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

I'm your host Tinisha, Spain.

And joining me in studio today to talk about all things green and growing are two of our very experienced panelists.

Let's have them introduce themselves and tell you a little bit about them before we jump in and get started.

So Jim, we'll start with you.

I'm Jim Appleby, am I retired entomologist from the Illinois natural history survey here at the University of Illinois, so I deal with the insects and mites attacking trees and shrubs.

Excellent.

All right, Miss Marty.

Hello.

My name is Martie Alanga.

And I'm an avid follower of Jim Appleby cuz he knows everything.

Everything.

He knows it all.

No, no, they're even need me here.

Really?

Just real life.

She's a retired landscaper, semi retired landscaper.

So she's gonna tackle I'm working on three questions today, finishing here.

Okay.

All right.

Let's jump in and get started.

Jim, you sent in some pictures.

And we're going to start with those.

So we're talking cicadas right.

Yeah.

Let's, let's start with this one here first.

Okay.

All right.

What are we looking at?

Well, what we have here is the dog de cicada.

This cicada is a species that emerges every year is called Dog Day, because the adults are very active during the dog days of summer.

And when you hit those warm days of summer during July and August and September, so this kid is active at the same time.

Now, they will deposit their eggs, a female deposit their eggs in twigs, small twig, tree twigs, and then sometimes a twig will die.

But it's insignificant because you know, it's not a very common insect, okay, and we have those every year.

The other stockade that we have is the periodical cicada.

And they're different.

The other one had the green green wings and green head and eyes.

This one has red eyes.

And in darker in color, the body is darker in color.

And it has just enormous number of insects.

I mean, when they emerge, they emerge and by the 1000s.

Now we went through this not last year, or was it last year, the year before?

Oh, no, no, no, it was in 19.

I worked out the star and it was in 920 2011.

Okay.

2011, we had the 13 year cicada Gotcha.

That's when it emerged.

Gotcha.

Now, there's the other one called the 17 year cicada.

And that's more northern and distribution that emerged in the Chicago area in 2007.

So 17 years would make it 2024 Which is election year in which both the the 13 year cicada as well as the 17 year cicada will be emerging.

So it will be very, very loud singing in our forests, do these destroy our garden plants?

Do they get in the vegetables?

No, they don't get into vegetables, they get into mostly tree twigs, but sometimes in shrubbery as well, sometimes.

Anyway, so let's look at some of the slides and pictures.

These photographs were taken in the year 2011, and the Champaign, Illinois, in the central part of the state.

And what we see here, this first one is the nymphs, the immature stage, they are in the ground, and they feed on on the roots of trees.

And, you know, they can be numerous, the 13 year cicadas in the ground for 13 years, and then the the other 13 year cicadas in the ground for 13 years, when they emerge, they look like this.

They started with brown and color.

And often they make like a little chimney from which they emerge from.

We'll see the next slide.

Like a like a crawdad.

But small Yeah, like little crawdad.

Anyway, when they emerge, the nymphs and you can see that Brown is cast skin of the nymphs.

They'll crawl up the tree and get a firm grip on the tree.

And then they mold they shed their skin, that nymph scan will break down the back and then the adult cicada will emerge.

Now I've heard from folks that this if you're going to eat one, this is the stage that you want to eat them.

That's right.

And I was gonna say that oh, I'm so sorry.

I'm glad you reinforced when we had Mike Brown He was a champaign, No, Urbana Forest Preserve.

Yeah.

And we discussed this before the show and I said, Would you be willing to eat some of those?

He says, Oh, sure.

So yeah, so we fried up some of these in olive oil.

And I expect them to Oh, yeah, oh, I'll tell you they're not going to be on any gourmet, no restaurant.

They were pretty blob.

But you know, the American Indians really liked it feast here and I mean they're very common and they're very nutritious.

But anyway, you have to dip in and serve or something, I just I just fried them in olive oil.

But that's probably not the best thing to do.

