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

I'm your host Tinisha Spain.

And joining me on the show today as a panelist, you will definitely recognize she's a regular here.

Jen Nelson is joining us today and Jen.

Before you get into your show Intel's introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about where we can find you in the garden.

Sure, I'm Jen Nelson.

I'm a horticulturalist.

You can find me online at grounded and growing calm.

And you can also find me on the UI campus these days I've been teaching or 105 vegetable gardening.

So that's where I am right now, you know, complete with retro chalkboards and everything.

Love the retro chalkboard, you don't see those a whole lot anymore.

So I was definitely excited the first time we visited your classroom.

So all right, so you've got some show and tells today which one do you want to do first, it's up, it's up to you.

Well, I will show the cute little houseplant that I couldn't resist.

We all love when Jan goes plant shopping.

Yeah, well, accidentally plant shopping, sky fell on my cart.

I know this will probably air after Valentine's Day.

But nonetheless, even if it wasn't Valentine's Day, I would still buy this little guy.

This is called a sweetheart Hoya Hoya Karioi.

And it's apparently how I don't know very much about this.

This is just totally the the cuteness sucked me right in.

So I have learned how to grow this plant.

Apparently you just root though individual leaves.

And the pictures I've seen online with it actually growing.

There's a some stem section and then the leaves just look like hearts.

And so there's there's where the name comes from.

It should flower at some point, as most boys do.

They're also called wax plants.

So the flowers look like they're carved out of wax.

They're really beautiful.

And they last a fair amount of time.

So this guy, you said he'll the leaves will kind of grow off of one or like piggybacking and make an arch is that what I'm kind of visualizing?

That's what I've that's what I've seen there might be like a small amount of stem and then the leaves kind of come off like the point of the heart coming off of the stem.

Yeah, this will be we might have to do an update on this guy.

See what.

So like I said, we all love when when Jen goes out plant shopping, because at least one thing is going to jump in the cart.

At least one always does.

It always does.

Like I had no intention of buying this guy on the Saturday morning that I found him.

You know, I we are here we are.

So the second update you've got for us today.

If you remember a couple of weeks ago, we visited in the classroom and they are its oyster mushrooms.

Correct.

Your class is doing oyster mushrooms.

So just walk us through again, the process for folks who maybe didn't see that show.

And and before we get into the update.

So we're doing we're growing oyster mushrooms, we're using a kit that I purchased from a company in Wisconsin, and a lot of times those kits come already.

You might have to add the spawn as they call it to a log or some sort of wood product maybe sawdust like sometimes they do like a bag of sawdust or straw, some sort of a plant, Woody sort of product and straw is not necessarily Woody, but it's cellulose like wood would be.

And so one of the kits use toilet paper, which sounds so disgusting until you think about the fact that toilet paper is just wood in a different form.

So what we did was this, the spawn comes seated on wheat.

And so it came in like a big brick.

And we had to put boiling water on rolls of toilet paper.

And then we put the grain that was seated with the mushroom mycelia in the center, like in the whole of the like the cardboard tube.

Yeah, we removed the cardboard tube that we were trying to like optimize it for the students because the students are going to actually do this next week.

But this is kind of our example one.

And it's it's working.

It's looks really hideous.

Before they open the bag, it was like very steamy in there.

And so we've had it in a room where we set the thermostat to 72.

And so they're just kind of hanging out.

We tested whether they liked the light or the dark better.

It seems like having them in the dark promotes the growth a little bit better.

You were asking if this smells bad, and it just smells like like mushrooms.

It smells like if you opened up fresh mushrooms from the grocery store.

That's, I mean, it's not a bad smell at all.

This doesn't look like anything you would eat of course right now, because we have to go through a process of probably later this week.

Moving our samples into the cold room and we have a walk in cooler, they need to be in there for a couple of days according to the instructions, and then you take it out and you kind of open the bag like I did today.

And that cold in combination with the fresh air will trigger the fungus to start forming the fruiting bodies, which is the stuff we eat the that will look like the oyster mushroom coming out, they kind of grow flat, they'll look like oyster shells.

So remind me again, from start to finish, when will the students be able to harvest and enjoy?

It ends up being between four and six weeks, depending how long you keep it in this stage that we have it now we're probably keep it in this stage about three weeks.

