Relative humidity, temperature, light and leaf wetness all influence the severity and spread of powdery mildew in the garden. After three days of intense downpours and sauna-like evening temperatures, some of my canna foliage looks like this:
Although a real pain-in-the-you-know-where, there’s something very pretty and delicate about these fungal designs ➡ reminds me of a Mehndi tattoo!
There is no cure for powdery mildew: it overwinters in the soil and will reappear every year unless control measures are put in place. Preventative fungicide sprays like Neem Oil help protect healthy plant tissue from infection. For a more natural approach, some gardeners swear by mixing 1 part milk with 10 parts water and spraying susceptible plants at the first sign of infection and again weekly to keep it from spreading. Because I grow so many, I hard prune any cannas with rangy-looking leaves (for any reason) and put them out for yard waste collection. I want those spores as far away from me as humanly possible! 🙂
Well, as usual this wasn’t exactly Wordless…..but it is Wednesday! I hope you’re having a good one!
Until next time…..
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13 thoughts on “Wordless Wednesday: August 28, 2013”
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small house/BIG GARDEN 
I do the same with my Cannas.
It seems like for each stalk I cut, 3 more are in various stages of growth taking its place!
So true. When you cut the old ones down, new, healthy stalks will take their place.
When I feel I am getting too many I will dig some up in the winter and discard them or give them to friends.
me too! I’ve probably overpopulated my mother’s garden with them, but she keeps accepting them! 🙂
I had no idea that fungus could be so pretty, but it is still fungus nonetheless. I can’t wait to have a home with a garden. Thank you for sharing.
Sophia
twentyfiveseasons.com
What a lovely comment! Thank you for reading! 🙂
Chatty Wednesday rocks!
LOL from now on that’s exactly how I’ll title it! 🙂
Good luck! I used to grown cannas, but the grasshoppers loved to munch on their foliage and so they always looked raggedy. I gave up.
I’m glad it hasn’t appeared on our container plants. I remember it loved our monardas back in Illinois, though!
Lots of powdery mildew on my zucchini plants at the moment…I’ve used the milk solution before and it seems to work like a charm. Will try it again.
Such a pain isn’t it?
Hey thank you so much for tweeting this post!
You’re welcome! 🙂 Have a great weekend!