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

I'm Chris Cooper.

Diseases can destroy a beautiful garden.

Today we're gonna talk about some of the most destructive.

Also, we will be getting our roses ready for fall and winter.

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'm Chris Cooper.

Joining me today is Lisa Lawhead.

Lisa's a Tennessee Department of Agriculture Plant Inspector, and Mr.

Bill Dickerson will be joining me later.

Good to have you here, Lisa.

- Thank you, Chris, good to be here.

- Let's talk about those fall plant diseases.

Let's start with boxwood blight, something we've heard a lot about here lately.

- Yes, and the reason I talk about that in the fall is because this is a fungus and the pathogen is most active at temperatures between 64 degrees and 77 degrees.

So, you know, in the fall when we get some rain and those temperature ranges, that's when this pathogen will start to really grow.

- Okay.

- And so that's why I wanna bring that up.

So symptoms that you see for boxwood blight, you know, you're gonna see that bullseye look on the leaf, that's early though.

The sign that you're probably gonna see first is just defoliation.

- Yeah.

- The plant's just gonna drop its leaves.

And then you'll wanna look for the stem lesions on the green stem.

The stem lesions do not appear on the woody part of the stem.

So you wanna look at that green part of the stem.

And if you see the stem lesions, then you might have boxwood blight.

It's something that affects boxwood Sarcococca species like, and Pachysandra.

- Yeah.

- So you wanna look for it on those plants as well.

- Okay, is there a control?

- No, well, there's no cure for this disease.

So you want to select resistant cultivars.

This really affects American boxwood.

It's one of the most susceptible ones and English boxwood.

- Okay.

- But under high disease pressure, it can affect any boxwood.

- Wow.

- So you wanna make sure to try and buy the disease resistant ones.

- Okay.

- But always buy healthy nursery stock, you know, from reputable sources.

- Good, good, and we'll have information about that at the Extension Office.

- Yeah.

- So the local Extension Offices will have some of the information.

All right, so let's talk about Phytophthora.

- Yeah, so Phytophthora ramorum is a water mold.

It's an invasive plant pathogen that also it causes sudden oak death.

So this pathogen is mostly in California and Oregon.

However, it has been found on nursery stock in the southeastern regions too.

- Okay.

- So it's something that we wanna make sure we're not moving from the West Coast to the East Coast.

- Got it.

- And it can infect Viburnum, Osmanthus, there's a really large host list.

And so you wanna be careful and not buy sick or dying plants.

- Sure.

- 'Cause the symptoms of it, it could be environmental, it could look like it's environmental.

It's so ubiquitous in how it looks.

So it really does need a lab test to confirm if you have that or not.

- Wow, so control for that is gonna be pretty difficult, maybe?

- Yes, so you wanna only buy healthy plants, right?

You wanna disinfect your pruning tools, you wanna use sanitary practices.

But yeah, it does need to be a diagnosis made by a professional.

- Professional diagnosis.

- Yeah.

- Okay.

Let's learn a little bit about thousand cankers disease.

- Yeah, so thousand cankers disease is something that affects black walnut trees.

It's actually caused by a fungus that is spread by the walnut twig beetle.

So it's a complicated situation.

And this is also something that is affecting trees on the west coast and into Arizona, New Mexico and Colorado where it is thought to be widespread.

And so this is another one where we wanna be careful moving raw wood or wood with the bark attached.

This is another reason we say don't move firewood.

- Sure.

- 'Cause you could potentially be moving this from the west to the east.

And you're gonna see symptoms of it are gonna be yellowing foliage, turning to brown wilted foliage.

Then that branch will just die.

- Okay.

- So it's something that you definitely want to move firewood or don't move firewood, you wanna burn it where you buy it.

- Burn it where you buy it.

- Burn it where you buy it.

- Okay, and you know, those will be all of your control methods for the most part?

- Yes.

- Okay.

- You know, the USDA has, you know, measures in place to prevent it spreading as well.

So it's a federally monitored disease.

- Serious, wow.

- Mm-hmm, yes, because of the economic consequences.

- Wow, I understand.

- You know, due to the nut production and hardwood production of walnuts.

- Okay, let's talk about hosta virus X. That's something we hear a lot about 'cause I know a lot of people this way - Yes.

