How to deal with powdery mildew on cucumbers

When summer becomes cold and rainy, many summer residents are concerned with the question: how to protect their beds with cucumbers from such a disease as powdery mildew. This is a fairly common virus, which, unfortunately, many gardeners have to fight. In our article we will examine in detail what powdery mildew is, why it appears on cucumbers and what measures exist to combat it.

What is powdery mildew dangerous?

First of all, it is necessary to determine that powdery mildew is a fungal disease. That is, it actively thrives in conditions of cold and damp. It is dangerous because the infected plant, besides losing its decorative appearance, loses all vital forces: it stops growing and developing, its leaves and shoots quickly wither, dry out and die, and the fruits turn black and rot. If you do not notice and stop the spread of the virus in time, it very quickly attacks the whole bed, and even getting the minimum yield becomes unlikely.

Signs of appearance on cucumbers

Infection usually occurs in early summer, when heat is replaced by rain and a cold snap. The first sign of the defeat of cucumbers this disease will be the appearance of a white or yellowish bloom on the lower leaves and on the bases of the shoots of the plant.

Also on the green you can see small brown balls (spores). After these spores mature, droplets of moisture form on the surface of the plaque - this explains the name powdery mildew.

In advanced cases, the plaque becomes very dense and acquires a brown tint. It rises from below and attacks the whole plant entirely - its stems, cuttings, flowers, leaves, stems and fruits. The plant becomes sluggish and painful.

Control measures

There are many ways to deal with powdery mildew on cucumbers. But the main thing - you need to remember that regular thorough inspection of plants makes it possible to detect infection in time, which means that you have more chances to completely defeat the disease and save the crop.

Preventive and agrotechnical techniques

• The first thing to do to prevent this fungus in your beds is to observe crop rotation. It is necessary to regularly change the places for planting the same crops, as over time, the probability of reproduction of viruses and diseases typical for a particular plant is high in the same area.
• Top-dressing with potash and phosphate fertilizers increases the resistance of cucumbers to this disease.
• Every autumn it is worth making a deep digging of the beds with the removal of all residues and weeds.
• For the prevention of powdery mildew on cucumbers in greenhouses, you should carefully monitor the maintenance of optimal humidity and temperature of 23-25 ​​degrees.
• The first stalks and sheets covered with bloom should be immediately uprooted and burned.
• Sowing hybrids that are resistant and invulnerable to this virus minimizes your chances of getting familiar with it.

Folk remedies

• One of the effective folk remedies for powdery mildew is considered to be spraying the affected beds with diluted mullein. Manure is diluted one to three with water, infused for two days, divorced once more, tripled, filtered and ready to use.
• You can also use infusion marigolds. To make it, you need half a bucket of crushed flowers to fill with warm water for two days. After that, 40-50 g of soap are added to the filtered infusion and the diseased plants are treated.
• Horsetail, namely, its decoction is also a very popular remedy for this fungus. For 1 kg of fresh or 100 g of dry horsetail you need 10 liters of water. Pour the grass for a day, boil for two hours, cool and strain, ready to dissolve the broth in the ratio 1: 5. Such a "medicine" can be stored for up to a week.
• If you dilute 1.5 g of potassium permanganate in 10 liters of water, you get a good mixture for the treatment of patchy powdery mildew of cucumbers.
• You can even use regular kefir. It needs to be diluted with water and spray them diseased plants.
• In a liter of water can be diluted with soda ash with soap in the ratio of 1: 1. The resulting solution can be sprayed on the affected stems.
• 150 g of ash - liter of boiling water and a little laundry soap. Infuse the solution for two days, strain and irrigate the infected cucumbers.

Biofungicides

When deciding how to get rid of powdery mildew on their beds, many choose the method of using biofungicides. These are biological preparations used to fight the fungus. Their undoubted plus is safe and non-toxic. They can be used even at the time of the formation of the fruit, which is very useful when it comes to the infection of such vegetable crops as cucumbers.

The most popular means are: "Planriz", "Gamar", "Fitosporin-M", "Psevdobakterin-2", "Alirin". They can be purchased at specialty stores and used according to instructions.

Chemicals

but the most effective and faithful drugs from powdery mildew, fungicides remain. These are chemicals that kill the fungus without harming the plant.

The well-known "Topaz" refers to this type of funds and is very effective. "Fundazim", "Fundazol", "Tiovit", "Skor", "Bayleton", "Kvadris", "Topsin", "Titl" and others - all of these drugs are modern fungicides and actively fight against such a disease as mildew on cucumbers.

That's all the most popular methods of dealing with this widely known virus. Hopefully, our article helped you to form a clearer idea of ​​what powdery mildew is, what it is dangerous for cucumbers, and also provided you with several new ideas to combat this parasite.