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

I'm Chris Cooper.

A healthy green lawn   really makes a yard,   but just like all plants, turf   grass can get diseases, too.

Today, we will identify some   of the most common problems.

Also, fall as a good   time to divide hostas.

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

- (female announcer)   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 Booker T. Leigh.

Mr. Booker is a UT Extension agent here in Shelby County, and Ms. Cheryl Lockhart will be joining me later.

Mr. Booker, our grass guy.

How's it going today?

- Glad to be here, man.

Always good to be on your show.

I enjoy it all the time, and it's just great here.

- So we're glad to have you.

- Thanks for having me on here.

- Sure.

So today, we're gonna talk about common lawn diseases of warm-season grasses.

So what would you like to start with that?

- Okay, a lot of time, this has been a year that we had a lot of disease on our grass, and then the top diseases that we normally see   in our warm-season   grass is brown patch,   rust, fairy ring,   and spring dead spot,   but we do have more disease   that get on our lawn, and we see brown patch a lot of times.

Brown patch you see that   in the spring of the year,   and then you look at   the grass real close   because a lot of these diseases   look alike on your lawn.

- That's for sure, okay.

- So how you identify   that brown patch on there,   you'll see some   brown ledge inside   the leaf blade of that grass.

You look on on that blade,   you see some brown ledges   on the side and leaf blade,   and also in the   middle of that grass,   if it's kinda thinning   out a little bit,   you can tell then you have   a brown patch in there.

Over a period of time,   that brown patch can get   twenty feet in there and cover   and spread over there   in that area.

So you normally see this   during the green-up period,   and what causes the   disease most of the time   on our lawn is poor drainage.

- Poor drainage.

There's a lot of poor   drainage in there.

You need to make sure   that on that grass   that it's drained well   'cause any kind of water gonna stand in there, and you realize this year, we had a wet spring.

- We did.

- We had a wet spring, and also we had that snow and ice in February back there, and all that had a major part on our grass there for the disease problem, and I think that's why we had so many diseases this year that people are calling about because of the spring and the snow and ice got on there, and suppose you got that poor drainage, and that will cause brown patch, and we've seen a lots of 'em on there.

We get a lot of calls on brown patch on there.

Then next you might see on your lawn there, the rust disease.

That attack my grass sometime, and on the rust disease,   you might see a little   spores on the grass,   might look kinda yellow,   and you can tell that   because when you start   walking across   that grass on there   or cutting that grass there,   you can see it on your   shoes, on your lawn mower,   and doing that, and   also in that grass,   we get that rust on it.

That grass is weak.

- Okay.

- Beginning to   get weak in there,   and that's caused   by a lot of stress,   and we don't want our   grass stressed out, now.

A good, healthy lawn can   fight off a lot of diseases.

It'll fought off a lot of disease just like your body.

You got a good immune system.

With your system, you can fight off a lot of disease.

Same thing about grass.

Keep that grass healthy and everything, you'll do that.

- So the cultural practices are real important.

- It's really, really important.

That's why we tell everybody, recommend that you get a soil test.

Get that soil tested.

Add some lime to it if you need to add lime.

Add phosphorus/potassium to it if you need to add phosphorus/potassium to that grass because those are the important things for that grass to do well in there, and I tell everybody.

When you got diseases on your lawn, try to bag that grass.

Don't just let that clippings just go on there.

Try to pick that grass out of there that you don't wanna go back on there because you don't wanna spread the disease in there.

And this is what I had on my grass too a long time, fairy ring.

- Yeah, I remember you talking about that.

- Had that a lot of time on my lawn   and that normally caused   by you'll see some   it is caused by you   had a tree there.

You had a stump that you remove   that stump and everything,   and the root system is   still in the ground,   and when that   grass begin to rot   and decay and   everything in there,   it begin to come in there,   and sometime you just   might not see the mushroom.

A lot of people look for   the mushroom in there.

You might just see   a ring in there,   like a green ring in there,   and then you know the   organic material begin   to break down in there,   so you see that in there,   but we'll see those   mushroom that get in there   and cause it to get   in there on that lawn   in that circle in there,   and that normally come when   you have a lot of rain.

- Which we've had, right.

