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

I'm Chris Cooper.

Water features can make a   great addition to any yard   and fish can make a great   addition to any water feature.

Today we're going to look at   the fish options for your yard.

Also, blackberries are   tasty and easy to grow.

We're going to plant some.

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 Andy Williams.

Andy is the Manager at Lichterman Nature Center.

And Mr. D. is with us today.

Thanks for joining us.

- Glad to be here.

- Likewise.

- Yeah, okay.

Andy, we always enjoy when you're here 'cause you always bring us neat critters to look at.

But this time you have fish!

- And not only fish, non-native fish.

- (Chris) Non-native fish?

- At the nature center, we may suggest bluegill, sunfish, bass.

But for most home ponds, that's beyond the capacity of the pond, and really probably not what you want.

You want something ornamental.

So I'm here today to talk about ornamental fish.

- (Chris) Okay.

- In selecting the fish, you've got a lot of really good options for you.

But one thing you should really take into mind is that size matters.

- (Chris) Okay.

- Like, I'm talking about water features in yards with some capacity to them.

Some of the self-contained fountains like that are really attractive, and give really pleasing sounds of running water.

But probably would not be good for fish.

One of the most important things to take into account when deciding on which fish you want is the surface area, the top of the water, how much surface area that you have.

That's important cause that's where the oxygen exchange, gas exchange, takes place at the surface.

- (Chris) Okay.

- Something else you need to consider is the volume of water that you have.

Because as we'll talk about a little bit later, some fish need a little more space to move around.

- (Chris) Alright.

- But basically it's a rule of thumb, that you want to start off with no more than one inch of fish per square foot of surface area.

So that's pretty easy to calculate.

- (Chris) Okay.

- You do need to know the volume of the pond though, and you can calculate that basically you try to square it out, you know, multiply the length times the width times the height.

And then go online to find a calculator to convert those your cubic feet into gallons.

But roughly one cubic foot of water is seven and a half gallons.

- (Chris) Okay.

- You'll need that for water changes and medication and such.

You can stretch the general rule of thumb as far as surface area to as much as two or three inches of fish, including the tail, per square foot, but you start getting into some dicey water.

You want to consider not only how big the fish are when you get them, but the fact that they grow.

- (Chris) Bigger, right.

- So really the top   three types of fish   for home ponds are   minnows, goldfish, and koi.

- (Chris) Okay.

- So, a lot   depends on the size.

You're starting with the minnows, they're the smallest, the best fish for, I think, for your home pond.

For, if you just want a few fish in there, you have a small feature, could be rosy minnows.

They're readily available, there's some in the tank here.

- (Chris) Okay.

- There's also some gambusia,   those are live bearers.

They look sort of   like big guppies.

They're particularly   good at mosquito control.

And even small features, that you, maybe you have some papyrus or lotus growing in a pot of water, you'll probably want a few small minnows, nothing too extraordinary to take care of mosquito larvae, and such.

In fact, any water feature, the fish are gonna eat the mosquito larvae and that's a good thing.

- That's a real good thing.

- Probably the most popular fish, one I would heartily recommend if you have the space, would be a goldfish.

- Goldfish originated in China.

Basically in the rice patties, they saw these fish, and they picked out the most colorful ones, and they kept breeding and breeding until they got the goldfish we know today.

- (Chris) How about that?

- I divide them into, you know, regular goldfish and fancy goldfish.

What I call regular goldfish are the good ol' common goldfish, pretty plain jane orange fish.

But also along the same lines, you get comets that have long tails, and then you have other types that have the single-tailed goldfish that vary with color patterns.

There's lots of variability they have orange, white, yellow, red also multicolored ones they call shubunkins.

- (Chris) Wow.

- They have black, blue, along with the orange and red.

My personal favorite, and I brought one today, he's kinda at the top right now, is called a sarasa.

It was actually, all this, goldfish are Chinese, the Japanese worked on them really hard.

And the sarasa is basically a red and white goldfish.

- (Chris) It's pretty.

- (Mr. D.) It looks orange and white.

(Chris laughs) Tennessee Volunteers orange and white.

- We're calling it red for now.

That's the breed.

You know, the color also depends on what you feed them.