There's a little red eyes looking at me, there's see they can emerge in tremendous numbers by the 1000s.

And that's the periodical cicada.

So we have those every 13 or 17 years old.

And then the females will deposit their eggs in the twigs, and it can be very serious on on small trees.

Particularly if we look at the next slide.

You can see these twigs that were injured by the females depositing their eggs in the branches.

So on a big tree, it's no no, no, not a real concern.

But look at the next slide.

This was on a small oak, and it actually killed the tree the the tree was so weak and then the tree bores moved in and the tree died the next year.

So that can be served very serious.

If you're going to try to protect your trees from the you know, the cicadas laying their eggs in the branches, you need to get a mesh and, and some type of cloth that has a mesh and that in put that over the trees and that will protect it.

But anyway, if you don't do that they can really cause a lot of injury.

Okay.

All right.

Thank you very much.

All right, Martie, we're gonna we've got a treat.

We've got several treat questions for you.

It's treated on the show.

I don't know why.

Here we go.

A guy named Matt will be isn't answering the apple tree.

Make sense?

Right.

You know, this is from Sandy and Jeff Bray.

They live in Decatur surrounded by corn and bean fields.

They have a Jonathan apple tree that's 30 years old, always had good yields.

But the last couple of years.

It's not doing too well.

It she says it looks to them like it's going to die.

They're not sure what's going on.

Also, we've had lots of droughts and wacky weather.

But their big question is whether or not farmers doing aerial spraying is causing some of the damage to this tree.

And so Marty, you've got some insight on that to them, please share.

First of all, the tree is 30 years old.

So it's very, very old tree.

That's all for that type of that type.

Okay, if it were an oak, that'd be one thing.

But, you know, a fruiting tree 30 is it's that's old, it's good old but your your aerial spraying probably is not helpful.

Because they're either going to spray a grass herbicide or a broadleaf herbicide.

So grass herbicide is a mono Kota, Leedon.

And broadleaf is a die Kodaline it's when the comes up with one little stick of grass, or it comes up with too little leaves.

So that's how you can tell.

And apples are two little leaves.

They're not one like a like a corner, or long grass.

So if I were you, I would think I'd get a another Jonathan apple tree.

Right?

I'd probably plan I mean, that's, that's old.

I mean, it really, really is old and I wouldn't expect if nothing were getting sprayed on it.

I would anticipate decline in a tree that old but probably the spray is not helping however.

And that's where you live.

So yeah, I think I think I just do another tree did another tree and get another tree like now.

It's so if this one only lives a couple more years, you won't have a break in your fruit production because by about the third year, new apple tree start to bear.

Great advice.

Okay, Jim, we're gonna come back to you.

You talked about hummingbirds a little bit before the show you brought and those are my absolute favorite.

I've been posting actually on our Mid American Gardener page because I've gotten a lot of little visitors at our house so I'm I'm my ears are peeled because I want more well.

One plant that hummingbirds dearly love is a plant called jewel weed jewel weed and it does extremely well in wet and dry Are months.

So a little bit damp, shady areas, okay?

And you can see it's it's sort of difficult to bring in because it wilts down so quickly, but I have probably about five or six hummingbirds right around the house.

I dearly love it.

They just worth this award to know Him.

Now, did you plant it?

No, no, it's actually considered a weed.

And the seeds are actually in this little, tiny little pod.

And sometimes if you touch those, those things will break.

Like.

Like clover.

Yeah.

So, you know, it's sort of fun, fun for kids.

Because if they touch these things, they'd go back like that.

Yeah, but it's a nice, I really liked the weed.

I mean, it's pretty.

That is pretty.

I'm sure in its full glory.

It's even prettier.

And anything that draws hummingbirds?

I'm all for it.

Because just as a one that you want, they put on quite a show this year for us.

Yeah, they've been everywhere.

They're really abundant.

I didn't put any feeders out like I usually do this year.

But have they just been around with the flowers and just all over the honeysuckle by back door?

