Making It Grow is brought to you in part by Certified South Carolina is a cooperative effort among farmers, retailers and the South Carolina Department of Agriculture to help consumers identify foods and agricultural products that are grown, harvested or raised right here in the Palmetto State.

The Boyd Foundation supporting outdoor recreational opportunities, the appreciation of wildlife, educational programs and enhancing the quality of life in Columbia, South Carolina and the Midlands at large.

McLeod Farms in McBee, South Carolina.

Family owned and operated since 1916.

This family farm offers seasonal produce, including over 40 varieties of peaches.

Additional funding provided by the South Carolina Farm Bureau Federation and Farm Bureau Insurance and Boone Hall Farms.

♪ opening music ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ <Terasa> Good evening, and welcome to Making It Grow, a collaboration between South Carolina ETV and Clemson Cooperative Extension our goal is to bring you trusted gardening information in a way that's easy to understand and fun to watch.

I'm Terasa Lott coordinator of the South Carolina Master Gardener Program.

Happy to be filling in for your host Amanda McNulty this evening.

As always, we have a fantastic show lined up to you including two segments, we're going to speak with Madeline Dowling who's share some interesting information about how she's combined her love of plant science with videography and photography, and I think she'll even provide a few tips on how you might take better pictures.

We're also going to learn about the MUSC urban farm and how they're encouraging healthy eating habits and lifestyles right there on their urban campus.

Joining me tonight is Zack Snipes, a commercial horticulture agent and also Assistant Program team leader for the horticulture program team lead.

That is a lot of things to take care of.

Who are your big producers down in the Charleston Tri-County area?

<Zack> Yeah, so we have a lot of growers that are growing for the restaurants in the food industry.

So what I call a small niche type farmers and we also have some larger tomato, watermelon and blueberry operations.

<Terasa> Wow.

It's always interesting to hear about how the food is going from farm to table.

<Zack> Absolutely.

That's what I really want to highlight today.

<Terasa> Fantastic.

I look forward to it.

We have Hannah Mikell.

Hannah, you're an agronomy agent.

So helping those row crop farmers primarily in Clarendon and Williamsburg counties.

<Hannah> That's correct.

Yep.

<Terasa> Are their needs different from a homeowner or a commercial horticulture producer?

<Hannah> Yes, tremendously, but in the grand scheme of things, it's all the same.

It's just in a much larger quantity.

So if you're planting three or four seeds in a pot, then we're going to be planting 30 to 40, 50,000 seeds, <Terasa> Right, it's all about the economy of scale.

<Hannah> That's correct.

<Terasa> And right beside me, someone that probably needs no introduction, Dr. John Nelson, a botanist and retired curator from the herbarium at the University of South Carolina.

You know, I bet a lot of our viewers don't know what an herbarium is.

<John> No way.

<Terasa> I know it's hard to believe but <John> Well, an herbarium is.

It's real simple.

It's a collection of dried plants, and in the olden days, and still, people will make a little personal herbarium all for their own, and they'll just press plants in a Bible or an encyclopedia, <Terasa> A heavy book.

<John> Whatever works, and then glue them into a scrapbook and that's effectively an herbarium.

But what we're talking about are academic herbaria, that are generally scattered around the country, within different universities or botanical gardens, and those are a little more scientifically oriented, such that these collections which may be up to like hundreds of thousands, even almost millions in some herbaria, a variety of different amounts of information that can be taken from those specimens themselves.

<Terasa> And now even collections are being transformed to the digital world.

<John> Oh yeah, that's the thing now is to take pictures of all these specimens, and to attach the digitized information from the labels which are attached to each sheet.

<Terasa> I suppose one advantage to that would be a would be the access.

So, all around the world we can access specimens that are in the herbarium at USC or at Clemson or anywhere <John> or any herbarium in the state, or, for that matter, just about any herbarium in the United States.

<Terasa> But it will never replace those actual specimens- <John> This is a big argument that natural history collections have to deal with.

How important is the physical object?

Once it's been digitized and released to the Internet?

<Terasa> Can you see all of the details?

<John> No.

You've got to have the physical object <Terasa> I thought so.

I thought so.

Well, before we start answering questions, it's time for us to take our virtual field trip around the state.

It's gardens of the week.

That's your time to show off what you're doing in your yard or garden or perhaps with your indoor plants.

We begin with Kelly Toadvine who shared an absolutely amazing orchid collection, and it's accented with a flower themed stained glass panel.

Peggy Alier shared a pink flowered camillia, the color reminds me of pink cotton candy.

A row of bright pink camillias from Old Village Mount Pleasant was shared by Kevin McPhillips and from Karen Cutter signs of spring, three tiny crocus flowers peeking through the mulch.

Another sign of spring the first hyacinth was shared by Aren Pace, and we wrap up with ginger Brandt who shared farfugium, or you might know it as tractor seat plant.

They're known to flower in the fall or early in the winter, and it just so happens this one has a pretty yellow flower.

Thanks so much for sharing your photos with us.

Remember, we can't share all of them in a single episode, but we encourage you to visit our Facebook page and see all of the submissions, and don't be shy when you see us asked for gardens of the week.

Post your photos in the comments, just do make sure that you hold that camera horizontally.

