- [Presenter] Welcome to Oklahoma Gardening.

Today I'll answer the popular question of when to prune your roses.

See what cool season crop I'm planting in the garden.

And join us as we head to Minick Materials in Oklahoma City to learn why compost is the secret to a successful garden.

(classical music) - [Presenter] Underwriting assistance for our program is provided by the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, Food and Forestry, helping to keep Oklahoma green and growing.

(classical music) - So if you're looking for an easy and low maintenance.. (classical music) - You have two different types of flowers on one plant.

(classical music) - That gives the pepper its heat.

(classical music) - One of the questions that we get asked often is when do prune our roses?

Well, unfortunately that answer can be somewhat complicated depending on what type of roses you might have.

Now, one of the popular roses that you often see are the hybrid teas.

These have been very popular over the centuries and one of the things that makes them so popular is because they've been hybridized.

So you get a lot of different colors, but also because they are known to have the longer stems that have a single large flower on 'em.

So they're really great for cut flowers.

Now the thing about hybrid teas is they can be a little more high maintenance and they often will tend to die back a little bit more in the winter time.

Now you can see this hybrid tea that we just bought.

It actually has been pruned the proper way.

So going into spring, you want a very open center.

It's pruned back about 8 to 12 inches so that you have those nice structure branches to then grow out.

Hybrid tea can be a little winter finicky, and in fact sometimes you'll find that there is some dieback.

So when I'm pruning roses, I always like to wait till I see a little bit of growth so that I know whether I'm pruning what I'm pruning.

Of course, first thing you wanna prune is anything that's dead wood.

So if you do have some dead wood on the hybrid tees you wanna make sure to prune that out first.

Again, keeping this open structure.

One thing that will help as you go into those winter months to prevent some of that winter kill is to mulch your hybrid tees, about 8 to 10 inches with mulch to insulate them through the winter months.

One of the other popular roses that you often find in gardens and landscapes is the shrub rose.

Now these became popular in 2000 with the knockout rose that was introduced and and while knockout is kind of a florabunda shrub rose mix, you can see that these get rather large.

They get about 6 to 8 feet tall and actually are a little bit hardier so that you're not gonna see as much winter kill back on on these.

And the other thing is you're not gonna necessarily prune them as much.

You're really pruning them more for maintenance.

And so we will kind of take this back a little bit but we aren't going to be as drastic with our cuts like we would on the hybrid teas.

Now there's also the Grand De Flores and Grand De Flores are actually a cross between florabunda and the hybrid tea.

And then going down further in scale you have your polyanthus and also your dwarf roses as well.

Now, regardless of which type you actually have one of the things to keep in mind is when does it actually bloom?

So if it blooms early in the spring then you're gonna wanna wait to prune it after it blooms.

So a lot of times our climbers and our ramblers will bloom early in the spring so we're gonna wait to prune those until after they actually bloom.

A lot of our others like these shrubs roses, they bloom throughout the season, so now's a good time to do that.

Again, I like to wait until around March into the early spring season when we start to see some of this growth emerge so that we can make sure we're actually cutting out any dead first.

And then the next thing is if we have any diseases.

Now, one of the diseases that you'll often see on roses is the Rose Rosette.

Unfortunately, it is a disease that's really taken off and is spread pretty rapidly.

So one of the things, if you see some of the symptoms and we've done a segment a couple of years ago on Rose Rosette, for you to identify those symptoms a lot of times you'll see some new red growth coming out and that's common on roses.

But what happens with Rosa Rosette is you'll see kind of a witches broom or a clustering effect and you'll continue to see red foliage later into the season.

So to prevent that spread, if you think you might have that of course you wanna identify it and then remove that rose.

But also just because you might not know you wanna make sure that you spray your pruners between each shrub every time you prune it.

So Lysol works really well for this.

You can spray it and then you wanna wait for about a minute to make sure that that really has got good contact and kind of work that into the crevices.

And actually Lysol works better than sometimes the 10% bleach solution or wiping it because it really does get into those cracks.

So we're gonna prune this.

So after we've cut out any dead or diseased plant tissue the next thing that we're gonna be doing is when we are cutting, just to reduce the size and the shape of the plant is we wanna make sure we're cutting towards buds that are.

- Growing outward from the center of the plant.

This will continue to grow out, away from the center of the plant, therefore creating an open center which will reduce the amount of moisture that can gather and cause diseases later on.

Now you can see we took a fair amount off of these shrub roses, and honestly they would've been just fine had we not pruned them at all.

