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Florida Gardening

Having odd problem with basil plants.

Patty Bee Port St. Lucie Zone 10A

5 years ago

I have seen this symptom on some of my outdoor potted basil plants—where new leaves should be sprouting, instead there is something that looks like a green but shriveled or tightly balled-up leaf. Before I got a chance to ask here about it, the basil downy mildew became a more serious problem. When I posted about that, u/wormsplitter mentioned that he was now growing basil indoors with an AeroGarden, which I thought would be the perfect workaround , so I had my husband gift one to me as my birthday present.

It arrived and I was thrilled with how quickly the plants sprouted and grew. However, all of a sudden the healthy leaves stopped appearing and instead were these same green shriveled or tightly balled-up leaves. What's worse is that there are the tiniest of bugs on those "leaves," which fortunately I can take out of the planter and rinse them off under the faucet (how do pests like that get in the house?). I can find nothing online that talks about this symptom, and tho' I've contacted the AeroGarden manufacturer about it, I don't have much hope of getting a speedy reply. Anyone experienced this, or knows what causes it?

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Comments (5)

Patty Bee Port St. Lucie Zone 10A
Original Author
5 years ago
Here's a photo of the suffering plants:
sharon2079
5 years ago
IT looks like chili thrip damage. I have roses, basil, hibiscus, peppers, and a bunch of other plants. This looks like the damage I get on those plants when the chili thrips are out. Why you would get in your house I don't know, except maybe they came in on your clothes or something. You can control them with spinosad. When it cools down they will slow way down and not be much of a nuisance. Left alone they will kill your plants, so you will need to spray.... sorry. I have a couple of the the aerogarden. I bought one and a friend gave me hers because she decided she didn't like the gurgling noise. To me it is better than a white noise. I have started lots of things with it. I just planted my tomatoes that I started in July. And I have some hollyhocks started too. Good luck with yours.
Patty Bee Port St. Lucie Zone 10A thanked sharon2079
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I'm not sure if this is what you might be seeing. I can't access your pictures. I know this mildew has been traveling quite a bit this year. http://vegetablemdonline.ppath.cornell.edu/NewsArticles/BasilDowny.html#Report Best of luck- Here is a link that might be useful: Basil Downy
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Grizzman, thanks for the reply. I have had damping off problems in the past and it has been my biggest issue in growing and so I've been trying different methods of mitigating this risk. My damping off problems in the past have been in the seedling stage while growing in peat pellets. It is possible that some plants that had looked fine (but were in fact colonized by pythium) were transplanted into the NFT. My damping off problems in the past exhibited leaves blackening from the tips, from the bottom of the plant and working their way up. This problem is brown lesions forming from the middle of the leaf, from the top of the plant and working its way down. Do you think its a different kind of blight? The NFT itself has well aerated water. I have an airstone in the reservoir and the water falls a good distance from the channels into the reservoir. The water is very clear and there is no smell. The plants sit in net cups so there is at least an inch of roots that are entirely in the air. I have capillary matting at the bottom of my channels, which the roots started getting stuck to--I don't know if this has some implications for damping off. Also, this has only been affecting the basil plants in the NFT system. I have kale, onion, dill, and parsley that appear to be unaffected so far. Yeah there were some nutrient deficiencies for a while when I experimented with just running water with no nutrients for a week to see if my water stayed more clear and stop smelling. Adding the Biota Max made the water very clear and stopped the smell, so it does appear to be preventing harmful bacteria growth in the water.
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Patty Bee Port St. Lucie Zone 10A
Original Author
5 years ago
Thanks for your reply and good wishes. I actually heard back from the Aerogarden people, and they say the pests are aphids...as far as I know, the critters are far too small to be aphids. Anyway, they are sending me 6 new starter pods and told me to clean and sanitize the garden before I replant. On take two I am going to set the Aerogarden in a different area of the house and hope for better results. And I thought the Aerogarden was going to be the answer to my basil problem!
carolb_w_fl_coastal_9b
5 years ago
FWIW, aphids start out very, very small, just like most offspring. They can also bear live young, as well as reproducing asexually.

http://entnemdept.ufl.edu/creatures/veg/aphid/green_peach_aphid.htm

My first thought was aphids as well, they look like that and do exactly that kind of damage when feeding on new growing tips of plants.

Insecticidal soap spray can take care of them, I believe.

I often just pinch off the infested parts and dispose of, which encourages branching.
Patty Bee Port St. Lucie Zone 10A thanked carolb_w_fl_coastal_9b
Florida_Joe's_Z10a
5 years ago
I've seen this on several plants around my yard lately especially pentas. I thought maybe it was due to soil moisture being so uneven because I checked the soil around the plants and they all seemed to have in common really dry soil around the center of the plant and moist soil further away from the center.

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