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

I'm Chris Cooper.

Potatoes are a classic garden vegetable.

Today, we're going to see how to plant and take care of them.

Also, peppers come in many varieties.

We'll take a look at some options.

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 WNKO 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 Walter Battle.

Walter's the UT County director in Haywood County, and Dr. Natalie Bumgarner will be joining me later.

Let's talk potatoes right.

You like potatoes don't you?

- Okay.

[laughter] - Ah yeah, so first thank you for having me - Oh no problem.

- And yes potato is a wonderful, wonderful plant to grow in the garden and it's like I tell people I mean look at all the ways you can use it.

You can fry it.

You can bake it.

You can add it to soup.

You can cream it.

You can do whatever, so every gardener need to grow some potatoes.

[laughter] I'm just here to tell you.

- All right that should be a prerequisite right?

You gotta grow potatoes right?

- Aw yeah see of course - in the garden.

here in our area you know we grow certain varieties that we tend to grow.

- Sure.

People grow the Yukon Golds.

They grow the Norland's.

You have the Kennebec, the Cobbler so those are some of the varieties.

There's even one called a Pontiac.

- Pontiac [laughs]?

- Yes a potato, so.

So those are some of the varieties that we see growing around here.

- Alright oh okay and they grow pretty well here?

- Oh yes, yes, yes.

- Alright, okay, okay.

- Then when should potatoes be planted?

- Basically I like to plant mine in, you know somewhere between mid-March and maybe through April, - Okay.

because it takes about 90 to 100 days before you get, you know you get a crop.

So that'll have you harvesting around what June, July I guess around that period and you can also plant potatoes like in July and have a crop for the fall.

- Oh okay.

- So you know but you do need some favorable weather to really get a good crop in the fall, but 'cause you'll be pulling those off around November.

But you know I have done it.

I've actually succeeded.

- Right in time for Thanksgiving.

- That's right, exactly right yes yes.

- Alright so here's the question that we get at the office all the time though, how are potatoes planted though?

- Okay how are they planted?

Well first let me show you how you get your seed potatoes.

- Okay alright let's do that.

- Let's go there and then I'll plant in a minute.

- Okay.

- Basically you know the potatoes you'll have what they call the eye, and that's where the little sprout comes up, and as you can see on this potato here, you'll see that sprout.

Now and all you have to do it's not a lot of science to this [laughter] you just take it and you just, you know cut right there by that eye, and then you'll just let this kind of scab over.

Probably give it about five days or so I'll imagine maybe two or three days.

It'll scab over and then it'll be ready for planting.

- Oh okay.

- You know and you can also go to some farm stores or whatever that will also sell what they call seed potatoes.

So you know you can do that.

Now as far as planting the potatoes, - Okay.

would you like for me to demonstrate that right now?

- Sure.

- Demonstrate for us.

- Well now let me say this it's just been so wet [laughter] that I wasn't able to go outside and till up any soil to run some you know rows - Right [laughs].

to really show you how to do this.

So we have this real good soil here that's been prepared and let me tell you while I'm on that soil this is some very good soil.

I mean this has great what we call tilth in the soil.

- Mmm hmm.

And this soil will drain good.

Potatoes they really like a nice drained soil, and what you want to do, you would ridge this up and basically you would have these ridges on the side and you wanna go about six inches deep, - Okay.

- Okay and then you take this good ole... And you can see this real good scab.

This one really scabbed really well.

This one did also look at that, that's just really good.

- Oh sure did.

And you always want to place these potatoes about a foot apart and you always want to plant them with the eye up, with the sprout up if you wanna say sprout that's fine.

And you always plant them about a foot apart, and then you come back and you cover over them.

- Okay.

- Okay just like normal there, you cover over, and eventually let me get this good Family Plot [laughs] [speaker laughs] spade there out of the way.

But then you'll come back and once that plant gets up about six inches, - Okay.

- Usually about six inches I would come back get my hoe, go out to the garden, and then I would heel, heel up around there about three or four more inches and then just let the plant take off and go.

