Powdery mildew

[Dolivo]

I am starting to pull plants out of my garden and would like to give them to the chickens. (Except the tomato and pepper plants) I just noticed the beginning of powdery mildew on a few leaves of my squash plants. Can I feed the infected leaves to the chickens? If I cut off the infected leaves can I give the rest of the plant to them?
Also just to double check these are ok to give to chickens?
Green bean plants
Cucumber plants
Eggplant plants
Thank you

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Chickens won't generally eat the plant, so I wouldn't bother.

 

[Molpet]

eggplants are related to tomatoes, peppers (nightshade) that being said.. I throw it all in the run as a compost pile and they pick out the bugs .. they don't seem to be interested in eating the nightshade plants.. since it goes back to the garden, I burned the infected plants so it doesn't spread

 

[JedJackson]

I am starting to pull plants out of my garden and would like to give them to the chickens. (Except the tomato and pepper plants) I just noticed the beginning of powdery mildew on a few leaves of my squash plants. Can I feed the infected leaves to the chickens? If I cut off the infected leaves can I give the rest of the plant to them?
Also just to double check these are ok to give to chickens?
Green bean plants
Cucumber plants
Eggplant plants
Thank you

You could try with the green beans and cucumbers. No guarantee they'll eat them, though. I wouldn't risk eggplant or anything with mildew. Better to throw them on the compost heap.

 

[Dolivo]

Ok, thank you all very much!

 

[Cindy in PA]

I pulled my green beans last week & they devoured the leaves in a few hours. This was plants from about a 40 foot row. Had the darkest green poop ever he next day! I am trying to amp up the DL in the run & they break it down way too fast. Next up is my nasturstium plants!

 

[Folly's place]

Free ranging birds with lots of choices will avoid yucky stuff; cooped up birds offered limited things, and nothing else, might eat anything. There's no reason to offer toxic or diseased plants, or spoiled items, to your birds, especially if you also plan to eat them or their eggs. Mary

 

[Patinas]

My rule of thumb is that if it doesn't look like something I would feed my family, then it doesn't go to the chickens either. That includes greens that are starting to get wilted/slimy or any fruits or veggies that are showing mold.

If garden plants show signs of distress or disease, they also do not get fed to the chickens. I have no idea if moldy plant leaves have bad side effects on chickens or not or if they would even eat them.

Haven't tried feeding the cucumber plants or sugar pea plants to the chickens yet, but as stated above, I would skip the eggplant plants due to being in the nightshade family.

 

[rosemarythyme]

My chickens love the snap pea plants I put in this summer (both the leaves and the peas from the pods) but I had powdery mildew at end of the season. I stripped off any unblemished leaves for the chickens, the rest of the plants were disposed of. I did not compost the plants as I don't want to risk the mildew spreading further.