Prevent & Treat Powdery Mildew and 4 Home Remedies that Work!!

It's that time of year again where even in dry climates powdery mildew starts to rear its ugly head. Fortunately there are ways to reduce the spread of the fungus and even stop it in its tracks. On this video I'm going to go through some preventative measures you can take but also some tried and true methods to get rid of it once you have it. Coming up. Powdery mildew is a fungus that thrives in warm humid climates. It starts as little white spores usually on the lower leaves of a plant that spread over the entire plant if left untreated. The spores cover the leaves and inhibit photosynthesis and the leaves yellow and drop off. In turn flowering and fruiting can even slow or stop. It can be prevented somewhat but even when I feel I'm the most vigilant it still happens. So I'm not sure if 100% it is avoidable organically but there are some things to do to help with it. First of all don't crowd your plants. Give them the space they need. Plants that are susceptible to mildew like tomatoes need to be pruned often to keep a good amount of airflow through the plant. I'll put a link down below on how to do that with tomatoes specifically. Squash is another plant that's highly susceptible to mildew. You can keep it under control by removing the leaves that get it as soon as possible. They're almost always the older leaves. Removing them also keeps the plant looking neat and tidy so it's a win-win. When you finish your pruning make sure the leaves go in the trash. Do not put them in the compost and definitely don't leave them on the ground because the disease will just sit there and it will spread. Another big mistake some people make is to plant sun-loving plants in too much shade. That will invite mildew every single time and if plants are growing in too much shade it's going to make it really difficult to fight and you're pretty much fighting a losing battle. You also want to water the soil and not the leaves. A lot of people sometimes think that water on the leaves will increase the humidity and bring about the mildew. It's partially true but a lot of times the disease hits the plants from the soil. The soil is where the bacteria and the fungus start to grow and then when you water and you're splashing from the soil to the leaves you're spreading the fungus from the ground up to the leaves where it then will take hold and continue to grow. So if you live in a climate with rainy summers make sure at the beginning of season to mulch the ground heavily and try to cover up some of those spores. Now in dry summer climates like mine mulch is still a good idea because for that and because it helps to conserve moisture and hold the moisture in the soil but also you're going to need to water by hand. Being careful to keep it low and avoid splashing. The best way is to install drip irrigation. Now I did that this year and I couldn't be happier. It does a great job of keeping my plants watered but keeping the ground wet and the plants dry. I'll put a link to that video down below. So now that we've gone over some ideas to help prevent powdery mildew, sorry to say more than likely you're still going to get it. What I use and what I've used for years is neem oil. Neem oil is made from the seeds and leaves of the neem tree and it's powerful enough to stop powdery mildew in its tracks in 24 hours. It is a lifesaver. It's always been a reliable method for me. Just mix it according to the bottle directions and spray the plant heavily. Tops and bottoms of the leaves. I always mix some liquid seaweed kelp fertilizer in just to give a fuller feed at the same time. I don't use neem as a preventative. I actually use it as soon as I see the spores start to develop. So I'm not just spraying on a constant basis. Now there have been in a couple of other videos there were some comments and some discussions in the comment area about neem being harmful to bees. That's the last thing any of us want to do. Neem kills insects that eat the plant material and so it's all the chewing and sucking insects. Now technically I guess bees do eat plant material in the form of pollen. So if you can help it, don't spray the flowers. But all the scientific research that I've found show that it would have to be a much higher concentration used than in gardening to actually harm the bees in any way. So we're pretty safe there. So if you don't have neem oil on hand, but seriously Amazon can get it to you in two days, there are some home remedies that you can try. The first one is milk. Numerous studies have shown milk to be even more effective at killing powdery mildew than chemical fungicides. Possibly because when the milk interacts with the sun it produces free radicals which kill the fungus. It's really easy to apply. Just add four parts milk to six parts water in a sprayer and use every couple of weeks. Another one is mouthwash. If it can kill the bacteria in your mouth it can certainly kill the spores that cause the mildew. Generic ethanol-based mouthwash can be very effective control. You want to use one part mouthwash to three parts water sprayed on the leaves when you have an outbreak. Similarly to mouthwash you can use vinegar. Two to three tablespoons of vinegar to one gallon of water spray the tops and bottoms of the leaves when you have an outbreak. The last idea is baking soda. Mix three tablespoons of baking soda to a gallon of water and add a couple drops of dish soap and a tablespoon of cooking oil which is going to help the mixture stick to the leaves and then coat the tops and bottoms of the leaves with a sprayer. I'm sure you have on hand at least the ingredients for one of these ideas. If you have used these in the past let us know how it worked for you. If you have some other ideas to control mildew organically let let us know those in the comments as well. I'll see you guys next time.