Now what? Powdery Mildew?

Yep, it's true, I come back from vacation to find that powdery mildew has set in. Blame it on the heavy, late afternoon rains we've been having. Gotta love the South! So, as is my way, I hit the all knowing Internet to see what I can find. I found two things that interested me: baking soda and milk.

I found more on the baking soda, so I went with that. It seems that the baking soda messes with the PH on the leaves surface and the spores are not able to reproduce. I have yet to see if it will kill the spores as one site said. The best info I found at The National Sustainable Agriculture Information Service. Here is a link to the info on the milk at Associated Content, it may be worth a try and I probably will.

Woo hoo! now I can provide my own shots of what this stuff looks like. I wish it were not a disease. :(


What I did:

1. Cut off all infected leaves.
   
2. Created, as best as possible, dry ground under and around plants.
   
3. Sprayed with baking soda solution.
   
4. Hoped for a sunny day to keep drying things up.
   

Tonight the plants already looked better. I sprayed again with the solution and will prune any remaining diseased leaves tomorrow. I think because I am in the South and humidity is an issue that in the future I will keep leaves trimmed back as the plant grows. Also, these squash are bush and perhaps vines will allow for better air circulation. Ah yea, the learning curve.
I do have a good bit of ripening fruit. I am looking forward to regular squash for a few weeks. We will see if I enough to have to freeze. Only time will tell.

Here's another shot I took of a couple of my ripening tomatoes. It's not all bad.