EP#21:
You may have noticed a powdery-white stuff on your plants. It's very possible that it is powdery mildew! In this episode I'll show you how to stop it in your garden, and how to prevent it from getting started.
Powdery mildew is easy to identify. But do you know what it looks like in the early stage? On cucurbits, like cucumber vines, it starts out with yellow spots. Just like anything, it’s best to catch it early!
Regardless of what you use for treatment, the first thing you should always do for any infected plant from disease or pest is remove the worst infected leaves and dispose of them. That’s my pest and disease control 101 practice.
This is important, so I’m going to say this again: Remove the most infected leaves, branches or vines and dispose of them. Don’t waist your sprays on the portions of the plants that are HOPELESSLY INFECTED.
The second thing, we use your spray treatment of choice on both the bottom and tops of the leaves.
I use to use Neem oil for this, and here’s why I very rarely use Neem: Neem oil can put added stress on the plant while it’s already being stressed from this fungal attack.
One of my favorite things to use that will actually boost the plant’s immunity as you use it is a diluted milk spray. Just be aware that it may smell bad as the milk spoils. For a preventative you can use a dilution rate of 9 parts water to 1 part milk. And for a full-on infection, use 2/3 water to milk.
If you don’t want to use milk, here’s an excellent treatment that MT FRIENDS AT Tree Amigo Growers sells. It’s Cease and Milstop, which you mix together. For preventative they use 1 TBSP of each per gallon of water and for the full treatment, 2 TBSP’s. I normally only need a half gallon at a time, so ½ TBSP for prevention or 2 for a full treatment.
Another thing that works AT LEAST FOR A PREVENTATIVE MEASURE is the baking soda treatment. Because baking soda is acidic it brings the leaves to an acidic pH level that stops the mildew from spreading. The mildew needs a moderate pH environment, and baking soda brings it out of that range.
The problem is that you need something to make it stick to the leaves. So for one gallon of water you’ll need 2 TBSP of baking soda, 3 drops of dish soap and 3 TBSP of vegetable oil. The oil helps the mix to stick to the leaves. The dish soap is the emulsifier. We know that oil and water do not mix. So the dish soap helps with that. Don’t use anymore dish soap than the 3 drops because anymore than that can mess with the leave’s natural defense system.
There are other treatments, but these are the 3 I recommend.
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