Yeah, I'm gonna miss them when they leave.

Yeah.

And I just spot them in.

So randomly, and I'll be doing something else in the yard.

And I'm like, is that a present?

But yes, I little fella and they get so close.

That's the other thing that I love that they get right in your face and hover and they look right at you.

Yeah.

All right.

Another trick question.

This is from Kathy, another Johnny Appleseed.

She wants to know what's going on with her poor tree.

And let me pull up a picture of it so you can see it.

She says it's about five or six years old.

It's really going through it.

It's wobbly.

It's just not a healthy looking tree.

You and Jim both talked about perhaps a gall?

Is that what you said?

What do you think in here?

The by virtue of the fact that the bark is starting to peel below the Gall, I think is an indication that this tree is not long.

And when you said you can wiggle it.

Oh, well, that's that's not good.

It's about time.

It's a bad sign.

Yeah.

Um, Jim, what were you saying about a fungus that causes?

Well, I you know, I'm not sure which, you know, what would cause that sometimes goals are caused by fungus or bacterial infections or damage, like if the tree got injured, and then the tissues just form around that area.

You can see a place if you're looking at this picture on the right hand side of the golf itself, there looks like a little crack.

If it was caused by damage, that might be where the initial injury was, but then it just didn't heal properly.

I've had trees like that of my own.

And you think, Well, that'll go ahead and grow out?

No, it won't.

It won't go.

No, no, no.

So it's a relatively young tree, but you can see it, it is fruiting.

So but you don't think there's there's no save in the sky?

Oh, if I were you, I would get another one.

Okay.

I mean, it's just not it's, I don't even think you can salvage it at this point.

It's gonna decline and die.

Okay.

All right, in my opinion, you know, you could you could call an actual arborist, because, you know, you get what you pay for on public television.

And see if you could save it, but you're saying it's looking kind of okay, not so good.

Okay, much.

20421 apple trees.

All right, Jim, we're back to you.

On plants.

Well, here I bought a branch in the button.

Bush.

I talked about that.

The last time I was on the program.

You can see these little balls here.

This is where the seeds are located.

And it's really a nice bush.

It's native to the Midwest.

So if you get a chance to they sell it in the nurseries.

And you can purchase it at your local nursery are on the line.

These are white when they Yeah, white and they're nice, big round.

But what about this, this is a flower for your landscape.

Yeah, it's attractive.

I mean, it's got this beautiful, deep green foliage.

It's resistant, resistant to Japanese beetle.

And I think it's really a nice shrub.

When these come out, they're covered.

They're like a little ping pong ball of white blobs there, right?

They're completely covered with little white flowers and they're attracted to hummingbird.

We're not hummingbird so much but butterflies just love them.

Nice.

propone another favorite of mine garden.

Let's check out another we've got some time what let's do another.

Well, this is another bush or small tree.

It's called Black Hall.

Black and H A W black Hall.

I can.

It's a native shrub to the Midwest.

I think it's very, very attractive.

Do you think do you see this very often?

I don't see it very often at all.

Well grows wild.

I mean, this was just wild at my property and it just came up how big doesn't get are they mature on your property?

Yeah, some of them get probably about, oh maybe 10 feet in height but chicken pruned back.

And you can prune this one to the button bush.

I thought at first when you have this land there that it was aronia but it's a viburnum it's a vibe, right.

So it's 10 foot, would you Is that considered understory?

Like, is it is it Yeah, I don't know.

These will take full sun.

I mean viburnum.

Gotcha.

By Burnham let's see prune a polio is a scientific name.

They burn them in the film.

Yeah, but it's a really a nice Sure I do.

Like these berries.

Yes, they get black.

Eventually.

They turn a little right and then they get black but very attractive.

That is pretty I liked the leafs pretty color.

Nice against the foliage.

Yeah.

All right.

Martini is one of my one of my favorite.

What was erroneous, erroneous aronia.

