Narrator> Making It Grow is brought to you in part by Certified South Carolina.

This cooperative effort among farmers, retailers and the South Carolina Department of Agriculture helps consumers identify foods and agricultural products that are grown, harvested or raised right here in the Palmetto State.

Mcleod Farms in McBee, South Carolina, family owned and operated since 1916.

This family farm offers seasonal produce, including over 40 varieties of peaches.

Wesley Commons, a full service continuing care retirement community located on more than 150 wooded acres in Greenwood, South Carolina.

Additional funding provided by the South Carolina Farm Bureau Federation and Farm Bureau Insurance and Boone Hall Farms.

♪ opening music ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Amanda> Well, good evening and welcome to Making It Grow.

We're so glad that you could join us tonight.

I'm Amanda McNulty and I am a horticulture agent with Clemson Extension.

But I went to school a long time ago and I get to come back and I always tell my friend and co-host Terasa Lott that it's like continuing education on the show.

Terasa> It really is.

We have such talented panelists.

I look forward to learning something new, at least one new thing each show.

Amanda> And you are now a district coordinator, the Midlands District coordinator.

And everybody in Sumter is so happy because that's where your home base is.

Terasa> (laughs) Oh, thank you.

I am happy to have the opportunity.

This is summer time, so all of our agents are busy, but especially for agents who are providing wonderful, fun and educational enrichment activities for our youth.

Amanda> It's fun to have a room full of kids.

They bring a lot of joy.

Paul Thompson, you're the urban horticulture agent up in Chester, Lancaster and York.

And goodness and it's been ever since I've been coming on the show.

You've been coming on the show too.

>> Well, yeah, been a while.

Amanda> Yeah.

>> 30 years.

Amanda> It's been fun.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Thanks for being with us today.

Paul> Nice to be here.

Amanda> Phillip, you are the commercial horticulture agent, which means, I guess, that you're working with people in Orangeburg and Calhoun counties who are growing fruits and vegetables.

>> Yes, ma'am, that's correct.

And that has recently expanded into the Midlands, as well as Sumter and Clarendon Counties.

Amanda> Oh, okay.

Okay.

Orangeburg is a big farming county.

Phillip> Huge.

One of the largest in the state, if not the largest.

Amanda> How about that.

Yep.

Well, we're glad that you could slip away and come and be with us today.

Thank you so much.

And then I'm Jennifer Weaver.

We are so happy to have you here with us.

It's your first time with us.

Jennifer> Yes, it is.

Amanda> And you are the urban horticulture agent in Aiken and Lexington.

>> That's right.

Amanda> Yep.

And I think you were a hort- You graduated from Clemson in horticulture, too, I think.

Didn't you?

Jennifer> I did.

I did.

Amanda> You know, we're really, really happy that you're here.

Jennifer> Thank you.

Glad to be here.

Amanda> Okay, well, and we're going to have some fun things to show you.

Trisha Mandes is going to do an ambrosia salad with this.

And then Ben Powell is going to talk about yellow legged Hornet, which is not something that we want to have, but we do want you all to kind of be aware of it.

And if you see one, you need to call somebody and tell them.

But Terasa, I think we'll start with the beautiful gardens, of the week.

Terasa> I think that sounds like a magnificent idea.

The Gardens of the Week is a time for you to showcase what's going on in your yard, your garden, or perhaps you've visited a beautiful place in our wonderful state of South Carolina.

Today we begin first with Louise Cromer, who shared a photo of her back yard vegetable garden.

And I know what joy and satisfaction that can bring.

From Tori Brown, we have what she describes as a zinnia party in Summerville, South Carolina.

That was a fun picture.

Zinnias are so vibrant.

From Jennifer Amsden, a patch of purple cone flowers in Pawleys Island.

Gloria Wade in Aiken shared her Snowflake Oakleaf hydrangea that was given to her by a friend.

And if you look very closely, you can see the flowers of coral beam just peeking over the top on the left.

And last but not least, we finish up with Sherry Enn who shared a variegated rose of Sharon in Florence.

So some lovely foliage and such pale pink colors in those flowers.

Thanks to everyone who shared their photos.

There are far more posted to our Facebook page, so I encourage you to go there and see them.

And whenever you see us, make the call for Gardens of the Week, don't be shy.

Post your photos in the comments.

Amanda> Thank you, Terasa.

You know, I keep telling Conrad to send you a picture because my son lives in Los Angeles and he's got, you know, about this much yard, but he's got like two orange trees and some other.

I mean, it's very different out there.

But he's got... he's growing tomatoes.

and he calls to tell us all the time about his tomatoes I've never seen anybody so infatuated, but they, it's they don't have to worry about fungal diseases because it's so dry out there.

Terasa> Yes, there are challenges, pros and cons, I guess, to everywhere.

Amanda> Yeah.

At least it's a little teeny spot so he can take a watering can out there and get some water on them.

So I'm going to get after him, and say send that picture in to Terasa.

Terasa> You should.

You should.

Amanda> Okay.

Well, can we help somebody with some problems or questions.

Terasa> I sure hope so.

That's what we're here for.

Karen reached out from in the Indian Land.

She said we were gone for two weeks and many of the trees behind our house have small dead branches.

What is going on?

Amanda> Oh, well, Paul, I bet the location of Indian Land might have something to do with the answer that you're going to give.

Paul> Well, yeah, that's within the counties that I cover and Lancaster County.

And we had a pretty big population of periodic cicadas this year, and that's the aftermath of the cicadas being here.

The female cicada will actually use an egg laying device an overdepositor.

And they stick it into the stem and Amanda> Of a suitable tree?

Paul> Yeah, it's a small, small diameter of branches.

You know, the bark needs to be fairly thin bark.

So usually something like last year's growth.

Amanda> Okay.

Paul> And so they stick it into the stem and it turns up a lot of wood fibers when they do that.

And then they just kind of lay a chain of eggs in this slit that they made and the eggs hatch in five, six weeks and the nymphs just immediately once they hatch, they get out of the little slit and just drop to the ground to start that 13 year lifecycle of underground living.

