I am sorry I think I have asked this before but I can not find it :(
How do I use sodium bicarbonate to prevent american mildew.
Have never tried it outside . But I have used it in the greenhouse on powdery mildew etc .
Method was dissolve an ounce in a gallon of water and drench spray ... cheers Jim
When did you do it ? Is there a specific time of year to prevent it.
Did you try using soap as well ?
I have never used Bicarb as a preventative only when I saw very early signs, It seemed to arrest it OK . As a preventative to blight mould etc outside,I use Dithane 945. I dont know if this is suitable for gooseberries. I can't comment on the soap as the only time I ever used it was on whitefly on sprouts they seemed to enjoy the bath as it didn't shift em for long. :)
I presume you mean the soap as in a wetting agent .No I didnt try it with bicarb ...
Cheers Jim
An alternative which we use successfully is washing soda and soft soap.
Scroll down this link to locate recipe
http://www.sunningdaleallotments.org.uk/GardenRecipesV2.html (http://www.sunningdaleallotments.org.uk/GardenRecipesV2.html)
Do you use it as a treatment or preventative ?
Also what is soft soap exactly ?
davholla,
literally soap in liquid form. Used to be able to get it in chemists.
Alternative - horticultural soap which you should be able to find in garden centres.
It will function better as a preventative (we spray at the beginning of May and again 3 weeks later - though it depends on the year). It will also do a job a treatment but preventative is much better.
davholla - just remembered, old Bert on the plot next to us, uses bicarb as a (watered on) preventative for goosegog mildew
He also applies the same to his onions/shallots, to prevent downy mildew - at a guess I would say May/June time
Not sure about his onions, but his goosegogs are second-to-none on our site ;D