Hi,

This does not have milk in it, but it is an organic control for powdery mildew on cucurbits that I have often used in the greenhouse.  It works great as long as you spray once a week so that all new growth is controlled.  The mixture is as follows:

1 gallon of water

1 tablespoon of sodium bicarbonate (baking soda)

2 teaspoons of vegetable oil

Mix thoroughly before spraying.  Mornings seem to be the best time to spray, and be sure to repeat weekly.  Although I have seen several versions of this mixture, I have never seen one in metric units; so, I've never taken the time to convert it.  This has worked well on the squashes that I grew repeatedly for many years.  Other controls that I tried especially ones with a sulphur compound in them caused so much necrotic flecking on the squash that they were as bad as the powdery mildew.

I hope that this helps you,

Marie Langham

South Dakota State University 

Thank you very much Mrs. Langham! very useful information, I will try with the metric version of your recipe. Regards!

You are very welcome.  Let me know if it works for you.

Marie Langham

Hi Marie! So far it seems it's working beautiful! I adapted your recipe as follows:

1,5L water + 3g Sodium bicarbonate + half teaspoon olive oil

I applied in the late afternoon to 9 out of 10 plants (left one without treatment) five days ago. The control plant is the only one presenting white powdery circles , the rest has a kind of yellow, round-shape mark as though the hyphae has burned out.

Thanks again!

Thanks for letting me know that it is working well for you. I'm excited to know that it is working well.

Thanks!

Hi again Marie. Have you tried with potassium bicarbonate? Maybe it'd be less poisonous than sodium, and in case that it'd be as efective as sodium, could be used as foliar feeding as well. What's your opinion?

No, I have not tried it, but it sounds like a good idea.  Are you going to try it?  I am not working with squash now or I would test it.  If you do try it, let me know how it goes.

Marie

Dear Dr. Rafael,

 Your ideas of organic Agriculture are too novice and good and hope slowly you can contribute significantly in developing good Methods for pest control to replace present pesticides.  I am from India currently on Summer vacations in Canada and would return Home on Sept 2, 2014. I am retired Agronomist from Haryana Agri University, Hisar, Haryana in 2007 and was working on Allelopathy to develop technology for pests (Insects, weeds, Nematodes and pathogens) control without using present pesticides, which are very harmful. The greatest problem I faced was we did not have Sophisticated Chemical analysis facilities like HPLC, GCMS, NMR, IR etc hence, could not find which compounds were responsible for pests control. I know so many plants which effectively controls many pests without use of present pesticides.  I have organized 4- International Conferences on Allelopathy in India and have Authored/ Edited about 25 Books on Allelopathy. Now I am Chief Editor, Allelopathy Journal, a SCI Journal and do not have research facilities. However I can help as consultant.

Coming to your idea for pests control. About 15- years ago I visited  a Gaushala (place to rear only cows) in nearby village Ladwa (10 Km from Hisar, 170 Km from New Delhi) famous for helping in Organic Agriculture etc. They have no scientists but managed by only farmers. At that time, they were producing (i). vermicompost using Earth worms and (ii) Pesticide formulation/Concotion (After fermentation for many days) to control many insects using the most bitter tasting plants of this region. Both these are very effective. It would be your greatest contribution, if their formulations can be tested for most chemical constituents in their pesticidal Product and vermicompost etc.  so that their  technology can be used world wide. Their website is shreeladwagaushala.org/

You can contact me directly at [email protected]