How To End Powdery Mildew (PM) With Milk

*1 part RAW milk and 9 parts water gets rid of Powdery Mildew. RAW milk. RAW! Not regular, store-bought, dead, pasteurized milk. Big difference. Read on for details.


So... As is the case with so many growers out there, Powdery Mildew (henceforth to be called PM) has been a nagging pain in the ass for me over the years. Some strains, like Killer Queen, are horrible PM magnets, inviting the quick spread of spores in the back, shadowy areas of the garden before I know it has even started.

I've tried TONS of techniques to get rid of the stuff, from sulfur sprays and baking soda spritzes, to straight water spray and sulfur vaporizers. The most effective of these was the sulfur vapor, but the PM would eventually come back, and hot sulfur is not the most plant-friendly substance.

I read about some university that had discovered that milk, mixed 1:9 with water, sprayed on plants would kill the PM and protect the sprayed plant surfaces from infection in the future. I tried it... It worked. However, there are some aspects I discovered about this technique you need to know in order to have success.

An anecdote:
After using the 1:9 milk/water spray with AMAZING success, I suggested it to a couple friends who were struggling with PM in their gardens. IT DID NOT WORK FOR THEM. Naturally this was puzzling for me since it DESTROYED the PM in my garden. However, I had a hunch it was because they were using regular store-bought milk, and I was using raw milk from a farm up the road from us. I suggested the raw milk, but they never went and got it, and they kept spraying the dead, store-bought milk.

After a few weeks of desperately spraying the shit out of their plants with no success at killing PM, there were white splotches of dried milk all over their plants. Here's what's to pay attention to... MY MILK LEFT NO WHITE SPLOTCHES AT ALL. At most, my milk would leave small, oily spots which would dissipate over the course of a few days. Their plants had white splotches of dried milk which never dissipated. This is how very different the milks are, even down to how they dry.

One friend, who was still using the store-bought, pasteurized milk, actually caused the PM to turn into full-on bud rot by spraying it on the buds, which in turn drove the PM spores INTO the buds where they developed into bud rot! Bad scene. I've driven PM spores into my buds before when I was trying to spray with baking soda solution... Same result... bud rot. So if you ever HAVE to spray buds to remove PM, make sure to spray from the top of the buds so as to not drive spores INTO the flowers. And... make sure to spray RAW MILK.

So... after a few weeks of my friends spraying dead milk on their plants with very little success (or even outright failure), I finally mixed a bottle of my RAW milk and went over to spray their gardens for them. The next day I received a call telling me it did the job, the PM was seriously knocked on its ass... AND... my milk left no white, dry milk splotches. The result was obvious... the milk had to be alive (raw/unpasteurized) for it to ravage the PM effectively.

VERY IMPORTANT... spray with lights on! SPRAY-WITH-LIGHT-ON!
Apparently the milk becomes anti-septic when exposed to bright light.

Evidence supporting the anti-septic idea:
Ancient Egyptian soldiers would use the milk of breast-feeding mothers on serious battle wounds to help disinfect.

And... breastfeeding mothers who know the trick, will squirt a small amount of breast milk into the eye of their infant if the baby has an eye infection... which is a common problem in the first couple months after birth. I doubt it would kill the infection if the mother's milk was dead/pasteurized!

So... instructions. Mix raw milk at a ratio of 1 part milk to 9 parts water, spray on EVERY plant surface, with or without an active PM infection. The PM areas will be cleansed of PM, and the uninfected areas will be protected from PM. Spray on leaves, top and bottom, and hit all stems also. Lastly, do a victory dance because you just kicked the shit out of your old adversary... naturally.

