Mildew is shortening my harvest

[Sunsaver]

Do you just sprinkle the baking soda on the leaves, or do you mix it with water & spray it, or....?

I'm going to make a spray of this and give it a try on my watermelon and cantaloupe that is going downhill following my cukes!!!! I've heard this, but never tried it!

I mix it with water and use cheap or recycled hand spray bottles. It has been known to clog up the nozzle on my expensive pump sprayer. Sodium bicarbonate seems to be an effective fungicide, but care should be taken around acid loving plants such as blueberry, because baking soda can sweeten the soil. You might try wettable sulfer powder with weak soap solution in water for roses, blueberry, azalea, etc.

 

[hoodat]

Unfortunately I've found that very little does any good in this area when mildew strikes. We get the ocean effect at night which raises the night time humidity. Once mildew starts it's just a matter of time till the affected plant gives up. I just enjoy the harvest while it lasts. The mildew seems to need a combination of high night time humidity coupled with relatively high temperatures in the daytime. It always hits us in mid to late Summer. Fortunately it seems to favor older plants. New plants seem to get by for quite a while before it gets them.
HMM. I wonder if I'll start to mildew now that I'm getting along in years? :/

 

[thistlebloom]

Maybe you'll need more baking soda baths?

 

[Rhodie Ranch]

Skeeter: I've got some mildew on some of my roses too. Esp the ones that are partly shaded by the native oaks. Weird, huh?

And we have to spray our vineyard again tomorrow. tiny tiny mildew on the petite syrah.

 

[vfem]

Maybe you'll need more baking soda baths?

 

[skeeter9]

Thistlebloom, I will have to look for that product. Haven't tried it before. Maybe it will help.

Murphys, you guys have a very dry climate, too, right? It sure doesn't make any sense to me how we can possibly get the dreaded powdery mildew in our areas?????

What do you think, Hoodat? Hoodat? Hello. . . Oh wait, he's probably in the tub with his baking soda! TeeHee.

 

[digitS']

Hoodat? I'm not Hoodat but I've already had a dip!

I'm just going to say that I believe it is stress that permits mildew to get its start.

For taking over, moisture makes it possible or ever, probable. However, bug damage, arid conditions, severe sunlight, maybe even wind - can all stress the plant and mildew can get started. If moisture then lingers on the leaves in the days after that, the mildew grabs the plant in a death embrace . . ! Yikes!

Now for a sprinkle of Johnson's Baby Powder and to bed . . . .

Steve

 

[hoodat]

Hoodat? I'm not Hoodat but I've already had a dip!

I'm just going to say that I believe it is stress that permits mildew to get its start.

For taking over, moisture makes it possible or ever, probable. However, bug damage, arid conditions, severe sunlight, maybe even wind - can all stress the plant and mildew can get started. If moisture then lingers on the leaves in the days after that, the mildew grabs the plant in a death embrace . . ! Yikes!

Now for a sprinkle of Johnson's Baby Powder and to bed . . . .

Steve

I think you hit the nail on the head. Anything that weakens a plant will allow mildew to strike. I've actually heard mildew referred to as,"The first step in composting". Nature is returning a sick or dying plant to the soil.
I usually accept mildew as part of my growing year but I didn't expect it this early.