Give them a lot of beta carotinoids in their food, it brings out the red coloration.

- (Chris) Really?

Interesting, oh, wow.

- The Japanese also went to town on a fish that we now know as koi.

- (Chris) I know about the koi.

- Koi are not goldfish, they're not even related.

- (Chris) Wow.

- The Japanese started looking at brightly colored carp and just the carp like on the dinner table, or grass carp and that sort of stuff.

They grow to pretty good size, carp as you know can grow to three or four feet.

Typically most koi max out at a foot to two feet, but they can grow as long as three feet.

So, obviously, if you've got a small pond you think about minnows, you go to goldfish, and koi are really for specialists.

- (Chris) Okay.

- They need a lot of water quality, they need depth, you need a pond, about three feet deep, at least for them to have enough room to move around.

And a lot of code requirements, I believe, eighteen inches is as deep as you can have on a pond, safely without having any additional requirements for fencing and such.

- (Chris) Oh, okay.

- Water quality with all fish is important.

You can increase the amount of fish that you can have in a pond or water feature by filtration and aeration.

What that does is helps clean the water and also increases the surface contact with the surface area but if the power goes out, you're kinda up the creek.

- (Chris) Yeah, you're in trouble.

- Generally the fewer fish that you're comfortable with, the better the fish are and you are.

All of them need clean water, but the koi are the most finicky.

They're terribly inbred, so they're really delicate and just small changes in water quality can effect them.

One thing everyone needs to do though for water quality, with or without filtration, is to figure out how to regularly change out the water.

Fish are the only animals that swim around their own waste, for example.

And you've got a small contained area there, and so is their own waste.

Also they grow a little bit bigger they put out hormones and all that that sort of inhibit the growth of other fish in the tank.

You've heard about fish tend to grow to the size of the container.

That's not entirely true, if you dilute the water, you're sort of increasing the size of the container continually.

But keep in mind, the adult size of the fish.

Like I said, goldfish will max out at 10 or 12 inches and the difference between 10 or 12 inches and two or three feet is substantial.

You just really have to keep that in mind if you get stars in your eyes about koi.

You gotta be willing to take it on.

One question I get a lot about fish is about feeding.

- (Chris) Yeah I was gonna ask you about that.

- Yeah I do recommend feeding fish.

(laughing) If you just have a few fish, they can probably find, scrounge up enough to eat and all.

But, if you feed them, they will come up and recognize you, and you'll have a chance to check them out for signs of disease or distress.

It's important to recognize signs of disease or stress both in taking care of your pond and picking out the fish that are gonna go in it.

- (Chris) Okay.

- So, you go to a reputable dealer, and you look for fish that have erect fins, they're not gasping at the surface, and don't have any obvious blemishes, or, if you see a red flag, then avoid it and get another fish.

- Okay, we appreciate that.

I learned so much about fish.

How about that, Mr. D?

- Yeah I can understand the inbreeding part.

There's not a lot of choices in there.

(laughing) There's only one male and one female, so, you know.

- Actually, happy fish will breed, and reproductive-- - But there's not a lot of choices!

- Well, (laughs) I can see that.

- As long as they're happy, they're fine, right?

Thank you, we appreciate that.

- Thank you!

[gentle country music] - Let's talk a little bit about dandelions.

Yes, dandelions, a perennial weed.

It actually grows a   rosette of leaves first   right at the soil surface,   and then up comes   the rest of the plant.

This plant is actually   able to survive   because of its   deep storage systems,   which houses a lot   of carbohydrates.

It is a weed that I actually do like.

It reminds me a lot of my childhood.

It has a beautiful yellow bloom.

This beautiful yellow bloom becomes a white globe of seeds, and if you were to blow those seeds, it's gonna reproduce, or repopulate, by seed.

So, you have to   be careful about that.

If you want to control dandelions, you can use a broadleaf herbicide.

Please read and follow the label.

[upbeat country music] - Alright, Mr. D, so we have some blackberry plants here.

- We do, and these are Natchez Semi-Erect Blackberries They were developed by the University of Arkansas - (Chris) Okay.

- An excellent thornless sweet blackberry.

- (Chris) Thornless, thornless.

