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

I'm Chris Cooper.

Fertilizer is essential if you want a thick carpet of grass in your yard.

Today we're gonna talk about how much, how often and how to do it.

Also, you can enjoy your harvest all year long when you can.

Today we're canning green beans.

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 Mr. Booker T. Leigh.

Mr. Booker's a UT Extension Agent right here in Shelby County, Tennessee, and Ms. Cathy Faust will be joining me later.

Alright Booker, let's talk about fertilizing.

- Okay, let's do that then.

- Alright, because there's actually and art to spreading-- - Spreading fertilizer, yeah.

- So what do we need to know?

- Well, one thing you need to know about fertilizer is the first thing you need to do is do a soil test.

Before you start putting any kinda fertilizer down, you need to know how much to put down.

And another thing, you need to check the soil pH.

That's very important too now.

'Cause without the soil pH being correct, with all the fertilizer you put down is not gonna be used up by the plants.

For most lawn grasses, you need a pH between 6.0 and 6.5.

And the only way you can tell that is do a soil test, and you come back and start putting fertilizer down.

When you start putting fertilizer down, two things you need to do.

If it says put 100 pounds down, you want to go fifty pounds one way and 50 pounds the other way.

- Not all 100 in 1 fell swoop?

- No, 'cause you could miss spots.

I done seen a lot of folks out there cutting their grass, putting fertilizer down.

You see light green, dark green, light green.

They done skipped some spots in there doing that.

And the same thing about your lime.

When you're putting lime down, do the same thing to make sure you get a good coverage.

And another thing I see, you might see sometimes in your neighborhood.

When people are putting fertilizer down, fertilize the grass, not the sidewalk.

You wanna make sure that gets right on the grass, on the lawn, where it need it.

- Because if it rains, those pellets are gonna go down the storm drain.

- Down the storm drain, and that'll be a problem there.

And that's why we get a lot of things taken off the market because we misuse them, and when they test the environment there, they see the water got some fertilizer chemicals in there.

So make sure you put it right on the grass.

And I try to fertilize my grass when I know it's gonna rain.

I try to make sure because when you put it down, if it doesn't rain, you water it in, because sometimes that can cause problems in there.

- Because it definitely has to be watered in.

- Gotta be watered in for it to become activated and stuff and doing good.

- Okay.

- Where you want it in your lawn.

So now I'm wanna spread this in there, some fertilizer that I got in here, a nitrogen fertilizer.

I'm gonna go up here.

I'm putting down there, you see the fertilizer coming outta there.

You wanna come over, I see where I was hitting right here, make sure I don't miss no spots.

Then when I make my last turn that way, I start going this way.

And that means I'm getting a good coverage on that grass.

You get good coverage, I'm not missing no spots, nothing.

So I done covered all that grass right now, didn't miss a spot.

Now you got a pretty green grass.

When it rains you won't see no light green and dark green in there.

- So no skip?

- No skips!

Because I put 50 pounds, I put half this way and half that way in doing that.

So that make it have a good coverage.

- Okay, now if I had a bag of fertilizer and I had my spreader here what if I, you know, drop some on the ground?

What will happen then?

- Look here, you see this green spot here?

That's what happened.

They wasted some right there and it turn it brown in there.

But look around there, and that's what nitrogen fertilizer do.

It makes it a really pretty dark green, you see that?

It make it grow and turn it green and that's what it's doing right there.

That fertilizer turned it green.

But try not to waste none when you're doing that-- - Because it will burn, as we can see there.

- Right there, it will burn.

Make sure you take care of that.

If you waste some, try to get it up, put it back in your spreader, and then try to water it in if you can.

- So the most important part once you get all of this spreaded is to do what?

Water it in, right?

- Water it in.

That's why I try to watch the weather, put it down when it's gonna rain.

- Because again, if you don't water it in, you're gonna get... - Brown spots.

And another thing, you don't wanna fertilize your zoysia grass with a nitrogen fertilizer until it's all the way out of dormancy.

And you don't wanna fertilize with a nitrogen fertilizer when it's getting ready to go into dormancy.