And they initially will feed on grass roots and other herbaceous plant roots and stuff.

But they, you know, eventually will settle on a tree root and feed on the tree roots.

But they really don't seem to do any damage with their feeding of the roots.

They, they're really feeding only in the xylem which is the water conducting tissue from the soil.

So the nutrients and water coming up through those tissues so they're not stealing the sap or the carbohydrates that the sugars that the tree makes, you know, for its own energy.

Amanda> Maybe that's one reason it takes them so long to reach adulthood.

Paul> Maybe.

(laughs) Not...a very good diet.

Amanda> They're not a very good baby formula.

Well, but so that's.

So we don't need to worry about that.

Paul> No, I mean, it's like you went up there and pruned something you know, peripheral branches, all small diameter.

Amanda> So occasionally that small little branch just kind of she made so many slits in it that it just kind of... Paul> Right it dies and then it drops from the tree eventually.

Now they can be quite damaging to like young trees where almost all the branches on the tree are of a diameter that they might try egg laying in, like fruit, fruit trees.

You know, somebody planted a bunch of fruit trees and, you know, the cicadas come out and then, you know, so just about every branch on the tree, even the trunk, might be, you know, up the higher trunk might be Amanda> You were going to establish a fruit tree nursery, you might want to wait until the year after they emerge rather than put them in the year they were going to merge.

Paul> Especially if you're in one of those areas.

So I mean, they weren't all over the state.

Amanda> Yeah.

Yeah.

Okay.

Well, that was a lot of fun.

Were they really, really loud?

Paul> They're pretty loud.

Yeah.

It's more of a roar.

It's not like a vibration.

It's just a (noise) just a constant.

Sounds like static... loud, static.

Amanda> Wow!

But not at night.

In the morning, right?

Paul> Morning, and also into the afternoon.

I mean, yeah, pretty much after it warms up, they're going all day.

Amanda> What a phenomenon.

Terasa> I know that our viewers are seeing this because we received a very similar question on Facebook.

It was a picture of a tree with this flagging is what it is called when you see all of those dead branches and that person happened to be from Prosperity.

So I said, you know, I can't tell you absolutely for sure.

But I guess with the timing that is cicadas and in general, as long as the tree is healthy and not a young tree, it's...not going to do any major damage.

It just looks kind of unsightly for a little while.

Paul> Right!

Amanda> Yep, okay.

Well, that was fun to talk about.

Paul> We had a storm come through Rock Hill that certainly made a lot of trees look a lot uglier than what the cicadas did.

So... Yeah, yeah.

Amanda> And let's not even talk about ice storms, and pine trees.

Oh, goodness.

Okay.

Well, Terasa.

Terasa> You were talking about Conrad growing tomatoes.

We have a tomato question from Larry in Orangeburg.

He said his tomatoes have started wilting.

Oh, he notices some fuzzy growths right near the soil.

What is it and how can he fix it?

Amanda> Some fuzzy growth right near the soil.

Weird.

Well, Phillip, that's your base of operation.

And you supposed to be a fruit and vegetable specialist.

So what do you think?

Phillip> So there.

There are a couple of possibilities, Amanda.

Two of them, one being white mold, which is Sclerotinia and the other one being southern stem blight, which just recently underwent a name change to Agroathelia, both of which are soil borne pathogens, fungal...fungal pathogens.

Amanda> Soil borne?

Phillip> Yes, ma'am.

Native and in the soil, both of which affect tomatoes.

And they're easily distinguishable because they're growing characteristics.

Agroathelia or southern stem blight will have these little what's called sclerotia or fruiting bodies all around the stem that can be white to tan.

And it looks like little beebees or Dippin Dots Ice cream.

Amanda> Like, right around the base of the tomato?

Phillip> Correct?

Right.

Right around the base, Right at the soil surface.

Amanda> But you can see them?

Phillip> Yes, ma'am.

They're very...they vary in size.

Some of them are very tiny.

Some of them are lot, much larger.

And they do look just like Dippin Dots.

So if you have that sclerotia or those little beebees or Dippin Dots like like fruiting bodies, that is more than likely Agroathelia or Southern stem blight.

Amanda> What do you do?

Phillip> Well, there's only a few things you can do.

You can remove that infected plant.

Now, that's not always a guarantee that you're going to get rid of the fungal infection.

a> Because it's in the soil.

Phillip> Because it's in the soil.

And it does move.

We see that in commercial farms.

It will travel along the length of a row, especially with irrigation.

Amanda> Oh, I see.

Phillip> But the, one of the cultural practices you can use is good airflow planning practices, so that way your soil dries out more uniformly and that will help with both Sclerotinia and agro- Agroathelia Amanda> But Philip, I thought that tomatoes were kind of funky and that a lot of things are happy to dry out for a while.

I thought tomatoes like the soil to stay.

Phillip> They like- Amanda> -consistently moist.

Phillip> They do like a consistent moisture.

They don't ever want to get thirsty.

They're like Goldilocks and the three bears they want to be just right.

Now, just the soil surface needs to be dry, not deep in the soil profile, because right at that stem soil interface is where the infection usually occurs.

And if you're unsure if you're not seeing the sclerotia for southern stem blight, the other option is to cut the stem vertically open.

Amanda> Okay.

Phillip> And look for the fruiting body of sclerotia, of Sclerotinia, which will be a elongated black fruiting bodies.

And I can't remember the name of those right off.

Amanda> You've said enough fancy names.

Phillip> But that that's a good way to tell, tell the two apart.

And then it's does it starts out just as a wilt and you're like well it's hot.

Yeah they're, they're wilting And then within a day or two the plant will collapse or start to collapse.

Amanda> Do they have to rotate fields?

Does that help?

Phillip> Rotation... rotation does help with a non Solanaceaes crop.

So something like cucurbits or leafy greens or in a 2 to 3 year rotation is ideal.

Amanda> So the things they tell us to do, really, there's a reason for it.

