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

I'm your host Tinisha, Spain.

And joining me in the studio today are three of my pals here to talk about all things green and growing.

So before we get started, let's have them quickly introduce themselves and tell you a little bit about where you can find them.

So Jim, will start with you.

Oh, I'm an entomologist, retired entomologist from the Illinois natural history survey here on the campus of the Illinois natural, the University of Illinois.

And so I deal with the insects and mites attacking trees, shrubs, and flowers.

And we're gonna talk about some of those in a bit.

Okay.

I'm Kay Carnes out of Champaign County Master Gardener, and I love the herbs.

That's my kind of my specialty.

I have my own garden.

And I also volunteer at Allerton Park.

Run overseeing their garden.

Excellent.

Oh, Marty, and I'm Martie Alagna.

Yeah, I just recently retired again.

It's pretty great.

I'm one of the things that these people are Jim is brilliant in case gifted, and they just need another warm body in the chair.

Here we are.

So we called on you.

You get what you pay for on public television.

Okay.

All right.

And on that note, off we go.

Okay, Jim, we're gonna start with you.

And you've got a little story to share.

About a month ago, I had a call from a lady who said that she loves to watch wi ll TV in the evenings, which is, which is really nice.

Yeah, her and her husband both like to do that.

But she said when I sit in my favorite chair, the armrest, which is wooden is always very sticky.

I mean, she said it was almost as if somebody spilled some beverage on it.

And I said, I bet you have a large tropical plant outside of your chair.

And she said, Oh, yes, I do.

I said, Well, I bet you anything that you got an infestation of soft brown scale on that Scheffel error.

Wow, I thought that would be an introduction that we could talk about soft brown scale, and citrus mealybug, which are both paths of indoor plants.

This slide shows a close up of the soft brown scale.

You can see it's, these are mature scales.

So let's go to the next slide.

Here's here's a little far away shot, but you can see what they look like.

They're rather small, and sometimes they're rather clear.

So it's sometimes hard to find.

Here's even closer up.

And you can see the little yellow spots are the young ones, and they produce a huge number of young.

Now the scales as well as mealybugs produce a excretion called honeydew.

That falls on the leaves.

And that's what this show is on Sheffler a leaf with honey do next.

And then if you don't wish that honey do Off, off on a black sooty fungus, grows on the honeydew.

So it's a real problem.

Here's a citrus really bug, this was on Koh ankle.

And you can see how numerous they are.

And here's another close up and you see all stages there and some of the young ones, and they can be a terrible pest.

And this actually shows a plant that was actually killed.

This was a chef Lera would had a bad infestation is actually killed by by the citrus meat like bug.

So now let's talk about controls.

First of all, you could if you if it's possible, just use a soft toothbrush and scrape them off.

Now that's not practical at some plants.

You can't do that on IVs or Jolla, which a lot of lines but on a on a plant like Chef Larry, you could actually use a toothbrush and scrape off as many as those insects as you can see, then there are some sprays.

If you play the sprays, they have to be applied about every week for about a month.

So you get on about four applications.

Because if you don't do that, those mature scales and mealybugs will still produce young because you can't control as it was matures insects and so they keep reducing yuck and if you just put apply one spray that won't do it.

So be sure that you apply for sprays at weekly intervals.

And for about a month.

Now you can use the ball night insecticide soap and that comes into 12 on Saturday to use our bone I'd also makes a material called Bo nine eight insect control house and garden that can that also comes as a 12 ounce and ready to use.

Then it fits practical.

You could apply granules to the soil with one application.

And that's a systemic chemical Bible on it again.

And that's eminent clar printed.

And if you apply that you just apply it to the soil work at inland, we'll bet and then when the when you water the plant, then the insecticide is dissolved.

And that goes into the plant and it controls and it controls a large number of insects that are feeding on the plant.

So he control, mealybugs scale whiteflies, aphids, anything like that, then the bear also makes a product.

And that's called bear two and one insect control plus fertilizer.

And I brought in a one of these packets that have the some of it comes as a granule.

But then other cases, it comes as a tablet, you can put the tablet on the and the just push it in the soil and then water it out.

And so that's how to control but they can really be a terrible pest.

I've lost a couple of House plans to scale and it seems like you don't know it until it's too late.

It's too late.

You know, you don't find one or two, you find a clump.

Yeah.

And then it's like, oh boy, now when we do, yeah.

All right.

Okay, we are to you.

