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

I'm Chris Cooper.

Hollies are a favorite shrub in the landscape, and today we're going to plant one.

Also, a fruit tree is a long-term commitment, and you want to choose one that will be disease-free.

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 Joellen Dimond.

Joellen is Director of Landscape at the University of Memphis, and Mr. D will be joining me later.

All right Joellen, how you doing today?

- Doing good.

- Good.

So we're here at your playground, the University of Memphis.

- Yes.

- Looks like we'll be planting hollies.

- Yeah, we're gonna be planting a Japanese holly called Soft Touch.

- Soft touch.

- Yes, because it's soft to touch.

- Ah, all right.

- And again, we are gonna plant this a little bit wider than the container, but not as deep.

Want to have it up out of the ground just a little bit.

The first thing we're gonna do is look at the root system of this.

- All right, can you get it out?

All right, there you go.

- And as you can see, this is really well-filled with roots.

It's starting to come out the bottom.

These circling roots need to be stopped, so we'll put a few cuts in the circling roots.

You can use it with the shovel, but I like to use this just to give it a little cut.

- And tell us, what does that do, Joellen?

- This stops these circling roots from circling in the container, because they will just keep circling once you plant them.

When you cut them like this, where it's cut, these roots will stop going in a circle because all the roots want to do is anchor the shrub going away from the center of the shrub, so stopping the circling will cause the roots to go away from the center of the shrub and it'll anchor itself, and that's about all you have to do.

- Oh, that's it, okay.

- So we'll dig a hole a little bit wider.

- We'll go ahead and get started, right?

Oh, this is, oh, nice.

- We did do a little bit of mending and tilling here before we planted this section, and it makes a difference.

- Oh, it made it easy on me.

[Joellen chuckling] I like that.

Make sure to get it wide, right?

- Wide is better.

- Wide is better.

- Since I have this, I will measure the depth of this and we'll see.

I think it's deep enough.

- All right, look at that.

- We'll square off the bottom so we won't leave any air pockets underneath it.

Place the plant in.

- Oh, look at that.

- Make sure it has, all plants have a face, and to me this looks like it's the back part of it.

The better part forward to me is right there.

- So all plants have a face, I like that.

- They all have faces.

- We want to see the smiling face, right?

Look at that.

- Fill in, leaving some of it up out of the ground.

Now when we mulch, the mulch will go over the top.

- Tamp it down a little bit.

- It's nice and planted and ready to continue growing in this bed.

- How about that?

I'm getting better, Joellen.

I'm getting better.

- That looks good, and now you see we've put the roots out of the ground just a little bit because we want it to be well-drained.

We are gonna put mulch over the top of it, which will cover the root system, But we want it to be well-drained and we want those roots in the bottom to have plenty of air circulation so they can grow and grow out from the plant.

- Sounds good.

- Well, we've got a few more to plant, and I'm gonna have Ashley and Zodrick come and finish planting these for us.

- Good deal.

Y'all come on in, good deal.

All right, so what else do we need to know about hollies?

- Well, this Japanese holly, they like zones five through seven, and one thing that I have noticed in this last winter, we had a really severe cold snap that made a lot of the evergreen broadleaf shrubs and trees... defoliate.

I mean, it was really bad, but you know, we have some of these at the nursery here at the university and they stayed green and never had any problems in a container up outside of the ground.

This is gonna be a good plant for us because it goes up to zone five and we are here in zone seven.

So again, going up a little bit in zones just to make sure that they can take some severe cold weather that we haven't yet.

It does well in zones seven and sometimes even eight and nine.

Not as much in eight and nine because they do get the heat and humidity they don't like.

Japanese holly get a lot more of the diseases and pest problems when it's hot and humid.

So if you're gonna plant these there in that area, you might want to make sure they're extremely well-drained.

- Yes, got to be well-drained, that is for sure.

But these look good though, and I'm just glad to know that they survived that harsh winter that we had.

- They really did, and they did a good job, but they have the same problems that Japanese hollies have, which is a lot of the disease problems, but that's usually caused by being wet too long, so well-drained areas are essential for them.

- Okay, so again, planting high will help with that.

- Planting high will help all of that.

- Let's talk about some other hollies that people may be interested in.

- Yeah, there's a lot of Chinese hollies that are dwarf and good for foundation plants, just like these Japanese hollies, like the Carissas, but they have a wider leaf on them.

They're Chinese hollies.

They also do well, but some of them have had trouble this year when we had that cold snap, but they also do well, especially in drought.

The Carissa holly does very well in a drought situation, and that does good.

There's also a native holly that's called yaupon, and they did very well in cold and heat, so that's another good holly to choose for a foundation plant.

- Yeah, so if people just do their research, there are all kinds of hollies out there.