- Oh.

- Potatoes like it kinda acidic.

If you go about - Okay.

6.2, 6.1 you know they're happy there, and if your soil is a little sweet as the old timers say, [chuckling] you can bring it down by adding some sulfur, and also the sulfur will also protect these cuttings as well.

- Okay.

- And then when I plant potatoes I usually use 6-12-12 fertilizer.

- Okay.

- Now I usually have a soil test you know, but we always - Sure.

teach soil test.

- First thing first.

- But if I'm shooting from the hips so to speak I'm going to use 6-12-12, because potatoes really like phosphorus and potassium, and that's kinda what I do, and I kinda margin it throughout the growing season.

- Okay so how do you know when they're ready to be dug up?

- Okay basically they will die back.

You know you'll see 'em die, and that's when they're bout ready and of course, you know a good gardener's gonna have that calendar and you're gonna already know - Ahhh.

hey you know in about a hundred days from now.

You know they'll be ready.

And one other little note I would like to point out about the potatoes is that people think that these potatoes because we call 'em Irish potatoes that they come from Ireland, but actually the potato is actually native to South America.

And of course the reason it gets the Irish potato name is because of you know the famine that happened way back - Right right.

in the history time there.

- Okay, I've heard about that.

- That's why you get that name they call 'em Irish potatoes - Irish potatoes.

Now I've even had some people call 'em Ice potatoes, you know old folks would say - I've heard that as well.

give me some of those Ice potatoes, - Right.

but they're really meaning Irish potatoes I'm sure.

- Okay.

- Yes.

[laughter] - So once you dig 'em up how do you store them?

- Okay whenever I dig 'em, and by the way in digging 'em I usually go out, you know when I think they're about ready I take my fork go out there kinda on the side so to make sure that I don't just you know hit it with a shovel - Right.

at that point make sure that they're ready and then I go out there and I'll dig 'em up and then I take 'em and I put 'em in my garage, and I'll just let them store there for about you know, you know two weeks or so before I cook 'em.

Now back in the old times people had cellars, you know they had root cellars and - Wow yeah.

- things like that and they would put 'em off in there and basically keep 'em for a very, very long time.

And I've been told that's where we get the term new potatoes because what would happen, people would keep those potatoes pretty much a long time and then when the next year crop you know was harvested, - Hmm interesting.

- they just called those new potatoes.

that's what I was told.

- Okay.

- Now I don't know maybe [laughter] I don't think it's a certain variety - Sure.

of new potatoes.

- That's interesting man.

- But yeah that's how I store mine.

And by the way do not wash 'em.

You know, do not when you dig 'em do not go and wash 'em off and then put 'em in storage you know in a good, you try to get as cool a place as you can with the proper humidity because all you gonna get is mold if you wash 'em.

- Alright okay.

They just gonna ruin and then you know all that good work you just you know, you gonna lose it, so - it's not about being clean - Okay at that point, - Okay.

We just wanna kinda just knock the dirt off a little bit, store 'em and I even store mine in some crates to have like you know holes in 'em, - Mmm hmm.

and I keep them up so they can get ventilation and all that, - Yeah get air.

and store properly.

- Okay let's quickly talk about insects and diseases, and I know one just right off the top of my head, - What's that?

Colorado Potato Bug.

- Yes the Colorado Potato Bug or beetle, - Will be your problem.

that's gone be your problem.

To be honest with you, I been lucky.

I've never really had a problem - Wow.

with it but if I did I probably would spray with something like Malathion to just you know get it under control.

As far as diseases is concerned, you do have early blight - Mmm hmm.

I believe and, you know something that contains chlorothalonil - Right.

- will take care of that.

- 'Cause for the most part potatoes and tomatoes same family.

- That's true, that's true.

- So you'd be having the same problem yeah right.

- Right, right.

- All right we appreciate that good information about those Irish potatoes, thank you [laughs] - Oh man hey I wanna go fry some right now.

