POWDERY MILDEW

Sometimes a disease is more of a visual inconvenience than a functional inconvenience, and such is the case of powdery mildew. Easily identified as the powdery-looking blotches on your plants’ leaves, it tends to affect the Cucurbita family – squash, zucchini (courgettes), pumpkin (winter squash) and cucumber – and is caused by poor airflow and humid conditions.

While it can affect plants in the early stages, it is more common (almost inevitable) in the latter stages of a cucurbita plant’s life. When removing these plants from the patch in late summer and early autumn, it would be unusual not to have some powdery mildew affecting the leaves.

Although not commonly terminal to the plant in question, it can affect its ability to photosynthesise and therefore produce fruit, and is embarrassing for the plant when at public functions and dinner parties.