Music.

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

I'm your host, Tinisha Spain, and joining me in the studio today is our good friend and long time panelist, Kay Carnes.

So before we jump into her show and tells and what we're going to talk about, let's have you introduce yourself and tell the folks a little bit about you.

Okay, my name's cake horns, and I'm a master gardener, like a Champaign County Master Gardener, and I do herbs and vegetables and concepts.

And all kinds of things.

All right, so you brought some some catalogs and some seats to talk about.

So let's get into seed savers, because I know this is something that's close to your heart.

Yes, it is.

Tell us a little about these catalogs.

Well, this, these catalogs are from seed savers, which is organization that promotes open pollinated seed, seed that isn't and they have, what they do is they have A book where people gardeners from all over the world can advertise, not advertise their seeds, but seeds are listed in this catalog, and then people can order them from Chuck does this as well.

I know he's talked about his broom corn.

And so you submit, you have submitted seeds to them before I have, as a matter of fact, this is their yearbook, and that's a list of all the people that donate, or will you can buy seeds from interesting now this is just, is the spirit of this to keep these not rare plants, but just keep more of these plants.

Of these plants in circulation, and make sure folks have access.

Yes, yes, very nice.

And some of them are really interesting.

They're, you know, I was looking at some of them that I'd never seen before.

Yeah.

This happens to be a bean, and this actually is from seed savers.

This is a bean, whole bean, and I like it because it's green and dark maroon, and it's a really good, tasty bean.

So you're not going to find this on the burpee rack at the hardware store, and it's called Auntie Wilder, and Auntie Wilder was one of the family members of a couple that's originally stories, very nice.

And then I think it's really cool that these these, especially with the yearbook, how you can save these specific varieties, and other folks can come and get them and enjoy them.

Like you said, you won't be able to find those beans on a shelf somewhere, so it's really neat that you can have somewhere to go to find them.

So they put this year book out every year.

Now this is, this is a good size, and this is open to anyone that wants to share.

And you don't have to just live in Illinois.

These are all from all around the world.

It's really interesting to go through it.

And what's the neatest thing that you've ordered from here?

Oh, gosh, I put you on the spot.

You did, because I bought some other beans.

What's so fun about the beans is they're all the seeds all different.

So this is called Azeri local, Azeri local, and it's a pole, and the seed is this kind of dark brown in the tan looks kind of stripey, very nice.

And then this is called bar lotto, and this is a bush bean.

And so you can see how different that's got there.

Now, when you save beans from one season to the next, do they need any type of cold treatment?

Do you have to do anything to them?

Or can they go directly from storage to can you plant?

They go directly from storage to the ground?

Hey, low maintenance.

We like that.

They are and that's one thing about seeds that aren't they're not real difficult to grow.

They're very easy to grow.

And they'll stay, you know, like generations.

So I'll plant these, and then I'll get more seed, and they'll be just like the one.

I planted so they don't change.

They stay true.

You know, very nice, very nice.

We have a couple of questions that folks sent in.

We'll have you answer those.

Have you started any seeds yet?

No, not yet, but I am chomping at the bit.

Yes, it's been too cold.

It has been, it hasn't really felt like, well, it's only February, that's true, but man, oh man, you know, it just once you get the itch, it's time.

Okay.

So we have a question from Paula Corrigan Pantone.

She has a well established hosta bed in her yard, and she wants to move it.

That area is getting a lot more sun than what it used to and the hosta are not doing well right there.

So she doesn't want to go in and dig them out, because there are gas lines and things underneath there.

And she asked if there was a way to sort of snuff out the hosta bed.

And you and I were talking a little bit before the show.

What would you recommend to someone who wanted to you know it's early, it's February, so she's got plenty of time.

But how would you sort of choke that area out?

Well, I would cut everything down to ground level, all the foliage, and make sure that's all taken care of.

And then, you know, maybe take something heavy, like a cardboard, a heavy cardboard, and just set it over the area and put some bricks on it.

And that should, pretty much, okay, well and honest, like you said, with the weight of the bricks and the heavy cardboard, you really, especially if it's an established hosta bed, because, you know, once those start, those crowns start coming up, it'll push so, yeah, getting the weight on there, I think, is key to to making that switch.

So good luck.

Lots of cardboard and bricks and see if that'll work for you.

Let's see.

We have another question.

This is from Kathy feister.

It's about a maple tree.

The house we moved into has a small Japanese maple.

All the branches grow downward with space underneath like an umbrella.

