Fungicides & Such

I used to stress and try to battle powdery mildew and molds of various kinds. I tried almost everything. I could never find an organic cure that worked on such things.  When I finally figured it out, I laughed out loud at my silly self. Any molds and mildews only appeared after the productive life of the plant was over. Like every life form, when it has reproduced, lived its life and had its day in the sun, disease of some kind or another usually sets in and ends its life. And there was arrogant me. I must make this wonder of nature live and produce for 3 times its life expectancy. What then? If I did manage to cure the mold or mildew, what then?  You got it. Something else killed it off; some other disease, some other mold or mildew.   With molds and mildews of various kinds, the best remedy is to not plant too close together, don’t water in late afternoon or evening, never water from above, and make sure there is enough room around the plant that it has good air circulation.  Unlike dragons, plants don’t live forever. The best gardener in the world can’t make an eggplant that is genetically able to produce a maximum of 50 fruits produce 51 eggplants. That plant is going to start getting weak. It comes with age. It will be beautiful for a while, produce beautiful flowers, bear fruit, and then weaken. As it weakens, bugs move in, or disease or mildew or mold sets in to take advantage of the weakening plant. Whatever you put on a plant at that stage of life isn't going to help, at best. At worst, some of whatever you tried to cure the plant with, is now in your soil.  Give the little darlings a happy life--- but when it’s over, let ‘em go. Mother Nature set it up that way. Stop trying to interfere with her. She’s been sorting all this out over hundreds of millions of years with no help from me or you.