Echinacea Chat forum: powdery mildew
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Hello, I'm new to the forum, but have studied the posts (lurked) for a while now. I decided to join and ask a question of you good folks because this forum is specific to echinacea and you all seem to be very much "into" the little beauties.  Do echinaceas get powdery mildew ... and if so, what can or should be done? Some of my echinacea look fine, but there are 2 or 3 with what looks like it could be pm. It appeared after the brutal summer heat broke and we had some rain. Should I let it run it's course then carefully clean up the plant debris after it goes dormant? Or should I be spraying the affected plants with something now? If needed, I can take some pics and post them tomorrow. Thanks in advance for any input, suggestions or ideas. Deb |
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| Hi Deb, and welcome to the forum. I don't think mine have ever had PM, but they can get fungal diseases. I'd try treating for PM, and see if it gets better. I treat PM in my garden with Greencure, with good results. Karen |
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Welcome Deb!!  I had a friend with powdery mildew on her Hibiscus and I suggested a simple Milk Spray and it took care of the problem, plus it is cheep!http://www.appalachianfeet.com/2010/07/02/how-to-spray-milk-... |
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| Thank you for the welcomes and responses. I'm glad to be here to read and learn from you all. Powdery mildew is an uneducated self diagnosis.  So it very easily could be something else...a fungus, as suggested...? I expect perennials to start fading this time of year, especially after the summer we have had. Except for the Purple Cone flower, these were all bought early this Spring, long before I stumbled across your forum. I have kept the blooms and buds trimmed off hoping to encourage new root growth. I snapped some pics a couple of minutes ago to show you my problem. Here is Milkshake. I noticed the white spots on it first:  This is a leaf of Red Salsa:  And a leaf of an ordinary Purple Cone flower:  Magus Superior looks weird. It has struggled this summer:  Thanks again for looking and offering suggestions. Deb |
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Hi Deb and welcome.  Glad you joined us. That does not look like powdery mildew. I think it can be hard to control once it's established. Recently I bought a dozen leftover Hot Coral echies at Lowe's that all had PM and the first treatment I used failed so today I bought something else to try. It's too early to tell if my new product worked or not but I'm sure hoping it does, By the time I bought both treatments I've spent $18 and even though I only spent $6 on the 12 plants I'm wondering if it was cost effective and whether I should have just passed on them. At the time 12 for $6 seemed like a steal and I thought that I could easily treat the PM with one bottle of spray. Tomorrow I'll post pictures of PM so that you can see the difference. There's a fine line between fishing and just standing on the shore looking like an idiot. Steven Wright |
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| The mess on the leaves is white and looks like powder, so I thought, hummm, powdery mildew? However, it feels rough or bumpy and does not wipe off the leaves. I'm being careful to not touch any other plant after feeling the infected stuff. My wishful thinking is that it's just an end of season thing and, with careful clean up of the dormant plant, will not occur in the Spring next year.  I found some Ortho "systemic" spray for roses and flowers Saturday and thought I'd give it a try. Would it hurt? Looking forward to comparison photos, thanks, Deb |
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Deb, here are photos of powdery mildew and photos of what I think you're seeing which is not PM.    This is the product that I bought yesterday. Not PM Not PMAfter one application I can't see any difference but I'm told that is normal. If I can prevent the spread to new foliage then I will remove the affected ones. Notice the new leaves are free of mildew. Good air circulation is key to preventing PM. I think that once you have it getting rid of it isn't so easy. These plants were infected at the grower and arrived with it at Lowe's. I took a chance on them at a ridiculous low price or else I'd never have bought them. Looking at your pictures I have to believe that you don't have powdery mildew, just older weathered leaves and wouldn't worry about it. As you can see in the bottom two photos some of my plants look like yours. Hope this helps. There's a fine line between fishing and just standing on the shore looking like an idiot. Steven Wright |
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| Hi, Deb. We are "kind of" neighbors. I'm in central Missouri. I was thinking about putting more of the Bayer Systematic stuff on my coneflowers. It does have fertilizer in it and I've been wondering if it is getting too late in the year to be putting fertilizer on flowers. I haven't taken the time to see what the label says. (However, the flowers have to be kept alive now, or there will be no need to be concerned about overwintering them.) I use a lot of copper fungicide on flowers. I noticed this article mentions copper fungicide. http://extension.psu.edu/plant-disease-factsheets/all-fact-s... |
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| Interesting reading your posts, links and viewing pics. Thank you Bob and Vicki! I'm encouraged by the info. I agree, it doesn't look like pm, so maybe tired old leaves ready for Winter. The echinacea that seem to be affected are the ones that were most stressed by this past summer. I'll keep the faith (and fingers crossed) that they will come back next summer stronger than before. I didn't like having to keep cutting off the colorful flowers this first year. The ones that sneaked by by trimmers were so pretty! hehe Deb |
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SummerPerson wrote:Hi, Deb. We are "kind of" neighbors. I'm in central Missouri. That's what I first applied unsuccessfully so I chose something different without copper. I've removed most of the affected leaves but I didn't want to remove everything so there are some affected leaves remaining. Copper solutions are recommended but didn't work for me. With pm I think you almost have to nip it in the beginning or use a systemic to prevent it. Last winter I had it on a rosemary which overwintered indoors. Since you can't use most fungicides on edible plants I believe I used a solution made with baking soda but I don't remember for sure. There was not enough air circulation in the room and I ended up with pm, nearly losing that plant. Not long ago I bought some Bayer spray but after a few uses it wouldn't spray anymore. Due to that I'll probably not buy Bayer again. There's a fine line between fishing and just standing on the shore looking like an idiot. Steven Wright |
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| I buy the Bayer stuff in granules. |
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| I've had powdery mildew on zinnias before. I think by the time they got it I just pulled them up and forgot about them Kansas Bob, here is an article for zinnias with powdery mildew that mentions the same product, Spectracide Immunox, that you mentioned above. So maybe it's a product that works. (An article written in 1999.) http://msucares.com/newsletters/pests/infobytes/19990920.htm |
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| Thanks for the link, I will have a look. There's a fine line between fishing and just standing on the shore looking like an idiot. Steven Wright |
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| Deb, yours might be mite damage, but I'm not sure. Mites can cause galling and bronzing on foliage, and yours kind of look like that I think. Karen |
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| Welcome Deb. At this point I think I would just leave them alone and give them some Bayer next spring. I also give them some Bonemeal in the spring , this seems to produce more blooms. |
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| If it was mildew I'd treat them but I'm with Bob, leave them until spring. Dormancy isn't far off and they should be fine until spring. It doesn't look like anything to worry about right now. There's a fine line between fishing and just standing on the shore looking like an idiot. Steven Wright |
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| Thank you everyone, Bayer and bonemeal in the Spring, that sounds easy enough! Deb |
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