- Hi, thanks for joining us for The Family Plot: Gardening in the Mid-South.

I'm Chris Cooper.

Peaches are delicious,   but they're hard to grow   because they're susceptible   to many insects and diseases.

Today we're going to   identify the most common.

Also bees are   important pollinators.

Today we'll take a   tour of a beehive.

That's just ahead   on The Family Plot:   Gardening in the Mid-South.

- (female announcer)   Production funding   for The Family Plot:   Gardening in the Mid-South   is provided by   the WKNO Production Fund,   the WKNO Endowment Fund,   and by viewers like you.

Thank you.

[upbeat country music] - Welcome to The Family Plot.

I am Chris Cooper.

Joining me today is Mr. D. Mr. D is a retired UT County Director.

- Yeah.

- And David Glover will be joining me later.

Alright Mr. D, let's talk about one of your favorite subjects.

Huh?

- We're going to talk about peaches, aren't we?

- Peaches, right.

You like peaches, don't you?

- Dr. Arlie Powell at Auburn University used to say, "Peaches are the queen of the fruit."

- Queen, of the fruit.

- And they are, they're really good.

I like all kinds of fruit, but peaches are super, super good.

- But they have a lot of issues.

- They are, they are hard to grow.

My hat is off to commercial peach producers.

- I would agree with that.

- Because they have insects and diseases.

You know, a lot of fruits have insects and diseases.

Peaches have one or two insects that can kill them.

- Kill?

- And they have one or two diseases that can kill them.

- Wow.

- And if you don't control those, then, then you're going to have real problems.

- So let's talk about diseases of peaches.

We're going to start with brown rot.

- Okay, well, brown rot affects the twigs.

It'll affect the leaves   and it affects the fruit.

On the fruit, it gets   its name brown rot   from the way it   looks on the fruit.

- Yeah.

- The whole peach will   turn brown starting   as a little small spot on   the peach and it will spread   and it will eventually   envelop the entire peach.

The entire thing and   it's just a brown rot.

And on leaves, the way it   affects leaves is the spots   on the leaves and   the spots will grow.

And the twigs,   discoloration on the twigs   that it it'll die.

Actually, the fuzz   on a peach,   the fuzz actually interferes   with the spores attaching   and a nectarine is naked.

- Right, right.

I didn't think of that before.

- It doesn't have any fuzz on it.

So brown rot is worse on nectarines than they're on peaches.

If you see symptoms of brown rot... - Uh oh.

- Too late.

- Too late, I knew you would say it.

- So that's why we go with preventative fungicide applications on peaches.

- Okay, well.

All right.

So let's roll over to peach leaf curl.

What does that look like?

- Peach leaf curl is pretty self-explanatory.

The leaves will kind of curl   and they'll be   light, discolored,   they'll be yellow and then   they'll eventually fall off.

- So let's talk a little bit about phony peach.

So what is that?

- Okay, phony peach is a devastating disease of peaches.

It spends part of its life cycle on a plum tree and part of its life cycle on peach tree.

And it will kill both of them.

On plum trees, it's called plum leaf scald.

- Okay.

- On peach trees, it's phony peach.

And the symptom that you'll see.

You know, peach leaves are folded kind of like a boat, - Right.

- If they open up and they're flat and they don't have that fold to them, that's a good indication that you might have phony peach.

And it's caused by a rickettsia-type organism   that's spread by leaf hoppers.

Feeds on a plum tree and   then feeds on a peach tree   and spreads that organism.

That's why we don't recommend planting plum trees next to peach trees.

And also even wild plums.

If they're close, can be a vector or a source of infection.

- Okay.

So let's get to the insect pests.

- Okay.

- Curculio.

You'd like to talk about that one a lot.

- Plum curculio, the most devastating insect   that affects peaches,   plums, and nectarines.

The symptom of that   is really easy,   on a small fruit you'll see a   little crescent-shaped scar.

Because the adult will   land on the fruit.

She'll cut a little opening   and then she'll lay an   egg underneath that flap   and go on about her business.

And that egg will hatch,   a little larvae   or grub will burrow   throughout the   fruit and, you know,   eventually damage   the whole fruit.

And most of the time,   the fruit will fall off.

But if you go out there, if you haven't been spraying your peaches and you go out there and there's a little crescent shaped scar on the fruit, it's already infected.

- So it's pretty easy to see?

- It's pretty easy to see.

Very easy to see, very easy to see.

- Visible?

How about that?

From the old plum curculio.

Alright, so let's move to the peach scale.

- Peach scale is a white scaly substance.