* Edit... I now believe that the fat in the milk is much more of an important factor in the control of Mildew than the antiseptic angle. I learned this by having kids. What I mean is... I used some of our raw milk to spray plants, and this time the milk dried to little white spots, instead of oily spots. Well, the milk that dried to white spots was much less effective at controlling the mildew than the milk that dried and left oily residue. I blame the kids because they often forget to shake the milk before pouring themselves a glass. With raw milk, you have to shake it up before pouring it because all the fat rises to the top. So... I used milk that had been "skimmed" by the kids, leaving the rest of the milk very low in fat. The coating of fat on the leaves is what seems to do the most damage to the mildew, and prevents spores from taking root. I had heard about oil being a good mildew killer in the past, and I think someone in this thread even mentioned it.

So... Now, instead of using milk, I use a little whipping (or heavy) cream in some warm water with a drop or two of dish soap. The dish soap helps to get the milk fat (the oil) to spread out and evenly coat the leaf and stem surfaces.

So... through this process I have learned that raw milk is NOT that important, but rather, HIGH MILK FAT (or some other appropriate oil) is what makes the biggest difference.

Keep learning!

Peace,
cc

Amazing once again CC, thanks.

Never even thought about the raw vs store milk. Makes sense when I think about when I had PM and used the store bought milk and it did nada. was very turned off from the whole experience.

So you also use it as a preventive, what kind of timing? Before bud set? And how long does it protect it?

Good info CC . I never had PM until this past spring. Got it passed along by a friend . Now Im afraid im gonna do battle with it when I fire up the indoor here in the next couple weeks. Im gonna vaporize some sulfur in the empty room and bleach everything I possibly can. But will deff. keep the milk in the back of my mind .
thanks
mutt

Corpsey, I'd use it whenever you see PM. Even after buds are thick. I'd rather kill the PM on the buds with raw milk then rinse it off with a spritz of fresh water a few days later, than harvest buds with PM all over it. Ideally you don't want anything on the buds, but if I had to choose between raw milk or PM, I'd take milk any time. At least you can rinse a lot of the milk off just before harvest. If you do it right, though, with raw milk, there should be very, very little residual milk to contend with. As far as how long it provides protection... All I can say is... wherever I sprayed, I never again saw PM. But of course, in veg there is always new leaf and stem surface being created, so spraying in veg more often makes good sense. Now, I only spray if I see a spot of PM... and if I DO see a spot, I spray the whole garden. This way, PM will become completely extinct for lack of ever finding purchase on my plants, never ever being allowed to feed itself and make new spores.

Yeah Mutt... I forgot to tell you my recent experiences... But... look above... there they are! hehehe

Yea, I definitely would use the milk if saw PM at any stage, I was just asking about preventive only. Have not had PM in over a year, but I'm always worried. It was such a bitch.

pm can not develop into budrot. two completely different types of fungus.

Sifted is correct. I love the idea of using raw milk though. I batlled pm for years. Neem, milk, high ph water, sulphur burners and alll just kept it at bay. Didnt want to use a systemic fungicide but it lives within the plant. Eagle20(nasty shit) was the only true cure. A couple years back i used eagle 20 and i havent sprayed it since. I NEVER see pm anymore though. I wish i could have fully eliminated it in an organic method. However, over a year or two down the line i dont think residual fungicide is in my plant material anymore. I doubt it lives for 600+ days. The pm is really gone though, for a long time now.

^from what ive researched, milk wont do anything apart from get rid of the white fungus, which is effectively the ''flowering'' part of its life cycle. like crooked said, you need a systemic treatment..

You can go as high as 50% Raw Milk/Water--for the serious PM issues. IMHO, for foliar sprays the "low fat" variety is best...but for feeding the soil microherd, "regular" variety is good. Right now, the "low fat" is about half the cost of "regular" Raw Milk.

A study that used Milk to combat PM in zucchini concluded:

Milk applied twice a week at concentrations of 10% and higher controlled powdery mildew on zucchini squash at least as effectively as conventional fungicides (Table 1). Several concentrations of milk were more effective than the fungicides fenarimol and benomyl. When the applications were done once a week, milk concentrations of 20% and 50% were required to achieve the same level of disease control as fungicides in the fourth and fifth experiments, respectively (Table 2).

