Spraying Neem Oil for Powdery Mildew

[garyc1234]

I recently discovered powdery mildew on my tomato plants. Unfortunately, this is not exactly a surprise as I haven't had the best gardening practices (plants too close together, leaves touching potting mix, didn't prune enough, etc.)

I recently purchased Neem Oil, Dr. Bonner's Sal Suds, and a sprayer. I've read that Neem Oil basically just coats the leaves to protect them and "suffocates" the existing mildew on the plants. The question I have is that most of my plants have blossoms everywhere. It would be very difficult to just try to spray the leaves and not the blossoms. What do others do in this situation? Go ahead and spray the blossoms (and growing tomatoes) anyway? Or should I just try to only spray the plants that have the mildew on them, but don't spray the plants that don't seem to be affected yet? Or should I just cut off the infected leaves of the plants, and just spray the stems and try to spray only where I absolutely have to? Any advice is welcome. Thanks!

[kurt]

I have thwarted some infestations(bugs underside of leaf) with the oil.From experience TOO much will coat and takes forever to sluff off.Top of some leaf types will hold and in my instance (zone 10B )it did fry some leaves and more important new growth,so no heavy sunburn exposures.

[ginger2778]

I would just use liquid copper fungicide. It works great, and its OMRI listed for organic use.

[Shapshftr]

A horticulturist told my friend to spray his powdery mildew infected plants with neem oil to the point that it is running off the plants. He said it cured it.

[garyc1234]

Thanks for the tips. I sprayed some neem oil a couple of days ago. Hopefully that will help. If it doesn't work after a few attempts, I'll try the copper. Thanks!