I have about 50 fuchsias in my garden shack overwintering. I checked on them this weekend and about 2/3rd of them have powdery mildew. I am so upset I want to cry. I sprayed them with neem oil.
They were all cut back in the fall when I brought them in. The mildew is on what’s left of the branches and some on the surface of the soil. Should I re-pot these guys when I move them to the garden? Will the neem oil kill the mildew? Will the mildew kill the fuchsias?
My heart is sick about this.
Will they live? Please help!
Did some research and now I think it might be gray mold.
I hope hummer_girl chims in on this one. As I have never needed to attempt to over winter fuchsias in those kind of conditions. And it is difficult to say whether or not they will survive without seeing them.
What I do know, is that if the conditions were moist enough to have mold or fungus grow on the plants, then the roots are in danger also. I make cuttings year round, mold and fungus is an ever present danger. So I mist and water with an antifungal agent. Any mold or fungus in the soil must be killed also. There is almost always some loss to these.
Fuchsias are tougher than people realize though, they can recover from allot. Is there any way to get them into some sunshine for at least a few hours? You mentioned having 50 of them. Can you move a few of the most damaged ones out into the light for a while?
If there is life in the base of the plant, they will come back from what can appear to be a dead plant. Keep us posted!! I am sure you are not alone in this!
I opened the door to the garden shack and am leaving it open unless we get a freeze. It gets no sun. The air is circulating now. I also sprayed them with an anti fungal mix. Some of them don't have any signs of fungus (probably resistant) but most do. I sprayed them all.
I was told to use a 3% hydrogen peroxide solution on them. Pour it over them. Not sure I want to do that. It is still too cold here to move them outdoors. I will be re-potting them all this spring when I move them outside (mid April).
I am just sick about this. I’ve read that they need air circulating but it never occurred to me that the shack would be so stuffy.
It seems I always have to learn things the hard way. AARRGG!
Here they are. It isn't pretty.
Let's hope that opening the door and letting fresh air in, every chance you get, will turn them around! How much longer until the danger of freezing is past up there?
There is a super light frost protective blanket you can use if it is just going to get down to the freezing point but not much lower. It lets light through and has thousands of tiny holes for air circulation. I have tons of it and when there is a danger of freezing, I run out there and cover my entire collection. I talk about it in the winter hardy thread.
Because sunlight will kill the mold as well.
Is the soil in the containers dry? If so, then perhaps it is best to leave them dry. That is a hard call. Because the mold can grow down into the roots. But if you soak them with the peroxide solution, they will be sopping wet and more prone to damage from freezing...
hummer_girl, what does your books say?
I thought the same thing about the peroxide solution.
The fuchsias are medium wet. I probubly water them too much in dormancey. Every month I give them a cup of water.
Mid April is our frost free date here. I am leaving the door open unless the temp goes down. Not sure what the light will do to them.