Milk as a fungicide??

is this any use? Milk as a Garden Fungicide for Powdery Mildew, Botrytis, and Black Spots | Suite101.com

You know- I'd never heard of this!!!

(but- when you come to think about it- live yogurt is used to control thrush in humans....but then again milk isn't live is it...so must be something to do with the properties of the milk content and not jut the live yeast)

There was a chap on Cov and Warwick radio that was talking about one third of a pint of milk mixed with 1&half tables spoons of baking powder for doing what you want it was 1 of his grandads methods....jacob

Im going to try this today as most of my outside toms have botrytis

Thanks TS, I'd read other sites on the net but not that one - I had read about the cyclamen though so I suspect info gets passed around the sites.

Some recipes use baking powder and even a light oil in with the milk.

There seems to be a lot of references on the net to "my granddad did it" but little by way of recent uses and success/failure stories.

It seems that half water, half milk is often suggested as a single application through to 10% milk to 90% water as a spray every two days.



I've just got back after a few days away and found my greenhouse tomatoes badly affected so have removed all bad leaves and sprayed with 50-50 milk-water mix.

I've also removed leaves for ventilation and changed the autovents to open earlier to give more air movement. I may consider a fan for a few days as well.


Why have I got it this year for the first time?

I think there are two main factors:-

1/ I'm growing some Roma bush plants in the greenhouse this year for the first time so I have much more "greenery" than normal - this has increased the transpiration and hence humidity.

2/ I altered the autovents to keep them closed for longer during this colder weather we have in an attempt to keep my chilli plants at a more even and warmer temperature. I also have kept the door closed at night more than normal. Again this has increased humidity.



Next year I'm going back to only cordons in the greenhouse!!!

I tried a 10% solution on my climbing rose for black spot together with soot on the ground around the tree. It's sort of worked - at least my poor rose has still got leaves on and some without blackspot altogether. I'll try doing it earlier next year.
I suspect adding a spot of oil to the mix would help it stick on the leaves - you certainly don't want to stand down wind when doing this and then have to get the bus home.

Sue

I used milk on the mildew on my swedes last year and it didn't do a thing!
I've grown mildew resistant swedes this year and had no problems so far!

I have been trying this out all season an so far so good. last year i had big mildew problems with my courgettes quite early in the season, and this year i have been spraying twice a week with a one part milk to ten parts water mix an so far i have only had one leaf get a touch of mildew on one plant. All the outside toms are getting sprayed twice a week and no blight yet either.
It might just be that the weather conditions are not so perfect for mildew as last year, but i have seen plants locally suffering while mine are not.
I will let you know at the end of the season how things work out though i think it will take a few seasons untill i am certain if its the milk treatment, or the differing weather that responcible for the reduction in mildew an blight.

Wren