Basil wilting and dying
 

i try to grow basil very year with no luck - it tends to wilt and die at about 5 inches. Ive tried direct sun/part sun, dry soil, moist soil to no avail. what is the trick?
Do i need to begin snipping back at a certain height to encourage new and continued growth?

Basil hates wind and weather and is quite susceptible to fungal diseases so don't try to grow it in garden soil, use a soilless mix in a pot instead. I have the best luck in the shelter of my greenhouse. try it in sun, out of any wind or rain and water it from the bottom. I grow it in hanging baskets and find it does best for me. ordinary sweet basil is the easiest to grow. keep trying, it's worth it
you can cut it back after a say 3 sets of leaves and it will send out side shoots to make a bushier plant
KarenO

Ever since I started waiting for hot weather and started direct sowing basil I've had really great basil crops.
I give basil my hottest, sunniest parts of the garden. It's so nice for us to have fresh pesto or anything green in the mid to late summer. Mine are just now getting large enough to make pesto and I'm in AZ.
I never grow it in pots as it seems to like a lot of room for roots and it also appreciates even moisture.

I never had any problems growing basil, in ground or in containers.

I haven't seen Basil Downy Mildew yet but it is a relatively new pathogen that you should be aware of.

[FONT=Times New Roman][URL="http://vegetablemdonline.ppath.cornell.edu/NewsArticles/BasilDowny.html"]EXPECT AND PREPARE FOR DOWNY MILDEW IN BASIL[/URL][/FONT]

I live just south of you in Portland and have great luck with basil. I use a seed starting mix and keep it warm and not too wet until the weather warms up. Mine has been outside for over a month now and over the last several days I have direct planted it into my garden. I have about 30 sets of plants and they range from 4-10 inches tall, depending on the variety.

Please provide more info about how you start it, temperature, sunlight, etc.

Well I think may plants have succumbed to downy mildew :( this stinks. Should I pull my plants or can I already them with something?

[QUOTE=Dork Fish;422415]Well I think may plants have succumbed to downy mildew :( this stinks. Should I pull my plants or can I already them with something?[/QUOTE]

A Phosphorous acid fungicide (Organicide Plant Doctor (Excel LG), Agri-Fos ) is going to be your best control if you already have plants infected with Downy Mildew.

Andrea, sorry about your basil,
resow new seed in a pot with soilless mix as I mentioned above, put in a sunny spot out of wind and weather and keep the foliage dry and fungus problems that are soil borne should be less of a problem. There is plenty of time to resow a basket of basil. Not convinced I would want to eat basil treated with fungicide, organic or not. Applying fungicide will not cure the leaves already affected although it may prevent disease on new growth. If it was mine I would start over. Basil grows fast.
KO

Andrea,

If you have a friend with some basil, you could always snip a bit and root it in water! If not, maybe you could do the same with some basil that you buy from the store or a market.

Linda

OP- have you considered that your soil may have Fusarium, which could be causing the wilt issues you're experiencing with Basil? Are you growing tomatoes in the same bed/soil? If so, are the tomatoes healthy through the entirety of your season? Here are some links (note the pic in the 2nd):
[url]http://plantclinic.cornell.edu/factsheets/basildiseases.pdf[/url]
[url]http://www.gardeningknowhow.com/edible/herbs/basil/basil-diseases.htm[/url]

Good luck (BTW, I have the same problems w/ Basil in my garden)-
-naysen

[QUOTE=Dork Fish;422415]Well I think may plants have succumbed to downy mildew :( this stinks. Should I pull my plants or can I already them with something?[/QUOTE]

I'm really sorry about your basil. The same thing happened to me last July and I was so depressed. You can try to save it with Green Cure or Actinovate G, but I just pulled the plants, washed off the mildew, and used the stuff that looked okay. Then I dumped my pots into trash bags, soil and all. I wanted to get rid of the Spores of Death ASAP.:cry:

The thing that kills me is that we have the same darned conditions that caused it last year - tons of rain, cloudy days, and cool temps. If anything we've had more rain this year. I feel like spraying it for bugs and bringing it into the house!:panic: