Citric acid foliar spray for powdery mildew?

[Tynehead Tom]

google JoeCrowe or look him up on Overgrow. It's all there in the open to see.
He has scientifically debunked many a method by first infecting the tissue, observing the behavior of the pm spores and then applying the treatments. He has gone through many forms of pm and not just the ones that infect cannabis.
No it can't be used in flower and that is a downside so perhaps the citric acid based method can get a person thru to harvest but the PM is still in the plant tissues the consumer will be consuming.
Wettable sulphur is usually availlable at any decent nursery or gardening center for cheap.
It takes a tablespoon per gallon i think..... I have notes somewhere.
Used as a preventative spray for grow areas and once before the flip to flower.
Not trying to preach to you guys, just passing on something that completely eradicated PM from my garden.
100%

 

[goingrey]

google JoeCrowe or look him up on Overgrow. It's all there in the open to see.
He has scientifically debunked many a method by first infecting the tissue, observing the behavior of the pm spores and then applying the treatments. He has gone through many forms of pm and not just the ones that infect cannabis.
No it can't be used in flower and that is a downside so perhaps the citric acid based method can get a person thru to harvest but the PM is still in the plant tissues the consumer will be consuming.
Wettable sulphur is usually availlable at any decent nursery or gardening center for cheap.
It takes a tablespoon per gallon i think..... I have notes somewhere.
Used as a preventative spray for grow areas and once before the flip to flower.
Not trying to preach to you guys, just passing on something that completely eradicated PM from my garden.
100%

Tried my best. Found no microphotography of citric acid treated pm infected tissue from him. If someone else has better luck please share the link.

 

[subrob]

And just to be clear, when I say micronized sulfur, I'm talking about spraying it, not burning. No special brand or anything, just found the smallest bag I could on Amazon, lol, now have 10 lifetimes or more supply!
I had bought it to fight a broad mite infection that came in w another cut. When the cut w PM arrived, I had already completed 2/3 sprays for mites on my moms. So she got the 3rd spray. And that was it. My dilution rate was high, too high, I ended up basically waiting for new growth on each plant and pruning ALL original growth as 3 sprays at that rate was just too much. But the one spray that the pm cut got, ended it. With no slow down of growth.
Now...it was literally new to the garden, introduced directly to garden (it's small enough nowadays I don't trip), but as Tom said above, once you see it, it's spread. It was about 2.5 days in when I saw it.
The fact that all the original growth of the 4-5 other plants was slowly dying helped, but not enough to stop PM.

Burning sulfur or spraying citric never stopped PM in one shot like that. Not even in a mini garden like mine. Been about 6 months and monsoon season. No trace in up to 60-70% humid veg room.

 

[Tynehead Tom]

I'm not here to challenge you or the study you are referring to on citric acid.
I also never said citric acid was tested but I do believe it has come up in recent posts in his ongoing thread.

What I can tell you is this..... for anyone paying attention..... wettable sulphur , sprayed on the plants and grow area, intake ducts ect..... KILLS PM in and on the plant. KILLS PM in and around the environment. Kills it dead
The science is proven both in the thread and in the garden.
I suppose we could challenge each other post by post but I'm not playing those silly games.

I am curious as to whether this citric acid based method works to kill the PM in the plant and not just "wash" the spores off the vegetation surfaces. If it can safely be used in flower to kill pm dead like wettable sulphur does in Veg....... hell the growers problems with PM would be no more with two proven solutions.
So I'm ot here to discount the citric acid foilar spray for powdery mildew...... if it can be proven as safe and effective on blooming cannabis..... awesome.... show it in the garden.
The other guy "proved" without a doubt using labratory tools and equipment to do so and documented it all..... that wettable sulphur spray kills pm dead...... this I will not debate.... it's proven in practical application.

So need to know is..... does this citric acid foilar simply cleanse the vegetation surface of the spores or does it get right into the flesh and kill the mycellium (spelling?) which is actually the infection. The white spots are spores that fruit 40 days after infection. Many products wash it off , like baking soda , milk...... all kinds of methods that I jokingly refer to as Bro science LOL many people use the term so I felt it appropriate hehehe

anyways carry on. I'd like to see a live grow room with pm cured with this method. Turn me into a believer!!!

 

[funkyhorse]

I think different environments require different solutions. I am seeing on youtube plenty of videos from Spain explaining the use of milk as fungicide, I dont doubt it must work over there. What I do know for sure and proved is the solutions proposed from Spain didnt solve any problem here and different products are used and viceversa, the solutions used here dont seem to be heard of or used at all in Spain
In my environment which is wetlands, totally the opposite of Spain, nobody applies milk here and other solutions you dont propose are common use
I think agricultural science varies according to different environments. It is the same as growing a desertic strain in wetlands or tropical strains in Alaska. I think you need to adapt yourselves to the environments you are living in and grow accordingly

I tried different methods
4 spoonfuls of lemon juice diluted in 1 lt of water washes the PM away and acts as repellent
You can use it on flower stage as well
Is this the best solution I tried? No. Why? Because repellent means the bugs are all alive and they just move to the next unsprayed plant. I prefer insecticide properties

1 teaspoonful of firewood ashes disolved in 1 lt of water should work as well against PM and if a lucky ash particle touches a bug, it will kill it. But this is a soft solution for me, I need something stronger. I prefer using composted ashes in the soil, amazing what it does, plants love it

I tried Bordeuax mixture very succesfully but you can use it only in veg and I need solutions for flowering stage specially for stock bred in desertic environments which suffer PM here. It is a preventive not a cure

Bordeaux mixture - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

I never heard of wettable sulphur, it is available here not too expensive. I might try it. Thank you for posting it @Tynehead Tom
I think it might give similar results to Bordeaux mix. Farmers here apply stronger copper solutions than Bordeaux mix and I dont like these solutions

Potassium soap is wildly used here and is the main proposed solution. It is cheap here, it is fungicide and effective against mites, aphids, thrips
It is my favourite solution for PM. You can apply it in flowering stage, no problem and it is food for the plant as well as opposed to the rest of the methods

Have a nice day everybody

 

[goingrey]

anyways carry on. I'd like to see a live grow room with pm cured with this method. Turn me into a believer!!!

Not here to change anyone's beliefs, at least just for the sake of it. This is something I literally came across yesterday for the first time and am just interested in learning more about. Unfortunately little info available, despite at least three commercial products based on it on the market. Will have to try it out yeah, outdoors on some trees, certainly not going to bring pm in on purpose if I can help it...

Is this the best solution I tried? No. Why? Because repellent means the bugs are all alive and they just move to the next unsprayed plant. I prefer insecticide properties

This is why some of the products also have the essential oils, rosemary and so on. But great to hear lemon juice worked well for you! It's not just citric acid, sure, but still.

 

[BrassNwood]

White Powdery Mildew is rampent outdoors where my grow is. And it always shows its face 2 weeks into flower as the buds are first forming so sulfur is not an option.
High PH water has done the job for me for over 10 years. Stay on top of it with weekly spraying and you won't see any sign of it. It doesn't get anymore "Organic" as it is....... Water.

 

[Tynehead Tom]

i think from my point of view eradicating the spores from the environment as part of a regular IPM strategy should be done with wettable/micronized sulphur. In the microscope the sulphur is seen actually killing the PM's mysellium (?spelling LOL) or roots if you will. Spraying high PH sprays like milk or baking soda and other remedies can inhibit the infection and also mute it from fruiting into the spots we see but the parasite is still present, waiting for the right conditions to infect the garden again.
So starting each grow with a wash down that starts with a sulphur spray down of the grow space and the pots, wiping down fans and equipment..... then cleaning up as usual with bleach or whatever.
Then every 30 days the vegging plants get a sulphur spray and plants going to the flower room get a sulphur spray down before the flip.
This ensures that the PM is gone or if you don't have it but suspect it could be around..... the best preventative measure I have seen yet. The list of growers on the other forum who have successfully eradicated PM after it being thier nemesis for years..... is growing at a pretty fast pace. I'm a 100% believer in adding sulphur spray to my IPM strategy..... especially outdoors where it could come from anywhere

It will be good if this citric acid study proves to reveal another method that can be used in flower as you are right, citric acid is widely availlable for cheap and most likely won't affect smokeablility like other remedies can.