Peach scale is one   of the insects   that can kill peach trees.

Every limb that the scale   completely encircles will die.

If it completely encircles   the trunk of the tree,   the trunk will die.

Now in our area, here in the Memphis area, there are three generations of peach scale per year.

- That's a lot.

- You get further south down toward the Gulf Coast, they have four generations per year.

- Wow.

Okay.

- The crawlers that as these generations occur, the crawlers are easy to kill.

- Okay.

- The malathion will kill them.

And, and, but when you see the white adult structures on the plant, insecticides can't get to the scale and they're pretty much ineffective.

Oil, the oils will, if you spray with oil that will take care of the adults.

But if you, if you're at the point where you've already got the adults showing up there, you better get to work with the oil very, very quickly.

- So, all right.

So let's get to the borer - Peachtree borer, insect number two that can kill your tree.

A symptom of a peachtree borer is gum oozing   out of the base or the   lower trunk of a peach tree.

What it is, is that tree is   trying to flush that borer out.

And it's like, you get   something in your eye,   your tears trying to flush   it out, but it can't,   it won't do it.

It can't do it.

- All right.

So let's talk about how to treat for these.

- Okay.

From UT's Home Orchard Spray Guide, the cover sprays, basically captan or sulphur plus malathion.

That's what we recommend   for cover sprays.

- Right.

- Chlorothalonil is   also recommended during,   during bloom.

- Right?

- To spray fruit trees, you, to do it correctly, you need to go with a dormant spray   or oil during dormancy.

At bloom, you need to go in   and spray with the captan.

Do not mix insecticide with   fungicide during bloom.

Anytime that it's blooming,   because we don't want   to hurt the honeybees,   but fungicides don't do that.

And it's important to apply   fungicides during bloom.

The petal, at petal fall,   when most of the   petals have fallen off,   go back in there with,   and I would probably   mix it up a little bit.

You could use captan,   but sulphur or chlorothalonil   is recommended at petal fall.

When the petals are all off,   - Okay.

- include your insecticide,   your malathion.

- Right.

- So that's where you could go with a regular home orchard spray that's already mixed up for you.

I prefer to mix my own because if you use the same home orchard spray all the time, you're using the same fungicide all the time, and you may get some resistance issues.

So I don't like that.

So that's why I would, have me some captan and I would have some chlorothalonil.

- Gotcha.

- Those are the two that I personally would use.

- Okay.

- And so, we talk petal fall use either captan or chlorothalonil plus malathion.

And then when the shuck   splits, the same thing,   captan or sulphur or   chlorothalonil plus malathion.

And then when the fruit forms,   and this is 7 to   10 days later,   either captan or   sulphur plus malathion,   and you do that throughout   the growing season.

every 7 to 10 days.

If it doesn't rain, you can   stretch it out to 10 days.

- Right.

- If it rains, just   assume you didn't spray.

You want to keep a protective coat, protective coat of fungicide.

And, the insecticide really needs to be there for when to meet the plum curculio when she's looking for a place to lay her egg.

Hopefully, there's malathion there on that little fruit when she lands.

- That's a lot of spraying.

- In addition, to the cover sprays, and this is up until, you know, close to harvest, you know.

- Sure.

- But in addition, to control the peachtree borer,   you need to use esfenvalerate   or gamma-cyhalothrin.

One of these two insecticides.

You spray the trunk and lower   limbs of the peach tree,   May 31st, June 30th,   and July 15.

And that's when the females'   going to be out there trying   to lay eggs on the bark   or on the lower   portion of that tree.

And then you can do an another   application after harvest.

You don't want to apply this   within 14 days of harvest.

So depending on the   variety that you've got.

Now, there are a lot of problem you don't see with peaches if you go with a regular spray program.

- Right.

But you definitely have to have a spray program.

- We've got to have a spray program.

- Thank you, Mr. D. That's real good information.

[upbeat country music] - Okay, so what we're looking at here is the Chrysanthemum lace bug.

So you might be familiar with   lace bugs from azaleas.

We see those quite often,   azalea lace bug damage.

However, this is a   different type of lace bug   that is specific to plants that are in the family of Chrysanthemums.

So this plant is actually an aster.

It's in that same family.

And you can see we've got some general yellowing here.

These symptoms are called stippling.

This is a sucking insect.

And so we got to look at it and we certainly found them.

Here they are, Chrysanthemum lace bugs, feeding on an aster.

So to treat this Chrysanthemum lace bug, you could use an insecticidal soap or a general purpose insecticide like permethrin.

