RE: [gardeners] Weekend report
Jeanne L. (gardeners@globalgarden.com)
Mon, 18 Aug 2003 11:59:18 -0700
My sympathy for your poor roses, Ron.
My tomatoes are not making flowers at the moment - it's been too warm! But
the fruits that are already set are happily ripening. The peppers are, as
you say, coming on like gangbusters.
I always get powdery mildew. I had some cukes which produced very nicely
for me for a while, and then stopped - partly from neglect while I was
busy with medical stuff, but partly because they had the powdery mildew. I
pulled them. I have also pulled a squash - it produced very nicely and
hadnt stopped producing delicious yellow squashes but it had the powdery
mildew and was overgrowing its allotted space! A third squash is mildly
affected but continues to produce.
In answer to your question about the absence of moisture, "powdery mildew
spores are carried by wind to new hosts. Although humidity requirements for
germination vary, all powdery mildew species can germinate and infect in
the absence of free water. In fact, spores of some powdery mildew fungi are
killed and germination is inhibited by water on plant surfaces for extended
periods." This quote is from the Powdery Mildew article at
http://ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/PESTNOTES/pn7406.html
I'd love to get poinciana seeds! Thanks.
Jeanne in S. Orange County, CA
At 07:38 AM 8/18/03, you wrote:
>But our late tomato and eggplant gardens are another matter. The tomatoes
>are beginning to come on like gang busters; so are our eggplants, if we
>can just keep ahead of the red spiders!
>
>Have any of you had major problems with cukes and squash? We lost our
>whole row of Armenian cukes to mildew. I had thought it was some sort of
>mite and kept spraying, when all the time it was mildew. How the heck can
>one have mildew if the humidity is as low as a snake's belly and the temps
>are on the order of a blast furnace?!
>Now to keep that scuzzy stuff off our adjancent chard row!
--
I went to buy some camouflage trousers the other day but I couldn't find any.