Okay, well, I brought some garlic because it's still early enough to planted at this time.

It's it's a good time to plant it you plant generally, garlic was a little bit confused from other plants because you plant it in the fall, and then you harvested it usually in July or so.

So and I've got two different varieties, and this was a great big one.

And clothes are really huge.

And then we have a little smaller one.

And they're both nice, because sometimes you don't want a ton of garlic you just want a little bit.

So I use the little ones.

And to plant them, you just break off.

I can do this off a clove and you can wait this skin on and you want to play on it.

This is kind of this down end and this is the other end.

You want to this the stand man down so you planted up and down like this.

And you want to plant them at least a big one like this good two inches or more.

And I worked the soil in the row before it plenum so it's nice and loose underneath.

And then same way with this now spacing, of course space these a lot bit further apart.

And then usually I spaced them about three three inches three or four inches and just make long rattle and cover it with the dirt and then you want to mulch and I normally I used straw from ultra thick layer last year we had so many leads I tried leads and that worked really well to this year if for some reason we don't have as many leaves.

So they might not keep that covered until a nail to the actually just grow up the chute.

So girl through the march.

Now when is that window going to close of when you can get them into the ground before the ground freezes.

Okay.

So you wanted to do a little bit ahead of time so they get kind of a head start.

I one side planted?

I don't know maybe a month ago.

I were already up and growing.

Oh, wow.

Yeah.

Okay, got a little bit of time left to get that garlic in if you would like to enjoy some in the summer, right?

Yeah, next summer.

It's just opposite.

It is I had to really pause and think about we need to get good.

You want to let the skins dry on on the stem.

The stem will be pretty tall.

That's what I remember seeing the braids, the garlic braids, like in a garage or something like that when I was a little kid, they were drying.

Let's see that's that's the stuff that you see when you're a kid and it really doesn't click and then when you get older, it's like oh, that had a purpose.

It didn't just look cool hanging in the garage.

So anyways, it's for there's important Yes.

Okay, we are to the landscaper.

So as we are ready to put our tools away sadly, yeah.

There's maintenance involved.

Yeah, don't put them away cruddy.

I only have one caveat to what Kay was sharing about garlic and that is my name is Val.

There's no such thing as too much garlic.

Never.

It's just not.

So never, never never.

So it is easier than you think.

To think about my toolbox and to sharpen your tools.

It's very, very satisfying job.

I just did these Reese Whitley can you get a close up on here, these these land printers just go together with a with a bolt.

Okay.

And this spring just pulls off, there's two little two little nubs that it catches on.

So, take the bolt out and take the spring off, it'll come away into pieces.

Then so you have the nut and the bolt and the nut is is on these is self tightening, it's locking that.

So there's no groove or anything on the back of the, on the on the head side of the bolt.

If you do I mean I've got, I got a pair of loppers here too.

And these are same, same thing.

I've used these so much that this is almost busted off poor old lad.

But same idea.

So you take them apart, it's easier, you don't have to take him apart, but it is easier if you do.

So for those of you who have not sharpened before.

This is pretty simple.

But it's kind of odd at first when you think you know, if you're if you're thinking about sharpening.

So you see this, there's a flat side, I'm gonna near the close up here, Mr. DeMille.

There's a there's a flat side to this cutting blade.

And then there's a beveled side to the cutting blade.

And this this edge here is what you're trying to sharpen.

Okay.

So when you sharpen the beveled edge, you want to go like that.

Like that people instinctively want to go like that.

That's not right.

Get a flat file.

And what you do is you use the bevel edge.

So I'm gonna be wearing this water.

Yeah, I shouldn't probably just took this apart earlier.

But okay, what you want to do is push the file into the beveled edge.

To see that you push the file into the beveled edge, and you go all the way from the bottom to the very tip.

This is what sharpens your blade, not the other way.

This is what gets you a good edge on that blade.

Now I'm not even looking at where I'm at.

Because I've done this a lot, you try to get the file, right on that beveled edge.

And without even looking at what I'm doing.

Can you see one more?

Can you see on here close.

I don't know if you can see or not.

Where this Lego lights catching it this little edge is shinier.

Now because I've taken it off.

Now this this isn't that terribly dull because I've been using them and I was I was sharpening them.

But do that and keep testing the edge once in a while.

Sometimes they're absolutely horrible.

Sometimes, they're not too bad.

But remember, push the blade into the file or the file into the boys whatever is easiest for you.

