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Holding back the fungus in the vegetable garden. Got milk?
I have trouble with fungul infections on my plants every year, from rust on the roses to powdery mildew on my squash. I've taken out the roses, and most of my lawn (which gets rusty no matter what I try), but I refuse to give up on my squash, pumpkins, and cucumbers. This year my tomato plants came down with some spots soon after I planted them. I don't know if it was bacteria or fungus, but from what I could tell the treatment was the same either way. I tried one application of copper since I had received some as a gift years ago and still had it lying around. But, I didn't want to load up my soil with copper, so I just stuck with the one application. After that, I tried something I'd never tried before. Milk. And you know what? My tomatoes survived and prospered (I've frozen six quarts of salsa and 5 quarts of pasta sauce so far in addition to too many caprese sandwiches to count.) Plus, my cucumbers, acorn and butternut squash, and pumpkins still look pretty good going into the second week of September. Usually the squash leaves are completely covered by now. I've been spraying a mixture of two cups milk to eight cups water and 1 Tablespoon baking soda every couple of weeks since the end of July. There is powdery mildew on some of the leaves, but it's staying much more under control than any year for the past ten years I've been growing squash. Anyway, just thought I'd share in case anyone wants to give it a try.



Here are some of the articles I read that suggested using milk. https://www.growveg.com/guides/using-milk-to-prevent-powdery-mildew/ http://www.growingagreenerworld.com/controlling-or-eliminating-powdery-mildew/ http://gardening.about.com/od/naturalorganiccontrol/f/How-To-Use-Milk-To-Control-Powdery-Mildew-On-Plants.htm
I crush egg shells and incorporate the powder in my compost to add calcium to my soil. Never thought of trying milk.