Milk won't do much of anything for your problem.

It would be nice if solutions were as easy as spraying things like milk or vegetable oil to solve pest problems. If that were the case, everyone would be using these "no brainer" solutions.

The truth is, these organic home remedies don't work for much of anything.

If your fighting a real fungus, unfortunately, you're going to have to use a real fungicide.

But it may not be as bad as you might think.

Unless you buy all organic produce and vegetables (including canned products) the produce you buy has likely been sprayed more than what you will grow and spray yourself.

I've no idea where your located, but it's likely food is not the only avenue of pesticide exposure for your family.

Neighbor's lawns, ball fields, parks, have likely been treated with pesticides. Houses, pets (flea collars/pour on) etc.

I'm not trying to talk you into something you don't want, just pointing out oral is not the only absorption avenue.

The same science that says it's safe for someone to play on a ball field after a Trimek treatment is the same science that says it's safe to eat a fruit that has 1 ppm Indar.

If you spray early enough, you're not going to get any residue on the fruit. The rain and sunshine will see to that.

There are lots of very effective organic fungicides available, you do not need to resort to spraying toxic chemicals. The one I recommend is Serenade, (See www.serenadegarden.com), it works very well on fungus on grapes. Another very effective method is lime sulfur, it's very effective with grapes since the grape are not sulfur sensitive. But Serenade is more gentle and long lasting.

Milk spray is very effective on brown rot, but I don't think it's what you got on your grapes. (Whey has been shown to be an effective fungicide, but it's expensive to use). Another alternative is Tea tree oil which is a very effective natural fungicide. I was able to find a reference where they used Tea Tree Oil vapors to inhibit mold formation on grapes. See Essential oils for the control of postharvest. I don't know the dilution rates required to spray directly on grapes, the stuff is expensive, so it's very little that you want to use, and you need to add a tiny bit of soap as an emusifier for the oil.

Vegetable oil works great as a dormant spray and will take care of pest eggs, but it's not something you want to put on while plants are actively growing. I am not sure why Olpea mentions it.

It's not good for kids to play on a field that was just sprayed with some toxic chemical, so thanks for pointing that out, Olpea, you are right, this is something to look out for.

And Oplea is also spot on that commercial non-organic foods are probably even more laced with pesticides, yet another reason to try to buy organically grown food.

Here is a link that describes the effectiveness of milk for powdery mildew and brown rot: Can Milk Control Brown Rot?

Here is a link that might be useful: Can Milk Control Brown Rot?

Axel,

You've missed the whole point of my post.

We've all been through this before, but CA has radically different pest pressure from most of the rest of the nation. What will work there won't necessarily work where it rains. Please, please understand that.

The OP has me guessing where he's from, but zone 6b is probably not California.

My point in mentioning ball fields, pet sprays, termite home sprays, etc, is that there is a disconnect between the idea that some folks think home grown food must be completely free from all chemicals, while subconsciously accepting the multitudinous chemical exposure in the rest of our lives without giving it a second thought.

How much toxic CO do you inhale when you run your lawn mower/weed eater?

My point is, the science that says a certain level of CO is safe is the same science that says synthetic sprays are safe if the Pre-Harvest Interval is adhered to. As I mentioned in another post, our bodies are made to detoxify things, whether it be things we inhale, ingest, or the poisons our own bodies create.

I'm tired of getting beat over the head about how toxic pesticides are, when we all pump our own carcinogenic gasoline without giving it a second thought.

Hi, I'm in Tulsa OK. Thanks for all of the good advice...a lot of food for thought.

We do try to limit exposure to environmental toxins of all kinds to the best of our ability. We don't use any chemicals (pesticides, fertilizer, etc.) on our yard or in our house. I even go so far as to make my own cleaning products with natural ingredients etc, so it's a bit of a time suck and a learning curve.

I admit I'm new to this, and since having kids (ages two and four) try to watch what I put in their bodies to the best of my ability. I admit that I can't possibly eliminate everything.

My husband keeps pushing for the bug killer, weed killers, etc., so it's a constant struggle here.

Again, thanks all for the good advice. I'll be looking into all of your suggestions.

joellen, the best control for anthracnose is a dormant spray of lime-sulphur. Spray it right before the buds start swelling next spring. This year its too late; you may want to pick off all the grapes now to limit the amount of disease that will overwinter. Also your canopy looks too shaded there; diseases love shade and hate sun. I would read up more on grape pruning and get those vines seriously opened up. I remove 80-90% of my vine every winter. The leaves in the picture look really close to the ground and I would remove everything below 3' as it is usually more humid by the ground and thus more disease-prone.

I agree with olpea that home remedies work on few fruit diseases, but as Axel states there are some lower-impact options that can work. Lime-sulphur is one such spray; the main problem is it is caustic so you need to be careful handling the concentrate.

Scott

Olpea, respectfully, I don't agree with your generalizations. They simply don't apply. You can't extrapolate CO exposure to pesticide exposure. The science isn't the same.

There's no need to take over this thread to discuss this though, my point is that if someone is asking for organic solutions, let's not try to convince them to use synthetics. it works the other way around too, if someone is asking for a good synthetic pesticide, then it would be appropriate to recommend some good synthetics rather than trying to convince them to go organic.

Scott, thank you for your advice. I am still learning and never pruned my grapes. They are now pruned well off the ground.

I just wanted to update. While I was waiting for a response, I did spray with milk (50/50 diluted with water). I am having a hard time locating serenade, but may buy some online next year. I have ordered some Neem oil, which I think is supposed to control anthracnose.

It's been about a week since I noticed the spots and pruned/sprayed with milk, and so far so good. The rest of my grapes look healthy and beautiful! When the Neem gets here in a few days, I will start spraying with that too as a precautionary measure.

Thanks everyone for all of the help. I hope I will have some healthy grapes this year. Keep your fingers crossed!

Joe Ellen, I doubt the milk helped any, it only helps with powdery mildew from what I have seen. Probably the conditions for formation of the disease have past. I also seriously doubt that neem would help; I have sprayed neem on lots of diseases and it never did any better than mineral oil (which doesn't do much good on most things). You should also know that the "big" grape diseases, downy mildew and black rot, will just laugh at all of the milk and neem you spray on them. I found copper to be the only good organic treatment for them, and copper is pretty strong stuff. Well, for downy mildew I have had some luck with aloe extract. Serenade is a very weak spray and you need to spray it regularly for it to have an effect. I tried using it on grapes and had no luck at all. But, I think its been helping a bit on my apples and peaches, I have been including it in just about every spray they get. If you sprayed it weekly on your grapes that may help.

Look at the grape pruning videos in the list below, Chuck Ingalls is one of the leading table grape experts in the US and theres nothing like watching the expert prune a vine. If you want to avoid spraying your key is keeping the vine open. In one of the videos he thins an already growing Thompson Seedless vine, it is very informative to see how spaced out he likes the shoots. Once you get them all opened up, Mr. Sun and Mrs. Wind are going to come in and fry and blow away all those diseases better than any organic spray ever could.

Scott

Here is a link that might be useful: Chuck Ingalls pruning grapes