- Hi, thanks for joining us for The Family Plot: Gardening in the Mid-South.

I'm Chris Cooper.

Already have a bird feeder, and want to get more birds?

Try adding a bird bath.

Also, around here fungus and blight are a constant tomato problem.

We'll talk about when and what to spray.

That's just ahead on The Family Plot: Gardening in the Mid-South.

- (female narrator) Production funding for The Family Plot: Gardening in the Mid-South is provided by: The WKNO Production Fund, The WKNO Endowment Fund, and by viewers like you.

Thank you.

[upbeat country music] - Welcome to The Family Plot, I'm Chris Cooper.

Joining me today is Debbi Bruce, Ms. Debbi is the owner of Wild Birds Unlimited, and Mr. D. is here.

Thanks for joining us.

- Thank you for having me.

- Ms. Debbi, we always like to have you here, because we always like to talk about the birds.

- Oh, I enjoy it too.

- I know you do.

So today we're going to talk about bird baths, ok.

So how important is water to birds?

- Well how important is water to you?

- Very important, our bodies are made up of mostly water.

- That's right, and we need water every day, and so does nature, so do the birds.

It's an essential part of habitat that many times people forget.

And yes, when it's raining, nature provides the water, but there's times when it's not available.

Plus, if you have a bird bath in your yard, the birds that come to your feeders will more than likely attend a bird bath, will utilize that too, so you can enjoy their interaction there.

Plus you have birds in the canopies of the trees that are never going to come down to your feeders because they're not feeder birds, but water is the common denominator, everybody needs water so they'll come.

- So they'll come.

Have water, they'll come.

- They will come.

- Haha, you like that Mr. D.?

- I do.

- Alright, so how are we going to incorporate all of this into our backyards though, to attract those birds?

- There's a lot of different options that you can do.

You can do as simple as a little plant saucer.

Very little saucer, filled with water.

You can do a ground bath.

You can do a pedestal bath.

You can do a hanging bath.

What's important though is that you have the correct depth, you don't want it too deep so the little guys will be apprehensive to get into the water, because they're going to come and drink, and they're going to come and bathe, and get in there and shake around, and get the water through those feathers and get clean, because clean feathers means that you can fly well, you're a healthy bird.

So you want two inches or less in your water, in your depth.

And some folks already have an existing bird bath that's really too deep, and you can shallow it by adding rocks, putting a stone in the middle.

- Ok. Alright, and that will help out our little birdies.

- It sure will.

- So how do we take care of the bird bath.

- Very important.

You want to change your water about every two to three days, especially, especially in the hot months when we have mosquitos around.

Mosquitos, of course, you know they like to breed in water, but if you empty your bath every two to three days, and freshen it up with fresh water, then you don't have that problem.

Or if you add moving water to your bath.

Mosquito larvae can't go through the process it needs to do when the water is moving.

So moving water, not only that, moving water will attract the birds readily to the bath.

I brought a few items here to show you how to keep your bath clean, ok.

If you can dump your bath, scrub it out really well, because it's going to have algae on it, and also the bird droppings.

They can't help it, that's what happens.

And you scrub it out, you rinse it out, and then you start with fresh water.

Now about once a month at least we advise a deep cleaning which would be 9 parts of water to one part of bleach or vinegar.

- (Chris) Or vinegar?

- Or vinegar, and that's going to kill that algae that's in there.

And then rinse it really well and start fresh.

Now some folks have baths that are so large it's very difficult to dump, and hose that out, and start with a fresh clean bath, and we have enzymes.

These are natural enzymes that eat the gunk in the bath.

They need to be added every time you put fresh water in.

- And how much would you add, would it be on the label?

- It says on the back, just a capful for one to five gallons, so this will last you a good long time, and it's safe for wildlife.

We wouldn't have anything in there that would harm them.

This is a bird bath protector.

This is a fountain protector.

It's the same enzymes, but this one has a de-foamer in it so your bird fountain doesn't look like it's covered with bubbles.

Wouldn't be good.

- Ok.

I actually have one of those large bird baths, so yeah, I have to get out the hose and clean it up a little bit.

- That's good.

- I might have to look into that.

Ok, now lets talk again about this moving water, alright.

So we actually have some examples.

- We brought some examples today of moving water, the black hook hanging on the side of the bath is a dripper.

And it can be regulated down to just drip, drip, drip.

Also in the bath is a bubbling rock.

And that rock is going to recirculate the existing water.