But this definitely helps kind of revitalize the shrub and also keeps the height and the width of it in check a little bit.

Now one of the other things, including the dead and diseased and crossing branches, we also looked for some of those older branches as well to go ahead and take those out and get some new, younger growth in here.

Now you do the same on your climbers and ramblers that are spring blooming after they actually bloom.

So you're gonna go in there and trim out some of those old side shoots that have flowers on them and then also trim back older canes, leaving enough newer canes to kind of then recover that area that it's climbing on.

The other thing too, to keep in mind is if you have a newer rose shrub that say was just planted last year, you wanna do minimal pruning on it.

Because as you do that, you just really wanna allow the plant to establish itself more than having to produce a whole lot of vegetation.

So be mindful of that, if you have a newer one, you don't want to trim very much on it also.

The other thing is, as we prune these shrubs, when we have nice warm days, while we're still kind of in the early spring and might get freezing temperatures, it's gonna continue to wanna grow, but we're gonna hold off on fertilizing until April because we don't necessarily want to encourage any additional growth.

So while it can vary a little bit as to how you prune based off of what type of rose you have, you can always check out this fact sheet for more information.

(upbeat music) Bok choy or pak choi, whatever you wanna call it.

Today we were talking about white Chinese cabbage And in fact the name bak choi actually translates to Shanghai Green.

And so really these are greens that you can grow.

They are cool season crops.

So we're just now getting our cool season transplants out into the garden, 'cause we're still experiencing some rather chilly nights.

However, they should be able to handle some of those near freezing conditions.

Now you can see here I've got a couple of different varieties that we're going to plant.

These two are actually the same, but you can see we did a little bit of a succession planting, I planted some earlier and some later.

These are called yellow heart winter choy, and they get that name because they can actually tolerate cooler temperatures even more so.

And the yellow heart comes from the fact that cool temperatures actually make that center rosette turn this bright golden yellow color.

So we're gonna go ahead and pop these out of these six packs that we have them growing in.

You can see we've got a nice root there, and we wanna tease those roots a little bit so that we don't encourage that circling, that they actually will grow out into the garden bed.

Now, because these only get to be about six to eight inches, they make an ideal plant for raised beds.

So we're going to go ahead and just kind of tuck that in and we're gonna plan 'em about 10 to 12 inches apart here.

We've got a couple more.

And because these also make that yellow center in those cooler temperatures, they are in fact used for ornamental purposes in the fall as well.

Now we wanna make sure to transfer our label so that we know which ones are which, as we go through the season a little bit longer.

And the other cultivar that I have here now it is called Asian Delight, and this is also kind of a smaller pak choi so it's only going to get about six to eight inches tall as well.

The nice thing about it though is it is a All America Selection Winner from 2018.

And the judges found that it has a really long period of time that it can tolerate those warmer temperatures before it actually starts bolting.

So a lot of these greens are known for being cool season crops, but when the temperatures start rising, what will happen is that center stem will elongate and that's called bolting.

And when those warmer temperatures start coming, a lot of times your greens will get a bitter taste to 'em.

And so the fact that this was noted as being one that could handle temperatures, even up to almost 100 degrees before it actually starts bolting.

The nice thing about this is if you're growing it to offer it to people or you're just wanting to kind of prolong it in your garden before you harvest it, it's gonna actually be able to tolerate some of those warmer temperatures.

We never know how long our spring is really gonna last around here.

And we're gonna go ahead and get these planted up for the season While spring, we often talk about planting potatoes or potatoes, tomatoes or tomatoes.

This year, if you're looking to expand the greens that you might add into your garden, you might consider pak choi or bok choy.

- We are here at Minick Materials compost production site.

And joining me is Kody Kean who is the Production Facilities Manager.

And really, you're the compost guru, right?

- Yes, yes.

- So go ahead and tell us a little bit about this magic stuff and how you make it.

- So, I took over our production facility three years ago.

Since then, we started taking in more landscape waste after our big ice storm we had.

- Oh right, right, right.

- A few years back.

Within, we took in, it was over $150,000 worth of material in only a couple of weeks.

- Which would have gone to a landfill, right?

- Absolutely, it would have gone to a landfill.

So bringing it here gives us the opportunity to put it back into nature and back to the peoples' landscape and gardens by taking it and turning it into compost.

- Right, so that is a carbon material, right?

A lot of the plant debris?

- Yes.

- You also need some sort of nitrogen.

