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

I'm Chris Cooper.

Today we are going to catch up on viewer questions.

It's "The Q&A Show" 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.

It's the middle of winter and gardeners are gearing up for spring.

We have some questions we answered last year, but we did not have time to air them.

Hopefully some of these will help you plan for this year.

Let's start with a question about Verticillium wilt.

"I lost my gold smoke tree to Verticillium wilt.

"The local extension agent says th at I cannot kill the fungus.

"The smoke tree sat between a bush crape myrtle "and a Tropicana rose.

"Are plants growing close to a plant infected with Verticillium wilt in danger of catching it?"

And this is Gloria from Charleston, West Virginia.

So Dr. Kelly, what do you think about that?

Verticillium wilt, which is a soil-borne fungus.

- You know, I mean, typically, you know, homeowners, this is technical stuff, right?

But Verticillium and fusarum are very common, you know, pathogens in our soils and some plants are a lot more susceptible to getting those than others, but it's not catching from one plant to the other.

It's taken up through the root system and the vascular system.

So to answer the question about it being infected, in danger of catching it, no, it's not.

It doesn't work that way.

And the way to avoid, you know, there is no cure, right?

You know, there's really no cure because it's soil borne, and it's there, it's everywhere.

And really the thing to do is select things that are resistant to it, and there are a lot of plants that are resistant, you know?

So obviously the plant she's got right next to it, the crape myrtle and the Tropicana would be fairly resistant.

And there's a way to tell if it's Verticillium is you can pull back the bark a little bit and the tissue would be dark, you know, the vascular system.

Yeah.

- It has a little dark band.

- Yeah, yeah.

- Joellen, anything you want to add to that?

- Yeah, well, there are lists that a lot of extensions agents have got and the fact that she went to an extension agent to find all of this information is great 'cause go to your local extension agent, they can help you with a lot of your plant questions.

But yeah, there are lists out there and I think, you know, I can't remember, there's one that I'll send and they can put up and you can look at that list and it's got a lot of things that are susceptible and a lot of plants that are more resistant to the Verticillium wilts, so.

- Yeah, we can put that publication up on the website.

- We'll get that up and that'll help.

- That's a real good extensive list.

[upbeat country music] "My hydrangea never bloomed.

"I have tried everything.

What can I do?

", and this is Rocko.

So he's having problems with his hydrangeas not blooming, but we have some questions as well, right?

- Well, where is it planted?

- Okay, right.

- What kind of light is it getting?

What kind of soil, I mean, what kind of soil?

Is it wet there?

Is it drier there?

- And then what kind of hydrangeas are we talking about?

- Which kind?

Because you can have from shade to sun for hydrangeas, there's all different kinds.

- Sure.

- Check the moisture.

Check the soil pH, make sure it's in the range that hydrangeas like, which I was thinking, they like it a little bit acid, like, 6 to 6.2, or something like that.

- They do, you're correct.

- And that's about all you need to do, I mean, you don't want to over-fertilize it too, so hopefully he's not over-fertilizing it because to much fertilizer will get you a lot of foliage and not as many blooms.

- Specifically too much nitrogen fertilizer for sure will give you a lot of foliage.

- And you should be soil testing to see if you even need any at all, so.

I would try those things.

- I would try those.

And of course, you know, what came to mind to me was this: did he prune them incorrectly?

- Ooh, I didn't think about that too, yeah.

Depends on what kind of hydrangea it is.

It could either be pruning right after it finishes blooming or you can prune it in the spring.

But if you prune it in the spring before it blooms and it blooms on second-year growth, then you have cut off all of your blooms.

So you need to know what type of hydrangea you have to know when to prune it too.

- I would agree with that.

So, how about cold damage?

I mean, that's possible.

- Depending on where he's from, yeah, it could be cold damage.

Maybe he needs to reach out to his local extension service and see if, you know, they can help him out with the variety that it is and, you know, when he needs to prune it and what else he can do.

[upbeat country music] - "I have three daylilies and they have started clumping.

"They are probably four years old.

When should I dig and divide daylilies?"

And this is Catmom on YouTube.

- Catmom.

- Yeah, Catmom.

So when should she divide those daylilies, you think?

- Well, that's a good question.

She says they're probably four years old, so typically daylilies could be divided every three to five years.

So this is a good timing.

I have heard daylily growers say that you can divide them any time the shovel is sharp.

