Is This Powdery Mildew? -HELP

Mnbonsai

This is a close up of my fukien tea leaf - most of them on the plant big and small are showing this.
Is this Powdery Mildew? I have never seen this before and Im not sure how to treat if I cannot diag it.

I just got finished hitting it with neem oil 3 times for a wooly aphid problem that has since cleared up. Also the area indoors where this was got a little chilly 56 to be exact one night then this showed up the next day or so.

If anyone can offer help or advice on how to rid it would be great.
Thanks in advance for your help.

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TreeBay

Maybe, or it could just be hard water spotting. Are the leaf undersides similarly affected? Does it wash off or does it come back stronger when the leaf dries?

Regards,

Matt

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Mnbonsai

The underside is not affected this way, its showing small black spotting less frequent. I have tried to spray but it does come back.

TreeBay

Hmm. Can you actually wash it off by soaking and rubbing the leaves? Is it more on the interior or exterior branches. The mildew would tend to the interior and lower branches, teh water spotting would be pretty much wherever water or spray hits the plant.

It could be just a precipitate from the spray. In any case, try to spray or mist in the morning and give the plant a chance to dry out. When mildew really takes hold it looks much more severe than this and the leaves usually start to curl.

Regards,

Matt

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Mnbonsai

you know you have a point here, I just couldnt believe it was spray deposits but it certainly could be. I will try what you suggest in the morning as I got tied up today. They do seem to be quite uniform across the tree. Do you think this was from the Neem oil spray or misting hard water?

I also use a humidifier in the room and a few times it really got it damp in the room, this lead me to believe it was mildew due to the saturation of the area, however it could be precipitate from that as well.

Thanks much and I will keep you posted as I dont want to spray it now this late in the day.

Mnbonsai

Matt,

Thanks for your reply, after taking a look a the plant I realized that all the "white" areas are on the lower edge of the leaves that have it. Some of the interior leaves have it but I attribute that to my remarkable misting skills.

For now I guess my best bet is to start boiling the water - its not going to rain here in MN for a while.

BTW - I just moved so the water here must be harder.

Also - has anyone used RO (reverse osmosis) or other bottled water?

Thanks Again
Tim

Jose_Alberto

Boiling won't help, unless you distillate it... Maybe you can collect water during the nights... Just as an experiment, I read that in the mountains, some clothes were placed over a receiving tank, and the mist was condensated over the cloth and the receiving tank got full, I don't know if this would work there, it depends on the humidity... well something like this...

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Mnbonsai

Jose,
Thanks for the advice but it may be a little cold here for that.

Also, the reason I stated Boiling is what Paul Lesniewicz stated in his book indoor Bonsai if your water is hard. I guess I thought he knew something I didnt.

I wasnt sure if Boiling changes hardness of water.

Carl_Bergstrom

How curious! I would have thought that boiling would have made the water harder, as the water evaporated and minerals stayed around.

One that that boiling does do - but so does a day of sitting out at room temperature - is that it evapoates off the added chlorine. Supposedly this can make a difference in some areas where the water is really highly chlorinated.

-OMC

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