Phillip> Oh absolutely.

You don't want to build up a fungal pressure in the field or in your garden either.

Amanda> Okay.

All right.

Goodness.

Well, thanks so much.

Paul> They will get on the ornamentals, as well.

We have some sarcococca, the sweet box.

Out front of our office.

And just one year we had the...well, I thought it was Sclerotinia but you know, the white mat of growth and then growing up stems and killing some of the perennial plants.

but I haven't seen it since.

You know the office has been there since 2008 and it just kind of popped up one year.

Amanda> Oh, well, then, you know, I guess some of the cultural conditions, although we wouldn't pay so much attention.

But I mean, they may be kind of specific about what has to happen for them to be active.

I don't know.

Phillip> Well, they are different for each of the two diseases, specifically for fruit and vegetable production and Sclerotinia does affect both ornamental and fruit crops, which is kind of interesting.

Amanda> Goodness gracious.

Well, well, I hope the person's got some tomatoes.

Phillip> Well, hopefully if they have more than one plant, they should.

Amanda> Okay.

Because it is getting that... it's that tomato sandwich.

Phillip> No, it is.

It sure is.

Terasa.

Terasa?

Terasa> All right We're going to move away from a fruit or vegetable crop and we'll look at an ornamental problem.

Frieda in Lexington sent in a picture and said, "What are these trails on the leaves of my columbine?

Amanda> Oh, well, that's such a perfect plant that people just love having.

Jennifer> It is.

Amanda> Is this a real problem or what's going on?

Jennifer> Well, it's a very common disease of common bond.

And it's called Columbine Leafminer Amanda> So is it an insect that gets in there or?

>> It is.

It's this little black to brownish fly?

Yeah.

And they lay their eggs on the underside of the leaf.

Amanda> On the underside.

Jennifer> They do.

And as the larvae tunnel through the leaf feeding, that's what leaves the little trails.

And then they cut a crescent shaped hole and exit hole, and they pupate on the outside of the leaf.

They have a lot of natural parasites, So that usually causes the population to collapse.

But by that time the damage is already done.

Amanda> So does it really set the plant back a lot?

Jennifer> Not usually, but there are some control options you can use.

Amanda> So it's more of just a visual problem generally.

Jennifer> Right.

Amanda> And I'm sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt you about the control things you can do.

Jennifer> There are some things you can do.

Soil drench.

Amanda> Oh.

Jennifer> To control those.

Amanda> Okay.

Does it tend to happen, like in neighborhoods or in I mean, how widespread is it going to be?

Jennifer> It's just mainly a disease of Columbine.

And it's present May through September.

Amanda> Oh, that's a long time.

Jennifer> It is.

Amanda> Pesky flies?

(Amanda laughs) Terasa> But Leafminers are not uncommon.

There are other leafminers that affect other species as well.

I'm sure both Paul and Phillip have experiences with them.

Paul> Well, yeah, the American Holly gets Holly Leafminer and, you know, a lot of vegetables too that can be real problems.

Phillip> ...leafy greens, if not managed properly.

Can't get Leafminer in them as well.

Amanda> So it's out there.

Terasa> It's out there.

Everything has to it has to eat right or carry out its life cycle in some way.

Amanda> Yeah.

Okay.

Well, thanks for bringing that in.

That was very interesting.

Yeah.

Well, Trisha, Trisha Mandes is going to be with us, and she made a wonderful ambrosia salad.

I'm talking with Trisha Mandes, and she has a Master's in public health and nutrition.

And for a while you were down here at the Arnold School of Public Health, at the University of South Carolina.

Trisha> I was...

I was a nutritionist in Dietary Inflammation Research.

Amanda> And now you live, I think, in Pennsylvania, and you have private clients.

And tell me what you're doing with them, please.

Trisha> Absolutely.

Still working as a nutritionist.

And I help clients shed pounds sustainably with optimal eating.

Amanda> What does that mean?

Trisha> So I help clients not only shed pounds sustainably, but also in certain instances reduce blood pressure medication, decrease their cholesterol, so they may be able to get off cholesterol medication, pain medication, increase their energy.

So we're really focusing on proving the totality of their health, even faster sometimes, and they're shedding pounds sustainably.

Amanda> So what is the basis for having this wonderful outcome for some of your clients?

Trisha> Well, I actually learned a lot of this research when I was getting my master's degree, reviewing Dr. Brie Turner-McGrievy research and other researchers.

She's at the University of South Carolina.

But I'm getting clients to eat about 90-ish% of their food coming from whole plant foods, from the garden, fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes, potatoes, sweet potatoes, corn, rice, beans and then fruits and veggies in there as well.

Perfection is not required, but we really want to move the needle in that direction.

Amanda> And so do they.

Do you think that they're hungry?

I mean.

Trisha> Absolutely not.

That is my favorite part of eating optimally.

And what my clients love, too, is we don't count calories, we don't portion control.

We can just eat and you want to be nice and full and satiated.

However, these foods tend to be lower in calories, but you actually get to eat more food, which helps you feel more satiated.

And some of the foods also really help give you more energy so you can start moving again, as well.

A lot of my clients come to me and they, they can't.

They're struggling to exercise.

They don't have enough energy.

They're in too much pain.

So changing the foods they put in their mouths helps them start to be able to move and live their life again more in the different ways that they want to.

Amanda> Do you have some recipes that you're going to share with us?

Trisha> Absolutely.

So we're doing a Spin of Ambrosia fruit salad here, but we're making it really optimal.

Amanda> Yes.

Trisha> So I'd love to show you how to make it.

Amanda> Let's do it.

Trisha> All right, beautiful.

So we're going to start off with pineapple, and you can buy pineapple fresh and cut it if you want to.

You can also buy it pre-cut in the store.

I don't personally like doing that because you don't know if they actually cut it when it's ripe or not.

But you kind of if you want.

What I think the simplest and easiest thing to do is actually to buy canned pineapple.

I love making it easy to eat optimally and improve my health.