There's a lot there's there's two different types.

One has red berries.

One has blackberries.

So the red ones are aronia are beautiful.

Yeah.

Which get a little taller, you can get quite a large shrub in that.

But they also have door for varieties.

And then the other one is with blackberries or has aronia melanocarpa.

But the melanocarpa are really popular because the seeds are the little berries are larger and are almost round as opposed to being oval.

But they're very noticeable because the the fruit itself is much larger.

And they come in the door for variety for home garden.

So it's a boon usually, yeah, but I Oh, I love the both the the the thing about the berries, the berries are neither here or there for me.

The foliage is blazing red, striking red.

You can't drive by it without going.

So I mean, they're just incredible.

Really, really red tomato red.

So Wow.

Yeah, just beautiful.

All right, we're going back to another tree question and then we'll come back to you, Jim.

We've got 248 Angela O'Neill wants to know what kind of tree this is.

She says it's growing in our garden.

Not sure what it is.

And she hates to get rid of it.

If it's worth keeping.

She even mentioned in the message that she would dig it up and move it to another location if need be.

So what is it and Friend or foe?

You have a good heart.

But that looks to me like a wild cherry.

And I wouldn't bother moving it somewhere else wild cherry.

So we don't want wild cherry and what they they grow prolifically.

They don't have a long lifespan, they tend to not live very long and crowd out everything else you have.

I mean, they do grow rapidly.

And they're great for birds.

But the birds don't just plant them in your flower bed.

They plant them everywhere, everywhere.

So yeah, they're all over the place.

So if you look at the stem, and the picture we have right here and then also at this at the trunk where it's coming out of the ground, you can see those little white specks on that brown brown bark.

And you can even identify Cherry with no foliage on the wild cherry.

Actually, domestic cherry looks a lot like that, too.

So but that's that's an easy way to tell.

And if I were you, I would either pull it out, dig it out or cut it off.

It's not going to do any good in that bed at all.

All right, we're over three trees today.

The consensus is different.

I just should I set her with my chainsaw today.

Yeah, just tap out at each answer.

Thumb down.

All right, Jen, we're back to you.

What do you got?

Well, I brought in some of these.

So we call them weeds.

But actually, I think they're very, very nice.

So this is called Wild quinine.

And it's got a very attractive white flower like this cruise all over my property now right now.

Just put that in as per who butterflies maybe the butterflies like a butterfly.

I have seen flies.

But gosh, there's hardly any butterflies anymore eyes.

Yeah.

It's very serious.

Yeah.

This year, I actually saw more butterflies in the yard than I did last year.

And I'm just one of many, but I know that they are on the decline.

I haven't seen any swallowtails and I only saw one on that button.

Bush.

I mean, I really think it's air pollution myself and maybe right, I really do think so.

Anyway, this is another one called Brown Eyed Susan.

And that's, you know, they produced so many blooms.

I really like it.

That's called a weed but it's beautiful weed.

I love those actually.

And I chop the heads off and kind of just sprinkle them all around because they are it's just it's a nice part of color I wanted to ask I think I've heard them referred to as brown eyed citizens and Black Eyed Susans.

Are those different?

I don't think so.

No, I think it's just colloquialism Gotcha.

fallen prey to the common name.

Gotcha.

rebec.

Yeah.

But in my family, my family, boys and girls.

We call them brown eyed Susans, because I have a cousin named Susan with brown eyes.

That makes perfect sense.

So what I've noticed when when different panels bring them in, some people call them black irises, and some people call them brown eyes.

So I just didn't know if it was a different variation.

I think the actual common name is black eyed Susans.

But I was like, we always go.

We always go make sense.

Brown Eyed Susie's kids.

We have it because you have one of them.

All right, did you have one more gym?

Well, I have.

This is called Yellow wing stem.

That's called Yellow wings, stem wing stem, because can see this little enlargement along the stem of this.

So I feel like you want to miss a little look like you want to find.

