I'll have to look

Steve ...

The addition of nitrogen depends on your soil and your watering practices.

Rule of thumb ... too much nitrogen encourages soft growth. Soft growth is more vulnerable to disease and other stressors. So, it's not just the timing of the nitrogen that can impact the performance of the plant.

I know a lot of people hate those "rule of thumb" things, but it really is another way of my saying I don't know your climate, your soil, etc., but shares the concept. You need to tweak those rules to fit your own conditions.

Whenever you are going to feed your roses, it is a good practice to saturate the soil in the full root zone of the plant the day before feeding. The plant is fully hydrated and will only take up as much nitrogen as it needs. Otherwise, if the rose needs more water, it may take up more and end up with the soft growth I mentioned above. Nitrogen molecules do not stay in the soil and will be leached out with future waterings.

My practice is to feed lightly and often.

The fungicide is Neem Oil and hydrophobic. That's all I could find on the bottle. So if it's hydrophobic that leads me to believe that it won't just wash off? I did learn some stuff in college chemistry lol 😀.

Well I planted all of my six petunias. But since I went to Orchards and the grocery store and it became ten o'clock I stopped and watered my new plants and the beds and will plant more tomorrow. Have to get my dog out so he's not alone. He is crated while the other one is free roaming. But Iam a stay at home mom so he has plenty of time out. Only when I leave, sleep- with him in our room, or garden is he in there. If I didn't have a time limit I would stay outside the entire day lol.😀

Tracy ... I avoided ALL the science classes I could when I was in college ... So, I took life science and biology and that's it.

I looked up neem oil and found some interesting information.

This is from the article from Greenhouse Product News I am going to link below:

The subsequent remaining oil without the azadirachtin is referred to as clarified hydrophobic extract of neem oil.

https://gpnmag.com/article/exp...

I don't know your climate, so you may be safe using a spray with soap or oil and have the window I mentioned above. California is a big state ... You may be able to use products in your garden that I cannot use in mine.

What I do know, is that I cannot use any product with soap or oil because I never have that window of safety.

I put the fungicide on the affected areas. Was spreading to buds ☹️ Hopefully this works!!

One thing I like about neem oil is that it has to be pretty safe since neem is used by people in India for oral hygeine. And you are right that it won't wash off easily. I'll be interested to hear how it works as a fungicide. I keep buying it for its pesticide properties. I hope it works, too.

Yeah Steve that is a bonus!! I know that bugs need to eat too but not my garden. I'll keep updating this post so that people can see how it works to get rid of that powdery mildew. It moves fast!!

Nothing bad to report about the Neem oil on my parade roses. They still look healthy minus the powdery mildew. I might be crazy but it looks like it might be a little less mildew. No pests on the plants so far!! Will keep updating!!

Mindi

I'll keep watching this space...

Well it looks like my newly opening buds on the affected rose have taken a hit. The outer petals look like crinkled paper. I can take a photo later. I don't think it had anything to do with the spray. I think it had to do with the powdery mildew. I've seen this type of thing before without spraying so that is why I believe it's not the spray. Please think good thoughts about my roses.thats a bummer. We'll see if they even open at all.

It's not quite bright out yet. If you look closely the powdery mildew goes up under the buds. Tell me if you need brighter pictures to see it.

Brighter photo...


I don't know if the brighter picture is any better but here it is.

It's amazing that people from India use Neem oil for there oral hygiene. As for me.. I'll stick with toothpaste!😀

MindiHammerstone said:Well it looks like my newly opening buds on the affected rose have taken a hit. The outer petals look like crinkled paper. I can take a photo later. I don't think it had anything to do with the spray. I think it had to do with the powdery mildew. I've seen this type of thing before without spraying so that is why I believe it's not the spray. Please think good thoughts about my roses.thats a bummer. We'll see if they even open at all.

Mindi ...

My caution about using the spray wasn't that it would cause damage to the rose. The damage occurs if your temps reach 85F or above any time in 6 to 8 weeks after you have sprayed your roses. As long as temps are below that temperature threshold, you will not see foliage burn damage caused by the residue of the spray.

I think I still have a good amount of time before it gets to that temp. Right now it's in the 70's at the highest. I'll keep watch and report back.this powdery mildew is encroaching on the other roses which are close by. Iam kind of in a pickle. I've already sprayed. The powdery mildew is having an effect on the buds. They don't look right. Plenty of air circulation as it is always windy. I'll reread the warnings but what I had read made it seem pretty benign. I'll keep your warnings in mind and thank you for caring about my roses. I'll keep you guys posted!!

Carlysuko,

My sincerest apologies for taking over your thread!!

Those pink and white are stunners!! I have a red and white striped one. Has buds but we'll see if they open and look good.

Back in my previous life I didn't even do anything about powdery mildew. I just sprayed water like usual and ignored it. But they still flowered and looked beautiful. Past life meaning growing up and my last house we rented. Would just prune them when they got scraggly.

On the bottle they kind of contradicted themselves and said it washes off with water. But I also read that it was hydrophobic.

Well a new bud has begun to open this morning and it looks good on the infected plant.

My other parade roses have lots of buds, all except my runt rose that is close to the fence. But it looks like it's getting some new growth.

Rose blush 1... now Iam paranoid about having sprayed the Neem oil. Hope things turn out ok. This is the most vigorous growing one with tons of buds.

Mindi ...

Roses are tough, but they want what they want and a lot of roses are sold because they have pretty blooms but are lousy plants.

I started my rose life by volunteering at a mini rose nursery. The owner of that nursery told me that miniature roses purchased at grocery stores, big box stores, etc., were half dead when you bought them because they were never handled properly. Of course, at that time mini roses were in favor and there were a lot of specialized nurseries that sold healthy plants.

With these miniature roses purchased at the grocery stores and the like, You can cut them to the ground and they will come back just fine.

You may think you have plenty of air circulation because it's windy, but maybe down in the flower bed, there is not much air circulation. I don't know, only you and the rose knows ...

if you do get foliage burn because you sprayed, cut the foliage back and allow the plant to grow new foliage.

OK ... this is me ... if it were my rose and continued to mildew, I'd give it one more chance by moving it to another location. If it still mildewed, I'd toss it. There is always another healthy rose out there that I don't have to mess with, so why coddle a rose, unless you have a sentimental attachment to it, that doesn't perform well in your garden ? Not every rose will thrive in every garden.

To me, messing around with disease prone plants just takes the fun out of gardening.

If you want to purchase healthy miniature roses, just write a post and I am certain people here can give you recommendations.

Have any of you used the home remedy for mildew that is a solution of milk and baking soda? I've been looking for the specific recipe I used and can't find it at the moment, but I did find some info about both milk and baking soda being used effectively. I don't have issues with mildew on roses here, but have had it on tall phlox and monarda when weather conditions are right for it. I used the home remedy and it worked like a charm.

https://dengarden.com/gardenin...

https://www.growingformarket.c...

I've heard of spraying yogurt solution on roses. I've used baking soda for black spot, but was not completely impressed. Never heard of the combo. What a great tip! In addition to roses, phlox and monarda, I bet it would be worth a try on squash.

Gemini_sage,

Thanks for the tip!!

😀

Mindi