Probably about a month before it start going into dormancy, hold back on your nitrogen fertilizer.

'Cause you don't wanna give it no growth going into the winter months.

So do that, that's good.

- And that will be for your warm season grasses?

- Warm season grasses.

Now fescue, that's a cool season grass.

It starts picking up during the fall of the year, start growing then.

That might be when you want to start fertilizing that, when it starts to grow.

You don't want to give it none while it's dormant, especially a nitrogen fertilizer, something that's got nitrogen in there.

- Alright, and on your bag of fertilizer, of course you have those three numbers.

You wanna tell us again about those three numbers?

- Sometimes we have an incomplete fertilizer, a complete fertilizer.

If it got all three elements in there, that mean that's a complete fertilizer.

If one of the numbers is missing, that means incomplete fertilizer.

But on the bag you might some numbers, call some numbers out like 10-10-10, 13-13-13 on there.

But the first number is nitrogen.

Second number is phosphate, and the third number is gonna be potassium.

It's always gonna be like that.

If one of those numbers is missing, that means that element is missing in that fertilizer.

- Alright, how often would you fertilize?

- It all depends, how often you fertilize your grass, it depends on what you're putting down in there and what your soil test comes back, results.

Probably no more than three times during that growing season.

And based on the soil test, what you put down.

- So, how much fertilizer do we need to make our grass green, though?

- Well, normally Chris, it's based on your soil test recommendations.

If you got a big yard there, any kind of nitrogen fertilizer you put down is gonna probably turn it green.

You know, if you're putting 50 pounds down, or 25 pounds down, or 30 pounds, it's gonna turn it green some.

But how much you put down during that growing season, that'll come back with your soil test.

Just say you got a acre lot, it tell you need 300 pounds of nitrogren fertilizer that year.

You don't wanna put 300 pounds down at one time.

You might wanna put 100 pounds down now, then come back another month later and put another 100 pounds down, or 6 weeks later and put another 100 pounds down like that.

- So you'll break it down?

- Break it down in there.

You don't wanna do it all at one time because you don't want to over-fertilize that grass to soon, too much fertilizer in there.

That can also damage your lawn by putting too much fertilizer on there.

It'll help disease problems come in there.

So, you want to get the right amount of fertilizer.

And that's why we tell everybody every time, always do that soil test.

Now soil tests normally lasts for three years.

You know, your pH is gonna stay the same for about three years in there.

Now a lot of things, your phosphorous and potassium is gonna get built up in the soil.

It normally stay there.

But your nitrogen fertilizer you put down, it's gonna leach itself out of there.

So that's why they give you a lot of different recommendations for putting fertilizer down.

They might say put 6-12-12 down.

That means you gonna be low in nitrogen this time.

Or you put 13-13-13, you getting an equal amount of everything.

And that depends on how you been taking care of your grass.

You know, I take care of my lawn all the time.

Some people might not take care of they lawn, they just getting started off.

They might need a little more fertilizer, might need a little more lime in there.

You can't just go out there and put something down because your neighbor's putting something down, he putting a lot.

His yard might be already good.

It might be already healthy.

Your yard might be just getting started doing that.

So you wanna make sure, that's why I say do a soil test before you get started off because you don't wanna just put a whole lot of fertilizer down there, 'cause you can have too much in there.

'Cause on that sheet, it'll tell you now if you're too high.

You're too high.

Now, if your pH is real high, you add sulfur to that and bring it back down some, it'll tell you that.

- Which will take a little while.

- It'll take a little while, it'll tell you to add sulfur to your soil and bring it back down that correct soil pH.

But like I said, most lawn grasses need a pH between 6.0 and 6.5.

That's for your warm season grasses and your cool season grasses.

When I say warm season, I'm talking about zoysia grass and Bermuda grass.

When I'm talking about cool season, I'm talking about your fescue grass and maybe some of your bluegrasses.

That's why we all recommend doing that soil test.

Now you can check with your local extension service, they have soil boxes.