We just want to make sure that when you buy in any can, you're buying it with 100% fruit juice.

Amanda> Yeah, because it used to be when you got things in the cans, they were in such sugary basis.

But I think now everybody seems to offer alternatives, don't they?

Trisha> Yes, you can buy either or.

It's still very common to find it with added sweeteners and added sugar and high fructose corn syrup.

Or you can buy it in 100% fruit juice.

And that's what you want to look for on the can, either on the front or the ingredient list on the back.

Amanda> Okay.

Trisha> And then we're going to use some of that juice in the recipe as well.

So, can you put that in the bowl for me, Amanda?

We have our cut pineapple chunks.

Beautiful.

Amanda> Okay, Trisha> This is really simple.

It just requires that you rinse and cut a bunch of fruit.

So next we have our red grapes.

Rinse them, and then I cut them that half.

I think they look prettier that way.

They're more enjoyable to eat.

You could put them in whole.

But I do like.

Yeah, I think it looks prettier that way too.

And then I have three different oranges that I cut.

Amanda> Oh!

Trisha> Yes.

So I peel them.

Amanda> Different oranges do have different flavors.

Trisha> Yeah.

And if you can get your hands on different tangerines or clementines or oranges, you can do any sweet orange citrus fruit that you enjoy or a mix them.

Amanda> That does look pretty good.

Trisha> Yeah, it's really pretty.

And then we have two bananas that are sliced.

You're doing great.

You're doing wonderful, Amanda.

(laughs) Amanda> I'm good at the dump method.

Trisha> Yeah.

It's so simple.

That's what I love about it.

It tastes really good.

It's really sweet.

And then to your right, we have our pineapple juice and again, again from the can.

Amanda> Which is the actual juice of the pineapples with no extra added sugar.

Trisha> Exactly.

Exactly.

And then right here I have almond extract.

So it's about a half a teaspoon of almond extract, and that gives it a nice, refreshing flavor.

So I'm going to dump that in there as well.

A little goes a long way with that.

So you want to start small and then taste it.

And if you want more, you can always add more.

Then we have shredded coconut.

Amanda> Okay.

Trisha> And again, we want to buy the unsweetened.

So it's not adding a lot of sugar to it.

Amanda> It still has wonderful flavor.

Yeah.

Trisha> Right.

Yeah, absolutely.

Absolutely.

So this is what I like to call a daily dessert.

It satisfies your sweet tooth, but it's optimally healthy enough that you can eat it every day and it's going to be helping you with your health at the same time.

So if you can do me a favor, Amanda, take a spoon and just mix that all together.

Amanda> It looks pretty Trisha> Yeah, it's beautiful.

And pro-tip for our viewers right now is that when you are mixing fruit salad or you're mixing anything, use a much bigger bowl than the amount of ingredients you have in it because you really want to give yourself some room to really get in there.

Yes, exactly.

If you're anything like me, I'm not a particularly tidy cook.

So if I had all of that fruit in a bowl the same size, I would be flinging it everywhere.

Amanda> I think it's pretty well mixed up.

What do you think?

Trisha> Beautiful.

Then, if we want to present it and make it a little bit prettier for guests, then we can just pour it right in there.

Amanda> Okay.

Give me just a second Trisha> And you don't have all the juices on the side.

And then we have our final product of our ambrosia fruit salad without any added sweeteners.

And it's still going to be very sweet.

Amanda> It would be fun if we had one maraschino cherry.

Trisha> Yes.

I agree 100%.

At least one.

Amanda> I think...one Trisha> Yes, absolutely.

You could even add more in there.

But that would.

I agree.

That would that would be delicious.

Amanda> So if people want to know about this program and find out more about what you and your clients have been able to accomplish, what's the best way to find that?

Trisha> Thank you for asking.

They can go to my website www.trishamandes.com and there I have a training on how to shed pounds sustainably that I would love for your viewers to watch.

Amanda> And I think you've got other information there and I believe you wrote a book Trisha> Yes, I am an author.

My book is titled The Optimal Eating Solution Maintainable Weight Loss and Longevity.

Even if you can't exercise.

So you can find everything on my website.

Amanda> Well, that's just great.

I want to thank you for making the trip down to South Carolina.

Trisha> It's my pleasure.

I adore you.

I love the show.

I love learning how to make plants grow, but I really also love to eat them.

So there's a perfect fit for me.

Thank you so much for having me.

Amanda> I think a lot of us would like to sustainably lose a little weight.

and feel better.

Trisha> Yeah.

I've kept about 20 pounds off for over 11 years now and I don't count calories, portioning...

I eat, I just eat and I love it.

And this is how we do it.

Amanda> Well, if everything's as much fun as this and tasty and satisfying, I think it'd be pretty easy to adapt some of the ideas you have.

Trisha> It's a lot easier than people anticipate.

It ends up being a lot easier than they think.

So thank you for having me.

I really appreciate it.

Amanda> I'm glad you made the trip.

Trisha> Thank you so much.

We really appreciate that Trisha came down all the way from Pennsylvania and shared her expertise in nutrition with us, and the salad was quite good.

Terasa> Yeah, it's always good when it's tasty and healthy, too.

Amanda> There you go.

So we were down recently at Boone Hall, Plantation and Gardens and Katie Dixon, our friend, is the head of horticulture there, and she had these cardoons out there and she cut some for me to bring home.

Well, they are very heavy and they also have all these stickers on them.

I mean, they are really, really sticky.

So I had to take my clippers and try to cut all the stickers off and then to try to make it more interesting.

I put in a jalapeno pepper and some tomatoes.

But anyway, this is the hat.

But they are beautiful when they bloom, aren't they?

Terasa> They really are.

Amanda> And they are so tall.

I mean, they must have been 10 or 12 feet tall.

Paul> Whoa!

Amanda> They were...well Phillip> Those are large.

Amanda> Yeah, they were big.

Yeah.

And the leaves look like rooster tails.

They were just, It's a wonderful plant related to the artichoke, I guess.

