Unknown: Well, hello, and thanks for joining us for another episode of Mid American gardener.

I'm your host Tinisha Spain.

And joining me live in the studio today is the Bug Guy, Phil Nixon is here today.

And we've got a lot to cover.

But before we jump into that, let's have Phil introduce himself and tell you a little bit more about his specialty, and where you'll find him outside.

So Phil, take it away.

I'm Phil Nixon, and I'm a retired extension specialist with the University of Illinois.

And so I've retired about five years ago, and I'm, my area of expertise are insects, and so pretty well getting into pests of any type.

But as far as long as they move, we don't do diseases or weeds.

But other than that, and I did that for 37 years for extensive service, and decided it was my time.

So then I have a have a hobby of bone size.

So that's something that we're gonna talk about today as well.

And just before we started recording silver sort of calculating on a typical year, how many talks he would have given by now and it's over 100 On a normal year, typical year about 110 120.

By now, that's crazy.

And since I've been retired, I've been one because you can do that.

Yeah.

So last time you were here, you brought this tree, and it looked a lot different.

Yeah.

So walk us through about how long it's been where it's been.

And I mean, it's it's absolutely beautiful leafing out.

So tell us about this one.

Well, we are this one has been in a greenhouse all winter.

But it's been a cold greenhouse one in which the temperature we have a heater that will kick on, I think when the temperature gets to 39 degrees or so, or 38, somewhere around there, actually, I guess it's lower than that it's somewhere around around 21.

I mean, 31, or something of that nature.

But any rate, it's called with the idea that this is a temperate plant that normally needs a cold winter, and I we have other bone sigh, that we actually left outdoors all winter long.

And that was and we actually have an east side of a house where it's kind of protected.

And the nice thing about an east side of the house is that you don't get a lot of sunlight, warm it up too much during the wintertime.

One of the things when you're trying to keep overwinter plants is that if they are hardy like these, those bones I are, then they need to be kept cold.

And so you don't want a lot of winter sun warming them up too much.

And simply when you have a smaller amount of soil, that's the main thing.

If they're frozen, you want them to stay frozen.

Their thought he wanted to stay thought, because of freezing and thawing of the soil will break roots.

And too many broke roots means you don't have anything to support the top growth.

Gotcha.

Now we also have some trees that in my area I live out in the country about 15 miles south of Champaign.

And it's a it's cold enough there that this type of tree Japanese Maple will not survive in our yard.

in Champaign itself, no problem.

There's some urban warm warming sort of thing that occurs.

And they have no trouble surviving.

But we can't keep one alive for more than two years for anything in the country.

And so what we have is we have a greenhouse for those trees that are marginally Hardy, and I can grow not only have room not only Japanese maples, which are Marley Hardy, where I am.

But also some things that are that are not Hardy here at all that would be hardy say in Alabama, or Kentucky, your greenhouse, they get that cold treatment, but not just abused.

A hardy plant, you have to have even if you're not only Hardy, say in Atlanta, Georgia, you have to have a cold period in order to for it to rest to set its buds, right.

Things of that nature.

And the trees that are growing in cold parts of the world.

Outdoors are growing there because they have adapted to that climate.

And they need to have that cold period.

Without it.

They will they will become weak, they'll second and they'll die.

So we need to have the cold period that that that that provides and so that's why we have a cold greenhouse.

We also have a warm greenhouse.

And these are small greenhouses, but cold ones 10 by 13 feet, so it's not a big thing.

These are my retirement aspirate.

Yes.

Now how that greenhouses attached to my wife, she said I'm writing all this down So yes, she's into art, particularly, not just painting and drawing, but also sculpture and things like that nine gives her a place to do all that she shed and the cold and the warm greenhouse, you're like, Yeah, this is gold right here.

So will these leaves get big, they will get bigger, thicker.

This is a dwarf Japanese maple, the typical size on a Japanese Maple Leaf would be somewhere around three to five inches across.

Many times around closer to three inches.

But just being a is a dwarf plant.

And it's it's it's not only dwarf and how quick it grows, the spaces between the nodes are very short.

So you have leaves that are kind of stacked on top of each other, so to speak.

And that's because the plant does not grow very much during the entire year.

If we look at this tree, you can actually, you can actually see that it grew this, this three quarters of an inch last year, it grew half an inch a year before, who three quarters an inch a year before that.

And before that it grew an inch and a half and only grew a little bit about a half an inch.

And so they're telling the whole story.

345 years of growth in that much space.

Wow, where's your typical maple tree in your yard?

Say one, even even a Japanese maple tree that was not a dormant one.

One would expect that in five years, it would grow with probably somewhere around two to three feet in length.

