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

I'm Chris Cooper.

Today is all viewer questions, soil, bugs, fruit, and more.

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.

We love viewer questions.

Unfortunately, we can't answer all of them on air because there's just not enough time, but we do collect some of them for shows like this.

So let's get started.

Up first, a question we got a few weeks ago about muscadines.

"My muscadines started out this growing season great, "then they started shriveling up.

What is happening?"

So what do you think is happening there, Celeste?

- So from the pictures, I'm leaning towards a fruit rot called bitter rot.

- Yeah.

- That usually affects, well we start seeing the effects on that fruit once we get into the season after the fruit has really begun to develop.

A lot of people might confuse this with black rot or some other types of fruit rots, but those tend to set in earlier in the season.

So bitter rot is something that we would see on more mature fruits moving in to them being in their ripening stage.

- Okay.

- And it makes the fruits that you do harvest, have a bitter taste quality to them.

- Yeah.

- And then you can see those kind of lesions where the fruit itself is rottening.

- Right.

- So certainly, muscadines are native to our area.

- Pretty tough plants.

- And they have, you know, some, less disease problems than say we would if we were trying to raise bunch grapes here.

- Right.

- Right.

- But occasionally when we have hot, humid conditions, that is favorable for the development of fruit rot.

And it actually sets in right at bloom time.

So those plants got infected in the pedicel, not the flower itself, but the piece that holds the flower onto the stem back right at bloom time.

- Okay.

- So if they're having this recurring year after year, they need to do some protective fungicides early, early in the spring to help prevent that infection, because then the fruits begin to develop, and if that pedicel's infected, it can then easily transfer to those grapes once they've developed.

- Gotcha, right.

- And then I also saw some cracking- - I saw that as well.

- On one of those pictures.

And that's unrelated to the bitter rot.

So that is probably cultural control.

So, management.

- Yeah.

- So when we have consistently moist soils or fluctuations between dry and wet, and dry and wet, that can cause cracking.

Just like we see in tomatoes.

- Tomatoes.

- Yeah, we see that in tomatoes a lot.

So.

- So with cleaning up, if you got this black, bitter rot- - Bitter rot.

- Do you clean up the fruit in the fall, and putting them not in the compost but in the trash?

- That's right.

- Is that helpful?

- Proper sanitation - Yes.

- Yes.

- Is gonna be key for that, spray schedule of course, fungicides.

- Good pruning.

- Good pruning.

- Airflow.

- Yeah, I gotta get the airflow in there as well.

And then you might wanna check resistant varieties.

Just do some homework, and check to see if some of those are, you know, are available.

So those are a couple of things I'll look at as well.

[gentle country music] "All my peaches are small and hard.

"How do I get my tree to make fat, juicy peaches?

"The tree had a side shoot near the ground "when it was young.

The original trunk died."

And this is Dana.

He says, "This year he drastically thinned, but the peaches are still small."

'Cause you do recommend thinning, I know you're gonna say that, right?

- Yeah.

- But it drastically thinned, still small.

- Because that's not the peach tree he planted.

- Right, right.

- That's the rootstock.

- Mm-hmm.

- Peach trees are June budded.

And if that original trunk died, and it came out from the root, then he's got rootstock.

- Yeah.

- And it's probably a pretty healthy tree.

Probably a pretty healthy 'cause rootstock's known for being healthy.

- Right.

- But you know, take it out.

You cannot make a peach tree produce good fruit if it doesn't have, you know, it's gonna produce that same fruit year one 'til it dies.

It's not gonna, you can't change it.

Now you can make 'em bigger by thinning.

- Yeah.

- But if it's a small little knotty peach to start with, and it's only when, if you thin 'em and they're still small, knotty little peaches, that's the way it's always gonna be.

Thinning, no amount of thinning or fertilizer's gonna change that.

So basically you've got a rootstock that has turned into a tree.