[Chris laughs] - Okay, all right.

- It is a tough plant, so it's probably gonna survive.

The best time is probably summer right after they bloom 'cause then you can divide them up, get them planted, there's still time for the roots to develop and get established before the winter.

Second best time would be right about now in early spring as the foliage is coming up.

That would still be time to move them.

But technically, they could be divided any time.

It's such a tough plant.

You may, if you divide it, say, when it's blooming or right before it blooms, you may lose some blooms on it, it may suffer a little bit, but daylilies are so tough that you should experience pretty good success any time.

- Yeah, daylilies are tough, I have some at home, of course.

Stella d'Oro.

Yeah, divide them up, pull them apart, get as much of the roots as you possibly can, put them at the right depth, they'll be fine.

They'll be fine, they are tough plants.

[upbeat country music] "Can you please recommend "how to care for my winter pansies?

"This is my first time trying these.

"I live in southern New Jersey.

I planted them September 10th."

This is Glenn on YouTube.

So congratulations, Glenn, yeah, your first winter pansies.

All right, Mr. Booker, how does he need to take care of those winter pansies?

- I like winter pansies.

I like pansies, they normally take care of themselves.

I know when I put them in my yard, snow will get on 'em, ice get on 'em, they'll survive.

Really, you want to make sure you got no standing water around your pansies, that's all you want to make sure, no standing water.

And they should do well, they should take care of themselves and everything.

Every now and then you might want to give them just a little fertilizer around there, but that's it for the pansy, they do good.

Pansies and violas, they're really tough.

- They do good, you're exactly right.

Mary, anything you want to add to that?

- No, I think, good luck.

- Yeah, good luck, yeah, but yeah, you're exactly right.

Yeah, just make sure, you know, it's not too moist 'cause the roots will rot, okay?

Yeah, don't bury the crown or anything like that.

You can use a slow release fertilizer.

Right, mulch it.

- Yeah.

- And it should be good.

- It'll be good, yeah.

- So good luck to you, Glenn, we appreciate that question.

[upbeat country music] "What product can safely kill grass in my liriope?

"I have no other weeds there, thankfully.

"It has proliferated this spring and my age prevents me from hand-digging."

This is Larry in Fredericksburg, Virginia.

All right, Booker, so what do you think about killing grass in liriope?

- That would probably be monkey grass got in there again, and so you just want to make sure that whatever you use on that, you make sure it's gonna start out real small to make sure you don't kill everything that you have on there.

I know you get something the last time that would get rid of some herbicide that we can use to get rid of that.

- Right so, again, if you're trying to kill any type of grass in liriope, liriope is in the lily family, it's a terf lily.

So you would use something like Ornamec, right, Fusilade II, or Grass B Gon because it contains an active ingredient that is a selective ingredient, selective herbicide that releases, of course, the liriope, but only targets the grass, right?

So that's what I would do.

Peter?

- Yeah, I was gonna say, yeah, it won't get any broad leaf weeds either, so you may need to...

In liriope, that's kind of a hand-pulling job, when you have the broad-leaf weeds.

But the grass, luckily monkey grass or liriope, whatever, is not grass, so you can just spray over the top of it.

- Yeah so, again, just use a selective herbicide that controls grass, read and follow the label, right, use the wipe technique on that, so you don't have to spray everything, and I think you'll be fine, Larry.

[upbeat country music] "What herbicide can I use to kill poison ivy under my white pine trees without harming the tree?"

This is Delbert from Hico, West Virginia.

See, you know a little something about West Virginia.

- We grow some good poison ivy in West Virginia!

I completely agree.

[both laugh] - All right so, how can we help Delbert out here, huh?

- Yeah so, there are multiple herbicide options for poison ivy.

And poison ivy can be a challenging one to kill, let's be honest, right, it could be small, but we could literally have, like, large vines, you know, on trees.

So there, you know, glyphosate is an option.

Sometimes it may take multiple applications.

- It will.

- Yeah.

There are, you know, there are other herbicide options that may not be...

So I think that where he's going with the question is the trunk and tree safety, right?

- Right, it's what he's thinking about here.

So this is what I would do, okay.

So yeah the glyphosate would work.

Triclopyr is something else that you can work, for brush, right.

I would carefully, and of course I'm gonna have on gloves, long sleeve shirt, pants, and all those good things.

I would paint.

