My basil plant has mold underneath the leaves?

I hope this is the appropriate section for this post. I apologize if it's not.

I purchased some Sweet Basil from our local Lowes store almost 2 months ago. Most of the plants I rummaged though looked poor due to their lack of care but I tried to pick out the best looking plant there. When I got it home I had noticed alot of fuzzy mold growing underneath the leaves and the lower leaves looked yellowed. I clipped off all the affected leaves and trimmed the tops off hoping to encourage it to form new growth.

So now two months later after a slow period of recovery it started to bush out pretty nicely. I decided today to trim it back a little more to encourage more growth and wanted to keep the trimmings for cooking use. However I noticed that there still appears to be a little bit of mold growing underneath the leaves even though they look healthy.

Will I still be able to use the leaves for cooking if washed or should I throw them away? I wouldn't want to make anyone ill. Is there a way to keep the mold from growing on my plant? Is it "gray mold"?

I do have a couple other Basil varieties, Blue African Basil & Spicy Globe Basil, but they do not appear to be affected by this.

 

I did find something that may explain it but I would like opinions from this board:

I do not notice any aphids or scale on my plants but what the poster had described about their problem sounds like what my plants have. I'm not able to get a good photograph of the mold substance so I am not able to show everyone what I am noticing.

 

Anyone?

I did a bit more research and it's definitely not sooty mold. The mold under the leaves almost has a fuzzy, hairy type appearance that's not very noticeable at first glance until you take a good look closely. I still have the clippings saved as I'm trying to decide if it's ok to attempt cleaning them so they can be eaten.

 

Is there mold on most of the leaves? I would not use the affected leaves for cooking, but the other leaves on the plant are probably fine to eat. It would be good to get rid of the leaves with mold on them. Did you look around for any pests on the plant, eggs under the leaves, that sort of thing? Maybe it's mildew?

 

Actually, maybe don't get rid of it yet. Lemme do some research.

 

Maybe it's white mold? Here's a good forum with a few suggestions:

http://www.aerogardengrowers.com/index.php?topic=423.0

It's also called Sclerotinia stem rot.

Here is an application that describes it and how to treat it. But it's long and crazy to read, so the most helpful pages are probably one and three. It also has some pictures.

http://web.aces.uiuc.edu/vista/pdf_pubs/1008.PDF

I hope this helps. And if it is white mold, I Definitely wouldn't eat the leaves with it on them.