Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

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so the various plants are growing well..

In anticipation of a load of fish, we salted to about 3/1000..
We got back after a week with the fish (another story) and many leafy vegies like Spinwich have a white powdery appearance..
Now the jump-to conclusion would be powdery mildue, but does SALT cause such appearances .. :-)
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I'd say it certainly is Powdery Mildew, even without seeing it, by where you say it is.
Salt will cause a white crystalline deposit on GB media that has been wet and dried by a high water level during a flood stage, but not on leaves that are not in contact with the water.

Someone on another forum had success getting rid of powdery mildew by spraying the leaves with milk diluted with water. 1c milk (he used 2%) and 2c water sprayed daily for 3 days. The white powdery milder was gone.

Spraying MKP sorted out my cucumbers and celery when they got infected.

Bother and darn..

I have the AP system, effectively under a clear-roofed carport, and I can easily understand how much moisture is around, with all that clay-surface area...

I would guess -- Full-Cream Milk -- would be the go.. and we only ever have skim, these days..

Thanks for the heads up..

PS - We ate some of the Spinach and we are still alive...
Just hope we don't find Mushies growing from orifices in the AM..
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It doesn't have to be moist, I get powdery mildew regularly when relative humidities are in the 20s% during the day, and its many weeks between rainfalls. As I've written before, I never had any success with diluted FC milk, KHCO3 worked a bit, and I have a sneaking suspicion that just spraying with water probably has a similar effect.

The most successful method is removing all affected leaves.

sorry Dasboot what is MKP?

is it "Monopotassium phosphate"

Yes,i had used it as part of my foliar regime,then during this rainy season while i was in the process of rebuilding the tunnel as i said i had either downey mildew or powdery,so i started spraying again with mono potassium phosphate and it stopped spreading and cleared up on the celery leaves.

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MKP -- Assumed safe for native fush.. ??? -- where do you get it - Garden Supplies??

KHCO3 -- I wonder if Sodium Bicarb might work ... GG - do you think it the pH that is working or the Potassium..
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This has been discussed numerous times on the forum, but I can't remember if anyone had actually tried NaHCO3. I don't think weak KHCO3 solution is far off neutral, although I have not tested it. I think the pH of the water used would be the dominant determinant of the pH.
A spray with water and a wipe certainly removes it!

Mono potassium phosphate,garden supplies,ebay,amazon,i have never seen a link to any problems with fish. PH for MKP is 4.5,Potassium Bicarbonate is 8.2,so as gunagulla says a weak solution won’t be far of neutral.
I read a while back the use of MKP as a fungicide and as i was using it already it just fell into place. If potassium bicarbonate is easy to source use this as it is a popular treatment for powdery mildew mixing at one tablespoon per gallon.

Thanks Guys.. MKP does google easily so it must be readily available other than from Selbys (do they still exist)...

This forum is such a mess... It is hard to find most things... HiJack Central..

PS - just went to three local places... MKP.. no idea..

They suggested Eco-Fungicide because it had "Pot-Bicarb" and it worked by changing the pH..
Heard that somewhere... :-)

Anyway... tried Sodium Bicarb to see if it works
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I regularly add MKP to my tank - it's pretty darn safe. You can find it at your local hydro shop as "bloom buster" but the price will be sky-high. Best bet is to order it online.