And they have what kinda fertilizer to put in your lawn, and how much to put down for that growing season.

- Yeah, but please, on the bag of fertilizer it's gonna be some directions there as well.

- How much to put down and you can adjust your spreader on there for how much to put down in there.

So you don't want to give it too much fertilizer, you want to get the right amount of fertilizer.

And the best way to do that, is knowing when to fertilize that grass.

Ideal time is when that grass begins to grow.

- Alright, Mr. Booker, we sure appreciate that information.

- That's good, thanks.

- Thank you much for that demonstration.

- Alright, then.

[Booker chuckles] [upbeat country music] - Cherry trees have a lot of problems.

One of those problems would be the fungal disease shot hole disease.

As you can see, it looks like somebody actually shot these holes.

Look at the little holes in the leaves.

What will happen is the tree will actually make these leaves fall.

They will just drop from the trees.

Now, here's the deal.

When they drop from the trees here's what you need to do.

Practice good sanitation.

We want you to get these leaves up because they're still may be fungal spores on these leaves.

The root systems have enough carbohydrates in them, so this plant should produce leaves next year.

[upbeat country music] All right, Ms.Cathy we're canning green beans.

- Yes.

- Well, thank you.

We're definitely gonna appreciate this demonstration that you're about to do for us.

- Thank you.

- All right, so here's my first question though.

Why should we pressure-can green beans?

- Okay, well it's very important to pressure can your low-acid vegetables, things like green beans, squash, anything low-acid has to be pressure canned to kill the bacteria and the possibility of botulism being formed.

- Wow, so how do we get started?

- Well, the first thing you do is assemble all of your ingredients.

And this is something that you may wanna just mark a day off on your calendar because you wanna have your green beans ready to go and what I like to do is go to the farmer's market and buy, we normally say about one pound of green beans per pint jar.

So, if you were gonna do a dozen pints, you'd get about 12 pounds of green beans.

So, you get your green beans ready, your pressure canner and we like to have people come by the office, bring their lid, if they have a dial gauge, and let us test their dial gauge and we test it at five, ten and fifteen pounds of pressure.

Many times, maybe it's been in an attic and the gasket has dry rotted.

So, we also tell people before they get started they wanna get a little bit of cooking oil, non-salted cooking oil, and oil that gasket.

And they can learn from my experience.

We forgot to this one year.

Remember, we had to call y'all in?

- I do remember that.

I do remember.

- To get the lid off.

So, you wanna go ahead oil your lid before you get started.

And then, you wanna have your lids simmering.

We've got those simmering at 180 degrees.

We have our jars.

Ideally we would have a huge stockpot with simmering water, but we don't have that.

So we've cheated a little bit.

[Chris laughing] - Just a little bit.

- And we've go four jars hot in a crock pot, some water simmering because we're doing the cold pack and then you wanna have your canning salt, your basic canning equipment, the timer and the rings and also some pot holders and your instructions.

Even if you've done this a dozen times, you still wanna have your recipe and read through it so you don't forget anything.

- All right, well we're gonna let you go ahead and get started then.

- Okay, what we've done, like we said, we went ahead and we've got everything.

The water that we need is simmering.

So, the first thing that we're going to do is get one of our hot jars.

And people say, well why do you have to heat these jars up?

If you don't have a hot jar and you put in a hot pressure canner, what's going to happen?

The jar will crack.

Well, we may still have something crack, but we're gonna go ahead an put these green beans in the jar.

- Okay, so you fill it up just about to the top?

- Just about to the top and then I'm going to get some hot water, very hot water.

'Cause see, we've got our hot jar.

And we're gonna go ahead and spoon that hot water into the jar.

I may have to take some of these green beans out.

We're just gonna go ahead and experiment with this.

And you want to fill it to within one inch of the top.

That's important because you wanna have one inch of head space.

Okay, so what we can do.

- Oh, you have to pack it.

- Push these down.

You have to pack it down.

And like we said, one inch.

That's probably more than one inch.

So we can probably just pour this out.

Okay, pour a little of that out.

And you may have to experiment.

