![]() ![]() An Australian researcher, Peter Crisp, experimented with milk on roses and wine grapes - which get powdery mildew from different organisms. ![]() In 1999, Brazilian scientist Wagner Bettiol reported excellent control of the fungus on greenhouse-grown zucchini using fresh cow’s milk diluted with water to a 10% solution. Milk The newest organic control for powdery mildew is milk. Photo by Dmitry Brant, use under creative commons. Commercial products should have the approval of OMRI, which can be verified at Much of the advice about how to mix these sprays is from the Bio-Integral Resource Center, whose contact information is at the end of the article. Following are some of the remedies and products available for preventing powdery mildew Some of these recipes may be acceptable for organic production, but you should check with your certifying agency if in doubt. Preventative action in susceptible crops and regular scouting can prevent a catastrophic outbreak of this disease. If left unchecked, powdery mildew will cause leaves to turn yellow, die and fall off, leaving fruits and vegetables exposed to sunburn and making cut flowers unmarketable. The optimum situation for the development of the disease is cool, humid nights followed by hot, dry days. When conditions are just right, this year’s growth can be affected and the disease spreads quickly. Powdery mildew spores overwinter on perennial crops such as grapes, raspberries, strawberries and fruit trees, or in plant debris left from last year. In fact, powdery mildew spores can’t germinate or grow when foliage is wet, so overhead watering is sometimes recommended as a preventative on highly susceptible crops. Powdery mildew thrives when foliage is dry and the weather is warm wind spreads the spores to other plants. Moreover, downy mildew is a disease that appears in cool, wet conditions and is generally stopped by warm, dry, windy weather. ![]() Downy mildew develops spores only on the undersides of leaves, whereas powdery mildew will appear on both sides of leaves as well as shoots, buds and sometimes flowers. Both produce light-colored masses of spores on foliage. ![]() Identification The first thing to know about powdery mildew is that it is quite different from downy mildew, despite some similarities in appearance. Nine other species of powdery mildew fungus affect cole crops, peas, eggplant, pepper, tomato, strawberries, beans, black-eyed peas, grapes, and tree fruits.
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