Wednesday, August 14, 2013

Actinovate for Powdery Mildew

For the last three years I've been spraying Acinovate on my pumpkin plants with some pretty good success.  I haven't had bad powdery mildew at all.  Just the regular spots that show up in September.  Spraying in the first part of August is important in order to keep the powdery mildew at bay before it becomes visable.  Once it starts showing up there isn't much you can do about it.  This year I expect the powdery mildew to be a challenge.  Particularly cool days in the last week have brought up signs of powdery mildew on susceptible weeds.  The older leaves on my son's plant have spots and I've removed those to help keep it from spreading. Fortunately neither of my plants have much of any signs so far.  It surprises me that the 1775 plant hasn't shown more because many of its leaves are pretty beaten up from leaf burn.

I put some Actinovate in the compost tea I brewed earlier in the week but most of that was put on the ground.  This evening I sprayed a healthy dose on everything, including the weeds around the plants to help keep it in check.  Warm days ahead are going to make the powdery mildew blossom.

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