bleach spray

[b54red]

Tammy the pictures help. It does look like you have some Gray Mold so the bleach spray should help with that and the other foliage diseases. It looks like you may have the plants a little crowded which encourages plant diseases to develop. It would also help if you kept them to only a few stems at most to aid in air flow and sunlight.

The last bleach spray I used seems to have knocked back the Gray Mold and so I removed all the dead or dying leaves and sprayed with a copper fungicide as a preventive. I should know if it is effective very shortly. From my experience in my humid climate, once you get Gray Mold it keeps popping up every time it gets too wet.

How did the bleach spray work on your plants?

Bill

[tammyinwv]

I described the plants, and she seemed sure that was it. I wondered about not seeing it as well.
Here are some more pics. Since I replaced the 6 dead plants, there is only the areas shown in the first 2-3 pics that are of concern in the bed where I removed the dead ones. The others are in a nearby bed.The rest of the plants are about 2.5-3 ft all, and look good, except some are slightly less green.
Tammy

[Master_Gardener]

Good idea on testing it on a plant or two before dosing the entire garden. Thanks for calling out the change in bleach strength. I'm sure I would have missed that.

[socalgardengal]

Here's my update un using bleach spray on Chayote squash that had Anthracnose. I sprayed 3 days ago both tops and undersides of leaves and the soil in the pot. Today all the larger leaves are dried up and falling off but the new smaller ones at the base of the plant are ok. No leaf burn or signs of disease. Should I cut the vines completely off, as there are no new leafs growing on them? I do have a back-up plant that's doing fine. Thanks

[b54red]

Originally Posted by socalgardengal

Here's my update un using bleach spray on Chayote squash that had Anthracnose. I sprayed 3 days ago both tops and undersides of leaves and the soil in the pot. Today all the larger leaves are dried up and falling off but the new smaller ones at the base of the plant are ok. No leaf burn or signs of disease. Should I cut the vines completely off, as there are no new leafs growing on them? I do have a back-up plant that's doing fine. Thanks

I like to go out and remove the dying or dead leaves a few days after the bleach spray to allow more room and a cleaner environment for the new growth. If you spray the bleach spray when a disease first makes its presence known you usually lose very few if any leaves but the longer a disease works on a plant the more severe the reaction to the spray will be. That is why I encourage people to use it sooner rather than later. Of course down here that means I have to use it rather frequently because new outbreaks of diseases pop up nearly every week with our oppressive humidity. Late in the summer and early fall we sometimes get a little break from the really high humidity and then the disease pressure lets up; but of course that is when spider mites start showing up in numbers along with their pals whiteflies.

Bill

[socalgardengal]

Thank you Bill! I'm gonna go ahead and chop the two vines off and see how it goes and I will use the spray much sooner now that I know what to expect.

[b54red]

The first time I used it on powdery mildew on squash I had allowed it to get to the point where only the very tips of the vines had any uninfected leaves. After I sprayed it looked like every leaf was dead but a few days later the new growth tips were growing fine and the plant was nearly full size again in a few weeks. I learned the hard way to use the spray sooner on my tomatoes also by letting some of them get Gray Mold on over 75% of the plant before I used it three years ago. I kept thinking the Daconil would slow it down and maybe it did but not nearly enough. Now as soon as I see the first sign of Gray Mold on tomatoes or any kind of mold or mildew on squash or cucumbers I spray right away. These squash plants in this picture had received three treatments when this picture was taken and they got another spraying on Monday. If I had not treated them they would have far fewer leaves. The early and quick treatment of diseases on squash, cucumbers and tomatoes has made a huge difference in how long my plants last. I'm a slow learner because I used to wait til the diseases got bad before using the treatment. Finally it dawned on me to use it early and often and the results of doing that have been so much better than delaying treatment.

Bill

[Longlake]

Timely post...Thanks Bill! The bleach spray worked wonders against gray mold in my garden last year, especially on the black tomatoes (which seem most susceptible). I was able to catch it early and move beyond it with the loss of only a few leaves. Compared to prior years, that was a miracle

One question. I don't recall using a surfactant in the spray before, and wonder if that's new to the mix? Or maybe I just spaced it out last year. At any rate, I'll be sure to add it this year.

My garden thanks you!

ps - It'd sure be nice if this thread was a sticky, so it'd stay up where I can find it.

[FisherPrice]

Will this work for Powdery mildew on a squash plant?

[raindrops27]

Thank you Red, will see how it goes I sprayed the tomatoes yesterday when it looked overcast and then suddenly the sun came out.. Hope I didn't cause to much damage..

Will do the squash tomorrow morning.

[b54red]

Originally Posted by FisherPrice

Will this work for Powdery mildew on a squash plant?

Yes; but you have to do it as soon as it starts or you will lose too many leaves.

I spray my squash plants weekly with it until the squash vine borers get bad and then what's the point.

Bill

[tammy]

I sprayed with with mancozeb a few days ago, then after it dried applied Copper dragon which is in a powder form. I went out yesterday and for the most part , the plants that looked healthy before still do, but the ones I was watching I did go ahead and pull (about 4). Out of almost 80 plants I am down to about 40. I noticed my new apple tree losing leaves as well. my roses have lost most of the leaves with flowers dying mid bloom and turning brown.
Tammy

[KathyDC]

Well I applied some of your bleach treatment to some plants exhibiting what I think is early blight. Today I saw some results, with spotting on some but not all of the branches I had sprayed. And the ones that did show change, only showed change in parts (spots, mostly). I'm guessing it was my own haphazard spraying (I wasn't prepared at all so I was just using an old hand spray bottle), but it certainly showed me what branches were affected, even if it didn't kill everything. So I was able to cut them all off.

I may spray again tonight and try to be a little more diligent about coverage.

[b54red]

The first time I used it I was surprised by spots on what I thought were healthy leaves. With a little experience I soon learned it only spotted or shriveled up sick parts of the plant.

I sprayed my whole garden again two days ago and then we had rain for the next two days so I went out and cut off a pile of dying and damaged leaves then sprayed the whole thing again. I hope these rains two or three times a day will slow down. The really bad thing about the rains is they are not dropping a lot of water just enough to keep the plants wet but not enough to water them so I am still having to water along with all the extra spraying. I'm afraid with all this rain and the inability to keep a fungicide on the plants the next thing I'm going to see is Septoria.

Bill

[MrBig46]

What is it bleach spray- chemical ?
Vladimír