- Grow hostas.

- Yeah, so hosta virus X is something that is highly concentrated on infected plants.

It is stable to outside the cell wall so it can move just by touching an infected plant.

- Wow.

- Okay, you know, and from the sap and also from the tools.

So I mention it this time of year because people are, you know, deadheading.

- Yes.

- And if you're deadheading an infected plant and not disinfecting your tools, you're moving that virus.

- Right.

- Also in the fall is the best time to remove a plant with the virus because that's what it's least active, so.

- Right, got it.

- If you suspect that you have hosta virus X, you definitely wanna have that tested by a professional as well.

But you're gonna see symptoms of stunting, mottling, you're gonna see puckering, wilting.

And also like, if it ever looks like the hosta is not growing like it should be, like if you look at the label, say for your guacamole, you know what it's supposed to look like.

- Right, right.

- And it just doesn't look right.

- Yeah, huge leaves, and these are smallest.

- Yeah, yeah, if it just doesn't look right, then you might have some kind of virus or something going on with your hosta and you wanna be careful not to infect the healthy ones in your yard.

So it's best to disinfect.

- So how do you disinfect?

What would you recommend for disinfecting your tools?

- Alcohol or Lysol.

You know, some people say bleach or a bleach solution.

but that can stain clothing, it's caustic, and also it really should be mixed on a regular basis.

You shouldn't just have it sitting.

- That's a good point.

- It loses its efficacy.

So Lysol and alcohol are really good.

And I would suggest doing that every time you prune something in your yard.

- Oh yes, yes.

- You know?

And even the bottoms of your shoes and your hands, so yep.

- That's good, that's good, okay.

So any other controlled methods, you know, for controlling?

- It's best to, again, buy plants from reputable sources.

And again, if you are in the garden center and you're not sure, you should just leave that plant there.

- Just leave it there.

- You should not be taking that one home with you, yep.

- Okay.

Quickly, any general advice for stopping the spread of all of these diseases we talked about today?

- Yes, again, it's just being cautious and being an inspector yourself.

When you're in the garden center, it's to really be mindful that you could be moving something.

- Right.

- Even in the garden centers, you know, they're busy.

- Sure.

- And they might miss something.

And so it's just good for you as the consumer to, as we all should be aware of what we're potentially moving from one place to another, whether it's from the garden center to home or when we're out camping and you know, moving across the country.

You know, we just need to be aware - Right.

- Of what we're moving.

- This is why we have people like you.

- Yeah, well, thank you.

- Thank you, Lisa.

We appreciate that good information, so thank you much.

- Yes.

- Right.

[upbeat country music] - This year we've had a lot of phone calls about the leaves turning brown or scorching.

In this case we have an American sycamore tree showing the scorching of what is more than likely a bacterial disease called bacterial leaf scorch.

It's a non-selective disease.

It just happens to be more prominent on other trees such as sycamore, American elm, the pin oak.

The disease itself is transmitted through an insect called the leaf hopper, and its saliva, when it feeds on this plant, it transmits it into the leaf.

And over time it goes through the leaf, through the twig, and into the woody material of the branch causing the tree to slowly die back.

It'll reach a point to where the tree won't be dead, but the tree will be so unsightly that you're going to probably want to remove it.

Fertilize your trees, keep 'em vigorous to help them be able to defend theirselves from this disease.

[upbeat country music] - All right, Mr.

Bill, you remember these roses?

- I do, I do, they look good.

- They look good.

So you did a good job.

- Thank you.

- So let's talk a little bit about fall rose care.

- Fall rose care.

Well, I'm gonna tidy this bush up a little bit.

- Okay.

- This is an Iceberg floribunda and it's really done well.

It's small blooms, a lot of blooms.

You want a deadhead, you don't cut floribundas back as much as you do say a hybrid tea.

And I noticed that there's some leaf cutters.

See where the leaves are?

You get these little perfectly round holes and it's just a leaf cutter, which is a beneficial, so you don't want to kill 'em, you just bear with them.

And they actually line their nest with this tender leaf foliage.

So they don't do any damage.

But other than that, the bush is in pretty good shape.

- I think that's pretty neat, precision cutting.

- Oh, it is, they make just a perfectly round hole.

You gotta love Mother Nature.

Now deadheading wise, the petals are gone.

So on versus a hybrid tea, I'm gonna come right about here and you prune high.

And you take that off 'cause you don't want it to set rose hips.

I found a rose hip down, that's pretty small.

Where did I see?

- There's another one.

- Oh, here, yeah, here, I'll pull that off.

- Okay.

- Well, that's a rose hip.

That sets and makes seeds and you want to cut those off early fall.

Now in November you leave them and the plant will go dormant.

But if you leave them now, the plant thinks it's propagated and it dies down.

So that's why you deadhead and that's very important.

- Okay.

- And so you just, you go down to a five leaf, you cut it off.

These are pretty much spent.

I'll just go down to a five leaf and cut that off.

- Is it always five leaves?

- Typically a five leaf is going to have a better chance to rebloom.

- Okay, gotcha.

- Down here, you got one bloom and a lot of foliage.

You want the plant to get air.

So this is not productive.

I'm gonna come down here, go to a five leaf and take this large.

And where you have this multi canes, you're gonna get a big bloom of flowers.

And just to tidy up the bush, I'm gonna take this out.

It looks better, it gets rid of, you only had one bloom on there and so that'll actually do better and you'll get a nice bloom instead of just one or two.

- Okay.

So we're trying to get as many blooms as possible, right?

- Yeah, and that's the whole, we're kind of manipulating Mother Nature and getting it to bloom.

- Right.

- And in the meantime, we're wanting to kind of shape the plant.

Now here you had one bloom.

I'm gonna come down, cut it on the backside so that the next cane will go the same way the leaves are facing.

- All right, all right, gotcha.

- But it's pretty good and you don't have to do a whole lot.

Here's one that's bloomed.

I'm gonna leave the ones that's on here.

- There you go, well, there it goes.

- And if you make a mistake cutting, it's no big deal, they'll grow back, that's just.

And now you'll get many more blooms like this.

And that's kind of what you're shooting on.

You want to flush of blooms.

This is a very pretty, it's pretty all year long.

Now here's a cane that's coming up and blooms.

This is going in the middle.

So see how it kind of opens the.

- It sure did open it up quite a bit.

- You know, the old rule of thumb is to be able to put a bowl in the middle of the bush.

But see I've taken a lot of that out.

That's gonna let air bleed and then that air flow is gonna knock down on the fungus.

- Right, okay.

- So it doesn't have a place to hide.

- Okay, get those leaves dried off.

- But the bush looks really good.

But on a floribunda you prune lightly instead of versus a hybrid tea, you go down a foot or better.

- Okay.

- Next I'm gonna put a little triple-13 fertilizer.

- All right?

- Kind of around the outside of the bush.

Roses are heavy feeders.

- So we're saying, so obviously, it's not too late to do this then, right?

- No, it used to be end of September.

- Okay.

- But our growing season's a little longer now.

We'll have blooms in Christmas a lot of times.

So after probably the end of November, no more nitrogen.

- No more nitrogen, gotcha.

- But this will perk 'em up.

You'll get nice, that's really, this bush has really done well.

- Good, okay.

- We've got a hybrid then.

I always throw this away.

You don't wanna leave it on the ground.

- Yeah, practice good sanitation, right?

- Now here, this has got some leaf burn from the heat and it's got some black spot, which you use a fungicide, which is a preventative.

The first thing is always to cut some of the dead stuff out.

I'm going take this out and it's not doing very well.

But what color is that pith in the middle of the cane?

- That's white.

- Well, the creamy.

No, the middle is.

- Oh, yeah it's dark.

I'm sorry, I'm looking around it.

- Yeah, yeah, well, you got a little bit of live tissue so this is not doing very well because that cane's kind of dying.

- Right.

- And a lot of times, you just have to keep cutting back to white pith.

Here you have unproduction, there's no bloom shooting up.

You want to kind of thin this bush out a little bit to let back to the airflow, which is very important.

See what we got here.

I'm gonna take this one out and you'll make a mistake every once in a while.

You'll cut the wrong cane, and you know what?

It's like a bad haircut, it'll grow back.

- Grow back [laughs].

- You have to move on.

Now I noticed on the last cutting, one here, well, pruned here, the next cane in 40 days on a hybrid tee, forty, forty-five days, the next cane's gonna grow this way.

Typically you want it to grow out.

So, and you can see there's a little node right here.

- Oh, yeah, it's going that way.

- That's why, and you always want to cut, and they did this properly, you always wanna cut about a quarter of an inch right above that leaf, that leaf node.

I want it to go this way, so I'm gonna come down.

- Oh, that's - Can you get it?

That ones look tough, there you go.

- See how white that was versus- - Yeah, that's nice.

- Versus.

- Got a dark.

- This one, which is black in the middle.

So this is just run out of energy and there's no life going to it.

- Okay.

- So now this next cane is gonna grow same way the leaf is, this is a little thick and here again, you're just opening up the bush a little bit and then you won't have to use as much fungicide.

- Okay.

So what do you think about the overall growth of this one though?

- Well, it's coming along - It's coming along.

- Well now, mulch would help tremendously, fertilizer.

I noticed that you can see at the bottom, that's rocking a little bit.

I would add a little more soil around that, and then tamp it in, well right there.

And that's why we wind top in the fall, November, well, probably closer to December, January after the blooms.

- Okay.

- You take a bush that's this tall and you bring it down, 'cause on a windy day, it's doing this.

- Light rock.

- And when it rocks, it tears those young white feeder roots.

So you're just losing nutrition.

This is not doing much.

I'm gonna cut this off.

Take the little bit out of the middle.

This is very small.

So when you take this away, you're gonna get more energy going to the bigger cane.

And what you want is it to grow up and be like this.

- Gotcha.

- You got new growth here.

- That's good.

- Here's a little bit of dead, I'm gonna take that out.

But there's new growth and that's what you're looking for.

- Right, yeah, it looks good.

- And it'll take this big cane here, it'll take about like I'd say, 40, 45 days to get a new cane similar to this, a bud and then a bloom.

Then again, I'll add little triple-13 around the drip line.

Clean your mess up.

[Chris laughing] You don't wanna leave those leaves on the ground because then they really get black spot, and they'll spread it, the rain hits and bounces up.

But other than that, the bush is coming along for a young bush, and what you want is these big healthy canes here, that's going to produce and you'll have a lot better growth the next season.

- All right, Mr.

Bill, we appreciate that fall rose care demonstration.

Looks like you've done this a couple of times before, so thank you very much, sir.

- Thank you.

[upbeat country music] I was looking at this bush and I noticed a cane borer and a cane borer will bore into the cane after you've cut it off and pruned, and it may go down a quarter of an inch, it may go down a half an inch, it may go down 10 inches.

That's why we tell people to use Elmer's exterior glue, that hardens it off and they can't bore through it.

So what I'm gonna do is cut that out because there's no nutrients going through that cane.

You go as close to this as you can [branch snapping] and you cut it off.

Well, when you look and see, there's a little white there, which is a little bit of life and energy, but most of this is gone.

There's a little bit of a hole left.

So that cane borer pretty much got all of this, and this is just a dead cane that's not doing well.

That looks severe, but when you cut this off, there's a good chance that you're going to get a basal break, which is a new healthy cane like this.

And that's what you want is new, vibrant, healthy canes that you're gonna get some life out of.

[upbeat country music] - Here's our Q&A segment, y'all ready?

- Yeah.

- Oh, this is exciting, right?

These are some good questions.

Here's my first viewer email.

"Why do my tomatoes develop cracks "just as they start to ripen?

How can I prevent this?"

And this is Gary from Pennsylvania.

All right, Mr.

Gary, we're gonna answer that question for you.

What do you think about that, Lisa?

- I believe that's due to inconsistent watering.

When the plant goes through a period of dry spell and then you water it, that tissue expands inside and the skin can't take it so it cracks.

- So it cracks, yeah, so what can he do to prevent that?

- Consistent watering, utilizing soaker hoses or irrigation on timers, mulch, soil toppings.

- Yep, so I definitely would mulch, right?

That will help with the consistent watering.

How about this?

I would pick early.

- Oh yeah.

- I would do that.

- Yeah.

- Right, because the fruit is still edible, right, pick it early.

- Sounds good.

- Let it sit on the counter for a little bit, I think that'll work.

So thank you for that question, Mr.

Gary.

We appreciate that.

Here's our next viewer email.

"We planted a blue spruce 15 years ago.

"Last year, it had a bad case of bagworms.

"We removed them but there appears to be a lot of damage.

"Now there's a lot of bare wood inside.

Should I prune it and when?"

And this is Ann from Lakeland, Tennessee.

So should she prune it, Joseph?

- Yes.

- And if she does that, when is she gonna do it?

- Yeah, so she should definitely prune it, get that dead out, and she needs to do that in the winter months, January, February, early March.

Best time to do it.

And she also needs to scout next year just for bagworms 'cause they can definitely come back, and she'll have the same problems if she doesn't stay on top of it.

And then the reason why she has so much damage, needle evergreens don't regenerate growth.

They don't have that capability.

So when they get damaged, they're damaged, they don't come back.

- Yeah.

- Like our other deciduous or other evergreen plants like hollies.

- That's gonna be tough.

You know, a lot of that damage on the inside.

You have anything you wanted to add to that, Lisa?

- Yeah, I would say that's tough, and like Joe said, scouting early to catch 'em before they defoliate the plant.

- Right, yeah, I would probably start that in yeah, April, May, you know, scouting for those bagworms 'cause they can cause a lot of damage and obviously they did to this blue spruce.

- Yeah.

- Right.

So you definitely wanna do that.

And what are some of the pesticides you would recommend for bagworms?

- Definitely need to do something that would be like a systemic, - Okay.

- I think, because they cocoon themselves in, you can't really get to that insect once it's cocooned in.

- Right, but if you happen, you know, to you know catch them before they develop the little cocoons, right?

I would probably use something like Bt.

- Bt.

- Right, yeah, I would definitely do that, Dipel, Javelin, something that you can find at the big box stores.

Read and follow the label, get that spread early.

- You can also just pull 'em off.

- Hand pick 'em?

- Yep.

- Hand pick 'em, squeeze them.

- Oh, you wanna squeeze them?

- I just about- - Yeah, 'cause they can still climb out.

- They can.

- Of that cocoon if you don't kill 'em after you pick 'em off, they'll climb out.

- Yep.

- All right, Ms.

Anne, so hope that answers your question.

Yeah, and thank you for the picture.

We definitely do appreciate that.

Here's our next viewer email.

"How do I get rid of grasshoppers in my garden?

I don't want to hurt the plants or pollinators."

This is Sonia from Fountain, Colorado.

She says "this is the second year she has lost her garden to grasshoppers."

So what do you think about that, Lisa?

- Well, grasshoppers can eat quite a lot.

So I would recommend something like diatomaceous earth and sprinkle that, you know, on the leaves, and when the grasshoppers ingest that, they will dehydrate, it will cause them to die.

And since she's in Colorado where it's not, you know, raining a lot, that's a good place to use diatomaceous earth 'cause you wouldn't have to keep coming back, 'cause every time it rains, you would have to reapply.

- I would agree with that.

A couple other things that come to mind to me.

Make sure you're mowing your lawn regularly.

Getting rid of those weeds because they're gonna be eating on those as well, and trap crops.

- Yes, sure.

- Right, so at the edge of the garden, I would probably plant what they like, tall grass.

- Tall grasses, clover.

- Clover, sunflower.

- Oh yeah.

- And then maybe you can encourage those predators, frogs, and birds to come by, come in and help, you know, take care of the grasshoppers for you, Sonia.

So yeah, I think I would do that.

- A combination of those.

- A combination I think, yeah, will help.

All right, Sonia, thank you so much for that question.

We appreciate that.

And too, I would ask, go to your local Extension Office there.

Colorado State Extension probably has a publication about, you know, controlling grasshoppers, check that out.

All right, Lisa, Joseph, that was fun.

Yep, that was fun, thank you so much, thank you.

- Yeah, thank you - Thank you.

- Remember, we love to hear from you.

Send us an email or letter.

The email address is questions@familyplotgarden.com, 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 watching.

If you want to find out more about the diseases Lisa talked about, head on over to our website, familyplotgarden.com.

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

Be safe.

[upbeat country music] [acoustic guitar chords]