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- #221
cbdhemp808
Well-Known Member
Great, I will check out your Willow Tea recipe. I'm totally with you on natural and DIY.A then sprayed all my phenos with Willow Tea in foliar feed with no dilution, I had no cases of mold, rot, or fungal problems.
Salicylic Acid from willow tree kills fungal spores; its natural way to prevent and cure some fungal maladies in my case was mold, bud rot and PM.
So, in my post above, I identified that what I'm seeing is likely downy mildew, which is an oomycete mold which grows inside the leaf and produces spores out the bottom of the leaf. Downy mildew is not a true fungal disease. .. "Oomycetes are more closely related to algae and green plants than to fungi. Oomycetes cause some of the most destructive diseases of crops due to their ability to spread and defoliate plants rapidly." [ source ]
Another thing I'm observing is that this disease infects lower down on the plant. The higher up the plant, and the closer to the roof of the greenhouse, the less disease is present. I think this directly relates to the amount of humidity present. Up by the roof, there's more heat and less humidity. This may be why my Blueberry in flower seems to be mold-resistant – because it's so tall. This is also consistent with what I've observed with bud rot in past harvests – buds closest to the roof have less or no bud rot.
I just took some more photos... I have some cool examples of a leaf that is infected with the oomycete, but hasn't sporulated yet (dark spots under the leaf). I'll post them soon.