Where does that come from?

- So we get our nitrogen from Gerber.

We get baby food waste.

- Oh, really, okay.

- So anything that did not make the cut, we go to the baby food gets sent to us.

As well as dog food from Purina in Edmond, Oklahoma.

- Okay, so you're taking these leftover byproducts really and putting 'em back to use with this other waste material.

- Yes, doing so it takes everything out of the landfill, or everything we can out of the landfill.

- So there's a lot of, you know, process to making compost.

I think a lotta times we think it's pretty simple and you just put this recipe together and then turn it occasionally.

But it's a little more complicated than that.

- It's definitely a little more than that.

- So tell us a little bit about your process here and how you've scaled it up.

(Casey chuckling) - So we do about 25,000 yards of compost a year.

The Purina products that we get from Edmond is going to be any dog food that did not make quality grade and we take that in.

And that is going to be our nitrogen product.

So we blend it at two parts carbon and one part nitrogen.

(front end loader banging) When we break it down by volume, it actually equals a 28 to 1 carbon to nitrogen ratio.

- [Casey] So it's not just about mixing carbon and nitrogen, there's more of a process to that.

Tell us a little about what happens with that recipe once you;ve put those products together.

- Right, so when we put everything together, we make it in a 5,000 yard row.

We use a 6-foot long thermometer to inspect the temperature inside of the compost row.

It has to hit 130 degrees to kill off people coliform bacteria.

And any other pathogens that could be contaminating to, or harmful to a human.

- So even though you might be getting thiS food source and that sort of stuff, we don't have to worry about any bacteria or anything 'cause it's reaching that temperature.

- Correct, so it is actually sanitary.

- Okay.

- Our compost exceeds 170 degrees.

I take pride in that 'cause that was my combination of materials put together.

And the benefit of hitting 170 degrees is then it kills off all weed seeds.

- Oh, okay.

- So all of our compost rows, even though they've been sitting here a year and full of nutrients, they have no weeds on them because we exceed those temperatures.

- Which is important because we've all gotten that compost and then gotten a whole different set of problems.

- Yes, exactly.

You wanna grill what you want to and not the weeds that are in your compost.

- Right, so tell us what this guy's doing behind us here 'cause oxygen's important to this process also, right?

- Absolutely.

So we have to add water and add oxygen to the compost.

And by doing so, we flip the compost when we have rain events happening.

And you know that it's gonna be raining tomorrow and tonight so this pile's getting flipped, it's getting loosened up, getting good air flow.

And then the water will penetrate tonight when it rains and that will reactivate those microorganisms and nutrients, or microorganisms and fungi and bacteria.

- Yeah, and also, I would imagine as your materials needs to get to that center to bake, right?

So you've got some of the larger raw material on the outside, now it can be put to the inside, too.

- Yes, and so to stay STA compliant, which is our seal testing assurance, put forward and set up by the US Compost Council, we have to flip our compost rows five times and get that internal temperature of 130 at a minimum of five times.

- And that's interesting that you mentioned certification 'cause I don't think we realize compost can be certified?

- Yes.

- So can you tell us a little bit about what all that means?

So with the STA assurance or the seal testing assurance, it makes it to where we have strict guidelines of what material we can take in, how we have to produce it, and what temperatures we have to reach, as well as how clean it is.

So it gets tested for fecal coliform, it gets tested for arsenic, it gets tested for anything harmful that could go into your garden.

And before every product is sold, we have it sampled, or tested and make sure that it's clear before it can be sold.

- [Casey] You know it's safe.

Yeah, definitely, which is an important factor.

- [Kody] Absolutely.

- [Casey] And some of your compost is OMRI Listed, is that correct?

- [Kody] Yes, that's going to be our Dark Forest Compost.

So what that OMRI listing states is that the materials that go inside of our compost is an organic sourced material.

- So obviously, if I have the compost guru in front of me, I'm gonna ask you, 'cause we all have had that foul smelling compost or it just isn't breaking down, what maybe can a homeowner do that we might be doing wrong?

What are some of the classic problems that we often see?

- So classic problems, I talk to quite a few people who have backyard compost rows or compost bins, or turners.

- [Casey] Oh yeah, yeah.

- [Kody] One of the things I see is too much moisture.

So we don't think about how much moisture the food has in it when you put it into the compost turner, as well as addition or adding material to it all the time.

- [Casey] Okay, so quit adding material to it.

- [Kody] Quit adding material.

