Powdery Mildew on zucchini and squash

Thursday, 12 August 2010 00:42

Powdery Mildew on zucchini and squash - update ^Featured

Written by Jason

font size decrease font size increase font size
Print
Email
4 comments

Rate this item

(1 Vote)

It seems that we have had a powdery mildew infection on our squash and zucchini plants every spring for the past 5 years. Since I wrote this article last year about measures to take to prevent powder mildew , we have been powdery mildew free! In reallity we were probably helped out this year by the weather, as well as our preventive measures. We followed most of the guidelines already, but I wanted to share a couple of things that seem to make the biggest difference from my experience.
Here in Florida our sub-tropical (seems to be getting more tropical every year) climate makes a nice environment for many fungal infections. Hot temperatures and high humidity combined with nice green cucurbits like zucchini, squash, pumpkins, and gourds, make a very inviting environment for podwery mildew. The spores travel on the wind, and when they land in such an ideal spot, they try to set up camp. I believe that cucurbits have some natural resistance to fungal infections, but if the fungus gets even a slight advantage, it will win in the end.

One thing I have noticed is that older plants, seem to be more succeptable to infections than younger plants which are at the peak of vegetable production. One thing I did this year that I believe helped a great deal, was pulling out plants as soon as they appeared to by winding down production. If a plant which had had been producing for several weeks, had no new flowers or fruits on it, or had some leaves browning, I pulled them out and tossed them in the compost pile. The second thing, which I think is critical to powdery mildew prevention, is taking care not to let the plants go overnight with wet leaves. We got some help this year from mother nature, who didn't hit us this year with a lot of rain after dark. We took care to water the plants only when the foilage would have time to dry before night fall.
I will continue to follow these powdery mildew prevention practices and cotinue to post our results. We still have several gourd plants growing and may be planting some summer squash soon, and some pumpkins not long after that. I will let you know how it goes, my hope is to make it through the entire year with no pwdery mildew!

Read 3119 times Last modified on Friday, 16 September 2011 03:43

Published in Vegetable Gardening

Tagged under

Jason

Latest from Jason

Related items

More in this category: « Ordering seeds for the Spring Garden Plant a Row for the Hungry »

4 comments

Comment Link Sunday, 24 July 2011 17:44 posted by jason
A 10% solution of milk and water has worked well for us, when applied as soon there is any visible infection on the plant. It is possible for the mildew to spread to your watermelons, but if you pull out all the plants that are badly infected, and spray the rest with the milk solution, it is likely they will not be affected. Also try to water the plants early in the day, so that the leaves will be dry by nightfall.
Comment Link Sunday, 24 July 2011 16:29 posted by tonie fisher
I too have the mildew problem here in kentucky will it spread to my watermelons and is there any thing to slow it down i have one good zuck left and a sqaush how can i save them i have tried everything coppersulfate or something like that ill take all the advice i can get please
Comment Link Sunday, 10 July 2011 05:22 posted by Vegetable Gardening
I have not had that problem here in North Texas. My main issue is the heat and dry spells. (Just installed 2 55gal rain barrels)

thanks
Comment Link Thursday, 23 September 2010 15:36 posted by amy manning
In the pacific NW, powdery mildew is inevitable this time of year.