[laughter] [upbeat country music] - Bolt.

- Bolt?

- Yes.

- Okay.

That's what plants do when they, co nditions are right, environmental conditions are right to make them set seed.

And, we usually think of it as the cool-weather plants, like the mustard greens-- - Yeah, that's what I was thinking.

- Yeah, mustard greens, you know.

They will bolt when the temperatures get higher, the days get long.

They will automatically, their little clock tells them that they've got to set seed and die.

Coriander, cilantro, you know, is a cool-season herb that we grow, and it will bolt as soon as it gets to be hot weather, meaning that it will turn from vegetative to reproductive and go into the seed stage, and then die.

So, that's what that means.

- Is there any way you can slow that process down?

- Not really.

You could cut the seeds or the blooms off, but the very next tissue coming out is going to be a bloom.

So, - That makes sense.

- You know, basil is the same way.

People'll say, "Oh, I can't use my basil 'cause it's flowering."

Well then, you can't keep it from flowering, no matter how often you cut it.

Next thing it's going to do, that's what annuals are programmed, to set seed and die.

[upbeat country music] - Alright Dr. Natalie let's talk a little bit about peppers.

Everybody likes to grow peppers in their gardens right?

- Oh right I mean I think the tomatoes get the crown as king of the garden, - Yes yes yes.

but peppers are you know they're making a push.

- Uh huh.

- We have a lot more options than we used to for a wide range of pepper cultivars.

- That's right and before we get started peppers and tomatoes same family right?

- Right.

- Hmm okay.

- Yeah so if you're raised by a gardener and you're serious about your rotation, grow your peppers and tomatoes in the same bed, and then put in a different family the next year.

But the whole idea of being in the same family gets us thinking about temperatures and fertility needs and things like that, so - Okay.

- there can be some similarities.

They like nice warm temperatures when you put 'em in the ground they get good root growth.

[Chuckling] So you know you grow 'em in a similar way in many ways.

- Good deal I'm glad you mentioned that.

Alright so let's talk about some options for the large garden and then for smaller spaces.

- Yeah so typically we think of large bell peppers or that's the first thing that comes to mind.

- Ah me too.

- I'm a sweet, I'm a sweet pepper person yeah.

- Oh you're sweet pepper alright [laughs].

- And so there are lots of good bells on the market now, whether you like greens which are immature right, so they're just an unripe pepper and most of our green peppers will mature to a nice red but we still have orange and you know some purple some yellow options yeah.

- I've seen the yellow okay.

- And one of the great things about many of our nice productive bell peppers is we get more options with bacterial leaf spot resistance - Which is a problem.

- Yes so I can see from your reaction that that's probably something you see a few pictures and emails of it over the course of summer.

- Just a lil bit, just a lil bit.

- Mmm hmm yeah so bacterial leaf spot can be spread by seed and so it's something that will often come in on a transplant that we buy but the great thing about resistance is that we can reduce that productivity loss that we'll see off of those peppers if it happens to be infected so Alliance, Red Knight are good options for peppers that have resistance to bacterial leaf spot.

Those that'll be green will mature to a red.

Mecate is a nice yellow bell that has good leaf spot resistance.

As far as some of the ones that have performed well in my trials Big Bertha was a, I mean, [laughter] you know, yeah.

- Yeah I know Big Bertha.

I like that name too.

- Yeah [laughs].

- It's an elongated bell, it doesn't have bacterial leaf spot resistance, but it performed well against many of those other new cultivars.

- So it doesn't have the resistance?

- Big Bertha doesn't have - Ah it does not.

Bacterial leaf spot yeah.

- Leaf spot okay, How 'bout that, okay.

All right now sweet peppers right?

Sweet roasting peppers.

- Yeah.

- So that's what you like.

- So...

So if we wanna branch out a little bit from our traditional bells there are some great...

Some people call 'em Italian Bull Horn or Italian Roasting Peppers, but we're thinking an elongated tapered fruit and that's where a lot of the newer hybrids have been released over the last few years.