- Yep, so that's what- - And you're outta luck with that peach tree.

- Right.

And can you tell us real quickly, you know, why is rootstock important?

- Rootstock is more vigorous than the rootstock that would be on the, from that tree.

And it causes the tree to grow faster, healthier, - Healthier.

- And some of the rootstock can actually give some resistance.

I know there is an Nemaguard Rootstock that is resistant to nematodes, if you're in an area that has a lot of nematodes.

And Lovell is another common rootstock on peach trees.

But it's just, it'll make the plant grow better and faster.

[gentle country music] - "What can we do to improve the health, production, and growth of our small fig tree?"

- Okay.

- And this is Linda from Baker, Louisiana.

And I see Celeste is getting ready.

Ms. Linda, she's getting ready.

So how can we help, right?

- Well so I'm looking that Ms. Linda is from Louisiana.

- Louisiana.

- So she's got a warmer growing zone than we do here in Tennessee.

- That's correct.

- And it says that her tree is about three years old, about two feet tall.

- Yeah, it's pretty tall.

And she has gotten a few figs from that.

- I'm anticipating that this fig is gonna take off this year.

- It's gonna take off?

- Yes, it's gonna take off.

Grow, grow quickly.

In the southeast, we have to be careful about placement of figs.

- Yeah.

- Because they can be sensitive to cold.

I realize that's not gonna be an issue in most of Louisiana.

- Probably not.

- But here in Tennessee, it is, and we have to select our cultivars, so that we are making sure that we are picking those cold-hardy cultivars.

There's one called Celeste.

- Hey, Celeste, your namesake.

- That's nice, yes.

That is good and hardy for our growing zones.

- Okay.

- As well as a Chicago hardy.

Those are kind of the two, two of the mainstay hardy ones.

But as far as helping this young fig grow and do well, I would say just make sure that we are mulching it well in the fall of the year.

I realize they're not getting super low cold temperatures, but that's gonna help just moderate that root zone.

- Okay.

- Scout for any insects, like you mentioned before, they don't have a ton of serious insect pests.

Make sure that it has adequate water throughout the growing season.

- To me that's the biggest thing, yeah.

- Yes, and I'm not sure what her soil structure looks like there, if it's sandier or well draining, or what that looks like.

But we need to make sure that that's getting a good, consistent supply of water.

And that's gonna go a long way to helping that fig really flourish.

- That's good.

- They are not heavy feeders on fertilizers.

- So she doesn't have to worry about that.

- You know, she doesn't have to worry about putting all different kinds of amendments and things on it like that.

So I'd say just kind of, you know, alleviate any stressors, and try to make that growing environment as happy as possible.

- I think that is good, yeah.

- And she should probably get two full harvests off that.

Once it gets growing, she'll have a early summer, and then she'll also get a late summer, because their crops come super super late.

Sometimes we don't get a second harvest.

- That's right, that's right.

- But I think she'll- - No, that's actually a good point.

No, you're exactly right about that.

She may get it, yeah, if the birds don't get it first.

- Oh, good point.

[both laugh] [gentle country music] - "Could you give some advice on growing "hard neck garlic in a will drained raised bed?

"Last year I tried covering the plants "with six inches of leaf mulch for insulation from the cold and rain, but the garlic all rotted."

And this is Bob in Pekin, Illinois.

All right, so Mr. Bob, we actually have somebody here that's a native of Illinois.

- Illinois, yeah.

- So we're just gonna throw this over to Joellen and see what she thinks.

- Yeah, well you know, the hard neck, the garlic isn't supposed to be planted more than two to three inches deep.

And you know, in Illinois when you get all that snow, that acts as an insulation.

So he doesn't have to put more mulch on top of that, because that is just gonna rot, and that's what's happening.

It's staying too wet too long, and it's rotting.

So I would have them closer, and two to three inches below the soil surface so that you can let it be more well drained, and hopefully they'll survive better for you in the ground.

