This 1 Kitchen Staple Clears Up Powdery Mildew Fast – How to Make a Cheap & Easy Spray to Stop Fungus Spreading
Protect plants from powdery mildew by making a spray with this common kitchen item. Here's how to do it.
Summer is the ultimate reward for gardeners. All your hard work pays off in lush foliage and gorgeous flowers. Now, imagine you walk through your garden one morning only to find that your prized plants are struggling and look like they’ve been dusted with flour. This is powdery mildew.
Powdery mildew is one of the most common fungal infections to affect garden plants. It thrives when days are warm and dry and nights are humid. It can damage and, in severe cases, even kill plants. Fortunately, if you catch it early, you can use a common kitchen staple to make a powdery mildew spray that will keep this nasty infection at bay.
A baking soda spray for powdery mildew is a useful tool in fighting this damaging fungal disease. With this simple and safe homemade remedy, you can keep your plants healthy and beautiful for the rest of the summer. Here’s how to do it.
What Is Powdery Mildew?
Powdery mildew is a fungal garden disease that affects many plants. It’s caused by several different types of fungi. The good news is that the type of fungus that causes the disease is unique to each plant. So if your roses have powdery mildew, they can’t spread the disease to your nearby lilac or squash plants.
The most characteristic sign of powdery mildew is the presence of a white or gray powdery substance on leaves. It can also develop on stems, buds, flowers, or even fruits. All types of plants can potentially be affected by powdery mildew from shrubs and trees to perennials and vegetables.
Powdery mildew doesn’t look very nice, but it can also harm plants by blocking photosynthesis and ultimately reducing the plant’s growth. You might also see leaves turn yellow, curl up, and eventually drop.
It can be easy to miss the early signs of powdery mildew, so be vigilant. Look on lower leaves, interior leaves, and the undersides of leaves for the first signs of an infection. Early detection will make it easier to manage and prevent the spread of this disease.
How Baking Soda for Powdery Mildew Works
It’s always best to prevent diseases like powdery mildew, but even with your best efforts, you might see signs of it if the conditions are right. Instead of tearing out entire plants or turning to chemical fungicides, try home remedies.
A powdery mildew baking soda spray can help stop the spread of the disease by changing the pH on your plants’ surfaces. Baking soda is alkaline. Spraying it onto the plant will raise the pH, creating an inhospitable environment for the fungus to live and spread.
This homemade fungicide won’t totally kill the fungus or restore damaged leaves to a healthier state. What it does instead is prevents the fungus from creating and dispersing more spores. It slows or stops the spread of the disease to the rest of the plant or other plants of the same species.
You’ll get the best results by combining a baking soda spray for powdery mildew with overall good gardening practices, like ensuring your plants have plenty of airflow between stems and leaves.
What You Will Need
Stock up on baking soda to fight fungus in your garden all summer.
Choose a biodegradable dish soap like this to prevent adding unwanted chemicals into your garden.
Mix up your baking powdery spray in one of these bottles for easy application in the garden.
DIY Powdery Mildew Baking Soda Spray
The recipe for this DIY baking soda spray for powdery mildew is simple: Mix one tablespoon of baking soda and a teaspoon of dish soap into a gallon of water. The dish soap helps the solution stick to the plant instead of just running off and into the soil.
Mix your solution thoroughly before using, as the baking soda won’t entirely dissolve. Use a spray bottle to spray the solution all over the affected plant, including on the undersides of leaves.
The best times to use the spray are early in the morning and late in the evening. Reapply the spray every week or so, more frequently if it rains.
Safety Precautions
Baking soda is generally safe, but it can potentially burn foliage, so resist the urge to make a stronger solution with more baking soda. Before you use the spray all over a plant, test it on one leaf. Wait 24 hours to see how the leaf responds before spraying the entire plant.
Avoid using this remedy during the afternoon when it’s hot and sunny or on drought-stressed plants, as this can intensify potential damage.
Another issue is that baking soda can cause salt buildup in the soil. Water the soil around plants thoroughly before applying the spray and limit its use to no more than once per week. As an alternative, you can use potassium bicarbonate in the same recipe with similar results and less risk of salt accumulation.
Tips for Managing Powdery Mildew
Baking soda is not a miracle cure for powdery mildew and it doesn’t actually kill the fungus. What it’s good at doing is preventing further spread of the disease. For the best results, combine the use of this homemade spray with other best practices to prevent and manage powdery mildew. You can also try a commercial organic fungicide like this one from Bonide.
Space your plants appropriately and thin them from time to time to be sure air can flow through and around them. Too much humidity within and around plants is ideal for fungal growth.
If you don’t catch powdery mildew early and find heavily infected leaves or stems, trim away these parts of the plant before using a baking soda spray. Dispose of them in the garbage rather than in your compost pile, where they can continue to spread the disease. Always sanitize your pruning tools and wash your hands after doing this chore to prevent spread as well.
