Disease on my baby marrow?

michelle64 · December 2016

Hi there,

http://michellepace.com/temp/BabyMarrow.JPG

(click there for a big picture)

My baby marrow plant has not made any baby marrows and seems to have a strange disease on it's leaves. During summer last year I planted tomatoes in the exact same location and they also got a similar looking disease. I thought it was just because I planted the tomatoe plants too close to each other, but it can't be that because this is one lone standing baby marrow plant.

Could anyone tell me what disease this is and if there is some kind of home concoction I can mix up to get rid of it?

Thanks in advance
Michelle

Last edited: 03 December 2016 09:54:44

Dovefromabove · December 2016

Hello Michelle

Are you in the southern hemisphere? Not the time of year for marrows here in the UK.

Your plant looks as if it's suffering from powdery mildew - it's a plant specific problem which will often attack plants weakened by stress, usually drought. It won't be the same variety of mildew that affected your tomatoes, but the same conditions in the same spot are likely to have caused it.

I would remove the worst affected leaves, give the plant plenty of water and mulch around the area with a thick layer of manure/compost to help the soil retain as much moisture as possible, and ensure that the plant gets plenty of water - all marrows, courgettes, tomatoes etc are thirsty plants.

In the future dig as much compost/manure and other organic matter as possible into the area when preparing the area for your planting.

Good luck - I hope that helps.

Last edited: 03 December 2016 09:58:10

Dovefromabove · December 2016

Hi again - having taken another look at your picture - it looks as if the plant is surrounded by grass - in future it would be better to prepare a much larger area of ground for your plants, so they don't have to compete with the grass for moisture and nutrition.

michelle64 · December 2016

Hi there Dovefromabove,

Thanks very much for your reply. I am in South Africa. Yes now that you mention it... I didn't plant my baby marrow for about a week and a half and it got very stressed because I didn't water it much either. Then I plunked it in a big bucket of what and a few hours later I thought all was forgiven. Shame.

I googled for home remedies for powdery mildew and got a slew of answers. For now though, this one is coming out. I'm cleaning the slate and starting over. Off with it's head.

Thanks again

Michelle

Dovefromabove · December 2016

I thought you might be in that region from the beautiful tree in your avatar photo

Disease on my baby marrow?

Posts