(whimsical guitar music) - Welcome to Oklahoma Gardening.

No need to pack your bags as we learn alongside master gardeners.

(classical orchestra music) During the next two weeks, we have special shows lined up as we explore the International Master Gardener Conference.

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

So if you're looking for an easy, low maintenance perennial.

You have two different types of flowers on one plant.

Capsaicin that gives the pepper its heat.

Hey, everyone, we have a special edition of Oklahoma Gardening that we're bringing to you today, and that is because we are here in Oberland Park Kansas at the 2023 International Master Gardener Conference.

Over 50 Oklahoma master gardeners have joined us up here, and we wanted to share a little bit about that conference with you.

So I hope you enjoy.

(upbeat folk music) - We're here at the Kansas City, Kansas International Master Gardener Conference.

So excited to be here.

I've always wanted to go to one.

- Man, it's been great camaraderie.

All the people are amazingly fun and friendly and helpful.

- And we have met people from Portland, Oregon to Florida to Pennsylvania.

- Pittsburgh, South Carolina.

- South Carolina, right, and it has been quite an experience.

- Well, I like going to national conferences, and when you go to international conferences, you've got to go on tours.

You've got to do the workshops, not just attend the talks.

There's just so much you learn.

It's so exciting and so fun, and I have never seen so many blooming hydrangeas as we saw on the tours, and it's fun to see how gardening can vary from state-to-state.

So that's a big part of coming to Kansas to see what goes on here.

- The Giving Grove is a program that started in Kansas City in 2013 and went national in 2017, and we are all about sustainable little orchards and neighborhoods that are accessible and walkable.

In Kansas City in 2012 and before, there was a group that was really moved by understanding food access and what to do about the problem of food access, and so there was a group that got together.

There were a lot of urban ag-folks and community folks that came together and talked about this, and they came up with the idea.

- Of little orchards in neighborhoods that they were invited into as a perennial source of healthy calories.

- I'm working with all of the neighborhoods in Kansas City where we have these Giving Grove little orchards, and since 2013 we've installed over 240 of these little orchards in neighborhoods just like this one here in Rosedale.

So I work directly with the stewardship teams and these are the folks that maintain the orchards and also work with new sites that are looking to get orchards established.

So we have orchards in schools, we have orchards in parks, like this park right here.

We have orchards with neighborhood associations, we have orchards with other, other nonprofits.

- What we found is these orchards not only provide food they, 14 tree orchard can provide up to 185,000 pounds or 185,000 servings of food per orchard.

And they also have environmental benefits.

So you can sequester up to 29 tons of carbon with a little orchard like this.

And it also brings together community.

There are always people that want something like this but they don't know how to start it.

And so in each of our cities, we have different program managers that are there as the resource hub.

And in Kansas City, it's Kansas City Community Gardens.

They're the ones that started the first Giving Grove program and they support all the 230 orchards in Kansas City and they support the stewards.

I'm a steward of this orchard because I live really nearby and it's been an amazing experience to come here and work with the other steward who has been living in this neighborhood for years.

He's in his eighties and he waters the plants and I take care of the trees.

So yeah, I think there's so much more to this than just planting fruit trees.

This is a way to improve our environment, our soil biology, our air quality.

We have these delicious fruits that we can have fun with and experiment with.

And it's also a great way to gather people around.

- We offer a lot of workshops.

I always say that February is workshop month because sometimes there are three or four workshops a week that we are teaching, from pest management, to pruning, all of that.

So that is, one piece is the education.

The other is we help them procure plants.

So oftentimes people will say, "Well I want a Pink Lady apple."

Or, "I want a Honeycrisp apple."

One of the big keys to our program is we wanna make sure that these fruit plants will grow well, not only in the Kansas City area but the Giving Grove nationally wants to make sure that these plants are disease resistant when they go into the landscape.

And so that means we're using varieties that have been you know, studied by universities.

They've been bred, some of the, the PRI apples that are scab resistant.

A lot of the pear varieties have excellent resistance to fire blight.

A lot of the peach varieties have have good resistance to bacterial canker and on and on.

So our Giving Groves, they vary in size from five trees to as many as 150 trees.

So a five tree orchard, we have a lot of these at schools because really schools don't, sometimes don't have a lot of space, nor do they have a lot of bandwidth to take care of a lot of trees.

And all you need is really four or five trees and at 300 pounds of produce per tree, that's a lot of produce.