Is it the same genus, maybe?

Paul> Maybe you remember how to... Amanda> It's very close.

Paul> It is related to thistles, Put it that way.

Amanda> Thistles.

Yeah.

There you go.

Paul> There all thistles.

Amanda> And I'm not talking about the artichokes that we have here that are, you know, sunflowers basically, that we make artichoke pickle with.

I mean, you know, this is the Jerusalem artichoke that you, you know, pull through your teeth and dip in mayonnaise and butter and all that kind of stuff.

Anyway, so that was.

That's the hat.

Huh!

Well, I was going to you know, recently we showed a piece, an interview with Doug Tallamy about nature's best hope.

And all that and the importance of having native plants that are larval food sources for caterpillars.

And I was wondering, are there some things that we can plant instead of boxwoods?

And I think boxwoods are kind of on the way out.

Aren't there are a lot of problems that they're having?

Jennifer> I do think they have a lot of problems recently with root rot and- Paul> -Right!

Root rot and then there's the... the boxwood blight.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And that's... causes a rapid dieback from the top and...you know, you know in certain parts of the state root knot nematodes can be problematic on boxwood in sandier soils.

Amanda> Well I was looking some things up and Ilex glabra "gallberry" or whatever they call it.

Terasa> Yeah.

Inkberry Holly.

Amanda> Yeah it said it was the larval food was for 34 species of caterpillars and I wondered what you thought about maybe using that as a replacement for boxwoods.

Jennifer> I think that's a great alternative.

I think they've come up with some new varieties that are a little bit more compact.

Paul> Yeah, there's a lot of selections now of, Inkberry Holly.

Terasa> Keith Mearns had talked with us one time about some of his favorite Gem...Gem box is one that stays.

So if you get the straight species which of course is what has co-evolved with our insects, it's... it's got going to be tall and lanky.

It's like maybe eight feet or so.

And if you're looking for more of that box wood type, look, these are going to stay more compact in their form and habit.

Amanda> But their male and female plants.

And so we want to have male plants because the pollen apparently is particularly good pollen.

And...and then also you want the pollen so that you can have some fruits on the females which which are, you know, good for birds to eat.

Somebody is going to eat them, that's for sure, don't you think?

Jennifer> I do.

Amanda> Yeah.

Yeah.

So and I was looking up... and Paul you made a funny thing about going to the garden center and if I could find one there would probably five in the pot because...isn't that something you've seen.

Paul> Right.

They'll... not pot up the small plant into a bigger pot.

Now they start off a bunch of cuttings in a big pot and get a plant that looks big much quicker, You might have five plants.

You might have eight plants.

I've had as many as eight really trying to fill a 3 gallon pot.

Amanda> Competition down the road.

But anyway, I found some places, Terasa, where you could order them and they were small, but it said they grew like eight or ten inches a year.

You know, that's, that's pretty fast, you know, and you could get a nice little shrub.

So.

Yeah.

And then Paul, did you say you had one time there's a native viburnum you thought might be nice?

Paul> Well, you know, a boxwood replacement or maybe, you know, a Japanese holly replacement, that kind of appearance with a fairly small leaf.

The viburnum obovatum- For whatever reason, I can't think of the common name.

Amanda> A native one.

Paul> But...it's a native viburnum.

It's got very small leaves kind of boxwood in appearance, you know the plant but they've got some dwarf selections.

There's one that's Raulston Hardy, and then another one, Mrs. Schiller's Delight, and they are much more compact, much smaller growing or, you know, might mature at about 2 to 3 feet, grow a little bit wider than they do tall, but even the standard viburnum obovatum with you know, just a little bit of management you know you can keep it to be boxwood like.

Amanda> Yeah!

Paul> They're four feet, five feet.

Amanda> And there are big boxwoods, too.

Yeah.

Paul> Nice thing is like a lot of the viburnums, you get those terminal flat flower clusters in the spring, so it'll look a lot like the spring bouquet flowers, a little cluster of white, bright white flowers and I'm not sure of a larval food source, but I'm sure, you know, some, there's got to be some insect.

Amanda> I bet somebody uses it.

Don't think so?

Paul> Yeah.

Amanda> Yeah.

Anyway, I just thought, you know, I think we could start making some moves that way, and then I'm going to wait till the fall and get my boxwoods out, and they don't have any problems yet, but I'm just trying to have things that would support caterpillars, you know?

So anyway.

Jennifer> There's also a native viburnum dentatum That's Arrowwood viburnum.

I noticed some people.

that use those down in Columbia.

Amanda> Okay.

Jennifer> And one interesting thing about that is it has these tall chutes and some of the Native Americans used to use those for their arrows.

Amanda> Oh!

How fun!

Jennifer> It's a beautiful plant.

It has...the flower heads are a little bit tan before they open up and then they have a nice ball shaped flower in the spring.

So that's another viburnum that you could use.

Paul> There's actually probably five or six more native viburnum that are a good landscape plants.

Amanda> Anyway, I think we should all start to try and making especially since boxwoods seem to kind of be fraught with problems these days.

Jennifer> Yeah.

Amanda> Ah well, Terasa whom else can we help?

Terasa> I believe that Paul has brought some delicious fruit and might be willing to tell us about some blackberries that homeowners could grow.

Amanda> Oh, that's good.

Paul> Right.

well, these are a variety that we planted last year at the Chester Community Garden, and it's certainly the variety that's been farming well.

Amanda> Could you put some in your hands, So we can see pretty they are?

Paul> But the berries can get quite large.

And this is one of the earliest maturing variety of Natchez.

And they are really about through with their production and still have some two other varieties coming on.

But the thornless blackberries are just so nice.

(Amanda laughs) Paul> I mean, I can remember growing up in Aiken and we had a BlackBerry patch out in the middle of a horse pasture.

Amanda> Yeah.

Paul> Dad would get on the tractor with a bush hog and cut a few pathways through the BlackBerry patch.

Amanda> And send you boys in.

Paul> So you could, you know, get into the middle and get to reach more Blackberries because you certainly didn't go wading through them.

