It's a variety of fusarium wilt and comes from bad seed. The bad news
is that it can stay in the soil for years and will affect everything
in the mint family. One needs to be very careful buying basil plants
from garden centers. If they show any brown on the stems, don'f buy
them!

Regards, Dianna (who learned this the hard way)


On Wed, 27 Aug 2003 15:30:00 GMT, "Bob"
wrote:

This basil is growing in raised beds protected by copper sheeting at the
top. There is no sign of slugs.

My further research has found that basil "wilt" is a problem caused by a
fungus, which is a long term problem. Apparently, the university of Hawaii
has developed a resistant variety. I guess I need to track down some of the
seeds for that for future plantings.

Bob

wrote in message
...
Bob, have you checked for slugs and snails? They love wet climates.

They crawl onto the stalk of the plant and start eating, they may crawl
up further and eat leaves or the stalks of leaves, but mostly they seem
to start right at the bottom of the main stalk damaging it so much that
the whole plant wilts and falls over.

If slugs and snail are the problem, you can buy traps or you can bury
opened cans of beer so that they fall in. The easiest method to control
them is to pick them off the plants when they are active at night.

Small snakes like to eat them.

Ken

Bob wrote:
I try to grow basil in seattle, and this year am losing a number of
plants,
2-4 inches tall, that are just wilting, drying up and dying. I believe
they
are getting plenty of water. Maybe too much? Does anyone have any idea
what
the cause or solution could be to stop this problem? Is it something
that
will spread to the other plants?

Bob






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