So your dripper is going to be hooked up to your outside garden faucet, it runs off of water pressuer.

Birds hear and see moving water.

So this is going to be a magnet to them.

The bubbling rock runs on electricity, so you have to have outdoor electricity for that.

You wouldn't want both units in the same bath, so it's an either/or choice on that one.

There's other things you can do though, that I didn't even bring.

Things such as a wiggler.

It looks like a big green mushroom, and it sits in the bath, and it just spins the water.

And the spinning makes ripples, and the ripples attract the birds, but the ripples also prevent mosquitos from breeding as this would prevent mosquitos from breeding.

Or, you can be just as simplistic as saving a gallon milk jug, and filling it with water, hanging it on a branch of a tree above your bird bath, and stick it one time with an ice pick.

And it will drip, drip, drip.

It has the same affect.

That's something fun to do with children, yeah, especially.

Now in the wintertime water is extremely important.

We drink water all year long, so do birds.

They have to bathe all year long, just as we do.

But in the wintertime when your water is frozen, or if it's the weather man says we're going to get freezing water, put in an electric de-icer, it's a unit that does run off of electricity, but it prevents your water from freezing over.

And when you have the only open spot of water in the area, birds are just going to flock to it.

It's fun.

It is fun.

- Let me ask you this, can the water get too hot for the birds though?

- No, good question.

Sometimes folks will think, oh, it's like a hot tub.

It's thermostatically controlled, your de-icer is.

It kicks on I believe when your water temperature, or your outside temperature goes below 40, but it will not allow the water to heat up.

- Ok.

So it will be fine.

- It's regulated.

- How about that, so no spa for the birds huh?

- Right.

- Now let's talk a little bit about again, those mosquitos.

So you can actually purchase those mosquito dunks, right?

- Yes, I mean those would be good to use in there as well.

It contains Bt, and it's safe for the birds, and the other pets and things like that.

- Even says on the package that it's safe.

- Ok, that's good stuff.

You have a bird bath Mr. D.?

- I do not.

But I may get one.

I'm thinking about.

- You're thinking about it.

He likes the bubbler.

- I think so too.

- We have the feeders, we have a lot of bird feeders, hummingbird feeders, we don't have any water for them.

That's why they don't hang around very long.

- Well you will get even more birds when you incoroporate water with your feeder than just a feeder alone.

And you mentioned hummingbirds.

There's a little white tip, a nozzle that can go on the end of that dripper.

Hummingbirds really like a mist.

And you can adapt that to be a mist, and they'll fly through the mist.

Or there are misters that you can twine up into a tree such as a small dogwood tree, and it connects to your garden hose, and it just puts out a soft cloud of water vapor, and that's a lot of fun too, because not only hummingbirds, but on a dry day, you turn on your mister, and the leaves of the tree will collect the moisture, and you'll have little birds going in that leaf bathe.

So it's better entertainment than TV.

- Than TV.

- Except for this show.

- [laughs] Except for this show, except for The Family Plot.

Ms. Debbi, we appreciate that, always good to have you here.

- Thank you so much.

- Thank you much.

[upbeat country music] - This is a lovely specimen of coral bark Japanese maple grown for these brilliant red twigs, which makes a distinctive plant for winter interest.

And, it's a great plant for the South, it's very sun-tolerant.

It was planted a little bit high, which is good for a Japanese maple, but this heavy staking can be an issue.

And let's talk about the fact that often when you have a plant with a large canopy you're gonna need to stake it from blowing over.

There's a few options though.

A staked plant, especially when staked this tightly, is not gonna be able to move in the wind, and it should be able to move in the wind in order to build up strength.

It's a thing called taper.

And every time it blows there's a little bit of cambium tearing and it'll get stronger and stronger.

Since this is not able to move in the wind, it actually makes it weak, so when we remove these it's more likely to flop.

So, if you absolutely have to stake, you should certainly make this a little bit looser so that it can still do some blowing around in the wind.

Stake it just tightly enough to keep from blowing over.

And the padding here on the bark is a good idea.

An option would have been to take these stakes, and rather than tying the tree to it, if you had simply hammered them through the root ball at three different points at angles so that you're actually nailing the root ball into the firm ground below, then the tree is able to move in the wind and build up that strength and taper over time.

If you do have to do this, maybe a year or possibly more before you can remove the stakes, and hopefully by then the roots are well integrated into the ground and the maple's ready to be on its own.