- 'Cause the moisture   get in the soil and   it just pop those up, and I can tell now where I had that tree located, I still see some.

I might just see one or two now.

I don't see a whole big ring of it like I used to because as it get older, it begin to rot and decay in there.

You can't see in there now it begin to go away.

So it will go away over a period of time, but some people can't stand it.

[laughs] Well I just go out there and pull 'em up.

Put me some gloves on, go out there and pull 'em up, and then put 'em in a little baggie and get rid of 'em.

- I guess that's an option, right?

Yeah, you can do that, pick 'em up in there.

Normally they come when you have a lot of moisture in this thing.

And the next one we have is spring dead spot.

It appear in kinda   like old grass.

Not old grass, but   three to five years old.

I don't call that really,   really old in there,   and then you normally see   this in Bermuda grass.

Normally in spring dead spot,   it appear in the same   location every year,   but during the summertime,   it'll cover that up sometimes.

It'll grow over there,   but if you don't treat it,   it'll get larger and   larger each year.

You need to treat that now,   but you wanna treat that   maybe in the fall of the year   and then try to get   rid of that in there.

And that spring dead   spot, like I said,   it will spread every year   and get larger and larger   over there if you   don't treat that.

And we tell everybody   you try to have   that good, healthy turf,   that you can fight off a lot   of those diseases in there   by having a good,   healthy turf in there.

That way, it won't   kill your grass.

It won't kill your   grass over there.

But try to bag that grass when you get the disease in there, try to bag those grasses in there.

- Can you compost that, or would you recommend composting, or not if it's diseased?

- It depend on where I'm putting it at in there.

I don't wanna put a lot of disease in there now.

I wouldn't use that for to put on no vegetable garden nothing like that in there when you get a vegetable garden and stuff in there 'cause you don't wanna get the disease into your garden in there so you know it won't infect stuff in there.

- Okay, so let's again tell the folks about the cultural practices.

- One of the things   is watering.

Cutting to the right height.

Bermuda grass and zoysia,   you wanna keep about   2 1/2 to 3 inches tall   in there during   the growing season.

You can leave those clippings still on the lawn when you use a mulching mower, and that add a little organic material to the soil.

And also, you wanna, like I   said, dethatch and aerate.

You wanna have good   drainage in there,   but the soil test is   the best thing to tell   what you need to   add to your soil,   and for your   warm-season grass,   you need a soil pH   between 6.0 and 6.5,   and the only way you can   tell that is by a soil test.

- By a soil test.

- By a soil test, and I like to send off to a good lab 'cause they run it through a lot of different tests and everything.

Now, you can buy the little thing to put in the soil that gives you an indication, but you won't get- - Right, you won't get a recommendation.

- Yeah, you've seen it obviously.

They'll give you a recommendation.

They'll tell you what to add to it and how much to add to that, and then when you send it off to one of the big lab or something, they tell you what to do in there and do in there, but you watch every disease on there now.

We do have other disease that get on our grass sometime now, but we had a lot of calls about this year, and it was the five we had a lot of calls about that attack that warm-season grass.

And when community call about wet spring, sometime it rain, then we had these cool nights.

A lot of time, people wonder about why is my warm-season grass not doing anything.

A lot of time, warm-season grasses will grow real good especially Bermuda grass when you have those warm nights, but it be wet in there, then it cause a lot of disease to get on there, so you need to make sure you got that in there.

- So we can see from what you're telling us, drainage is important.

- Drainage is important for your lawn, and that's why I need to know that drainage is very important in that know and have that good soil 'cause when you get that compact soil, it not gonna drain well, so that's why you need to aerate the soil.

You need to aerate it, and when you aerate the soil, you need to aerate that soil when that grass is begin to grow.

If it's the warm-season grass, it will begin to grow probably sometime in May and everything just depends, and your cool-season grass begin to grow in September, sometime like that depending on where you're located.

- All right, so those are common diseases of the warm-season grasses.

- Common disease of the warm-season grasses that we have in there.

Now Dr. Cooper, I get some in my yard, too.

[laughing] I get 'em on my grass, too.

They get 'em on there.

They will get on there and everything, but I try to have that healthy turf though and try in doing that.

- All right, well we appreciate that information much from our lawn guy.