So our compost rows take 12 months and we don't put anything in it from the first day that it was born till it's finished.

- Oh, okay, okay.

So you're not constantly adding to these piles behind you, you're working on starting a new pile somewhere else.

- If you add material to the compost, either nitrogen or carbon, it's either gonna slow down - Or speed up the compost.

And if it speeds up too fast, it can get too hot and then cause a fire.

- Okay and if it's too wet, you mentioned too much water.

You have lost your oxygen in there.

You get an anaerobic situation.

It starts stinking a little bit.

- So you start needing more oxygen, or maybe some carbon to revitalize it.

But the important thing is, once you have your ratios made, leave it alone.

Turn it, leave it alone.

Turn it.

- [Interviewer] Okay well Cody, I have to admit, when we got outta the car, there was a strong smell, but it actually smelled really good.

- [Cody] Yeah so we know that we're doing a good job, is when it smells sweet.

We have an earthy smell or a chocolaty smell sometimes, even coffee.

And that gets my morning going.

- [Interviewer] Yeah.

- It's because we have good fungal growth and good bacteria growth that's happening within the compost piles, making it smell that good.

- Right.

It's got a good earthy smell to it.

- Absolutely.

- Well, thank you so much for sharing your secrets and here's to hoping for a great gardening season because of it.

- Sounds great.

- Thank you.

- You're welcome.

(bright music) - So now that we've learned all about the magic of compost production, we are now at the headquarters of Minick Materials to learn from Hillary Cantrell, who is the Vice President, about how we get this beautiful stuff in our own yard.

- Yeah, that's always the question.

- So Hillary, it's compost season and I bet y'all are really getting busy right now.

- We are.

We're already seeing more phone calls about it.

Lots of questions.

- So is there a a better time for compost?

I mean, a lot of times we hear about putting it in the fall but spring is a really great option as well.

- Yeah, you talk about with people, that whenever they're building their beds that's the best time.

So if you're somebody who thought about it last fall and got it down and have your own stuff going, that's totally fine.

But also if you're like me (laughs) and you're like, "Hey, it's starting to warm up, I'm ready for it."

You can do it now too.

What's most important is it gets in your soil and is ready for your plants.

- Right.

Right.

- And also, if you're a last minute person, you can also top dress with it if you really have to.

We talked about earlier, it's like a vitamin that, as long as you're getting your vitamin that's what's important.

How and when you take it, there's better and best options.

- Right.

So there's really no perfect situation.

Every situation has a great option for compost, whether it's lawns to top dress, flower beds, new, old flower beds, right?

- Yeah.

- What is the amount... A lot of times I think people talk about, "How much should I put on?"

Is there too much?

- Yeah there is such a thing as too much.

If you planted directly in compost that most likely wouldn't work out, we suggest about a half inch on your yard.

People get really deep into that.

It is really just a suggestion.

We are saying just spread it as best you can.

The reason we wanna do half inch is we just don't want it to get too much squished on top of it.

So you want it to grow where your grass is gonna grow through it as soon as green up happens.

So if you're gonna do your yard, this is a great time before your grass starts coming through.

And then your garden beds, you wanna account for about an inch to two inches on top.

And then you can either till that in if you're ahead of time, or you can be like me, and be a little lazy, and top dress with it, knowing the plants are gonna pull it through the soil over the rest of the year.

- Or when you're actually digging and planting your tomatoes, it gets worked in.

- That's perfect.

It's up to you whatever's the best but you can get too much.

It'll just make it where you have too much nutrients there's enough soil to provide that good foundation for your plants.

- Okay and then I know y'all's is a really finished product.

so there's no problem doing it in the spring.

- Yeah.

- Versus fresh manure that you wanna weather a little bit.

- Yes, exactly.

And we do all kinds of jobs throughout the year and put it in that.

So that is the cool part about being a commercial size compost production facility is we have compost ready whenever.

So that's the best way to supplement.

Maybe if you're doing it at home, you have a small thing, that may or may not be ready.

We've got it ready for you to supplement what you've already got if you're doing it home.

- And so one of the things about compost is the fact that it is organic matter that you're adding to your soil.

- Yes.

- So let's talk about what organic matter does for your soil.

- Yes.

So I like to think of it like we said as a vitamin.

It is giving your plants and the bugs and the soil nutrients.

So those bugs are eating up those parts of the compost and then pooping it out.

And that poop is really great food for your plants.

And so it is able to take that up and take all those nutrients in over a long time.

