Unknown: Hello, thanks for joining us for another episode of Mid American gardener.

I'm your host Tinisha Spain.

And joining me on the show today is one of our panelists who often joins us via Skype.

And again, we're continuing that conversation about spring planting, and transplanting.

So John, before we jump into our discussion and questions for today, introduce yourself, please and tell us a little bit about where we can find you.

Okay, I'm John Bodensteiner I'm a Vermillion County Master Gardener.

I live up by Bismarck on a little road called St. Greg.

And we have about three acres that we try to have a variety of different things, I've got a lot of shade.

So a lot of the plants that I have are shade plants.

And so I can I also work at at the schwarmann greenhouse, so I have that advantage as far as starting things, and okay, jack of all trades when it comes to gardening.

So, alright, John, let's jump in with some of the things that you brought to share today.

And again, we're talking about spring and transplanting.

So where would you like to start?

Okay, one of the things that, you know, and we've talked about the seed starting and all that, I had a couple of follow up questions, somebody was wanting to know, what the discarding mix was.

And this is it, this is the one that you want to start your seeds in.

And it's a Berkey product, and it's widely available.

And yet, I can't, I'm gonna hide my face here, behind it.

But this is very important in that it's a soilless mix.

And it's very, very good.

As far as starting your seeds, don't use a regular soil for sure.

And I prefer not to use potting mix, I do have a another product might have basically the same company that's potting mix, I prefer not to use that it just doesn't drain as well as both a little bit more moisture.

And I tend to get a little bit more damping off.

If I use this.

Once I have the seed garden, I'll transplant into this.

Or I'll use another potting mix.

But you do want to use some potting mix as far as one two transplants.

Now, once you plant your seed into that seed starting I do like to not cover them with a potting mix.

But I had a question about what to cover with and this is the, this is vermiculite and this is what i i First lay out my seat guarding and then I'll put the seatbelt on moisten it.

And again, when I moist I'll use a spray bottle so that I'm not washing the all the seed starting mix.

And I'll just miss the the top until it and I pre moisten the seed starting mix also.

But then I'll give it a final spread.

And this is just a mist.

And then I'll put the seed down.

And then depending on whether the seed packet says use a quarter inch US aid and do not cover weapons do not cover then I don't I just put a very, very little bit of this, just the sun will get through the lake, we'll get through this, if you put a very light things like oh milkweed that says not to cover.

But most of the time that says to cover with an eighth of an inch or a quarter inch.

And this is what I cover and I found that this prevents that fungal disease called damping off.

So this is one of those that I really do like use.

So John, I've noticed when I when I start my seeds and trays, you you get everything ready, then you put the top on.

And then like you were talking about a few days later you come over and there's this nice layer of mold on the top.

So does the vermiculite help with that.

Correct, it helps the drainage.

What that would indicate to me is that you might have just a little bit too moist, okay, you want to damp but not to the point where there's water sitting on there.

And if you have that, that little cupboard that clear cover you may want to take that off every so often and just let it air up the top dry off just a little bit, not to the point where it stays in or you know for hours, but to so that it dries off and that will keep that that mold and mildew from forming on that but the vermiculite really does promote the drainage and I found that I don't have any of that.

Now, once you get those seeds started, one of the things that a lot of people forget to do and I I usually will use C++.

I use, reconstitute or re reuse venetian blinds, I cut those up or some, some other piece of plastic and I write and make sure that you use a, a permanent ink don't use a wash off because as soon as you water that I've had some of the people wash all their work in the handheld, one tomato from another, or one pepper from another.

So make sure that you use a permanent anchor and label everything as you're planning.

Don't go back in and all of a sudden, drop your seat back and forget which way that it was.

As before I actually what I like to do is, before I put the seats out, get the the label, put it in the row that I started, lay the seed and then put vermiculite over that and then give it a after I put vermiculite.

I'll give it another disliked mist.

Okay, then go on to the next row.

We have a couple of other panelists who swear by pencil, they say pencil holds really well as well.

Yes, and then some who put tape over the outside of the label just to keep the the marker or the pencil or whatever from from not fading over the summer.

So a couple other tips on there.

If you've got a real sunny area, if you don't, some of the the ink tend to bleach out or get very, very good.

So once we've got our seeds, yeah, I was gonna say once you've got your seeds, and hopefully everything went well, and you've got your seedlings.

Now we're moving into transplanting.

And so now what do you got for us?