[Booker laughing] Thank you much.

We appreciate that.

[upbeat country music] - It's been really dry for a couple of weeks now, and your grass be getting to look like this here now, it's time to start giving that grass some water, and you don't want it to go in a dormancy looking like this here.

Your Bermuda grass need about an inch of water a week, and you wanna give it all at one time.

If it start running off again, you need to stop for a while and let it soak in, then start back, but make sure you wanna get that water down to the root system, now.

Do not shallow-water your lawn grass.

If you do, you're gonna still have more problems, but when you start seeing like this here, it's time to water that lawn grass and get that water down to the root system any way you do that.

And the best time to do that is early in the morning time.

You'll get more water down to the root system.

[upbeat country music] - We're gonna learn how to divide hostas.

Ms. Cheryl's gonna show us all about it, so where do you wanna start?

- Well, I brought a couple of hostas this morning, and I wanted to say, first of all, you don't necessarily have to divide your hostas.

- Okay, you don't have to.

- But if they are too big in your garden and you wanna spread them around your yard, by all means you can divide them, and now is a good time to do that because it's fall now.

The air is cooler at the night.

It's not so hot in the daytime.

Your garden should be workable, your garden beds if you're in your flower beds, or I grow many of my hostas in pots because I have a vole problem and also tree roots.

So before you begin dividing your hostas, I please urge everyone to look at your hostas.

You do not wanna divide a hosta that has a disease.

You do not wanna divide a hosta that has nematodes   which is a little   microscopic worm   that crawls up   the leaf blade,   and you can see it   in the leaf blade.

It would be in   the blade itself,   and it would be like   a little brown strip,   and if you have nematodes,   they are definitely   evident now in the garden.

You may not see them in the spring, but you will see them now.

Do not divide a hosta that has nematodes.

They're spread by water droplets, and I don't want them.

Also, if you have a hosta that may have Hosta virus X which is you can see that by- These hostas do not have any diseases.

If this hosta had Hosta virus X,   you would see bleeding in   the veins of the hosta.

It looks like if you had   watercolors and you dropped it   on a napkin, it would   sorta like bleed out,   or the leaf itself   might be puckered   or disshapen in   some way, misshapen, and you do not wanna divide a hosta that has Hosta virus X.

Both those diseases are being studied by the American Hosta Society.

They are sponsoring studies to eliminate those diseases or at least find out more about them.

- Okay, good deal.

- So, if you have a hosta in a pot, and I brought mine.

This little hosta right here, it was in a pot.

It is got a lot of roots, it's very root-bound.

The hostas do like to be root-bound, but I am ready to divide this one.

Before I came, I took it out of the pot.

I washed it off really well so you could see the roots.

- Looks good, fibrous.

- Yes they do.

They're nice roots.

I also dipped it in a little bit of- In my water I soaked it.

Water, water, water before you divide.

I soaked it in some water that had just a little bit of bleach in it, like one part bleach, nine parts water in case there were any bacteria or anything.

It doesn't hurt the hosta, and it helps in- - I thought I smelled bleach.

- That's right, I soaked 'em both.

Now, lots of roots.

Before I put it in a pot, I want to kinda spread my roots out, and I watered it well.

Like I said, water, water, water.

Hostas love water, but they don't wanna be root- I mean, too much water.

You have to have a good porous soil.

So for this hosta, it's kinda hard to see, but we're gonna just divide it.

I'm just gonna cut it right here- - So you can just dive in and just be violent.

- I'm just dividing it.

I'm just gonna dive right in, You don't wanna divide a hosta too much because if you've heard of peep, creep, leap.

So if you have a big, beautiful hosta at home in your garden bed, and it is gorgeous and big, and you decide that you wanna divide it, it may or may not get that big and beautiful again, but if you wanna move it around your garden, that's all right.

Take a couple of years to come to maturity again.

So now, if I had more water, I would have divided this up, but what I wanna do is I have a good, loose soil here.

Since I'm putting them in pots, I took a potting soil mix, okay, and I also add to it.

I add soil conditioner and I also add- You can buy a soil that's for trees and shrubs.

It has a lot of bark in it.

I want a good, porous soil.

That's what I'm trying to do.

I want good drainage, good drainage.

