A few weeks ago I left the house over the hottest weekend of the year so far and came back to find all three of my orange kalanchoe (my favorites) heavily infested with powdery mildew. I know most people would pitch older kalanchoe and buy new ones (they were not exactly 'supermarket ready') but I loved these and they were actually re-blooming pretty intensely (so much in fact they were all in the same room on display).
I put the plants together in a shaded spot of the lawn and went to my local succulent nursery. I wasn't keen on paying for a fungicide so I asked the old lady there if she had a home remedy.
Here are the step by step TEK like instructions that worked perfectly for me.
1) Slightly acidify a medium pot of water with a tablespoon of vinegar.
2) Place a whole garlic bulb (not the clove the whole thing) in the water and bring to a boil.
3) Smash the garlic (I used a potato masher) and allow to cool.
4) Filter liquid into a spray bottle once cool.
5) Add a drop or two of dish soap to the spray bottle.
6) Spray entire plant, while the plant parts are still wet liberally apply cinnamon (which I already believed to have antifungal properties).
7) Repeat until mildew is dead.
NOTE: I repeated the next day but did not re-apply the cinnamon because it was still covering most of the plant. It has been almost two weeks and there is zero mildew remaining and all but one of the plants continues to bloom and thrive.
With love,
-Ian
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Topic: How I conquered powdery mildew with common household ingredients (Read 11021 times)