a fungus on your zucchini?

[mrbigstuff]

have you tried a spray? what works?

I'm getting the white dots on the leaves, but have tons of flowers. this has happened to me in three different locations with new soil each time; i don't get it.

[OWC Jamie]

powdery mildew ?
don't water at night, don't get the leaves wet
I use soaker/weeper hoses and still get it
have to water at night though

milk mixed with water is supposed to help, but didn't work for me -
possibly I tried it too late.


I get it with cucumbers worse and I've found not planting either in the same spot for two seasons seems to be helping.


I'm having better luck growing on hilled up soil rather than flat.

Lots of bugs and worms all attack at the same time though, so you could have mutliple things going on.
I've had that worm that gets inside the leaf stem and those striped beetles all at the same time with white spotted leaves.

I'm growing cucumbers on a fence this year and have nice healthy green plants, but it also hasn't rained ( until this week ) - which is what the spores need - nice hot humid wet weather.


I've been tempted to try one of those little plastic tunnel/umbrellas to keep the rain off - but have too many other projects going on.

[mrbigstuff]

ok, that is some good advice. i do water at night, since that seemed the appropriate time given our recently hot weeks, but I'll change that routine. it is just coming out on the leaves now, and I planted late, so I'm in the flower stage now with only a few small fruits coming.

I'm curious about the milk thing. not good news that it didn't work for you, but I may try it anyway. I have read that the leaves should be cut off that have any mildew/fungus.

I only have five plants, so not many to deal with.

[mattkime]

i have too much experience with this problem.

water early morning using a soaker hose. this way the water gets to the roots and not on the leaves.

remove leaves with mildew.

you might try neem oil (or something with it) to protect leaves it works very well and is safe for people. (hum, might verify that)

In the future, its much easier to prevent the problem than to fix it.

[OWC Jamie]

That's supposedly true of fungicides as well, more of a preventative than an eradicator.

I also picked the absolute middle sunniest spot of the garden this year (avoiding especially morning shade) for zuchini , peppers and the cukes and they seem to be doing better so far, course it's been really hot, too, which they prefer.


I have low (well) water pressure and have found the soaker hoses look like they are working, but the weeper hoses actually pump more water out through the tube wall. The soaker hoses are repairable, I have no clue if you can even repair a weeper hose.