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How to prevent basil downy mildew

Planning on pesto? Basil downy mildew can leave you with a pot of pasta and no sauce. Basil downy mildew is a fungal disease that can live on the seed and infect the plant as soon as it is planted. It can also travel by airborne spores and infect plants that started out clean. It only affects basil – but that isn’t good news when you’re hungry for fresh basil on your mozzarella.

What can you do to prevent the disease? Start with a variety that is resistant –red leafed, Thai, lemon, lime and spice types are less likely to get sick than the common sweet basil varieties. Space your plants far enough apart to get good air flow between them and some sun reaching all the leaves. This fungus like high humidity and tight plants make for damp conditions. And water from below – drip irrigation if you have it – to keep the leaves dry.

Click here to read the complete article at cornell.edu
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