- And usually, that's like pine bark.

- Yeah, that's what it looks like is in it.

- That's what it is.

So let me just put some soil in here real quick.

All right, now, that's enough to start, and we do not wanna bury 'em too deep.

- Okay, not too deep.

- If you're in your garden in your flower bed, make your hole wider than deep.

They wanna be at the same level, and the soil needs to be workable, but you don't wanna bury it deep.

You make a little, either in the pot or in the ground, make a little cone shape.

If you have problems with voles, which some people do, you can, if you like, take some pea gravel or crushed rock and put it around your cone right here in the garden bed.

Then you take your hosta here in the- I don't need it here in the pot.

We're gonna spread our roots out just a little bit.

- Okay, pull 'em apart - Right, mm hmm.

Maybe I have a little too much dirt, but that's all right.

This is just demonstration.

Put it right in here, kinda spread 'em out.

Set 'em up on this little cone, spread the roots out.

Spread 'em down, and- - Just fill.

- And just fill it up.

- You might've done this a time or two, huh?

- Oh, yeah, I would say it done this a few times.

I need to go down here where it won't spread and get all over your table.

- Aw, that's all right.

- You just can't do this without making a mess.

- Nope, it's gonna be messy.

Okay, now it's a good, porous soil.

It has a lot of pine bark, mulch, pine bark in it and mulch, so it's good and porous, and if we were outside, I would water this well.

You don't need to fertilize now, but I'm dividing my hostas now so that they have time to settle in the ground and kind of get acclimated to their new location before it frosts.

- Good deal.

Now, while we have some time left, do you wanna try?

- This hosta is a Hosta 'Guacamole'.

- 'Guacamole'!

- Hosta 'Guacamole', one of my favorites.

This is an easy hosta to grow here in the Mid-South.

I also took this one out of a pot.

It was pretty root-bound, and I've already washed it, and I soaked it in a little bit of bleach water, and I was gonna divide it and pull off all this funk.

If your hostas are starting to go down like this, if you wanted to cut 'em off, now you can do that, but you don't have to do that.

This one, when it was in a pot, it's still beautiful.

I'm not ready to cut this off.

I'm still ready to let it show off in my garden 'cause it is beautiful, but as I washed this hosta, it just sorta fell apart.

- Again, nice fibrous roots.

- Yes, very good roots.

and try not to cut 'em if you can help it, but if you can just pull them apart.

- Like a bad hair day, right?

[laughing] - This one didn't really need to be cut, but it just came apart so well.

And then, since this is a nice, big piece, I don't wanna divide it too much.

I want it to be able to come back and be beautiful again next year and the year after that and the year after that.

So I'm gonna leave this big one just the way it is, then we'll take out some of this yellow that I don't need.

And I have a big, heavy pot, and these are perfect pots for staying out in the yard.

No problem at all.

- Let me get this up for you.

- So the freeze won't hurt them like some ceramic pots.

- Not at all.

And by the way, when I get down or when I go home, I will put some pine bark mulch around this, some soil conditioner, and you should do that in the garden bed as well because you don't- - Want me to dump it in there for you?

- That'd be great.

You don't want to have 'em heave out in the winter time.

- Let me know when, now.

- Okay, whoa right there.

- Okay, whoa she says, okay.

- Now, I know it doesn't look pretty now, but that doesn't matter.

We're worried about springtime.

I'm gonna spread my roots out.

- Looks pretty good to me.

- Spread my roots out.

Now, you wanna pour some more dirt in here for me?

And I was speaking of heaving out of the ground.

You know what that means.

The way the winters are, it can be warm then cold and warm then cold, and that can make the hosta heave out of the ground, and we do not want that to happen 'cause once they come out-- - Make sure it comes out.

- Here, let's set it down.

I'll just pick it up.

You want it to stay in the ground 'cause if they come out and you're not out there in the winter time when you go back and you have a hosta that is just sitting on top of the ground, it is frozen and it will just die.

- All right, Ms. Cheryl, we appreciate the demonstration that you've done for us today.

Thanks much.

- You're welcome.

[gentle country music] - Deep watering's really important with vegetable plants, but a lot of times, the surface of the soil will get a crust on it that won't let you get the water through.

