Sunday, August 30, 2015

Powdery mildew getting your gourd? Spray this!

 Our pumpkins were growing beautifully. Then, Ever so slowly, these little snow flake freckles started to take over. 
powdery mildew! 
This mildew covers the leaf, disabling the leaf's ability to photosynthesize. 

First step? 

I donned gloves, a gown and goggles and sprayed her down with toxic chemicals, allowing the excess to run down past the slip and slide, down the drain, and into the mighty Mississippi and then showered and neti potted to rid my body of any hitch hiking horribles. 
Or not. 
Rather, I removed the affected leaves.  See here  that I had let this go way too far. To the right is the start of the plant and some beautiful yellow blossoms.  To the left is the finger tip of the vine. In between is the long area of leaves I had to remove. I am aware this in itself may kill the plant, but the mildew was doing a pretty good job of that already, so I figured I might as well give it my best attempt. 
Next I filled a spray bottle: 40% good ole cow milk, 60% water
And I sprayed! 
According to my research the application lasts ten days. I had only about a cup of the solution but still used only half. I decided that I would put the rest in the refrigerator.  (It doesn't matter if the milk sours a bit). But, Moo came over asking to use up the rest so these leaves were given quite the drenching! 

I will let you know how the plant fares. 

Now for you, what was your natural solution to a household plant/gardening kerfluffle?

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