- Okay, so what do you think about that Walter?

Can you use something besides leaf mulch?

- Well, I mean- - I mean could you use straw or something else?

- I imagine you could use it.

- Just wondering, I'm thinking leaf mulch might get a little wet, heavy.

- Well if he wants to put something on top of the ground, but it does need to be in the ground 'cause it needs to be planted.

- Okay, got it.

- And the soil and the mulch, the soil, loose soil that it's in will be insulative enough.

- Okay.

- And if you wanna put straw on top of it, you could put a small layer of straw on top of it, but I wouldn't pile it up, because if it snows, the snow will act as an insulation.

- That's fair to me.

- Okay.

- The only thing I would just be a little concerned with if he has this, would be what we call white rot.

And if that's the case, that fungus would stay in the soil, and he would have to just replace that soil but he may not have that.

It may just be more of a cultural issue here.

- Right.

- That he's dealing with.

So let's just hope it's that.

Let's just hope.

- Rotate your crops.

That's the other thing you do.

You know, if you've had not success with it planted in this area, then just don't plant it so deep, but plant it in another area, and then you can avoid both of those issues.

- That's right, that's good.

- That's right's, right.

I like that.

[gentle country music] "How much rain does it take to wash fruit tree spray off?"

And this is Richard from Long Island, New York.

He also wants to know "if he needs to respray after his irrigation system runs?"

- It depends.

- It depends.

Okay.

- It depends on what fungicides you used.

It depends on whether or not it was a contact fungicide or a protectant fungicide, or a systemic fungicide.

Sometimes a little bit of rain may be good, because it will help spread the fungicide over the surface of the leaf.

- Okay.

- So a little bit might be good, a little irrigation might be good.

There have been studies done where, you know, a half inch of rain may take off 25% of the fungicide.

- An inch is fifty percent.

- Three-quarters.

Yeah, and all the way up to two inches.

- Yeah.

- And definitely, if you had a two-inch rain, you can pretty much be rest assured that most of the fungicide has been washed off.

- Right.

- But you know, in the situation that we're in, if I get a half inch of rain, I don't worry a whole lot about it.

If I get an inch of rain, I'm gonna think pretty hard about going out there and respraying.

- Right.

- Irrigation.

- Yes.

- If you are getting the total plant wet, you consider it a rain, how much water you putting out there.

You know, if you put two inches of, you know, on that plant, you need to respray.

If you are having problems with leaf diseases, and you're spraying something, I would encourage you to go with drip irrigation so you don't get the foliage wet.

- That's an option.

- And the drip irrigation, you know, then you don't worry about it.

- That's right, that's a good option.

Didn't think about that one.

You're right, but yeah, because yeah, we don't know how much, you know, the irrigation system is putting out, so you're right, and if it's covering the whole plant.

- That's right.

And if it's just covering, if it's just getting up on the bottom of the trunk, and you know, as long as it doesn't get up into the leaf and and fruit area, you're probably alright.

[gentle country music] - "What made some of my arborvitae die?

When should I replant?"

So what makes 'em die you think?

- Oh, there could be so many answers.

We'll go with a couple short ones.

- Okay.

- So depending on the time of year, if we're in June in the southeast, - Okay, we're good.

- Probably, it could be bagworms.

So you need to check- - Yeah.

- You need to check your conifers for bagworms.

They're actively feeding during that time of year.

If you don't see any insect activity, my next go-to would be drainage - Oh, that's what I was gonna say.

That's right.

- In your soil.

They do not prefer to have wet feet.

They need excellent drainage.

Even if water isn't standing on that site, you may have a slow-draining soil.

- Okay, I like it.

- So if it's got high, heavy clay content, you know, that could be an issue.

Sometimes I'll see one plant is fine, one plant is dead, one plant is fine.

And that just has to do with the variation in our soil composition, especially in any kind of, think of your subdivisions, right, they've come in and they've done groundwork before they built these new structures.

