thanks to everyone for responding i guess i have a better idea what to
do. and what is a waste of money and time

Pat Kiewicz wrote:
nunya said:


my pumpkins get what i assume is a fungus as the older leaves get a
white covering like powdery mildew and then they brown out. the rest of
the plant seems to continue growing but i assume it takes some strentght
away from the plant. what is something i should use to control this?
i was hoping to use the sulphur now so as to kill off the overwintering
bacteria.


Two remedies that can be used to control powdery mildew quite safely
are baking soda and milk.

http://www.attra.org/attra-pub/bakingsoda.html
quoting:
"Some of the work at Cornell has focused on controlling fungal diseases on
cucurbits.(4) A single spray application (to runoff) of 0.5% (wt./vol. of water)
baking soda, plus 0.5% (vol./vol. of water) SunSpray UFP® horticultural oil
almost completely inhibited PM on heavily infected pumpkin foliage. Baking
soda without spray oil was ineffective, and a 2% (wt./vol. of water) solution
of baking soda damaged the leaves. Baking soda/oil sprays also provided
good control of urocladium leaf spot in cucumber, alternaria leaf blight in
muskmelon, and gummy stem blight in muskmelon. ...

"On-farm observations on melon acreage in Virginia resulted in one farm
operation switching from synthetic fungicides to a baking soda/oil spray.
These growers incorporated a liquid fertilizer into the mix."

http://www.pioneerthinking.com/tv-mildew.html
quoting:
"For decades, organic gardeners had to rely on making a spray from
baking soda to control the disease. Now, instead of measuring out
the baking soda and combining it with a surfactant (a "sticking"
substance) of either oil or soap, gardeners need only head for their
refrigerators.

"In his experiments with zucchini plants, Bettiol found that a weekly
spray of milk at a concentration of at least 10% (1 part milk to 9 parts
water) significantly reduced the severity of powdery mildew infection
on the plants by 90%. While some gardeners may be tempted to
increase the concentration of milk for more control, Bettiol found
that once concentrations rose above 30%, an innoccuous fungus
began to grow on the plants."
--

Having said that, I don't normally bother about powdery mildew on
my squash. Too my way of thinking, the mildew seems to be a
natural, weather-related phenmomenon, setting in after the first
few very cool nights as summer winds down. By that time I'm very
tired of the summer squash and don't mind the winter squash plants
loosing a little vigor (they own half the garden by then).

That's how I rationalize not hauling out the sprayer, anyway...