We've had no significant rainfall since Spring, and we're irrigating our crops using a drip system rather than an overhead sprayer, so explain this:
We've got powdery mildew on the pumpkins.
Now, just to be fair, the pumpkins are in full sun only about 6 hours per day, they get direct light in the morning and late afternoon. The middle of the day tends to be a dappled light. So they get more shade than almost any other part of the garden. And it has been unusually humid here, and of course we get plenty of morning dew. But come ON. The rest of our crops are withering for lack of moisture, and the pumpkins get MILDEW?
It just doesn't seem right.
Tom urges me to point out that it's not all the pumpkins, only one type. I planted four different varieties of pumpkins this year, including gourds, so I'm not sure which one this is. (Perhaps I should start keeping better records.)
So I did a little research about how to combat this fungus, and you can use anything from milk to baking soda, but all of them help best before the mildew even shows up (in which case how are you supposed to know you'll need it???) so any treatment now is probably moot; nevertheless, I diluted some 5% apple cider vinegar with a little water and sprayed it on the leaves. We'll see if that helps.
Meanwhile the bees are going crazy in the blossoms and the plants are doing fine otherwise.
I'm excited to have pumpkins to both carve and eat!
We've got powdery mildew on the pumpkins.
Now, just to be fair, the pumpkins are in full sun only about 6 hours per day, they get direct light in the morning and late afternoon. The middle of the day tends to be a dappled light. So they get more shade than almost any other part of the garden. And it has been unusually humid here, and of course we get plenty of morning dew. But come ON. The rest of our crops are withering for lack of moisture, and the pumpkins get MILDEW?
It just doesn't seem right.
Tom urges me to point out that it's not all the pumpkins, only one type. I planted four different varieties of pumpkins this year, including gourds, so I'm not sure which one this is. (Perhaps I should start keeping better records.)
So I did a little research about how to combat this fungus, and you can use anything from milk to baking soda, but all of them help best before the mildew even shows up (in which case how are you supposed to know you'll need it???) so any treatment now is probably moot; nevertheless, I diluted some 5% apple cider vinegar with a little water and sprayed it on the leaves. We'll see if that helps.
Meanwhile the bees are going crazy in the blossoms and the plants are doing fine otherwise.
I'm excited to have pumpkins to both carve and eat!