So we'll probably be seeing harvestable mushrooms between four and five weeks after we start.

Wow.

Okay, we'll have to check in with you again to see how things are going in a couple of weeks.

I just find that so fascinating.

Is that I'm go ahead.

Yeah, I'm just excited as I've not done this on this kind of scale before.

And I'm glad the students are really excited about it too.

And you get to be excited to lifelong learner.

That's right.

So we also posted on Facebook, for some of our viewers there to ask or answer questions ask questions, you answer the questions.

Someone's wanting to know how you can or if you can divide an established lavender plant.

Is that possible?

I know lavender is so fickle, at least for me anyway.

So is it possible to divide it?

And if so how do you go about it, it's possible to divide it you would have to look and see if you have a central stem coming out of the ground or more than one.

But before I would attempt to divide it because like you said it can be really finicky, I would be more apt to do a cutting and so in the spring once it starts growing again, you can take a cutting from some of the new growth and you would just let it grow for it to about oh four or five inches or so.

And then make a cutting, cut it off and you can get rooting hormone.

At most garden centers you can do it without but it will work better with rooting hormone, it's a white powder that has the correct plant hormones to induce the cutting to actually form its own roots, you would need to strip off the the leaves on maybe the bottom couple of inches and put it in a pot of moist potting media and I would put it in a Ziploc baggie and put it not in direct sun but like a nice a well lit area.

And I wouldn't do just one I would do a bunch of them because cuttings don't always work on the first try, especially if you're new at it.

Okay, now would that be the same if it was an outdoor or indoor?

would the process be the same for outdoor lavenders?

Yeah, the process would be the same for outdoor but the thing with outdoor I would wait until things start to grow this spring.

This would not be taking a dormant stem from outside right now and trying to route it's not going to work very well.

But definitely wait into the spring months once it gets growing some excellent.

Okay, Jen, always a pleasure hanging out.

Thank you so much.

And now we've got two things to check back in with you on the Hoya and the mushroom saga.

So thanks again.

And we'll see you soon.

Thanks.

If you've got garden questions, we've got garden answers, send your questions.

And don't forget a photo to your garden acting or calm.

Or you can look for us on Facebook, just search MidAmerican gardener and you might see your question on an upcoming show.

Thanks so much, Jen.

And now we're going to go to another one of our panelists who is joining us via Skype, John Bodensteiner is going to talk to us more about well, you're just going to get us all excited for spring basically as the gist of this segment.

So first, introduce yourself, John and tell us a little bit about where we can find you.

Okay, I'm John Bodensteiner.

I'm a romaine County Master Gardener.

And I I volunteer at Florida High School.

In fact, I talked about this very thing I had the kids today pick out a couple of packets of seeds that they each want.

So we're getting ready to start starting March one and some of the longer germinating seeds to get to get going.

So I I garden up in near Bismarck.

So joy, enjoy gardening of all types.

All right.

And so like I kind of alluded to, we're going to continue to talk about spring and getting things ready.

So last time we had you on we talked about ordering seeds and sort of planning where they were going to go.

And we're just going to continue that conversation and talk a little bit more about containers and seed packets.

So so get us ready for planting John.

Yeah, hopefully everybody has their seats that they ordered from the catalog.

I know I've got mine.

And I heard from a couple of people that ordered after they heard me say that and they were out Have a lot of seats.

So it's one of those things that you you know, the local stores have lots of seeds yet.

So if you haven't got your seat deck get out there a lot more people are gardening.

And, you know, we were talking about saving seeds Who am I do have some seats saved from from other years, I have my, my little seed saving kit here.

I can show it without it all over.

But I take that out, and I process the seeds.

The main thing is to have a good container that dark, you know that you can close that.

And I've got a couple of silicone type dehydrators, enter to keep them dry.

And, and then in a cool dark place.

So we did have a question, John, while you're talking about the seeds, Terry hosted or Houston wrote in an email, and said, I really enjoyed the show with a gentleman from vermillion county who discussed ordering seeds.

I was wondering if he saves heirloom seeds.

And if so any hints to avoid cross pollination.

He talked about having an unplanned crossing have a black zucchini and a yellow squash, which turned out great, but wasn't the end goal.