So your photo takes up lots of room on the screen, And with that, we are going to move to Zack.

Zack you were mentioning that you work a lot with produce and getting that produce from that farm to perhaps a restaurant or table.

So what do you have to show us today?

<Zack> Yeah, so I brought some produce from a farm on Edisto Island called Rooting Down Farms.

And it's a favorite farm of mine because the grower is a young guy and his whole mission is to keep Ag on the islands.

So, as you probably are well aware of a lot of the islands in South Carolina are getting developed, and so we need to support growers that are participating in agriculture along those islands.

So he grows really, really high quality produce.

So I just want to kind of highlight a few things that he has in season that I picked up last night actually.

So <Terasa> It all looks amazing.

So healthy, vibrant.

The colors are just incredible..

It's making me hungry.

<Zack> Yeah, and when you go to a grocery store, you know, it's hard to get this much diversity and color and freshness really, in your produce.

A lot of times in grocery stores, you know, a lot of the produce is picked a week, 10-14, two weeks ago, and so when you buy from a local or purchase from a local farm, a lot of the produce is a lot fresher.

So here we have some beets.

I don't know if you got - you can see in here, but the color on these beets is just incredible.

So even in your gardens, if you want to grow some beets this spring, it would be a good idea, but there's so many different varieties.

This right here is a red ace variety.

So a really dark color.

This one here is a golden beet.

Now the question is do they taste <Terasa> Do they taste different?

<Zack> I don't think so, but one of my favorite beets is called - He didn't have any, but called a chi yoga beet, and it actually looks like a bull's eye.

So it's red, white, red and white, concentric rings.

<Terasa> Hannah, do your kids eat beets?

I know that's sometimes a tough one for kids, and I don't think I appreciated it as a kid.

Now it might be one of my favorites.

We'd love to just put them on the grill and roast them with some olive oil and salt and pepper and good to go.

<Hannah> The more you work with them the more it looks like you almost need to be a crime show.

Your hands become red.

Now the only reason my kids have ever had them would be in a smoothie.

<Terasa> Ah, okay.

<Hannah> But I do like pickled beets.

There's a place in Charleston, maybe in Mount Pleasant that they do pickled beets with brisket.

It is delicious.

<Zack> That sounds good, and speaking of you know brisket a lot of times with a lot of meat dishes, you know you'll have radishes.

Especially at hispanic places.

There's just so much diversity within the radishes.

So, this is I don't know what variety it is, but you know, that's just a beautiful color on that, and then the one beside it is kind of a green or a pale, white kind of color, and they all have different tastes and textures and that sort of thing.

These French breakfast radishes, or the kind of a little petite cute ones here.

<Terasa> It looks like a little torpedo.

<Zack> Yeah, they're very mild and I can actually tolerate these.

Some of your radishes are very, very spicy.

So there's some black radishes that are really, really hot.

<Terasa> So is that something that's inherent to the variety?

Or do growing conditions affect the taste as well?

<Zack> That's a great question.

It's both.

So some of the varieties you know, are bred and grown and marketed as being spicier or a little milder, a little more sweet, but certainly when in the spring when we get warmer temperatures, it's a plant defense kind of mechanism and they get a little more bitter, a little more hotter, taste.

Some other things that I got here.

This is one of my favorite greens.

This is kale.

There's a lot of diversity within the kale, but this is my favorite.

It's Italian kale.

Sometimes it's called toscano kale, romanesco kale, <Terasa> Dinosaur kale?

<Zack> Dinosaur kale.

You sound like Bubba Gump over there, but different types of kale, but this one's my favorite.

You can throw it in a smoothie.

It's really good in stir fry.

It's really tender, but it's a really, really sweet, mild taste, <Hannah> Right, and one of our farm to schools in Manning actually had that.

They grew it in their school garden, and Ms Marie, the one that was kind of helping them taste all the product, said the kids liked it when you took it in your hands and rubbed it together.

It made it a little more tender and sweet.

<Zack> Sure.

<Terasa> Yes, you can massage it, a massaged kale salad.

(laughs) Who knew you massaged plants?

<Hannah> I know.

<Zack> Yeah.

But yeah, so, so just get out there and support your local farmers.

They need all the support, they can get and I think you'll be pleasantly surprised by the diversity and what you're going to find at markets <Terasa> And you can eat the rainbow it looks like.

<Zack> Eat the rainbow.

That's right.

(laughs) <Terasa> Well, we've been talking about plants that we would like to ingest, but Bobby from Hemingway has a question that's for a different species.

Bobby said I just inherited some land, and I'd like to hunt and enjoy watching wildlife.

What should I plant?

Hannah, do you have any tips on... <Hannah> Yeah, I'm an avid hunter as well, I really enjoy it, and some of the stuff that Zack was talking about the root crops, not only do we enjoy eating, but the deer do as well, as well as other little critters that roam around on your land.

Oh, yeah.

Okay.

So these are sugar snaps.

Zack had these as well.

They're in our legume family, and something that we also enjoy eating but the deer really go crazy over this.

Research has shown that when this stuff is planted, they mow it down.

I mean, our soybeans are in that group, and I've been called out to the field before and it'd be a 40 acre field and all of a sudden they're like, my beans aren't growing.

