"A heads up, gardening friends -
Just as I am reveling in the beautiful lushness of my East Quarter Farm community garden, I'm SO sad to report that the sudden yellowing of leaves that I noticed on four varieties of my many basil plants last weekend is confirmed basil blight. Now the leaves are quickly thinning and dark spores are appearing on the undersides and they must be pulled.
See my photo link: https://picasaweb.google.com/khadro06/BasilBlight2011
This particular blight is relatively unfamiliar in the U.S. Even our own Thurston Handley was unaware of it when I mentioned it to him today. It apparently was first seen and ID'd in Uganda in 1933, then not again until 2001 in Switzerland and made the press last year in another resurgence. Wish I'd seen those news flashes before making it the dominant planting (in several varieties) in this year's garden design. Here's a link with more information for anyone with basil:
http://organicgardening.about.com/b/2010/06/24/a-new-blight-to-worry-about-here-comes-basil-blight.htm which is also linked to this one from NPR:
The organic gardening post has instructions regarding detection, harvest, and disposal...much the same as with the late blight that hit tomatoes 2 years ago. Hope yours will be passed over...good luck!
Sigh!!!
Cherrie
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Cherrie A. Corey
Naturalist, educator, and photographer
Concord, MA 978.760.1933
Concord, MA 978.760.1933