So do you save heirlooms?

And how do you keep them from cross pollinating?

Most year heirlooms are self pollinating, they are not going to cross a lot.

There is some some that do.

But most of them don't, if you are wanting a certain variety not to cross pollinate a ball, you need at least I'd say 20 feet to 25 feet between the two varieties.

And you want them in an area where you know you're going to have some bees and things like that, that are going to cross pollinate, build the farther apart that you can have them, you may want to have one in the front yard, one in the backyard, you know, while you're you're doing that, you're still going to have some cross pollination.

But that year that you're going to be getting the fruit, you're going to get that that fruit that year, the following year is when you may run into a little bit of a problem.

If they have been cross pollinated, I know that we are having Bees Bees will go up to a mile and a half as far as pollinating.

So unless you have an air a way of and you can do this as as soon as you see your male flowers and your female flowers, or if they're a complete flower, you can take a paintbrush and just paint those and pollinate them, and then cover them with a like a plastic bag for just just until the flower folds off and then then they won't be pollinated and then your you've got your true seeds.

And it's a lot of work sometimes, unless you've got a very large yard, you're probably going to not be able to do that.

So it's a lot of work.

So getting back to planning is everything.

You don't want to be buying seeds that you're not going to use.

And the container that that's one of the things you're going to plant your seeds in is very important.

You want to make sure that they are clean, sterilized to the point of I've got a 55 gallon drum at greenhouse and at home that I keep a 10% Clorox solution right when I'm about plant my seed, and I dip every container in that just for, you know, just a few seconds is all it takes.

And just make sure that they're sterilized, you don't want to have a disease, these that that is that you're reusing them.

Now if you've bought new you don't have to do that.

And containers are fairly expensive.

So I like to reuse mine so I do I do sterilize them, make sure making sure that there's not going to be a disease in error or an egg or an insect or something like that.

So getting back to the types of things there's all kinds, I have this little one that I use for for showing a great tool.

This is just a icebreaking bucket and there's 21 and then you fill these with oil and put them in here.

And and make sure the main thing and I I was going to do this last last time we talked labeling is so important because if you put this has about 12 different tubes in it.

If you put to make different tomatoes in each tube, if you haven't labeled those as you plant them you are never going to pay never you are not going to be able to tell which tomato is which until you actually see the fruits.

So labeling is so so important.

John, I love that you're using things that are just around the house.

I I always appreciated that about gardeners, we're very resourceful people, milk jugs and buckets and none of that stuff goes in the trash.

We, I finished a milk jug today I'm doing some winter sewing.

And that is where you take seeds that are fairly Hardy.

You don't want to take tomato or pepper.

But what you do is I've got, I've got some things already planted in my milk jugs, just outside of the greenhouse, what you do is you plant them in good, punch some holes in it, fill it with about halfway with soil, take the lid off, and then plant your seeds cover him the way the seed packets, say, and then put them outside, you take the take the milk jug together, and they will sprout when appropriate.

So there it is, if you go online, there's all kinds of information on they call it winter sewing.

This is another one, these are kind of nice.

And these are like paper that they're they're recycled paper.

And these you don't have to take the plan out, you can just as you're planning to transplant your seedlings into these.

And once you're ready to put them in the garden, all you have to do is tear them apart.

Mm hmm.

And I really liked those those come in handy John, for people who are a little heavy handed little rough.

Myself, if I'm transplanting lettuces, or spinach or things that are pretty delicate, I love those because I it takes the damage out of it for me and worrying about the roots.

But one thing with these, if you use these make sure that this top layer here is underground.

Otherwise, the air going by this is going to wick all the moisture away from the soil.

And you're going to end up with a very dry, dry plant.

So until the room can get through this.

So make sure that if you use these recycled pot, the paper pots or even those that is completely underground, good advice good enough, you can you can individually plant seeds, or you can like I think kids at school today I gave them containers like this, I'm recycling again, these are fruit, little fruit to green.

So probably section there you go of Belem with US soil.

And student is going to get one of those and you put a whole packet.

And it's very important that when you use that, that use seed starting mix, don't go out, buy potting soil, don't buy don't go up to your garden and get that you're gonna end up with diseases.

And, and and the one of the biggest one with garden soil that you get off is a fungus that that will actually cause damping off.