It'll just wanna run off.

So, here's a way that I use to try and deep-water my vegetable plants.

I take a milk carton that's empty that I've rinsed out, and I put a little hole here in the bottom.

It doesn't have to be very big.

Maybe eighth of an inch in diameter like that.

Now, what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna take that milk carton and put it here next to the plant I wanna water, and then just go ahead and fill it up.

I will fill this with a gallon of water, and it'll take it 5 or 10 minutes to empty out, and that then lets the water soak in instead of running off.

Every day, you can go out and just fill up all your milk cartons if you have one next to each plant that you wanna water, and you get deep watering of that plant every day.

[gentle country music] - All right, here's our Q&A segment.

You ready?

- I'm ready.

- We got some great questions here.

- Okay then, set 'em out there.

Let's get 'em and see if we can answer the questions there.

- Well, let's get to it.

Here's our first viewer email.

"How do I get rid of   algae in my lawn?"

How about that one?

So, can you help   us out with that?

- Well, one thing about algae in your lawn, you could of have a couple of things going on.

You could have shade problem.

She had compact soil problem,   and she could have   the soil pH problem,   and that poor drainage,   that'll cause the algae   to grow on there.

If you're trying to get the grass and everything and grow there, then you gotta treat it.

You might wanna limb the tree up some for more sunlight can get down into there and hit that in there and try to keep the soil kinda dry there, and also, you might wanna aerate and kinda loosen that soil up some for the water can drain in there.

But that algae gonna grow in there especially when you got a compact soil and putting soil pH is off, and you'll see it in there.

And then check the soil pH and maybe add lime to it or whatever you need to add to it to get it right in there.

You trying to get out of there, you limb the tree up some and try to get some more sunlight in there.

- Yeah, so all of these things you're talking about are cultural practices.

- Cultural practices, yeah.

- Cultural practices are so important.

- So important in your landscape, yeah.

Like I said, you need to check on those things all the time.

Do soil tests and water in there.

And we don't wanna overwater our plant.

You know, we get a lot from rain water, but you don't wanna overwater it yourself.

See, most plants will do well pretty good in about an inch of water a week.

- Okay, inch of water a week.

Yeah, because algae, anytime I hear algae or see it, you see it in areas where the drainage is poor.

- Poor drainage, right.

- All right, so do those cultural practices, and you'll be just fine.

- Yep.

[laughs] - All right, here's our next viewer email.

This one is interesting.

"I have been battling ground ivy for over a decade.

"It comes in from my neighbor's yard "and it makes its way across mine.

"I recently had an area of the yard cleared of trash trees, "and the ground was left in a very rough state "which has only made it easier for the ground ivy to spread.

"I would prefer a solution that is non-chemical.

"Also, the area is rather large, "so it must be something that can be applied "from a handheld sprayer.

"How do I get rid of a   large area of ground ivy?

"Any ideas would be   greatly appreciated.

Thank you," Patricia.

So she's having a   problem with ground ivy.

Creeping Charlie is another name for ground ivy,   so a couple of things here   before you jump in, right?

Ground ivy is in   the mint family,   loves to grow in shady areas   and areas that are   poorly drained.

- Okay, then.

- Right,   So we need to introduce   some sunlight to the area   and improve the drainage,   right?

- Improve the drainage.

- But the question is   how do I get rid of a large area of ground ivy?

- And she don't wanna use no chemicals.

- And she don't wanna use any chemicals.

All right, it's gonna be tough, now.

- It'll be tough to get rid of 'em.

The best thing that you try and catch and pull it out of there if you can do that.

- 'Cause it goes by stolens.

- By stolens, yeah, but you need to try to get all the root system that way.

You don't leave some in there, and also have a real problem that when we have some hot days, she might wanna cover it with some plastic and try to smother it out.

- I would smother it out with some plastic.

- Put plastic on there and try to get it real hot, and then let it die and stuff in there.

That about the only way she can get rid of it if she don't wanna use no chemicals on there.

- So Ms. Patricia- - It's gonna take some time.

- It's gonna take some time, hand-pulling.

Now, you can mow   it 'cause we know   you mow your yard twice   a week, so you can mow it   and try to exhaust the root   system of carbohydrates.

