Oh that pesky powdery mildew...

There has been a ton of rain this summer. Almost every day from mid-june up until now there has been rain in the afternoon. Though it's been a bit of a blessing, not having to water the garden has been lovely, it hasn't come without a price, powdery mildew. What is powdery mildew? Well if you have ever seen splotchy grey spots, that look like a power on  your plants you have encountered this not so wonderful fungal friend. Here's a link to the wiki article all about it, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Powdery_mildew. 

Now there were two main areas of the yard affected by this lovely organism, a few leaves on the pumpkin vines and virtually all of the neighbor's Virginia Creeper that had grown over the fence and was creeping up on all of the other garden beds. We do not believe in using chemical pesticides, herbicides or fungicides on our plants. If you poison the garden you poison yourself and really everyone else as well. This left a few options for controlling the outbreak. 

First I dealt with the pumpkins. Early this morning I went out with a spray bottle filled with two teaspoons of baking soda and a bunch of water. I then sprayed every leaf, top and bottom, every stem and flower. The ph change caused by the baking soda is unfavorable to the conditions that powdery mildew needs to thrive. I then watered and left the plants to dry in the morning sun. When I went to check on them later this afternoon only a few leaves had any trace of the fungus. I'm going to reapply the mix tomorrow to the still affected leaves but all signs point to a healthy recovery from the outbreak.

Next I dealt with the creeper. Now this was a much, much bigger job. So much of the vine was affected that there was no way for me to effectively treat it. Though there are different strains of powdery mildew, it is in the same family as grapes and in the future we are planning on growing quite a few and I really don't want the fungus overwintering in the soil. For all these reasons I decided to cut out all of the affected plant and dispose of the matter. As hard as it was for me to just toss all of the vines into a trash bag, it is extremely unwise to try and compost plant matter infected with powdery mildew, home compost and mulch piles do not usually get hot enough to kill the fungus, so I had to just let it go. If you have to dispose of plant matter be sure to do a thorough cleaning of the ground, picking up all dried and fallen leaves and branches as well. Everything must go! 

Though I spent most of the day I was able to eradicate this bout of powdery mildew, with no nasty chemicals and just a little bit of work. The weather looks like it may be stabilizing a bit so I hope this is the last I see of this little friend this year. Plus I think I may just plant a few useful climbers to replace all that creeper, hooray!