- So, the first thing you look at when you plant blackberries is how large is the plant gonna get?

- (Chris) Okay.

- Because if you plant these a foot apart, and then when this plant's fully grown, it's gonna be five feet tall and four feet wide so we've got a four feet distance between these plants.

They will be touching when they're fully grown.

But you do pretty much with a potted plant like this, treat it the same way you would plant a tree.

You want to dig a wide planting hole - (Chris) Wide, but not deep.

- Ooh, you got some bermuda grass sod there.

- Oh yeah.

- A wide planting hole, not a real deep one.

We don't wanna go any deeper.

We wanna plant it at the depth that it grew in the nursery.

Let's get some of this turf grass out the way here.

Let's see if we see any cut worms, or any grub worms there.

- [laughs] Grubs.

- And we're also looking for earthworms.

We definitely have some good organic matter here in the top of the soil.

This is probably Memphis silt loam here.

Really good soil.

- (Chris) Good stuff.

- The reason you don't dig a really deep planting hole, is when you water these in, or when the rain waters these in, if you have a deep one, everything settles down and soil will wash in around the plant and even though you may not have planted it too deeply, that's the net result.

- Right, it eventually gets deep, right.

- It's looking pretty close right there.

- (Chris) Yeah it looks pretty good.

- Now, I'm gonna score the side of this planting hole a little bit, to make it easier for the roots to penetrate the side of the planting hole.

Let's see if that's about right.

- Okay.

- Set that down in there and see if the top's gonna be about right - (Chris) What do you think?

- (Mr. D.) Oh yeah, that's perfect.

Okay, so let me score the sides of this.

- (Chris) And again you're doing that because you want the roots?

- The roots to more easily be able to penetrate that.

And let's check this roots to see if it's rootbound.

Gonna get over this.

- No telling how long it's been in that pot.

It's a pretty good size.

Aha.

- (Mr. D.) Ah, we do have some root.

- Oh yes.

- A little bit rootbound.

So I'm gonna take my pocketknife And make about four cuts - (Chris) Okay.

- Did a little bit of root pruning there but where I made those cuts it's just like when you prune with pruning shears wherever you make a cut you are basically telling that plant to do lateral development.

Where I made those cuts, lateral roots will come out.

Okay, let's get the looser dirt and put this in.

- (Chris) And the dirt goes back in the hole, right?

We don't have to mend that hole with anything else, right?

- (Mr. D) Right, I mean you can, but I don't think its necessary.

With soil as good as we have here in this area.

I really don't think it's necessary.

I have Memphis silt loam on my property and I don't add soil amendments to it.

- Now while you're doing that, Mr. D, What do you think about this piece coming out right here?

Think that possibly needs to be pruned?

- That's what you're gonna have you're gonna have, these plants are gonna be coming up from the ground all around this, it'll create a hedge, they will spread just like wild blackberries.

They're not gonna be one little plant here.

- Right, I got you.

- You can try to control it by taking those off if you want to.

But in about three or four years, what you're gonna have is a hedge here.

And you're gonna be trying to contain it.

- Okay.

- Which you can do, in a lawn situation like this.

- (Chris) Looks like you've done this a time or two, Mr. D. - (Mr. D.) Oh yeah.

(Chris laughs) - (Chris) Do you like blackberries?

- (Mr. D.) I do.

- (Chris) I do.

- I got blackberries planted.

With this variety you're not even going to have to trellis it.

I have trailing blackberries, and I'm always trying to keep them under control.

They keep trying to leave their area.

They keep infringing on my blueberry plants.

So I have to kind of do some pretty heavy pruning on them from time to time.

Now, I think we're about to get a rain here if I didn't think we were gonna get a rain, I would want to water this in.

- Okay.

- To get the air bubbles out, - Right.

- Make sure everything's settled down.

You probably aught to do that anyway, because if you don't, it won't rain.

[Chris laughs] - As is usually the case.

- Even though you got a forecast, and radar says it's coming, but if you're depending on rain to water your plant in, it's just not gonna happen.

[Chris laughs] - (Chris) Now is it a good idea to mulch that once you finish it?

Do you have to do that?

Is it necessary?

- (Mr. D.) You don't have to.

