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Vegetable Gardening

Help with "is it powdery mildew"? Seems a bit different.

8 years ago

This happened to my peppers and tomatoes AFTER a 10% milk spray [as a preventive gaaah] . Since then they have been treated with (with time in between). NEEM, 100% milk, Potassium Bicarb, Horsetail Tea, Serenade, and even Listerine...I have treated the soil with Actinovate Nothing has really had an impact for more than a few hours. I have treated powdery mildew on butternut squash before and it was much more manageable compared to this.

This is a white powder on the TOP of the leaves only and coating the stem. Older leaves impacted. There is no yellowing. The powder is uniformly distributed. There is nothing on the underneath of the leaf then a wet rot sort of sets in starting from the leaf tip.

The peppers are coming out because I can clean it off the stems and it is back a few hours later. Never seen anything like this. After pulling every infected leaf/stem and cleaning everything off I put pine needles over the soil. The tomatoes I thinned out greatly and am hoping I have enough top growth to support the developing fruit.

Losing the plants is not so big but I want to be able to use the soil next year and not sure what I would need to do to prepare it. This did occur after a week of heat stress (high 90s) when we are used to high 80s.

Would greatly appreciate any insights.

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Comments (9)

jocoyn
Original Author
8 years ago
Yes, and I washed the leaves clean with a spray of water (in the morning) thinking the same thing.
fbx22
8 years ago
last modified: 8 years ago
dont wash or spray leaves ever with water if avoidable. I do have to water my potted herbs and potted flowers though when I leave for extended days in a row during summer by lining the pots up in the yard and using a timer waterer. Other than that I never water plants overhead
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jocoyn
Original Author
8 years ago
As a rule, I don't do that but I did it in the morning of a very clear day so they would dry as, if it actually was powdery mildew, that does not like water-just humidity ..... but whatever this is came back ... and yes I know it is not residue because it also started impacting new leaves after I removed the bad ones.
jocoyn
Original Author
8 years ago
last modified: 8 years ago
South Carolina. I am not convinced it is powdery mildew either-I cannot find anything that matches its description. This time of year though we got it on our butternuts. They are doing fine though..everything else is doing great. Even the eggplants in the same bed. I pulled the peppers as it kept coming back and wanted to prevent the spread to healthy peppers. I thinned and spaced the remaining tomatoes and they seem to be doing ok.

The tomatoes were thriving, with he exception of some early blight which I had kept controlled by routine pruning (and only when the leaves are dry). I had sprayed the milk for preventive purposes...though I am not inclined to ever do that again.

Next year I plan on adding some azomite to my soil- and I may try to figure out what to do with those beds next year.
jocoyn
Original Author
8 years ago
last modified: 8 years ago
Nope. Actually they are a bit affected - I am seeing the white powder popping up on leaves here and there, even just a few minutes ago, and with no treatment. The Bell Peppers seem to be a bit less robust than the hotter counterparts. JMO. The impact on the other plants is, currently, minimal compared to the bell peppers
jocoyn
Original Author
8 years ago
I called the county extension and two of them looked at the pictures and what all I did and said "phytotoxicity" just too much stuff. So I guess it is even coming out of the plant and still depsositing on leaves. Just going to let them be and see if the recover and replace the ones I pulled out with healthy ones.

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