So oftentimes we'll plant things like Asian pears, European pears, because they are very easy to grow.

They have less pest pressure, less fungal pressure.

And so oftentimes we can get a good crop of those without having any sort of sprays applied.

Well, I think, you know, a lot of people, they remember fruit trees growing up.

They remember, you know, at their grandparents' house or wherever and picking those fresh apples.

And many of our stewards, they're in retirement now.

And so they're looking to actively do something.

Some of the stewards just want a vacant lot to look better and they want to turn that vacant lot into something that is productive, that produces food, that gets the neighborhood engaged.

They are pruning the trees at the appropriate time to prune trees.

So dormant season, during the summertime, they are out there actively managing oftentimes they're working with a group of people and they end up getting a lot of volunteer support.

- Usually a community will be asking for a fruit tree program and we come across organizations that don't have the personnel, or the funding, or the resources to start up a program.

And that's where we come in.

So just like we're invited into all of our orchard spaces in our community, we're invited into different cities to start programming there.

Over two years, The Giving Grove invests up to 75,000 into a city's program that they will match.

And this is your Food Well Alliances, the Big Gardens.

We have new partnerships with Tree Pittsburgh and we're working with Tilth Alliance in Seattle.

So all of these programs look very different, but what we're doing as a national organization is supporting all of these programs to make them sustainable so that those program managers can work with the stewards on the ground for the life of the trees.

- So an orchard like this in an open space, this is pretty much free for the public to take.

But the public needs to know when the fruit is ripe, and that's when the stewardship team steps up and well, either put out.

In some cases some of our stewards, they'll put out a call blast to the neighborhood association.

Right now, peaches are ripe and that particular orchard, he sent out a call blast to that neighborhood.

I'm sure those peaches are gone or are going as we speak.

Same with when the cherries were ripe, that happened.

Here, what they'll do is they'll put some ribbons on the trees to indicate that the trees are ripe.

Now, in other orchards where it's more a nonprofit that they're actually meaning for the produce to go into a food pantry, that's not going to be open to the public.

That's going to be those volunteers for that food pantry will be picking those fruits and then it goes to that pantry.

So it's an orchard by orchard case.

- We, as The Giving Grove, we have a vision to have 1,000 orchards in 20 cities for the people and for the planet.

And if anybody is interested in getting involved, they can visit www.givinggrove.org for more information.

Not only can you find information about how to partner with us, but we also have a ton of information about pest and disease control, and harvesting, and different varieties that we recommend.

So I encourage you to go visit our website and find out more.

You know, I think these orchards are an important piece of our community for food sovereignty and for saving green space and maintaining green space, and when we can have little spaces like this, I think it just leans into the vitality of our communities.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music ends) - Well, we're sisters to begin with, and we just traveled because we thought this is as close as we're ever gonna be to an International Master Gardener Conference.

So that's why we came.

(slow country music) (upbeat music) - We are interns.

We did our training in the fall, and when we heard that the convention was coming up, we were like, we've got to go.

- They sew clothes.

- There's gonna be so much to learn.

(upbeat music) - This is a great opportunity to get with more master gardeners, and it's just been wonderful.

I've taken garden tours and met some wonderful other master gardeners from other states, and I've learned so much about how to garden, and some special things today about crevice gardening, and it's just been wonderful.

I loved all the people I've met.

They've been so nice.

(upbeat music continues) - So Dr. Raymond Cloyd just spoke to the master gardeners about plant-derived essential oils, and we were able to pull him aside.

So I would like you to, if you could kinda condense your beautiful talk down to about five minutes, if you don't mind.

Let's first talk about what are essential oils, plant-derived essential oils?

- Well, plant-derived essential oils, they're like a botanicals, they're derived from plants.

They're highly volatile.

They're actually the from the secondary metabolites that plants produce for defense against, whether it be herbivores like insects or mites or plant pathogens.

And so what we're doing is exploiting that by, you know, doing some, putting 'em in solvents or steam distillation to actually get out these large, large monoterpenoid, essentially terpenoid compounds, and maybe use some insecticides or miticides.

- And so they can come from the leaves, the seeds, all sorts of parts from the plant, is that correct?

- Mostly it's the leaves, the seeds, you get knee oil, but mostly it's the leaves, but you can get stems, but it's mostly the leaves that they're processing.

- All right, so when we talk about this, when we go and find an insecticide, these tend to be more the natural products.

Am I using that word correctly?