And you do this with your hand pruners.

And you do this with your loppers.

And you also do it with your shovel.

Okay, same thing.

Could you just hold this for a minute?

Did I have a choice?

No.

You can I've I usually do it like this, like on the top.

But again, when you're using your file, you can you can do it from the back as well.

But I kind of like this.

Again you push the file in into the face of that cutting edge.

And doesn't it seems counterproductive but trust me.

I've been doing this a long time.

There's some little nibs NAB zoom grabs in chunks out of there.

But if you keep at it, you'll get them out.

Okay, and I'm telling you what, once you sharpen a shovel or spade, and you use it you'll kick yourself for not sharpening those later.

Because man oh man, that make a difference.

I mean, you know, work smarter not harder.

There's plenty of hard work in the garden.

So make the tools one of them Yeah, make your tools help you out.

That's good.

You got drug make tool, you know.

Okay.

All right.

All right, Jim.

We're back to you.

We've got some bush.

Yeah, I thought Sam bring in some plants here that are have red berries or red fruits at this time of year.

This plant here is called a MER AMU are honeysuckle sometimes it's referred to as bush.

honeysuckle, you don't want to have this on your property.

It's it's pretty right now because the red berries, but the birds eat the red berries, and then they distribute the berries and their droppings all over the place.

And it's very, very invasive.

So if you have this, get rid of this on your property, another plant that's having red fruits on his burning bush.

And this is a very pretty beautiful red foliage that it has and has these fruits on it right now, this too can be invasive.

Now I don't have a I have one large bush on my property.

And this doesn't seem to be invasive, but other people have reported that it is invasive, so you got to be careful, but this one as well.

And then this last one is called spicebush.

This is a native these other two that I mentioned are are exotics, but this is called spicebush.

And it's a native plant has these bright red fruits on it, these will fall in fact, they're falling at the present time.

But it's rather nice plant.

It tends to be somewhat invasive if you don't careful.

I mean it does.

It seems the suckers done it.

Nuts.

Well, it does a little bit suckers, but the seeds are distributed by animals.

And so you do find quite a few of these plants coming help here and there.

But you can always get rid of those very easily.

But it's a pretty quiet because it has these bright red fruits on it and a native species.

Okay, excellent.

Who did any of you grew potatoes this year?

No, nobody grew potatoes.

No, but I like them.

Okay.

All right.

We're Noreen Novak.

She sent in an email and grew them in a sack this year.

And she wants to know if the smaller ones here on the cardboard can be used as seed potatoes to grow more.

What are your thoughts there?

I think you could use you know, they have eyes, you could use them.

Can you get Noreen to pick one of those up out of the picture so we could see if there.

There we go.

There are the little guys right there.

So it was an eye right on that one in the middle.

So size doesn't really matter when it comes to these you can just grow if the if it's got eyes, then.

No, that doesn't make any difference.

It's the presence of the eye.

That's really important.

Okay.

All right.

All right.

So yes, you can grow those.

When I was a kid, those were those were dog potatoes.

As we grew up potatoes for a family of eight.

And the teeny tiny ones we threw off in a five gallon bucket and we had several dogs, so we'd run out of kibble.

Mom would put those in a big crock pot or in a big stock pot and she cooked them.

She thrown in some bacon grease and dogs loved it.

I bet.

I bet delicacy grandma's cooking so yeah.

No.

Big grease.

Heck yeah.

Let's see.

Margie Brewer has a question.

She wants to know if you guys can suggest any annuals for next year, she's making a head that can be put in an area where there's concrete, and it only gets direct sun in the afternoon.

So near concrete and only afternoon sun.

Sure.

Almost everything.

Pretty much in pot, whatever she can kind of get away with whatever.

Well, I'm wondering, I wish she had given us the dimensions of the bed.

I mean, are we talking about a strip of foot wide, or strip three feet wide?

What does he say?

Doesn't say but we need a size here.

So because everything doesn't get the same size.

Now, I would go with part shade to full sun plants, because the afternoon sun is stronger, and it's hotter.

And you have the house reflecting heat and you have the concrete reflecting heat.

So and so that the bed however wide it is is going to be pretty alkaline because of the leaching of the concrete into the into the soil there.

And frequently when the house is built, that's a good throw that junk in their area.

Because construction workers are not typically avid gardener, so they got their job and we got ours.

So you might want to test the soil just for fun.

It's easy to get it get a soil test kit, do it at home, you know, put on a white coat and a headlamp you know be the mad scientist.