We talk a lot about fertilizer versus compost.

We don't believe that compost is a full one-to-one supplement for fertilizer.

- Okay.

- Because fertilizer is that big, huge flesh.

Maybe you're getting an IV at the doctor for that hydration and things that you need versus a daily vitamin that's gonna keep working in your system forever but maybe not give you that huge push right off at the beginning.

- [Interviewer] And we know how dry it can be in Oklahoma.

- [Hillary] Yes.

- [Interviewer] So it helps with water retention as well.

- [Hillary] It Does.

It is a huge help with that.

- Save your water bill a little bit.

Add more organic matter to your soil.

So if a customer walks in here...

I mean, I know it can be intimidating.

You guys have a massive shop.

Can I just come in to get a small amount, or I need a a large amount.

What are my quantities?

- Yeah.

There's lots of different options.

That's something we pride ourselves on, is that if you're just doing a little potted plant in your office... - We can get you something, if you are doing a huge flower bed and need a bunch, we have that too.

If you're going with a lot, we have a delivery option.

Or if you happen to have a dump truck in your possession which, I mean it's Oklahoma, sometimes people do.

You can use our production facility and get a little bit of a discount at four yards.

- [Presenter] Oh, okay.

- [Hillary] So if you want four yards or more that is either delivery or picking up at production is the best way to save some cost on that.

If you're doing less than four yards we can still deliver it.

You just don't get that same price cut.

If you have a pickup, you can come in and pick up a yard in the back of your truck.

We do that every day, all day.

We'll see people come in and out and maybe even a couple times to get, if they wanna save on that delivery.

- [Presenter] So we don't have to be a contractor to come in here.

- [Hillary] No, no.

- So you've got a couple of different examples of sizes here.

Can you talk through us?

- These are some great retail options.

Or if you just need a little bit of compost mixed with some other things.

This is really just an example.

We'll sell it to you in store, but also if you have a five gallon bucket at home, or sometimes I bring my storage cords.

I have a dirty one that I use for compost and I just shovel it in.

And we just charge you for the amount of the weight that you get of the compost.

- Which is great for somebody who's a patio gardener.

Or just needs a little for their containers.

- Or to like top 'em off and things like that.

Yeah, that's perfect.

And then use that with any of our soils.

- This is a super sack?

- This is a super sack.

Yeah.

Super sacks are great.

They hold about one and a half yards of compost.

We put a lot of different products in 'em.

There is a fee to load it but at the end of the day, you're getting it contained.

You can leave it wherever.

I've seen people, one of my favorite things is that if you've been through the Martin Nature Trails they have big bags of our product just sitting out waiting for whenever they need them to be used.

So it's, you can do that at your home too and have a giant bag of compost just ready whenever you need it.

- Right.

I mean, this will hold up as kind of a box to store that in.

Right?

Okay.

- Yeah.

Okay.

- And then of course, the smaller one is top soil, potting soil.

- Potting soil.

- Is your compost in this then?

- Yes.

It's about 25% compost, and we are working on later this spring having bagged compost.

We know that that's nice for people to just be able to take it where they need it.

Rip the bag open and dump it out.

So we wanted to meet that need.

- Well Hillary, thank you so much for sharing these options.

I know a lot of people are gearing up before that gardening season.

- Awesome.

- Thank you.

(classical music) - [Presenter] There are a lot of great horticulture activities this time of year.

Be sure and consider some of these events in the weeks ahead.

(classical music) - [Presenter] Join us right here next week on Oklahoma Gardening for a special announcement.

(classical music) - Well for most of them.. (classical music) - [Presenter] To find out more information about show topics as well as recipes, videos, articles, fact sheets and other resources including a directory of local extension offices, be sure to visit our website at oklahomagardening.okstate.edu.

Join in on Facebook and Instagram.

You can find this entire show and other recent shows as well as individual segments on our Oklahoma Gardening YouTube channel.

Tune in to our okay Gardening classics YouTube channel to watch segments from previous hosts.

Oklahoma Gardening is produced by the Oklahoma Cooperative Extension Service as part of the Division of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources at Oklahoma State University.

The Botanic Garden at OSU is home to our studio gardens and we encourage you to come visit this beautiful Stillwater gem.

We would like to thank our generous underwriter the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, food and Forestry.

Additional support is also provided by Greenleaf Nursery and the Garden Debut Plants the Oklahoma Horticulture Society, the Tulsa Garden Club and the Tulsa Garden Center.

(classical music)