So Carmen is a - Okay - red roasting pepper that's been on the market for a few years.

- Okay.

- It's All-American Selections winner performs well.

Mama Mia Giallo - I like that.

- nice large, long Italian pepper.

Corono di Toro one of my favorites from the trials that I've done a recent All-America Selections winner is Cornito Giallo which is nice.

It's you know not a real large pepper but really sweet, a little bit of citrusy undertones, and it turns a beautiful yellow color so it's yellow.

- Okay it's yellow, okay.

- Yeah and so those are some of the newer sweet ones.

Some of my trials this year comparing some of our newer F1 Italian Roasting Peppers to some of kind of our older heirloom cultivars we're gonna be able to see if people can pick out the difference.

- Ah cool alright that should be pretty good then.

- Yeah.

- All right so you like those sweet roasting peppers I see.

- I do yeah.

[laughter] - Alright now what about those hot peppers though?

Do you grow any of those?

- Yeah.

- I grow 'em, I can't say that I'm as much of a hot pepper aficionado, - Okay.

- but we grew some beautiful jalapeños last year and we have some good options for bacterial leaf resistance - Good.

in those as well.

Emerald Fire is one that performed well, I think it was the highest yielding jalapeño in my trials last year bacterial spot resistance - Yeah.

a recent All-American Selections winner.

Spicy Slice is another one.

- I like that.

- They did pretty well in our trial so those are good productive options and then as far as kind of some novelty hot peppers one of the favorites that I've grown over the last few years is called Mad Hatter.

- Mad Hatter?

- Yeah I mean you gotta love the name but it's - I love the name.

- It's called a Bishop's Crown so it has almost like a inverted hat shape.

- Okay alright.

- And the pepper itself is not too hot but as you get in closer to where the seeds are in the center of the fruit you start getting a little bit of heat, - Okay.

- but it's supposed to be a little bit of floral and citrus some novel taste.

[laughter] It's actually not exactly the same species as many of our regular sweet peppers it's a little bit taller plant, - Oh interesting.

- but it's pretty cool.

- Mad hatter?

- Yeah.

- Okay alright what about some of those other novelties Candy Cane is one - Yeah, yeah.

- that I've heard of before - So I say that it's a great option for the children or the slightly larger children - Larger yeah [laughs] and that's the category that I fall in.

Candy Cane was probably my favorite of the crops that we had in the trial last year.

It's great for containers, - Okay.

as well as you know growing it in the open garden.

It's a more compact plant but it has variegated leaves.

- See that's what I like.

- Yeah and so you get some white, some green and then not surprisingly due to the name you actually get white and green stripes on those immature fruit.

- Nice, nice.

- And as they ripen they go from a yellow to a gold and then finally you get a solid red and those are sweet peppers so.

- Okay.

- What about the Pretty N Sweet?

- Pretty N Sweet yeah and so - Uh huh.

Pretty N Sweet.

lots of times we're beginning to see a little bit of those ornamental and edible combinations.

Many of our ornamental peppers are hot, but Pretty N Sweet is an example of a nice compact ornamental pepper that bears its fruit on the top of the plant, - Oh cool.

so you get to see those multi colors.

They're smaller but - Okay.

they're sweet peppers that are very edible, - They're sweet.

so good container even put them in your landscape bed option.

- So you can do that?

And you're like ah.

- Yeah, yeah.

- I might try something like that this year.

- You know but in our warm, humid climates that we have - Gotta love it.

some peppers can perfume well as landscape plants.

One of the Black Pearl, Black Calk those dark - Yeah I know those, yeah.

leaf peppers yeah.

- Blankos.

- New Mex Easter is a really pretty you get a lot of almost pastel shades.

- Okay.

- These are not sweet peppers.

- Okay these are hot okay.

- Yeah, these are yeah, these are hot peppers.

[laughter] Super Chili is another example - Super Chili.

- of edible but great decorative landscape for the garden.

- Those are some cool names.

- Yeah yeah.

- How about that.

