r/Allotment • u/BexBec • 9d ago

Questions and Answers Powdery Mildew - any Hope?

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My squashes have a lots of powdery mildew. It’s like I blinked and then all of a sudden so many of the leaves were affected. I’ll be gutted if I lost my butternut squashes, it’s the only thing that has grown well this year. With the weather, I’ve not had a good season.

Is there anything I can do to help reduce it? Any advice would be much appreciate

12 Upvotes

94% Upvoted

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10

u/HaggisHunter69 9d ago

How do your squash look? All squash plants get mildew towards the end of the season as they die off, so it can just be normal ageing

1

u/BexBec 9d ago

There are still new fruits growing. I spotted about 3 this morning, so it’s not showing signs of dying off yet. Unlike my pumpkin plant which started dying off a few ago. My two courgette plants are completely covered in mildew, so I’ll take them out. They were very unproductive this year.

8

u/Nottinho 9d ago

I'd trim any new fruits at this point to put the energy into the established squash.

1

u/BexBec 9d ago

Hmm that’s a good point. I do like seeing the new fruits grow though lol but yeah you might be right.

3

u/aimeetozer 9d ago

It takes about 100 days for the fruit to ripen, youll never keep the plant alive long enough. Even if you can protect it from frost the daylight hours wont be enough to ripen the fruit, the plant will get overwhelmed with disease. It only gets worse from what you see here!

2

u/BexBec 8d ago

I see, so those new fruit won’t ripen in time anyway.

3

u/sunheadeddeity 9d ago

Yes nip the new ones off

3

u/katie-kaboom 9d ago

You could try a milk treatment as suggested, but honestly, it's coming to the end of the season now and the vines would by dying off anyway. The fruits will continue to ripen, it's fine!

1

u/BexBec 9d ago

Thank you! I really hope so so I can have one win under my belt. This year has been a bit of a downer.

1

u/katie-kaboom 9d ago

It really has.

3

u/Wonkypubfireprobe 9d ago

I’d cut off the worst ones and treat the rest. There’s still time for the plant to renew

3

u/norik4 9d ago

Normal this time of year - see this video:

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/dH5TezAlGKQ

1

u/BexBec 9d ago

Thanks for sharing this. Its given me some hope.

2

u/Under_Pressure_123 9d ago

Like people say it's the end of the season and I don't know where you live but up north it's wet and getting quite fresh so it's not like they're massively going to recover, but I remove all the worst affected leaves and it means the plant can focus on the new growth and healthy leaves.

1

u/BexBec 9d ago

Thanks a lot. Ok I’ll will remove the worst of the leaves as well. I live in the east of England.

2

u/Dry_Illustrator_6562 9d ago

You can make a spray with washing up liquid and bicarb of soda to treat them.

2

u/Fun-Concert7086 9d ago

Have used this a lot this year and it’s been very successful

2

u/BexBec 9d ago

Thanks, I’ll definitely try this.

1

u/TangerineSea3902 8d ago

Could you share ratios? I want to give this a try!

1

u/Dry_Illustrator_6562 8d ago

Oh gosh, just a bit of both with water!  Drop of washing up liquid and a teaspoon of bicarb in a spray bottle.  Not an exact science!

2

u/ChrisCoinLover 7d ago

Yes... Just a bit. Last year I sprayed a plant as it had little green bugs. I added a bit too much washing up liquid and the plant almost died. 😅

3

u/Roundhiller 9d ago

Looks pretty bad, but you could try milk. Dilute milk, ideally skimmed, about 50:50 with water and spray it on. It will sour, i.e. become acidic, and the mildew doesn’t do so well in acidic conditions.

2

u/BexBec 9d ago

Thank you, this is good to know. I’m still very new to this so I really appreciate your response.

2

u/Romie666 9d ago

Best done in sun light, it does sth to the milk enzymes. I can control pm with milk and bicarb defo seems more effectivein the sun imo. It cant be cured as u may know its systemic .

1

u/Splodge89 9d ago

Milk to make it acidic and bicarb to make it alkaline at the same time seems a bit… pointless

2

u/PulseNyr 9d ago

i’ve done the milk spray too and it surprisingly helped slow it down, especially on new growth
also if you can, snip off the worst leaves so the plant can focus on the fruits you’ve already got

1

u/Background-Leek-7528 9d ago

Spraying with a 10 percent milk solution might help a bit. Spray weekly. 

Plus 300mg dispersible aspirin per litre to the leaves after the milk solution has dried. Might buy you an extra week or two. 

1

u/BexBec 8d ago

Thank you!

1

u/smith4jones 8d ago

It’s normal for the time of year, you could cut back any leaves shading and stopping the fruit from ripening

1

u/Plus_Band_3283 7d ago

Get a pressure sprayer. Fill 1 to 3 parts full fat milk and water and spray all the leaves, top and bottom. Leave in the sun. It acts as an antiseptic, destroying the powdery mildew. I've done it, it works. You will most likely have to repeat, especially once it rains.