Find the right one for your situation.

- That's right.

- Thank you, Joellen.

I appreciate that.

- You're welcome.

[upbeat country music] You hear us talk about iron chlorosis, and this is a very good example of iron chlorosis.

You see the dark green veins in the leaves, and this is a sign that the plant is not getting the nutrients that it needs.

One of the ways to fix iron chlorosis is of course to add some iron.

You can use liquid iron and mix it up in water according to the directions on the bottle and water the plant.

If that still doesn't work, then I would get a soil pH test done, because the pH might be off so that the plant isn't able to take up nutrients because the pH is holding all of the nutrients in the ground and not allowing the plant to get to them.

But hopefully a little bit of liquid iron, and these plants will be just fine.

[upbeat country music] - All right.

Mr. D. Let's talk about apple tree varieties.

What kind of information do you have for us?

- I got some good information.

- Ah, yes you do.

- There's lots to choose from.

There are 5,000 varieties worldwide, and unfortunately, only 2,000 thousand of them are grown in this country, so we only have 2,000 to choose from.

What I did is I did a little searching around.

For homeowners, I think disease resistance is very important because most homeowners, and I'm one, I don't do as good a job spraying my apple trees as I need to, and so if I can have some disease resistance, then that's gonna help me produce a nice apple.

Purdue University did an excellent job comparing different varieties and looking at disease resistance, and I have some information from Purdue that I want to share with you.

It's got hundreds, probably a hundred varieties plus in this publication.

- It's a good chart.

- It's highlighted the ones that are resistant to apple scab, which is one of the primary fungal diseases of apples, fire blight, juniper rust and powdery mildew.

Let me just list these off, and after I get through, we'll talk a little bit more about why you may or may not see these in the grocery store when you go shopping for apples.

- Okay, and Mr. D, we will have the link to that publication on our website.

- That's great.

Once again, the the disease-resistant varieties are highlighted on the publication, and the first one is Crimson Crisp.

It is very resistant to apple scab, moderately resistant to powdery mildew and fire blight and susceptible to the rust, ce dar apple rust, juniper rust.

The Enterprise is a variety that's resistant to scab, fire blight, juniper rust, susceptible to powdery mildew.

Florina or Querina is another one that's resistant to everything except the juniper rust.

Freedom is resistant to all of those four different diseases and problems.

Goldrush, very resistant, moderately resistant to apple scab and fire blight in that order, but susceptible to the rust and powdery mildew, Liberty, resistant to all four.

Macfree, resistant to all four.

Nova Easygrow is resistant to everything except the juniper rust.

Novamac is very resistant to all four of those diseases.

Nova Spy is resistant to, and I don't understand this, it's resistant to apple scab, susceptible to juniper rust, moderately resistant to powdery mildew, and under fire blight it has not applicable, so I assume they didn't test it for fire blight, because it is very applicable, so I would kind of worry about, and then it's Nova Spy, so maybe.

- It's in the name, Nova Spy.

- It's in the name.

Prima is very resistant to apple scab and powdery mildew, moderately susceptible to fire blight and very susceptible to juniper rust.

Priscilla, resistant to all four.

Pristine is the one that I'm familiar with.

It's very resistant to apple scab and resistant to fire blight, susceptible to juniper rust, but resistant to powdery mildew.

Sir Prize, resistant to apple scab and powdery mildew, but susceptible to fire blight and the rust.

William's Pride is the last one that's very resistant to apple scab and juniper rust and resistant to fire blight and powdery mildew.

So that's 14 varieties of apples that have some really good disease resistance.

Again, you may or may not be familiar with these varieties when you buy them from the grocery store because commercial growers, they're gonna go in there.

Most of them are gonna follow a strict spray schedule, so they choose their varieties based upon taste.

A lot of them are Fuji, Gala, we see those, we see Red Delicious and Yellow Delicious apples out there and Cameo and Granny Smith, but all of those are susceptible.

Now see, Granny Smith is resistant to the rust, but is susceptible to a scab, very susceptible to fire blight and very susceptible to powdery mildew.

Also, when you plant these varieties, make sure that you pay attention to the rootstock, because rootstock determines the size of the tree.

These apples are grafted on to rootstocks.

That can be dwarfing rootstock, which makes the tree very small, semi-dwarf, which is a little larger, and then full size, which would be a big old apple tree.

- If we're saying they're resistant, does the homeowner still have to spray, though?

- I probably would, because this is not all of the diseases.

There are a lot of diseases, you know, flyspeck.

There's black rot.

There are a lot of diseases.

These are only four diseases.

They're four major diseases.

It would be a good idea if you can to go ahead and do a cover spray for apples.

That would be a great idea to do that every seven to ten days.