And then she says, Now, recently, they've got branches growing from the trunk upward, and she wants to know what to what to how to take care of that, or what what we're thinking.

So you and I were talking, maybe those are suckers?

Yes, yeah.

So I would cut them off.

Cut them off as close to the trunk as you can get.

All the ones that are growing upwards, she's going to want to take take those out.

Get rid of those.

Okay, all right.

Great advice.

And then we have another question from Carolyn, Bruce, this is the tough one.

She wants to know how to eradicate Bishop weed and thistle.

And she said she continuously pulls this every year without success.

And so wants to know if we've got any tips.

The only thing I can think of is get that spade out and really dig deep and dig the roots out, and you might have to go down quite a ways to get them.

I would think that would be the only thing that could really take care of if you don't want to use chemicals, yeah, if you don't want to use chemicals.

So that's a hard one.

Those two are hard ones to get rid of.

I take it.

Oh, man, I could tell by your face when I said it, you were like, yikes.

There really isn't a good one.

But get that spade out.

And I don't know, once, once you got them dug out.

Again, if you layer something heavy over it, if it would prevent, you know, because the young ones coming up would be more tender, and that might help kill them off.

Okay, well, it's worth a shot.

Yeah, you know, she said she's pulling and digging every year, so maybe, maybe trying to dig them out, and then also trying to choke them out and dig really you're going to have to dig really deep.

Dig really deep.

Okay, let's see what else.

I don't see any other questions on here, but I wanted to talk to you a little bit about kind of getting ready for starting seeds and getting ready for the growing season.

What tips do you have for folks who are going to be starting their seeds inside any best practices?

Well, one of the things most common people do is over water when they've got them inside.

Now, you don't want them let them die off, but there's kind of a fine line before too much water and not enough, and you might soak your seeds before you plant them.

That kind of gives them a head start.

Interesting.

How long would you soak them?

Like the night?

Well, you can see, like if you're allowed a bean or something, if you soak them long enough so you can see that little, that little opening up, that little, tiny sprout.

And that's a really good time.

Plant, okay, noted and sprout side up, I'm assuming, Oh, yeah.

You want that.

They want them going up through, you know, only put them in dirt about two times the thickness of the seed, because we can sometimes bury them too deep, too gotcha.

Gotcha.

Any other tips for people as they're starting their seeds, I know you have brought in, you make your own mix.

So what are some of the things that you buy to make your potting mix?

I do some calcium and some phosphorus.

And let's see.

What else do I do?

Do you do any like vermiculite or perlite or No, I just get a good soil, good potting soil, potting soil so that are kind of loose, and dampen it and then put the seeds in.

I like coconut core.

Do you ever use that?

I use that as well.

I make a mix of different things my soil, and that's one I really I stumbled on that a couple of years ago, and I really like it.

It just seems to hold just the right amount of moisture.

Doesn't let it dry out, but it lets those roots breathe, and it's not real heavy so and it's not too expensive, either.

You can get a block of that for maybe five bucks.

And boy, a dab do you put that in a bucket and get it up with two buckets, yes.

But by the time you mix that in with your seed starting mix, and you said, you add a little calcium, a little phosphorus, and give them a really good start.

I'm just so excited.

We're almost there.

Hang on.

Hang on.

If you haven't got your seeds yet, you get your catalogs or get out to one of the stores before the things you're looking for are all gone, because I have a feeling a lot of people are going to be growing Yes, this year, with all this unpredictability.

So get your hands on the seeds that you are looking for.

Anything else that you'd like to add.

Kay, that I didn't know.

We didn't talk about, well, I'm kind of talking about the starting, the couple that started seed savers.

These are the on the cover here.

These are the two original seeds that they got.

And she got this is a and this is a big year for them too.

Yeah, it is their 50th anniversary.

But you said the tomatoes and the Morning Glory, yes?

And they, this is a pink tomato, and she got the original seed from her grandfather.

Oh, wow.

So this goes way back, way back, and our Master Gardeners program is celebrating 50 years.

So it's a it's a 50 year anniversary for a lot of folks in garden.

Interesting, yes.

Well, thank you so much for coming Kay and bringing up your seeds and catalogs and talking with us and answering questions.

And now we're going to go over to John in the demo space and learn about grafting apple trees.

And now we are joined here on the demo set with John BODENSTEINER for a little one on one time.

So John, we're talking about grafting.

First of all, what is grafting and why do we do it?

Grafting is a procedure that, if you want to, if you have a tree that you want to duplicate, or you may want, you may have a tree that you want multiple different apples on, I'll just, we'll just talk about apples.

