This is how it works with baking powder

A garden is full of life, which also includes mushrooms. Wouldn't it be boring to bake the perfect plant bed according to a recipe and then never have work again? Speaking of baking, baking powder is not only an important part of the kitchen cupboard, but also proves to be extremely helpful in botany. While it doesn't completely take the work off, it makes the dream of the perfect garden a little more real. And all without chemical fungicides (or artificial flavors and additives as the baker would say).

Which factors favor powdery mildew infestation?

mildew is caused by a fungus that occurs in two types (more on this below). Small mistakes in the creation of a bed or care mistakes that offer the pest an optimal breeding ground are often enough:

• too little light
• poor air circulation due to plants that are too close together
• Temperature fluctuations
• very nitrogenous fertilizer

Making baking powder means

Instead of using fertilizers, however, you should regularly treat your plants to a baking powder cure. The home remedy is inexpensive, environmentally friendly and very easy to prepare.

Ingredients required

• 1 packet of baking powder
• 1.5 liters of water
• some washing-up liquid
• 1 tablespoon of rapeseed oil
• a spray bottle

preparation

1. Stir the baking soda into the water
2. Add the rapeseed oil to the mixture
3. Add a splash of detergent to the solution. This serves as an emulsifier
4. Now fill the home remedy into a spray bottle

use

• Spray the affected leaves at regular intervals
• Allow about ten days to pass between uses for the product to work properly
• Repeat the application especially in heavy showers, as the precipitation washes the solution from the leaves
• Spray the plants in the evening hours

Alternative home remedies and tips

Treating powdery mildew with a baking soda mixture is considered to be one of the most successful methods. For example, it proves to be more useful than the milk-water mixture also mentioned here. Ultimately, however, you have to decide for yourself which of the following home remedies to use as an alternative.

• Mix milk or whey or buttermilk with water
• a broth out Field horsetail produce
• Pour water over the garlic cloves
• Biologically based pesticides
• natural predators like ladybugs
• Mixed cultures with basil, garlic, thimblePlant chervil, chervil or chives

All of the home remedies against powdery mildew mentioned are not only effective in the case of acute infestation, but also serve as prophylaxis. The application remains the same even as a preventive measure.

How the baking powder works

The secret of the baking powder mixture is the pesticide lecithin. The causative fungus avoids this product.

Unfortunately only effective with powdery mildew

Unfortunately, the baking powder only drives out powdery mildew. It is therefore important not to simply resort to any home remedy, but to take a close look at the symptoms. How to tell what type of powdery mildew it is:

Powdery mildew

Powdery mildew is also known as fair-weather mushroom. It is a hose fungus that is noticeable as follows:

• Topping: white, floury, easy to wipe off
• appearance of symptoms: early spring
• preferred climatic conditions: warm temperatures of 20-25 ° C, morning dew, dryness during the day
• Distribution: by insects and wind
• Damage: brown, dried up leaves, leaves curl up, no flower formation, crooked plant parts, stagnation of growth, death in the event of very severe infestation
• Occurrence: on the upper side of the leaf, on flowers and buds as well as the plant stem
• further characteristics: specialized in individual plant species, insensitive to frost and cold
• preferred plants: roses, cucumbers, carrots, asters, gooseberries

Wrong mildew

Unlike real powdery mildew, downy mildew is an egg or algae fungus, which is also known as bad weather fungus.

• Symptoms: gray or brown deposits
• Occurrence: on the underside of the leaf
• Symptoms appear: later in the year
• preferred plants: all kinds of ornamental plants, kohlrabi, cabbage, lettuce, onions, spinach
• preferred climatic conditions: humid air, low temperatures of 15-20 ° C
• Damage: brown, yellow or purple discoloration of the leaves, death of the plant
• further characteristics: penetrates the plant, only affects the leaves