Downy mildew on melons cubits family.

Here is a link that might be useful: Downy mildew

Depending upon where you live, your melons should stop growing soon. Mildew is not unusual on melon and veg leaves this time of year in the NE.

gator_rider2: thanks very much!

MrsG47: Thank you! To clarify, do you mean that I should not do anything, as this is kind of normal for the NE region and the melons will ripen well, even though all of their leaves die?

If I should indeed do something, should anyone have a suggestion as to what spray I can use or whether I should pluck off the damaged leaves, that would be appreciated!

Hopefully the melons are going to be ripe soon. I'm always fortunate if I can keep my melon vines alive until all the melons are ripe. It's usually a race to the finish. This year my vines are pretty much shot, but there are only a few melons left. I spray with fungicide and insecticide a couple of times in a season.

How large are the melons? They are still alive and ripening but the vines are their source of water and fertilizer. The leaves simply have the beginning of powdery mildew. Do nothing as there is not much you can do! The ripening of your melons depends upon how large they are. Where do you live?

My Charentais melons came down with a horrible case of powdery mildew this year. The fruit ripened, but most of it was poor quality, without taste and sweetness, because the leaves died off. That's where the melon processes the sunshine.

So I'd spray to hold off the death process as long as possible. It's not just getting fruit, it's getting better fruit.

MrsG47: thanks very much. The melons range from tiny guys to some that are around 11 inches and 21 inches. They do not look anywhere near ripe and many of the leaves are completely brown and dead. I live in the lower NE. I know that you said to do nothing but would it hurt to at least spray them with fungicide? I just feel bad about letting the fungus take over!

edweather and ltilton: thank you! May I ask what kind of fungicide you use, please?

Immunox is a great fungicide as is Monterey Fungi fighter.

limeaid - I'm using a mix of neem oil and Serenade, but my problem is Powdery Mildew, not Downy. The important points are to make sure that the fungicide you use will address the particular disease, and that it's a curative, not a preventative, if you already see signs of the disease.

Daconil, for instance, is a good all-purpose fungicide but iirc it's more of a preventative than a curative.

If you're not sure just what the problem is, the broad spectrum approach is best.

MrsG47 and ltilton thanks very much--I really appreciate it!

I use Daconil, but after reading this thread, I might try something different to "fight" my mildew also. I thought my leaves were ok until I looked underneath, and they were covered with mildew. Tough to spray the bottoms of leaves though.

ed - that's something I've wondered. Whatever the spray, is it effective against DM if it doesn't cover the bottom of the leaves?

Thank you, edweather!

Oh geez, i feel better - 1st time growing melons. the leaf disease was so bad, the vines are wilting - to the point onky thing left is several melons growing w/o support. so sad, we kept trying to cut the bad leaves, then the bad vine off-shoots - til 0 left but little melons fending for themselves.