What's wrong with my beans, Hannah and I say, Well, you see all these hoof prints around here?

They have either pulled your plant up or they have totally mowed it down.

So legumes are not only tasty to us, but as well as our livestock, well in wildlife, but some of the things that I would recommend growing for food plots for Bobby to see just wildlife or even if he's going to hunt over a couple of acres that he has, is you could grow turnips.

You could do different types of beans, Austrian winter pea.

Some of the same things that our large farmers would grow for cover crops during the wintertime, but also cool season and warm season would do well for any of our hunters.

So clover, there's different varieties of clover you would use.

You want to be aware of your soil pH in that as well.

It likes a little more of acidic soil.

<Terasa> That's a recurrent theme on this show, because I mean, really the soil is the foundation of anything that you grow.

<Hannah> Correct.

Gotta start start with a good foundation.

<Hannah> Yeah, I mean, so you're spending so much money on all the seeds that you're growing, and whatever you're amending the soil with needs to be just as important as well, to make sure we've got some - a great foundation out there.

You know, the energy that comes from a single corn plant is it's the first three leaves, and so if it's having trouble busting through the top of the soil, or really breaking the top crust, it's gonna use all of this energy just to get out of the soil.

That way the vigor of the plant is gone and we want to make sure that it's in a healthy and well tilled environment or well nurtured environment for that seed to really come up and grow so we have more success.

Some of the issues I've seen with food plots are it being in a small area, so making sure we have enough sunlight to grow the crops that we really are going to want to see for Bobby, but I would love if he'd like to reach out and any of your extension agents are going to have someone on staff to meet with you and locally, kind of walk through our production guide as far as food plots go to help you get that prepared and ready for the season.

<Terasa> Thank you so much.

This is a great example of the diversity of resources that Clemson Extension has to offer.

So probably we are most well known for our work in agriculture, but the work branches out to home hort-iculture, commercial horticulture, food plots and wildlife and many other areas, 4-H development, raising livestock, forages for those livestock.

So we do encourage you to learn more about how extension can help you because that is our mission.

Well, Dr. John, I think this question is going to be for you.

This comes from Greg in Bluffton and he says what is the difference between the Palmetto tree and the dwarf Palmetto and how would I tell the difference?

<John> Well, that's a good question, and I ponder that myself every now and then, because sometimes these two plants will grow together.

<Terasa> Tricky plants.

That's right.

A lot of plants are kind of tricky.

Our state tree, of course, is just that once it's mature a tree and you see it planted all over the state just about and I think it does best not in the farthest inland counties, but toward the coast because that's where it's native.

Sabal Palmetto is our state tree.

That's Palmetto.

<Terasa> Or cabbage palm.

<John> Cabbage palm Some people call it Palmetto, and it doesn't matter really how you pronounce it, but most South Carolinians, I think, pronounce it palmetto, the Palmetto tree and in the palm family, sure enough, it's one of four different species of palms that we have that are native.

So, I'm avoiding the question so far.

(everyone laughs) So the question involves another species, which is definitely not the same as our state tree, and this is dwarf Palmetto, which is, does not get to be a tree ever.

It doesn't really come off the ground.

It will make fronds but they're basically at the top of an underground stem.

So it is not a tree, but it sometimes appears to be a large bush kind of thing, and these two plants can grow in the same area, sometimes, especially towards the coast when there's some swampy ground.

Generally, our state tree is more of a coastal thing.

And then our dwarf Palmetto can be farther inland, but the easiest way to tell the difference, other than whether one's a tree or not, because our state tree starts off as a little thing, and you might be confused by both of these.

Our state tree has a long rib within the frond that goes almost to the end of the leaf itself.

Whereas dwarf Palmetto also has a frond that looks basically the same thing as our state tree, but it has a little rib that's only very dinky and just a couple of inches long.

So that's the best way you can tell them apart.

The other thing is that our state tree has great big fronds that we know and love.

It typically has fibers that separate from the little divisions of the leaf itself.

They look like wiry fibers, and dwarf Palmetto doesn't do that.

Very smooth and fiber free.

<Terasa> Sabal palmetto for our state tree and them dwarf Palmetto is... <John> Sabal minor M-I-N-O-R. <Terasa> And when we mention state tree, is it really a tree, botanically speaking?

(John laughs) <John> I don't want to get in too much trouble.

I've never really paid too much attention to that.

The way I think about it, if it's a woody plant that sticking up, you know, 12 to 20 feet above the or more above the ground.

That's a tree to me.

I don't care what other parameters are involved.

<Terasa> Let me mark this down the botanist said.

(laughs) Very good.

My goodness, it can be so complicated, but I think you really broke it down and gave us sort of that simple detail on how to tell the difference.

<John> I'm glad you didn't ask me if a banana plant is a tree because that's a little bit different.

<Terasa> That's for another show.

(laughs) We had the experience of learning from Dr. Madeline Dowling, And I think you're really going to enjoy seeing how she has combined her love for plants with her artistic skills of photography and videography.

♪ <Amanda> Well, I'm speaking with Dr. Madeline Dowling, and she has finished all of her postdoctoral work at Clemson.

And I don't think that I ever knew that being in Plant and Environmental Sciences lets you also cast people into roles, and write scripts, and all kinds of things.