And we just happen to have a ruler here.

And these are in increments of 1/4, 1/2, all the way up to one inch.

So you see, we're looking at about one inch.

And then we want to run this down the sides of the jar to get out the air bubbles.

See all of those air bubbles?

- I see them, yes you do.

- Lots of air bubbles.

These green beans are so pretty.

[Chris laughing] - I'll tell ya, they're nice and fresh.

Then you wanna add 1/2 teaspoon of canning salt.

About 1/2 teaspoon per pint.

- So why are we using the salt?

- Well, the salt helps in the preservation.

And people have asked me, what's difference between canning salt and regular salt?

Okay, here's the canning salt, you can buy it at any grocery store.

But this says, pickling and canning salt.

It's non-iodized and it's a much finer salt than regular salt.

You can see how fine that is.

But, that helps in the preservation.

So, the next thing you wanna do, you wanna wipe the top of the jar.

You wanna wipe that real good.

Let's see.

I may be able to add a few more green beans in there.

And I just happen to have some extra green beans.

So we're gonna put a few more green beans in there because you want to pack them down.

Since you're doing pressure canning, what will ultimately happen when we take these out of the pressure canner, the green beans will rise to the top and you might have two inches of water at the bottom, which is okay, but still you want it to look good.

So, you have to put a lid on this that has been simmering at 180 degrees.

So over here we have our pot and I've got this simmering at 180 degrees.

- Oh, it says it right on it.

- Yeah.

And you can let these simmer for as long as you're doing your pressure canning.

But, you go ahead and you lift this out and you put it on the rim, just like that.

- So you have to have a good seal.

- See that little rubber on the rim is going to adhere to it.

And then you screw this band on just fingertip tight.

Okay, just fingertip tight, not too tight and then we're going to take this and place it into the canner.

And if you can see the canner, we've got about two to three inches of water in our pressure canner.

We also have a rack in the bottom of the canner.

Let's say you've lost your rack somewhere.

You can put a towel in the bottom of this, but you've got to have something on the bottom of the rack.

So we're going to go ahead and fill the other three jars and then we'll come back and start up again.

- All right, so that was the last one, now let's get to it.

- The last one, we've got all four and we put these down in the canner and now we're going to secure the lid.

That's the hard part.

- Oh, so this is the hard part.

- Yeah, because you've got two Vs that you want to line up.

Okay, see that V?

We're gonna line that up right here.

Just line it up and it takes a little muscle.

- You got it?

- You just close this.

Now, this is where your patience comes in.

We're gonna go ahead and turn up the flame and what we'll do is allow this to vent for 10 minutes.

It's going to take several minutes for steam to start coming out of this, but after we allow it to vent for 10 minutes, we're gonna put the petcock on and then that is when our pressure will start building and we will count, after it gets up to 11 pounds of pressure, we'll begin counting 20 minutes and we'll let this pressure for 20 minutes, 11 pounds and then we'll let it cool down.

We're not gonna put cold water on it.

Some people do that.

We will just let it cool down naturally and after it gets to zero, we'll wait an additional 10 minutes.

- All right Ms. Cathy, we've been at 0 here for about 10 or 15 minutes, so are we ready?

- Yes, we're ready.

- All right.

- Even though I know it has cooled down, I'm still going to use a potholder.

And I'm gonna take the petcock off and then we're going to open the lid and you need to remember to tilt it away from you because there will be steam.

- Oh yeah, there's steam.

- So we're tilting that away and we're going to remove our jars.

Oh, the water is still simmering.

Okay.

And you want to place them on a cutting board or a towel, away from a draft.

And we're going to leave these undisturbed anywhere from 12 to 24 hours.

And as the lids seal we should hear a popping sound.

It might happen soon or it may take several minutes for them to pop.

And like we said, these can be kept for up to two years.

And let me show you some that I've done in years past.

These were done in June of 2011, [lid popping] and I found them tilted over.

And you see the white residue in the bottom?

- Yes, I see that.

That can't be good.

- No, no, this is not good.

