Controlling Mildew on Squash

If you should get mildew on your squash leaves, trim all affected leaves from the plant and do one of the following.

Spray the unaffected leaves (after trimming bad leaves) with 1 tablespoon of wettable sulfur in 1 gallon of water, every two weeks. And spray in the evening so that the sulfur won’t burn the leaves. Most leaves need to cool off before you spray anything on them. Spraying on hot leaves might saute them. Be sure that you buy wettable sulfur NOT soil sulfur.

Another cure is to merely buy a gallon of skim (non-fat) milk and spray it on the squash leaves. Follow the directions above for time of day and trimming all bad leaves off before spraying. You can also mix up your own non-fat milk by using one part dry skim milk with 9 parts of water.

Just wanted to pass this along to those that are plagued with mildew and we here on the Southern California coast are and we deal with it constantly.

Joanne

Do I need to prune peas?

Q. My question is about snap peas. I’m going to grow them vertically and I want to know if they should be pruned like other vining plants. I can find info on beans, tomatoes, cucumbers, etc… but not on snap peas.

A. Make sure you have POLE PEAS if you expect them to grow tall, and even then they will only reach about 5’+.

You do not do any pruning of peas. And you also do not need to guide them up the strings. You may need to move a few tendrils from one string to another, but that’s all – just like you have to do with pole beans.