[upbeat country music] - Alright Mr. D., this is the Mid-South, we love our tomatoes, but tomatoes we know, have many problems.

We need a spray schedule for our tomatoes, can you help us out?

- I can, I can.

UT and the Red Book can also help you out.

The most common problem on tomatoes in our high humidity environment is a blight, and late blight is the number one disease problem on tomatoes in our area.

And it occurs early.

- (Chris) Yeah, it comes early.

- (Mr. D.) I don't know why they call it late blight.

But the best way to take care of that is to put your tomatoes on a spray schedule.

You need to remember for the most part, fungicides, especially vegetable fungicides that are proved on vegetables are preventative in nature only, so if you wait until you see the disease, then you're behind in the game because the fungicides that we put out there on vegetables will not treat a problem.

They simply will prevent it from spreading.

So if you want to prevent tomato disease problems, start spraying early.

Spray during dry conditions every 14 days with either Chlorothalonil or Mancozeb, if it's during rainy conditions, if you haven't gotten more than a two-inch rain then still you can spray about every seven days.

If it rains more than two inches, you assume it washed the fungicide off.

Now that, if you apply the fungicide today and it rains tomorrow, a half inch of rain, just stick on the seven day schedule, provided that the fungicide had time to dry on the plant.

Now if you get out there and spray right now and fifteen minutes later you get a half inch rain, then your fungicide has washed off, so it need to dry on the leaves before it's rain fast.

During dry conditions, if we don't get a lot of rain, you can spread that length of time out to 14 days.

Every two weeks.

And I recommend mixing the chemistry.

I mentioned Mancozeb and Chlorothalonil, get both of those products, and then I would spray one of them one week, and the other the next week, and just alternate them.

That way you will hopefully prevent resistence building up to that fungus.

But do that, if you start to see some insects causing you problems, tomato hornworms or something like that, simply include some Bt in that same spray mixture.

You know, and you can-- - So you can do that?

- You can mix the fungicide with the insecticides.

And, if you don't have any insect problems, just strictly go with the fungicide.

But if you do that, and you do that up until frost, you should have good home grown tomatoes until that time.

- So you would start with the application of the fungicides when?

- Now.

Now, because the disease pressure is already out there.

I would start now.

I wouldn't wait until I see the disease because then you're behind.

Stay ahead of the game with fungicides.

- And make sure that you get good coverage though, talk about that.

- You've got to have good coverage, you need to spray to the point of run-off.

You don't have to drench the plant let it run-off the plant.

But spray to just before that happens.

That's like tightening a bolt to like one-quarter of an inch before it breaks.

You know, it's kind of hard t figure out exactly how to do that.

But spray just to the point of run-off.

Make sure you direct your spray to the underside of the leaves, and the lower part of the plant, get really good coverage.

So with these small tomato plants, it's real easy to do when they're real small.

As they get larger, they'll take more product, and they'll take a little bit more time, to make sure that you get good coverage, but make sure that you have good coverage.

It's just like applying, it's a prophylactic treatment, it's like a rain coat.

And any area of that leaf that's not protected is susceptible.

Most of these fungus diseases are caused by wind deposited spores, and if a spore lands on a fungicide treated leaf it's going to die.

But if it lands on a leaf that doesn't have any fungicide on it, you know, it will start spreading.

- (Chris) Good analogy.

- And if you get to, like I said earlier, if you get to the point where you've got some disease anyway, if you're in a real rainy week or two, and you've got some disease, just continue spraying, and you will stop it from spreading to the new growth.

You won't, the leaves that are damaged will continue to be damaged, but it won't spread to your new growth.

So don't get discouraged if you have a little disease pressure anyway.

Be faithful, 7 to 14 days, Mancozeb, chlorothalonil, combination of those, and follow the label directions-- - (Chris) Yeah, follow the label.

- Always follow label directions.

Wash your tomatoes real good before you eat them.

- Yes, yes.

When is the best time to spray the fungicide, because I'm sure somebody is thinking about that.

- I would say, you want to make sure the fungicide dries on the plant.

So probably the worst time to spray would be late in the afternoon right before sundown.

Or at night, because that plant will stay wet longer, and fungal diseases like wet conditions.

So, early in the day, middle of the day, mid-afternoon, as long as that plant can dry after you apply the product then you're in good shape.

- (Chris) Want to make sure it dries.

- Want to make sure the plant can dry.

- Couple other points.

Talk about the importance of using mulch.

- That's good.

