick - so he tends to extrapolate a higher rate of disease among the general population than is actually the case. There's a name for this in psychology, but I forget - it's one of the "biases".

Anyway. For me, basil has always been a drop it and forget it sort of a thing. I plant, I water - it comes up. Even if the lighting isn't that great, even if the medium isn't wonderful, it pops up, I pot it up, and I always always always end up with plants I end up giving away because I have too many. None of them get sick or die (unless I forget and let them go to seed). I may have the occasional plant that drops a funny looking leaf or two once in awhile - but no actual diseases.

Is basil REALLY all that disease prone and I've just been lucky all these years?

Basil is one of the plants I have been telling people all these years is one of the simplest, easiest, most forgiving plants to grow. Have I been leading them down the dead garden path?

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Comments (7)

chervil2
11 years ago
Basil does not do well in cold and cloudy weather and is more vulnerable to disease. Many gardeners including myself had very cool summers and this was detrimental for healthy basil.
Pyewacket
Original Author
11 years ago
So... maybe way far North it doesn't do as well? I've lived in zones 5 to I think zone 10 - whatever Puerto Rico is.

I hate to think what may have happened to some of those plants after I gave them away, assuring folks they were easy-peasy. Mostly I just hope they didn't get a disease and then think they had done something to kill an "easy" plant.

I grew up in Ohio and it was zone 5 when I was a kid, but its zone 6 now (global warming). But even when it was cooler, it tended not to be cloudy in the spring and summers. All winter, pretty cloudy, but not in the summer. I've moved all over the country, including Puerto Rico for a few years - so I guess I've just dodged a bullet and have been living in places that weren't conducive to developing basil disease?
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zzackey
11 years ago
I grow most of my plants from seeds. I find I get diseased plants when I buy from the big box stores. I never had a basil have a disease, but I grown mine outside in the full sun in the ground.
Pyewacket
Original Author
11 years ago
Yeah, I've always started basil from seed. It's one of those things I can't understand why people buy started plants, like coriander, because its so easy to start from seed.

I've mostly grown outside in either the ground or in containers - actually containers that would probably be considered too small, like 6" or 8" containers. It's always done fine for me, apparently DESPITE my mistreatment of it, LOL!

I don't think I've ever brought home a diseased veggie plant from a big box store - but I call it plant roulette when I'm reduced to buying instead of starting my own. This past year I brought home 3 different kinds of peppers and only one was what it was actually labeled.

I bought 3 plants of an Orange mini-bell and one was a gigantic green pepper that took so long to mature I never got to see what the mature color would be, one was a "regular" sized Orange bell (at least the color was right) and one was something I still haven't identified. It looks sort of like a banana pepper, matures to orange, and is only very very VERY mildly hot, if that. I THINK I detect a tiny bite, but I tend to eat so hot it has to be significant heat before I'll actually notice it.

Then there was the Chili de Arbol that turned out to be some kind of Thai pepper, and not a variety I cared for, whatever it was. Of the pepper plants, only the yellow cayenne actually turned out to match the label.

I guess the eggplants I bought that were labeled "Oriental" really were some strain of Oriental - I wasn't sure at first. But they were the worst oriental type eggplant I have ever grown, whatever they were.

The Italian style eggplant I bought turned out to be a pleasant surprise. I have no idea what the variety was, but they stayed sweet and relatively seed-free even when they went way past the size at which I ought to have picked them.

Anyway. Plant roulette. Never sure that what I bring home will actually match the label, but I've never actually brought home a disease or pest since I stopped buying house plants at the grocery store, LOL!

This post was edited by zensojourner on Mon, Oct 27, 14 at 16:59
drew51 SE MI Z5b/6a
11 years ago
I can't understand why people buy started plants,

Well one reason is if you buy a sterile hybrid like African Blue. Seeds don't exist. I have heard this is an awesome basil.
I guess you would have to propagate from cuttings. .
fatamorgana2121
11 years ago
Why buy plants? While basil is easy to start from seed, not all things are. Some have low germination rates plus you need to meet sometimes very long and tricky germination requirements. And seeds tend to be more problematic for garden newbies. I always suggest plants for people just starting out as gardeners.

But that said, some things like basil are so easy to grow that newbies with a tiny bit of experience can manage it. There in the Frozen North I can direct sow basil into the garden (at the same time I'm planting tomatoes & pepper transplants) and have it sprout and grow well. It comes off later than seed started indoors, but it cuts out the indoor seed starting woes so many experience. I've always had disease-free and strong plants from those direct sown.

FataMorgana
drew51 SE MI Z5b/6a
11 years ago
I have always grown basil from seed, but You can't grow African Blue from seed, the plant is sterile. So I was giving a reason to buy a plant as seeds do not exist. Now any other basil, sure go from seed. I grow raspberries from seed, and not many can do that. Well it's really a difficult plant to grow from seed.