Powdery mildew

[Curmudgeoness]

3. I would say that the soil will never form an immunity to powdery mildew.

I say this from experience, since I am a rather lazy gardener. I rarely get around to cleaning up the garden at the end of the season since I have a million leaves to clean up, and that takes most of my energy. So.....those plants that are prone to powdery mildew are left there all winter and not cleaned out until the spring. I have done this for years. I still have powdery mildew on the plants that are prone to it.

One thing that I have learned is that the mildew does not seem to do damage to the plants except that it doesn't look good by the end of the season. But my plants still come back year after year, and they continue to bloom (talking perennials here).

I have heard that milk baths will keep the powdery mildew from getting out of control. But this has to be applied throughout the growing season on plants that are prone to it. You don't wait for the mildew to appear.