Eggsandart: Unfortunately, the reptibark is really too large for 5-1-1 and gritty mix, with many pieces larger than a half inch. It takes a lot of water and some time to get it wet enough to begin working. But it is easier to find than pine bark fines, and I used it for gritty mix the first time I made it three years ago. I put a lot of large flowering house plants in it, including plumerias, clivias and orchids. They all did very well once I got used to how I needed to water and fertilize, which was a lot. Once the bark broke down a bit, I didn't need to water so much. Many of those plants are still in the gritty 1-1-1 mix with reptibark and blooming right now. For 5-1-1 it's better to use partially composted bark or a bark mix with a range of sizes from dust to 3/8 inch. Before I found my current source of pine bark fines, I was able to find pine bark mulch that had really broken down at hardware and some big box stores and found that it worked much better than reptibark for the 5-1-1 I use for annuals like herbs, vegetables and flowers. The finer roots of plants like basil do need to stay moist when they are getting started, but they also need to dry out a bit between waterings. I think your basil will be fine once it gets going. If I had to choose between MiracleGro with moisture control and 5-1-1 with reptibark, I'd choose the 5-1-1 because it can dry out between waterings. Like most herbs, Basil doesn't need much fertilizer, but it does need some. The 5-1-1 and gritty mix without CRF have no nutrition. So you really need to fertilize. And since you used reptibark, which isn't at all composted, organic fertilizers won't work very well if at all. So in your situation, I would choose a balanced chemical fertilizer with trace elements, like Foliagepro 9-3-6 or MiracleGro 24-8-16 in a half strength at least once a month. It really makes no difference to your plants since they take up chemical elements from either source. Since I use the CRF in all my mixes, I don't usually fertilize most herbs during the season.

MsOctober, your problem does not look the same to me. It does look more like a sunburn, where the leaves were wet midday. OP--it is hard to tell from the pic, and you don't give a location. Here in denver, basil is just not happy this year, because the night temps have been getting too low. I have 8 happy huge plants in an earthbox that have already given a couple harvests. But my in ground basils are puny, with small leaves and are only about a foot tall. That said, it does look as if you may have a fungal disease of some sort. I did have a potted plant with basil downy mildew, and the underside of leaf spores are very distinctive.

I don't know - the various extension agencies and horticultural experts have been working hard to find an answer because this has been absolutely DEVASTATING to even the small commercial growers. I know I read about some treatments - but I don't remember the details. Check the links I've provided and contact your local extension agency. But - I hate to say it - I doubt a baking soda spray is going to help with this much. However I don't see what harm it could do. So why not try it? But do still look for current information on the state of the Basil Downy Mildew war being waged by our agricultural experts.

The basil does not seem worse. I might even say slightly better than a week ago. I did snip off all the funky looking leaves. But they don’t seem to be taking off yet. They’ve been in the ground for 2 weeks now. I’ve heard it can take several weeks for basil to take off. Is that true? As for the watering, I noticed during the day they were wilting. I know plants can wilt a bit during the daytime when it’s warmer, but my gut was telling me to water them anyway, because they were looking pretty sorry, so I did. And they perked up again. But what has me confused is that even after the sun had gone down they remained wilted, but the moister meter I’m using was indicating good moisture level, so I was reluctant to water. But after a few days of noticing this I decided I was watering, regardless of what the moisture thingy was telling me, and the plants perked up as I mentioned... What the heck?