- Paint and not spray it.

- And not spray, right.

Paint or wipe, and not spray.

Something else you can do too, now, if you wanna grab some gloves or whatever, kind of pull it away from the tree a little bit, cut it, right, and then I would paint or wipe, right, that green tissue.

Turgor pressure would, of course, pull it down into the root system.

I'd knock it out that way.

- We're really getting two benefits.

One is that we don't have the risk of overspray that could impact the tree, you know, age and all those elements will come into play.

But we're probably going to more effectively kill the poison ivy as well with that method.

- And that's what we're looking to do.

[upbeat country music] "How do I get rid of and control hollyhocks?

They are taking over my flowers."

And this is Terry.

So, Joellen, what do you think about that?

The old hollyhocks, right?

- Hollyhocks.

What a beautiful problem to have, 'cause I like hollyhocks.

- I do too.

- Yeah.

- But obviously he's in an area or his garden is so nice and rich that all the seeds are germinating and that's gonna be the key, that all the seeds are germinating.

So a pre-emergent is gonna help with controlling that.

And then whatever comes up, he can just pull.

But yeah, pre-emergents are about the best thing that I can think of to prevent more of them germinating.

- Wow.

Beautiful problem, Dr. Kelly, what do you think about that?

- Yeah, I love hollyhocks, and if he wants to keep some, and they just got kind of out of control 'cause they do reseed prolifically.

So he could just, you know, cut those flowering stalks back before the seeds start flying every which way and dropping down, so.

Yeah, but long-term, you know, the ones that are already there in the soil, pre-emerge.

- Pre-emerge.

- Yeah.

But then, I'm like her, I mean, I love hollyhock.

- I mean, I have some at home.

- Yeah, I do too.

- They reproduce like crazy, so I know about that.

- Might just let be a whole hollyhock bed.

- Could be.

- Yeah.

- It wants to be, obviously.

[all laugh] - He's got the right environment for it, so.

- So there you have it, Mr. Terry.

A pre-emerge, read and follow the label on that, okay?

[upbeat country music] "This plant came up in our yard three years ago "and so far no one can identify it.

"It has small yellow blooms on the stems "and the leaves are sticky on the edges "and it grows three feet tall.

What is it?"

This JV From Morris Town, Tennessee.

All right, Mr. JV, here we go.

Catchweed bedstraw is what that is, I've seen it a thousand times, right?

It is a herbacious annual weed.

Prefers shady moist conditions, but can grow in the full sun if there's moisture.

Has the whirl of leaves, as you can see from the picture, right?

But it has hook-like hair on the stems and on the leaves, which allows it to adhere to clothing and animal fur.

Almost like Velcro.

- Velcro.

- Almost like Velcro.

Right?

It has a shallow root system, so if you pull it up, you better get all of it.

If not, it's gonna come back.

It can produce 300 to 400 weeds, seeds.

- That's a lot of weed.

- So that's a lot of seeds, right?

That's one plant.

So you definitely wanna, you know, make sure you get all of it out because it's kind of brittle, so it breaks up.

And then it can grow to be six feet tall, but it needs the support of other plants to climb it, right?

So it has to climb those other plants for support.

If not, it just kind of grows like a mat, okay?

So culturally, you know what you have to do.

Of course.

Right, grass type for that area, you know, water properly, fertilize according to your soil test, but yeah, catchweed bedstraw is what that is.

All right, and it does produce a yellow and white inconspicuous flower, right?

So it's a wildflower.

Yeah so, who am I to say it's a weed?

It's a wildflower.

- A wildflower.

- So JV, catchweed bedstraw.

[upbeat country music] "I don't have grass in my backyard, I have weeds, "mole tunnels, bare areas, "and trees that are bare at the trunk.

"There are also areas where it is wet and soggy after rain.

"I have tall trees, they give a lot of shade.

"The perimeter of the yard has lots of overgrown bushes "that block the sun.

"I would like to have grass in my backyard.

"Can I have grass in a shaded yard?

"There is morning sun at this time of the year, October, but by noontime, it is mostly shade."

And this is Linda from Germantown, Tennessee.

All right, Ms. Linda, we just happen to have our grass guru here with us today.

So Mr. Booker, what do you think about that question?

- They can have grass in their backyard, but one of things is if they got poor drainge, like I say, you got standing water when it rains, you need to try to fix that problem right there.

