Powdery mildew problem- help needed

Errata

My scabious has powdery mildew. It's in the middle of the garden in full sun but I can move it if being partially shaded will help to cure the problem. Otherwise - how do I get rid of its horrible coat of powder mildew ?

elsien

I find that the shrubs in my garden that have the problem tend to be overcrowded, too dense or in competition for water with other big shrubs. There's one (don't know what it's called) that gets mildew every year - I've been basically ignoring it, as it's huge, too big to spray and I don't want to cut it down. Doesn't seem to have spread to other plants as yet, but I may just have been lucky.
Anyway, from the gardeners world website:

Solution
Organic
Prune out affected parts of the plant and destroy. Healthy plants are less prone to attack, so make sure you water regularly and mulch around them to conserve moisture in the soil. Space out your plants to avoid over-crowding and thin out congested growth to improve the airflow. Also minimise the use of high-nitrogen fertilisers, as these lead to lots of soft, leafy growth, which is vulnerable to an attack. Get rid of weeds as they can spread the fungus.
Chemical

Spray ornamental plants with myclobutanil, penconazole or sulphur. Always check the label first if you're using these products on edible crops.

Sazbo

Hi - don't know if this is helpful, but I started to grow my own veg this year and my courgette plants have recently developed powdery mildew on the leaves... at least, I only know that's what it is now having googled it lol. Ironic that this thread has appeared at the same time

Anyway, I was obviously looking for a remedy suitable for edible crops and one of the suggestions I came across was to spray the leaves with a weak solution of washing up liquid. So a couple of days ago I cut off the worst affected leaves and sprayed the rest as suggested. Had a quick look this morning before going to work and *touch wood* it's definitely not got any worse, and if anything seems to have improved...

As said above, PM can be caused paradoxically by too dry conditions, so a good watering should help and ensuring there is sufficient airflow.

Someone else suggested spraying with a cold camomile tea solution - coz camomile is a natural anti-bacterial, apparently. Or a weak solution of milk in water. This and the WUL work apparently by giving the leaves a sufficiently wet coating that the mildew doesn't like. Reckon I'll persevere with the WUL and see it that continues to work, otherwise I'll give the camomile a go.

HTH,

Sazzy xxx

BB78

You could also try spraying with a weak solution of Bicarb soda & water.

Errata

Lots of 'cures' so in true MSE style I shall try the cheapest first and give the WUL a go. The plant has plenty of air around it and gets watered with all the other plants in the bed, and they're ok. I think it must be prone to PM.

Sazbo

Hope it works for you, only thing worth bearing in mind is it should be a weak solution

S