You’re satisfied with your garden, harvesting a ton of different types of vegetables when suddenly some little, weird white spots on your zucchini, cucumbers, squash, and pumpkins have grabbed your attention. Thinking of it as not a big deal, you probably just shrug it off for the very first time. Some days later, you see it spreading to more and more leaves. Subsequently, you witness its expansion, ultimately founding yourself left stranded amidst this powdery, white mess of horror. If you can relate to this unfortunate scenario, your lawn is experiencing an outbreak of powdery mildew – so act fast! The good news is, you can reverse it through a 3-step process.

The 3-step solution to control powdery mildew

Ideally, you would discard and cut off any leaves that demonstrate even a slight indication of a powdery mildew. However, if your mindset resonates with mine, you would definitely have kept good intentions about doing it, but later found yourself letting it go out of hand. Following are the 3 steps that you should take to control powdery mildew:

1.      Cut off the leaves that are badly infected.

2.      Dispose these leaves in the garbage, not in the compost.

3.      Spray the remaining leaves with a solution of 1:9 milk to water ratio. Personally, I mix 1 cup of powdered milk in my can, watering the remaining infected leaves.

What is powdery mildew?

It is usually referred to as a fungal disease, affecting a large number of plants such as cucumbers, pumpkins, zucchini, squash, flowers, pears, and apples. These diseases are not caused by a single specie but multiple species of fungi. It starts spreading by spores, and once you’ve got it, you would have a hard time getting rid of it for the remaining season. Fortunately, your plant will not be permanently damaged by this, but it will cease or slow down any vegetable or fruit production.

Causes of powdery mildew

In an already hot, moist condition, when sufficient airflow is not provided to the plants due to them being placed too close to each other, an outbreak of powdery mildew becomes imminent, which is difficult to be kept at bay. However, few species are more susceptible to powdery mildew than others. If you think that you experience fungus on a perennial almost every year, you may consider replacing it with a more disease resistant variety in the subsequent year after pulling the existing one out.

Additional considerations

If you see powdery mildew infecting a perennial or flower that doesn’t bloom anymore, it is recommended to cut off all the leaves if it’s a perennial or pull it out if it’s an annual. If you continue to see a problem every year, it is suggested that you go for a different variety next time around.

If the outbreak is apparent on your vegetables, remove only the badly infected leaves, subsequently applying the milk mixture to the infected leaves that remain, at least once every week. In order to ensure that the photosynthesis occur, you will need sufficient leaves.

If the growing season is during its preliminary stages and you see that no fruit or vegetables have set, try removing the infected leaves on an immediate basis. It is better to entirely avoid a further outbreak than delaying a plant.

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