'Cause you don't want the water to stand in there.

- And how would you go about fixing, you know, the standing water?

Any suggestions for her?

- Probably put some kind of organic material in there, maybe add a little sand, spread it out, and see what's causing the problem.

Might be compact soil.

You might need to aerate it some and try to get it loose enough so the water can drain off there.

You know, there could be a lot of compact soil in there.

But it can grow grass there.

And fescue lawn, a cool-season grass.

They said they got a lot of shade in there, so you need a cool season grass.

But fescue would be the best option to do that in there, but get rid of that standing water, if you got standing water in there, your grass gonna have problems, it's gonna rot the root system outta there it's gonna die.

And that mole problem, we all have mole problems.

I have mole problems.

But the best thing for a mole is to try to get a mole trap, catch that mole out of there.

But you can grow grass, but you gotta control that drainage problem first.

- All right so, Ms. Linda, it looks like you can grow grass in your shaded area, maybe a fescue of some type, all right?

Yeah so, give our office a call, yeah, Mr. Booker T. Leigh would be happy to help you out, all right?

[upbeat country music] "We have an infection of squash bugs, "Coreus marginatus, "or dock bug, "on our cucumber vines.

"I looked it up to see what it is.

"How can we get rid of squash bugs on our cucumbers?

"They are killing the vines, "I have squashed them when I have gone out there.

"We have sprayed them with Captain Jack, but it doesn't seem to deter them."

This is Regina from Clark Range, Tennessee.

So the old squash bug, right, and I like the scientific name, Coreus marginatus.

How about that?

So Alainia, what do you think about those squash bugs?

- Try to get 'em early.

- Try to get 'em early, you better.

- Scout them early, picking them off, finding their eggs up under the leaves, trying to get the eggs off.

Your next round of defense is when they're hatching and they're young in the nymph stage, you can get them with neem oil, insecticidal soap, horticultural oil.

- Yep.

That's gonna be the best way to do that.

- And then maybe plant again for a fall crop.

- Maybe look for a fall crop.

- Once they all starve to death.

[Alainia laughs] Start a new fall crop.

- Something else too, practice good sanitation, because they're gonna overwinter in crop debris and things like that, but yeah, you gotta get out there early, you gotta scout, flip the leaves over.

They're little bronze shaped footballs, right?

If you get duct tape, all right, you could, double sided duct tape, put it around your hands, take 'em off the leaf like that, right?

You know?

We've actually done that.

We have a video for you for that.

So do it that way, but scouting early is gonna be the key, and then, of course, using the neem oil, horticultural oil, insecticidal soap.

But you have to target the nymph stage, that's why it's important to know life cycle.

So does anyone want to add to that?

- Now, that's great there.

Look early, find 'em, and then try to get rid of 'em.

- You gotta get rid of 'em.

Squash bugs are tough.

- They're tough on plants, yeah.

- They are tough.

You know what Mr. D. would always say?

Two bricks, move your thumbs.

[Booker laughs] Squash 'em.

[Chris laughs] [upbeat country music] "I don't want to use imidacloprid "because I am afraid it will harm the pollinators.

What else can I use for pests on my flowering plants?"

And this is Lisa from Indianapolis, Indiana.

So Celeste, don't you like this?

- I do like this.

- She does not actually want to use the soil drenches, right?

Imidacloprid being one of those.

She wants to help save those pollinators.

So can we help her out with that?

- We sure can.

So we've got lots of options out there in the world of pest control.

So trying to find an option that has a shorter residual is always gonna be considered friendlier, quote, unquote, to our beneficial insects, not only pollinators, but other predatory insects, right?

So some of those options would be insecticidal soaps, horticultural oils, things of that nature.

And we can even look for products that have very targeted species control, like Bt's.

Bacillus thuringiensis targets specific species of insects, so you know that you aren't, you know, spreading that wide blanket, you're being very targeted in your approach.

So those are all options.

But I will say that none of, you know, those insecticidal soaps and oils could also be detrimental to beneficial insects when they come into contact with them.

So the key to helping promote those types of insects is going to be timing of application and, you know, making sure that we're using them appropriately.

So if we use them and don't get excellent coverage the first time we use them, number one, you're not gonna get good control of your pest insect, and then number two, now you have potentially harmed beneficial insects for no reason because you didn't even accomplish your main goal.