And I would do that as soon as possible.

[upbeat country music] - All right, Mr. David, - Hi.

We're back.

- We got the get ups on.

Huh?

- It's a little different.

- Bees suits.

- Bee suits.

We're actually in these.

- A couple of things real quickly before we even start.

One thing that is really hard for new beekeepers, is keeping their smoker lit.

- Okay.

- Now why do use a smoker?

To alert the bees.

- Alert.

Not alarm, alert.

- Well, kind of, you might want to think about it.

Most people think smoke is a calming effect on bees.

It doesn't, it actually confuses their ability to talk to each other.

All the kids know about the waggle dance and how bees tell other bees about where flowers are, but bees really communicate with pheromones.

And those are smells that mean something.

Well, we generally can't smell what the bees are saying.

So, what we can smell is smoke.

- Okay?

- Smoke is louder than anything the bees can say.

And the first thing that we do when we get into the bees is we smoke them a little bit.

That smoke confuses their ability to talk to each other.

The guard bees can't tell the other bees that were in them.

And some of the bees will actually take that smoke and realize there's a fire somewhere.

- Okay.

- And they'll go into the hive and suck up as much honey as they can.

It distends their abdomens and bees have to extend their stinger to sting.

When their bellies are full, they can't push out their stinger.

So they're confused and they can't sting us.

The smoker is very important, and keeping it lit while you're working is even more important because once the bees are looking at us, that means they know we're here.

- Okay.

Give a little bit of smoke across the top of them.

And they go back to doing what they were doing.

- Well, let's make sure we keep that smoker on, man.

- So we smoked them in the front.

We've waited about 60 seconds.

We're going to lift the back.

- All right.

- Put a little smoke under here.

- Okay.

- And the reason we're opening this hive is because I just got these bees from somebody's house last week.

- Okay.

- And we want to see how they're progressing.

One thing that we look at is the bees come and go from the entrance.

You can learn a lot about what's going on with the bees.

If they have pollen on their legs, that means they have babies.

If they have babies, that means they probably have a laying queen.

- Okay.

- Pollen is protein.

Everything needs protein to grow.

- Okay?

- Okay.

So we watched that.

We watched the activity.

Is there any arguing going on in front?

Is anybody fighting?

[Chris laughs] Bees defend their hive.

- Okay.

- If there's no hive movement upfront, no arguing, then they're not stressed.

Well, there's some bees.

- Wow.

Look at that.

- And this is a hive tool.

Neat factors on this is you can use this to break apart pieces of wood that the bees have glued together.

- Together.

Okay.

- Hear that popping?

- Yeah.

I heard it.

- Okay, - Now, how would you think the bees are doing?

- Right now, we've got bees so they're alive.

- So they're alive.

Okay.

- And see how they're looking up at us, see the eyes?

- I see that.

- Just a little bit of smoke and down they go.

- Wow, they went straight down.

- Okay.

When we open a hive, we start on the outside and work in.

- Okay.

- Now this is a new hive.

I'm not expecting much movement in here, but this is what we would do.

Pry the bar part.

This goes right here and jacks up the side of the frame.

Not expecting anything on this frame because it's brand new.

- Okay.

- Slide this frame over and keep sliding over to see what the bees are doing.

- So as you're sliding those over, though, but that's not bothering the bees.

- No, because they're doing their thing.

- Okay.

- Okay.

- All right.

- Lift this up.

See the glistening in there?

- I see it.

- That's nectar.

- Neat.

- That's going to be honey.

- Neat.

- Nectar comes from flowers.

It's the liquid source in the flower that draws the bees in.

- Okay.

- As the bees are digging around getting nectar, the pollen in the flowers actually gets stuck to the little hairs on their bodies.

And when they leave that flower and go to the next flower that causes pollination.

The pollen transfers that causes our fruits and our vegetables to grow.

Now, see this real fat bee right here.

- I see it.

- That's a drone.

That's a boy.

- Okay.

- Okay.

- Okay.

Pretty good size too.

- If you look at him, see how big his eyes are?

- I see that.

- His whole head is just about all eyes.

He's got one purpose in life and that's to find a new queen and mate with her.

So he needs all those eyes to see her.

- How about that?

- He sits in the hive all day long until about two o'clock in the afternoon, sucking up honey.

Around two o'clock in the afternoon, all the drones leave the hive and they go to a place called a drone congregation area, a DCA.

- DCA.

[Chris laughs] - It's sorta like a smoker lounge for bees.

And they kind of hang out and wait for a new queen to come.

And how does she find them?

