The weather has been hot and humid some days and cool and wet on others, all of which can stress your plants out. Your plants just can't send you a text saying that they are stressed, instead they become susceptible to any number of ailments.

The most common one being powdery mildew, which is a white powdery fungus that lays upon the leaves of your plants slowly draining the life from them. It is a water born fungus that spread through water vapor on humid days and rain on rainy days. Healthy plants can easily fight it off but when a plant’s immunity starts to fail the fungus can take hold. Like us with the common cold, the virus is always around, and healthy adults can easily fight it off, but when we get run down we can succumb to it.

It is the same for plants that become stressed. So, if you notice powdery mildew on some of your plant’s leaves there are a number of fungicides that can quickly eradicate the problem. Copper or sulfur powder are both natural mineral fungicides that can be used as a powder or mixed with water to produce a spray that is easy to apply. Both fungicides work well on powdery mildew and help prevent other fungus's from popping up. Black spot on grape and apple leaves is another fungus that I see a lot in the summer months. If not treated promptly, black spot can spread quickly, causing leaves to wither and drop prematurely and ultimately eliminating any crop for the year.

Copper or sulfur will work well for black spot as well, but if you need some insect protection as well as a fungicide you could try neem oil. Neem oil works as both an insecticide and a fungicide so you can solve two problems at once. All of these remedies are natural but so is your fungus. If you find you need something stronger there is Daconil and Fungonil. These are chemical fungicides used for the toughest fungus among us, they are not all natural or organic, but they can save your plant. Certain strains of rust and blight call for you to bring out the big dogs to fix the problem.

Now whichever way you go treating for fungus is not a one and done application. Spraying for fungus should be done every two to three weeks for the rest of the season to make sure the fungus doesn't come back, and you need to spray in the late fall and early next spring again. You see fungus will lay dormant in the leaf litter on the ground all winter long and then become active again the next spring, so spray the leaf litter around the affected plant to make sure that the fungus is dead and not just playing possum. Spraying again in the spring is just a good precaution but still might not prevent this from happening again in the summer because like I said earlier fungus is water born and spreads easily in the summer through rain and humidity.

So, keeping a close eye on your plants during the summer months is very important so you can treat a small problem before it becomes a big problem. You can't control the weather, and your plants will get stressed at some point but treating them early will prevent any major damage or loss of crop. There is a reason not everybody has a garden, it's not always easy. If it was easy, everyone would be doing it!