So and you want to have make sure that if you do use these things, is low things.

You put holes in the bottom so that they have good rain.

And John, I wanted to ask you about the seed starting mix.

When you're using that.

Do you do you wet yours first?

What is your process because a lot of people have talked about how it'll swell especially if it's got that core in it.

So talk a little bit about that.

Yeah, I always pretty moist in mind, I can't administer and moisten it I prepared about a week before and I keep it in an airtight container so that it doesn't evaporate it is if it dries out completely it is hydrophobic.

If you water, all the water is just going to run off.

And a lot of times if you have a sprinkler or something, you're going to wash the top layer of of soil off are seed starting mix and probably most of the seeds so it's very important that you pre moistened and then what I like to do is just take a spray bottle after I plant the seeds and that's another thing they have found that vermiculite actually works better than using a once you've got your seeds planted to cover them with just vermiculite just, you know a quarter inch or or whatever it says a Nathan it tends to keep the disease especially the the fungus that causes damping off, at a minimum, don't use a little bit and use this for the main part for the plants to grow in.

And then for Mikayla is another stereotype.

Keep starting compounds and I've used that and I haven't had any damping off for years.

So I usually use the seat starting compound premoistened it doesn't you don't want you want it just to be damp.

You don't want it you know, dripping wet.

Yeah, no, it's If it's dripping, you've got to wet.

And then and then pack it, you know, put it in your thing so that there's no air pockets, you know, tap it a couple of times, and you're going to, it's going to be good.

And, and then you're going to want to also want to get those seeds planted and everything.

Like I say, you can plant them a whole packet in a plant like this.

And if you use the seed starting, you're going to be able to dislodge those roots out of that without damaging, or you can take a little bit more time and put them in these little individual pots.

Or even better.

I got these big praise.

Oh, and that is that.

So watering.

This is a heating pad.

Oh, very nice.

John, St. John is our gadget guy.

Anytime we want to see garden products or garden tools at work John's the guy to go to because he's got everything.

You can see this has got a heating pad, and it's going to take and heat it, plug it in.

And it's going to heat this also at 70 degrees.

And if it starts so much better, when you have them at 70 degrees, then you would put these trays, these trays in your in your tray here and then cover it with this clear, thanks.

You're almost creating like a, a terrarium.

Personal greenhouse for your for your starts mold until they germinate.

You as soon as they germinate.

You don't want the plants to touch this, because they can that that can cause some disease also, so but those are our you know, you don't need many, because you can put, you could put a couple 1000 plants in one tray, if you if you've concentrated enough, so.

So John, we've got about two minutes left, I wanted to ask you the importance of reading the seed packet, you know, we don't have a lot of time, but people people often overlooked that.

So in a minute or so, talk a little bit about that the C packet or have I've all kinds of information on here.

And depending on the company, you're going to have some that have the it highlighted.

They're going to talk about things like the type of plant is an annual, the planting depth is extremely important.

And germination time, you know, you may think, Oh, they're not coming up with it.

You only waited a weekend if you're looking at and read the packet.

It says germination rate 14 days, you shouldn't have anything up probably 14 days.

So another thing is the height.

Am I am I planning something that I'm wanting or in the front and is too tall may as well not plan because I'm not going to use it as a direct sun does it for me full sun or parts read this stuff they have they put this on here so that you have success with your seats so that you come back and buy their seat pack again next year.

Older seat just because you have older seats, doesn't mean that there's there is an online as seed longevity chart.

And you know, like tomato seeds are good for up to seven to 10 years.

I've got some from 2011 that I'm still using, wow.

10 years, and I'm still getting a fairly decent germination rate on nose not 100% by any means.

But okay, so Well, we were we're gonna have to check back in with you, John, once we start starting our seeds because we're coming up on that time.

So we'll join will join back in with you once you get things planted and see how things are going.

Thank you so much for coming on the show.

It's always informative when you stop by appreciate it.

And thank you so much for watching.

We've had a great show.

We've learned a lot today.

And we will see you next time.

But don't forget, if you would like to drop us a line you can send an email to your garden@gmail.com or you can look us up on Facebook.

Just search for Mid-AMerican Gardener, I'm Tinisha Spain and we'll see you next time.