And if that doesn't work(doubt it won't), you'll have an available grow light to grow it indoors. I grew some under the light until it was 3 inches tall, transferred it to a 6" herb pot and it currently resides on the windowsill. There are about 6 plants in the 1 pot and they are all over a foot tall. I was pretty amazed myself. I'll send a pic when I get a chance.

I"ve been growing basil in high tunnel the last few years and I thought that might give me an advantage- since I've never had tomato Late Blight with tunnel tomatoes but last year the Basil Downy Mildew struck hard in August. I tend to doubt that a row cover would help. From what I've heard Eleonora might buy us an extra week. That isn't very comforting.

Hmm.. would copper or serenade help at all? Maybe I will just plan to grow some indoors. Growing lots and lots as Dave suggested is good too... but my wife hates it when I plant stuff everywhere :)

I don't follow the logic of planting at different areas. If you do hapen to have infected seed (another means of transmission of this disease) then you are just complicating your efforts.

Dr Andrew Wyenandt, Rutgers, had presented a session on the past which they have investigated over the past 4 years and they noted that none of the organic fungicides provided adequate control. He noted some success with Phosphite products (frac code 33) like K-Phite, Rampart or Pro-Phyt if treatment is started before symptoms appear.

You might think that you can just purchase treated seed but, unfortunately, no effective seed trts.. exist for this. The problem is that basil seed forms a gummy jell and clumps when wetted. So even inside planting won't exempt you from getting this disease.

Even less exciting are efforts to develop resistant varieties b/c two traits are being lost in these efforts: flavor- Linolol levels are lower; Leaf shape- leaves are smaller.

I bought my seeds from Johnny's and was not expecting seed contamination. But if it is in the seed, it doesn't matter how many I plant or not, they will all get it. I have no choice but to hope for the best regarding this.

If I plant in different places, and some are sheltered from the wind, which AFAIK is the primary means of transmission, they may last longer.

Also, the more you plant, the more you will have to harvest, BDM or no. It is not like the BDM completely annihilates the plants overnight. Once you start seeing it, you can harvest what you can.

Guess it depends on your customers if you sell it or how you harvest. I most often cut as bunches every 10 says and noticed last year that growth just stopped after one cutting in August

I'm planning on successive plantings this year and hoping to get new seedings in isolated benchtop greenhouse to a point where I can either cut at soil level or pull,rinse and sell as Isreal style bunches.

Peter - good article from Cornell you might want to read.

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

Dave

Thank you Dave. Very good read.

I noted that it says they are steam treating seeds to avoid the gummy issue.

Yeah if you think you might have infected seed you could try disinfecting it before planting. I'm thinking the Comet cleanser paste scrub like some do with tomato seeds might work, then rinse and plant.

Then if you can get some healthy plants save a bunch of your own seed this year for future use. I grow my own seeds so that may be why I haven't had any problems with DM on mine.

Dave

I would not recommend that you attempt to treat your own basil seed as Dave suggests. You will have wasted your time and will likely end with a gummy mess and possibly even worse, sterile seed. If you suspect that your seed is infected send them for a qualified lab test.

I bought my seed from Johnny's and do not suspect it is infected.

Wasn't really "suggesting" it, more just wondering out loud.

Don't have any infected seed to try it on anyway. I noticed that Cornell is looking for submissions of some for testing.

Dave

I've never seen this mildew. Thank goodness. But your good question about copper fungicide curiously wasn't answered in the Cornell Ag link provided above. It is here.

http://content.ces.ncsu.edu/basil-downy-mildew

They say it works.

"Products containing the active ingredients copper or chlorothalonil (the
trade name of one product with chlorothalonil is known as ‘Daconil’)
are the best and only effective products available to home gardeners."

It seems this fungicide won't eradicate it completely, but it sounds like weekly spraying will help.