Wow.

Okay, so that's the difference.

Yeah.

It's also been has roots constructed in a pot, which also restricts its growth on it.

So that's not all just the variety, and how it is variety occur.

It showed up as a sport on a regular plant.

Oh, and it would have been something that in plants, their genetics, or they can have things changed a lot genetically, and they will still survive it.

But it will change how how they appear as as a result in in humans and other animals.

If you have those kinds of changes, that normally means death, but in plants, many of them survive it.

And so this would have been a branch and look kind of strange on a regular tree.

And it was cut off and reproduce asexually to keep this this factor going?

would have been a sport.

So these are these blooms here old blooms or death history boom, this will boom Yeah, and those are those are these are, these are old blooms.

Yes.

What color are the flowers, kind of a greenish white, okay, nothing serious.

And probably only about an eighth of an inch across or 16th of an inch.

You know, it's a, it's a wind pollinated plant.

And so And typically, and typically, many maples, I'm not sure on Japanese maples, which one it probably does pollinate in the spring, it said probably these are probably flowers that has already had the spring flowered.

Or in spring, these are all flower blossoms right here.

Wherever, wherever people public can see it, to see it.

And they're essentially our spent flowers, they've, but they really didn't look any big, much bigger than that when they were full bloom.

Very similar to that.

And they add a blow pollen from one to another.

And that's the way they get cross pollination for seed set.

If they have very colorful flowers, that color and those big petals are made to attract somebody else to do the pollinating for them.

That's most commonly an insect.

Gotcha.

But, but when pollinated plants are not going to have very showy flowers.

A they don't need or need it.

Yeah, yeah.

And, and so they don't need to attract them.

They don't need to need them.

And so when you see very colorful flower is because that's attracting somebody.

Over here, we got some nice nectar for you we got some extra pollen, we're going to pollen is full of protein, that nectars shirts sweet as as as as the plate of brownies, you know, this is neat stuff.

And you come over here and see me and when you see me go over there and take my mom on over there.

We'll kind of have have a little sex over going on.

So that'll that'll be the way it is that section plants right there.

There you go.

There's mag after dark.

Yeah.

So where will you put this guy outside when it's time for him to first off this one has has not had the winds that would normally have in the spring.

And so these leaves are pretty tender and soft.

And so if it had been outside and and we're so we'd be talking several weeks from now when it would be like this this stage.

It would be it would be something where the where it would have where it would be resistant to wind and so on.

These are not and so when we move them out we'll put them in an area which has tends to be sheltered from the wind Gotcha.

We happen to have part of our bonsai area outside it's close to to a garage on the west and some pine trees on the south so that forest Yeah, we'll put them in that area and for a few few weeks, then we may move them out to where there might get more more wind but by then they've gotten enough that they've if they get wind if they get buffed, what happens is they will produce cells which can handle that buffeting and again the grew up where it doesn't have any when it doesn't need those cells extra extra energy Why do it why produce it's like the petals on the flowers don't need it you don't you don't need to do I can't wait to see this one even later when it's completely fully leafed out and yeah believes will probably get proper probably twice the size it is we have we have one here that's cool.

That is he's getting getting up to where he's, he's probably going to get about half again bigger than this one won't of course, but that's about as big as they're gonna get.

So in talking about trees, do you want to talk about your other bonsai or do you want to go into we go and talk about fruit if you Okay, let's do it.

Let's talk about fruit.

Because we're getting there.

If you've got fruit trees at home, I'm sure they're, they're waking up.

And one of the main things that we have concerns about with fruit trees is that is that they will produce we get a lot of insects that attack fruit trees.

And important thing associated with this main one that we tend to grow the most.

This happens to be a cherry tree.

When this I'm going to train as a bonsai it's been piloted pot hasn't been trained yet.

I was going to train it maybe this weekend, I thought that's going to match the flowers off I start messing around with these branches.

So I better leave it alone.

But so I wanted to have it to where I could bring them in.

But the important thing to realize is particularly the easiest one of the easier crops to grow as far as fruit tree in your backyard are going to be apple trees.

Important thing to remember and I brought my Mastodon to remind me this and that is that is that is that the is it apples are made to be eaten.

If the apple tree produces apples, so that somebody will eat them as carry them in a gut in their gut for a while, and then deposit them somewhere far down the road.

Okay.

That's how the Apple gets around.

The maple tree will produce seeds that have wings on them with the catching the wind and will move.

But the but the apple tree when you have something which is this big around and falls to the ground.

You know, you don't want to grow that Apple right at most season at Apple to sprout under that tree.

That's not the ideal place.

Because we get shaded out by the military wants to go somewhere else.

