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| Zuchinni with powdery mildew |
Powdery mildew is primarily caused by environmental conditions such as high humidity, not enough sun etc. If possible try and get the affected plants 6 hours of good solid sunlight a day. Saying that though it hasn’t helped my rockmelon which get’s full sun all day.
Other treatments that I have found are your usual supects of fungicide and store bought chemicals which I’m not a fan. An organic treatment that I am using and it looks to be working is milk. Good old fashion cows milk has natural anti-bacterial agents called lactoferrin. Lucky for us these agents aren’t detroyed when milk is pasteurized.
To spruke some of the antibacterial benefits, lactorferrin is produced commerically as an over the counter supplement for athlete’s foot, yeast infections and for athlete’s to boost their own immune systems while training. Lactoferrin is in highest concentrations in human breast milk but also in small quantities in cows milk and, would you believe it, tears and nasal secretion.
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| Zuchinni with powdery mildew after a milk spray. |
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| Zuchinni new growth after 2 weeks spray and cut back. |
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| Zuchinni new growth after 2 weeks spray and cut back. |
- Sodium Bi-carb – up to 10g in 1litre of water. Carefull though as too much will burn the plant.
- Liquid Seaweed – a great fertilizer which will help the plant fend off attacks but sometimes too much fertilizer can cause the powdery mildew in the first place.
Have you tried milk or any of the other solutions? Have you any other ideas? Would love to hear about your stories battling this very common problem.
Geek, Garden and Cook 
Just an update on this. the Powdery mildew came back and monstered my zuchinni and cucumber. I managed to save the cucumber by increasing the milk : water ratio to 3:7 rather than 1:9 mentioned above. It's been a few weeks now and looking at lot better.
Another update (may as keep them coming) – Avoid spraying the leaves to help keep powdery mildew at bay! Interesting tidbit that i'm going to try.
HI Lincoln! Any more updates? We are having this issue too and looking for a solution. Is the milk working? We are in Florida: high humidity, rainy summer, high temps, etc.
Hey Jeff – yep by increasing the Milk to water ratio I managed to control the mildew. Part of my garden was in too much shade so environmental conditions were too perfect for the mildew and I dug up the susceptible plants. The Rockmelon (Cantloupe) was susceptible to powdery mildew and the increased milk concentration sorted it out. In the end I used 3:7 with full strength (full fat) milk.Let me know how you go.