- Oklahoma gardening is a production of the Oklahoma Cooperative Extension Service as part of the land grant mission of the Division of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources at Oklahoma State University, dedicated to improving the quality of life of the citizens of Oklahoma through research based information.

Underwriting assistance for our program is provided by the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, Food, and Forestry, helping to keep Oklahoma green and growing.

Welcome to "Oklahoma Gardening".

If you have backyard chickens, we've got some news you're gonna wanna hear today.

We then visit King's Mums once again to see how so many beautiful fall mum displays get started.

And finally, we head back into the orchard with Becky Carroll to learn about fruit thinning.

(gentle music) It looks like an ombre of sunset colors.

(gentle music) It's not the flowers, right?

(gentle music) (laughing) (gentle music) There's been a lot of talk about avian influenza, and today joining me is Dana Zook, One of our state extension specialists, who's here to share with us a little bit about what we need to know concerning our backyard chickens.

Dana, thank you for joining us.

So how are our chickens doing?

What do we need to know?

- Well, they look great.

So the chickens here are fantastic, but we have avian influenza.

- Right, and it's in the state.

- It is in the state.

- It's been identified.

So what are some of the things that a backyard chicken farmer might need to know about?

- Well, it's important to be aware of the disease.

It's high path avian influenza is what we say.

It exists in our wild birds, in all four flyways across the United States.

So currently, the wild birds that we see, the ducks, the geese, they could potentially have avian influenza.

So anytime there's any interaction with those, we could be transferring that disease.

- [Casey] Okay, and they're migrating right now.

So that's a little bit of the concern.

- [Dana] Right, yes.

They're migrating.

So they're flying over.

And so having a roof like this over your kind of outdoor enclosure is excellent.

It may not be the best time for free range birds.

I think we're asking producers to keep them inside or keep them enclosed for the next couple months to minimize the spread.

- So we're socially distancing our chickens.

- Right, to a certain extent.

We're socially distancing our birds, right.

- Yeah, yes.

So keep 'em covered.

Keep 'em contained.

No free range as much right now.

What if we start seeing signs?

I mean, what are the signs we're looking for for avian influenza?

- So signs of avian influenza can be a wide array of things.

So you may not necessarily see it in a wild bird, but it really impacts our domestic birds.

And so you can see it neurologically.

So they could have strange positions of their head and their legs or that sort of thing.

Mostly respiratory.

You'll see a respiratory, they'll have trouble breathing, sneezing, and you have sort of those types of things.

And you might see, because they're not getting enough oxygen, their skin and their comb or waddle is kind of a blue or purplish color.

And then it can be a digestive issue as well.

And so you'll see maybe some abnormal feces and that sort of thing.

- Okay, so obviously, this leads to mortality within our chickens.

There's no cure or anything like that.

So people should call the Department of Ag if there's any concern that they might have it.

Is that?

- Yeah, so it can act very quickly.

It's a very virulent disease.

So very, as Barry Whitworth would say, very mean disease.

And so, chickens could be acting a little strange in the morning and be deceased by the evening.

And so yeah, calling your extension educator, the state veterinarian.

We work very closely, Extension works very closely with state veterinarian, Oklahoma Department of Agriculture to answer any of the questions.

We have several numbers to call, but just get some input.

Not all deaths are avian influenza related.

- [Casey] Chickens are kind of low on the pecking order.

- They do have some issues, and baby chicks, probably not gonna see those issues as much with baby chicks, but it's good to know.

If you're not keeping your chickens outside, you're minimizing the risk.

And so a lot of death can be minimized that way.

- But this has actually kind of reduced kind of the shows, the chicken shows you might be able to attend.

And I know we're not seeing the baby chicks at the different feed stores as much as we used to either.

- Yeah, they have really kind of put a halt to that.

The stores have been able to sell what they had, but they're not bringing anymore in.

If producers want to still get chicks, they can for personal use, but I would encourage them to seek out any sort of chick producer that's a NPIP, National Poultry Improvement Plan certified.