That's gonna take   a little while,   and then the third option of   course would be solarization.

So I would cover   it with a plastic,   especially during   the summer months.

Let it heat up, let it kill those stolens and the root system and see if you can do it that way.

- And do like that way.

That'd be the best way to do that, yeah.

- And then get you a good grass in there.

- Put the grass in there, yeah.

Get new grass growing in there.

Ground ivy be hard to get rid of it.

- It's gonna be hard.

- It's gonna be hard.

- It's gonna be hard.

- Especially when you pull it outta there.

[laughs] - It's gonna be tough, so thank you Ms. Patricia.

Got a lot of work ahead of you.

- Got a lot of work ahead of you, yeah.

- Here's our next viewer email.

"What type of weed is this?

It closes at dusk and   opens up in the morning."

This is Margie from   Memphis, Tennessee.

Beautiful wildflower,   don't you think?

- Look good don't it, yeah.

- That's the Carolina   False Dandelion.

- Okay, okay.

- The Carolina False Dandelion.

You see it in fields, pastures, and I have seen them in some landscape situations as well.

So here's the thing.

It's a winter annual or biennial.

- Okay, then.

- You have a basal   rosette of leaves.

The leaves are hairy,   they're deeply lobed,   and it has a tap root system.

So that plant will then   give rise to a flower stalk.

Flower stalks will have   a lot of branches on 'em,   or it can have a lot   of branches on 'em,   and at the end of   those branches will be,   guess what, the flower,   and as you can see,   it's a yellow   flower and it blooms   in the spring   and in the summer.

Beautiful bloom, right?

- Yeah.

- So Carolina False   Dandelion, wildflower.

- Wildflower, okay then.

It was a wildflower.

That's good then.

- So that's what that is.

Ms. Margie, and we thank you for that question.

- Good question there then.

- So thank you much.

Here's our next viewer email.

"When is a good time to seed   bare areas in my fescue lawn?"

And this is from Bob.

So, we're talking about   bare areas in fescue which is a?

- Cool-season grass.

And normally, cool-season grass start growing in the fall of the year, and if you try to do any seeding, you need to do it in the fall the year when the grass begin to actually grow, and that's in the fall of the year when it be doing that.

If you're gonna seed, if it is a small area, you might get him a little garden rake or something and rake that area up real good and loosen that soil up some, then come in there, sow your seed in there, and you try to keep those seeds moist in there.

You might wanna cover it with some hay or straw or something in there.

You wanna cover those seed up there, and keep 'em moist, and if you got a large area in the yard there, you might wanna get you a little small tiller and till it up a little bit and loosen that soil up a little bit, then sow your seeds in there.

Those seeds gotta come in contact with some good soil, and it would be a good time while he's doing that to check that soil pH in there while he's doing that in that area.

Now fescue, you might have to do that more than one time to overseed it to get it kinda thick like you wanna get it.

- And we're talking about fescue here in the South.

So it does grow here, but.

- Yeah, it do grow here, but here in the South, it normally start growing probably in September sometime when the cool grass begin to grow.

So he wanna do his seed then in there so it can really catch on.

Then, he might wanna come back in again sometime like in March and overseed it again to get that area really in there for that fescue, but that's the best time to do that to seed that in there.

He can get it to going back again.

[laughs] - Get it going again, and fescue does need a lot of water in the climate in the South.

- 'Cause a lot of times, it be under trees, and they need more water.

- Okay, so it need a little bit more water.

- Definitely need that water in there.

- All right, so thank you, Mr. Bob.

We appreciate that.

That's fun.

- That was fun.

I enjoyed that.

Some good questions like you said.

- Great questions.

- Great questions, yeah.

- So yeah, appreciate you being here again.

- Thanks, appreciate it.

Enjoyed it.

- 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 Farms Road   Cordova, Tennessee 38016.

Or you can go online   to familyplotgarden.com.

That's all we have time for today.

Thanks for joining us.

If you want to learn more about what we talked about today, head on over to familyplotgarden.com.

We have more videos on lawns, hostas, and hundreds of other gardening topics.

Be sure to join us next week for The Family Plot: Gardening in the Mid-South.

Be safe.

[upbeat country music] [acoustic guitar chords]