But the thornless ones and these, these are the...

I guess ...they're more or less these are erect, but you tie them up on a wire.

Usually a couple of wires to keep them upright and keep fruit off the ground and then that kind of thing.

And then in late winter, you just cut back a couple of nodes, a couple of leaves above the wire, and that forces all those lateral buds down.

that stems to branch and flower and you get a whole lot more flowers.

It's like pruning muscadines.

Amanda> Okay!

Paul> You're not going to get many.

Amanda> That's right.

Paul> If you don't prune the blackberries, you're not going to get nearly as more as many side branches with flowers.

So they can be quite productive.

And it's just a matter of pruning out the the flowercanes, the ones that have produced the fruit over the winter months, It's easy to see them.

They're normally brown and dead.

Amanda> Yeah.

Paul> And... Amanda> And they won't produce again.

Paul> Right.

They die after they produce fruit and then the shoots will come up the ground this year, you know, you're training them on the wire for next year's crop.

Amanda> And so you said there are several varieties so and you don't have to worry about pollination.

Paul> No.

They don't need any cross-pollination.

Amanda> So you could enjoy them all summer or for a good while.

Paul> Well, for a good while.

Amanda> Right.

Okay.

Terasa> I think we need to pass the bowl.

Paul> Oh yeah, I think.

Okay.

I think that we'll have to.

Have some blackberries.

Amanda> I want to.

Yeah.

Let's see if they really are as delicious.

Yeah Terasa> Mmm!

Amanda> You're not a BlackBerry person, Phillip?

Phillip> Oh, I am, but I've had my fill for the season.

There's several acres of blackberries planted for commercial production in Orangeburg County.

Terasa> This is delicious.

They are very large.

Delicious!

I sort of wish I hadn't suggested that and I just took them home and I had made a BlackBerry peach cobbler.

Amanda> Oh.

Hmm.

Well, thank you, Paul.

Well, Terasa?

Terasa> Let's see what we can do now.

Vikki Wilkenshoff, reached out via Facebook and she said, "My zucchini looks healthy, "but the young fruit are yellow.

"What's wrong?

"They're in a raised planter and they get plenty of sun.?

Amanda> Oh.

Oh, that's peculiar.

What's going on, Phillip?

Phillip> Well...a couple of different things that could be presenting themselves.

One, it could be that it is a yellow summer squash that was mislabeled in or it could be one of the true golden zucchinis there are out there that look exactly like their namesake.

There's the green zucchini, but are yellow in color They taste very similar.

So there's very little difference other than the color.

Amanda> Oh, well, they might be healthier for you if they have more beta carotene in them.

I don't know.

Phillip> It's possible.

I don't know the nutritional side of the squash or zucchini in this instance, but it could be very true that they might be a little more nutritious.

Amanda> You've planted a lot of different things in your garden.

Have you ever run into these?

Terasa> Oh, we have planted a golden zucchini.

Yes.

And I don't know, they taste I don't know if you put them side by side if you could tell the difference.

They're said perhaps to taste a little bit sweeter.

But like I said, I think, Paul, have you grown some or?

Paul> Yeah, but I really never can tell the difference between a yellow summer squash and a zucchini, for sure.

But among the zucchini, so.

They all kind of taste the same to me.

Amanda> I do know that, you know, people will bring you something this big sometimes.

Paul> Well, yeah.

Amanda> So, zucchini just get tremendous... Terasa> I just had one like that because we had gone away for a week and I came back, he was absolutely humongous and of course, had gotten very seedy on the inside.

I did salvage some by cutting around the outside and shredded it up, so I hope to make some zucchini bread with it.

But it seems like it grows overnight.

It really does.

Yeah.

Amanda> And I think that there's a national give your neighbor zucchini day.

I really do.

You have to look it up for us, Terasa.

Terasa> Mine always fall... prey to the squash vine board before I have to worry.

about giving them away.

Amanda> Anyways...it's peculiar you that's, that's something.

So a yellow instead of green zucchini.

Wonder why... well people just like things that are different.

Paul>Just like a purple carrot.

Yeah.

I mean, if.

Amanda> That's true.

Phillip> Anything eclectic and different.

I mean, I like the, the weirder side of plant industry, and I can't speak for Paul, but sometimes weird is neat.

Amanda> (laughs) All righty.

All righty, well, Terasa, so what else is out there?

Terasa> This question came in from Sandra in Lexington, who also shared a photograph.

She said, "What are these warty growths on my oak tree?

"And will they harm the tree?"

Amanda> Goodness.

Well, that's peculiar looking.

What's going on, Jennifer?

Jennifer> This is caused by a fungus and it's called Oak Leaf Blister.

Amanda> Yes.

Jennifer> And a cool spring.

Cool wet springs.

Amanda> Which we did have.

Jennifer> That's right.

We've noticed a lot of this coming in the Extension office, like recently.

But the spores germinate in the spring and they infect the leaf and the infected tissue grows a little bit faster than the surrounding leaf tissue.

It's usually a lighter green color than the other leaf tissue.

And so it grows in well over winters in the leaf bud.

And most of the time it doesn't cause enough damage to warrant any control.

So if you have that, you don't need to worry about it.

It's a common... mostly found on Red Oak and Black Oaks, but all oaks are susceptible to it.

Amanda> And I mean you're not going to be spraying an oak tree.

Jennifer> Right.

Right.

You really don't need to worry about it.

Amanda> Well is it really disfiguring or just.

Jennifer> Oh well it's just more of the appearance of the foliage.

Yes.

Amanda> Okay.

We'll look at something else.

Right?

Paul> So if you look if you look at percentage of the leaf surface, it has actually impacted, I mean, you still get a functional leaf.

Amanda> Oh, yeah.

So it's not affecting... Paul> ...only if you get a whole lot of, you know, severe amount of blistering.

Amanda> Okay.

Paul> will it would cause early defoliation or something like.

Amanda> Oh, okay.