And so that's just a plan that helps those types of breeders minimize disease, and they work through a plan and they have a biosecurity plan.

- Okay, so really prevention's the best thing to get us through this right now.

Is that?

- Yes, prevention is the key.

Doing the things we talked about, keeping things clean, minimizing any sort of rodents or wild birds into your feed that you store, and maybe cleaning a little bit more often.

If you need help learning how to keep things sanitized, that can be kind of weird.

Sometimes bleach doesn't always do the trick.

And so we have other methods to keep things clean.

So talk to your county extension educator, and we can work through that, the initial.

- Bird that they found was a wild duck here in Oklahoma.

And so that's kind of how it was initiated here in the state.

- Okay, so no reason for panic or an alarm, but just be aware and be judicious about watching your birds.

- Right, that's right.

Our food, our food supply is safe.

Cook your meat and your eggs to the appropriate temperature and just kind of keep your birds safe and away from other wild birds.

And I think we'll be okay.

- All right.

Thank you so much Dana.

Appreciate it.

- Thank you, yep.

(upbeat music) - I know many people aren't thinking about mums just yet being early in the summer.

However, many places are starting to think about getting their mums ordered for growing them out for those beautiful fall mum displays.

And many of those mums start right here in Tulsa, Oklahoma at King's Mums.

And joining me today is Brian Kanotz, who is the owner of King's Mums.

Brian, thank you so much for having us back here.

We were here last fall and got to see the beautiful flowers that you have, but that's really not your product, right?

- No, no.

We don't sell the flowers.

We mainly sell cuttings or the rooted cuttings from the plants that you see here.

- So now's kind of your busy season, right?

You're getting this product turned out.

What's that process of getting those cuttings?

- Well, when you were here last fall, we had the plants growing and you saw the flowers, and we keep those plants or a lot of them.

And then we grow them on for the next year.

And some of them are still here.

So we are growing these plants so we can take the cuttings and then root those out to send to flower growers, public gardens, home gardeners, some garden centers.

So all over the country.

- You're taking a lot of cuttings right now, which is a big process.

- Right.

- So all of these are constantly getting haircuts.

- Right, yeah.

And you can see the different stages of where they're at, and we're actually very near to being done taking our cuttings for the year, ironically, when you start to think about that.

But yes, you can see where we've cut this one back.

This one's probably about three or four weeks ago we cut it back.

And this one's been at least five weeks.

We don't normally let them go this far, but we are not going to need these again.

So we don't, I'm not gonna spend the time cutting them back again.

- [Casey] All right.

- It's a lot more work.

- So you're taking basic stem cuttings, right?

Is that?

- Right.

- Tell us a little bit about that process.

Can you walk us through it?

- Yeah, sure.

So we've talked about the different stages of growth, and you can see this one's a little older.

And what we're really looking for is this nice, soft tissue.

We use snips, like any other person would.

These are nice, new, sharp ones.

So I'll try not to cut myself.

And we keep them in rubbing alcohol, and that's to keep down on disease transmission.

And we would just use this on one plant.

So we'll go in and cut however many we can get off of a plant.

And we generally try to leave where growth can come out again.

So we're in here cutting away.

- [Casey] You're sort of giving 'em a haircut in that process for new growth to come on.

- [Brian] Right.

But there is a limit to how many times you can do that.

- [Casey] Okay.

- [Brian] You can't just keep cutting on the same plants.

- [Casey] Okay.

- So yeah, we would do something like that.

We could take these two, but we don't have to take them all.

- So you're looking for a few leaves.

- Yep.

We're looking for something that'll be relatively long.

This one is a little bit thicker than we would normally like, but it's not terrible.

And you can see, let me cut one off of here just to show you a little bit of a difference.

It's kind of hard to see, but you can start to see that pithiness coming.

- [Casey] Oh yeah.

- [Brian] On the older one.

So this is gonna root a lot better than this.

- [Casey] Okay, so where it's kind of that white.

