milk solution not working

[annastasia76]

ok I have been spraying my spinach, that is infected with powdery mildew, with a milk solution about every 3 days. After the 1st 2 spraying of a 10% mixture and not seeing any difference I read online that some recommend a 50% mixture, I increased it to about 25%, after a couple of sprayings of that today I increased it to 50%, if I still don't see any difference I may just have to take it all out and just not have any spinach this year. I just don't know what else to do. Am I doing anything wrong, does anybody else have any recommendations??

of course now with it being a 50% solution I caught my dog licking it, ugh!!!

[GardenRN]

recommendation: you could start over with new seeds AND dirt for less $$. Milk is more expensive than gasoline.

[annastasia76]

this is my second time starting over (in a new area) and it's starting to get too warm for spinach.

one thing I noticed about my spinach is that it likes to lay against the ground which does not give much room for airflow, but I thought that was the way it's supposed to be, when I visited my grandfather this weekend, his spinach was standing almost straight giving plenty of airflow. I'm going to have to ask him what variety of spinach it is that he is growing.

[rainbowgardener]

this is my second time starting over (in a new area) and it's starting to get too warm for spinach.

one thing I noticed about my spinach is that it likes to lay against the ground which does not give much room for airflow, but I thought that was the way it's supposed to be, when I visited my grandfather this weekend, his garlic was standing almost straight giving plenty of airflow. I'm going to have to ask him what variety of spinach it is that he is growing.

This is a little confusing. Did you mean spinach where you said garlic?

In the meantime, I don't think it is a variety issue. Spinach should not be lying on the ground. Sounds like it had some other problem before it got the powdery mildew, was wilted or damped off or something.

[applestar]

I have some trouble growing spinach. I believe my issue is that spinach along with beets and chard -- my other problem crops -- prefers higher pH while my soil tends on the acid side. I have some with a pair of true leaves growing now, if the slugs don't get them, I'm hoping for a better harvest than last year.

If the growing conditions are incorrect, the plants will be weakened and have less resistance to diseases and pest bugs will also tend to congregate on the weaker plants.

[annastasia76]

sorry I meant spinach, I must have had garlic on the brain after reading all the garlic posts here.

no the spinach is not wilted, I actually have troubles lifting it enough to spray the milk under the leaves without snapping it, it just seems to like trailing/growing against the ground. I just bought a different variety of seeds to see if that would help, what I have now is bloomsdale, long standing

[soil]

does your grandfather grow a different variety of spinach? some grow low, some grow more up, some grow wide.