- Well, that is true.

They're natural botanical, derived from the plant, yes.

- Okay, and so is there any regulation to those products, or tell us a little bit about their efficacy.

- Well, in our studies, we find very low efficacy against various insects.

Aphids, thrips, mealy bugs, white flies.

We have done some work with mites, where some of them may work like rosemary oil, but mostly in our studies, we have found to have very poor effectiveness or lack of efficacy against most of the insects we've tested.

And these are insects that are on the labels of these products too.

- Right, right, and so tell us a little bit, why is it such a good sell, right?

I mean, we hear that they are going to deter these pests.

What are some of the ways that they claim they will deter these pests?

- Well, mostly they're repellents.

Repellents, so from a standpoint of they have very little, we find very little contact activity, but again, even that's questionable.

The repellency against certain insects like mosquitoes is one, biting midges and flies.

But when you're trying to control aphids or white flies or thrips, you need something that's gonna kill 'em, not repel 'em away.

- Right, so I know some people will, you know, claim that these really work well, and they may have had an experience where they did.

It seems like there's a lot of variability in these products.

Can you kind of speak to that a little bit?

- Well, there is variability in its consistency, as I mentioned in the talk, it depends on the time of year the plant parts are harvested, depends on some abiotic or biotic stress factors that these plants, because these plants are producing secondary metabolites when they're under attack, but when they're drought stressed, they're only going into what we call growth maintenance mode.

So they produce fewer plant secondary metabolites.

So that way, you're not getting the adequate number when you're doing the harvesting or the processing.

- So the actual strength of these when they're extracted might vary a little bit?

- The composition can vary dramatically, vary dramatically.

I know those are quantitative, but again, it depends on, you know, the time year you harvested, any stress factors that are under the production practices, and even the formulation.

- Right, and speaking of that, when you look at the label, it seems like there's usually a combination of different cloves and cinnamon oils.

Why is it a combination of things like that?

- Well, that's a good question.

We're trying to decipher it.

I mean, one of the publications that I've read is that they are synergistic with each other.

But I mean, there's lack of data demonstrating that.

So it's really a question we've been not being able to answer.

Why are you putting five different oils in there when maybe you can put one?

Are they all synergizing each other?

There's lack of data on that.

- Yeah, and I know anytime you buy any sort of pesticides, I am always looking at the active ingredient versus the inert ingredient, and the percentage of those, and it seems like these have a fairly low percentage of active ingredient.

Is there not much need for that?

Or what are you really buying a lot of times?

- Well, that is true.

That is true, Casey.

They have a low concentration.

You're mostly buying water or other inerts, and that's another factor, you know, why this concentration of rosemary oil or whatever.

And again, there just is such a minimal or lack of data substantiating why these products are formulated like they are.

- Right, and I think one of the selling factors is that people tend to think they're natural, so they're okay for humans, they're okay for our pets.

- Okay.

For beneficial insects even.

I mean, is natural means safe?

- No, absolutely not.

Some of the most toxic compounds we have are derived from plants 'cause they're defending themselves.

But the studies are out that show that some plant derived essential oils can cause irritation to the skin.

One study showed that they might repel mosquitoes, but they'll attract another biting midge and people vary.

Unfortunately, like everything, it's a lot of marketing promotion advertising to get people to try these products.

- All right.

Well, we appreciate your information that you shared with so many master gardeners all around, international exposure here and we appreciate the research that you're doing on this as well.

- Thank you very much.

- Appreciate it.

(upbeat music) - [Woman] We just have the best time to get to meet all these people from around the world across the United States, has been amazing.

It's just a big change from our little bubble of the world.

(upbeat music) - [Woman 2] It's so much fun.

You get to meet lovely wonderful people that you learn with and that you share with and you continue to grow and you should never stop learning.

(upbeat music) - [Woman 3] This conference has been very a learning experience for us.

- It has been so far.

- We've enjoyed each of our sessions and we look forward to the rest of it.

(upbeat music) - [Host] For more information on the Oklahoma Master Gardener Program, visit this website.

(classical 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.

(classical music) Next week we wrap up in Kansas by visiting a garden you would think is in France.

- Behind the scenes.

- Y'all ready to go?

- Yeah, let's go.

- Let's go.

- [Host] 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 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 Greenleaf Nursery and the Garden Debut Plants, the Oklahoma Horticulture Society, the Tulsa Garden Club, and the Tulsa Garden Center.

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