Okay, I've done some, a lot of grafting on my apples.

I've had, you know, I know one guy that put 42 different varieties of apples on one tree, on one tree, wow.

And he did it mainly for the flowers, but what you're doing is taking a root stock a good tree, and apples will take seven years maybe, to produce apples from from a small if you can graft them, you can have them apples the next year.

Oh, I didn't know.

So it's, it's a way of cloning an apple.

We've done it.

They do that with other trees, but I do it mainly with the only one I've really done it with, I think, is, is apples?

Is it difficult for the everyday at home gardener?

It takes some practice.

Okay, we can live with it can be, you know, I was telling you, before we got went on the air, that this knife here is a grafting knife, and it is extremely sharp and, and this is one of the grafts that I do.

And a good place to go is on YouTube.

Okay, if you've never done grafting and you want to do some things with grafting, go on YouTube, they've got all different types and procedures.

This is one that I find very successful.

You take and you cut a nice groove on the side, and then you this is the dangerous part here is where you're taking and hopefully you're not going to slip and cut your finger.

I have done.

That one of my first year, and you're just going down.

And then on the other part, you're going to do the same thing on another side, and then you're going to groove this.

And then basically what you're doing is slipping these two, two cuts together.

Mm, hmm.

Yeah, and that will and what you're doing is lining up the xylem and phloem from this part of the branch to this part of the branch.

And as you can see, I've got them pretty much the same size.

And what you're going to do then, once you get this done, if you've got an end cut, what you can do is take some beeswax and you just melt it, okay?

And you just drip it on the end that you've made your cut this part here would be on the tree, yes, so that you don't have to do that.

And then what you're going to do is, there's, there's what they already, they really call is grafting tape.

And what you're going to do is just wrap it now, what's a good spot on the tree?

What's How do you know what a good branch is?

I like pencils.

Nothing smaller than pencil, okay, and you can, but this is called scion wood.

Okay?

If you can go online and buy scion wood, if there's a certain apple that you would love to have, you can buy Scion this here is Honeycrisp, my favorite, so I am going to graft some of this.

And you can see this part right here.

I've got a couple of leaf nodes or buds, and that's I know that I can cut it off here, and I can graft it here onto a tree, and I will get honeycress in one or two years.

Wow.

So it's, it's now, when do we want to do this?

Are we approaching the time that it's, yeah, once the leaf, once the leaf start to or the buds start to swell, that is, spring is really the best time.

Okay?

And one thing you always want to do is make sure you know which side is up.

If I would have turned this upside down and grafted this side onto this, it would not have taken Okay, so mark, make sure you know which side is up.

A lot of people will cut it on an angle.

If it's up or or straight.

If it's on the bottom, it depends on what you want to do.

However you remember, yeah, whatever your, your, whatever your, your best way of doing it is.

Now, after you do this and you want to maybe check it or see how things are going, is there any follow up, any maintenance, any care?

Have to check it every, about every three weeks.

If you've made this too tight, you can actually strangulate.

And that would you wouldn't do that within be at least six months a year, that you would start to strangle.

If you start to see grooves in the wood where it's not growing and you've made it tight, some people actually will take this and twist it and then tie it off.

And so this you can make really tight, and that would girdle the tree, basically, and that would inhibit your inhibit your graft.

Now, there is an easier way, if you're afraid of, you know, don't want to try.

There is some things.

My little tool, John's the gadget guy.

This is a grafting tool, and it's so nice.

All you do is you take and see if I can do one real quick.

Here I and again, this is and so, oh, go ahead.

You can see, this is one I had to finish.

And you can see there's a nice groove here, and there's a groove here.

These two, you would do that, pick a male part and a female part and stick them together.

And you can see that the xylem and phloem is exactly and you can see this is about the size of a thicker pencil, but this is the ideal type.

Got it okay?

And again, if you made a cut here, I would seal it with some beeswax, wrap it with plastic, label it.

Label it.

Because, I mean, if you do 2030, different graphs, and they're all from different come a week, you're not going to come six months, tell yourself that you'll remember six months you definitely are going to remember what is what.

So these are really nice.

They just slip together, okay?

And then you put it on the tree and and so there's different, different types of of tape, and it's self sticking.

So I love that you can get.

Apples much sooner with grafting, I did not know that, instead of waiting that 767, years, you can have them in one or two.

Yeah, and that's, that's the nice that's one of the nice things with grafting, if you've got an established root, yes, you know, if you're planting a new tree and the roots are not, are not established, you know, all the injury that you did when you planted, if it's still correcting it, that will delay it another year or two.

