Sorry but I'm not sure what advice you are looking for. The worms in the corn? Can you post a picture of them or at least provide a detailed description? Corn ear worms are green but if there are no ears or tassels then you wouldn't normally see them when the corn is as young as you describe it. Both Bt (Dipel) and Spinosad are both quite effective on corn ear worms and Spinosad works on whiteflies too.. I have tried everything that is supposed to get rid of them, and none of it works,they just laugh at me and fly around. So what all have you tried and for which pest? The whiteflies? They are the only thing that flies around. The aphids? The worms? Is gardening in Florida new for you? Different planting times, different pest issues, etc. Dave

Last year, I got powdery mildew on my pumpkin plants. I was using potassium bicarbonate (similar to baking soda) mixed with water after I discovered it. This worked to stall it. I changed it to milk and water towards the end of the summer. I really like it better. Many others swear by baking soda and water. I use raw milk, 10%-20% of the container and the rest water. This year, I started spraying before they get any fungus or disease. In my area, it can be rainy and powdery mildew is almost always going to happen to the cucurbit family which includes squash, cucumbers and pumpkins. Whichever you end up using, milk, baking soda etc., spray the underside of the leaves as well as the tops (to avoid downey mildew as well). You can remove the worst leaves but you don't want to cut too much off. Good luck and hope your plants can keep producing!

Once the conditions change for the fungus it will probably not be a problem. Spray it with soapy water, rinse, let dry - it should be safe for the cat. Brooke

I'm one of those commercial growers who got baptised on the powderly mildew issue with a lot of dollars at stake. My first outbreak was on poinsettias. I recognised it immediately before the powdery stage began and called my extension agent to come confirm my suspicions. He didn't think it was. Well, the whole crop bloomed with white leaves, and the aggravation and lost sales were very real. So, even the "experts" can learn a few things. A lot of liner stock had been shipped out that year already innoculated and infected but just not in readily visible stages yet..... and in the next few years where good control was not given to the stock plants WHEN it was needed. You do not cure powdery mildew. You have to work at preventing it. Jean was entirely accurate in her follow-up. Those spores are everywhere, all the time. The biggest thing you can do to prevent large outbreaks of it are to be proactive. Copper used to be used for this condition but it's not friendly to the environment, and not a thing home gardeners would really want to tackle. Even that won't clean up a crop. Some greenhouse film manufacturers are trying to design films to transmit light in just certain controlled wavelengths of the spectrum, because that is how much PM is affected by the environment. The light conditions have to be just right, as does the temperatures and the humidity. So far, this new new tool has not been successful, because plastics degrade and the spectrum of light they transmit changes with age. The baking soda reports have been around a long time, mostly since that big poinsettia outbreak hit the industry. It was concern from the commercial growers who prompted most of the research on ways to control this economic demon. Most of the time, for outdoor plants like lilac........control is just not even important, save trying to give them adequate ventilation. The next year, if the weather is different, then you may not even have an outbreak. We haven't had PM common on poinsettias for many years, but just the word strikes fear in my heart. LOL. I can relate. Just don't put too much stock in baking soda curing it after the fact.