Okay, this is one of the, this is a couple of plants that I brought some basil, or some cartoon, and this is a tomato plant.

So I want to especially stress on the tomato plants, when you're transplanting, what you want to do is yeah, the cod leaves that nap, these two leaves here, you don't want to transplant until you have truly true leaves are the ones that actually identified the plant.

If you look at this little basil plant down there, the Dicotyledons looked almost exactly the same as the tomato plants.

So those are going to be kind of hard to tell what you've got what you want to wait for transplanting until you have your first step, or even two set of true leaves.

And that that's basically you can see my tomato has got his first set of true leaves, right there.

Right, I'm going to wait until those for him up a little bit more, this is still a little bit early to transplant, the roof structure is not quite where I want it to be.

I know just by looking at the two leaves that it's not quite where I want it to be.

And then once I am ready, what I'm going to do is I'm going to pick it up by the pot leaf like this, I'm not going to touch that stem, if you touch that stem, I can almost guarantee that you're going to crush it.

And especially on tomatoes, where all those little hairs that are on there are going to form roots, you're going to damage them.

And that STEM is so fragile, that no matter how tender, you touch that step, you're probably going to do some damage is that a good rule of thumb for all transplants, cuddly hands are the true leaves Dicotyledons.

And you can even wait and you know, do the true leaves.

But I prefer because the cuddle leaves are going to dry up and die anyway.

So you really don't need those after the plant is established.

Those cotyledons are are basically just to get the plant started getting a little bit of chlorophyll growing.

And so you can see that on this cartoon, the cod lesions are very, very big.

So I can I'll have no problem picking that up.

And you can see these are the true leaves right here, this little thing right here.

And they are going to be a completely different shape than these.

These these little leaves will eventually grow up to be six feet long.

Wow.

And the unfortunate part with with the cartoon is the deer just love so you'll be sharing those this summer.

We've had we have them out at the Kennecott herb garden and we have to actually put a metal fence around them to protect them because even when they're big, they will come if you take that fence off the next day you come and I think All heard has come and has has removed.

So.

But again, be patient.

And I know we're going to have a couple of questions as far as when to plant things like that, yes, kind of gone over that.

Prepare your garden right now now's a good time.

Maybe not today being a branding and kind of miserable cold, but plan your garden?

You know, take a picture of it, draw it out, whatever.

And where are you going to put, you're gonna put the tomatoes here, peppers here.

And, okay, let's go to some of those Facebook questions that you mentioned.

So I put out a request, I asked people if they had started their seeds yet and kind of where they are with their planning.

And so we have a lot of questions, John.

So I hope you're ready to march Heidi wants to know, where she should put some strawberries she wants to create a new strawberry bed and wants to know the best varieties for Northern Illinois.

So what are your thoughts there?

Okay, I you know, to me, I would get something that is juneberry.

Now, I know that we when you put a question somebody had said that they didn't like Bernie, I have found that I have had good luck with Bernie.

So I would say depending on you know, the type of gardener you are, they will you know, Gurney has one called a whopper.

And at the juneberry.

Now, they also have a everbearing.

And what I found that the ever bears have a you know, you get to crops, the crop in the fall is so small.

And if the plant saves its energy for that, I think and so that the spring crop is so much smaller.

And so that the and I've talked to even a couple of the the strawberry growers and they find that the June bears are by far the way to go.

Okay.

The Whopper the early glow, keepsake.

Those are June bears.

A jewel is another one that I've had good reports on.

So there are other sources, you can go to your garden centers, a lot of times you'll get live plants.

And depending on I would again, make sure that they are June bearing not everbearing.

And I think they're 25.

Plant in a in a little club and get them out.

And you want to make sure one of the things that people do is either plant them too deep or not deep enough.

You want to have that crown is not buried, but you want it right at the ground level right at the level.

Okay.

All right, we're gonna go to sorry, John, go ahead.

You may want to just protect it with a little straw, especially early on, so that it doesn't, you know, it's going to be very tender when you get them out there.

Okay.

All right.

We're gonna go to Linda Brummer Welch's question she wants to know when it is safe to remove leaf mulch from crocus and other early spring plantings like hellebores, and they also live in Northern Illinois.

What's your take there?

Okay.

I, I just took mine off.

I sent a couple pictures in I sent it before and then an after.

And mind actually right now are our I should have taken it off a little bit earlier I believe.

Because they are pretty yellow.

They are about oh six to eight inches tall, and the new growth and there are flower buds on there.

