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Pour a Little Milk on Your Wheat Field |
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FRIDAY, Jan. 23 (HealthDayNews) -- Got milk? Then you won't have powdery mildew on your wheat crop.
Spraying milk on wheat plants helps cure mildew disease, says a British study in the current issue of Tests of Agrochemicals and Cultivars.
Previous research showed milk can help combat mildew on squash plants. Some organic gardeners use milk to treat mildew and milk is also used by some grape growers in Australia.
In this study, researchers at Harper Adams University College found spraying milk on wheat can greatly reduce powdery mildew.
"Our results show that milk could potentially be used to improve plant health of wheat if disease becomes severe, especially on organic crops where chemical fungicides are not permitted," researcher Peter Kettlewell says in a prepared statement.
Nearly all wheat crops suffer some infection from the fungus that causes powdery mildew disease, which can reduce growth and harvest yields.
More information
Here's where you can learn more about powdery mildew.
(SOURCE: Harper Adams University College, news release, January 2004)
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