And so I brought to Mastodon today to remind me that everything likes apples.

mastodons did math mammoths did.

Why do we know that?

Well, today's elephants do and they're just very close.

Today's elephants certainly close.

And so and so it's these elephants like them, those elephants probably did too.

Very likely.

As well as horses.

Camels, we had camels in North America back in the ice ages.

We had horses in the ice ages.

And then they died out new rot back in by the Spanish and and they survived in Asia and our apple trees.

Most of our apple trees that we grow now are originally from China.

It's just that part of the world are apples or pears are peaches or cherries.

Most of them came from China.

Interesting.

And China happens to be at the same latitude as North America.

So what grows there grows translates to here, same weather conditions, for the most part.

And they had these kinds of critters over there too.

And so the idea of an apple is it needs to be very, very tasty.

So and have no chemicals in it, that are produced by the plant to keep things from eating it.

There are other things that are produced other fruits that are produced other things that are produced, that have nasty chemicals in them to keep you from being eaten.

In fact, the Apple does to its seed has cyanide in them.

Yes, yeah.

And so to Cherry pits, and so on.

So the idea is you can have the outside flesh, but I need to seed you can eat to see as I say the way want that.

I want you to carry that and poop it out somewhere where I can grow and have nice fertilizer.

So that's the whole idea.

And so people wonder some times, well how do I do insects?

However, why are there so many insects that eat apples, we Apple flesh is meant to be everybody, everything right.

And in fact, in the spring of the year, this time of year, as we get some warm weather, and the old crab apples that are still hanging on the trees are start to start to go bad and ferment sour, you will have Robins coming in and feed no no sayings and getting drunk and find in besides the buildings and everything else, because they get drunk off of those off of that apple wine that's there.

So so the point is, is that when you're trying to grow, grow apple trees, you get into what's called a spray schedule.

Yes.

And in our Pest Management Guide for for home landscapes.

We have a chapter in here called managing pests and home fruit planners, you can find similar type of information online pretty easily.

This book is available at your local extension office.

And in there has, we get in here through the beginning stuff.

And here we have spray schedule for apples trap apples, pears and princes.

And so we go through various types of stages.

And those are based on the stages of flowers of the apple tree.

And there are other ones later for cherries and for peaches, nectarines, and all that sort of thing.

And so right now this is, this is mid April in central Illinois.

And, and so these are things this is an apple tree that I clipped off this morning before I came in, and it has what's called the tight cluster stage and half inch green, both of them are occurring at the same time.

Half inch green means that the leaves are up to about a half an inch, and these leaves are approximately that size.

Okay.

And we also have we can see the flower, the fruits, the flower buds, and they're tightly next to each other showing up here underneath the flowers.

Okay.

And they're tightly clustered together.

This is called tight, close tight cluster cluster.

Now in the same same yard, in the backyard, where it gets a little more protected, close to that nice protecting garage and you go we have leaves that are now more like an inch long.

So the past half inch screen, okay?

The flower birds are no longer in clustered and tight.

But they're showing the pink that'll show up.

Now this, so bloom white, but the outside parts of those petals are going to be pink.

And you're going to see and this is what's called B stage repeat Bad.

Bad.

Okay, you can see it's got pink, but Okay, not too hard to remember.

You're not too bad.

Yeah.

And then an oboe, this is not a an apple, this is actually a peach, you would eventually get full bloom.

And the Apple Blossom will look almost identical to that be about twice the size.

Okay, other than that, that's the same thing.

And when it says when you need to have the bees and the flies, and various and little beetles and all this sort of stuff that come in to pollinate, and we're an out win winner.

And when we're in Illinois, it's very important to not just to overlook, not just think about honey bees, but think about native bees that are going to come in because the native bees, the honey bee tends to be a little it's one it's from Europe and from from Africa, Asia, and that species is not native to North America.

And it gets to be a little persnickety.

Oh, it's a little too cold.

It's a little too windy.

Gotcha.

Have you ever noticed how a how a honey bee comes to a blossom, it will come in and it will kind of almost hover in front and then land check it out where it's gonna land.

native bees, many of which are smaller, they're only about a quarter of an inch to a half an inch.

They tend to fly straight in much faster.

And that that behavior allows them to handle windy weather a lot easier than a honeybee guess Okay.

Okay.

So for that reason, many of our flowers many of our fruit trees because in the spring is many times cooler and windier.

Also, honeybees don't like to like to fly at temperatures much below 50 degrees so they're not happy and a lot of native bees will fly in the 40s Okay, and the flies little flies including our house fly.

We don't like to weave because it transmits diseases to us.

It will be out there in the spring because it overwinters is an adult and so it can't You can't get a spring too early for it to show up.