But if it's an established tree, like I've got some trees that I'm transferring, or if you go on and you want a honey crisp, and you don't have one, and you can find you can go online and get some scion wood that's for Honeycrisp or or of a different type, whatever type you want, whatever time you want.

Yeah, they will send it to you, keep it in the refrigerator until it's time.

The right time is when the buds start to swell.

Okay, I did cut this.

And this is you can just start to see.

It's just starting to swell, just a little bit, just a little bit.

It's not time yet.

With 50 degrees today, they could really start to swell.

All right, we've got about five minutes left, and I know you brought in some succulents and other things.

I did bring it.

I brought this in.

This was something I thought was pretty interesting.

These are hot plugs, and there's nine different sizes.

If you have a flower pot that is on your table and it drips, and yes, you can leave it in the sink until it stops, or put a saucer.

But these are plugs to put on the bottom, and there's nine different sizes, so anything from tiny.

So those are available online.

If you have a lot of pots that, you know, and we always say, get try to hold a couple so folks can see them.

Yeah, you just pop those right in the bottom of the pot.

Yep.

And there, there's little changes on there that that will catch and it will hold them in place.

And very nice.

So that I just thought that was something that a lot of people didn't I didn't realize they were that it was existent, and so I just thought that was, I like to teach kids planting, yes, and I one of the easiest ways to have or get kids To to like plant is success.

And that's not just kids, anybody.

You don't hand a first timer, an orchid or an African Violet and turn them loose, right?

So this is a severe this is this plant here.

Okay?

What you do is, it's so simple to have a kid make a new plant.

You take this leaf down here, and you twist it off, you lay it on the sand.

And in about three weeks, four weeks, and it doesn't have to be a big bed of sand, you're going to end up with something like this, very nice.

You can see that it has, there's two nice plants here.

There's lots of roots.

This is the mother leaf that I, you know, like I would lay there.

And eventually this will dry up.

This is where the plant has got drawn all its nutrients.

So it's basically full proof.

So you want a high success rate if kids are just starting.

So another one is aloe.

Look, you know, look at all the babies I'm getting off of here already.

Very nice.

So that's just two of them.

Another one is, here's another one of the, oh yes, the various and can't go wrong with one of those, yeah.

That's like, 101 plants, 101, yeah.

Spider Plant again.

All you have to do is just lay it on the sand.

It's going to root.

And then you can have a whole new plant.

This is another plant.

This is one of the mother of 1000s.

And all I did was you can see those little plantlets on the tip here already, even at this size, take one of those, drop it on the soil.

Yes, the roots will form.

And this is which I should have brought.

One the last time you were here, you brought, I don't know if it was the 1000s or millions, but I took some of those home.

And all of them have grown, and they're huge.

So donkey tail, you can see, you know, this will get to I've seen some that are tails that are five, six feet long, oh my gosh.

And it takes some time and a sheltered area and but again, you just lay that that leaf down.

But once they get going, and once you get them going, it's pretty easy.

Mother in law, tongue or snake.

Plant is another one that comes up really, really well, and, and, and so that that's a success rate.

Strawberry plants.

This is strawberry begonia.

It puts out these little shoots from the main plant.

And then all you do is lay this on this, on on the soil, so you don't bury this.

Don't.

Have to bury.

That's that's an error.

Gotcha, okay?

And all you do is touch you can see the roots here, yes, I do.

All you do is touch that to the soil, and you may pin it down if you want to, but just most of the time the soil is wet, it's going to stick.

String of dolphins, yes.

String of Pearls.

Any tips for once you get them in the pot.

Not too much water.

How moist Do you want to keep the soil?

Or you want it to dry out in between, in between, water.

Here's a this is a true Christmas cactus, not Thanksgiving.

You can see there's no grooves.

And I just planted this this fall.

And look, I'm going to get some blossoms because the lighting is just right.

Yes, all right, we've got to wrap it up.

John, thank you so much.

Another one is propagation.

Just propagation, if you want, just put it in water rather than sand or that.

Again, is very, very successful.

So you've got several examples of some easy wins.

If you wanting to get started on house plants, go for succulents.

Yes, succulents are and there's lots of good books out there, but okay, Amazon has all kinds of good books.

All right.

Thank you so much, John, and thank you so much for watching.

If you've got questions, send them in to us at yourgarden@gmail.com, or search for us on socials.

Just look for Mid American gardener and we will see you next time you