Tropical Permaculture - Mildew & Blight

Hi guys, hoping you can offer some insight? We are in the Dominican Republic in a subtropical region of the island that gets plenty of rainfall. A lot of our plants are suffering from mildew and blight. Any suggestions? Thank you

Hello Orquidea, welcome to permies!

I do not know much about the tropics but maybe you could answer some questions for me.

Are the plants in the shade or sun?

Does the rain run off or is the ground always wet?

What types of plants are you talking about?

Can you tell us more about your gardening techniques?

I am just looking for clues to the problem.

I would give the plants more spacing think savanna and less dark forest floor rainforest.

Fill the 'new' breezy and sunlit forest floor with alot of onion/garlic/etc + mint/thyme/sage/etc + nitrogen fixing plants.

If by any chance you are using chemical fertilizers, try and limit their usage.


You might have to switch to some more swamp tolerant plants or get seeds/plants from nearby trees/area that aren't plagued with your problems.

Observation is key. Especially if you are in a new or relatively unfamiliar setting or are new to permaculture. What is growing around you? What are people in your area growing, and what, among those things, grows relatively easily and without much input? Most of the world where people have been living for a long time has an suite of food plants and animals, some wild, some cultivated, that form the basis of a staple diet. This is the result of millennia of experience, in most cases, and there are often particular varieties involved (which cannot be simply replaced with "improved" ones from elsewhere in hopes of higher yields, etc.) People settling in the tropics from cooler temperate zones often fail at trying to grow familiar plants, sometimes from imported seeds. Others moving from place to place, perhaps from a different altitude or a place with a different amount or distribution of rainfall, are likely to encounter the same problem.

I don´t know about blight, but for mildew I spray 1 part of raw cow milk (it must be raw) to 5 parts of water. Spray it in the morning or late afternoon. It works great for my okra patch. It must be sprayed at the inicial phase of the contamination.