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

I'm Chris Cooper.

Everyone likes a sweet peach or apple right off the tree.

Today, we're talking about how to protect your fruit trees this winter, and prepare them for the spring.

Also, when you think about fall, you think about colorful trees.

That's just head on to 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 Mr. D. - Howdy!

- And Joellen Dimond, will be joining me later.

Alright Mr. D, let's talk about protecting those fruit trees for the winter.

- Preparing for hibernation.

- Oh.

- Yeah.

[laughs] - For hibernation.

- Is that probably, there's probably a longer list of things to avoid doing.

- Okay.

- Than to do.

You know, number one.

Don't prune.

- Oh, yeah.

- We don't wanna prune going in the fall of the year.

That's not a good thing to do.

You don't wanna fertilize.

- Yeah.

Okay.

- And you keep in mind the tree roots go out quite a bit further than the height of the tree.

So, you wanna avoid, if it's in your lawn situation, if you put a fall fertilizer out for your lawn.

- Aha.

- Which if you have a winter annual, or something like that - Right.

- You don't want to do that, within 20 or 30 feet of the fruit trees.

- Good point.

- So, you don't wanna do that.

- Right.

- No need to be doing any spraying.

- Okay.

- You know, it's going into the winter.

However, you do need to be getting ready for any dormant applications according to your, you know, look at your home orchard spray guide for wherever you live.

And there will probably be some dormant applications, that you need to apply, you know, in mid to late winter.

- Okay.

- And so, you need to be ready for that.

Let's see.

So that's pretty much the fall fertilization, especially nitrogen.

You don't want to flush your new growth, because that can create some problems.

You can apply lime.

It is a good time to apply lime.

So, I guess the first thing I would suggest that you do is, get a soil test.

- Oh yeah, here you go.

[laughs] - It's good.

And you need to do that.

You don't have to do that every year, but at least once every three or four years, you need to check your soil.

And if your pH is low, most fruit trees need a high, you know, 6.5 pH.

So, relatively high pH.

So, if your soil is too acidic, then you need to get that right.

Blueberries would be an exception.

- Hmm.

- They like an acid soil.

- All right.

- And they need very acid, and, but we're talking about tree fruits here.

- Yeah.

- Get your sprayer cleaned out and ready to go, clean up your pruning shears, and your, you know, your lopping shears, and you know, oil them, and sharpen them, and you know, get those things ready to go for late winter, early spring.

You know, that's when you're gonna need those.

- Yeah.

- Sanitation is important.

Clean up under the trees.

I would rake the leaves out, any dead leaves, any mummified fruit, if there's any dead fruit on the ground.

And if there's any fruit, mummified fruit left on the trees, get those off and get them, you know, get them out of the landscape.

I wouldn't put those in a compost pile.

If you use the mulch anywhere in the vicinity around those fruit trees.

- Okay.

- And to be on the safe side, I'd probably just, you know, get it in the garbage, or burn it.

- Yeah.

- Put those in the fire pit.

- Would you mulch your fruit trees?

What do you feel about that?

- I would not.

- You would not.

- I absolutely would not.

- And there is a difference of opinion about that.

I like bare ground under my fruit trees.

- Hmm.

- If hard freeze is coming, I would water.

Make sure that bare ground is wet going into the freeze, and that bare ground will give off ground heat, and that will help protect the fruit tree.

Small fruit and things like that, mulch is valuable.

Where I've seen, mulch is discussed for tree fruits, they've said, it's okay.

It's good in the summertime.

And it's okay in the summertime.

- Mm hmm.

- For weed control and things like that.

- Okay.

- However, August 1 to September, pull that mulch away from the tree.

It harbors mice.

- Aha.

- Rodents.

- Yeah, voles.

- Voles, and it can attract those, which can really be a severe problem.

- Right.

- So, I personally do not like mulch around my fruit trees.

You never see, fruit trees in a commercial setting, mulched.

It's bare ground, you know.

- Bare ground.

- That's what you want.

- Okay.

- In my opinion.

- Interesting.

Okay.

- But, that is pretty much it, you know, the mummies and the leaves, you know, that's very important cleaning up.

I wouldn't want weeds growing around it, you know, to make sure, bare ground.

- Bare ground.

Yeah.

- What you want under those fruit trees.

- Okay.