So, tell me how all this has evolved, please.

<Madeline> Thank you, Amanda.

So, it all goes back to when I first started my Master's degree at Clemson.

I really didn't expect to do more than a Master's degree at that point.

I figured I was about done with school, but I really loved plant science and I loved the people I was working with.

And so I went ahead and went on with the PhD and then ultimately ended up with post-doc.

And when I was finishing up my PhD, I was talking to my advisor, Dr. Guido Schnabel, And he's just amazing.

He's always coming up with cool, new ideas for things and he was talking about how I love photography and video work.

And we came up with this new idea of creating videos and photos that would communicate scientific concepts like disease cycles, understanding how pathogens work and infect, and creating videos and photos about those to help growers and the general public to understand more about these pathogens.

And so we got a couple of grants for that work and then along the way with that I developed a video about an app that Dr. Schnabel had created, along with a team of experts from different land-grant universities.

And in that, I got to cast our farm manager, Jeff Hopkins, as the lead role in the commercial/movie about my IPM app and he was amazing.

He was so much fun to work with.

So, along the way, I also was able to work with our horticultural scientist Dr. Juan Carlos Melgar who was also amazing and super fun to work with.

I worked with his whole team to create a video about his work where they're looking at different peach varieties and how they determine which ones are the biggest and the juiciest and the sweetest and the best.

And that work is very important for growers, so they know which peaches are scientifically the best ones to grow before they grow them, and so we were able to make a really fun video about that as well.

So it's been a really fun ride and I really enjoyed my work there as my post-doc.

<Amanda> But then, of course, blueberries are just - who doesn't love blueberries?

And your little video on blueberries, just, I was just, my mouth was agape because it's just the most charming thing in the world.

And I think our viewers are going to get to watch it now.

♪ <narrator> Delicious in food, on food, or all by themselves, blueberries are one of America's favorite fruits for a reason.

But how do blueberries get from bush to table?

Farm fresh blueberries are picked in the summer, but they wouldn't exist without cold winter days.

In fact, blueberry bushes often need over 500 hours of near freezing temperatures to produce fruit.

Once this chilling requirement is fulfilled warm temperatures can activate the plants.

Blueberry plants need lots of energy to produce fruit.

Sugars stockpiled in stems and roots from the previous season provide the energy the plant needs to open its buds.

Some buds will turn into leaves and some into flowers.

Once leaves open, they use photosynthesis to turn sunlight into more sugars and more energy.

♪ But blueberry flowers need more than just energy.

They need pollen.

Pollen contains the information each flower needs to turn into fruit.

Wind cannot easily move blueberry pollen between blueberry flowers because their pollen is hidden deep within the flower in tiny yellow sacks.

Even honey bees have a hard time pollinating blueberries, often taking multiple trips to pollinate a single flower.

(bee buzzes) Blueberry flowers need special "buzz" pollination mostly performed by bumblebees.

Bumblebees use their powerful wing muscles to vibrate the pollen-producing flower anthers at up to 24,000 beats per minute and release pollen.

The bee then delivers this pollen to all the other flowers it visits.

Once the flowers are successfully pollinated, they take about two months to ripen into fruit, ready to be picked from the bush and enjoyed at the table.

♪ ♪ music ends ♪ <Amanda> Well, I just don't know how in the world you managed to have all those things happen with the blueberry.

So, first of all, how did you get a blueberry to fall off the bunch of blueberries like that?

I mean, that's just not gonna happen in real life, I wouldn't think.

<Madeline> No, I would've had to wait a really long time to let it to drop on its own.

So that was actually pretty tricky to do.

I was trying to figure out a way to make it drop and then fall into the next scene, but I couldn't figure it out.

I tried shaking the branches, but blueberries are really stuck on there.

I tried taping something to the back of the blueberry to see if I could pull it off.

But the tape wouldn't stick, then ultimately I took a piece of thread and actually tied it around the top of the blueberry and then would go behind the camera.

I held the camera so I could actually kind of see what I was doing because I was kind of a one-man show there.

And then pulling the blueberry off with thread and it took a couple of takes to make it work, but then in post-processing, I was able to remove the thread and make it look like it was just dropping from the bush very naturally.

<Amanda> Well, and you know, pollination occurs at such different times of the day and mostly at night a lot.

So how were you able to get all that pollen coming out of the flowers?

<Madeline> Well, some of that was based off of something that our farm manager who told me that if I was having trouble pollinating my blueberries, the time lapse scenes in the video, you can pollinate blueberry bushes with toothbrushes if you use the high, high speed, buzzing kind.

So I thought, well, I could probably get pretty heavy-duty pollen out of these blueberries, by buzzing with the toothbrush.

So that's what I ended up doing.

It worked like a charm.

One of my students helped me with holding the light for me so I can get the toothbrush and like, get everything just right at the same time.

It was lots of fun.

<Amanda> That is just too, that is just crazy funny, and then, I don't know how you, how did you get a camera up into the flower to show where the pollen was inside the flower?

<Madeline> So, with that took a couple tries as well.

