Attack of The Powdery Mildew

So I discovered something rather unsettling yesterday on my squash plants.  I seem to have picked up a powdery mildew infection on the leaves and stems.  This common disease afflicts many different member's of the squash family and as such could jeopardize my fall crop of pumpkins, butter nut squash and whats left of the summer squash.

Powdery Mildew on Pumpkin Leaf

After doing a little research I found out that the best way to deal with this is to prevent it in the first place.  Which is unfortunate as it has already infected large portions of my garden.  So my next best step is mitigation of the damage by removing heavily infected portions of the plants and spraying the rest repeatedly with a mixture of milk, water and baking soda.  According to my research the mixture will help slow and even stop the spread of the mold by altering the pH of the leaf surface in a way that the mold can't survive.

Powdery Mildew on Pumpkin Leaf

I am afraid it will be a losing battle though because the conditions that allowed the mold to form will still be present in the garden,  I originally planted the garden plants very close together to maximize space potential.  Unfortunately by doing that I created the perfect conditions i.e damp and shady which allowed the mold to spread and propagate.

So whoops my bad.

We also have had a exceptionally wet summer here which kept things damp for long periods of time.  Plus I will say I am guilty of watering my garden at night quite frequently which would have only exasperated the damp issue.

So essentially the plan is as follows,

Today I will be removing and disposing infected leaves and stems and spraying large amounts of my mixture in order to combat what is left on the plants.  The mixture recipe I will be using is pulled from is one of my favorite books on gardening called Maximizing Your Mini Farm- Self Sufficiency on a 1/4 Acre by Brett Markham 


I really love this book and the others written by this author.  Full of practical information and easy to navigate pages it is a great one to have on your book shelf.

I will be back later with updates on how it seems the powdery mildew treatments are working.