Requester wrote:

ok i will do as you suggest. you say dont use dust? how else do you protect the plant?
i always thought that you can dust then wash the plants before eating am i wrong?




Depends on what kind of dust you use. Some chemicals are systemic, i.e.
they get into the plant tissues. Some chemicals are acceptable to the
organic community (I guess I shouldn't call them chemicals, since they
are for the most part naturally occuring pesticides derived from
plants). (This doesn't mean that they aren't toxic, however).

At any rate, you are going to eat the basil. If a bug chews a few holes
first, it doesn't detract from the flavor of the basil. It only makes it
more difficult to find good looking leaves for decoration.

The only bug I can think of that might be a problem is a leaf miner
(where the bug stays inside the leaf), but I haven't seen any of them on
my basil in New England. I can't say what they do in Atlanta.

I get a lot of japanese beetle damage on my basil, but in midsummer the
plant puts out new growth faster than the beetles can eat.

rant Choosing food should be done with taste buds, not eyes. The
flavr-savr tomato was invented so it could be kept looking good at the
supermarket for a longer period of time. No matter that it had no taste.
It is possible to produce perfect produce that tastes good, but it takes
more effort (read: costs more) so since we have a tradition of cheap
food in this country, we get the cosmeticically enhanced stuff. /rant

PS: at least you're growing your own stuff. That's a step in the right
direction.