I was looking around trying to get an idea, like I wanted to show the inside of the flower, but when I was trying to go up underneath it, it was just too dark inside and it was hard to get light inside the flower and I thought of, like cross sections of flowers and I thought well, I could just take some scissors or something like a scalpel and try to cut around the outside edge, if I take a photo before and I'm really careful and don't move it and take a photo afterward, then I might be able to get it and sure enough, it worked really well.

So that was very fun to do as well, but it took a couple tries not to mangle the flower too much.

<Amanda> Well, I almost wish that there was some tiny microscopic camera because that it was just the way, you know, the way it segues.

I mean it, you just did such a beautiful job with it.

It was really fun.

And I guess you must have had the blueberries in a, in a greenhouse or something.

And just kind of blurred the background some, maybe.

Is that because with time lapse photography, perhaps?

<Madeline> Yes, yes.

So I used a green growth room in the greenhouse at Clemson and we had it set up where I actually had flashbulbs going off every 10 minutes and the flash bulbs, the flash and the camera, when you take a picture, it was all synced and all plugged in for about, I want to say two, I don't know, it was actually in there for six months, but I think the longest I had it going at a time was probably only about a month for the blueberries, actually turning into the fruit, so in the background was actually a poster I printed at Clemson and I pasted behind it, so yes.

<Amanda> Well, I just think your imagination is wonderful, and then I was thinking, you know, I mean, I could kind of understand a time-lapse camera but the one where you have the blueberries in the field and all of a sudden, the grass starts turning green and all that.

So, I mean, I guess it rained some and there was lightning and thunder and day and night.

(laughter) <Madeline> So with that, that was probably the trickiest thing I had to do because I had to come back to the farm.

Probably it varied by season, but I would come about once a week and take a picture one week apart.

There was a guy that I saw, a video of him doing that for a seasonal time lapse in Norway, and I thought, oh, that would be so cool if I could show the seasons changing with blueberries.

So I actually put surveying spikes into the ground where I put my tripod and I have this special pot for the tripod that would stay in exactly the same position.

And then, every time I went out, I just put them in exactly the same position every time, and then in Photoshop, I matched the photos perfectly because they have, like, a software that will do that for you within Photoshop and then blended them all together over time and added the time lapse of 1-times cloud over the top of it.

So that was pretty tricky in post-processing, but I was really excited with how it turned out.

<Amanda> And to think that you saw a video on how to do it from Norway.

You really are a photography nut, and it's just wonderful that you can take that and find a way to make science so much more interesting and accessible for people.

I really, really am amazed.

<Madeline> I love teaching science.

Like, I was able to teach a class on photography and video for plant scientists, and we even had some biology students that joined in as well.

And they're all grad students.

And they had a wonderful time just learning how to use their cell phones to take better photos because we all have cell phones now, and they take pretty good photos.

Whether the photo is good or not, it depends on just knowing a few tips and tricks to make the photo itself good, and it's not as much about the camera as it is about the photo, like the composition or the contrast.

<Amanda> Do you have some tips you can share with us?

<Madeline> Oh, of course, I'd love to.

One of the main things is to make sure that whatever your subject is, that you're taking a photo of, make sure that you have a subject, first of all.

A lot of times when you're taking a photo, you're just so excited about what you're looking at that you forget to focus on something in the picture, but you always want to have something in that picture that stands out so that people know what they're supposed to look at because our minds kind of do image scanning.

When we look at pictures, they're like amazing computers, and they are looking for something to look at, and if there's nothing to look at it, our brains just kind of dismiss the photo as not interesting, but if there is a subject that's really clear, then it makes that photo stand out.

So using contrast, like making that subject the largest thing in the picture or making it a different color from the background and even going back to elementary school, what we learned about like complementary colors, where green and purple have the highest contrast, trying to see if you can get a background behind, say, a purple flower that's green or green grass that's, you know, you have purple flowers in the background, something like that or including blur, like where you have an object that's really close to the camera and then something that's further away so that the background is blurred.

That also creates some contrast as well.

So there's a lot of little things you can do to make the subject stand out and make your photo more interesting.

<Amanda> Yeah, well, I've learned something already.

Anything else that you think we should keep in mind?

<Madeline> One thing my students really loved was the impact section of the class.

So obviously a picture is a still image, you're not taking a video, but when you add motion into a picture, it adds an extra layer of impact to that picture because people don't typically see motion in a picture.

So if you have some kind of action, like, say, someone's pouring or spraying water on their plants, one of my students actually did, took a picture of watering his plants in his garden, and just things like that, just adding that extra layer of action creates interest in the photo as well.

So that was one of the things I really enjoy doing.

<Amanda> I think that you have a real gift for this and I want you to, even though you have a new job now with the web development company, I want you to get out there and do a little bit more of what you did with some plants and share your new, your new productions with us.

Will you do that for me, maybe?

<Madeline> That sounds like a lot of fun.

I'd love that.

<Amanda> Well, Dr. Madeline Dowling, thank you so much.

This has just been such a fun thing to watch and to learn about and you certainly have a creative mind and I'm glad that you're combining it with actual science.

Thank you so much.

<Madeline> Thank you very much.

I'm so grateful to everybody that has supported me along the way and to the Lord for that.

That's just so, so special that, you know, I can use that and use it to teach other people about the things that I love, so, it's very exciting.

<Amanda> You have a real career as a teacher even if it's not in a classroom.

I hope so.

