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Lakewood, CO

Hello,
today while watering I noticed what looked like powdery mildew starting on a gourd plant which is in the patch with our pumpkings.
Can you guys help remind me what to do to try and kill powdery mildew?
somebody suggested water mixed with milk sprayed on the plants, but I can't recall the ratio. Anything else?

Last year we just grew regular pumpkins and by September they had been attached and killed by this "ugly thing". The fungicide reccomended by the local nursery did not help, or maybe we caught it too late...
Please help.
Thank you

7/16/2008 8:51:01 PM

Buffalo, new York, USA

1 part milk 10 parts water.

7/16/2008 8:56:59 PM

Wallingford,CT

10% is not enough...see Matt DeBaccos's research at www.team-pumpkin.org which was presented on a poster at Niagara this past March.

7/16/2008 9:00:11 PM

Connecticut

Milk is effective against powdery mildew and this week started the milk sprays since conditions are favorable for the disease to begin to develop.

I have heard many people use 10% milk and while this may be effective from the research data that I have seen the results are highly variable at this dilution rate. I would suggest a higher dilution rate of 40% (this is what I use) for more consistent results. Think about it to, if you apply your spray in the early morning there is still dew on the leaves so this is also diluting your final mixture even more. If you only start with 10% and you dilute that down, what are you really applying? Also, at 40% I did not see and photo-toxicity (leaf damage) to any of my plants.

You can also check out this earlier post... http://www.bigpumpkins.com/MsgBoard/ViewThread.asp?b=6&p=252712

I would recommend you check out the details and results for yourself at www.Team-Pumpkin.org go to the section labeled 'Milk'.

Best of luck this year!

7/16/2008 9:24:38 PM

Lakewood, CO

Thanks you all. I see from the research paper at team-pumpking that the best results actually seem to come from the use of Fungicide. But which one, which brand?

We really appreciate the help and knowledge of this board.

Mildred

7/16/2008 10:36:36 PM

Farmville, Virginia (mfowler@hsc.edu)

Daconil is a good one but...if possible try to rotate between 2 or 3 different brands. Same with insecticides.

7/17/2008 11:16:47 AM

Picton,ON (j.vincent@xplornet.ca)

The milk thing works by lowering the pH on the leaf surface, which prevents the spores from germinating in the first place. Once you have the infection it is not likely the milk will kill the fungus. A very good fungicide in the US is called Eagle. I'm not sure if you need a pesticide licence in your state to aquire. Daconil is an older chemical and is still useful in preventing and controling low levels of infection. I would recomend Eagle if you can get it.

7/17/2008 1:47:03 PM

Simi valley, ca

My first spray of season starts with immunox pluss ,From home depot, spray at lower than recomended levels as it isnt that good for the leaves eather , spray in evening, Hit all sides top bottom of leaves!

7/18/2008 8:40:04 PM