Mulch is really good because some of the fungal organisms are, if rain falls, it will splash up from the ground.

And if you have good mulch, a good strong mulch, or newspaper, or pine straw, or wheat straw, or leaf, any kind of mulch will not only help prevent disease to the lower part of that plant, but it will also help conserve water, and help control weeds.

- That's right.

Weed barrier.

- Which is really important too.

- Mr. D., that's good stuff.

- Also, staking the plant, getting it up-- - (Chris) Getting it off the ground.

- Will, any way you can get air movement, that will help the plant dry, is also good too.

- Right.

And we talked about that earlier Ms. Debbi.

- We sure did.

- Air circulation is very important to get those leaves to dry off.

- That's right.

- Mr. D., we appreciate that, good stuff.

- Good deal.

[gentle country music] - I'm in The Family Plot square foot garden, and we're gonna plant an eggplant.

So, this eggplant is actually in the same family as our peppers, which will be really handy.

We'll put it right here in the row, it'll fit well with our crop rotation.

So, I'm just gonna slide it out of this pot.

We have some good root growth but not excessive, so it's a good size for transplanting here, and it is an appropriate time in our part of the world.

So, we're just gonna loosen the soil a little bit.

This is actually a pretty large media volume, so I have to make sure that I get a nice big area, I can loosen a little bit extra around the sides.

And, I just want to put this plant in the ground so that when I cover it up then it's gonna be just a little bit above, you know similar to where it was in the pot, but I'm just gonna put just a little bit more dirt around the top so that it doesn't dry out.

I'm gonna tamp it down slightly scatter it back around, and we are ready to go.

[cheerful country music] - Alright this is our Q & A session.

Ms. Debbi you jump in there and help us out if you have something to say, ok.

Here's our first viewer email.

"I've noticed yellow spots in my lawn recently.

"My first thought was that my lawn service had spot sprayed "weeds, but it's definitely something else.

What is it, and how do I take care of it?"

And this is from Ms. Anise right here in Memphis.

Well Ms. Anise, guess what that is.

It is the red thread fungus.

Pretty much a cosmetic fungus, it actually will grow out of this condition, but you have to think about our conditions this spring.

It was wet, it was cool.

Wet, cool conditions, you're going to have fungal diseases, this just happens to be red thread fungus.

And you can actually see from the tint, the little red tint from that picture, that that's what it is.

I've seen it in neighborhoods throughout Shelby County this spring, again, because of the conditions.

Don't worry about it, you don't have to treat it with a fungicide, it will grow out of it as it starts to warm up.

No need to treat it.

Now, I usually see it in lawns that are deficient in nitrogen, so soil test.

Let's see what our nitrogen levels are.

You might have to add some nitrogen, but other than that, I wouldn't worry about it.

It will warm up, and the grass will be just fine.

Alright, so thanks for that question.

Alright here's our next viewer email.

"Is it true that angel trumpet leaves are poisonous?"

And this is from Craig in Middleton.

I can answer that one.

Yes.

- Yep.

- The leaves are poisonous, the seeds are poisonous, and the flowers.

You consume a lot of them-- - (Mr. D.) Make you sick.

- (Chris) It's going to make you sick.

- (Mr. D.) Don't just go grazing on stuff, you need to eat what you grow in a garden.

- [Chris laughs] We know turnip greens are ok, and mustard greens, you know that's good, and even poke salad.

- Right.

Poke salad, right.

- The berries are poisonous in poke salad.

- Yeah, but definitely the leaves are poisonous, and again so are the seeds, so are the flowers.

Beautiful plant.

- (Mr. D.) Yep.

- Brugmansia, that's what it is.

That's the genus.

Brugmansia is what that is.

But yeah, just don't consume too much of that, because it's definitely poisonous.

It causes fevers, hallucinations, paralysis, all of those kinds of things, so you have to be careful about that.

- Now you're going to have people trying it.

- Ah, be careful with all of that stuff.

- You know, it's kind of funny, a lot of the things that are really pretty, and eye-catching, eye-appealing are poisonous.

Even in the animal kingdom.

Some of the really prettiest fishes that are out there, are toxic.

- That is something to think about.

- Maybe a defense mechanism.

- Yeah, 'cause it's a beautiful plant, you're exactly right.

- They don't have to worry about things eating them up, because-- - Right.

- It will make them sick.

- Alright, so Mr. Craig, they'll definitely make you sick.

It's poisonous.

And believe it or not, it's in the same family as tomatoes.

