Simsbury’s certified organic farm will serve as a summer test bed to the University of Connecticut for its research into an organic repellant against a disease that harms basil plants.
Joan Allen, a board member of the Community Farm of Simsbury and an agriculture-cooperative researcher for the university, will lead the study into combatting basil downy mildew, the farm announced Monday. Anne Patrie, the farm’s garden manager, also will participate in the project.Â
Plots will be located at the farm at 73 Wolcott Road, and at UConn’s Plant Science Research Farm in Storrs.
Basil downy mildew is a disease new to the U.S., first confirmed in Florida in 2007, said farm Executive Director Timothy Goodwin. Since 2008, it has occurred on basil throughout the northeast. Â
Unspecified project funding to UConn is from the Northeast Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE).
In 2010, the Simsbury farm, through its student agriculture training program, donated more than 2 ¼ tons of organic produce to needy families.Â
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