Topic: Powdery Mildew

[Ragdoll Lady]

My lemon cucumbers and courgettes have sucumbed to powdery mildew. I have read that spraying with 50% skimmed milk and 50% water will help solve the problem. Does this work? and if so why do the plants get this mildew anyway.?

[antipodes]

Oh I was afraid to read that. This is my first year growing cucumbers and I suspect they have a touch of it. I took off the affected leaves but no doubt it is contagious. I sprayed once with Bordeaux Mixture, I would like to spray again but it keeps raining here :(
Does this mean that the whole plant will die off? It is just setting fruit, I will be so disappointed if they all die.

[Bugloss2009]

you could try a bicarb of soda solution, but you need to add a wetting agent like washing up liquid to get it to work at all.  It helps a bit, but it does damage the leaves to some extent also.

[lillian]

My lemon cucumbers and courgettes have sucumbed to powdery mildew. I have read that spraying with 50% skimmed milk and 50% water will help solve the problem. Does this work? and if so why do the plants get this mildew anyway.?

I thought I heard on gardener question time that it was full fat milk and water. Something to do with the fatty acids in the milk.

[davyw1]

The recipies are
1 Tablespoon of Bicarb
1/2 tea spoon washing up liquid
To 1 Gallon of clean water

3 Parts skimmed milk to 9 parts clean water BUT do not go over the top with the measures on this as the milk can atract other fungal spores.
Skimmed mils as it contain more fat.

You spray once a week, do not think that these meathods cure the problem they dont. They just control the spores from spreading.

[antipodes]

DOesn't solve my problem of it raining so spray just washes off!!!
Is BM no good for it then? I have been spraying the melons which are under cover and they don't seem to have it.

[Old bird]

I use baking powder in water - this is inside my polytunnel - it certainly stops it spreading and the leaves that were bad are not improved but the new leaves are completely clear and there is no sign of the mildew on them.

I am not sure whether bicarb and baking powder are the same thing but I use random measurements and tip probably a couple of teaspoons into 1.5 litre sprayer.

Good luck with yours!

O B

[davyw1]

DOesn't solve my problem of it raining so spray just washes off!!!
Is BM no good for it then? I have been spraying the melons which are under cover and they don't seem to have it.

I dont know what is in BM but any Sulpher or Copper based fungerside or garlic spray will do, but again it only controls the spreading of the spores.
Powdery mildew is not a fatel disease but it strees the plants. Just hope it stops raining for you soon.

[antipodes]

Well, no rain since yesterday morning, I dashed down last night, took off as many of the affected leaves as I could and soaked the cucumbers and other squashes in a diluted milk mix! This was recommended to me by the farmer that does our organic veg boxes. He says it works on spuds too against blight! he also told me to use Bordeaux mixture very sparingly as worms and other soil creatures don't like the copper. Maybe the old rememdy of a copper wire through the stems was what I should have done...
 I am not too worried about the pumpkins as the older leaves tend to die off anyway But I do want to get some cucumbers! My first one is now about 25 cm long but not fat enough yet! I tucked the melons back under their fleece, they seem to be completely healthy so far.
I will tell you if that seems to slow the progression.