- Yeah.

Nightshade.

- Solanaceae family.

Right.

Nightshade family.

So how 'bout that.

There you go.

Alright, here's our next viewer email.

"How can you get rid of purselane?

It is all over my garden."

And this is from Rose, in Stanton, Tennessee.

You know about purselane, don't you Mr. D.?

- Oh yeah.

Mmm-hmm.

- Succulent leaves right, produces by seeds, root fragments.

Do you know about purselane, Ms. Debbi?

- (Debbi) I just pulled up a bunch of it.

- (Chris) There you go, and you better make sure you get all of it, because the seeds can actually survive in the ground for 40 years.

- (Debbi) Oh my goodness.

- Be careful.

Survival folks.

- Yep.

- Yeah, that's what that is.

So how do we control that, and speaking of control, I know one means of control, they're edible!

The leaves are actually edible.

- So they're not toxic?

- Really?

- So eat 'em, huh.

- You can eat them.

- Are they good?

- Eh, they taste pretty good.

They're succulent.

- Especially if you have a big chunk of bacon in them.

- Yeah, you have some like that it would taste better, right.

So yeah, we know that they're edible, but how else can we control them.

- In a vegetable garden, you know, you got your hoe.

Good old cultivation, run your cultivator if you've got one.

I know there aren't many pre-emergent herbicides or post-emergent herbicides that you can spray in the garden-- - (Chris) Mm-mm, not in the garden.

- that all your vegetables wouldn't be affected.

Treflan has some activity on it, and it's cleared for use on some vegetables, but not all of them.

- (Chris) Yes.

Right.

- But, I'd probably stick with mechanical.

And using a hoe and cultivator, in my garden.

Now in your yard-- - (Chris) Yeah it's a different story.

- Is a totally different story.

You can use several pre-emergent products, and post-emergent products.

- (Chris) You sure can.

Yeah dithiopyr, pendimethalin... in your lawn for a pre-emergent.

Post, anything that contains what, Post, 2,4-D, Dicamba, you know that kind of stuff.

- That can also wipe your garden out.

- Yeah, that will wipe your garden out, yeah.

You can do that in the lawn setting but not in your garden.

So garden hoe, Ms. Rose, garden hoe.

That will help you out.

Alright, here's our next viewer email.

"I had a soil test done on my garden, "but the results didn't come back 'til everything "started to come up.

Can I follow the recommendation "of a late soil test now, or wait until after the growing season?"

And this is from Mike.

And it's actually a good question.

- It is, it is.

And the answer is yes, go on and follow it.

Go on and put the fertilizer out, you may not be able to, as you broadcast it, you don't want to get it on the leaves of the plants if you can help it, but go ahead and put the fertilizer out now.

It's still early, it's still plenty early.

And, that soil test, you can follow that for three years.

- (Chris) Yeah it's three years, right.

- And the only time that you probably don't want to apply fertilizer is late in the year just before frost to a perenniel, because you don't want a flush of new growth to occur right before a freeze.

- (Chris) Right.

- Yeah, anytime, and a lot of the soil test recommendations will talk about side-dressing anyway.

But if you have a complete fertilizer that's recommended, N, P, and K, I'd go on and put that out now, and you'll be ok. And then follow it up with a side-dress if that's recommended.

- Right, and it'd be good to know what he tested his soil for, you know, if he was trying to grow a garden, or lawn, or anything like that.

But he did say on my garden.

- Yeah, on my garden.

Sounds like he's growing a garden.

- Might be a vegetable garden or something like that, maybe?

I don't know ornamentals?

I don't know.

- I'd go on and start.

- I would go ahead and follow it, because it's good for three years.

So I would do that, so there you have it Mike.

So Ms. Debbi, Mr. D., we're out of time, that was fun.

Thank you.

- Thank you.

- Remember, we love to hear from you.

Send us an email or letter.

The email address is FamilyPlot@wkno.org, and the mailing address is Family Plot, 7151 Cherry Farm Road, Cordova, Tennessee 38016.

Or you can go online to FamilyPlotGarden.com.

That's all we have time for today.

Thanks for joining us.

Want to see how to apply that fungicide Mike was talking about, or fertilize your garden?

Head on over to FamilyPlotGarden.com.

We have hundreds of gardening videos to show you what to do and how to do it.

I'm Chris Cooper, be sure to join us next week for The Family Plot: Gardening in the Mid-South.

Be safe.

[upbeat country music] [acoustic guitar chords]