- Let me ask you this before we finish up, you've mentioned All-American Selections a couple of times what does that mean?

- Oh yeah so that is a nationwide trialing program and these are cultivars that are designed and sold for home gardeners and there are sites all over the country that test and we as judges send in our evaluations and nationwide or regional All-American- Selections are picked and some of our really common cultivars like Straight Eight Cucumbers are - Straight Eight.

All-American-Selections way back into the '30s, so it's a good - Wow.

nationwide testing program just for gardeners.

- And you're one of the judges?

- I am I'm a judge - Neat.

for the edibles.

- For the edibles?

- Yeah so a lot of the peppers I talk about are things that I've had the opportunity to grow and they're recent All-American-Selections winners.

- Really wow what if you had to judge the hot peppers and eat some of those how bout that?

- It's true.

[groaning] I just sit there and cry [laughter] being a dedicated judge.

- All right well thanks Dr. Natalie that's good information appreciate that.

- Yeah thanks a lot.

[upbeat country music] - This last fall, before we had a killing frost, I decided to take some cuttings of my Coleus.

And, they have rooted.

And instead of just putting them right down in the ground, I like to pot 'em up in a container for a few weeks and then plant them in the ground.

When you're taking them out of the container the roots are all tangled, so you have to gently separate each of the stalks from the other roots of the other plants.

[soil rustling] When we put these new roots into the soil, the soil is moist like the roots are moist.

And then, when we get through planting it we'll water them.

That way the roots won't have any kind of shock going from just straight water to a container.

These are all in one container and they're not gonna be in here for just a few weeks, and we'll have to gently take them apart and separate each plant when we plant it in the ground.

Now these are nicely potted up, and in a few weeks it'll be the right temperature to put them outside in the garden.

[upbeat country music] - Alright here's our Q & A session.

Y'all ready for these questions?

- Well yes.

- They're good questions.

- Some challenges [laughs].

- Good questions.

- All right here is our first viewer email.

"Help!

My prune tree that has been yielding lots "of fruits just got knocked over by a strong winter storm "and I don't know what to do.

"It's a bit heavy so it's been sitting "on the ground like this.

What steps do I need to take to bring it back to life?"

and this is from Gio via YouTube.

It has fallen over and look at that.

It's a pretty good size tree.

Walter what are our steps here?

What are you thinking?

- Well, that I tell you that one really needs pruning just in general, [laughter] and but I also think that if it's fallen over and it's kinda just out of the ground it probably just, it can't be saved.

Now I will tell you that I do barbecue with fruit wood.

[laughter] It's excellent wood to smoke with, so you know you might want to do that.

- Recycle.

But if it's - Yeah you're right.

I mean if it's fallen over and it's out of the ground it's not much you can do.

- If those feeder roots - Right.

are ripped then you're probably gonna lose the tree anyway.

- Right, right.

- That's the first thing I looked at yeah if the roots are exposed - Yeah.

They're been damaged.

- Right.

- Not too much you're gonna be able to do with that.

Now if it was a younger tree, - You might be able.

- Yeah you might be able to you know maybe hook a chain or something to it.

You know some padding of course, - And pull it back up.

dig out you know some of that soil from underneath the base of the plant and then - Yes.

- pull it up maybe.

And then of course you had to get some stakes in there, - Right.

and you know get some mulch, and you know make sure it's watered and fertilized all that good stuff but that look like a pretty good size tree.

And if it's been there for a while then... - Yeah those roots - Yeah.

Those roots dried out too.

- They're dry that might be pretty tough Gio, so we thank you for that question.

You might have to plant some more trees.

Yeah might have to plant another tree.

All right here's our next viewer email [chuckles].

Squirrels, we get this a lot.

"Squirrels are stripping the bark off my maple trees.

"The trees are close to a fence and other trees "so metal banding on the trunk won't work.

"I have a fake owl in aluminum foil hanging in the tree "and now I'm starting to use peppermint oil.

"I also have a dog.

How do I keep the squirrels off?"

