What's a decent fungicide?

My beautiful gourd plant is showing anthracnose. I'd rather not get a chemical fungicide, but I'm not going to just lose this plant. Is there something I can do other than stopping by the hardware store this afternoon?

Thanks for any suggestions.

If it's a fungus type disease, you can try sprinkling cornmeal around the base of the plant. Also, you can spray the affected areas with a cornmeal tea. Take about 1 C of cornmeal and put it in a piece of nylon stocking or cheesecloth. Soak in a 1 gal. container for a couple of hours. (I like to put mine out in the sun.) Pour the "tea" in a spray bottle and spray on the plant.

You could also try a milk/water spray.

Stephanie

Thanks, steph. I sprayed them with baking soda in alfalfa tea yesterday, and then it rained. Of course. I'll try the cornmeal.

cornmeal,garlic,neem,serenade. but it seems like it only works if you stay organic. I finally learned my lesson this year. 100% organic no garden of mine has ever looked better.

Hey Ted, what's Serenade?

it is an organic fungicide.
http://www.agraquest.com/products/serenade/index.html. here is a link to one of the suppliers. kinda tells what it does. I think it works more as a preventative than a cure. like most fungicides.

Hi I am soooo very happy to have found this forum :^)....Try 10% full cream milk to water......it is fantastic for most fungus and if you are worried about chemicals in the milk...just use organic milk.

Chrissy, Is that any better than just using straight undiluted whole (4% fat) milk directly on the plant? Seems like they ought to have similar effects, no?

Oh gee ...I don't think it would hurt ...back in the 70's we used full fat milk to clean the leaves of indoor plants like rubber trees and ficus....so why don't you try it just in one place first and see what happens.The mix does work very well on your vine friuts like zucc.s
rocky's watermelon etc. Best of luck mate! :^)

I've been happy with the 4% so far.

Say hi to Kath n Kim for me.

Sure will....I am impressed you know them!!! :^))

I use semi-skimmed milk diluted 1 part milk to 10 parts water and spray that on. It is best to repeat it every couple of days as the first spraying doesn't quite clear it. But you can see a difference very quickly.

No it takes a few days but you should notice that nothing gets worse from the time you spray....Full fat milk is the best something in the fat smothers fungus (like white oil)

I can see the logic in the fat in full fat milk making a coating over the fungus, but I get the semi-skimmed for our use and it seems to work OK diluted on the plants. If the problem crops up again which it probably will on the courgettes later in the season, I will try the full fat milk and see if it is any more effective.

Anthracnose on cucurbits (Colletotrichum orbiculare) can also be suppressed using compost tea or tea made from worm castings and yucca extract. The benficial bacteria can easily control anthracnose.

if it's anthracnose there is no cure. once the plant is infected it's gone. but hopefully it doesn't have anthracnose and just a fungus and in that case it will pull through just fine.

Anthracnose can be prevented and stopped with proper treatment. I have done this on everything from mangoes to squashes. It's not a vascular disease that would affect the flow of nutrients and water within the plant to a point where the plant would'nt be able to feed itself. It is wind and water driven, so it may seem like it never goes away, but it is just spreading, so coverage is key.

Thanks, worm! I have some beautiful compost going and happy, happy worms. I'll dig out what I can for the plants -- at the very least, it couldn't hurt! Since it's "self-diagnosed" I won't guarantee it's anthracnose. The gourds are growing -- I have 4 dippers and 2 huge bushel gourds. So, while I won't keep or distribute any seeds from them just in case, I will get gourds out of them if nothing goes wrong.