You probably more than anything, it might help prevent weeds.

One of the, there's a few herbicides you can use around here if you, and with this bermuda grass-- - (Chris) Yes!

- You're probably gonna need to use Poast,   and it's okay it won't   hurt the blackberries,   and you can spray it right   up on the edges of the plant,   and it'll take the   bermuda grass out,   it won't control   broadleaf weeds.

Okay?

- Okay.

- That little fella's okay now.

- I think it's alright.

- You see, I wanna make sure I can see that original soil right there And, eventually, I mean, we can even pack it down a little bit - Alright, Mr. D, while you're doing that, we definitely appreciate that demonstration.

- You're most welcome.

- Can't wait to see what this looks like in years to come.

- It'll be here.

It'll be here after the bermuda grass is gone, I think.

Blackberries are very tough.

[gentle country music] Okay, when we planted the seeds a couple weeks ago, we knew we were planting 'em pretty thick.

Didn't know the germination rate, and obviously the germination's pretty good on the seed.

So, we're gonna move down here.

I'm gonna thin this row of snap beans, I'm just gonna sit down here.

I want about three or four, probably four inches, between these plants.

So, I've got one, two, three, four, five, six here.

I'm gonna start taking 'em out.

And I'm just gonna leave the healthiest of these two.

So, we're good right there.

And let's ease down here and check the okra out.

Good germination here, too.

Let's see.

I'm just gonna, I'm gonna leave two in each of these little hills for-- Actually I'm not, I think they're healthy enough.

I'm gonna thin these down to one.

As you're thinning these, be very careful that you don't accidentally destroy the one plant that you're leaving.

Here we are.

That is probably a little thicker than I would leave them out in the field, in a big garden.

But, in this bed, I think we'll be okay here.

We can give these plants some little extra water, and a little extra fertilizer if we need to.

A little tender loving care.

[gentle country music] Alright, this is our Q and A session.

Andy help us out if we get in trouble, alright?

- Sure.

- So here's our first viewer email.

"This is all over my yard.

What is doing this?"

And this is from Mr. Rusty.

So what do you   think there, Mr. D?

What is doing that?

- You know, that one picture is really hard to determine what is going on there.

It could range from crawfish to solitary bees that will do that, they burrow.

But from that one picture, I'm not sure.

What about you?

Do you have a better feeling about that?

- Not from that one picture.

I looked at it a few times.

Didn't think it was moles.

- If those were all over the yard like that, I would guess it's probably one of the solitary bees that are doing that.

Which, they don't sting you.

They should see the bees hovering out there over the ground if that's what it is.

If they don't see bees hovering, you know, and going into these little burrows they've developed, then its, well we've got a of rain, it could be crawfish.

So, if you like crawfish, you may have a crawfish crop.

- Do they make a little chimney,   is that what they call them?

- But those are in the,   these aren't   real good builders... - Haven't gotten it up yet?

Alright, Mr. Rusty, if we can get a better picture next time we can help you out a little better.

Alright, so here's our next viewer email.

This is interesting.

"About 30 years ago, I discovered that "my blue and white morning glory vines "had some gold bugs on them.

"The bugs ate holes in the leaves.

"Since you can't kill those vines, "I let them feast away 'til frost, "when they disappeared.

"I showed them to some of my neighbors, "and described them to friends.

"But nobody had ever seen one besides me."

"Do you know what   these bugs were?

"They were shiny,   metallic yellow gold bugs,   "just the same size   and shape as a ladybug   and they also   had wings and flew."

And this is Ms. Patricia,   right here in Memphis.

Mr. D is rocking, he's shaking his head.

I think he has an idea, Ms. Patricia.

- No doubt, they're the golden tortoise beetle.

- (Chris) Yes, that's what I thought it was.

- And they mentioned ladybugs,   which are also beetles,   so they're similar size and the   also have wings and can fly   no doubt about that.

And if they're eating morning glories, that's a good thing.

- (Chris) That's a good thing.

[laughs] - As far as I'm concerned, the golden tortoise beetles are just as pretty as the morning glory blooms.

And I wouldn't worry about it.

I wouldn't worry about using an insecticide to try and control them.