Top soil was redistributed, probably, you know, not as evenly as possible.

In some cases, we don't even have a top soil horizon left.

- Yes, yes, exactly.

- So there can be huge variation in the water-holding capacity and drainage capacity of our soils, you know, a few feet from one another.

- Right.

So how do you think we correct the drainage issue though?

- Well, I wouldn't look towards correcting the drainage issue per se.

I would look towards planting tolerant species.

- Okay, that's fair.

- Instead of trying to change that.

That's gonna be a huge undertaking.

You would need to excavate that entire area, and amend the entire planting area.

You can't amend a hole.

- That's right.

- And think that it's gonna fix it.

- That's right.

- Have you ever heard of people wanting to add rocks to the bottom to increase drainage?

- Yeah, what a mistake.

- That does the opposite.

- Yeah, what a mistake that is.

- Right, that just raises your water level.

- That's right.

- So you could do a infiltration test where, you know, say you go ahead and take that plant out, you could fill that hole up with water, see how long it takes for that water to drain out of that hole.

If it's longer than 24 hours, that's not a suitable site for that arborvitae, so that would be my second issue.

And then as far as when can they replant.

- Yeah.

- You can replant really anytime of year, depending on how much you wanna dedicate towards watering that plant.

- Oh yeah, yeah.

- And in the southeast, we do have a really wide planting window because our ground seldom freezes.

When you get into other areas, obviously you don't wanna plant while your ground is frozen.

[gentle country music] - "What is a good deer resistant, fast growing shrub I can use for privacy?"

- They're asking for lots of things on this.

- From Knoxville, Tennessee.

So deer resistant, fast growing- - Fast growing and evergreen.

Well, or screen planting I guess.

- You know, one of our best native evergreen plants of course is our eastern redcedar.

- Yes.

- And, you know, they're tough, they'll grow anywhere but a wet spot.

They'll tolerate shade, they love it hot and dry.

They'll grow on a rock.

And so our eastern redcedar.

There are cultivars of that that you can purchase.

But also if you've got a big enough area, you know, just seed-grown varieties, you'll get some selection variation on those.

And mixing up a screen with different plant material is also a way, it also depends how big you want, how much room you have and how tall.

Grey owl juniper will eventually be 10 feet tall, and if you're needing something taller.

- Right, well so then, you know, this leads me into another thought.

When we talk about deer resistant, junipers, I would say for the most part are gonna be deer resistant.

They don't like that taste, they don't like that texture.

- Right.

- But some plants that you see on the market that are marketed as being deer resistant are just that.

It depends on how hungry the deer are.

- Absolutely.

- Yeah, I always say that.

- So if they are very, very hungry, and your landscape is full of deer resistant plants, you could still have some browsing damage.

- They gonna come in and check it out, that's right.

- Just like me, I don't like blackeyed peas, but if I get hungry enough I'm gonna eat 'em.

- Yes, yes.

- You gonna eat 'em?

- So I think that'd be a good place to start.

- And there's some excellent, if you Google it, there's some excellent publications.

You know, if anytime you're Googling something, if you'll just put the word university in there beside it, doesn't matter what university, just put university you come up with somethin' better.

- Or Extension.

- Or Extension, yeah.

- Or .edu.

- Some really good websites.

So, and that kinda can really, as you're kinda suggesting, it can vary in different regions too, because of the number of the population of deer.

So looking at your region publications really help as well.

[gentle country music] - "Could you suggest some plants for a low-maintenance, natural landscape for my wet yard?"

And this is Jackie from Memphis, Tennessee.

So how about that, low maintenance?

- Yes.

- Natural landscape, wet yard.

- Yes, that sounds familiar.

- Doesn't it doesn't sound familiar?

Haven't we... - What we planted at the front of WKNO, and talk about wet and not draining soil.

- Right.

- You can't get much worse than it is in front of the studio.

