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

I'm Chris Cooper.

Maples, dogwoods, hackberries, persimmons, and Magnolias are all beautiful trees.

And today we're answering questions about all of them.

It's the Q and 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.

Trees are the focal point of any yard and some of the longest living plants in the landscape.

Gardeners often have questions about these large plants, and today we're going to answer a few of them.

Let's start with a question about some maple trees with browning leaves.

"My 30-year-old maple trees have large sections of leaves "that are turning brown, drying up and dying.

"It is happening over the majority of the tree.

"I tried checking for Verticillium wilt "by scraping the bark off some branches, "but I don't think that was it.

"The trees get watered weekly "when I water the lawn using irrigation water "that can sometimes be salty and dirty.

"What might be stressing my maple trees, "the irrigation water, not enough water, "lack of nutrients, or possible disease?

How can I help them?"

And this is Wendy from South Jordan, Utah.

- Okay.

- So how can we help Miss Wendy?

- Well, from the pictures that we were looking at that she sent in along with that question, we were kind of leaning towards a leaf scorch type situation.

- Right.

Yes.

- And basically what that means when you have a plant that's suffering from leaf scorch, that's not being induced by a disease like a, you know, a bacterial disease or a virus.

General leaf scorch has to do with the uptake of water.

- Exactly.

- And the loss of water from the leaf surface.

So that leaf surface and think of a maple leaf, are, they're large.

- They are.

And so we've got a large leaf surface area there and it's losing water right, through respiration as that plant is recovering and it just can't take up enough water to replace the water that's leaving from that leaf.

And so then you get scorch, usually from the margins of the leaf inwards, and the veins will look okay, but then all that material, depending on how severe the situation is, you'll have more or less margin of like necrosis, right.

Like brownness around the edge of that leaf.

And, I think that we're kind of leaning towards, leaning towards that.

Just the availability of water, and the ability of the plant to take it up.

It was on a pretty narrow strip of ground with impervious surface on both sides, road, sidewalk.

- Lot of concrete.

- So that would probably be my first, my first go-to.

- That's definitely mine.

Yeah, definitely environmental stresses, you know.

Heat of course.

- It's hot.

- Wind plays a factor in that as well.

- They're in Utah.

- Right.

- So we've got some exposure.

- For sure.

- Definitely gonna have, the high light and heat factor there in the summer.

- That's for sure.

And she did mention with the irrigation water, salty and dirty, that salt can build up over time.

- It can accumulate in those soils.

'cause they don't get a lot of rain like we do here.

So they're not getting the rain to flush the salts out of the soil.

So, I mean it could definitely, you know, be an option or a contributing factor.

- That's right.

- But the, I feel like the causation is just the ability of the plant to take up water.

- I would agree with that.

Make sure you are watering deeply.

- Yeah.

- Deeply.

Okay.

Most people when they irrigate their lawn, they're thinking, yeah, your grasses, pretty much the same water I can use for you know, for your trees.

- And they have some restrictions on irrigation in Utah too.

So I mean, you know, you have to consider where you are.

- That's right.

[gentle country music] "I've just heard you say that all maple trees "have beautiful color during autumn, "but our 30-year-old maple trees leaves "just shrivel up and turn brown.

"Our maple trees don't turn red in the fall.

"Should the pH of our soil be checked?

Please advise."

and this is Darlene.

So Mary, you have anything any comments on that one?

- Yeah, you know, it could just be that the tree's getting old.

- It could be.

- Trees like everything else have a lifespan.

And so sometimes as they get older, they're prone to developing some issues.

- I would agree with that.

- Yeah.

Like she said, maple trees, they lifespan, they not, some of 'em might not as long.

That could be the problem, that they're you know, just getting old, you know, and just stop producing those blooms on there.

And sometimes it maybe through a really drought there might be some problem, why they might not be able put on there and so around there, but the age of the tree and just look at, look around the tree and look at a lot of branch on your maple tree and see how they begin to look.

- Right.

