Author Topic: Treating Blight with Milk  (Read 6689 times)

boldielocks

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Treating Blight with Milk
« on: June 13, 2009, 11:54:24 »
I was told that using 1 part full fat milk to 10 parts of water is a defence against blight. Anyone heard of this before.
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ceres

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Re: Treating Blight with Milk
« Reply #1 on: June 13, 2009, 11:59:19 »
Not blight.  Heard of it being used for mildew on cucurbitae and I seem to remember reading about a National Trust garden using it for mildew on roses.  If you search on here, you'll find threads about it for mildew.

boldielocks

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Re: Treating Blight with Milk
« Reply #2 on: June 13, 2009, 12:03:44 »
I've googled it and only got a few results. Not sure to try this or buy a proven method of defence.
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Tee Gee

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Re: Treating Blight with Milk
« Reply #3 on: June 13, 2009, 15:58:53 »
Quote
I was told that using 1 part full fat milk to 10 parts of water is a defence against blight.

I get the feeling it might do the opposite ! i.e. the blight spores will have a tacky surface to adhere to wheras with untreated dry leaves there is the possibility they might blow off.

Personally I avoid watering potatoes simply because this raises the humidity in the area of the plants, as high humidity and blight go hand in hand, I go the prevention rather than cure route.

I find the farmyard manure I have dug in prior to planting is a big enough reservoir of moisture to develop the tubers.

So much so I have dug up farm yard manure at harvest time that is as hard as a booard because the plants have extracted every bit of moisture available.

But it may be a case of the old adage coming into play; nothing ventured nothing gained

So it might be worth a try! but not for me for the reasons described above!

realfood

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Re: Treating Blight with Milk
« Reply #4 on: June 13, 2009, 18:33:18 »
It was suggested last year by someone on this board. I do not know if it works or not. An experiment would be required.
Full fat milk and water used to be used as a "shine" to ornamental fig tree leaves. Could it be that when the milk and water has dried, that it acts as a shiny barrier and helps to prevent the blight spores gaining a hold and just fall to the ground?
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Kepouros

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Re: Treating Blight with Milk
« Reply #5 on: June 14, 2009, 00:06:51 »
The dilute milk is, in fact, one of the organic remedies for plant mildews, along with baking soda solutions, and dilute human urine (4-1 ratio).  Plant mildews live and spread on the surfaces of the plants (leaves stems, flowers etc), and while none of these remedies actually kills of the infection completely, all will act as controls which reduce the severity of the attack and delay the spread.  However, they do not in fact produce any form of protective barrier.

Potato and tomato blights are entirely different type of fungi, in that the spores, having landed on the plant, immediately penetrate the surface and take up residence inside the plant where they cannot be attacked by any form of control other than systemic ones (of which there are none for blight).

The present protective treatments for blight are purely prophylactic in that they must be present before the blight spores arrive, they do not form a barrier to penetration, but work by killing or neutralising  the blight spores which land on them, and they are usually effective only until the next shower of rain washes them  off or dilutes them.

  I doubt if dilute milk would have any effect whatever in protecting against potato or tomato blight, although in a really wet summer I doubt whether any of the methods available to amateurs have much effect anyway, and adoption of proper post infection procedures is of more value.

As to realfood`s suggestion, his treatment was many years ago the staple treatment for the Aspidistra, the rubber plant, the `swiss cheese` plant etc, but that was in the days when full cream milk came with an inch of rich yellow cream on the top which could be scooped off and whipped, or poured over the tinned peaches on Sundays, but I haven`t seen milk like that for very many years, and half of you probably won`t even know what I`m talking about.

PurpleHeather

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Re: Treating Blight with Milk
« Reply #6 on: June 14, 2009, 07:45:39 »
Gosh proper milk. The jersey milk still has a bit of a 'head' on it. It was the old 'gold top'. The only advantage of cream free milk is that it can be kept in the freezer.

Interesting read, good bacteria verses bad bacteria principle perhaps, using it as a blight cure.  Surely, as it would be such a low cost simple cure, if it worked, every grower would have use it and blight would no longer be a problem anywhere.

There are some jokers who start rumours about 'cures' just to see who is daft enough to do it. By the time these rumours have done the chinese whisper tour they become certain tried and tested formulas. Especially if, after doing the daft deed, the grower gets good results (which they would have got anyway but do not realise it).






 


Digeroo

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Re: Treating Blight with Milk
« Reply #7 on: June 14, 2009, 12:55:04 »
I heard last year that Aloe Vera would help with blight on tomatoes.  It did -  those that had been treated lasted about a week longer than the rest.  I might try yoghourt it works for human fungal infections.

 

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