But I do understand that, I just can't do it.

I'm busy and if you have a job and you have other commitments and you got those four or five apple trees out there in the backyard, that in the back of your mind you know you need to go out there every Saturday, well Saturday it rained.

It rained Saturday, you can't do it.

So it's really hard, and I understand that.

- And you know that from personal experience because you do have apple trees.

- I know that from personal experience.

I do this for a living and I still don't do the job I need to do.

So if I have natural resistance, then that helps me.

That helps me a lot, especially with the really devastating diseases like fire blight.

That's the first one that I'm gonna see, you know?

- Fire blight usually shows up first for most people.

Those are the calls that we get at the Extension Office, is about fire blight.

Wow.

- Right.

- So if you're using those cover sprays, we want to tell folks, make sure they read and follow the label.

- That's exact, follow the label.

- All right, Mr. D. That's good information about those apple tree varieties.

It's a lot too, how about that?

- It's amazing the number of varieties that are out there.

One thing that's amazing about apples is one that tastes good may or may not make the best pie.

Some of the best tasting apples off the tree, the pie is kind of bland, and then some of them that are so tart that'll wake you up, kind of like ammonia, make the best apple pies and fried apple pie with a southern apple.

Nothing like an apple pie with a little ice cream on top.

- I guess you've eaten a few apple pies in your day.

- I've eaten more than my share of apple pie.

- All right, we appreciate that good information.

- Good deal.

[upbeat country music] Before you put your plant material into the ground, it's always a good idea to inspect the soil for wildflowers or weeds, however you want to say it.

What I see here is gonna be some black medic, and you don't want to introduce this black medic to your nice landscape bed, so I will go in here, just make sure you pull it out, see if you can get it out by the roots if it all possible.

Look at that fibrous root system there.

Just clean it out the best you can, get all of those weeds out, because they will try to go to seed.

Once you finish doing that, then your plant material will be ready for your nice landscape bed.

[upbeat country music] All right Joellen, here's our Q and A segment.

You ready?

- I'm ready.

- These are some interesting questions.

Here's our first viewer email.

"What is the best time and method "to plant elderberry cuttings or plants?

"Also, is it advisable to cross-pollinate?

If so, what species should we pursue?"

This is Andy from Kalamazoo, Michigan.

- Oh, wow.

- What do you think about that?

- Well, you know, elderberries are no different from any other plant that you would propagate.

You're trying to find the spot between where last year's growth ended and the next year's growth started.

That transition zone is a zone of activity, and when you try to propagate any plant in that area where the leaf scars are, you will be very successful.

So yeah, take cuttings there.

I personally would put rooting hormone on them and stick them in some moist soil.

I would put a baggie over them to assimilate a greenhouse and keep them out of direct light, and keep them moist, and they should root that way.

- And the best time to do that?

- Is usually early, in usually May, June.

Those are good because the new growth has already started and you'll be able to find that transition zone.

- Okay, so spring after the threat of frost, for the most part.

What about cross-pollinating, though?

- There are a lot of different types of elderberry, and I'm assuming that they want berries, so the two berries that are good to have, you're supposed to have more than one elderberry to be able to produce berries.

I would get the two varieties called Adams and York.

- Adams and York.

- Adams and York.

If he's new to it and he really wants success faster, you can go ahead and you can find both those varieties in a plant and buy the plant, but yes, you can root them.

- So yes, you can root them.

Spring after the threat of frost.

Yeah, you need cross-pollination.

So Adams, York, there's a Johns, there's a Nova.

So there's some varieties there that you can actually choose from, and if you have any further questions, then I would just go to Michigan State Extension and see if they have a publication for you about elderberry.

All right.

- Good idea.

- Thank you, Andy.

Appreciate that question.

Here's our next viewer email.

"Can I avoid verticillium wilt by growing my strawberries in pots?"

And this is John on YouTube.

What do you think about that?

- Well, I think that's a great idea.

- I think it's a good idea.

- Because the verticillium is found in the ground in the dirt, and if you take that out of, put potting soil in the container, don't put dirt from the ground in there, then I see that that would probably work.

- I think that'll work.

Verticillium wilt, as we know, is a soil-borne fungus, so if you get it out of the ground and in a raised bed maybe or in a pot, then you should be fine.

You'll be fine.

So thank you for that question, Joe.

We appreciate that.

All right, here's our next viewer email.

"I have two fig trees that I planted a few years ago.

"They have never produced a fig.

"My son lives next door and planted the same type "at the same time and his tree has produced.

How do I get my figs to produce?"

This is Mary from Madison Field, Tennessee.

This one's interesting, right?

- Yes.

- Same type.

- Just next door.

- Just next door.