That's what I would advise doing as well because yeah, she said the leaves are shriveling up and they just turn brown.

- Yeah.

- So I'm thinking could it be a disease?

- Disease.

- Could it be wood borers?

It is a 30-year-old tree.

- Yeah.

- So yeah, age is something I would be concerned about as well.

If you want to check the pH, I mean, yeah, we're not gonna say you can't, [all laugh] I mean you definitely can, go to your local Extension Office and get a soil test kit.

But yeah, I'm thinking about that.

And usually when you think about leaves turning colors, that has more to do with the temperature of the weather.

- Temperature, weather, yeah.

- So yeah, again, it's 30-year-old tree, so it could be some issues.

[gentle country music] "I have a redbud tree.

"On much of the tree, the leaves are turning yellow, "but the veins are green, "not because it's autumn.

"This has been going on since summer.

"I love redbuds and sure would like to keep it happy.

Thanks for any advice."

And this is Terry from St. Helena Island, South Carolina.

All right.

So Terry, what do you think about that one, Celeste?

So let's think about this now.

- Yeah.

Saint Helena Island.

- Yeah.

- Let's think about soil types and things like that.

So typically.

Let's take the island thing out of the picture.

- All right, take that out, okay.

- So typically when we have interveinal chlorosis on ornamental woody plants, we typically tend to go towards iron chlorosis as being one of the issues.

And that just means we have either a deficiency of iron in the soil, or it's bound up where the plant can't extract that from the soil.

Whether the issue is pH that's making it unavailable or there could be another, a number of other situations.

But then when you throw in that this was on an island.

- St. Helena Island.

- And we did see a picture with that and so we saw some palms and other things growing in the background, we're wondering if maybe soil type isn't playing into that.

With it being possibly a very sandy soil, which actually just doesn't retain, you know, those nutrients.

It's not there for it to pick up, you know, drainage is super quick through, through sandy soils.

- Yeah.

- So that, I mean that could be, that could be an issue.

- I think that could be an issue, Natalie.

- Yeah, no, I agree.

I mean I'm, you know, I'm a mountain girl.

I love my redbuds.

[all laugh] It could even be that there's an opportunity in a large container or you know, something like that.

- Oh yeah, for small trees.

- And because it looked more like maybe a dwarf, weeping-type of red-, or maybe it was just young.

But I mean you might have some opportunities.

- It looks multi stemmed.

- Yeah.

- I was thinking like Don Egolf, or something.

- Yeah, yeah.

- Okay, I can see that.

- I'd say to retain just a little bit of your mountain, there in the ocean.

- Yeah.

- So you might have some other steps possible.

- All right, so that's an option.

Yeah, 'cause soil type, yeah, it's gonna mean a lot, right.

Especially in an area like that.

But yeah, redbuds are nice.

I like redbuds.

- They're beautiful.

- Yeah, they're beautiful.

Terry, we thank you for that question.

But yeah, so yeah, it's difficult to treat for interveinal chlorosis anyway.

You know, iron chlorosis, you know, so it could be hit or miss.

You might have to wait it out.

Maybe it corrects itself.

But in this situation, yeah, sandy soil, that might be tough.

- Yeah.

- Might not be any iron to extract.

- Even when you're addin' it and if you add it, it's just gonna shoop, right through, - Drain quickly.

- Right through the profiles.

[gentle country music] - "My husband and I have lost one Japanese maple tree.

"It had a white powdery looking su bstance on the trunk.

"It died very quickly.

"A second tree now has the same thing on it.

"My garden app identified it "as two different bugs, [Celeste chuckles] "mealy bugs and some other bug.

"But I'm not confident in the app.

"My husband suggested I reach out to you all with a picture.

"Can you help identify and recommend treatment, please?

"I'd love to not lose this tree.

Thank you so much."

And this is Becky, from right here in Memphis, Tennessee.

So she tried to use the garden app to identify it.

- She did.

- But she doesn't trust the app, so she trusts us.

- I oftentimes do not trust those apps myself.