- Right, and that's pretty much what she's described here.

- It's exactly, yeah.

- You know, because she's talking about drainage issues because of drainage problems.

She doesn't want the plants up against the house.

Right.

- Right.

- She wants to use rocks there instead.

- Yes, good idea.

- So let's give some of those suggestions.

- Yeah, some of the ones we planned out front, which would be great for you are the dwarf yaupon holly.

It's a dwarf plant.

Also, Anthony Waterer spiraea.

Now that will be deciduous but it'll have blooms most of the summer so it'll be gorgeous for her.

- Right, right.

- And we have this Acorus gramineus Ogon, the sweet flag grass that's yellow out there, and dwarf and it like wet conditions.

- Right.

- So between those three plants, I think she can have a really pretty front yard.

- Right, because it looks like she may have enough sun, you know, from the picture, and thank you for that picture.

- Yeah.

- So how would you plant those though?

- Yeah, like we did out front, we planted them mostly in the ground, but we had a good third of them out of the ground, and we'd put the soil, built the soil up around them to make little mounds around each plant.

- Definitely looks good too.

- That's what I would do.

And that's what I would do.

- And it's worked out front, so hopefully it'll work for her too.

[gentle country music] - "I have many spots on my peach leaves.

What is it, and how do I take care of it?"

And this is Jay from New Market, Maryland.

So what do you think about the spots on those peach leaves?

And thank you for the pictures.

It's a good picture.

- Yeah, you know, looking at that Entomosporium leaf spot, is what I think it is.

Entomosporium leaf spot, which is a common leaf spot disease, which gets on ornamentals and gets on Photinia.

- Yeah, it does, it does.

- It gets on a lot of plants.

And it can be controlled with fungicides.

I don't think copper is probably the best one.

- Right, 'cause he's tried to copper fungicide.

- Yeah.

- It's not getting better.

The trees are two years old.

Should he get rid of them you think?

Or just start over ?

- No, no.

I think if he goes with chlorothalonil, Immunox, propiconazole, tebuconazole, those are all fungicides that are recommended.

- Right.

- To control entomosporium, it'll control that leaf spot disease.

And if they're only two years old, they're not fruiting.

So they're not fruiting.

- Yeah, and I'll definitely, yeah, practice good sanitation if those leaves are on the ground.

- Yeah, but I, he's eventually gonna have to go with a, they're peaches, he's gonna have to go with a cover spray.

- Oh, peaches, yeah.

- And it won't be copper.

It'll be, and whatever cover spray he goes with, it's gonna take care of pretty much all of the leaf spot diseases.

- Right.

- And and if he's gonna, if he wants fruit, he's gonna have to go with that cover spray and that'll take care of that.

- That'll take care of it?

Yeah, you used to always say, Well peaches, plums, and nectarines, huh?

- You gotta spray, or buy 'em from the local market.

- Or buy 'em from the local market.

[gentle country music] "Is there a way to get rid of aphids on my milkweed plants besides hosing them off?"

And this is Nancy from Poolsville, Maryland.

She says she does not want to accidentally kill butterflies.

- Good.

- Which is good.

- That is good.

- Which is good.

- I love that she is thinking with a mind focused on stewardship.

- I like it.

- And honestly, aphid feeding on milkweeds is natural.

- Okay.

- I don't even try to wash them off with the hose.

- Okay.

- And at certain points of the year, the tips, the newest growth can be completely covered in aphids.

- And I've seen that, yeah.

- And it looks bad you know, to us, and we wanna do something to help it.

But oftentimes, I just wanna encourage people to let nature take its own course.

- Yeah.

- So if we leave those aphids, we are providing a food source for our beneficial predatory insects.

Look closely at your aphids, you may even see some that look tan, or gray, and kind of bloated.

Those are parasitized aphids.

And we need to leave those on the plant so that the emerging parasitic wasps that are gonna come out of those parasitized aphids then continue to do their job, and control our aphid population naturally.