One produced, one didn't.

- My question to her would be this.

Is it planted in a similar environment that the other one is?

Is it getting enough sun?

Do you put it in a more shady area?

Then the other question is, are you taking care of it too much?

If you're putting too much water on it or maybe not enough, if we had a drought.

Also, are you fertilizing it too much?

Because high nitrogen will prevent it from producing fruit.

Most fruit-producing plants like to think that they need to reproduce, so you don't want to put too much nitrogen and too much water on them.

You want to think them, kind of starve them just a little bit so that they go ahead and say oh, I need to produce fruit.

- Right, yeah, I can go with that, but I definitely thought about the fertility.

Is it too much nitrogen fertilizer?

Because there's no indication of whether they fertilize or not, but that's the first thing that came to mind of course.

And then like you mentioned, is irrigation of course is very important.

PH is important as well, but figs are pretty easy.

- Yeah.

- They're pretty easy.

So yeah, just look at those conditions Ms. Mary, and hope that helps you out there, all right?

Next time you'll have more figs than your son, how about that?

- There you go.

- There you go.

All right, here's our next viewer email.

"How can I get rid of greenbriar in my flower beds "without harming the good plants that are planted there?

I can't pull up the vines with all those thorns."

This is Jan from Portsmouth, Virginia.

We know greenbriar has a lot of thorns, but this is in a flower bed, so how do you control those in a flower bed, do you think?

- Well, the herbicides would probably be the best thing.

I know she doesn't want to harm anything, but you can just do a wiping on the leaves method to get them out.

One thing you gotta understand about greenbriar is that it has an extensive rhizome system underground.

In fact, it will produce the rhizome system underground before you even see a leaf come up, so pulling it up is gonna be next to impossible.

- It's gonna be tough.

- But the herbicide will help get rid of it because it will translocate down into the rhizomes.

It may not get all of them, but as it keeps coming up and you keep doing that, you can get rid of it, and there's an Extension publication I think in the University of Georgia that we can put on the website that might help.

- Might help with that.

- Yeah, understand the greenbriar and how it works.

- Yeah, it's gonna be tough.

You have a rhizome tuber system, so it's gonna be definitely tough.

One suggestion I have though, if you just kind of cut it close to the ground as possible, then, use a sponge or a paintbrush, 41% glyphosate, let the turgor pressure kind of pull it down into the rhizome, those tubers, that may help.

That way you don't have to worry about spraying and drift and things like that, so that's another way.

That may help.

But that publication will have some good information in there about treating greenbriar, which is tough.

- Yeah, and you know it's a favorite, the berries of it are a favorite of birds, and the birds are the ones that help put it everywhere.

- Yeah, it's instantly fertilized once it goes through the gut of a bird for the most part.

All right Ms. Jan, hope that helps you out there.

Appreciate that question.

Good luck.

Here's our next viewer email.

"We have a problem with our cedar trees dying.

"This is happening to most of the cedars in our area.

"Our winters haven't been extremely cold "and summers have been hot.

"Is there anything you can suggest "to get rid of this problem?

Even arborists seem at a loss for suggestions."

This is Barb from Windsor, Ontario.

How about that?

What are we thinking here?

- Well, from the pictures, I've noticed that it looks like the ones that are not doing well are a little bit smaller than the other rest of the hedge that she's got going on.

I'm wondering if there's a tree behind it.

I'm wondering if it's in the root system of that tree, is kind of mixing with the hedge in the end of it there.

She talked about it being hot.

Well, they don't like to be dry, and if that tree is taking away, if she's putting moisture on it and that tree is taking away more moisture, she might need to water that end a little bit more.

Of course, at some point she might have to replace those, and she might want to try something different that'll take a little bit drier situation and sunny in that spot.

- Yeah, cedar trees, they need a lot of moisture, especially if you're going through drought-like conditions.

It looks like there's competition there from the tree that's behind it, from what we can tell from the picture.

But yeah, and we noticed something else, too.

This usually happens when you plant a monoculture of plant material, so you think about that.

- Yeah, that's why I said if I replaced them if they actually did not survive, I would consider putting something else there.

- Sure, sure.

Yeah, because this could happen.

- Yeah, it could happen again.

- So yeah, Ms. Barb.

Watering definitely during drought-like conditions will help.

I don't know if those cedar trees can recover from that, but I would definitely look at some more material, plant material, that is.

So thank you, Ms. Barb, for that question.

We appreciate that.

Joellen, that was fun as always, so thank you much.

- You're welcome.

- 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.

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That's all we have time for today.

Thanks for watching.

If you want to learn more about hollies or apple trees, head on over to FamilyPlotGarden.com.

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Be safe.

[upbeat country music] [acoustic guitar chords]