Cow milk may have more than one mode of action in controlling zucchini squash powdery mildew. Fresh milk may have a direct effect against S. fuliginea due to its germicidal properties (Salle, 1954). Milk contains several salts and amino-acids (Martins Filho, 1987). These substances have been shown to be effective in controlling powdery mildew and other diseases (Reuveni et al, 1993/1995; Mucharromah and Kuc, 1991; Titone et al, 1997; Pasini et al, 1997). Several authors have shown that sodium bicarbonate, oxalate, dibasic or tribasic potassium phosphate, and other salts and amino-acids have been efficient in the induction of systemic resistance (Reuveni et al, 1993/1995; Mucharromah and Kuc, 1991; Titone et al, 1997; Pasini et al, 1997; van Andel, 1966). Therefore milk may also indirectly affect S. fuliginea by inducing systemic resistance.

Source: http://www.agrar.de/agenda/bettiol.htm

Got Milk?

Great thread!

good work

if milk works, what is the active ingredient which kills pm?

why not hydrogen peroxide...nothing left upon evaporating... I had bad success trying raw milk and I got it from my buddy at the time from his cows..not store bought....peroxide at around 3 percent few times..then slightly stronger if needed... did however do the job with no complaints...

Yes the milk needs to be raw to be effective, but to really work, there are a few other tweaks that you need to follow for the milk to be fully activated. I was taught by someone who grew for years and years that you need to drop a SILVER coin in the milk for 30 minutes to align the frequency to the proper band. THEn you add a COPPER coin for 15min to lock in the correct wavelengths. Now that the funds are balanced you need to activate the specific bacteria for marijuana, to do this chew three fan leaves for 5minutes and then spit into the milk ten minutes after the copper coin has been removed and one (1) hour before you spray the mixture onto only the fan leaves. Works like a charm!

Botanical oils spread on the leaf surface and suffocate spores ending the disease cycle.. havent had any pm issues since I started spraying ic3 oil and triact70 once a week or so in veg.

The oil aspect really makes sense to me. The raw milk leaves a slight oily base behind. I've seen it work in several gardens, all in the last month... Extremely effective.

However, the research showing that light activates an anti-septic property is very promising also. If true, then the oil effects in addition to the anti-septic effects mean there's a double whammy-type of benefit.

In my experience, it has been the most effective remedy for PM. I haven't tried the H202 approach, though. I hope I never need another method, though, than the raw milk method. We always have this milk in the fridge, so it's always available to me to use. And it makes the best cappuccinos, too!

siftedunity said:

if milk works, what is the active ingredient which kills pm?

Click to expand...

From above---

Cow milk may have more than one mode of action in controlling zucchini squash powdery mildew. Fresh milk may have a direct effect against S. fuliginea due to its germicidal properties (Salle, 1954). Milk contains several salts and amino-acids (Martins Filho, 1987). These substances have been shown to be effective in controlling powdery mildew and other diseases (Reuveni et al, 1993/1995; Mucharromah and Kuc, 1991; Titone et al, 1997; Pasini et al, 1997). Several authors have shown that sodium bicarbonate, oxalate, dibasic or tribasic potassium phosphate, and other salts and amino-acids have been efficient in the induction of systemic resistance (Reuveni et al, 1993/1995; Mucharromah and Kuc, 1991; Titone et al, 1997; Pasini et al, 1997; van Andel, 1966). Therefore milk may also indirectly affect S. fuliginea by inducing systemic resistance.

Granted, Raw Milk is 87% water, 4% fat and about 9% "Non-fat solids"....it is this 9% that is of interest: protein, sugars, minerals, acids, vitamins, enzymes and a great diversity of fungi and bacteria (food for the microherd).

For detail of what is in Raw Milk, go here: http://www.raw-milk-facts.com/

anything alkaline with a PH over 9.5 will runn off Powder Mildew and Keep it at bay until you get your atmosphere under control. Spray with PH 10.5 water and thank me later