However, the fun of caring for your garden can turn into a nightmare when you found out that you're not the first one who get a taste of your greens. I'm talking about basil in particular here. Here goes a few things that I've encountered during my first planting trial:
1. Symptoms : Holes in your leaves
(hydroponic, terrace) (soil, garden)
Okay, first, I explained that those two plants are the same variety, with same age. I planted the seeds on the same day. You can see that the hydroponic one grows bigger there. I'll talk about it later. Now, the holes on that leaves..
Possible culprit (because I didn't manage to caught them in the act!) : grasshopper, beetle
How to cure it : You can't restore the damaged leaf, so either you cut the leaves of, or just let them be.
The plant will continue to grow, don't be sad.
Ways to prevent it
- I found out that plants I put on the terrace suffer less damage than the one directly planted in the garden. So, if your plants don't mind a little shade, that might be a good idea.
- Protect the plants using shading net. Use stake or structure to prevent the culprit chomp trough the net.
- Use garlic-chili spray regularly, making the leaves taste awful for them.
- Companion planting. Use grasshopper deterrent plants to protect your precious veggies.
2. Symptoms : Weird trail on the leaves
One word. Ewgh! They might not be major danger to your plants, but they are surely ugly, right?
Culprit : Leaf miner (larvae from moth or flies)
How to cure it : Just pluck of the infested leaves to prevent further infestation. Immediately.
Ways to prevent it
- check your plants on routine. Get rid of the larvae at first signs of tunneling.
- keep your plants healthy. Healthy plants, less disease
- some say to use yellow sticky traps to catch mature insects, preventing them laying eggs.
3. Symptoms : Yellowing leaves, turning to brown spots
Culprit : Downy Mildew (Fungus)
How to cure it : Fixing the planting condition is the best way to cure this.
Ways to prevent it
Fungus loves damp environment. To avoid or cure downy mildew make sure that :
- your plant receive good air circulation
- avoid watering on the leaves
- get your plant plenty of sunlight
My plant seems to recover on its own from downy mildew. Rainy season is over now, and sun is plenty, maybe that's why.
4. Other Symptoms : Gray spots to blackening leaves
Culprit : I'm not sure.. Is it signs of downy mildew? Or root rot? Or something else?
Honestly, I'm new at this so I get my guide from a lot of browsing. And many basil disease description doesn't come with pictures. So, it is easy for beginner gardener (that's me) to confuse a disease with another. If anyone have any advice I'd really appreciate it. For now, I just pluck off those infected leaves.
I found a pretty good guide in plantvillage (and a lot of google browsing) so in case you experience another problem, you can try them.