And this is from Ron right here in Memphis.

And Walt we talked a little bit about this earlier, we get a lot of calls at the office about squirrels don't we?

- Yes yes yes yes by far.

- You know the squirrels taking my tomatoes or peppers or whatever the case may be.

- Yes.

How do you deal with squirrels?

Now I know if Mr. D. was here, [laughter] I know what Mr. D. would say, 12-year-old with a... yeah, fill in the blank.

All right, [laughter] but so what do you say about the squirrel?

- I just don't know what to tell him I mean because there's no way to eliminate it.

- Yeah.

And you know because they can jump from tree to tree, - Yeah.

so that's like he's sitting there.

- Fences you know all the trees are close, no metal banding.

- Yes I just don't know what to tell people when they call the office with these type of issues, because I mean it's just that the wildlife you know they're losing their habitat due to farming and also due to just expansion of society and they're just coming to town so I don't know.

[laughter] Well they're learning to adapt.

- Right yeah.

- They're actually learning to adapt but like I say I don't want to mention anything about the air rifle but [laughter] that's about the only thing I can tell you to do.

- Yeah.

- I hate to say that but... - Yeah we just kind of have to get along with them I guess - Yeah.

since they seem to do a lot of damage but... - they do a lot of damage a lot of investigating is what I like to call it.

- Right.

- and I think they're used to your dogs barking now.

- Yes.

- Yes they are.

- It doesn't seem to phase them.

The owl was a good idea.

- Yes.

The other I heard other people do was put those fake snakes out in your yard.

- Right that's right.

[crosstalk] - Yeah Mr. Bill talks about that.

but yes all that cultural I guess kind of thing that it's just, - Right.

you know there's not a whole lot you can once they set in like that - Once they habituate.

That's right, habituate.

- That's right, that's right.

- That's a good word.

- Good word to use right.

- And on those owls you have to kind of move them around too, - Yeah like the snakes too.

'cause otherwise - Yeah they can figure it out.

they figure it out they'll figure it out, so.

- Wow of course you know in some our literature we'll say a little bit about trapping.

You know the bait, - Yes.

you know the traps of course apple slices, oranges, nuts and things like that, and when you trap you gotta figure out what to do with 'em - Yeah.

[laughter] Yeah 'cause they might... Yeah you take 'em somewhere - Yeah it's true.

they might beat you back to the house.

[laughter] - That's true.

- So that's the thing with the trap.

- Or your neighbors just move over there.

[laughter] - Right how bout that.

- Yeah.

- And then of course there are some taste repellents that are out there, Ropel makes some, - Right.

but the thing about that I mean 'cause he did mention peppermint oil, but the thing about those repellents most of those are you know water based.

- Yeah if it.

- So if it rains, - That's right if it rains, - You have to keep applying, so.

'cause I lived out in the country we would use, we had a lot of deer, so we would use urines, different and your neighbors don't - Yeah yeah okay.

want to smell that - Right.

- and you don't either, so it's... And I think after a while they get used to that.

So it doesn't phase 'em.

- Right.

- Right wow.

- 'Cause I was gone suggest buying some of that coyote pee, - Right right that's a method.

but like you said that, - Yeah.

you know.

- They might try cayanne that's another thing I know.

- Right yeah that's another one yeah cayenne.

- Oh yeah cayenne.

Capsaicin right.

- You spraying it capsaicin you spray it on there.

- Yeah that's a good one.

- But again you know especially with all of this rain we've had here lately.

- It just washes off.

- Just washes off so it has to be reapplied.

So I guess Mr. Ron what we're trying to say it's gonna be tough.

[laughter] - [laughs] Good luck.

- Good luck you figure it out let us know all right.

So Walt, Miss Kim it's been fun again thank you.

- Oh yes, yes thank you, - You're welcome thanks for having us.

- Yes thank you for letting us be here.

- 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.

We're excited about the start of a new growing season.

For more information on potatoes or peppers or to re-watch those parts of the show, head on over to 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]