That's I mean oak trees are usually pretty well pretty long lived and pretty... Paul> You don't see it every single year on the same tree.

Amanda> Yeah.

Yeah, cool wet springs.

It was...it certainly didn't lead into a wonderfully cool, wet summer did it?

We've been dry.

dry, dry.

Well Ben Powell is our apiculturist and he came with some information about a bee or a hornet that's not one that we want to have.. We have lots of bees and hornets and things that are positive, but this is one that's not.

So let's learn about the yellow legged at Hornet.

I'm talking to Ben Powell, and Ben is the apiculture and pollinator specialist for Clemson.

And you come today and we all love honey bees and they're so important.

But there's a potential threat of an invasive species that sadly seems to be in our area.

So tell people what that is and what the current situation is.

>> Sure.

So we're concerned because last year in August, a Hornet that comes from Asia was found in the Savannah area and we started collecting individuals, these hornets in the fall of last year.

These hornets are a potential threat to honeybees because they like to attack colonies later in the season.

Amanda> And what's the name of it?

Ben> It's the yellow legged Hornet, or the species name is Vespa velutina.

Amanda> Yellow legged hornet.

Ben> That's right.

Amanda> And now there they are from Asia, but they've already gotten over to Europe.

Is that right?

Ben> That's right.

They have a history of invasiveness because in 2004 they were found in France and they spread rapidly after that introduction and pretty much cover all of Western Europe now from England to northern Spain.

Amanda> And so we don't want these here because talk about their feeding strategies and why they're such a threat to our particularly our honeybee hives.

Ben> Sure.

So hornets are stinging insects.

So I'm going back out to the larger group and we have a lot of stinging insects around and they're part of nature.

They're predators and they're parasitoids that are beneficial.

But an exotic hornet like this does have the potential to start creating impacts both to native species as well as our cultivated honeybees.

So this hornet is a very interesting biology.

They, in the wintertime disperse queens in the landscape and their colonies die.

Amanda> -queens have already made it?

Ben> Right and they are out hiding in log piles or leaf thatch or a place that they can get shelter in the winter and then in spring as soon as it warms up.

Like right now, these queens come out and start looking for a new place to build a nest.

Amanda> And they've already been made so as soon as they get there, they can start laying.

Ben> That's right and she forages and builds a nest.

And the nest looks a lot like our native bald faced hornet.

It's a paper mache nest, a big envelope shape.

But the main difference is eventually it gets much larger.

And whereas the bald faced hornet, you know, most folks have seen those, about the size of a basketball right at the end of the year, this thing could be the size of a 30 gallon trash bag.

Amanda> Wow.

Ben> With thousands of individuals in it.

Amanda> So, I guess it's because they didn't by our honeybee, which I guess we call the Western honeybee came from Europe with the settlers, I guess.

Ben> That's right.

Amanda> Sometimes we call it the European honey bee?

Ben> That's right.

Most of the species that we were the races that we cultivator from Europe.

Amanda> And so they didn't evolve with this yellow legged hornet.

And so they don't have any built in defenses against it?

Is that correct?

Ben> Correct.

Right.

So the Western honeybee ranges from Western Asia like Moscow, Ukraine area, all the way across Europe and then down into Africa.

These hornets come from eastern Asia, such as Thailand, Malaysia, Southeast China, and so they don't overlap.

And the western honeybee just doesn't have any natural defenses for dealing with this particular hornet.

Amanda> Well.

Why is this one so much worse for our honeybee hives?

Is it because the hives have so many bees just sitting in it?

Or what happens that really can be so threatening?

Ben> Well, for the Hornet, a honeybee hive's, a one stop shop for good food, right.

There's lots of individuals that they can capture the the foraging workers and then they chew that little worker up and bring it back to their nest to feed to their larvae.

So the hornet is a predator of the honeybee, but the hornets also like to eat sticky sweet fluids.

Amanda> So the adults are net- like sweet things.

Ben> Yeah, they love ripening fruit.

In fact, we'll talk about trapping in a bit and that's actually what we use.

The ripening fruits provide, the sugars they need to be able to fly, whereas they need the protein from other insects and meat to grow their larvae.

Amanda> To grow the larvae.

Okay.

Kind of like yellow jackets.

Ben> That's right.

Very, very similar.

Amanda> Yeah.

And so if they get to a honey bee hive, what do they do?

Do they frighten the bees or do they kill them all at one time?

Ben> Well, if I was a honey bee and I saw this thing, I'd be frightened.

Amanda> They're big.

How big is it?

Ben> They're a little bit larger.

You know what?

If you've ever seen a bald faced hornet, these things look almost identical in size and shape.

But instead of being white and black, they're yellow and black.

Amanda> Okay.

Ben> So, the...what this Hornet does is a interesting behavior we call hawking.

They don't actually go into the beehive and attack the larvae, such as we heard about with the murder hornet or the northern giant hornet.

These hornets tend to hang out around the entrance, facing away from the beehive, catching the foragers as they come back from bringing food from the flowers.

Amanda> Gosh.

Ben> Right.

And so then what happens to the colony, the honeybee colony is they can't build up the food reserves, they need to get through the winter.

And so the hornet doesn't necessarily outright kill the bee colony right there.

It's later on because they don't have enough food to survive the winter.

So beekeepers then have to try to manage the the bee colonies, feed them or do other things that are going to make it more expensive to be a beekeeper.

Amanda> And we've already had a couple of pretty severe invasive threats come.

We've got varroa mites and... Ben> Right.

A death by a thousand cuts.

It seems to be a beekeeper right now.

It's quite a challenge.

We have varroa mite pests which are parasites of the bees, small hive beetles which were first found in South Carolina many years ago.

A variety of other pests that cause problems for beekeepers.

So this is going to be additional pressure that a beekeeper is going to have to manage and monitor for.

Amanda> So one of the things would they would have to then feed their hives constantly through the winter, I guess.

Ben> Right.

Amanda> So, recently y'all found a queen, which means that even if this had come in on a container ship or something like that, there had been a successful colony established that had queens, mated queens that were, had overwintered.