What about planting fruit trees?

Can you plant fruit trees in the fall?

Could you advise?

- The best time to plant fruit trees is late winter.

- Late winter.

- Late winter.

I just don't think, you'll get enough root development to get going into the winter.

I've had the best success planting them in late winter, early spring, about pruning time, is a really good time to plant fruit trees.

You don't wanna get too late, you know, you don't wanna get over into May, you know, but you want to plant in early spring, that's best for fruit trees.

- So, we have a lot of wind, and things like that in the fall.

You can prune out them, couldn't you?

Some of those limbs, you know, branches.

- Any dead branches.

- Okay.

- I said, no pruning, no pruning, but any dead branches that you have, yeah, go on it, take those off, broken branches, - Broken branch.

- You can take those off.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That's not a problem.

But as far as doing the heading back, and opening up the center, and the severe pruning, hold that off, until early spring.

- Okay.

So you mentioned the dormant oil applications.

Why are we using dormant oil?

- Well, it controls scale, and insect eggs, and things like that, you know, that over winter, and the bark of the fruit tree.

So that, it is not only oil, it's a liquid lime sulfur for apple and pear trees, and things like that.

It's just kind of clean things up a little bit, going in the spring.

- Hmm.

- 'Cause you do have critters that overwinter in the bark.

- That's for sure.

All right.

Mr. D. So, anything else we need to know about protecting, and preparing those fruit trees?

- I guess.

- As we go into winter?

- That's pretty much it.

Soil test, get the pH right, and clean up, sanitation, and then get your equipment ready for when the work starts.

- Yeah.

Because the work is definitely gonna start in spring.

- The work starts in the spring or late, early spring, late winter.

- Okay.

Appreciate that one.

I wish, they would share that.

- Yeah.

Good day.

- Good day.

[gentle country music] - What we've here in this area is a pretty thick stand of chamberbitter.

Chamberbitter is also known as little mimosa.

It's a summer annual broadleaf weed.

It actually reproduces by seed.

And if you look on the backside of the leaves, you can actually see, the little seeds.

It also develops a pretty good taproot system.

As you can see here, look how fibrous that is.

It is a very invasive weed, can be very difficult to control.

So, the best thing to do is, culturally, you have to make sure you have a thick stand of grass.

If it's in your flower bed, how about using mulch?

'Cause mulch is actually gonna restrict light.

So, if you restrict light, then of course it will not grow.

Now, if you want to use a chemical, you can use a pre-emerge.

In a pre-emerge, I would use, would be one that contains isoxaben, is one, or trifluralin, is another one.

If you wanna use a post emergent herbicide, I will probably go with something that contains 2,4-D, Dicamba, and MCPP, or your broadleaf weed herbicides.

Always read and follow the label.

So again, you better control chamberbitter.

If not, as you can see, it produces a thick stand of weeds that are hard to get out.

[upbeat country music] Fall is near, believe it or not.

- Yes.

- How about that?

So let's talk about trees and fall foliage.

- Right.

Yeah.

And you know what?

Late fall and winter is the best time to plant a tree, when it's dormant.

- Okay.

- So, this is timely.

So, you can think about, you want a good fall foliage tree in your yard.

You can plan now, and pick some that are gonna be nice and pretty in the fall.

- Okay.

- Now the first thing that I think of, when you think of fall foliage here in the Mid-South, - Let me see.

- Ginkgo trees.

- Ginkgos.

There you go.

- Bright, brilliant yellow.

- Uh huh.

- Just shine in the landscape.

- Right.

- So, that's an excellent city tree to pick.

- Okay.

- In the end it will get big, but it withstand city pollution of the city, and it's slow growing.

So, it will last long time.

- Okay.

You just have to know which one to get.

Right?

- Yes.

Now, you do need to make sure you get it in a male.

- Yeah.

Get a male, all right?

[Chris laughs] - Yes.

Male clone of that, and you'll be just fine.

Usually don't sell anything but male clones now.

So, that usually isn't too much of a problem.

Some native trees, dogwood, Cornus florida, they have beautiful red foliage in the fall.

- Okay.

- And then, of course, the maples, we can't, maple, I mean any kind of maple you can think of, is gonna have good fall color.

I know one that everybody really likes is the red maple.

- Mm hmm.

- Gorgeous.

