Whats wrong with my squash?

[sparkles2307]

Only a few of the 110 plants have this... but they are the bigger plants and it makes me mad! What can I do about it, and what is it!?

 

[lesa]

Looks like powdery mildew... The curse of squash and pumpkins!! I use a solution of 1 part milk, 10 parts water, a dash of soap, and a little veggie oil. Shake it up and spray on the leaves early in the morning. Not in the hot afternoon sun. Use every few days... I keep my bottle in the fridge, ready to go. One recommendation is to remove the affected leaves. I think I would do that with the really white leaf in your photo. This does not necessarily mean you won't have squash. Good luck!

 

[vfem]

I'm pretty sure its powdery mildew too. Definitely remove the infected.

 

[sparkles2307]

Thanks! I will whip up that solution tonight!

 

[Whitewater]

The milk and water combo works wonders, I had a bit of powdery mildew last season (and probably will again this season) on my zukes and the milk took care of it. Had to get rid of the affected leaves, though, even though I didn't get any *new* ones. The plant looked pretty bald for a while!

I also put down crushed egg shells and that seemed to help too.

In case you're wondering, the production of my mildewed plant kept right up with the others, so I must have gotten it early or it wasn't as bad as I thought it was!


Whitewater

 

[hoodat]

Neem oil does a great job on powdery mildew but the milk treatment is a lot cheaper and will not harm your predators or pollinators like bees and wasps.

 

[sparkles2307]

Well I got home to a huge T-Storm so wasnt able to spray the plants last night. And it was raining this morning too.... so I guess I will have to be armed and ready the second it stops cause it looks like with all the rain EVERYONE will have this stuff on them!!!

 

[wifezilla]

Can you use cream instead of milk? I never buy milk but I always have cream in stock.

 

[boggybranch]

Holy Cow.....110 squash plants. You must either have a VERY large freezer or a huge family.

 

[sparkles2307]

No, its just the 4 of us, but I planted Summer Crookneck, Zuchinni, and 2 acorn varieties. We ran out of acorn really early last winter so I doubled up on that one cause the kids are sad about not having it all the time.