Thank you.

♪ ♪ <Terasa> Wasn't that just incredible?

I was most fascinated by the tricks that she used.

So Amanda asked her, Well, how did you get the blueberry to fall off to us in the video, and she explains that, of course, it didn't naturally fall off the plant.

But she was able to use a tiny little string that she tied around and then, through the magic of camera angles in the editing, you didn't see the string in the finished video, but also some wonderful tips that you might use when taking photographs, either for your own personal use, or to submit for gardens of the week.

Let's dive right back in.

We are going to try to help Janessa in Williamsburg.

Janessa says I bought some fruit trees years ago, but they have never produced what is going on?

Poor Janessa, sounds frustrated.

Zack, I think you know a little bit about fruit.

<Zack> Yep.

And we get this question a lot.

So a lot of fruit trees are going to do better in certain areas of the state than others.

So for example, peaches, I get a lot of calls about people wanting to grow peaches on the coast, it's just not a suitable environment, there's too much heat and humidity on the coast for peaches, but what typically happens when I get these calls, is I ask where they got the tree from, and do they know how many chill hours the tree needs, and so chill hours are temperatures during the period of dormancy, and it's how many hours under 45 degrees that the tree gets.

So if we don't get enough chill hours, then the tree basically doesn't go through its natural, I guess circadian rhythm if you will.

So different areas of the state receive different amounts of chill hours.

So in the coastal regions were four to 600 hours depending on the year.

Then up in the mountainous regions up 1200 or more chill hours.

So if you plant that, let's say came from a nursery in Florida, and planted it in the upstate of South Carolina, it's never going to get enough chill hours to properly go through the right reproductive stages.

The same thing can be true if we buy plants, let's say apples from a northern nursery and we plant them in Beaufort County, that tree never gets enough chill hours, or doesn't get enough in that situation.

So, buying plants that are specific to your region and the right amount of chill hours is really important to get trees to fruit.

<Terasa> And tree fruit in general can be difficult for homeowners.

<Zack> Correct.

>> For the most part <Zack> Correct.

And so I'd really when people tell me they want to grow fruit that kind of ask why they want to grow fruit in <Terasa> Support your local farmer.

<Zack> Exactly.

Exactly.

They have it down, but if you're if you're - a homeowner, I would recommend blueberries, blackberries.

These are things that are that are kind of more adapted here muscadines, that are a little easier to do than, say, peach trees or apple trees.

<Terasa> And we can leave those to our farmers and then we can support that.

<Hannah> That's right.

Yeah.

<Terasa> And the Department of Agriculture can be a great resource their website to help you find either restaurants that have fresh produce on their menu or if you're wanting to find a certified roadside stand, as well.

<Hannah> Yeah, my kids and I utilize that a lot.

I know there's the heritage corridor, and we can look up the different farms and what they have in season.

It has their phone numbers, even Christmas trees.

I mean, all year long you can visit and reach out about the state That website is very helpful.

<Zack> But have you seen their agri-tourism passport?

>> Yes.

<Zack> So it's like this little book, and when you go to a farm, that's part of that program.

You get a stamp.

Almost like you would have a real passport.

<Hannah> Yeah, really all year long.

You can do like picking pumpkins.

You could do the Christmas tree stuff.

<Zack> Strawberries.

Sunflowers.

<Hannah> Blueberries.

Yeah, yeah, <Zack> You name it.

<Hannah> With Young kids is very important.

You cannot sit home all day on Saturday.

You have to get out of the house, or they'll end up eating you out of house and home, right?

<Zack> Exactly.

<Terasa> Yeah.

And agriculture can be a great way to learn and get physical exercise <Hannah> Vitamin D. <Terasa> Support the economy.

<Hannah> That's correct.

<Terasa> Yeah.

Love it.

Well, Dr. John, I understand you have something on your mind, a plant that maybe has been used in the home landscape, but perhaps we should reconsider that <John> Right.

You know, recently there have been a good bit of press made about some not very friendly trees in our environment, and one of them is in the rose family, and it's called Bradford pear, and there's, there's a lot of thought now that people shouldn't be growing that.

The reason is because it spreads so easily, and it's a really terrible thing to have in your landscape.

Well, unfortunately, and part of this has to do with how many people are moving around, climate things going on.

We're having more and more plants that are turning out to be more or less invasive, and one of those that's kind of on the doorstep now, so to speak, is a fern.

It's a real pretty fern, and a lot of people are buying it just at the big box stores, to grow in pots or even to put in their yards because it'll do great in either place, and it's called autumn fern, and I tell you what it is a beautiful fern.

This is another plant that's from Asia, and the scientific name, you know how I am about scientific names.

<Terasa> Oh yes.

(John laughs) Let's see if I can remember it.

It's Dryopteris erythrosora.

And it's called erythrosora because of the little spore dots on the back of the leaf are kind of red, but let's not go there too much.

This autumn fern has, in the last several years been found growing wild, outside of cultivation in several parts of Georgia, and even more recently in South Carolina.

This stuff will grow in yards from Myrtle Beach all the way to Greenville, and then uncultivated populations have been located in various places in the Upstate and including Lake Jocassee, for one thing, and this information comes from South Carolina DNR, And Keith Bradley, who's this state botanist, but this plant, as I said is likely to be showing up anywhere in the state, and it's crowding out other things too in natural areas.