There's not a big neon sign up there, but there's pheromones.

A trail of pheromones where the boys have flown and she follows straight to them.

And when she shows up, game is on.

- Wow.

- They will chase her.

And the first 12 to 20 drones that catch up with her will mate with her.

And she stores up all of that genetic material inside her body in a very special organ called a spermatheca and coming from her intestines is a tube that feeds sugar to them.

- Okay.

- And it keeps those sperm viable for up to five years.

- Wow.

Whoa.

- Crazy.

- Man that is wild.

- One mating and that's it for her.

- Wow.

That's it.

- That's it.

We're going to go one more box down.

That's it for her, she never leaves the hive again, unless the hive feels constricted or congested and she will leave with half the colony and go find a new home.

- Okay.

- That's what happens in   the spring and summer.

It's called swarming.

- Okay.

- They're looking   for a new home.

So it will be a big cluster   based hanging on a tree   or a mailbox   or somebody's car.

They don't have anything to defend.

So they're not going to-- They're not gonna sting you, unless you go mess with them.

- Uh, hum.

In fact, even here, bees are defensive.

They're only gonna defend their hive and their honey.

They're not going to come look at you like wasps or yellow jackets will.

- Yes.

- Okay.

- I've been a witness to that one.

- We're going to go down one more box.

This box is the box of frames and comb that we got from the house.

A lot more action in here.

When we take a comb out of a house, we got to do something with it.

Rubber bands hold it in place.

So every one that has an X on it is a rubber banded comb.

- Okay.

- These on the outside are just fillers that we put in so that they have everything they need to grow.

- Oh.

- Plastic foundation, bees build wax on top of this.

They build it out.

- How neat is that.

- They'll do it on both sides.

We'll set that right here.

Go over one more and now that looks good.

- That's a lot of bees down in there.

- It's also a lot of honey.

- Wow.

Hah.

- See the white caps?

- I do.

- That white is honey.

- Okay.

- Earlier we had liquid.

Once it gets to about 17% moisture, once the bees have dried it out, they cap it over with wax and that's their honey.

And again-- - Impressive.

- two fat drones.

- I see them.

- A lot of workers.

In a hive of 40,000 bees, you may have 1,000 boys.

- A thousand.

How long before the bees can make honey though?

- Well, almost immediately.

- Okay.

- When they set up a new hive, there are bees that are building wax and bees that are going to the field and they're bringing food in as fast as they can.

So this is comb that was in somebody's house.

- Wow.

- See the tan pockets.

- Uh, huh?

- Those are babies, those are brood.

- Okay.

- That are just about to hatch.

They go through the same four metamorphic stages that butterflies go through, egg, larva, pupa, adult.

- Right.

- They actually spin a cocoon inside the wax.

And that's the cap over the cocoon.

- Wow.

- But this was in somebody's house last week - How about that?

- And they'll eventually fill this whole area out with wax.

And once they do, then we won't have to worry about these spare pieces sticking off the side.

We'll set that there.

- That is so impressive.

Now, David, before we have to leave, I noticed there are a few dead bees laying on the ground.

- Yes.

New beekeepers may look at that and go, oh my gosh, somebody sprayed my bees or they've gotten into a pesticide.

Bees work themselves to death.

- Okay.

- And sometimes they'll die inside the hive.

And when they do, another bee will carry that dead bee outside the hive and drop it on the ground.

Well, the entrance is right here.

So there are a few dead bees on the ground.

- Okay.

- What I'm looking for right now is evidence that the queen is laying.

We're looking for eggs and larva.

Right here is the queen.

- Huh?

- Right here going down.

- Going down, I see her.

- Doesn't take long for her to lay an egg.

The queen lies about 1,500 to 2,000 eggs a day.

Literally, her body weight every day in eggs.

- How impressive is that?

Mr. David we appreciate this.

This has been outstanding.

In fact, it's been... - Outstanding in the field?

- Un-BEE-lievable.

How about that?

Thank you much.

- You're very welcome.

Thank you, all.

[gentle country music] - Rule number one.

If you're gonna use a hoe, don't wear flip flops.

Wear you some good boots.

Rule number two, don't do more work than is necessary.

The goal to killing weeds is to get the plant out by the roots.

Like that, and then get, make sure that root is exposed and the sun will kill it.

That is not the way to do it.

That weed, even that is not the way to do it.

That weed will survive, it will come back strong.

May have to use the corner of the hoe.

May have to do a little bit more work.

But get that root out, right there it is.

And he'll die.

[gentle country music] - All right Mr. D, our Q and A segment.

