Two years ago our garden was attacked by a powdery mildew that took over our pumpkins and spread to the rest of our plants. I wrote about it on a post in another blog called Pura Vida Culture back from September 08, Garden Chronicles: Chapter 8 Garden Warfare.
Photos taken from Fall Garden 08
In 2009 I decided to water the garden from the ground only in an attempt to keep the mildew away from the foliage of our plants. Well, it didn’t help. Our tomatoes our melons and everything in between eventually got taken over by the powdery mildew and eventually it overtook the garden. This year I am going to try something different. So far the plants are doing just fine, but I know as soon as we start harvesting their first rounds of produce they will be susceptible to the mildew. I have already seen it taking over a buddies garden down the street, so I know that in no time it will start infesting our garden as well.
I spent a little time looking up different concoctions to see what might work best for our plants and type of garden. I decided to go with a water backing soda mix.
All that you need is the following:
- 1qt of water
- 1tsp of backing soda
- 1tsp of dish soap
- 1tsp of vegetable oil
It is pretty easy to make , and there is a good chance that most of us have these ingredients already in our homes so that we do not need to run out to the market to pick anything up.
- First ad 1tsp of backing soda to 1qt of water
- then ad 1tsp of vegetable oil
- then ad 1tsp of dish soap
- Mix in blender or stir thoroughly
- put in spray bottle
After you have your mixture you can apply it the foliage on your infected plants. Spray both sides of the infected foliage. It is important to do this only on an overcast day, or at dusk so that your plants leaves do not get over heated and burned by the spay in direct sunlight.
You can spray the plants once every 3-5 days, or more if needed.