So when we're using them, make sure that we use them appropriately, and then, you know, a trick to avoiding pollinators especially would be just to don't apply them when the plants are in flower because those pollinators are coming to the plant for nectar and pollen.

And if they're not in flower, then those things are not available, being offered by the plant at that time.

So for example, if you're doing something in your lawn and you've got some flowering weeds, mow your lawn before you need to spray an insecticide, or target those flowering plants either before they go into bloom or after.

So those would be kind of just some of my basic suggestions on how we can promote those insects.

- Celeste, that's good.

So Peter, anything you want to add to that?

- Yeah.

If you do end up having to spray while they're in flower and you want to protect the pollinators, early, early in the morning or late at night.

Or I don't want to say late at night, in the late evening.

- When they're less active.

- Yeah, and the pollinators are probably not there.

And then if you use something with a short residual, a contact insecticide, then that won't have any effect on the pollinators when they visit later in the day or the next day.

- Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

- Yeah so, we're glad, Lisa, that you wanna take care of those pollinators.

- Definitely.

- That's good.

So I always tell people least toxic pesticides.

- Yes.

- Is what you should use.

Read and follow the label on that.

You don't want to spray any of these when temperatures are above 85, 90 degrees because you will get burning.

So you definitely don't want to do that.

But the oils, the soaps, yeah, they work.

- And we want to be good stewards of what we've been granted, so.

- Which is, again, read and follow the label on that and you should be fine.

And we should also mention that, you know, many of these insecticides that we're talking about, soft body insect pests.

You know, your aphids, your thrips, your mealy bugs, and things like that, mites, you know?

So it would control those as well.

- And I will caution, just because something says that it's organic, does not mean that it's not toxic.

So you know, we have lots of chemicals that are in the pyrethrin family that are derived from natural sources, and so they have organic labels, but they can be very toxic, so.

- Oh, yes, they can.

- Again, read and follow the label.

- Identify your insects and learn when the best time is to kill them.

- Right, and I always like to say life cycle.

If you can learn the life cycle, it helps, because there's a vulnerable period during that life cycle when you should be using these insecticides.

- Mm-hmm.

- And you can use the really low impact insecticides as opposed to having to, you know, go to the imidacloprids or something like that.

- That's right.

Life cycles, folks.

All right, thank you, Lisa, we appreciate that.

[upbeat country music] "What flowers can I grow indoors that will not aggravate my sinus problem?"

This is Lacheriel from Covington, Tennessee.

So, Jill, interesting question.

One you probably, you know, have gotten a few times.

So... - Yes.

- What are good plants?

- Well, and that's a tough question because there are so many indoor allergens that can aggravate sinuses, it just depends what specifically a person is allergic to.

If someone is allergic to pollen, then unfortunately any flower is likely to trigger that.

I'm not aware of any indoor flowering plant that would not aggravate a pollen allergy, but that's not necessarily what she's allergic to, we don't know.

Maybe she may be able to get an allergy test to help determine that.

But perhaps a leafy plant that doesn't flower, something like the snake plants, the Sansevierias, that are mainly just green leafy leaves.

- Okay.

- And those are flat, also, because also dust can trigger allergy problems and sinus issues.

So if you have a leafy plant, those leaf surfaces can collect dust.

But if it's something with large leaves, that's pretty easy to dust off and keep the dust removed.

So I might suggest something like the Sansevieria or the whale fin Sansevieria that just has that one large leaf that's gonna be relatively easy to smooth off.

Also avoid indoor plants that have fur, that are furry, that have hairs on the leaves 'cause those hairs can hold on to dust that will end up aggravating those allergies.

- Okay.

Sansevieria.

I thought about, what about golden pothos?

- Sure.

Sure, pothos is easy, and that would be easy enough to wipe off.

Also molds can trigger a lot of allergies.

So if you've got a house plant that's staying wet, that the pot is staying damp, molds can grow on that and trigger some allergies.

So she might go for more of the dry plants, more of the succulents, again, like a snake plant.

Something that can dry out and would not be increasing mold growth inside the home.

- 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 sending in the questions.

To get more information on anything we've talked about today, or to see answers to even more questions, go to familyplotgarden.com.

And while you're there, ask us your gardening questions.

Thanks for watching, I'm Chris Cooper, be sure to join us next week for The Family Plot: Gardening in the Mid-South.

Be safe.

[upbeat country music] [acoustic guitar chords]