- Uh-uh, uh-uh.

[laughs] - So thank you for your confidence.

[laughs] - Yes.

Yes.

Yeah, trust us, we'll help you out, Ms. Becky.

So after looking at that, you know, picture, here's what I saw.

The white secretion, right.

Well, that white secretion comes from, a plant bug named the citrus flatid plant hopper.

- Plant hopper.

- It's a plant hopper.

- I, when I was looking at that picture, I didn't know what it was called.

So I'm glad you came up with the name.

But I could definitely see the adult plant hopper.

- Yup, you can see it.

- You can tell, they kind of have a distinct body shape.

They're kind of flat, like this, but standing upwards.

And, I saw an adult, we saw some immatures on there.

- We saw, we sure did.

We sure did.

- And that white, waxy, cottony.

- Yeah, they secrete this little white, yeah, waxy covering.

- It's just like a protection.

- Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

- You know, mechanism.

And I understand why maybe her app went to mealy bug at first.

- I could see that.

- Because sometimes, you know, you can have that type of thing there as well.

- I could see that.

- But we don't think that's what's causing, what caused the death in the first Japanese maple.

- No.

- The feeding of those insects would not cause a rapid decline and death of a well established Japanese maple tree.

- These plant hops are not a problem whatsoever.

Stream of water, knock 'em off.

Insecticidal soap, something like that.

They're not a major problem.

They're not even a threat.

But we think something else may be.

- Yes.

So I have had lots and lots of calls at the Extension Office this year of Japanese maples that were previously fine last year and have had a rapid decline, complete death, or you know, lost nearly half of their canopy.

And I feel like it has a strong relationship with the drastic drop in temperature - I would agree.

- That we had last winter.

I know we've said this before, but those temperatures were not outside of our, what our zone is gauged for, I guess you would say.

- Okay.

Okay.

- Like those temperatures were not below what the typical lowest temperature is for zone seven.

It was how quickly the temperature dropped.

- Yeah, quick drop.

- The plants did not have the time to move their sugars and water down into their roots.

- Yeah.

- And so we saw a lot of freezing within the exposed aboveground parts of plants that normally would have been fine with a zero-degree temperature.

- Yeah, yeah.

- So, I feel like the death of that first tree probably was closely related to that cold event that we had.

Maybe it already had some other kind of stress to it.

- Maybe, possible.

- And that's, why it had a rapid decline and the second one did not.

- Yeah.

- You know, there's lots of different things that could come into play.

But the good news is.

- Good news.

- Is that she doesn't have to worry about those bugs.

- You don't have to worry about the citrus plant hopper.

- Yeah.

- Don't have to worry about that.

Yeah.

But you're right.

So I have a Japanese maple, same issue.

- Going down?

- It's the cold.

- Yeah.

- Yes, going down really quick.

- And just looking thin, and there'll be a branch here that's not looking well.

- Yep, that's exactly it.

- But then this one's okay.

And then we're seeing some like epicormic sprouting.

- That's exactly it.

- Where you've got little sprouts coming out of like the main trunk or larger limbs.

It's lots of strange things happening.

So it was a an unusual year.

Hopefully we won't see things like that again in the years to come.

- Hopefully not hopefully not.

[gentle country music] - "Can you tell me what the strange growths are "on the tips of some of these branches of my cherry tree?

"This tree has been healthy up until an ice storm "we had this past winter.

"The tree suffered some damage and some of the branches "are dead and the other ones no w have this fungus or growth.

"And I don't know if it's a di sease that will kill the tree "or can I spray it with something to save it?

Thanks for your help, sincerely, Carolyn."

How about that, so she really wants to try to save that cherry tree.

So, I'll start here.

Great picture.

We appreciate that picture first and foremost.

So guess what, it is a fungus, right?

It's black knot.

- Black knot, yeah.

- It's what it is.

So you... - Yeah.

Black knot on there.

If you got cherry trees, you gonna have a lot of problems.

[Chris laughs] They have-- - That's for sure.

