Powdery mildew on zucchini. Preparations from powdery mildew

The main trouble of any gardener or gardener has always been, there are and will be pests and plant diseases. After all, it is not enough to plant a site with different crops - it is necessary to ensure that they give an abundant and high-quality harvest, and for this it is required to protect their planting from uninvited guests and sudden sickness. One of the most common problems is powdery mildew - on the vegetable marrows and other melons and gourds it was met and almost every gardener struggled with it. Let's try to generalize the experience of all the predecessors.

What it is

This disease of plants can be of two types: actually powdery mildew (on squash, pumpkins and other relatives, it occurs most often) and false, which is most susceptible to cucumbers. Both varieties have a fungal origin, although they are caused by different representatives of the fungal family. The difference can be noted only in outward manifestations: the "real" type of disease manifests itself on the outer surface of the leaves, and the powdery mildew (with the scientific name of peronosporosis) on the inner, and only then spots appear on top - no longer white.

External signs of the disease

The most obvious of them is distinct white stains on the surface of foliage and flowers. In principle, they really look like flour flour. If you do not take urgent measures, the disease spreads to the stems. And after a while, white (or grayish) spots turn brown - this indicates that the process has gone far enough, and the disease threatens all of your plantings.

However, with the general similarity of the onset of the disease, additional signs in different plants will differ. Thus, powdery mildew in zucchini presents itself with a sharp withering of the leaves, which are covered with a white coating reminiscent of a thin layer of flour. If the leaf does not have time to get strong enough, then it dies very quickly. The same goes for the stem: young shoots die before they can develop.

The situation with culture such as black currant is a little different. Powdery mildew, hitting bushes, warps young branches and shoots this year and causes twisting of leaves. As a result, the foliage withers and falls. If the berries had time to get stuck, they were completely covered with a white bloom.

Powdery mildew on flowers shows itself, basically, all the same white spots. When flowering, it is worth paying special attention to flowers - if they are brightly colored, you can notice the first manifestations of the disease on them earlier than on the foliage.

What promotes the development of the disease

Powdery mildew on squash and other garden plants is especially active in conditions of intense heat and high humidity. Sharp significant temperature changes also favor the spread of the fungus. In hothouse conditions, too rare airing, and stagnation of moist and warm air can also cause a surge and rapid spread of the disease.

However, not only the weather can be a stimulant for the reproduction of powdery mildew. Site owner errors can also contribute to plant damage. The first of them is too dense planting. The second, no less frequent, is soil contamination. Fungi and spores safely overwinter in unharvested weeds, and in spring move to cherished crops. The third is the illiterate top dressing of plants, which includes excess nitrogen and a lack of calcium. And, finally, negligent attitude towards planting, insufficient treatment from pests. And in fact some of them, for example shchitovka, aphids or the chervets, after themselves leave a sweet sticky trace on which harmful disputes quickly develop.

How to prevent the appearance of disease

Warn sickness is always cheaper and easier than after long and hard to treat their pets. In addition, do not forget: drugs from powdery mildew are mostly chemistry, which, of course, relieves the plant of the disease, but it is not useful either for the soil or for the gardener who comes into contact with it. So first of all, carefully examine your plantations. If they are too thick - ruthlessly thin out, do not create on the site tropics, in which the fungus feels so comfortable.

Pay attention to how you water the plants. If in the process you get water on the leaves - change the tactics. Leave under the root: and before it the moisture will reach faster, and the chance to multiply for the disease will be less, and water will save.

Carefully monitor the dosage of fertilizer applied. Do not "salve" with nitrogen, better increase the dose of phosphorus and potassium, which increase the ability of plants to resist disease. But in moderation, in moderation! Busting is often as bad as a shortfall.

Keep the greenhouses as often as possible. The greenhouse effect, we repeat, is useful only for spores of harmful fungus, and your crops need fresh air and hardening. And constantly collect fallen leaves or broken stems - in them the infection miraculously multiplies.

Equally carefully monitor the purity of your garden tools and pots, if you are preparing seedlings or planting indoor plants. Powdery mildew on flowers is often found in the home.