Ben> Correct.

In the fall last year, we were collecting drones, which are the males, and that suggested that colony, or at least one colony last fall, escaped detection, was able to produce its reproductive that dispersed.

We collected a queen just a couple of weeks ago now we haven't seen an active nest in South Carolina yet, but having a queen present does suggest that they're at least in the area and potentially nesting.

So, once they do establish a nest, they're going to send out workers to try to forage on the landscape.

And those workers are attracted to sticky, sweet fluids, such as ripening fruit.

In fact, that's actually how they found one of the nests, is they found foragers that were coming to ripening pears that had fallen on the ground.

So we can use that to our advantage in developing traps that contain similar baits.

So we're using a bait that contains purple grape juice as well as little brown sugar and a little bit of yeast for the fermentation and the hornets, the adult foragers are attracted to that trap.

They fall and they die and then we can monitor those traps weekly.

Amanda> But if you find that you need to find out where the nest might be, And so I think, is it Brad Cavin at Plant industry?

Ben> That's right.

Amanda> Sometimes if he finds some, he can go and try to capture a living one and follow it kind of?

Ben> Right.

So Brad Cavin is our point person for the monitoring program and his job is to determine the extent of the introduction where the Hornets are existing and then to hopefully identify nests and eradicate them.

Amanda> Sure.

Ben> So Brad Cavin is leading a trapping program and he is focused heavily in that southwest corner of the state.

Jasper, Hampton, Beaufort counties.

And to this point we've only found individual hornets and have not found a nest.

If we do identify foragers, then there's a trapping method for collecting live hornets.

Amanda> All right.

Ben> And then what we can do is feed those hornets and get them ready to go back to their nest and then re-release them and track them back to the nest.

Amanda> So when you let them go, do they tend to go, do they wander around trying to figure out how to get home, or do they know how to get home?

If they got a full belly, they're going to go straight home.

Amanda> Oh, that's a plus.

Ben> So we can bee line them or hornet line them and watch where they go.

And actually, if we have traps in multiple locations, we can triangulate where that nest is.

And so the investigators in Georgia kind of figured out a method.

And if we do find a nest, then we will, Brad will investigate the situation and eradicate that nest.

Amanda> Oh, goodness well, what can we in the general public do to try to keep this from coming in and being just another blow to our beekeepers?

Ben> Well, you know, first of all, I will say we really appreciate the support we've already received.

Our beekeepers are very excited that the public is this invested in beekeeping.

If you suspect you have seen a hornet, even if it's in one you think is native, but you're still questioning it, you are welcome to report that through our reporting portal.

We have a website where you can go and read about the yellow legged hornet and submit pictures and a location data of where you have found it.

We really need pictures though.

It's just not just a description.

And then if Brad has a credible report, he's going to go investigate that area.

Amanda> Then I imagine you all are doing research constantly trying to figure out ways to help beekeepers deal with all of these difficulties that they have.

Thank you all for what you all are doing too, because this is a major part of agriculture.

Ben> It is.

Folks don't really realize how much we rely on pollinators.

Not just Western honeybees, but pollinators in general.

Most of those fun foods that we eat, the watermelons, the pears, the peaches, you know, they need the insects.

And if we have a pest that comes in that is affecting that pollination, that affects us all.

Amanda> Yeah.

And I like honey on biscuits in the morning every day.

Ben> Oh, yes.

Amanda> Ben, thank you so much for coming and talking with us.

Ben> You're quite welcome.

Thank you.

Amanda> We thank Ben for bringing that information.

And now you know what to do if you happen to see this.

Paul, you've got something kind of cool over there.

What you got?

Paul> Well, a lot of calls coming in about this every year.

This is one of the rust diseases.

And there's three rust diseases that are associated with our native Juniper, Amanda> Oh, like cedar... Paul> eastern red cedar.

Amanda> Okay.

Paul> You have cedar, apple rust.

You have cedar quench rust, and you have cedar hawthorn rust.

And all of them...rusts diseases are kind of weird.

They have an alternate host to fully complete their lifecycle.

So when the spraying on the cedar trees, these galls on the branches of cedars and all of them have a different looking gall, but they release these orange kind of horns coming out of the gall, which are just a oozing of these orange colored spores.

Uh huh.

And once they dry, they become windblown and they land on their alternate host.

And so with the Cedar Apple Rust it just impacts apple and Crab Apple Cedar Quench Rust gets on pears and quince.

Amanda> Oh!

Paul> Which are relatives and then Cedar Hawthorn gets on things like service berry and other cone fruits.

Amanda> So what is this one?

Paul> You know, everybody always talks about well you're cutting down all the cedar trees.

Amanda> Well, Oh no.

Paul> To me it would almost be best that you locate the cedar tree that produces these galls and then use that as a signal when you start seeing those spores coming out.

Amanda> Yeah.

Paul> To then start your treatment, it really to prevent it.

It's going to be treatments of fungicides starting hat about time the leaves emerge or right after petal fall?

Phillip> I would assume right about the time of petal fall.

Paul> Yeah.

I'd have to check on that.

I don't remember exact start date.

Amanda> So when the alternate host which in this case was a... Terasa> Pear.

Paul> Yeah.

Amanda> When the petals start falling, then you could spray those and prevent it from happening.

Paul> Right.

So treat your desirable plant.

But, you know,...find a I mean, normally those spores are produced typically sometime mid to late March into early April type period.

And they do depend on whether to disperse because once those things form, if you get a lot of rain.

Amanda> Yes Paul> It's going to impact the dispersal of the spores, but it needs to kind of dry out once they're produced so they can get wind borne.

Amanda> Okay.

Well, that's great advice.

Thank you so very much.

And thank you all for being here.

I hope you... Jennifer> Thank you.

Amanda> I hope you'll come back.

Jennifer> Yes, I'd love to.

Thank you.

Amanda> Okay, great.

I hope you will join us next week right here on Making It Grow.

Night Night.

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