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West Paris Me.

From what I have read on this site, Eagle is widely used for powery mildew. I have a local place where I can buy it along with a product called Milstop. Has anyone tried Milstop? I can only buy one since they both are quite expensive. Opinions?

12/30/2013 5:29:35 PM

Pa

I'm not familiar with milstop but eagle is good stuff, gives great systemic protection against pm, use with a spreader sticker about every 10 days starting around end of july

12/30/2013 10:19:37 PM

West Paris Me.

thanks

12/31/2013 11:43:20 AM

Guelph, ONT

I use milk, 40% milk 60% water. Spray 7-10 days from mid July and on.Its prevention not a cure.

12/31/2013 8:02:43 PM

Torrance, Ca.

My buddy Jim Fredrick's down south only uses milk and as long as he stays on it,,,, he holds it back pretty well!!! I myself rotate the eagle with a couple others later in the season and pm is no longer in my patch. It took me out every year when I use to grow regular pumpkins,,, thought that was just the drill until I got on a good rotation.

I was taught to be proactive and stay one step ahead of the disease.

12/31/2013 8:57:06 PM

Owensboro, Ky.

So if PM shows up in my patch in middle of June here in KY. ??? Spraying milk on my plants in mid July, prbly won't help, eh? Peace, Wayne

12/31/2013 9:46:38 PM

West Paris Me.

I have been using the ten percent milk solution for a few years now. It as worked well at the beginning of powdery mildew season, but eventually I can't seem to hold it back.
I believe this year that I will use milk and add Eagle to my rotation.

1/1/2014 4:57:53 PM

Breslau, Ontario, Canada

I found Eagle and Daconil a great 1-2 punch

1/1/2014 8:34:27 PM

East Jordan, MI

I think a rotation of at least 3 fungicides work best to keep the fungi from getting resistant. we use 40% skim milk weekly, eagle every 3 weeks, daconil every 2 weeks, and TKO or some other phosphite every 2 weeks and have very healthy leaves through the entire season. Aslo note Heavier applications can cause leaf damage....so follow the dosing directions and don't spray until the sun is no longer beating down on the leaves (dusk is when we spray).

1/1/2014 9:25:25 PM

Albert County, New Brunswick,CANADA

Not to be confused with Sodium Bicarbonate(baking soda), Potassium Bicarbonate worked very well for me, after the milk treatment was failing late in the season. It is sold under some popular names (that escape me now), but is costly - I bought some off Ebay from England,but in more populated areas might get it local. It is not as expensive as some of the ones mentioned above. The leaves were quite infected,but after spraying,most returned to a healthy green color, not like the milk treatment where they just look so-so. It really works,and lots of evidence on the web that it does.

1/2/2014 3:17:49 AM

BC, Canada

Potassium bicarbonate is not a preventative. It is used after signs of PM appear. It is sold under several different names, do a web search and you will get a lot. It works like sodium bicarbonate (baking soda)but is more effective. It raises the pH of the phylospehere, leaf surface, to make a more difficult growing environment for the moulds/mildews and it also kills them by entering and damaging the cell wall. It is an "organic" and so is safe to spray around food, pets etc.
Milk, compost tea and other such are more to the preventive side of things. Milk works, or so I think, by helping to set up a positive environment for the "good" bacteia and such that out compete the mildew.
The other products I really like that work well are the bacteria sprays like Serenade. They are mostly bacillus subtillus strains. These bacteria "eat" the mildew. They are also considered organic. They are good as prevenative are curative. I mix the potassium bicarbonate and the serenade together and have great results. On pumpkins I rotate the Serenade/potassium mix with milk, compost tea and myclobutanil (eagle 20 in the US) and neem oil concentrate. The mycolbutanil is the only syntactic or non-organic.
I also mix various foliar feeds with the mildew sprays, but NOT the potassium as some folair sprays (neem) do not like the higher pH.
Hope this helps.

1/8/2014 1:33:17 AM

BC, Canada

Kathy PS
what I started to say is that Milstop is potassium bicarbonate with a spreader sticker added. It is the one I use.
Is there a possibility of sharing a package with someone, or several people, in your area? Maybe that would be a good thread to start on PB.
If you can only go with one I would opt for the Eagle 20 as it is considered the gold standard of anti-fungals. That class of DMIs are amazing in how well they work.
Milk is very cheap to use, and baking soda is very low cost also. A little web search will give yo lots of ideas on how to use them. With either, but the baking soda especially, 2 or 3 drops of dish detergent as a surfactant is a good idea. A little horticultural oil if you have it also works to help stick it to the leaf. Spray to run off, under and over the leaf. Not in full sun.

1/8/2014 1:41:11 AM

Farming- a bunch of catastrophies that result in a lifestyle

I'm in the SE portion of NC- humid, humid, humid. For me, but I'm anal about spraying, Neem has kept me PM free for years. I've been using it in my greenhouse flowers for decades, used it in field pumpkins 2 years ago, and the AG patch this past year. I combine it with Chlorosel (trade names are numerous, but in retail stores it goes under the name Daconil) Neem works best when used regulary. It does lose effectiveness after about 7 days and needs to be reapplied, but as it is also a natural plant hormone (so I am told) I haven't found a plant yet that didn't like Neem oil.

1/8/2014 7:26:45 AM

Upa Creek, Mo

I avoided PM this year with just milk, Actinovate and Organocide. I'm trying to use the least amount of harsh chemicals on the environment as possible plus I have kids running around the back area.

1/8/2014 7:32:34 AM

Okla

Is this the same as what you are using for the potassium bicarbonate? http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=Potassium%20bicarbonate

1/8/2014 12:45:47 PM

West Paris Me.

Thank you all so much for the information. This has been an excellent thread.

1/11/2014 12:55:55 PM

Albert County, New Brunswick,CANADA

yes Thomas, that is the stuff. That's a pretty good deal on a pound if the shipping isn't too high. Just looking at what I bought, bought 100 grams,less than a quarter of a pound for 3 bucks but the shipping was 6 bucks,and probably could have got two complete sprays if I mixed it a little weaker.First time using it so I did not buy a lot. It is used in winemaking, maybe you can get it locally.

1/11/2014 1:34:31 PM

Connecticut

If you are really board this winter and want to learn more about powdery mildew take a look at these resources...

http://digitalcommons.uconn.edu/gs_theses/101/

(You can download the entire article for free)

For those that want more of a grower friendly reading...

Go to www.Team-Pumpkin.org and on the left side you will see a title called "Milk" and there you will find a poster and slideshow presentation.

Take Home Message: Milk works with multiple modes of action making it a very effective product to use for the control of Powdery Mildew. If applying in the field then 40% milk and 60% water is the recommended dilution rate with whole milk being the "best" due to the increased fat content acting as a spreader sticker.

1/12/2014 12:00:09 AM

Owensboro, Ky.

Kudo's to Luke, for lookin out for his Kids!!! Peace,Wayne

1/12/2014 12:41:58 AM

France

I use milk too and it works really well but don't miss a single week. I start to spray end of june with a 10% solution when the PM pression is low, then I increase the pourcentage slowly during the season, 20%, 30% and 40% and add a little bit of baking soda when the risk is high.

6/5/2014 6:03:49 PM

Little Rock, Arkansas

Hi guys,

PM has set in so I ordered some Potassium Bicarbonate, which is arriving today.

Can you speak about the recommended dosing for a foilare spray application?

How many tsp/oz per gallon of water?

Thanks!

7/30/2014 1:43:22 PM