powdery mildewPowdery Mildew is a fungi including many varieties; specific types of powdery mildew will go after specific host plants. Garden staff know it best as something afflicting our zucchini and other squash, but we also find it on roses, cucumbers, kale, tomatoes, and others. Infected leaves will display faint white splotches, eventually turning yellow and dying. Suggested treatment strategies can be mixed, but here are some general best practices, and some resources, so you can do your own reading.
Resources here include: Linda Gilkeson Fernwood NRG Victoria Compost Education Centre UBC Botany Enthusiasts Club |
photo from west coast seeds
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Put powdery mildew-affected leaves in the McCoy Compost, by the gazebo. While in an individual garden it's probably okay to compost the leaves assuming your plants are already affected, the community garden environment is more complex. Keeping the leaves out of our volunteer compost pile, which does not get consistently hot enough to kill off the spores, may cut down a bit on its spread through the garden and keep it from infecting a plot otherwise not affected.
A reminder on compost piles:
Linda Gilkeson suggests washing plant leaves a couple times a week, as powdery mildew spores cannot germinate on a wet surface. But they do germinate in humid environments generally, so other gardeners suggest avoiding getting water on your plant leaves. Because of the ubiquity of this fungi, it's possible that even with careful watering a plant will become affected by powdery mildew; don't fret!
Affected leaves can usually be left on the plant until they die, because they're still helping to photosynthesize and ripen fruit on the vine
UBC's botany enthusiasts club suggests trying a spray of milk diluted 1:10 (100mL milk to 900mL water) to fight off infections, which will need to be regularly applied.
A reminder on compost piles:
- The "McCoy" compost by the gazebo is picked up by UVic and composted industrially off-site. It can handle excessive dirt, woody branches, and weeds that have gone to seed (except bindweed; please put bindweed/morning glory in the trash) as well as anything else compostable.
- The "volunteer" compost pile is managed by volunteers and plot renters in our Compost Crew, and is near the composting toilet. These are hot compost piles which must be built in layers, flipped when they reach temperature, and filtered until usable compost is then left in bins for plot renters to continue using. Because the temperatures are not consistently hot enough to kill weeds or breakdown hardy material, this pile cannot handle weeds which have gone to seed, lots of dirt, or woody branches
Linda Gilkeson suggests washing plant leaves a couple times a week, as powdery mildew spores cannot germinate on a wet surface. But they do germinate in humid environments generally, so other gardeners suggest avoiding getting water on your plant leaves. Because of the ubiquity of this fungi, it's possible that even with careful watering a plant will become affected by powdery mildew; don't fret!
Affected leaves can usually be left on the plant until they die, because they're still helping to photosynthesize and ripen fruit on the vine
UBC's botany enthusiasts club suggests trying a spray of milk diluted 1:10 (100mL milk to 900mL water) to fight off infections, which will need to be regularly applied.
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To prevent or cut-down on powdery mildew for next year:
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photo from wikipedia
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