They're discolored and you hear how that sounds?

- Okay.

- And the lid is puffy so those are unsafe to eat.

These I did in 2012.

They remained upright in a cool, dark place and the lid is still sealed, no discoloration.

- No discolor, all right.

- Still bright green, these are safe.

And these I did this past Saturday.

I did some salsa.

And these are good too.

- Those are good as well.

- For up to two years.

- So is there a publication about canning food?

- Yes, we have a publication.

It's Publication Number 724 and you can just go online, Publication Number 724 and you can download if free of charge.

- Okay.

[lid popping] well, there goes another pop.

- Oh, great.

Okay, we're done, success.

- Ms. Cathy, appreciate it again.

- Thank you, Chris.

- So professional, we do appreciate that.

Thank you much.

- Thank you.

[gentle country music] - We have an infestation of mealybugs on our mandevillas here.

We're gonna spray them with malathion.

Malathion is an insecticide that's labeled for use on mealybugs.

According to the label, for mealybug control, it's one tablespoon is recommended per gallon of water So, I had to do some math.

This is a little over 12 ounces, that's about 1/10 of a gallon.

a tenth of a tablespoon is equal about 1.4 milliliters.

I actually have a measuring spoon, which is 1.25 milliliters.

So I'm gonna put a little less than my 12.8 ounces in here to make it match my 1.25 milliliters.

So, you know, you gotta figure all that out.

It's so very important to follow the label instructions.

So, what I'm gonna do, fill this up about half full.

Now, I'm going to try to get my 1.25 milliliters of malathion in here.

I'm going to shake it up and then I'm gonna top it off with water.

Okay, got that.

Now, I'm gonna shake it up again.

Okay.

[gentle country music] And see, I got some on my hand.

It leaked a little bit.

That's why you wear rubber gloves, very very important.

- All right, here's our Q & A segment.

You ready?

- I'm ready.

- All right, these are good questions we have here.

All right, so here's our first viewer email.

"What is the best way to spray and get rid of, what I call, "mulberry trees?

"Their roots will sprout all over the yard "and I have a concrete ditch in my backyard "that I can't get into anymore to trim them back because of age."

And this is Larry.

So, he wants to get rid of, what he calls, mulberry trees and he wants to spray them.

So what do you think about that?

- Well, a lot of time they have a tree there and they begin to sprout up all around there.

Probably gonna need something like a stump rot, stump rot away or something, just touch it on there and spread it on there and see how they're doing.

They might need to do keep doing it more than one time.

'Cause one time not gonna do that.

You know, they gonna come back again.

Just keep putting on that, it got to have some leaves on it, a little growth on there before you can see if it'll go down to the root system.

But, you might wanna try doing that on there and that will help some.

But, you gonna have to constantly do that.

It not gonna do that one time and say it's done though.

It's gonna take some time.

- Gonna take some time.

- Yeah, it'll take some time.

Don't think your gonna do it overnight.

'Cause I had them in my yard, I just do the same thing.

Not mulberry, but I had little things sprout up like that.

- So, cut it back.

- Cut it back.

- Something else you could do too.

- Let it grow out.

- If you want to, you can actually paint a 41% solution of a glyphosate.

Right, the turgor pressure will pull it down into the roots.

It'll take a little time.

- Take time, yeah.

- You could do it that way.

But, you definitely need to cut it back.

You know, to paint it.

- And also leave some growth on there too.

There little leaves on there.

- Just a little bit.

- Before you take it down through there.

But, you got to keep doing that.

- Right and you got to keep doing it.

That's for sure.

You got to starve it out, the carbohydrates.

- And try to spray, when you're spraying in a ditch or something like that, try to spray somewhere they know it's not gonna rain down there, then the rain water try to get into the drainage system.

- Yeah, see I wouldn't spray.

I would just paint.

- Paint that'd be good, yeah.

- You know I would just paint that 41% solution of glyphosate or whatever you wanna use, you know to go ahead and help that stump rot out.

Starve it of it's carbohydrates.

Yeah, I wouldn't spray.