- [Brian] Right.

And some of them will really get woody almost, so that isn't something we would really want to use.

- [Casey] Okay.

- [Brian] So we pretty much just take our cuttings, and then we strip our leaves down.

And you don't, a lot of people think you wanna leave a lot of leaves, but you really don't need a lot of leaves, 'cause you're worried about transpiration and you really want a minimal leaf coverage for the mist that'll be on here for humidity.

- Okay, so a three or four inch stem, stripping off the leaves.

And you're just doing that with your hands.

- Yeah, I just use my hands.

I know some people like to use gloves.

I do it all the time, so it's not really a big deal.

And then we want to get 'em about the same length.

So we've got as best we can.

It's not a perfect science.

I do this all the time.

So I kind of know what I'm looking for, and that's about the length we want, and we've got a good clean cut.

And then we, I use powder hormone, and I also use a liquid form too, but this is the most commonly used, and it's indole butyric acid is the common active ingredient.

And then we just dip it in there, and that's a cutting ready to go.

We wouldn't stick these immediately.

We let them callous.

We hold them for a few days and let that callousing process start.

- So what is that process of holding 'em over before you actually put them in soil?

- Put them in a old style, foldable plastic bag.

And usually we put a label in there so we know what it is.

- Right.

- And we don't put too many in a bag, maybe 50.

And then you've got the old flip top and roll it up.

- And you don't want them completely sealed.

We found we don't like using Ziplocs because it completely traps the humidity in there and can rot them.

But then we just store them.

We try to keep them upright in trays or boxes in alphabetical order, and then we keep them around 55 degrees in a cooler.

- Okay, so that keeps them- - Yep.

from really transpiring,- - Right.

- [Woman] losing that moisture.

- Right.

- [Woman] But allowing that wet tissue at the stem to kind of callous over- - Right, and that's- - Before you put it- - And that's what the acid is doing.

- Okay.

- It is an acid, and it's not strong, I think it's 3/100 of a percent.

- [Woman] Right.

- It's really not very much.

- And this is just simply that rooting hormone that any homeowner- - Right.

can buy at your garden center and stuff.

- Right, yeah.

It's mainly talc and then a little bit of acid in there.

- [Woman] All right, so let's take a look at what's the next step of that now.

- [Hal] Okay.

(upbeat country music) (country music slows) - [Woman] All right, so you got a little setup for us over here, Hal.

- Yeah.

Normally we'd be in the greenhouse, but this isn't how I would normally do this.

When I'm sticking cuttings I actually dip them in a nice solution of chemicals for insects and diseases, and I'm in gloves and PPE and it's- What is it, like 80 degrees already?

- Right, right.

I know we got the fans- - Yeah.

and it's hot in the greenhouse- - Yeah.

- so we're out here.

Nice sunshine.

- Right.

So we've got- You know, this is what the plants would look like.

Usually this tray is completely full of bags of cuttings and there's our little label.

And I actually took these these a few days ago, but there's the name.

And I'm actually gonna keep these for my own stock.

So we've got them wrapped in here.

So that's- - [Woman] Because these are what you'll grow out- - [Hal] Yeah, these are for me - that we saw last fall.

- You can't have these.

- Right?

(woman laughs) - Okay.

- So this is and we do it alphabetical.

- Okay.

- One of the things that a lot of people don't see the commercial side, this is a pretty standard sized tray, and one of the few things that's standardized in horticulture.

So when you're looking into commercial growers, they all use a tray this size.

It just depends on what they're growing, so they can put- this tray has 105 plugs in it, but you can grow pansies.

I've seen them up to 576- - Wow.

- in the same sized tray.

- Okay.

- So it just depends on what you're growing.

- And some plugs maybe are bigger- - Yep.

So they'd be- - with fewer numbers in there.

- Right, and actually there's some growers now- What we're using, just so we can talk about that, these are, they've got the little fabric around there so it keeps the soil in there, and they're manufactured by a company called Ellie, but this is what we use.