It's really easy.

You just use some tap water and you get a little sample.

It's very fun.

I've done it on the show before so test your soil, you may have to amend it just to get the pH lower.

But if it's like six and a half, seven year, you're right in the zone and anything.

See them?

Black Eyed Susans catmint cone flat helped me out.

Take a pic yeah then use What about?

Yeah, yeah annuals.

She said perennials annuals she wanted annuals only Oh, nevermind that other stuff.

But yeah, almost any almost any sun loving annual should do really well.

Okay off topic but also timely Jim.

Is there anything we can do to get the stinkbugs away from the door?

million dollar question, vacuum there's nothing that repels them there's nothing they don't like there's not a cent that they meant no cinnamon No, nothing.

I really don't know.

Okay.

Okay, I confess, wait a minute.

Okay, so I've got another question for the master here.

What are those little black mods?

Yes.

Those two.

Thank you.

What are the green Clover warm?

Green clover.

What else are the green Clover warm?

The caterpillar all feeds off and on soybeans.

So other beans as well, but it's it's called a green Clover warm?

Well, they are copious this season the green clover.

Interesting.

Do they come in waves like this?

Or well, they seem to be gone.

Yeah, yeah.

They are in the fall months just for about a period about two weeks.

Gotcha.

Gotcha.

Yeah.

Okay, good call.

Okay.

We're surrounded by corn this year.

And there's no soybeans.

We have other plants as well.

Well, they must.

Yeah.

But, but soybean is his favorite.

Beans on the west and north and I bet you had them.

Yeah, blanketing their car like stag?

Yeah, they were everywhere.

Okay, we've got about five minutes left.

You want to talk about tree wrap?

Yes, I sure can.

Alright, take us home.

If you're planting tree, which I have done a few this year and I still have some to do.

My you can buy these.

I think I got these at Menards.

They come in a package that looks like this.

They're a couple of bucks.

Okay.

This is officially called tree masters spiral tree pro Tector.

Two inches wide by 24 inches tall.

Okay.

And you wrap this around the tree trunk.

When you plant a tree.

This is rabbit defense is what this is.

But just because this is two inches wide does not mean you have to plant something.

It's two inches wide.

My arm is considerably larger than two inches wide.

And when you put it on your tree, just pretend this is the ground.

Okay, here's the top.

Alright, you just started on and roll it around.

Okay, do you want to leave any space between the wrap and the trails?

You don't want to see any trees?

Oh, okay.

Yes, the rabbits want each other.

And especially when you're way down on the bottom on the ground.

Take this right down to the ground.

Okay, so it's like that.

And and it's expandable.

It has vent holes in it.

So that moisture doesn't build up on your tree.

It fits closely enough so insects can't live in there.

And it keeps the moisture from accumulating.

And you can see keep doing this.

That my arm is completely protected if my sleeve is the ground because there here we go rabbits flexible.

If the trunks a little crooked, it doesn't matter.

And it expands as the tree grows.

So you put this on when it's a little fart and then just leave it on.

Leave it on for a couple of seasons.

I've lost more dog wood and ammo anchor and Rose standards and hydrangea standards to a little bit of rabbit damage because they don't just take a bite.

No.

They hurtle the trees and make you mad.

Now are there any certain trees that do need that more than others?

Is it so they will they will munch on him on everything okay?

Just in case yes preventative medicine here.

This is this is HMO for the tree crowd.

Okay, there these are these are so invaluable.

I've got a plant.

I still have a lot of stuff in my yard plant because I plant in other people's yards and I got a huge kind of catch up on your own two rows, two rows standard three dogwood trees, they're all going to be wearing this and I will leave that on ad infinitum and it just the the once once a tree gets a caliper of about four or five inches, rabbits won't chew on it anymore.

But before then, is it because it's softer?

Is that Yeah, interesting.

Bark gets tougher and they don't want to do it on roses.

You're Sol you better leave those things on till death takes them because but it won't be rabbits You won't be the rabbit.

You will win the war against the red, hot and suffer.

Yeah.

Okay.

Well guys, we're we've got about a minute left.

We're out of time.

So thank you so much for coming in.

We learned a lot today.

And thank you so much for joining us.

If you've got questions for our panelists, please send them in to your garden@gmail.com or you can look us up on Facebook, just search for an American gardener.

And that is it for us on this edition and we will see you next time.

Thanks for joining us.

Good night.