Basil with Fusarium Wilt?

[Villemus]

Hi all,

I was wondering if you can help me diagnose my Basil? I'm a relatively new gardener, and confined entirely to pot plants due to living in an apartment.

From what I can google, it may be some type of Fusarium Wilt, which I am told is a bacteria and I should eradicate it immediately and sterilise my pots.

I've isolated him in a separate pot for the moment until I can get a diagnosis. Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks

 

[DirtMechanic]

Firstly fusarium is a fungus not a bacteria nor virus, both of which primarily arrive in a plant via insect bites. Secondly, the fusarium virus is in the soil, and makes a breakthrough into the plant via roots, and usually moves up the plant showing in the stem first. Are you planting in super rich soil or pure manure compost or something super rich? It looks dark and heavy. Normally in pots one uses potting soil. There are multiple reasons. Aeration and drainage are two that impact fungal attack.

 

[Villemus]

Hi DirtMechanic,

The soil was just Osmocote “Herb and Veg” pre-prepared soil purchased from Bunnings. The basil was also purchased from Bunnings. When I purchased it, it had one spot on one of the leaves, so I cut that stem to hopefully stop it spreading, but it had continued and spread into all the other leaves as you could see in the photo. In the end, I returned the plant to Bunnings in hope of replacing it with another Basil plant, but they had run out of stock, so I replaced it with a Rosemary.
Would you recommend a different soil for the rosemary?
Thanks

 

[oneeye]

If i may respond, I can say the problem is you are growing your little plants in too big of containers. The result is, the soil stays too wet in the middle of the container and the roots can't get enough oxygen. Your soil Osmocote "herb and veg" is fine and a good soil, however too much soil in a large container will never dry properly giving the result you have now. If you start with smaller containers you can better manage your watering and nutrient intake much easier .

 

[oneeye]

These two cuttings were started at the same time with the same soil, water, the only difference is the size of the water volume. The large pot gets watered about every 14 days and the little one gets water every 4 days. The little container has maintained more rigorous root growth because of the excess exposure to oxygen. The big one, would have been easy to over-water because of the pot size, if I would have watered the same as the little one. Bigger pots doesn't help little plants grow bigger. Bigger pots help fungus and mold grow and restricts root growth. Start small and wait until the roots fills up the containers before transplanting.

 

[oneeye]

Using smaller containers with basil is the key to better water management. This basil plant only received 75 ml of water 3 times in 17 days.

 

[oneeye]

After little time passes the watering frequency has increased to needing water every 3 days instead of once a week. So I will increase the water volume by up-potting into a next size larger container which is a gallon container. The first two photos are 4 inch pot, uppotted to a gallon the other 2 photos, are a gallon. This basil is stinking quiet well, with the strong smell of basil. With this transplant I will top the basil to start the branching from the lower nodes.

 

[oneeye]

I only watered the new gallon transplants one time In 7 days lightly around the edges leaving the center dry, plus the basil plant I topped last Saturday is responding well to removing the tip. Here's some photos of topped and not topped of different plants. Now that they are actively growing in vegetative stage and out of seedling stage the plants will grow faster and gain a lot of weight. They should double in weight and size in 10 days with the proper lighting.

 

[jayb0g]

How do you know if a basil plant has Fusarium Wilt? I recently bought a basil plant, and it almost immediately began to wilt. I thought it might be Fusarium Wilt, but I tried putting it outside in direct sunlight during the day. It's perking up, looking healthier over time. Even when I can't put it outside because of cool or wet weather, it hasn't worsened. I wonder if the issue was overwatering or low temperature.

 

[oneeye]

Basil needs a lot of light to thrive, I give mine 14 hrs of artificial light.The disease is introduced into fields, hydroponic systems, and greenhouse culture primarily through contaminated seed. Growers should only buy basil seeds that has been tested for the Fusarium wilt fungus.
There are Three “Genovese-type” sweet basils resistant to Fusarium wilt: ‘Nufar’, ‘Aroma 1’, and ‘Aroma 2’. While these cultivars are resistant to Fusarium wilt, they are highly susceptible to basil downy mildew, another devastating basil disease. One way to know if you if have Fusarium Wilt is the plant will not improve after receiving the right amount of light and water, and the stems turn yellow..

 

[oneeye]

Fusarium Wilt will start on one side of the plant and work its way up eventually taking the whole plant. The kill will be very fast usually within a week after the start of it. There's nothing you can do at that point, and that's why it's so much of a problem. When you start over, switch seed type if you are indoors, and if you are outdoors also switch the seed and change the location and plant new .Genovese-type” basil seed.

 

[oneeye]

A week later the plant has outgrown its spot and is hitting the light. The light fixture is a 130 watt fluorescent light set on a timer.

 

[oneeye]

So in order to keep the plants growing under this light, I will have to prune and harvest a few cuttings.

 

[oneeye]

I only use on RO water for all my cuttings. In the last photo I have a original small container with basil which has to be water everyday. While the gallon transplants need water every 4 to 7 days. The key to good plant health is water management with wet to dry cycles. I have not used any fertilizer with this grow, and will not use any until the ppm drops enough to need some.

I have a nice bag of fresh basil that has a very strong smell, and I will use this up quickly. The commercial growers have ran into problems growing this plant because Fusarium Wilt. Many growers have given up trying, because of the contaminated growing areas will keep reinfecting the new plants. If you go to Vietnamese restaurants for a chicken soup and they don't have basil that's why.

 

[oneeye]

The Ficus benjamina in the photo above is filling in nicely after their transplanting in slightly larger containers. A little over a month and 1/2 the plants have started ramping up leaf production. After every watering, as the plants soil dries, the plants put out a flush of leaves. The drying cycle is most important since that is when leaf production is ramped up the most. If I kept my soil just a little too wet the leaf production would be much less. So drying out the soil is of the utmost importance with this type of plant.