You ready?

- Let's do it.

We've got some great questions here.

"What is this on the   leaves of my peach tree   and what should I   spray on it?

Thank you."

This is Mike from   Rutherford, Tennessee.

All right.

So the peach tree.

- That would be Ruller-furt, if you're from the area.

- Ruller-furt.

[Chris laughs] - Ruller-furt, if you're from the area.

Yeah.

That, that is classic bacterial spot.

- Yes, it is.

- And when you see the   little purplish tint to it,   now those, those spots will,   they'll continue to develop   and then the center   will fall out   and you'll be able to   hold a leaf up to the sun   and its like a shot   hole appearance,   the center of the   spots will fall out.

But a bacterial spot on peaches, some varieties are more susceptible to others.

And so you may not see it on some varieties,   but you need to use one   of the copper compounds.

Kocide is one, but make sure   it's got some copper present.

- If you, you know, go to a reputable nursery, whatever, they will have that.

- That's right.

- Copper fungicide.

Right.

Read and follow the label, of course - Follow the label.

That's right.

- When you're out there applying.

And again, you know, you'd like to mention if it rains in between there, would it never happened.

Right?

So you have to get out and spray again.

- Right, right.

In bacterial spots, not normally a problem all year long.

- Okay.

- I mean, sometimes I've seen it on, on plants that were stressed, but then, like I said, some varieties are going to get it.

- Right, right.

- Bacterial spot normally doesn't kill a plant.

You know, you can tolerate quite a bit of bacterial spot.

- It just looks bad cosmetically, is what I tell folks.

Yeah, it's not gonna kill the plant.

- Right.

- All right.

So thank you for that question, Mike.

Here's our next viewer email.

I think you'll like this one.

"I have a peach and nectarine tree "for the fourth season.

"First the crops fall in very large numbers "and then the fruit shows tiny holes in them "and they ooze a clear glue-like, gooey substance.

"What disease causes   oozing from peaches   and what should   I use to treat it?"

Maroon from   Memphis, Tennessee.

[Chris laughs]   - Memphis, Tennessee?

- Yeah.

- Yeah, the oozing sounds like oriental fruit moth.

That's what it sounds like,   which is not the major   insect pest on peaches.

But it will be controlled if   you use a regular cover spray.

And, but that's what it   sounds like.

The oozing, sometimes if   a stink bugs feed on fruit, they will ooze a little bit from that kind of injury too.

But the difference between a stink bug oozing and an oriental fruit moth oozing is   if you open up the oriental   fruit moth infected peach   down around the pit,   you'll find the grubs.

You know, in the warm wormy   fruit, and that's no fun.

- That's not fun.

Nah.

- Especially if you're eating on it at the time.

But that's what that sounds like to me.

- Nah, I thought the same thing.

Yeah.

I think you're spot on with that.

Yeah.

Just a little, yeah.

It's, it's real clear.

It's just a little bit of it.

- And it's doing the same thing that it does when it's trying to get rid of peach... You know, when you have peachtree borers on the trunk of a tree.

- Yeah.

- The tree is trying to flush them out, right.

- Try not to get it out.

Right.

- And that fruit's trying to flush that oriental fruit moth out.

- It's amazing how trees do that.

Right?

- It ain't gonna work.

It ain't gonna work.

- Um, um.

It ain't gonna work.

- But you think about the moth, pretty easy to control you think though, for the most part.

- If you just follow the regular spray schedule and it's not going to be a problem, you're not going to see that.

- Yeah.

It's not going to be a problem.

- The problem you have is if you're trying to follow the regular spray schedule and it rains every two days.

- Ah, oh, okay.

Yeah.

That's the problem.

- Keep them washed off and they never, you know that, that's, but you gotta try.

- You gotta give it a shot.

You gotta give it a shot.

So thank you Maroon for that question.

Yeah.

Peaches, plums, and nectarines, right?

- Wow.

- I think you trained us well with that.

So thank you much.

We appreciate that.

Remember, we love   to hear from you.

Send us an email or letter.

The email address is   familyplot@wkno.org.

And the mailing   address is Family Plot,   7151 Cherry Farms Road   Cordova, Tennessee 38016.

Or you can go online to   FamilyPlotGarden.com.

That's all we have time for today.

Thanks for joining us.

If you need more information on peach problems, including treatment, go to FamilyPlotGarden.com.

We also have similar information on apple tree diseases.

Be sure to join us next week for the Family Plot: Gardening in the Mid-South.

Be safe.

[upbeat country music] [acoustic guitar chords]