My zucchini plants kept getting powdery mildew until I tried a milk spray trick

I was losing about half my zucchini leaves every summer to that white powdery stuff. A gardener at the community plot in Denver told me to mix one part milk with nine parts water and spray it on the leaves every week. I was skeptical because it sounded too simple, but I gave it a shot back in June. After three weeks, the new leaves stayed clean and the old spots stopped spreading. Has anyone else tried this and had it work for squash or cucumbers?

3 comments

3 Comments

ward.jamie1mo ago

My neighbor in zone 5b tried that milk spray on her squash two summers ago and ended up with black mold all over the fruit instead of just powder on the leaves. The milk can actually feed other fungi if the weather turns humid, and she had to pull everything out by August. I've had way better luck just baking soda and soap every 10 days, keeps the mildew down without risking a bigger mess.

hunt.nora1mo ago

Oh come on, black mold all over the fruit from a milk spray? I've been using it for years in 6a and never had that happen. We get humid summers too, like last July when it was basically soup outside, and my zucchini were fine. I wonder if she was spraying it too thick or not diluting it enough, or maybe it was just a bad batch of milk from the store. Baking soda and soap works sure, but I've heard that can mess with your soil pH if you go too heavy on it. Feels like one bad story doesn't make the whole thing a risk, you know?

jessica_robinson2317d ago

That bit about baking soda and soap messing with soil pH is something I actually ran into. A few years back I was dumping baking soda mix on my tomatoes every week and by August the soil tested at like 7.8 which is way too alkaline. My peppers all came out small and the leaves got this weird yellow curl. I had to dump a bag of sulfur in the ground to fix it. Took two full seasons before the pH settled back to normal. So yeah, baking soda works but you gotta be careful how much you use.

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