- I had some in my yard.

I have some cherry tree in my yard.

They had those black knots on all the time.

Know, if you wanna try to save that tree or try to prune, you can prune those off there, you know.

You know, but you need to sterilize your pruning shears.

- Oh yeah, that's good point.

- After each cut with some bleach water, sterilize those.

And also you need to get those from 'round the tree if anything falls on the ground and everything.

- So practice good sanitation.

- Good sanitation.

But you got a cherry tree you're gonna have- [laughs] - It's gonna have some problems.

- You gonna have some problems with that cherry tree.

I done got tired of my problem, my cherry tree.

And I made one good cut on, I made one good pruning cut on it.

- Oh, right at the bottom.

- Right at the bottom.

[all laugh] - Right at the base.

- So yeah, I just didn't like.

But it was a pretty tree when it was young, but when it got little older, you just start having problems.

- It's if you're gonna have problems, this is again a fungus, you know, black knot.

It attacks the Prunus family, genus.

- Okay, okay, mhm.

- Prunus genus, which are cherries and plums and apricots and things like that.

Usually, in the fall you get swellings on the twigs and the branches, and then the next season, you get the black galls.

So the best thing is to try to do, like Mr. Booker said, you prune those out, sanitize those pruners if you can.

Practice good sanitation, pick it up.

Look for resistant varieties.

- Yeah.

- I'm always big on that.

You can try using a fungicide.

- Yeah.

[Booker chuckles] - You have to read and follow the label, you can try it.

You know, chlorothalonil is something that you can use.

Copper-based fungicide is something that's recommended as well.

I don't know if they're gonna be a hundred percent, you know, effective, but you know, there's some means to be able to control it using the fungicide.

But yeah, I would go back to the cultural practices if at all possible.

- And my neighbor, like he done put like four or five in his yard.

He just like those trees, like those cherry tree and they, they constantly die on him.

- And they have beautiful blooms, I understand that.

- He like his and he really, but he just keep plantin' 'em different ones, different knot there, so.

You don't have a problem with it now.

- You don't have problems.

So that is a fungus.

[upbeat country music] "I am going to grow American persimmon trees.

"I have been on the internet "and can't seem to find an answer to my question.

"After persimmon seeds germinate "is there any care needed like pruning, or do I just let grow how they grow?"

And this is Nathan.

So what do you think about that, Natalie?

- Yeah, oh this is a native fruit that we are getting more questions about.

- Yeah.

- So it's always fun to, to hear that folks are trying novel crops.

So, one of my first questions would be, what is the purpose of the persimmon crop?

Is it just to support wildlife?

Because when we're talking about American persimmons, we're not talking.

- They're small.

- Yeah, we're not talking about the large Asian persimmon that those, you know, here and further south are familiar with as a, you know, as a grocery store type of option.

So what is the purpose?

Is it just an ornamental tree?

They can be, they can be large, right.

And so we wanna make sure that we understand whether this is just kind of a wildlife-supporting ornamental, or whether there are some production goals.

There probably aren't as stringent pruning suggestions on persimmon as what we would see in an orchard for apples or peach.

- Sure.

- So it would be more about good overall structure, removing crossing limbs, making sure that you're reducing damage, and you know, any damaged areas and things like that.

Sometimes American persimmon is actually used as a rootstock for Asian persimmon.

- Didn't know that.

- So you know, just think about if there are more genuine fruit production goals depending upon the area of the country, then.

- Yeah, they maybe they really want Asian persimmons, possibly.

- Right, yeah.

So that's just an important question.

- Yeah, it's good.

Well, Celeste, anything you wanna add to that or.

- No, I think Natalie has covered that well, definitely.

- Yeah, minimum, yeah, pruning, yeah.

- I mean I know some fruit crops like you said, you know, they encourage them to come in and top them to help them branch - Yeah.

Branch out.

- And make those scaffold branching.

But again, it depends on what your goal is.

- Yeah.

- You know?

- Yeah.

Most people are kind of using them as a native ornamental.