And so I probably should have done it already.

I would say Northern Illinois now would be a good time to do that.

If you are going to have a night where you're going to have below 15 degrees, maybe even 20 degrees at night, I would say 15 would be hellebores are really really hardy.

And the crocus's are even more hardy.

I don't even cover my crop because I just let them come up.

I've got some blooming are ready.

Oh, wow.

So I've got a real pretty white one, a yellow one and a purple ones that are already blooming and I don't cover those at all, but they're the first things that come up.

And then the Lenten rose, which is the hellebore.

That's another name for it.

We started as blank on Wednesday.

And so those are last Wednesday, and so that's where they get their name as during Lent is when they start to move.

And, and there's all kinds of varieties now that are double bloomers.

They've got some real pretty purple, dark purple, some that are most of them are a lighter white or off green, but they will last for months.

Okay, and I sent a couple of pictures I when I clean mine off, you're gonna notice underneath if they're in this tablished plants, you're going to notice hundreds and hundreds of babies underneath.

And be very careful with those.

Now, that would be if you have a bunch of those and you want to save those, I would probably suggest that once they get just a little bit size, that you transplant those into pots and protect them until I would say mid May and then put them back out where you want to stick where they come up.

And so you want to send them, I wouldn't send them now I would wait and let the the strongest one survived.

And, and then go from there.

Okay, we've got a question from Jane Echols.

She wants to know when the best time to plant tomato and green pepper plants are.

And then goes on to say last year, they waited till about mid May.

And she wanted to know if that was perhaps only a little bit too late.

So they did have a good crop.

But wondered if that was just a bit late.

So when would you start your tomato and pepper plants.

So if she's talking tomato plants indoors, I would say mid March is when you want to start to see.

Now as far as planting outside, I kind of confused on that question.

Whether she meant outside, I would not plant mine before May 15.

I really liked tomatoes and peppers, we planted June 1 or the last week and made the first week in June somewhere in there.

If the ground is not 70 degrees, they are going to be stunted.

And then they are so vulnerable.

Last year we had a late freeze.

I know a lot of people had their tomatoes out.

And a lot of people were going back and buying new tomato plants.

Because they froze.

And peppers are the same way.

Those are tropical plants.

And so but right now, as far as seeds, I would get them started now this week, next week, and that gives you about eight weeks.

To get them to the size, once they are up, I would put a little bit of a ban on the plant, just not not to the point where you're going to blow them away, it's going to take a little bit more watering.

But you're going to notice that the stocks on do an experiment with some with a band and one of the top ones with the band are going to have twice the size trunk as those that don't.

And then if you take them out, make sure you that you harden them off.

Like she was saying may 15, she could have taken them up in the trays that May May 7 to the May 20.

And put them out there during the day.

Let them get through so that you know starting to shade and put them in a little bit of sun, then then put them in full sun, bring them in at night.

So that you what you call harden them off, especially with tomatoes and peppers, and then put them out and they should be okay.

Plant them, I would take all of those, you're going to have probably two or three sets of these, I will take all of them off except for the very top and plant them as deep as you can.

And because all that again, all those little hairs that are on that front are going to become roots will come people I've even seen where they get real long.

tomatoes that are maybe a 10 inches, they'll lay them on their side and then curve them up.

Yes.

So that just the top portion and all that front is going to turn the leaves and especially during the the hot dry periods of suburbs.

You know, the last thing you want is the tomatoes not to have moisture because once they start pruning if they don't get calcium every single day, you're going to end up with blossom end rot.

Okay.

All right.

Let's see.

Stephen Casper wants to know about Zinnia seeds, starting them indoors, and he is in the Chicago area.

What do you think about that?

You can start them indoors, but they start go well outside.

If you really want to get them I would say four to six weeks prior to your last prostate and I would not put them out.

And again, these are as tender almost as tomatoes and peppers.

If you're going to have a frost you're going to be buying or starting new zinnias.

And there are some really neat, neat, then you have some other huge, some are tall or short.

There's there's such a variety of Zinnias anymore that it is really gotten to be a very popular plant.

They bloom all summer once they start, they'll just keep blooming.

If you want to save the seed, you can let one of these seed heads just grow.

Don't let too many because if you don't dad hit them, then the plant will stop producing as many flowers if you keep them the beginning of the season.

I would not let them those flowers go to seed.

I would keep goes, soon as they showed that they're drying off, I would, I would deadhead those.

And that's going to promote more blossoms toward the end of the season.

