goodbye basil

I had bought a basil mix from Bunnings a few weeks ago, one that contained green and purple Thai basil as well as the "normal" basil (sweet basil). They were growing really well, I had made some nice pestos with it, and then I learnt that it's best to separate out the basil stems since there were probably four bunches of 10 plants/individual main stems clumped together in the pot. I didn't take the care to wear small gloves to separate them out delicately though, meaning there was soil everywhere and it was all a bit of a mess. The plants were separated though, so I thought it was fine. 

Fast forward a few weeks later and there seems to be downey mildew on the basil leaves, causing them to eventually fall off. This pathogen was probably in the soil and splashed up and stayed on the leaves, causing the mildew to spread. Google says to remove the plant and start again, since fungal sprays probably won't work well. 

I've got to be more careful next time when handling muddy soil: a stitch in time saves nine.