And even if it never gets to that point for control with our predatory insects, aphid feeding is doing very little to hurt the overall health of our milkweed plants.

So, I'd say that she is doing the right things already.

- Yeah so, I think that'll be good.

- Yeah.

- I think it would be good, yeah.

I always advocate, I think you've heard me say this before, just leave your aphid-infested plants in the landscape.

- Yes.

- 'Cause you get more beneficials that will come in and take care for you.

- Exactly.

- Just be patient.

- I've even seen lace wings all over milkweeds, even laying their eggs on milkweed plants, because they are predatory, and they like to feast on that, those pest insects.

And the adults wanna lay their eggs there, so that that newly emerging larvae has an immediate food source.

- Yeah.

- And so- - It works.

- That's another reason why we just really don't wanna use those chemicals on those plants.

- Not necessary.

I think that works, Ms. Nancy.

And those are probably oleander aphids, the ones that are bright orange in color.

- Oh yeah, bright orange.

- Yeah.

I bet that's what that is.

- Stain your fingers when you- - Yeah, stain your fingers when you try to squish 'em and things like that.

[gentle country music] "This stuff appears in my mulch.

"Is it a fungus?

And will it hurt my plants?"

And this is Mary.

So Mary, we're gonna let Celeste just have at this one.

So what is this Celeste?

- Okay, we're gonna, we're gonna dive deep into this one.

- Let's just dive deep into.

- Okay.

So it's commonly referred to as dog vomit slime mold, okay.

It doesn't have anything to do with dogs.

It's just called that because the appearance of it, right, could resemble potentially dog vomit.

So it, even though in the common name it we're calling it a slime mold, it is not, in fact, a fungus.

- Right.

- It is a single celled organism, it's fungus-like.

It comes together and actually consumes other bacterias in the area to form this mass called a plasmodium.

And so that's that active growth that we're seeing.

It can change color right through its development.

Sometimes it can be peachy colored, tan.

Sometimes it can take on orangey yellow colored hues.

- It's pretty.

- And it is actively consuming and multiplying in size when conditions are moist.

- Yeah.

- Okay.

So it's actually doing some good things for us.

Yes, it's consuming other bacteria that are in the environment.

Okay, other fungi.

- So it's beneficial?

- Yes, that are in the environment.

It's also breaking down organic matter.

- That's a good thing.

- That's why we see it a lot in like wood mulch type areas.

- Yeah.

- So it is actually beneficial kind of helping nature do necessary processes and then, you know, delivering that back to the soil.

And then whenever conditions begin to dry, sometimes they'll lose that brighter coloration that we're used to seeing with them and that's when they enter their spore-producing period of their life cycle.

So once they dry out and then it gets windy, those spores can be blown around so that it can then when we have favorable conditions can establish somewhere else.

So treatment control is not recommended for slime mold because like I said, it's not pathogenic, it's not harming anything.

It's actually helping with those, some of those natural processes and, but if you don't like it just because it doesn't look good.

Right, it's right beside your sidewalk.

It's right in your front landscape bed.

There's nothing wrong with just removing that mulch.

- Scoop it up.

- Just scoop it up, yeah.

- You can rake it out, scoop it up.

- And so that is, that's the long and short to me.

- That's the long and short, dog vomit slime mold.

Right, so it acts more like an amoeba is what it is.

- I find it interesting how sometimes it'll go up a brick wall.

- Yeah.

- Or over a piece of wood that's not decaying or concrete.

You know.

- Sometimes it'll kind of pile up around the base of plants even.

So it's trying- - It's moving.

- It's trying to help us out.

- It's kind of cool.

- Think The Blob.

- Yeah, yes.

- You know, just kind of moving around looking for something to, you know, feed on.

That's what I think.

- That's right.

- Remember, we love to hear from you.

Send us an email or letter.

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Thanks for watching and keep sending in the questions.

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]