Well, before Ross, you can let that one or two of those flowers go if you really liked one, and let it mature, and then save those seeds and then put them in a container.

If you aren't going to do that, I've got to say, put them in this as just a little coffee thing.

But keep them dry.

I like to use the silicone.

Oh, yeah.

So this is what I love about gardening how everything you have at home can be reused in some way in the garden.

If you get a love coat, or you get something that has to be dry, they'll give you one of these.

And I just throw it in, just pop it right in there.

Like it'll keep the almost at a perfect humanity without because they get to an end.

Before you do that, you want to make sure that the seeds are as dry as you can get.

Because this will draw some moisture, but if they're totally wet, they're still gonna mold but these are butter.

These are butter daisies that I'm going to be planning already got 200 planted by him in planning another 300 Oh boy, that's one of the most popular plants that I have.

Christy wells writes in, she's got her lettuce, tomatoes, peppers and bok choy started.

So she's got our spring planting ready.

But her question is, when do I start seeds for Fall greens.

So she's thinking way ahead.

Right.

And, you know, again, you'd want to look at the maturity depending on what plant is.

August, September would probably be, you know, the beginning of August, at the very latest, the first of September.

But I would say the first of August, depending on again, you know, like radishes, they mature pretty quickly.

So she may want to wait until the you know, and what I probably would do is start some August 1 planting or August 15 to more September 1, and then you're going to be to the point where I'll have that nice staff, you're going to be able to pick them on an everyday basis.

And as the babies mature, and again, watch how thick you plant them because if you plant them too thick, it's really going to set them back.

And Okay, last question and this one got a lot of discussion, one that I wouldn't think it would have gotten a lot of discussion.

Peggy is a biggie writes in do radish seeds need to be started indoors, or can I just plant them directly into the ground and there was a lot of discussion about radish.

So people were definitely tuned in to find out about this.

So do you grow radish Do you start yours inside you direct so what's what's the word there?

Okay, I never transplant rancher.

Okay, direct so now you can put them in a pot, put them in a large pot.

I've seen a lot of people that have liked a patio only area then get like a 18 inch pot and you can put quite a few radishes in there and and they will grow and then they will mature they're gonna try to transplant Raj radishes do not like be transplanted.

They are cool.

plant that likes cold weather, they actually taste better later.

They're not as spicy as hot when they are in a cooler weather.

And that's why people plant them either early spring or so that they mature in the late fall and you're going to be much, much happier.

A lot of people will plant a pretty heavy crop and then go in and then again, just like we were talking prior, if you plant them too thick, they will be delayed.

A lot of people will put them in and the very first ranches that show any size at all.

They'll be pulling those out, and just getting them in the garden.

And I That's me, for instance, I go out there, I'll just brush them off and eat all the small wins.

I'll try to find but I can space them and then the others I'll let grow to maturity but there's nothing better than even the whole plant can just wander small like that.

You can eat the whole plant eat the whole thing.

It kind of reminds me of carrots when you say don't transplant them.

They don't like it.

Carrots.

Yeah, yeah, kind of fussy like that, once they're your root crops really don't like to be transplant.

Interesting.

Okay.

Well, John, that's all the questions that I have.

So thank you so much for joining us today.

And we're gonna have to touch back touch base with you again, when it's time to actually get out there and transplant so you can show us how to not snap our stems because what's the worst than than waiting on your seed to sprout and grow and you get it all the way there and then you snap it on transplant day so we'll have to check back in or make Do you harden them off before you take them out?

Because I've seen a lot of people taking their crayons, and it's a windy day.

And by the time to get to the garden, every they're all snapped off.

And yes, and they don't want that, but a lot of work and be, you know, even expensive.

You know, depending on some seeds, some seeds I've bought them for my tomato seeds this year are costing almost $1 apiece, so Wow.

Wow.

So yeah, we don't want anyone left behind no snap stems this year.

All right, John, thank you so much.

Always a pleasure talking to you.

Have a good one.

Thank you.

And that is the show today, thanks to our panelists who came on and shared.

And thanks so much to you for watching.

And if you've got any questions, do not hesitate to send those in to us.

You can reach us by email at yourgarden@gmail.com you can also search for us on Facebook, just look for Mid American gardener and send us your question that way.

That way we can get those questions answered by our panelists and help you be more successful out in the garden this year.

That's our show for today.

I'm your host Tinisha Spain.

Thank you so much for watching, and we'll see you next time.

Good night.