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My peas are diseased. Powdery mildew?

Kevin David

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posted 2 years ago

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I’m pretty new to gardening still. What is this white stuff on my peas? Looks like the powdery mildew on this website: [url=]https://www.manitobapulse.ca/2019/07/field-pea-foliar-diseases/[/url]

I have some diluted neem oil. Can I use that?

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May Lotito

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Do you mean the white specks in the middle of the picture? It looks like leaf miner damage to me.

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John Weiland

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I also suspect some sort of insect/critter damage on your pea leaves here. Another photo of pea powdery mildew below is, I feel, more representative of the disease. Sometimes powdery mildew can just look like a dried milky coating on the leaves, making them quite distinct from other leaves on the same plant or on neighboring plants. But if it is the holes in the leaves that is concerning, I would suspect some nibbler.

MildewonPeas.JPG

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Douglas Alpenstock

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I agree with John Weiland, you have nibblers but not powdery mildew. Plants can handle a certain amount of stress without a significant loss of yield -- but it's worth keeping an eye on. 'Cause fresh peas are freaking awesome!

Kevin David

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May Lotito wrote:Do you mean the white specks in the middle of the picture? It looks like leaf miner damage to me.

Yes. However, I was hoping you guys would address the holes too. So thanks. I looked at photos of leaf miner damage and I don’t recall those squiggly lines with last years damage. It’s always looked to me like a consistent, evenly dispersed powder/frost-like quality in the past. I wonder if the other leaves have that pattern too. Maybe I should take more photos tomorrow.

Last year was my first year growing peas and there was a lot of that white coating by the end of the growing season. The peas looked quite sick. The pea stalks were drying/dying from the bottom up. Thankfully, at that point I could harvest.

So should I do anything about the nibblers? They were there last year too, but didn’t seem to do too much damage(edit: in terms of the amount of holes, I mean). That white stuff was all over the pea leaves by the end of the season, probably even late summer. By the way, I chose that photo because it shows the white stuff and the holes in one photo. I believe other pea leaves have a thicker coating. I’ll have to doublecheck tomorrow.

Thanks everybody

“I can think, I can wait, I can fast”-Siddhartha, Herman Hesse

Douglas Alpenstock

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At the end of the season, after harvesting, it's not unusual (here) to see powdery mildew taking hold. I guess it's part of the cycle.

But if it interferes with tasty peas, then dammit I'm on the warpath!

John Weiland

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A decent video pasted below may be of help if you have dairy milk in the house....don't know how well non-dairy milk would work in this situation. You may also be able to find Bordeaux Mixture (copper sulfate) in the fungal control section of most garden centers and I've also hear that bicarbonate solutions (sodium or potassium) may be of help. Lots of people posting about this issue around the internet so you certainly are not alone. I hope one or a mixture of these solutions helps!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2WXMW3h1tc

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Anne Miller

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Just in case it might be powdery mildew, that is so easy to fix, at least it has been for me.

I have a simple recipe that uses easy ingredients:

A really good treatment for powdery mildew is: 1 gal water, 1 T dish soap, 1 T baking soda.

I put it in a spray bottle to make applying it easy.

Some recipes call for adding oil. I have never found a need for the oil.

https://permies.com/t/143591/health-nearby-plants-cover-crops#1124238

https://permies.com/t/93537/toxic-Fungicide#1726815

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Daniel Vogel

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Not powdery mildew. You'll know powdery mildew when you see it without having to look it up. It just took out my peas, but they were tapering off anyways.

Kevin David

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Thanks for throwing out all those ideas. I just bought neem oil spray the other day, is that alright to use? I have some ants on the chamomile plant that I just sprayed with neem oil. I have some of these other things mentioned too though(milk, sodium bicarbonate).

So is this one problem, or are the holes and white stuff two separate issues? The runner beans have some holes, but no white spots. I have noticed very tiny, white looking insects around. Also, a much bigger insect in the last photo. Unfortunately, I didn’t take a photo of the beans.

Edit: I just realized these photos are pretty crisp since they came from a different camera. Can someone point me towards the info on getting the photo to a lower resolution. Should I take these down and upload again at a lower resolution?

20230623_183916_Original.jpeg

20230623_182741_Original.jpeg

20230623_182601_Original.jpeg

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May Lotito

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If you poke the white spots with a needle, you'd be able to see the leaf tissue is eaten between the two layers. I found this picture online that looks similar to yours.

Screenshot_20230624-010129_Chrome-2.jpg

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John Weiland

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Kevin,

Actually, thank you for the higher resolution photos. Yes, these do take up more bandwidth to deliver, but the clarity helps much in disease diagnosis.

Would you be able to bring the infected plant or a stem piece with the leaves into your local Kent County extension office (Michigan State University) to see if they can confirm anything or offer a solution? With the last set of photos, I'm leaning more towards a virus infection, which often (a) follows the veins of the plant and (b) unlike powdery mildew, would tend to be associated with younger leaves on the plant vs. the older leaves. There would be no cure for that plant at this point, but many of the pea viruses are spread by aphids and if there are any hanging around (and *if* this turned out to be a virus disease) then it could be spread via aphids to other currently healthy plants. If most of the other plants are looking healthy and if they additionally are getting close to setting pods, then you may get lucky and still have some good mature peas by the time any additional virus infection took hold in these other plants. Part of the reason that many of the northern tier crops do not worry so much about certain virus diseases is because the insect populations don't become concerning until the crop is already near maturity....by then it's too late. A virus entering the plant too late will have little impact on veggie yield and quality in general. Would be curious to know if you get a definite diagnosis on these peas. Good luck!

PS....if it turns out to be pea-seedborne mosaic virus, then probably best not to save seed for next year's crop as the virus, as the name implies, stays in the seed and will re-emerge with the new crop.