- Support wildlife.

- Yeah.

- I can see that.

- Just kind of improve your biodiversity.

[gentle country music] - "I planted a sweet bay Magnolia two years ago "and it's doing great.

"This summer, we had a heat wave in Memphis "and I'm curious how much watering I should do to keep a young sweet bay Magnolia healthy?"

And this is Rick from YouTube.

So Mary, you have any thoughts about trying to keep that sweet bay Magnolia healthy?

- I think it's a great tree.

- A great tree, I do too.

- Yeah.

So great choice on the tree.

I think that it's still kind of young.

So during droughts, you might wanna give it a little bit of water.

just to help it get established.

- Okay, I can go with that.

- Yeah, I say the same thing.

Same question though.

A lot of times you trees probably need about an inch of water a week or something like that.

And try to do it at one time until run off start back again.

But I like a sweet bay Magnolia too.

I had one of my yard.

- Good trees.

- Yeah, I like that, yeah.

- Definitely have to keep it watered during drought-like conditions.

Says it's two years old, here.

We did have a heat wave.

I heard recently, it's one of the second hottest summer.

- Oh yeah.

- In Shelby County.

In Memphis.

So, you definitely want to, you know, keep it watered during the drought.

And then sweet bay Magnolias, another name for sweet bay Magnolias, are swamp Magnolias.

It's all in the name, swamp.

[Booker laughs] - Yep.

- So it like moist soils, but those soils have to be well drained, at the same time, so.

- Well drained.

- So, yeah.

Sweet bay Magnolia, swamp Magnolia.

So make sure it gets the water that it needs.

It should be just fine.

I think we all enjoy sweet bay Magnolia.

- Yeah.

- I do, yeah, right, yeah.

[gentle country music] - This is a good question.

W"hat is the average lifespan of a ginkgo tree?

"My 150-year-old ginkgo tree just died and I was always told they live for a while."

This is Grant from Memphis, Tennessee.

- Oh my goodness.

- Now we know ginkgo trees are living fossils.

I mean thousands of years possibly, Jason?

- Very, very long lived trees, yes.

And of course there's no way of knowing what's, you know, happened from from the viewers.

So yeah, they should live a long time.

But you know, there could have been all sorts of things that have caused the issue and really I think with trees, oftentimes we don't know what killed the trees.

It's really difficult with a tree.

So, get another one in the ground soon.

[all laugh] - Yes.

And you know, even though ginkgos, you know, live a long time, you know, everything has a date on it, you know what I mean?

- Yeah, it has a expiration date, yeah.

- Everything has expiration dates so.

- It does, wow.

How about that?

- That is a loss.

Sorry about that.

- I know.

- It is, yeah, 150-year-old ginkgo tree.

- Oh, and let's encourage people to come here and see our beautiful ginkgo specimen.

We've got a gorgeous ginkgo here.

- How old do you think it is?

- It was planted in the '60s.

- Wow, okay.

Okay.

[gentle country music] - "Part of my pink dogwood tree is struggling "while one main branch that gets th e most sun is doing great.

"I've had a local arborist look at it "and he said there is no disease, "but it's obvious, based on this year's spring blooms, "that there's some kind of problem.

Any thoughts?"

And this is Carol from Greensboro, North Carolina.

So what do you think about that?

What comes to mind?

- I'm mystified.

[laughs] - You're mystified.

Okay.

Yeah, so if you have one main branch that gets the sun, is doing great, she says, so this is what I'm thinking.

Number one, could it be winter injury, right?

First thing that came to mind, right.

Second thing is this.

If that plant is already stressed, or the dogwood tree's already stressed, the dogwood borer may have gotten into that wood.

Okay, and it disrupts the flow of water and nutrients to the upper canopy, which causes branches to die.

And could cause the tree to die.

- Mh-mm.

- So I would call a local arborist, have them come out and to see if there are little borer holes there.

- Sure.

- Right, look for a little frass on the ground because I think that might be the culprit.

I think so, right.