And it's a flower.

And you know, it's, they get quite tall.

Some of mine are probably about seven, eight feet tall and high.

And butterflies and the bees come to it.

But and that's wild, and I have a large mound of them on my property.

But one of the pretty, I think, I gather that you live near like a forested area I do.

live right along the Sangamon River.

Lots of native plants are north of Muhammad.

So there's a lot of native areas out there.

Very nice plants.

Let's see, we did all of our tree questions.

Now.

I do want to ask you guys, as we're coming to we've got about five minutes left, we're coming to the end of the gardening season.

And if you've had problems with insects or no more so disease, what's a good way to close down your flower beds or get things cleaned up?

For folks who we had people ask about?

Is it asters yellow?

What are some tips for cleaning up beds as you are closing down?

I don't think asters yellow is preventable.

No, it is that particular issue.

That's just sticks to the plant.

So getting rid of a plant is transmitted by leaf hoppers.

Okay, so that's yeah, that's unsolvable.

Yeah, okay.

It is.

But other things.

I mean, like your vegetable gardens, make sure you take your tomatoes out of the ground and dispose of them.

Don't leave them in the garden because they harbor fungus and then disease that can winter over, loved the correct one and then attack your plants next year.

So also another, I think another good idea would be betta thoughtful when you plant things where you put them.

Okay, Iris, for example.

People complain about their Iris getting borers, Iris bores.

And once you get Iris borer, you just have to you can tell easily because if you lift the corn which is only that far into the ground, so doesn't matter.

And pull it up and look at it and it'll have a horrible wet, mushy rotten spot in it and holes and holes.

And I'm talking about Iris borer is the fact that they overwinter his eggs on the on the dead foliage.

Yeah, so this would be another good thing to do at this time.

Take that foliage off and probably dispose up put in the compost pile or burn it because you don't have I was poor eggs hatching and yeah.

Oh, and when you look at a quorum at an Irish quorum, it looks like somebody took pin and stuck holes in it.

And that's not Irish for where the Irish border is a rotten mushy thing your thumb will go right through.

So you cut those off like he cut a bad spot out of a potato.

But when you're planting Iris put it someplace where it'll be really dry.

In the winter.

Iris corms can't stand standing water even in the summer, they don't want standing water.

And then I mean German Iris, not Siberian actually.

But anyway.

Yeah, be thoughtful about your location for your plants because you can help them just by just by being thoughtful about location because then that spreads in your irises and then you're gonna be mad.

And then you'll say, because they'll decline each year they'll look worse and worse, Marty told me about this last question, got about two minutes left for those of us who kick their house plants out.

And then as it cools down, it's not quite time yet but Jim, what are some tips to not bring creepy crawlies back into the house with you when you are bringing your house plants and anything to look for I don't know there are a few things you know you can have mites get you know on the plants that you bring in you can have sow bugs on the plants do you treat them?

Do you treat yours?

I don't just no no well yeah you Why would you let nature take it for you let nature take its course but I only The other hand like to not bring them in.

Do you do anything special when you I know you let them dry out we talked about this before and out I've got a tremendous south window in my living room and that's where they all live on a little bit of a race table and you lucky dog Yeah, but you did tell me before let him dry a little bit don't bring in a bunch of wet plants that have been sitting outside all summer Yeah, just let them just their their most houseplants are a lot more drought Hardy than we give them credit for.

The number one reason of house plant death is over watering.

We found that out during the pandemic.

Yeah, big time.

Big time for you guys.

Well, yes, I thought you need another drink obvious Sure you do.

stuff in the house together.

Why leaves yellow.

It's cruel, don't do that.

That's all the time, it went fast.

Thank you so much to both of you for coming in.

Hope you learned something.

Thank you so much for watching.

We'll see you next time.

If you have any questions or any plant ID questions that you would like them to answer send us an email to your garden@gmail.com or look for us on socials.

Just search for min American gardener and we will see you next time.

Good night.