My hats off once again to those who create an ecosystem that can do without spraying. Perhaps if I had spent more years in developing the meadow in the woods before planting I would have succeeded. I only gave it one and with little diversity in seeding. Then came the planting of trees, with no spray. Bad move. Fast forward to the third year of planting. I purchase a 100 gallon Pak-Tank with hand application.
Started with a basic soup of
EM-1,
Fish/Seaweed,
Neem/Karanja and
Kelp. Fish and Seaweed disappears mid-summer. I also hit the trunk all the way to the ground each foliar application; I find it keeps the borers at bay. First spray at green tip or so, then three more every 7-10 days. From then to Halloween, I apply every two weeks. Two years of spraying later the trees overall were faring better, but the PM was not going away, it was spreading.
It appeared end of the first year of planting. At first, I tried to just wash it away with a dousing of alcohol, then wipe, then hydrogen peroxide and wipe. Next summer, when it came back I took a propane plumbers torch to a couple branches; hoping to burn the white fluff but somehow not damage bark and the vascular underneath. Yes, shake your head, while I hang mine in shame.
Second Spring has me pruning without repentance. Whole limbs go. I am also, at this point, dealing with another biologic pressure blown in by a Hurricane; but that is another post another time. Spraying begins. Following spring I am pruning out more PM. That growing season I keep spraying basic soup. Spring of 2017 I prune even more, and start casting about for a fix.
I settle on SeaCrop for evidence it will address my other infection, and hope that it will also help against the fluffy stuff. March of 2017 I go through the orchard and prune out all limbs, and one whole tree because of whatever strain of PM was spreading here on the hill. April sees the 4 holistic sprays getting 2 gallons of SeaCrop added to a 100 gallon recipe. Following the 4 spring applications, I used 1 gallon in a 100; every spray. That was the only change/addition to my augmenting the orchard. At the end of the summer I saw zero re-emergence of the PM that propagated here. March of 2018 required no pruning for PM. Followed same application protocols for last year. Zero evidence of PM last fall or this March.
Hard decision to make with two equally compelling testimonies. Certainly it would be much cheaper to continue with milk products. You could fall on the grenade of science and source both SeaCrop and yogurt/whey, then spray half and half. Maybe you find each work equally, or even that SeaCrop does nothing on your biologic. Perhaps before you do anything, take samples of your infection and identify categorically the strain that you are attempting to control. Your little bugger might not be hardy this far north or at my altitude. In the end when you do find a way to control it you have documented both the approach and the biologic that will be effected.
In the pursuit of more data points, could all users of SeaCrop document and post their history and ongoing situation with respect to Powdery Mildew...