powdery mildew

Just found powdery mildew on my cucumber plant leaves and now I am worried that it will infect my tomato plants (they share the same green house). Should I remove the cucumber plants and destroy them? is there cause for concern that my toms will be affected? help, I cant sleep!!!

 

Brian. As I understand it there are a lot of different varieties of powdery mildew, and they are usually specific to one family. Cucumber is a member of the Curcubit family, and tomato is a member of the Solanaceae or Potato family. These are different families and so it is unlikely that the tomatoes will catch it from the cucumber.

However all varieties of mildew thrive under the same set of conditions - dry, poor air circulation and poor light. So the first thing I would do it to address these conditions. You can then think about treating your cucumbers.

Have a Google of 'powdery mildew' - with sites such as http://www.bbc.co.uk/gardening/advice/pests_and_diseases/nonflash_index.shtml?powdery_mildew and http://organicgardening.about.com/od/diseases/p/PowderyMildew.htm These will give far more authorative information than I can.

Interestingly the second site says spraying with water is as effective as any of the nasty chemicals. I don't think there is any need to destroy the infected plants. Its quite a common thing and if it can be contained it needn't be too much of a problem.

 

Thanks PeterS. I had a go at google but couldn't find any reference to tomatoes so I thought I'd ask here, it just goes to prove the value of helpful forums such as this one.
Thanks once again for the reply.
Brian.

 

Interesting Peter ... we have powdery mildew on our grape vine which is / was above my Brugmansias, both the B suavolens and B sanguinea and it infected them (as confirmed by our Walnut two weeks ago) so they have been moved away from it as they are in pots.

Conditions ... dry, poor air circulation and poor light ... we've just come out of our wettest winter in over 40 years, no problem with air circulation as we have gusty night winds and poor light is certainly not a factor here ..... :cnfs:

I don't like chemicals so I'll start hosing the vine daily when I water.

 

Hi Victoria - I hadn't considered mildew on my Brugmansias, which are now doing well in their second year. But I have been warned. :D

As I understand it mildew is a fungus that is always around in the air - you can't actually get rid of it - its like the common cold. It doesn't effect most healthy plants. But it strikes at plants that are stressed. In the UK this is often plants that get too dry. Once a plant has been affected, I suspect it thrives in areas of poor air circulation and low light. How this works in Portugal - I don't know.

In the long run - I think prevention is the best cure.

 

I have a little Mildew on my cucumbers, I just remove any infected leaves and hope
for the best, it does seem to keep it under control. obviously don't remove too many leaves. it has never affected my tomatoes.

Pete

 

Good advice already given above.

I've noticed how some plants seem to be magnets for mildew while plants of a different species close by them don't suffer at all. For this reason, I no longer grow ajuga, scabious or monarda. But I've never seen mildew on sempervivens, bay or fuschias. This supports the belief that there are different varieties of powery mildew which attack specific plants.

 

I always associate powdery mildew with late in the season on plants that are dry at the roots.
Maybe I'm wrong, but it usually attacks plants that are stressed I think.

I also though that most mildews were specific to certain plants.

We used to have very good fungicides that were available to treat it, but these days I cant think of anything that works without leaving the leaves looking like they have been coated in oil.

 

A 10% milk solution DOES work. I found it significantly helped limit the spread. It has also been suggested that the milk provides a foliar feed.
For further info Google - "Milk solution for mildew" or words to that effect.

In my experience cucs are far more prone to mildew than toms so there is a very good chance that yours will be ok.

 

Used the baking powder, soft soap and water mixture and glad to say, it's working. Thanks to all that have commented, your help is much appreciated.
Brian