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Susan Mené

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I'm no expert, but leaf miners are my bane of the moment. My spinach look like your peas.

I choose...to be the best me I can be, to be the strongest me I can be, to learn the most I can. I don't know what comes next. But I'm gonna go into it balls to the walls, flames in my hair, and full speed ahead.

John Weiland

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Susan Mené wrote:....My spinach look like your peas.

Yeah, the leaf miner photo that May L. posted looks like my Pac Choi. They do seem to be having a field day this year!

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Kevin David

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John, I contacted the MSU extension. Waiting for a response. I’ve had a few questions about MSU’s services for a while now. How is it you are familiar with them?

Can we just assume it’s a virus and give something a try? Would neem oil or milk work still work?

I’ll definitely take your advice and not save seeds, test or no test. Thanks for all this info.

My spinach look like your peas.

thankfully, only my peas look like my peas(fingers crossed). This seemed to have happened last year and no discoloration showed up on other plants, if I remember correctly.

“I can think, I can wait, I can fast”-Siddhartha, Herman Hesse

John Weiland

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Kevin David wrote:John, I contacted the MSU extension. Waiting for a response. I’ve had a few questions about MSU’s services for a while now. How is it you are familiar with them?

Can we just assume it’s a virus and give something a try? Would neem oil or milk work still work?

Not so familiar with the Kent county/MSU office per se, but have had a good dose of interaction with county, state, and Land-Grant campus extension offices. Every state in the US has these services to a greater or lesser extent and many of their services are free until you need something more technical or in-depth. Then there is often a small fee, just like getting your well tested or a soil analysis. If you really wanted to know what might be in those peas, a knowledgeable contact in the Kent county office *may* know what the disease is already by experience (having others like yourself bring in plant samples for them to observe). But additionally, for a fee, they may send it forward to MSU's Plant Diagnostic lab ( https://www.canr.msu.edu/resources/plant_diagnostics_lab ) in East Lansing and the results of those tests (same type of tests as were done for COVID) would either be sent directly to you or back to the Kent office....and *they* would contact you with the result. It may be worth it for you to take it step by step to see what level of help you can get locally by the Kent office before deciding if you wish to take it further.

Note: Assuming the the disease would be caused by a virus would do us no good in a search for a curative; extremely few examples exist in the plant virus literature of plants being 'cured' of an infection-- the infected plants typically are just removed with the hope that few if any transmitting insects (aphids, mites, leafhoppers, etc) have had time or opportunity to spread the disease to other neighboring plants. For the most part, I would suspect that only other legumes (beans, chickpea, lentils, etc) might additionally be susceptible to the virus(es) if that is the basis for your pea symptoms. Good luck!....if you find anything definitive, please post a follow-up here.

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Kevin David

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posted 2 years ago

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They told me to bring by a sample, but it sounds like they expect me to fill out the form and have it sent to diagnostics still. Maybe I’ll bring it by and see what happens.

It seems there’s other things going on in my garden bed. The peas may be doomed(or at least their leaves), but I’d like to do something about the larger holes coming up in the beans now.

“I can think, I can wait, I can fast”-Siddhartha, Herman Hesse

John Weiland

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Kevin David wrote: .....I’d like to do something about the larger holes coming up in the beans now.

Bean leaf beetle may be doing that....some good photos and a description here: https://hort.extension.wisc.edu/articles/bean-leaf-beetle-2/

Seems stem borer and flea beetles are ravenous this year as well. I hope you get useful info on both peas and beans if you get the chance to use the Extension services in town. Good luck!....

“The most important decision we make is whether we believe we live in a friendly or hostile universe.”― Albert Einstein

Kevin David

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posted 1 year ago

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I never tested it. I never did a lot of things I was talking about at that time. I spent a lot of time in the hospital shortly after and vanished from permies. But now it's time to get back at it.

I'm starting to think about this year's garden. Do I need to throw out that soil or can I fix it somehow to avoid having this problem again?

If I lived in the countryside(or even had a backyard) I'd find a use for it. I could use it for composting waste, but we don't have space for that here.

My understanding is that I'd have to do thermothilic composting to kill off whatever was causing that infection. I'm not set up for that type of composting.

I'm not sure I'm right about anything I'm saying here, which is why writing this message.

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John Weiland

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posted 1 year ago

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Kevin David wrote:.... Do I need to throw out that soil or can I fix it somehow to avoid having this problem again?

Sorry to hear about the health interruption in your plans last year and I hope you are in a better place now with that.

If last year was your first for trying out those plants for your garden, I would just take it easy this year and plant the same things that you normally would as you anticipate good things to eat for the coming summer. There are soooooooooo many times that just trying it again results in a completely different outcome, either due to rainfall, heat, drought, etc. In short, just by the usual vagaries of weather and other forces, you may have a better year this year for those crops if the climate and other impacts just don't allow the diseases and insects to give you the same kind of grief this year. If you *do* end of having the same problems 2 years running, then this fall and early next year are the times to think about protective measures for future crops. But I would just give it a go again with as much advice as you can get here and other gardening sources. Good luck!

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Nancy Reading

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posted 1 year ago

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Hi Kevin. I didn't see your posts last year. I'm not convinced that the white markings aren't the normal silvery marks that some peas do have naturally. I attach a photo of some of my peas from last year that have similar markings, and I believe were healthy.
The nibbler is a different matter. If it isn't debilitating the plants I'd be inclined to see what predators turn up. Often nature will make a reasonable balance for you if you give it time.

silver-spots-on-pea-leaves.jpg

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Kevin David

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Nancy, the peas did seem healthy in spite of the discoloration. Also, I recall neem oil did seem to help with all the problems. The nibblers were causing far less damage and it seemed like the white stuff didn't show up anywhere new after using the neem spray.

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