If possible, try to improve air circulation through selective pruning. As mentioned, make sure your are watering from below. Once your plants have downy mildew, the best thing you can do is to try to eliminate moisture and humidity around the plants. Downy mildew is not a fungus, so fungicides will not work on it. The reason is that once a plant is infected with downy mildew, there are no effective chemical controls, though if you have a reoccurring problem with downy mildew, there are some preventative chemicals you can use. If your plants become infected with downy mildew, the organic control of downy mildew is your best bet.
This disease overwinters on dead plant material, so removing dead plant material from your garden in the fall will help prevent the disease in the following spring.
Good garden hygiene is also crucial to stopping downy mildew from developing in your garden. If there is no water on your plant leaves, the downy mildew cannot travel to or infect your plants. The spore of downy mildews spreads by literally swimming through water until they come across live plant material to infect.
Water that sits on the leaves of the plant gives the downy mildew a way to infect and spread on the plant. Since downy mildew needs water to survive, the very best thing you can do to prevent downy mildew is to water your plants from below. The best control of downy mildew is to make sure that your plants do not get it in the first place. Plants that are affected by downy mildew may be stunted or have leaf loss. In some cases, the mottling may look like chlorosis. The spotting will be yellow, light green, brown, black, or purple. Other common symptoms for downy mildew include mottling or spots on the leaves. This growth is where this disease gets its name from, due to its downy appearance. This growth is most commonly seen on the lower leaves of the plant. Most often, an infection of downy mildew will also include a fuzzy, soft looking growth that can be white, grey, brown, or purple. One of the tricky things about downy mildew is that it can appear different ways, depending on what kinds of plants it is infecting. You are most likely to see downy mildew in your plants in the spring, where rainfall is frequent and temperatures stay cool. Since it is closely related to algae, downy mildew needs water to survive and spread. While powdery mildew is cause by a true fungus, downy mildew is cause by parasitic organisms that are more closely related to algae. While the two have very similar names, they are two very different diseases.ĭowny mildew is caused mostly by organisms that belong to either the Peronospora or Plasmopara genus. Often times, when gardeners hear the name downy mildew, they think this disease is related to another common garden disease called powdery mildew. However, if you are familiar with the different ways this disease presents itself and with the conditions in which it can grow in, you will be better able to take steps to control downy mildew in your garden. This disease can damage or stunt plants and is difficult to diagnose. A common but under diagnosed problem in the spring garden is a disease called downy mildew.
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