This summer my house was hit BAD with powdery mildew!!! And it wasn’t even really my fault! I didn’t buy any plants with it… it simply spread from the neighbor’s yard! But wherever it comes from, powdery mildew can damage a wide range of plants, spotting the leaves, then eventually causing the infected leaves to die back and drop. This can eventually kill your entire plant. So basically, it’s no fun at all! That’s why I did some experimenting, and found out how to get rid of it fast!
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What to Do…
Here’s the secret… as soon as you see it, spray your plants with fungicide!!! This is the fungicide that I purchased because it is safe to use on edible plants. Just make sure that you don’t harvest anything for 30 days, and then you either wash off the plant, or you wash off the produce before you eat anything that has been sprayed.
So the best tips I can give you from my experience are…
First…
First, make sure that you spray your plant at the earliest sign of powdery mildew! If you can help it, don’t wait until the black spots have formed (this is a sign that the fungus has already reached a mature stage of growth)!
If you spray the leaves where the powdery mildew has already formed the black spots, then plan on losing those leaves. The fungicide will kill the fungus, but the leaf won’t be healthy enough to recover, and will most likely die either way.
Second…
The second piece of advice I can give you is to dilute the solution according to the instructions! The first time I sprayed, I was so anxious to get rid of the powdery mildew, that I added a bit more fungicide than I should have… (I mean they only have you add about a teaspoon per gallon! Surely that won’t be strong enough?!?!)
Anyways, long story short, I about tripled my teaspoon and ended up killing some of my seedlings because the dosage was too strong.
So basically, follow the dosage, and if you still have some powdery mildew a few weeks later, then spray a second time. Don’t go all fungicide-happy and try to up the dosage to kill it all at once… or you might end up killing some of your plants as well!
Third…
The third and last note that I have for y’all is that I sprayed this fungicide on my indoor plants. Yeah, they got the powdery mildew from outside, but I brought them indoors for the upcoming winter, so I had to spray them indoors.
With two toddlers and two pets, I was worried about safety, but this fungicide was safe as long as it dried before anyone decided to taste the leaves (I’m thinking mainly of my plant-chewing cat!) But by spraying at night, I knew that it would have dried completely by the next morning, and sure enough that’s what happened. Safe for everyone!
So if you’re still on the fence, I would highly recommend you take the leap and purchase this fungicide! Like I said, it worked great, was safe for the kids and pets, and worked for my edibles! And at only a measly teaspoon per use, it’s going to last me for years! (Which is also great, because the powdery mildew will sadly keep spreading year after year from my neighbor’s yard until they decide to do something about it, which is out of my control… )
So stop the battle, save yourself the worry, and get this fungicide before your powdery mildew has formed its black spots! Good luck, and feel free to leave any additional questions or comments below! And for some indoor plant inspiration, check out this list of easy, low-maintenance houseplants!
Happy Digging!