And the real nice thing is, since a commercial grower is shipping to other growers, and they're sending this whole tray.

So they start the seeds or the cuttings, they grow them on and then they send that whole tray.

I don't do that.

- [Woman] Okay.

- [Hal] I'm not sending that many plants to one person typically.

- [Woman] Right, right.

- [Hal] So, and we generally don't send, you know, a hundred of the same thing to one person.

- [Woman] Right.

Okay.

- So that's what we use and these actually, it's hard to see it, but there's actually a little hole in them, supposedly, for sticking the cutting.

So all we would do is take them out of here, put that in my pocket, and then for me, I have OCD compulsive disorder, and then we would just start sticking these in.

- And it's literally a matter- - And literally- - just sticking them in there.

- Yep.

And you can see the powder stays on there, and these have started their process.

- [Woman] And so how long have these been in the fridge for that callous to start?

- [Hal] Well they've been in there probably at least- - Typically, okay.

- I'm gonna say Saturday- - Okay.

- we took them.

- So usually- - So Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday.

- [Both] Four to five days.

- [Woman] Okay.

So once you get a flat done- - Yep.

- what's the next step?

- [Hal] Then we take them in the greenhouse and we put them under mist.

- [Woman] Okay.

And obviously, moisture in these plants is still critical.

- Right, so- - Tell me what you're doing to kind of protect these and keep that moisture in those plants.

- [Hal] We've got a small computer.

So it controls a solenoid valve and opens up the water and then the mist comes through misters, and generally six seconds every so often.

- [Woman] Okay.

- [Hal] It can vary depending on the stage of growth from every 10 minutes to every 30 minutes.

And then of course, if we're real cloudy, I'll watch it and I'll turn it down because we're, as you mentioned, worried about humidity.

- [Woman] Right.

- [Hal] And this spring we've been really humid.

- [Woman] Right.

- [Hal] So I haven't been running it as often, about 20 minutes, even for the first week of cutting.

- [Woman] So staying too wet could be a problem too, right?

- Yeah.

Then they'll rot, and they can either rot in the tip, which is bad, or they can rot off at the base.

- Okay.

- So, and that's one of the things a lot of people make mistakes on.

They think, "Oh, we want to keep them really wet."

But if you keep them really wet, the soil's wet and the base of it rots off or the tip.

And you really just want enough humidity around it so that callous forms, and then the plant wants to put out its roots.

- [Woman] So we're in full sun and you're gonna have them in a full-sun greenhouse.

Is that concerning?

Do you have any protection?

- Well I have some shade cloth.

- [Woman] Okay, okay.

- [Hal] So we don't want full sun, but as we go along, they get more sun.

- [Woman] Okay.

- So by the time they're ready to come out- - So what is that process before they're ready to be- - [Hal] It's about four weeks.

One week- First week under mist is more mist, and then as we go along, we move them every week and we lower the mist, and by the third week the mist is low and they're getting a lot more sun.

So the cuttings get more light early, so once the hot, midday sun, they're a little more protected starting out.

- [Woman] Okay, okay.

So by week four, you see- - Yeah they're- They're out from under the- - significant root development?

- Yeah.

Yeah they're rooted.

- Four weeks they're going out the door.

- All right.

- So at three weeks they come off the mist, full sun.

- And so that's when you fill your order.

You start looking at, - Yep.

- what people want and instead of giving them a whole tray, you're giving them 10 or 20 or 15.

- Or one of each.

- Okay.

- Yeah.

- All right.

- So.

[Host] - So people have ordered these back how long ago?

[Brian] - January.

[Host] - January.

So it's not like people can order these now.

[Brian] - No.

[Host] - They have to get their orders in early in order to get these plugs so that many people can have these mum displays this fall.

[Man] - Right.

[Host] - So it's a big process [Man] - Yeah.

[Host] - in order to get ready every fall for your mums.

- And we generally work with you mentioned the public gardens.

We generally work with them beginning in November or December.

