elfana, I'm sorry I did not see this before now. There is a lot to cover here and I'm toddling off to sleep soon. If no one is able to help you sooner. I promise to answer on Sunday. I have a bunch more roses to move tomorrow. In the mean time hang in there. I can say real quick when I first started growing roses I went back threw all of the older post on here. There was a wealth of information to be found. I highly recommend it. Also be a bit cautious when it comes to advice on the internet. At times it's not very accurate.

I'll just touch on the milk spray briefly. There have been several peer reviewed scientific studies that have found milk sprays to be effective against powdery mildew on roses & other veg. garden crops, but of no value in the control of black spot on roses.

I agree with wirosarian on the milk spray. There are organic sprays for black spot on the market. You must start to spray these before the back spot has appeared and continue thru the season. I have no personal experience with them thou.

I now only grow roses that are as disease resistant as I can find. That will grow here in my zone. Until recently that meant no Austin roses. I'm know trying a few of his newest disease resistant varieties. I'll see how it goes.

There are other rose slug predators that like to eat them. Most birds around here don't tend to bother with them. Wasps, toads, small snakes, ect. are more likely to get them first. Hand picking and squishing works better thou. I'll be back.

The following was stated:

" I'll just touch on the milk spray briefly. There have been several peer reviewed scientific studies that have found milk sprays to be effective against powdery mildew on roses & other veg. garden crops, but of no value in the control of black spot on roses."

H.Kuska comment. Could someone post the links to the scientific studies referred to above?

Henry , Im not a scientist but have seen it with my own eyes that it works. I can't remember if it was Cornell or some other research that gave a 9 part water to one part milk oz , I was astonished it worked so well.

thank you mudpie7, I am particularly interested in having in my files the scientific studies that reported: "but of no value in the control of black spot on roses."

Oh, sorry missed that detail. I do read your technical reports and links in effort to glean what I can. Thanks for educating everyone.

Henry this is one from University of Davis on powdery mildew but not a scientific paper. 65 control of mildew in field.pdf

Henry....here is a PDF link to an article re: The Myth of Milk and Roses. Now this will not have the cites you want because the author only provide the fact sheet on line. If you want the cites to her info sources, they are in her book The Informed Gardener Blooms Again by Linda Chalker Scott & you will need to buy/check out a copy if you want the cites.

wirosarian, a web page can be updated. I do not understand why Linda Chalker Scott does not update her web pages. This is an earlier thread where I discuss her web page on The Myth of Milk and Roses. The link that you gave for her does not support your statement: ""but of no value in the control of black spot on roses."

All she states is: "There is no evidence that milk sprays are effective in controlling black spot on roses or any other ornamental plant species."

http://forums2.gardenweb.com/discussions/1708338/milk-water-mix-for-mildew?n=31

This a link to Jeff Gillman's web page.

http://www.jeffgillman.net/index.html

When I do a Google search for milk and rose black spot, I often get directed to research by Jeff Gillman. Apparently, he has not published it in a reviewed scientific journal, but instead posted the summary here:

http://www.jeffgillman.net/5.html

" When we tested milk against other home remedies it beat everything else easily. In fact, it was just about as good as the synthetic fungicide Chlorotalonil and the organic fungicide Bordeaux mix"

The article apparently was reported in this link:

http://www.extension.umn.edu/projects/yardandgarden/YGLNews/YGLNewsApril12008.html

But, that link no longer works for me.

" Jeff Gillman says:

December 24, 2010 at 12:00 am

Along with some colleagues here at UMN I have done some work with milk and blackspot on rose — you can read about it here http://www.extension.umn.edu/projects/yardandgarden/YGLNews/YGLNewsApril12008.html It’s the second to last article. "

The above quote is from:

http://gardenprofessors.com/unintended-consequences/