Some of the new varieties like Autumn Blaze, and Autumn Glory, and all.

It's all beautiful.

But, be at caution with red maples, this ambrosia beetle seems to like to attack them .

So, if you really want a nice red maple, you might wanna consider putting so me insecticide regularly throughout the summer season on the trunk, try to keep the ambrosia beetles from getting in them.

- Okay.

- And just keep it really healthy.

The healthier you keep it, the more the trunk is gonna not allow an insect to invade it, so.

- Okay.

That's a good point.

- That's a good, and I know, they all like sun, but maples in this area are kind of understory.

So, if you can get it some shade, some time in the afternoon, that would be good from other places, from another tree.

- Uh huh.

- It would like some shade.

- Okay.

- So that will help that.

- Other native trees, sweetgum.

- Sweetgum, I love.

- Gorgeous.

You can have purple, red, and yellow, all on the same tree.

It's gorgeous.

- I love it.

- Now, there are some varieties that don't have the little gum balls on them, but you know, that capsule is the way, it reproduces.

And you can make decorations out of them, if you want to, [Chris laughs] or put it, the tree, in an area that you don't mind all of the balls on the ground.

- Right.

That could be a hazard.

Yeah.

I can remember, as a kid, you know, my dad had a bunch in his backyard, we used to throw'em at each other.

[Chris laughs] I can remember that.

- Yeah.

I remember making decorations out of them.

- Yeah.

Like sweetgum though.

I love the fall colors.

- And it's a very hardy tree around here.

It doesn't get a whole lot of problems - Hmm.

- With pests or diseases.

So, it's a great tree for us.

Nysaa sylvatica, the black gums, and their, or black tupelo, whichever common name, you'd like to call it.

Beautiful.

And they have some really neat varieties of that out now, that are really, really brilliant.

And of course, that is another, like the ginkgo, a very slow-growing tree.

- Okay.

- So yeah, that's a good choice for the homeowner.

- Okay.

- Oxydendrum arboreum, the sourwood tree.

That's a short tree.

A lot of people make hedges out of that one, 'cause it's so small, but it needs sun.

- Okay.

- And it blooms in the spring.

So, it's got great fall color and it blooms in the spring.

So, that's a good one.

Then the oak trees.

Now, some oak trees are better than others.

Scarlet oak is good.

And the Northern red oak is good, but the Northern red oak does like, just like the maples, likes to have - Some shade.

- Some shade in the afternoon.

So, it's not completely in sun, all day long.

- Okay.

- It will do a lot better that way, and give you some nice feel, brilliant red fall foliage color.

- Okay.

- Very nice.

Sassafras.

That's one that we have around here, and it turns a beautiful, sometimes it's yellow, sometimes it's red, gorgeous, gorgeous orange, you know, all kinds of colors, the Sassafras.

And it's a smaller tree, but can be get big, but that would be a good one to have.

- You make tea out of it too.

- You can make tea.

- There you go.

- There you go.

See.

- There you go.

- Get all of the anchors.

Kids love the different shape.

- Yeah.

I like that too.

- Mitten-shaped leaves.

Yeah, those are nice.

And one thing that people don't think about is bald cypress, Bald cypress makes a very nice fall foliage, very russet.

Think of all those feathery fo liage completely russet before it falls on the ground and beautiful tree.

Good tree for the city.

And some things that are less thought about - Okay.

The katsura tree, Japanese katsura tree.

We're about the southern range of it, but it has beautiful fall color, yellows and reds and oranges, really pretty.

Another one that would be good for homeowners is the Hamamelis or the witch hazel trees and Chinese especially 'cause that's a smaller tree and it is a small tree, but it has gorgeous yellow fall foliage colors.

So that would be a good one.

And it would fit into almost any yard somewhere, but it is a small tree.

One, that a lot of people don't think about is the Persian ironwood.

You probably have never even heard of the Persian Ironwood.

It is a very hardy tree and has great yellow fall foliage color it withstands a lot of drought and it has blooms in the spring.

And so a lot of people that is a highly recommended one that nobody seems to know... - For this area.

- For this area.

- Not familiar with that or heard.

- Very nice.

And then another one that a lot of people haven't heard about is the Chinese pistache tree.

- That one I have.

Okay.

- It gets fairly large.