What to do first

No matter how much your "plantation" is affected, it is necessary to begin with the most important thing - to reduce the focus of the disease. To do this, all parts of the plant, infected with fungus, are cut with the capture of even healthy areas. In order not to become the very source of infection, a tool of labor - be it a secateur or a knife - needs to be disinfected. If the disease affected a large part of the plant, it is better to eliminate it completely, so that it does not infect nearby growing ones. Whichever means you use at the next stages of the rescue operation, this part of the work must be done necessarily.

What can help plants in the early stages of the disease

Until the matter has gone too far, and most of your plantings are healthy, good results are obtained by spraying them with a solution of ordinary manganese after medical circumcision. In a bucket of warm water, it will be enough to dilute about a kilogram of potassium permanganate. Processing should not be unique: it should be repeated two-three times with an interval in a week-two. Each time before the procedure you need to inspect the plants and cut the diseased parts. Not bad, and calcined soda in the amount of two tablespoons per ten-liter bucket of water. But if the distribution of powdery mildew is high, it will be necessary to resort to more serious methods.

Disadvantages of the most popular "medicines"

Most gardeners are convinced that colloidal sulfur and Bordeaux liquid is a panacea in combating powdery mildew. However, we must admit that this is not so. Fungus that causes this disease, develops a kind of addiction, resistance to both sulfur and copper. There are some kind of mutated strains, whose "descendants" are simply not receptive to them. So both funds are only suitable if they were used more than once in this particular section. However, pollination of plantings with colloidal sulfur as a preventive measure is still approved by most truck farmers. But not as a treatment, especially if a lot of plants are affected by the fungus.

Features of powdery mildew on onions

Unfortunately, this culture is also subject to the disease under consideration. The fleshy mildew on the onion is shown by light green spots on young leaves. They spread over the surface with a violet-grayish coating, then the leaves turn yellow and dry, and the fungus "leaves" into the bulbs, stopping their growth. Diseases of a variety with a flat feather - shallots, shnitt, turnip, baton, etc. are exposed. Flat-leaved - leeks, fragrant, slug (and garlic for the company) - they do not give in. "Treat" the onions usually with copper-containing preparations (Polikarbatsinom, the same Bordeaux mixture or copper chloride, mixed with a solution of laundry soap for better adhesion.

Folk ways of fighting

One of the most reliable methods recommended by wise peasants is a "milkshake". For three liters of regular whey, seven liters of water and a teaspoon of copper sulfate are taken. Here you have a combination of people's experience and chemical achievements. No less popular onion tincture: 200 g of husk pour boiling water in a volume of 10 liters and a couple of days insist. Do not forget to strain! Also recommend a solution of soap chips or tobacco infusion, and some very praise pollination by ash or its infusion in warm water.

Chemistry to the rescue

In complex and neglected cases, it is necessary to use potent modern chemical preparations from powdery mildew. Their main advantage is that they do not cause the addictive effect and equally fatal effects on all generations of the fungus. Most of these remedies are "embedded" in the tissues of the protected plants, making their juice deadly to parasites. On the person thus they do not operate, in fruits and leaves do not accumulate. The most popular and effective now are "Fitosporin" and "Topaz". However, please note that different plants require an individual approach. So, powdery mildew on tomatoes is better treated with a solution of zineb, which is sprayed sick plants seven to ten days. They say that other methods are more laborious and less effective.

But powdery mildew on grapes is easier to give in to natural ways of fighting. Among them, the most effective is dung infusion, which is diluted with water in a ratio of 1: 2. After filtering, the product is used to spray grapes, but only before buds are blooming.

Recognized yet another popular method, how to get rid of powdery mildew (and not only in grapes - it fits almost all plants). For this, the plantings are treated with diluted serum in a ratio of 1: 3. Lactic acid is the enemy of the fungus, it dies from it. By the way, for prevention, it is also suitable: in the autumn you can simply pour the soil with such a solution.

Remains powdery mildew on cucumbers. Treatment at first is standard: all the same Bordeaux liquid or a solution of powdered copper sulfate. But if the fungus is already accustomed to copper, you will have to resort to a diluted carat. At 10 liters it is taken to 10 g and sprayed the affected planting two weeks.

Do not give up! Even if you have suffered such a disaster, it is quite possible to fight it.