Once I realized what it was I began spraying weekly with Daconil, it did not help. A few weeks ago, after searching the internet for advice, I cut most of the plants back to the ground. I did not cut back of a few plants that were planted together in which a green lynx spider had chosen as her home to lay her eggs. ;0)

I try to only select plants for my garden that are low maintence, I try as much as possible to garden organically and I have not had any problems with echinacea in my prior garden. I have a few questions:

Should I expect to see my echinacea again in the spring, or did I surely grant them an early death?

Should I now cut back the others that the spider had nested in?

Is the soil around the plants contaminated? Should it be spayed as well or will the soon to be winter take care of that?

Any expertise is greatly appreciated, as I am tired of torturing the poor echinacea...

drought mixed with humid air. Powdery mildew sets on plants that are often dry at the root but the leaves have humidity on them constantly

crowded foliage or foliage that is just in a sort of wind blocked area so the air doesn't circulate well and the moisture doesn't dry off leaves quickly

shadier than the plant appreciates

I wouldn't do a thing now but wait. Hopefully next spring will bring better growing conditions and your babies will recover and be mildew free!

GGG

Nandina~ I did do some searching as far as organic treatment with milk and read alot of conflicting results, by the time I noticed the PM it was all over the place and I wanted a sure fix(even though that did not help much either) ;)

Ironically powdery mildew is worse in dry weather. Regular rain or overhead watering washes the spores off the leaves.

Zinnias are another plant that gets mildew. But it doesn't over winter.