So this is really one that we should avoid planting.

There are plenty of other ferns, and especially the native ones that do just as well and are quite lovely.

<Terasa> Thank you so much for bringing that to everyone's attention, and really the earlier we can identify a plant as being invasive, the better opportunity we have for eradication and control.

There are some things that are so widespread already, like some of the privet species that <John> They're naturalized, and that's gone beyond just being invasive, but you know, Teresa, this business of knowing what you're growing can be kind of a problem, especially if something is showing up in your yard, and that's the reason we have botanists.

So, a citizen of this state, if you - if they have an unusual plant that's showing up in their yard or their field or whatever, can consult with the botanist at their local herbarium.

<Terasa> You would know exactly how to reach that person even though you're retired.

<John> Of course, you know, we have we have eight different herbaria in the state and they all have fine botanists within them.

So talk to them.

Botanists tend to be friendly people.

I'm sure that your local botanist would be glad to help you.

and if you happen to be local for me, I'll help.

<Terasa> That's right.

And Dr. Herrick Brown right?

<John> Herrick Brown <Terasa>Is also willing to help.

Great resources you just know how to reach out to them, and of course, there's also - Clemson has the Department of Plant Industry and certain species if you notice them in your yard or in growing wild in an area I ask that you report them, you're welcome to contact your local Clemson Extension office and we'll help to get you in touch with the right people.

Well now, let's go from sort of a somber topic to one that is happier and take a visit to the MUSC urban farm in downtown Charleston.

♪ music ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ <Amanda> I'm talking to Noni Langford, and she is landscape designer, and she is on the grounds crew at the Medical University of South Carolina.

And I just can't believe how integrated overall health is here through what y'all do on the grounds.

Tell us a little bit about how all encompassing it is.

<Noni> I'm happy to.

We are, this is the MUSC urban farm, which is a half acre farm and the purpose and our mission is to connect food to your health and eating healthy.

And so we serve the community, we serve students and staff here and patients.

<Amanda> And by serve, you don't mean you're fixing them food, you're introducing them to these healthy foods.

<Noni> Exactly.

We're teaching them how to do it.

We get a lot of people, I have some students in here who grew up in the city, they'd never seen tomatoes grown on the tomato bush.

So we like to enlighten them and get them to be interested in gardening as well as eating healthy.

<Amanda> And a lot of that is done just, I don't mean to say haphazardly, but just casually.

People love to come by and talk to you while you're working.

<Noni> Exactly.

They really do.

It's a lot of fun, and then we also have volunteer options for people.

We are doing some construction right now.

So we don't have as many as we normally do.

But by the spring, we're going to be back up full steam, and we will have people come in, they'll sign in and they'll come work with us.

We call it work and learn, and they can, whatever we're harvesting, they can have some to take home with them.

<Amanda> But also you have studied diversity and inclusion, and people with disabilities.

And so, you're finding ways to let them be a part of things here.

Some of that happens here and some of it takes place inside patient facilities.

<Noni> Absolutely.

We are, we call it horticultural therapy, and the purpose of that is to really have people understand how being in nature can make them feel better.

You know, there's documents and reviews that talk about this.

So, we love the idea of letting them have a hands on experience with nature, especially plants.

We love to teach them about plants and teach them how to grow and give them the confidence they need to maybe consider doing this in the future.

<Amanda> You've got some things that y'all have just designed.

So people in wheelchairs can get up and you don't have them all stuck off by themselves.

They're integrated where everybody else is.

<Noni> Absolutely.

I mean, the entire campus, of course, meets the guidelines of the American Disabilities Act, but we want to make our gardens even more comfortable and welcoming for people with mobility or any kind of disability.

<Amanda> And you've got a children's garden going now, and I saw some people over there playing and it's near the dental clinic and so a lot of people come and maybe you'll have some kids with them and now there's something for them to do.

<Noni> Imagine how much more relaxed they are when they get in the dental chair if they haven't been able to run and get some energy out and have some tactile things to do.

<Amanda> Now some people are inpatients for a variety of reasons and you've found ways to take programs to them as well.

What are some of the challenges that presents?

<Noni> Well, the number one challenge is safety, obviously, for the patient and for and for us.

We want to make sure that there's, we're not introducing a problem for them if they are, if a child has, is on chemotherapy, there's a big list of things they cannot do.

So, and then there's also simple things like peanut allergy, so we don't use peanut butter for bird feeders.

We use Sun Butter.

From that's made from sunflower seeds.

So that's one minor example.

<Amanda> And you've planned programs like for one group, you have young children, middle school, and then older people, and you go in and you got to have something going for all of them.

I know that you got to keep people busy, or else you're going to lose their attention.

<Noni> That's exactly right, but they're outside and they're happy to be outside, and it's just, it's really been a great experience for them.

<Amanda> Well, it just sounds like everything on campus supports what y'all do, <Noni> Absolutely.

<Amanda> which I think is remarkable because what's the basis - is the best thing is to stay healthy and not have to come to MUSC, but if you do come, how wonderful that you can have programs that encourage ways to improve your health.

<Noni> Absolutely, and it's a large campus.