So you're gonna have to give it some area.

It's got beautiful red, orange foliage color in the fall.

So those are some of my favorite ones and some of them that are very popular and easy, easy to find around here.

- Oh, easy to find.

Okay.

And you said this would be the right time of year to get 'em in the ground.

- Yes.

It's the right year to think about it.

And then this fall, when the leaves start dropping off the trees, go to your local nursery and see if you can find one of these to plant in your yard.

So you'll have good fall foliage this next year.

- Alright, some of Joellen's favorites.

How about that?

And Mr. D, do you probably seen some of these trees when you're out hunting?

- Oh yeah.

Oh, a lot of those and you are right.

I mean, cypress is one of the first ones I thought of, and then some of them give you both fall color and spring blooms too.

- Right.

So that's a good thing.

- Yeah.

- And the other one that you mentioned that blooms in the spring too.

- Yeah.

The sourwood.

- Yeah.

- Get multiuse out of the trees and you have green, nice green foliage in the summertime.

- Alright.

- I'm not sure about the sweet gum.

I got a bunch of those.

And if you need any for decorations, [Chris laughs] I'll fix you up.

- There are some hybrids of that.

I have one, but it still produces them, but they're just really tiny.

So I've never seen one that doesn't have any at all so.

- I've got a whole bunch of the old fashioned kind.

- That you can have.

Thanks Joellen.

That was good stuff.

Again, your favorite trees for fall.

- My favorite trees.

- How about that?

Good stuff.

Thank you.

[upbeat country music] - Okay.

We're gonna remove this limb off of this Magnolia, it's dying.

We have dead tissue out here, and to make a proper pruning cut you wanna leave between a quarter to a half inch collar and I don't wanna strip any bark off the bottom.

So I'm gonna cut in about a quarter of an inch on the bottom of this limb.

Then I'm gonna come on top and about a half a quarter to a half inch.

I'm gonna make the cut.

And there we are.

You can see the bottom cut here where I made the bottom cut.

I almost didn't go enough.

You see how this is hanging.

This tissue is hanging here and I have a little tissue hanging here.

If I'd not made the bottom cut when I cut this, this bark would peal all the way down and that would've created a source of entry for bad organisms.

But as it is now, we've got kind of a straight cut here and we've got a half to a quarter-inch collar where it can heal.

If you cut too close to the trunk of a tree, when it heals, it'll create almost a hole inside the trunk of the tree.

This, when it heals completely, should be pretty smooth and it should be on a outer portion of the trunk of this tree.

- Alright.

Here's a Q&A segment.

Y'all ready?

- We're ready.

- These are great questions.

Here's our first viewer email.

"If I need to fertilize my peach tree, what would you recommend?"

This is Greg from Central New York.

Mr. D, so again, - Yep.

- Peach tree in New York.

- Peach trees in New York.

- So if you had to fertilize, what would you recommend?

- Nitrogen.

- Ahh.

- That's one thing that you're gonna need every year, at least nitrogen.

If you have of course soil test, I recommend soil test.

And if you have medium or high levels of potash or phosphorus, there's no need to add that.

If you have low levels of potash or phosphorus, you do need to add that P and K. But if you have medium levels, don't worry about that.

But for every 100 pounds of peaches taken from a tree, a quarter pound of nitrogen is taken from the soil.

So a rule of thumb, and I'm going look at this right here, rule of thumb.

[Chris laughs] A very good rule of thumb to follow is 0.05 pounds of nitrogen, 0.05 pounds of nitrogen per tree, per year of age, up to one pounds of actual nitrogen per tree.

- Per tree.

- And every year that's what the tree's gonna need, depending upon the age of the tree.

Then that's what the tree needs.

Bottom line.

- Bottom line.

Gotta get that done, right?

- Yep.

- Okay.

Appreciate that question, Greg.

And you know something else?

Not a bad idea to soil test.

Yeah?

Get with it your local extension service up that way and see if they have any recommendations for.

- You can split that application if you like.

Do it early and then especially with the late-maturing peaches, the Freestone peaches later on, you can do another application in the middle of the summer, half of that.

Just half of it or you can put it all out right around bloom.

- Okay.

Alright.

Good stuff there, Greg.

I appreciate the question.

Here's our next viewer email.

"I am having a lot of difficulty gr owing native grasses "in a plot in the front of my house that faces west.

