A basil dropped back into ground where a basil crop wilted and died young tends to do the same
A basil dropped back into ground where a basil crop wilted and died young tends to do the same (growing normally to a hand's height, then stunting and suddenly collapsing), because Fusarium wilt leaves that ground infective for years.
A good hunch A person has checked it against its sources. If you skip this, it still grows, just less well. The planner suggests it.
How it works
Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. basilici is a soilborne fungus specific to basil (a different fungus from the tomato or watermelon Fusarium); once a planting is infested its resting spores persist in the soil for eight to twelve years. It usually arrives on contaminated seed and is not already present everywhere, so it is a hazard only where infected seed has been sown. Where it is, plants of the mint family carry it without showing symptoms and can hold the ground infective from one year to the next.
What to do about it
Start from seed tested clean for the fusarium fungus, or hot-water-treat your own (twenty minutes at 133-136 °F); where the disease has appeared, grow a resistant variety where one is offered and keep basil, and any standing mint, off that ground for several years. A wait alone is only partial cover, since the spores last the better part of a decade and mints can carry them.
The evidence
Evidence: checked against 1 source in the research-based literature.
The source
Once a field has become infested with the fusarium wilt pathogen, infective propagules may persist in the soil for 8-12 years. During that time, growers should avoid growing sweet basil or members of the mint family
Plants it applies to · 1
How this rule has changed
Every change is dated, newest first. The full record, with each reason, is in the data download.
- Wording made clearer
- Added to the rules
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Milpa Gardens. “A basil dropped back into ground where a basil crop wilted and died young tends to do the same (growing normally to a hand's height, then stunting and suddenly collapsing), because Fusarium wilt leaves that ground infective for years.” Evidence grade: A good hunch. https://milpa.garden/rules/basil-dropped-back-into-ground-where-basil/
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- Well established
- The rule names its mechanism and is settled, by sources a person has read and checked or by plain arithmetic and geometry.
- Promising
- The mechanism is named and the literature backs it. A few questions are still open.
- A good hunch
- Plausible by its mechanism, but field studies are thin, so treat it as a lean.
- Contested
- The evidence points both ways, or no study has tested it, so the planner does not enforce it.
- Refuted
- The claim did not survive its sources. It is kept so the folklore can be answered.