Does something not look right on your plants or in your lawn
and garden?
What if I told you that it could possibly be a fungus that
is infecting them all?
Powdery Mildew could be the suspect we are looking for.
Powdery mildew looks like white to gray spots with a talcum powder like growth.
The mildew is host specific, i.e., the mildew that can be affecting your lilac
and elm trees would not affect your grass, or mildew on grapes would not affect
your lilac. Mildews thrive in warm dry climates. When plants have high
humidity, poor air circulation, or are located in shaded areas, it allows the
mildew to have an ideal growing environment.
What can we do to fix it?The simplest and easiest option is to buy plant/seed varieties that are resistant to powdery mildew, i.e., roses, cucumber, squash, and beans.
Not everything we want to plant will have an available
resistant variety; therefore powdery mildew needs to be managed culturally and
chemically.
Cultural practices:
· Prune with good air circulation in mind.
·
Do not over fertilize and possibly look into
slow release fertilizers for future applications.
·
Do not overhead water to help reduce humidity
and reduce chances of spread of other fungus problems.
Chemical practices:
● Horticultural
oils- can be an effective eradicant in plants with mild to moderate symptoms
and has some protectant effects with products such as Saf-T-Side Spray Oil,
Sunspray Ultra-Fine Spray Oil, neem oil or jojoba oil.
● Sulfur- usually a
spray that is only effective before the symptoms have appeared. Copper may also
be used in the same manner. It has a lower effective rate. ● Bacterial Fungicides- made of a pathogen that kills the fungus and helps prevent future infections. These are also safe for beneficial insects, pets, and people.
With applying any chemicals, you want to make sure that you
are reading the labels and ensuring that you have correct target pest on
plants, proper protective equipment, and applying at correct rates. The label
is law and we do not want to damage the environment with an application applied
incorrectly. Now with our new knowledge on how powdery mildew works, we can
better manage it in our gardens going forward.
Consider signing up for land and garden pest alerts at the
Pest Alert Network in order to find out about pests as soon as they are found
in our area. These are the alerts for Powdery Mildew.