"What can I do to get native grasses to take and thrive here?"

This is William from Chicago, Illinois.

So what do you think about that, you're familiar with Illinois?

- Yes.

- Okay.

- Yeah.

I recognize some of the grasses that he had in there, but one thing I did notice is that there's a lot of algae on the sidewalks on either side, which makes me think that even if it's on the west side, it's still shady.

There might be a tree or something near it.

And grasses thrive in full sun.

Most of them do, but there are some that can stand wet conditions and some shade, and that would be the switchgrasses.

- Oh.

- So I'm thinking if he doesn't have really hot, full sun there, he needs to switch to grasses that will take a little bit more shade and water.

And so I'm thinking carexes and sedges and things like that, that are native to that area.

And also the switchgrasses, 'cause switchgrasses are native and there's all different size switchgrasses.

So he could pick a more modern, more dwarf one that would do well there.

- Okay.

- So I'm thinking he's got the wrong kind of grasses for that particular spot.

- Right?

Okay.

- Now the blue fescue he has seems to be doing good.

- Okay.

Alright interesting.

All right.

And so how would he need to prepare the soil?

Does it need to be prepared?

- I don't think he need, natives don't need a whole lot of soil.

He might, because it's on the street and it's really next to all that concrete, he might do a pH test just to see what his pH is, in case he has to adjust it for the grasses.

And that might be part of the problem why the others aren't thriving either.

But I would just check the pH.

- Maybe a lot higher.

- He may have to put some acid in the... - It's been my experience in urban areas.

Most of the time the soils, the pH is higher as opposed to being acidic.

- Yeah.

- I would agree with that.

- University, Illinois actually... - Yes.

- Have a nice publication, - Alright, look at that.

on landscaping with native grasses.

You might want to take a look at that and switchgrass is mentioned and it even has the tall ones and the short ones.

And you may wanna take a look at that.

- Yeah.

It's a good publication.

- Yeah.

- Thank you for that question, William.

Yeah.

Be sure to check with your local extension office, they may be able to help you out with that.

Alright.

Here's our next viewer email.

"Something has been boring holes in the stems "of my beautiful hydrangea.

"I have pruned and pruned trying to find whatever it is "and cut until I get below it.

"Now the bush is a lot smaller and irregularly shaped "and I still haven't found it.

"Please help.

"I like to know what it could be and how to get rid of it.

Thank you."

And this is Bonita from Jonesboro, Georgia.

- Yeah.

- So Joellen, you grow hydrangea, right?

- Yes.

- You probably know what this is.

- Yes.

It's hydrangea cane borer.

- It's the cane borer.

- Yeah.

And she's doing right.

- Right.

- That's what you're supposed to do when you start seeing, especially the frass, like she's you see at the top of that, she has to keep going.

In fact, sometimes you'll have to go clear to the base of the plant, cut that whole, whole space out, and they will kill the hydrangeas.

And there is no spray that is recommended for them.

It's simply cutting them out.

And I guess in the next, when next season comes up, try to fertilize and try to get the hydrangeas healthy again.

And when you first start seeing that, try to cut below it to and get rid of it, just throw it away because there's no spray that is recommended for it.

Simply cutting off the area that they're in and cutting the, and discarding that.

- Cultural practice is gonna be real important.

- And now that she has it, she'll wanna make sure that you check for it 'cause if you can get it sooner so you don't have to cut so far down.

- All right.

Yeah.

Those cane borers are tough.

They are little beetles.

Of course the adults will lay eggs and then the larvas gonna start eating and just tunneling down the cane.

So it's pretty tough.

You gotta prune until you can get it outta there.

- Boring insects are tough.

- Yes.

- They're just, they're very, very hard to control.

- Yes.

Don't want to get 'em if you can avoid it.

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

- So now that you've got that problem scout and when you first signs of it, just cut off all of that, that you can.

- Right.

'Cause you should be able to see the frass.

- Yeah.

- It's very pronounced, but yeah, cultural practice that be important watering, things like that.

All right, Ms. Bonita, I think you got some work to do.

Thank you for the question.

We appreciate that.

Alright, Mr. D and Joellen, we are out of time.

That was fun.

- That was good.

- 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 watching.

If you want to find out more about anything we talked about today, go 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]