Say this is what we're you know, this is something new or something we're taking away so they can get their design teams together because they plan out even further.

- Yeah.

And we make sure that their orders - Are filled.

- Are taken care of because they need those for the public to come in.

- All Right.

- So.

- Brian, thank you so much for sharing this process with us and letting us have a little insight into what might be happening this fall.

- Sure.

(upbeat guitar music) - It's time to start looking at the fruits that are being produced on our peach trees.

And Becky is hard at work already doing that.

Becky, tell me what we're looking at.

[Becky] - Well a lot of people are reporting that they have huge peach crops this year.

And so I was looking to see if we need to thin any of these trees here at the Botanic gardens.

And so I was looking at some of these fruits that are attached here and then I've already picked off some that we can look at.

- Okay.

- But what we want to do is make sure that our trees aren't overloaded.

[Host] - Okay.

[Becky] - Every branch can just be covered with peaches.

And that can cause those limbs to break off.

So we'll lose entire scaffolds some years just due to overproduction.

[Host] - And you also get smaller fruit right?

[Becky] - Right.

[Host] - If You left them on too long.

[Becky] - They don't size properly, and they don't ripen properly.

So we'll end up with little golf balls that aren't hard.

[Host] - Okay.

[Becky] - Mostly pit with just a little bit of good peach but it just doesn't soften up and ripen properly.

[Host] - Gotcha.

- And so we want to get nice large peaches that are nice and juicy and sweet.

And so if we have too many on the tree, they just can't ripen them like they should.

And so we're going to reduce the number to about four to six inches between each peach.

- Okay.

- And if you want even larger peaches, you can go maybe eight to 10 inches between.

(chuckles) And you know, I like some of those really big juicy Loring peaches.

They're a little cold sensitive, so they have less peaches and they get bigger.

- All right.

- And so, but on this peach tree you can see we've got some that are kind of clustered here together.

And about the length from my fingertip to my thumb is about six inches.

So we're going to remove some of these.

But we're not just going to pick off any of them.

We're going to look for peaches that have insect feeding, that are smaller, or maybe have some kind of injury due to rubbing on a branch or something.

- Okay.

- So on this one, we can see anywhere that the fuzz of the peach is kind of disrupted, kind of shows a little spot.

Then that might indicate that there's been some feeding going on.

Now, it doesn't mean there's going to be a worm in there, but it just may be a little quirky spot when that fruit develops.

Now, sometimes you might find a worm.

(host laughs) But usually this time of the season, when you see those little spots it's going to show where maybe a stink bug or a lygus bug has been feeding.

[Host] - So something like that where you've got, [Becky] - Yep.

[Host] - That Little brown spot.

[Becky] - And it causes the little spots in the fuzz.

[Host] - Uh-huh.

[Becky] - But it can also be something like this where you can see like the little gummosis, or little goo that's kind of dripping out of there.

And some of the times that can be clear, and it's just a little string that may be dripping out of the peach.

And then we also want to try to save the largest peaches on the stems and just remove the smaller ones.

Now this year we've had some really sporadic blooms.

So we've got some little tiny peaches.

And these are coming off very easily.

So if you've got these, make sure that you're not counting them as one of your [Host] - Okay.

[Becky] Peaches to leave.

Because they're probably going to drop off anyway.

- So these were all on the same tree here?

- Yeah.

- The different varying sizes.

- Yeah.

And so we want to make sure that, you know we're leaving the best ones for our fruiting potential.

- Okay.

- And then if you have doubles, those are the ones that you want to make, that you can take off as well.

Now if you don't have anything else, I know a lot of people that have pretty much all doubles this year.

They'll go ahead and develop.

This one, this side will probably slow down.

And so it'll kind of have a larger fruit with a little small attached appendage.

- Okay.

So it kind of looks like a nose or something.

(Both women laugh) - But it tastes fine right?

- It tastes fine, yeah.

- You don't know once it gets into a cobbler - Right.