- Especially by that drainage ditch too, yeah that could be something to think about too.

- That's exactly right.

So, there you have it Mr. Larry, hope that helps you out there.

All right, here's our next viewer email.

"I have zoysia grass and it taken over by weeds.

"Is it okay to use Bonide herbicide now and in a week or so, plant some more zoysia plugs?"

And this is Hope from Queens, New York.

How about that, Queens, New York?

- All right then.

- All right, so let's go back.

So zoysia grass, but she wants to use Bonide herbicide.

We don't know what kind of herbicide that is.

She just said Bonide herbicide, all right.

Then she wants to plant her zoysia plug.

So what do you think about that?

- Over again.

Well, depends like you said, depending on what kind of herbicide you have in there, you got to read the label on there and a lot of time it will tell you how long you need to wait before you can plant something back in that area.

But, since she's just doing plugs, it should be okay just to spray it in there as long as she don't put no seeds down in there.

Just read the label on that and it seems like a preemerge herbicide and see you what kind of weed you can control.

Did she say what kind of weed?

- She said, just taken over by weeds.

- She didn't didn't say what kind of weeds.

So yeah, the first thing, you need to identify what your trying to kill.

- That's first and foremost.

- Yeah, identify.

You can't just go and start spraying stuff and don't know what you're just spraying first though.

Try to identify the weed that you're spraying on there and what kind of herbicide in there, but it seem like that's a preemerge herbicide.

- Yeah, I'm with you on that.

We don't know what kind of weed, nor do we know what kind of herbicide you're gonna use to control said weed.

- Said weed, that's a weed in there, so yeah.

- So as long as she doesn't use the seed.

She using zoysia plug, so that should be okay.

- Yeah, then they should be okay, yeah.

- All right Hope, so there you have it.

Make sure you identify that weed first, [Booker laughing] so you have the right herbicide to control the weed and then make sure you read and follow the label.

Thank you for your question.

All right, here's our next viewer email and this is one we seem to get a lot.

"I need to prune my Encore azaleas, "but I don't know if I can do that before next spring's bloom.

"Can you please tell me the correct time or times to prune Encore azaleas."

And this is Yvette from Memphis, Tennessee.

- Memphis, Tennessee.

[laughing] - So, when is the correct time?

Encore azaleas.

- Normally they bloom in the springtime and again in fall.

They doing it twice in there, but the ideal time would be best time to prune those after their first bloom in the springtime.

You want the spring in there.

It might slow your fall bloom down just a little bit in there, but you go and prune them in the fall, if you don't do it at the right time, and they put some new growth on there and the cold weather hit, it could damage your plant.

Then you will have have less blooms in the springtime.

So the ideal time would be the best time to that in the springtime once they finished blooming now, you might be slack on your second bloom, but if you prune early enough when they finish blooming, they might have time to set more buds on there.

And then yeah, but the Encore normally bloom twice in there.

- Bloom twice.

Yeah, my mom has Encore azaleas at home, she's always asking me this question.

[Booker laughing] So, this could be my mom's question.

But anyway, yeah after they finish blooming in the spring is when you should prune those.

Not in the summer.

Not in the fall.

All right, so for maximum bud set it has to be after they finish blooming in the springtime.

Any other time, you're not going have blooms the next spring.

- They be upset.

We get that call a lot of time.

- We do get that call a lot.

- When to prune the plants and that.

- That's right, that's right.

Good question though.

So there you have it, Yvette.

Okay, spring, after their finished blooming.

All right, there you go.

All right Booker, it was fun.

- Oh man, that's it?

- Yeah, that's it.

- I'm ready for another question, man.

- We'll save that for another time.

- Okay then.

- Thank you for being here.

- Thank you.

I enjoyed it.

- Remember, we love to hear from you.

Send us an email or letter.

The email address is questions@familyplotgarden.com 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.

FamilyPlotGarden.com has tons of gardening information you can use.

We have more about lawns and preserving your harvest.

Go take a look.

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

Be safe.

[upbeat country music] [acoustic guitar chords]