What's this caused by? (broccoli plants)

[Matthewlake]

Well first I should say that this is the first time I've tried growing my own food. The majority of my diet consists of vegetables, fruits so why not!?

Well so everything has been going fine so far, I think. You can see my progress here; Matts Calorie Restriction

Here in wales we had quite heavy rain, it was windy and cold all night and all day, with hail as well at times. Woke up today to find that my spinach has taken some damage, ripped leaves and holes, even though we had netting over the top of the box that help keep slugs out, but always rain in. almost all my strawberry plant pots got flooded in no time so put them in our green house we made.

Now I also found some white spots on the top side of the broccoli and some on the spinach. Initial thought was probably just rain damage, or maybe too much water? The white marks do rub off when i gently remove them with finger nail. The undersides of the plant though look completely healthy to me. So this is not a disease or anything to be concerned about. Sorry if this is nothing and wasting space on the forum lol... just I really want to get this right, so far the weather seems all over the place this spring/summer

top side of the leaf
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...2/HPIM2549.jpg

underneath
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...2/HPIM2550.jpg

broccoli plants
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...2/HPIM2558.jpg

Hope its nothing... great forum I hope I can learn a lot around here. Gardening is now one of my new fave things, I really enjoy it, even though the slugs can be a real pain in the a**.

[DavidT]

At first glance it looks like whitefly, but if it was I imagine you would have said. So, I am going for Botrytis, possibly downy mildew.

[Matthewlake]

Oh I hope not ! Is there anything I should do right now? Just watch for a few days and see if they start dying? And is there any treatment at all?

[DavidT]

It wont kill the plants but spray with a fungicide suitable for use on edible plants.

[Chopin]

This weather is not helping any of my plants - the still air and constant rain has resulted in mildew on my courgettes plants and honeysuckle. I have been told to maximise airflow and remove foilage where possible to get air around the plants. It doesn't look nice but as far as I know it shouldn't damage the plant too much unless the whole plant is affected severly.