- What it looked like.

- Right and you can eat the good side anyway for sure.

- Okay.

Okay.

- But on this one, we would go ahead and maybe take off this fruit.

- Okay.

- And then maybe this one's a little smaller, so I'm going to take it off.

And then, we'll look here closely for any fruit, any insect feeding.

This one looks like it's, - Is that damaged right there?

- Yep.

That one we'll go ahead and take that one off.

And then this one as well.

- Okay.

- So we'll leave that one shoot with two peaches or three peaches, and they're kind of spaced out through there.

Now if your tree has some areas where there's not a lot of fruit, but you have a couple of peaches in one area.

- And nothing else really on that branch.

Sometimes you can leave them as long as they're not gonna grow into each other.

- Okay.

- You don't want them to, to limit the size and kind of rub on each other.

- Gotcha.

- So spacing is important but there are times when we may leave a couple if that's all that's there.

- Okay.

Well, what about, you know, protecting these?

I mean, what if an insect shows up on this tomorrow?

- Sure.

Insecticides and fungicides are both really important on our peach crop because we have brown rot that the infections can occur even at bloom time and then not show up until they're ripening.

And so we can do protection with using fungicides, conventional or organic.

And we also need to watch our, for insect feeding.

Like we've seen on some of these already.

Protect those fruits from things like stink bugs and lygus bugs and also plum curculio, that's gonna lay the eggs that makes the worm inside the fruit later.

And so we've got some, some things besides using the sprays, we can actually use, called a fruit bag.

- Okay.

- And Clemson university has been using these, kind of testing them to see how they work and it seems to work great.

- Okay.

- What we recommend is that you apply your last fungicide insecticide spray the day before you put your bags on.

And that gives you, you know, if there's any spores or anything on this fruit that day then you're protecting it.

You put your bags on, they stay on through the whole season and it may even give you protection from squirrels.

- Okay.

- And other, you know, animals that might be fooled by having a bag instead of a peach up there.

- Right, so literally the peach grows in that bag.

- It stays in the bag.

It's kind of almost like a wax paper.

- Okay.

- And it gives it enough light penetration that the fruit go ahead and color up good.

And it just keeps any spores or any insects from getting in there and feeding or damaging the fruit.

- Okay.

So that might be a little bit more of an organic option.

- Yep.

- So you'll have bags all over your trees then.

- Yeah.

It'll look kind of like Halloween with all these paper little ghosts hanging in your trees but that's a good reason to keep your trees lower.

Pruned where you can reach them to harvest and also to manage them with using fruit bags.

- All right, Becky, thank you so much for sharing what we need to do with our peach trees right now.

- All right.

(upbeat music) - There are a lot of great horticulture activities this time of year.

Be sure and consider some of these events in the weeks ahead.

(upbeat music) For the next two weeks, OETA will be fundraising.

However, you can join us right back here on June 18th for a brand new Oklahoma gardening, that will be very special.

(upbeat music) - Oh my God.

There's a blimp.

Hailey, there's a blimp.

How often do you see a blimp?

Hailey a blimp, Hailey.

(upbeat music) - To find out more information about show topics as well as recipes, videos, articles fact sheets, and other resources including a directory of local extension offices, be sure to visit our website at oklahomagardening.okstate.edu.

Join in on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

You can find this entire show and other recent shows as well as individual segments on our Oklahoma gardening YouTube channel.

Tune in to our ok gardening classics YouTube channel to watch segments from previous hosts.

Oklahoma Gardening is produced by the Oklahoma cooperative extension service as part of the Division of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources at Oklahoma State University.

The Botanic Garden at OSU is home to our studio gardens, and we encourage you to come visit this beautiful Stillwater gem.

We would like to thank our generous underwriter.

The Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, Food and Forestry.

Additional support is also provided by Pond Pro shop, Greenleaf nursery and the garden debut plants, the Tulsa garden center at Woodward park, the Oklahoma horticultural society smart pot and the Tulsa garden club.

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