 

[subrob]

You can spray citric til day of harvest.
My opinion on getting rid of it in flower though?: toss the crop. There's no saving it, you ain't gonna get it all.
I assumed everyone was talking about veg cycle.

 

[EastCoastGambit]

Well I just noticed some PM on my outdoor that is 3 weeks ish into flower. I guess it cant just be managed once you start to see it. Only saw a spot on a couple leaves so far but its due to rain all week. I can protect them from direct rain but cant do anything about the humidity.

So what is the harm of a light infection, no visible spores, in the crop? I have seen those vids about washing your harvest in peroxide bath which is supposed to be good. It would kind of suck to throw in the towel, this is why I dislike outdoor.

The sulpher spray sounds good though with 7-8 week outdoor harvest I would assume an infection could take hold after you are no longer able to spray. Here in New England the Fall is always cold and wet. You can control the PM its the bud rot that I would certainly chuck the grow.

 

[Limeygreen]

https://www.aefglobal.com/pdf/Label_Cyclone_en.pdf

Check out the fungicide cyclone and copy their rates if you like to citric acid, this one has lactic acid in it too and makes things a sticky mess fyi.

Micronized sulfur sprays work great, don't follow safers rate of 15 gm per liter, just a waste, it's 0.78 gm per litre and you can do every two days for a couple weeks if you want to with no significant damage. Got plants from mums that were infected, dipped the cuts in the same sulfur solution then once rooted, sprayed every 2 days for two weeks and it never showed up. Had some other infection last year, 1 spray a week for three weeks worked well. It works great also reduces thrips population significantly.

 

[EastCoastGambit]

Maybe I'll dilute a little saurkraut juice with citric acid and give it a try. Could cycle that with potassium bicarbonate. Any thoughts on a good surfactant other than dish soap?

 

[EastCoastGambit]

Maybe I'll dilute a little saurkraut juice with citric acid and give it a try. Could cycle that with potassium bicarbonate. Any thoughts on a good surfactant other than dish soap?

Well to report back I did try this. I have a 1L spray bottle and I went with .13 Citric Acid and a tine dabble of Sourkraut Juice (source or fermented lactic acid). It didn't seem to have a negative effect and so far PM is under control but its only been like 2 days. I didn't use any soap.

 

[EastCoastGambit]

My PM was super mild, just a few spots on a few leaves and mostly on one plant I think.

 

[linde]

You can find dozens of pages on high PH water for controlling powdery mildew and that is what I use.
Potassium Bicarbonate 1 tablespoon per gallon of water apply as a drench spray once a week start to finish. A PH of 8 or higher is said to do it. My hose water is 8.5 and I still kick it up with bicarb into the 9s.

Household baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) will work too. 10 years I've used high PH water to keep PM in check.

Be careful using baking soda. The plant will absorb the high pH solution thru its leaves and spike the plants pH up. Therefore leading to lockouts. How do I know? Because I've tried it for PM and that's what happened. I would go with something like a neem oil. Kills PM and doesn't wack the pH out. Just a thought.

 

[Tynehead Tom]

Neem Oil does not "kill" PM

 

[linde]

Neem Oil does not "kill" PM

Sure it does

 

[EastCoastGambit]

Sure it does

I wouldn't use it after buds form personally.

 

[linde]

Milk is the ticket. Enzymes in it kill PM plus gives plants extra calcium. Farmers have been using it for yrs. No harmful chemicals....no pH fluctuation.

 

[Tynehead Tom]

Milk is the ticket. Enzymes in it kill PM plus gives plants extra calcium. Farmers have been using it for yrs. No harmful chemicals....no pH fluctuation.

LOL more mythology....... milk nor neem "Kill" powdery mildew.
I've seen it under high power microscope.
These sprays only mask the problem and remove the PM you see which is the fruiting spores.
Powdery mildew infects the stomata and then spreads it's mycellium through the tissue on a microscopic level.
40 days after infection the PM colony is able to fruit spore spots on the vegetation.
Neem, milk and other snake oils do not kill PM on the microscopic level....... I'd bet my entire seed collection on that fact. And I have a massive seed collection.
Micronized sulphur spray ...... now that actually kills and rids the plant of powdery milder...... period..... end of story.

2 weeks from harvest in my harsh climate and not a speck of powdery mildew and there is only one reason for that.