Star shaped spots on Basils

[kurt]

Got these splatter star shaped brown with black(almost sharpy pen outlined)spots on my columnar basils.Almost if you threw some paint drops on them.Wife calls them "splats"No topwater,no flying insects and no crawlers as of yet.

[kilroyscarnival]

I got a lot of brown spotting on my sweet basil suddenly. Think it overgrew a little then got hit with a little water during the day, which burned them when the droplets concentrated the sunlight in those spots. I also have to do some cutting back. Kinda wish I had planted them in a little less direct Florida sun.

[Redbaron]

2 years ago almost all our basil in Oklahoma was killed by a blight of some kind. Sounds very like what you describe in stage 1. Then it gets on the stems and turns them black. You couldn't even buy Basil in the grocery or seedlings either. Luckily I grow my own or we wouldn't have had any fresh basil at all. First year I grew it from seed too. Before that I always used to just buy 1 or 2 basil seedlings from the nursery. Needless to say I was popular with the neighbors that year.

Wish I could tell you a tip on how to get rid of the disease, but I have no idea. Some plants it killed, some it stunted, and some pulled through naturally and grew fine. No rhyme nor reason as to why. The only thing I saw was that possibly dryer roots helps as the dry parts of my garden the basil was likely to do better.

Can you post photos? It's hard to vision without. I grow Greek Columnar Basil exclusively and have never seen that.

[kurt]

Next time it shows up I will.I have been removing the leaves as it shows up.Will try to get nephew(computer expert)to photo and do the download/upload attach biz.I am old school and don't have the skills and equipment yet.

[kurt]

As promised,might not be the best but should get idea. Third one is flipped leaf no thru lesion.

[ChrisK]

Found this searching google images. Someone claims there is a little critter inside. It does look like blotch leaf miner damage.

http://davesgarden.com/community/for.../#post_4852333

see also:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/scottzona/6094130642/

http://www.floridakeyslandscapeadvis...ng-anyone.html

[kurt]

Thank You ChrisK,the Greek Columnars are not rare they just don't bolt that often to produce seeds.I brought them inside to stop the life cycle of the winged critter.All you can really do is pick off leaves so they will not reproduce and find the little creeps out in the pool enclosed area and send him on his/her way.

[cythaenopsis]

Speaking of basil afflictions, mine got hit rather badly by one. I think it was an aphid infestation. Aphids are typically light green but these buggers were brownish, camping out all over the stems and leaf undersides. I just didn't notice the creeping infestation, because the main stem had started to become a bit woody. What caught my attention was the sticky goop covering the plant. The top most leaves didn't have this, but the rest of them did. Nasty, sticky stuff all over, as if someone had sprayed the plant with sugar water. I got out the magnifier and had a look... hopeless. Had to toss the whole plant.

What really got me is that this plant was outdoors only briefly for a couple of weeks during the summer. It had been inside for over two months before I'd noticed something peculiar happening--a black curling of leaf edges. I just thought it might be sun scald, as it wasn't happening to mature leaves.

Anyway, thankfully basil is cheap and I'll just pick up another plant. But wow... next time I'm keeping a better eye on this. I've no idea where these aphids came from. None of my other plants have any aphids on them.