And of course, we're have satellite campuses now as well, but this campus is 93 acres, and it is an arboretum.

We have, it was very hard to get the status of arboretum through Trees USA, and we're very proud that we have it, and so every tree on the campus is monitored to make sure it's healthy.

We have some fun, tree walking tours where we take people around and show them special trees.

<Amanda> What a tremendous resource for Charleston and for the people who are in need of the expert care you give here, but also of people who just need to feel better and have ways to come and have casual conversations, and maybe pick up horticulture as a way of life.

Thank you so much!

<Noni> Thank you.

♪ music ♪ ♪ <Terasa> I've never really thought about visiting a hospital campus other than for medical treatment, but after seeing that segment, I'm inspired to learn more about what's happening to create healthy communities at the MUSC urban farm.

Speaking of healthy communities, farming and agriculture helps to support that we've got a question about some farm fields.

David in Sumter wrote in and said every now and then I noticed a strong smell as I drive by farm fields.

Is that fertilizer of some sort?

Hannah, what do you think?

<Hannah> Well, he hit the nail on the head.

He is correct, it is a fertilizer smell.

Typically, in this part of the country, or part of our state we have chicken and turkey houses, and because their manure or their waste is so concentrated, if we were to take that and pull it out of the chicken houses that they're growing in, we have 25,000 birds in a house, all of those over about eight weeks span of time, that they're growing are going to have a lot of litter leftover.

So we take and analyze that litter and we see what we're able to compost with.

So if some of our viewers have had, their grandparents would take out like any kind of manure out of the barns or their chicken houses when they were young and go and spread it over the field during the wintertime, that is a source of fertilizer for us.

Now, the reason that David is able to smell it is because generally during the time of year that we prepare our fields for growing season is in the fall and in the springtime.

You know, those are very mild climate days, the air is probably not moving as much, especially in the morning and in the evening time.

And when that happens, the temperature, we typically get a temperature inversion, which is I like to call it Turkey home weather because when I'm sitting on the edge of the field, and I see those turkeys come out the cloud levels real low, the air is really still and that just allows that smell what they're smelling growing back, and growing up in Mississippi, we call that money, it smelled like somebody was making some money, but that smell just kind of lingers in the air.

So giving it a little bit longer in the day as long as it doesn't rain or get super cloudy that smell will dissipate.

The fresher the manure, the stinkier it is.

<Terasa> Okay.

>> Which in my world, it just means it's a little more beneficial because our nutrients are going to be a lot higher.

For some of you that do have chicken houses or that you do have larger chickens growing on a grander scale, you can take that and actually send it to the lab and get a nutrient analysis of that.

<Terasa> Ah, so we don't just haphazardly apply, but there is a method to the madness.

<Hannah> Correct.

Yes.

A way to make it more beneficial for not only you but your plants, in the long run probably save you some money.

Zack, that's something that with produce, I know with large Ag or corn, cotton soybeans, that's not something that we're taking from the field and ingesting, but is that something that y'all do with fresh produce?

<Zack> You can, but typically, it's not done just because of food safety issues.

So typically, we're growing more cover crops and using municipal type compost to amend the soils.

<Hannah> Yeah, yeah, like we talked earlier with the food plot, we do have cover crops that are grown.

And as those decompose, especially our legumes, and different ones that are going to produce more of a leafy matter is going to allow it to incorporate into the soil, and as that breaks down, like our composting sites at home, we're able to gain some benefits from that.

It takes a little while for that to decompose and for our good microbes to eat it in the soil and make it readily available for the plants, but it is something that adds a lot of benefit to our growing season.

<Terasa> Now, are there rules and regulations?

I would assume there are that govern when you can apply?

And are there any safety measures that need to be taken is weather a factor?

<Hannah> Well, yes, but there's a lot of red tape And it's usually for the people who are growing on large scales.

You want to be aware of your like your waterways and those type of things, but I know with produce, I believe it's like 120 day harvest time.

<Zack> Yeah, so there's a 90 and 120 day rule.

So any type of compost you put out, if it's something that fruits like a tomato or something that's off the ground, it has to be 90 days from the time you put it out.

from the time you harvest.

And if it's a leafy green or something that's growing closer to the ground, you have to wait 120 days, but we never use raw manure.

We always use composted manure.

<Terasa> Safety, safety is very important and when in doubt, if you have any questions, you're welcome to consult your local extension office for information and we will try our best to get that to you in a way that's easy to understand.

We thank you all for viewing.

Visit our Facebook page and we hope to see you next week.

♪ music ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ music ends ♪ <Narrator> Making It Grow is brought to you in part by Certified South Carolina is a cooperative effort among farmers, retailers and the South Carolina Department of Agriculture to help consumers identify foods and agricultural products that are grown, harvested or raised right here in the Palmetto State.

The Boyd Foundation, supporting outdoor recreational opportunities, the appreciation of wildlife, educational programs, and enhancing the quality of life in Columbia, South Carolina and the Midlands at large.

McLeod Farms in McBee, South Carolina.

Family owned and operated since 1916.

This family farm offers seasonal produce, including over 40 varieties of peaches.

Additional funding provided by the South Carolina Farm Bureau Federation and Farm Bureau Insurance and Boone Hall Farms.