How to get rid of powdery mildew?

[Kstornado11]

We've had a very wet & cool spring & summer,and the powdery mildew is all over my squash,watermelon,pumpkins,etc. I've been using the baking soda remedy,but doesn't seem to be working. Anyone have any other ideas? This is the first time I've grown these plants,sure would hate to lose them!!

[Lilandra]

take note of the varieties you planted and don't plant them again - look for mildew resistant varieties.

if you make a trip into town - check out the garden isle, there is stuff to treat it .. look for a fungicide, something with sulfur or other organic stuffs.

sorry you are loosing your plants, its been a hard growing season for everyone

[Kstornado11]

Thanks,problem is,our local farm stores' shlves are nearly EMPTY, not sure what the heck is going on! Same w/ the Wal MArt gardening center!! I've been doing some googling,& saw something about hydrogen peroxide,couldn't find an exact recipe however. More rain is forcasted for tomorrow,and we just had about 2-3 inches yesterday!

[Kstornado11]

Thanks,but we don't have any fans,and it would take several more extension cords to get electricity to them. I've never watered that garden,no need to w/ all the flooding rains. They aren't overcrowded,but being in the middle of thick woods,at the bottom of the valley,not much wind gets thru.

[chickenista]

You can try a strong compost tea. The compost has microbes that eat the fungus.
2 aspirins in a quart of water and spray.
Hydrogen peroxide spray
Fungus Fighter..
1/2 cp molasses
1/2 cp powdered milk
1tps baking soda
Mix and dry into a paste in an old sock and steep.
1 gal. water and spray.

Milk spray.. 9 to 1 ratio

Keep the leaves as wet as possible during the day. If there is any way to hook up a mister until the mildew has gone?
It like hot and humid weather, but hates moisture and wetness.

[Harry Chickpea]

Once it is strongly visible, I've found it mostly is a lost cause. Squash bugs spread it and weaken the plants, making them more susceptible. Walking in among the squash and not being careful to avoid the stems stresses them as well. There is a copper fungicide and there are some oils, but you might just as well try a dilute mixture of Murphy's Oil Soap. It does leave a little bit of a film, and can kill a few bugs.

What I do in the spring, when the plants are about six inches tall, is give them a one-time spraying of sevin. All totaled it might take an ounce for the entire crop before any pollinators arrive. That gives them early protection from borers and squash bugs. After that, all I use is detergent, and I try to quickly remove any diseased plants and leaves. Last year it was a race at the end of the season, with the plants just finishing growing the squash and pumpkins as the squash bugs and mildew were taking over.

Gardening is a continuing education course.

[culpeper]

Chamomile tea is a specific for powdery mildew. Just spray it on.

Pour 1 litre of boiling water over 2 firmly packed cups of fresh chamomile flowers (or 1 cup dried), leave to cool. Strain, use within a few days.

Ditto Garlic Spray:

Soak 1/2 cup crushed garlic cloves in 1/2 cup vegetable oil for one week. Add a little liquid soap and dilute the mixture - 1 part mixture to 10 parts water. Garlic spay will kill and repel aphids, woolly aphids, bean fly, stink bugs, crickets, grasshoppers, red spider mite, sawfly larvae, scale, snails, slugs, thrips and caterpillars, mosquitoes and ticks, the adult moths of leaf-miners and mealy bugs. It is an effective fungicide when used 3-4 times a week against potato blight and damping off.
OR
Crush 100g garlic, 2 chillies and 2 onions and cover with water for 24 hours. Strain and add enough water to make up 2 litres.

[VT Chicklit]

I am not sure what baking soda recipe you are trying> I have found this one to be pretty effective: 4 tbs baking soda
4 tbs murphys oil soap
1 gal warm water

Mix ingredients together and put into a hand held sprayer. Apply liberally. If the area is too large for a hand held sprayer, you will need to double or tripple the first two ingredients and put them in a hose end sprayer and fill the sprayer with water to get to the line for either 2 or 3 gallons (depending on if you doubled or trippled the first 2 ingredients). Hook up to your hose and spray the foliage until the sprayer is empty.

[Kstornado11]

Thanks for all the tips! Going to try some or all of them tomorrow & onwards,after the rain is done (I hope). They are calling for more rain tonight & tomorrow,so no point in trying today,as it rained this morning as well! The baking soda was keeping it at bay,but it just KEEPS raining!! There are actually NO bugs hardly at all in the garden, the baby chicks follow me into the garden,walk under all the leaves & eat 'em up! In our other garden,across the creek & on the other side of the woods we were ovverun w/ squash bugs,finally resorted to sevin,which upset me because I didn't want to use chemicals if I could avoid it.
All I have in this garden is butterflies and a BUNCH of big ol' bumblebees & even a few honeybees that love all the pumpkin & squash flowers. The baking soda & dish soap seemed to be keeping the bad bugs away,but I was careful to try to avoid the flowers. Looks like I wasn't using enough baking soda,to begin with!!I have been really surprised to never find any squash bugs in it,as they were terrible in the other,which is too far away for the poultry to get to.
I guess all I can do is pray for hot dry weather,which seems reallly odd to me,as it's the weather I DESTEST!! My luck,& August will bring a draught!

[Danaus29]

Easiest, cheapest, and simplest; 1/4 cup milk, add one gallon water, pour or spray on affected plants. It works very well, I have used it myself many times.

[Nancy]

is that powdered or fluid milk?

[Honorine]

Use the full fat liquid milk, works for mildew on roses too.

[Danaus29]

Yes, liquid milk. I usually use 2% because that's what we drink.

[PulpFaction]

So just over the last week or two the powderey mildew has reared its ugly head in my greenhouse. What I was wondering, could it look like anything else? My basil took a turn for the worse at the same time so I was curious if it could be related. On the basil, instead of the obvious mildew, i'm getting yellowing and brown spots.

Seems like an overall lack of circulation in the greenhouse is probably causing most of my issues, but I was just curious.

I'm going to try the milk thing first, but will probably end up tossing a lot of the squash.