There are a couple other plants they will also get on.

They'll get on sweet potatoes, and also, what is it, a bindweed.

I'm not sure about bindweed.

But they'll also get on bindweed.

But that's pretty much-- - From the science geek perspective, I think they're interesting.

They're one of the few insects that can change color.

- (Mr. D.) They can?

- Apparently that sheen that's giving off a liquid in their wing covers, and when they get stressed out   they contract the plates   that make up that cover,   the liquid squeezes out, and   they turn a brownish orange.

- They get a little duller.

- Wow, that's pretty neat.

Alright, Ms. Patricia, I think we got that for you.

So here's our next viewer email.

"I would like to attract   hummingbirds, butterflies   "and bees to my backyard.

"The area is shaded   until the late evening.

What plants can I use?"

And this is from Joe.

And guess what Joe?

We just happen to have Andy Williams here from Lichterman Nature Center, who may know a little bit about attracting those butterflies, hummingbirds, and bees.

So, Andy, can you help us?

- Well, of course you need food and places to have young, and all.

And so your first thought goes to flowers.

Particularly for the hummingbirds.

A lot of shady plants don't flower, but in the spring there are beautiful.

There's the dwarf red buckeye,   which when they bloom,   they have long   tubular red blooms,   when they bloom, that's   when everyone says   the first sign of   hummingbirds in the area   'cause they have   something to eat.

There's also all source of   flocks, Virginia bluebells,   all sorts of shady   plants that bloom.

But unfortunately, when the trees leaf up, there's not as many things blooming.

But to attract butterflies, you can also plant their larval plants.

Paw-paws, violets, there's a variety of plants that serve as larval food.

And adults come preferentially to places where they lay their eggs.

As you know, most butterflies larva only eat one or two particular types of plants.

So those plants only grow in the shade.

Having said that, you can put hummingbird feeders.

But a water feature, y'know, we were just talking about that.

Hummingbirds don't like bird baths, they like kinda misty areas.

Butterflies and bees will come, if you have a well designed water feature where you have water maybe bubbling over some stones.

Which, by the way looks great with ferns, hostas, and a lot of woodland plants and moss.

You get a great effect, and that will also attract them to your yard.

- How about that?

I think we got that one covered, Mr. D. - I think we do.

- I appreciate that, Andy.

So here's our next viewer email.

"I have small red spots   on my dogwood leaves.

What is it and   how do I control it?"

You wanna give a   shot at that, Mr. D?

- I probably, what, dogwood spot anthracnose.

- That's what I thought it was.

- That's probably what it is.

It's more common in springs   that have a lot of rain,   a lot of rainfall.

Can really make the   dogwoods look bad.

I've never heard of   spot anthracnose   killing a dogwood tree.

Not a lot you can do.

I can recommend some fungicide you can put out there that are out of the Red Book.

And I will list those, but sanitation is important.

Rake the leaves up when they fall off, burn them.

- (Andy) Don't compost them.

- Right, don't put them in the compost bin.

The fungicides that are listed in the Red Book are   chlorothalonil, copper   hydroxide, copper octanoate,   and tebuconazole,   thiophanate-methyl,   are the one, two,   three, four, five fungicides   that are listed.

If the tree is small enough, if it's a small specimen dogwood tree, then you might consider providing the preventative fungicide treatments if you see a problem.

- Am I correct in saying the fungicides won't provide a permanent cure?

That it's gonna come back year after year-- - Prophylactic, prophylactic is preventative, in nature only you're putting a preventative coat on that plant when that spore falls on the leaf, it'll die, if the fungicide is present.

If it's not, if you put the fungicide out there and it rains and washes it off, you're pretty much out of luck.

- Wow, so it's almost like it never happened.

- With these type of fungicides, anyway.

We have some out in the agricultural community that have a little more systemic activity, but not here.

- And again, it's not a big problem.

Just a minor problem, cosmetic issue is all it is for the most part.

Alright, so, Andy, Mr. D., thanks for being here.

- No, thanks for having me.

- 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.

To get more information on things we talked about on today's show, go to familyplotgarden.com.

There we have links to extension publications with every video.

You can also check out the full garden calendar.

Thanks for watching.

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]