"Chris" wrote in message
...

"escapee" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 03 May 2004 13:56:57 GMT, "Chris" opined:

My front crepe myrtle has a very bad case of powdery mildew. It had it
last
year, too, and never flowered. How do I stop this cycle? Someone
posted
something about using a milk solution. Does this work? I bought some
really nasty stuff last year that required me to wear protective
clothing
and a ventilator when I applied it. Supposedly it killed everything.
It
didn't appear to work and, given that almost everything else I use is
environmentally-reasonable, I'd rather not use that again.



Any suggestions?
Thanks.
Chris


Yes, you can mix a cup of dry skim milk in a gallon of water and spray
all
the
foliage, not forgetting the undersides of leaves. The lactic acid in
the
milk
lowers the pH on the surface of the leave, making it inhospitable to the
pathogen. You can use liquid milk also, but then I would use 2 cups to
a
gallon
of water.


Great, thanks. I just coated the tree with about nearly 1.5 gallons of
water with 0.5 gallon of milk added (total 2 gallons). Hopefully that
will
stop this nonesense.
Chris

If that doesn't work you can also mix 1 tsp of baking soda per gal of water.
It works on the same principal. Mildew and fungus can only live in a narrow
PH range. Changing the PH a bit, either up or down, will kill it.

BTW, the reason your shrub didn't flower last year probably doesn't have to
do with the mildew. Flowing shrubs will only flower on new growth. So if
the shrub has reached it's maximum height it will stop blooming. If this is
the case, you'll need to prune the shrub back to get it to flower again.