This is how my poor early girl looks like after I removed all lower leaves infected by Septoria. I think it is completely useless first two feet of the stem and I am thinking about something innovative to deal with it. Please consider that I would need to repot it any way since it is in too small container with lousy dirt in it instead of soil. I heard that if a stem touches dirt it starts producing new roots in that stop right away. So, I am thinking about unusual move to repot: why don’t I please a reasonable small bag with soil around two foot above the current soil level around the stem with new and proper soil and let new roots to develop. When sufficient number of roots will emerge, I will cut stem under the bag and plant the whole plant into a larger pot with proper soil in it. Thus I could solve several issues: A) remove soil contaminated with Septoria, B) Repot with proper soil C) Shorten the plant of useless 2 ft of stem (I like short and bushy plants then the tall ones).

It would be separate consideration on using 5-1-1 Al’s mixture or commercial potting soil (I am not sure of bark and perlite generate roots origination?) but that is a secondary technical question. First question is: will it work? I am prepared to hear that it is probably a stupid idea and it will not work for some reason, however I would like to hear your opinions and suggestions on the matter.

I found that you need to click in a picture to see the whole plant!

Is it Septoria as well on the leaves of a basil plant: