Basil News

A Plant Breeding Breakthrough: Downy Mildew Resistant Sweet Basil (Growing Produce, 2020)

‘These plants are vigorous. You can cut and harvest the leaves many times over many months. They were developed and bred using traditional breeding, including the crossbreeding of thousands of plants. These varieties are not GMO. There’s no genetic engineering at all – just-good old-fashioned creative plant breeding.’ – James E. Simon

Photo: Rutgers Obsession DMR sweet basil, which is highly resistant to downy mildew disease. Photo credit: Andy Wyenandt/Rutgers University-New Brunswick

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• Breeding for Basil Downy Mildew Resistance (Plant & Pest Advisory, 2013)
• What’s in Season from the Garden State: The Basil Battle – New Cultivars on the Horizon to Beat Downy Mildew (SEBS & NJAES Newsroom, 2015)
• Rutgers Scientists Develop New Varieties of Sweet Basil (Rutgers Today, 2018)
• New basil seed varieties promise downy mildew resistance (Van Drunen Farms, 2019)
• “We already have basil varieties resistant to mildew” (CN Seeds, 2019)
• Four New Rutgers Sweet Basil Varieties Are Available to Home Gardeners (Rutgers Today, 2019)
• Options for controlling basil downy mildew in field (Morning Ag Clips, 2020)
• Controlling basil downy mildew in the greenhouse (Horti Daily, 2020)
• Downy mildew resistant sweet basils available around the world (Horti Daily, 2020)
• New and Notable Plants for 2020 (Old Farmer’s Almanac, 2020)
• “We are at the forefront in herbs, baby leaf salad and microgreens” (CN Seeds, 2020)
• Basil Downy Mildew Resistant Variety Trials – Common Plant Diseases in the Landscape and Garden (YouTube, 2020)
• Growers have more options when trying to manage basil downy mildew (The IR-4 Project, 2020)