The bees overwinter as adults do and and they will and they will come in and they will pollinate blowflies will do this other types of flies will pollinate these flowers.

Many times when it's really too cold they will be out there when the temperatures We are in a low for low 40s High 30s from around in there.

So they can handle colder temperatures.

And part of it is because they have that one pair of wings and they got huge muscles inside upon those wings.

And bees have smaller muscles on their wings.

And those big muscles generate a lot of heat gets what gets a fly a little bit warmer so we can fly colder temperatures.

The stuff you learn physiologically and here we get into some science more science is that is a physiology most of these most of these systems don't work at temperatures much below 50 degrees Fahrenheit.

And the way you an insect will fly and move around and do things in a colder temperatures.

You warm yourself up by reasonable.

Okay, we that in the morning when you get out of bed right?

That's true.

Got it.

And so, so what we look at is we look at their sprays already and we don't spray for insects early in the year but we do have some sprays that are going to be something that will that will protect from apple scab.

And you can buy apple scab resistant trees are called scab resistant.

And if you buy Apple scatters and trees, you don't have to worry about those early sprays so much.

But your first spray is going to be is going to be on on what they call the green green green buds is gonna be like like that should be your first application your first okay, you have scabs susceptible trees and and your second one is going to be at half inch screen.

Okay.

Third was going to be a pink, but okay.

And then you normally don't do anything during bloom.

Okay, because not only insecticides are harmful to pollinators and so it's going to have many fungicides are too.

Okay, particularly honey bees and other bees, which need to process that nectar in their gut.

They use micro organisms to do that.

And if you kill off those micro origins inside your stomach, by eating fungicide on the flowers, it may not kill you directly, but you're going to be poorly gotcha you're not gonna fly well you're not gonna Polonaise Do not spray while the bloom wait until pedophile pedophile which is three quarters of the petals are falling off, which is past time window.

And you can also look and you will see that the bees are no longer coming to gotcha when you have cover swipe sprays after that, are we are we concerned about birds at all when we spray trees, you want to make sure you don't spray a nest that might have nestlings in it they don't have feathers, they don't have much protection from their skin.

But but other than that, you really don't need to be too concerned about that.

Because the pesticides are on the market today have gotten past the Silent Spring days when we did have things in the early 60s In the late 1950s where we had more of a concern with with problems to wildlife got today's pesticides have been tested to avoid that sort of feel.

I do take my feeders down when I spray but and there are and what you would use are fruit tree sprays and ortho makes them and and vote it makes them Yeah.

And but you need to be watchful when it's when it's apples to this particular one has carburetor listed as was one of the ingredients.

carburetor, which that's brand name is seven.

Okay?

That's an insecticide.

It's very commonly used.

Going straight.

Here we go, hey.

Yeah, I gotta I gotta work on that.

Any rate, the point is, is that carbonyl is an apple thinner.

If you spray carbery Or seven on a tree, it will when it has little apples on it, it will tend to start knocking off it'll 10 cents cause the tree to drop any apples that are under about a half an inch in diameter.

Okay, on the other hand, when you have a bunch of apples on your tree, that are many of them are half an inch or a little bit bigger and a bunch of them are smaller and you don't want so many apples.

You can actually get rid of a bunch of apples chemically by spraying seven it just depends on what you want what you want to do, but once you get a little apples you need to start spraying for coddling moth.

And, and also for plum curculio in in your apples and in your cherries and in your plums and on your peaches.

Particularly with plum curculio we had all of those and you get and particularly on the cherries and plums and peaches.

You get this fat white larva about a half an inch long, but it's crapped all over the inside of your peach not really good.

So they make little curves on the edge.

Awesome.

Well, I feel I feel prepared.

I feel ready.

That's it a lot of great information.

So after pedal fall, do you do any more applications?

Yeah, if you use if you use a follow the directions on a fruit tree spray, what you've got is both a fungicide and insecticide in there.

And so essentially what you got So far, you typically do cover sprays which are every 10 to 14 days after that, or what I like to do is many times when I start to see some apples that looks like their dens your little finger, I figured that I have something to pump or Coolio and Ducati mafia attack.

That's what I normally started spraying.

And in central Illinois, it tends to be very close to Memorial Day weekend, usually ready to close in about the end is when I started spraying my apples, Okay, excellent.

Phil, thank you so much.

This was so much good information.

And we can't wait to see those when they're fully leaked out.

You have to bring those back.

So thank you for coming in.

Thank you so much for watching.

If you've got questions for the experts, you can send them in to us at yourgarden@gmail.com or you can look us up on Facebook, just search for Mid American gardener and we will see you next time.

Good night.