'Cause again you have one that's doing pretty good, but then you have the other's not doing so well.

So it's stressed.

- Mh-mm.

- Dogwood borers are secondary pests.

- Right.

And the photograph.

I was curious about that because it was lower branches and dogwoods like shade.

- They like shade.

- And so, you know?

- Right.

- That's surprising.

I'll bet you're right.

- There was some trees of course in the background you can't tell whether it was getting enough shade, you know, from those trees or not, but it's stressed.

And of course any time I think about stress, I think about secondary pests.

- Mh-mm.

- Which could be a borer, you know, which can again disrupt the flow of nutrients and water to the upper canopy.

So that may be an issue there.

And of course you know they're shallow-rooted, you know, trees and things like that.

So you have to make sure it's mulched and things like that.

Make sure it gets enough moisture.

But two, I was curious about the winter, of course, you know, could there be a little bit of injury there.

- Mh-mm.

- But at the end of the day it's stress, right, so.

- Of some kind.

- That's a stress.

Yeah, secondary pests can be a problem.

All right, so, I hope that helps you out, Ms. Carol.

Yeah, so I would, yeah, again, contact the local arborist, have 'em to come out and see if there could be evidence of a dogwood borer.

[gentle country music] "I have three mature trees in my yard, "which I believe are hackberries.

"About this time every year they ge t covered in a black soot.

"Some nearby trees would get infected afterward.

"Like my young tulip poplar, "while others don't, like my oak tree nearby.

What is this black soot and wh at can I do to get rid of it?"

And this is Bryce from White House, Tennessee.

Right.

So, hackberries covered in black soot.

I think we know the culprit for that one.

- Yeah.

We gotta think about what is our key plant/pest relationship here?

When you have an insect that's named after the host plant- - Oh, yes.

- That's gonna be our first go to, so.

The wooly hackberry aphid.

- That is it.

- Feeds, it has sucking, piercing mouthparts, feeds on the plant and definitely produces tons and tons of black sooty mold.

- Yes, yes.

- And it gets on usually, if you're inspecting your plants, on the upper leaf surface, right.

So if you flip the leaf over, you're not gonna see a ton of sooty mold on the bottom 'cause feeding is happening and those insects are excreting the sooty mold, right.

Or honeydew, technically.

- Honeydew, yeah, mm-hm.

- And it's falling on those surfaces.

So it's gonna be nearly impossible for gravity to make sense to have it on the underside of the leaf.

But it's also gonna be on the things that are underneath the trees, right.

- Right, right.

- So if it's a sidewalk or patio furniture or you know, or other plants, or whatever.

- Other plants, right.

- It will wear off with time.

I mean there's not a lot that we can do to improve the aesthetics.

There are some control measures, but I don't, I don't feel like the feeding of this insect is detrimental to the life of the plant.

- I don't think so either.

- So you know, it's up to the homeowner depending upon where these plants are in their landscape, whether that warrants treatment or not.

- Right, so they have to make that decision.

- Mh-mm.

- You know, if you want to treat for the wooly hackberry aphids, right.

- And that would be like a systemic insecticide treatment.

- Right, systemic.

- You know, we can't, homeowners can't get up into the canopies of their trees to spray every leaf.

So, the effective approach there would be like a root drench.

- Yeah.

It would have to be, you know, these are tall trees for sure.

If you look at the picture, we did see a beneficial on there.

- Yes, we did.

And that's another reason why you might want to refrain.

Because we've got good insects out there as well trying to help us control those populations.

- That's right.

Right.

- There's a lady beetle in the picture, an adult lady beetle.

And then if you look up and to the right a little bit, we spotted a nymph, a lady beetle larva.

- Good eye by you, by the way, yeah.

- It looks kind of like a little alligator, if you've never seen one before.

And it is also covered in black sooty mold.

- Yes.

[both laugh] - That's how we almost didn't see it there at the beginning.

- Yeah.

- But they are both predatory.

So lady beetles are predatory in their adult stage and their immature stages feeding on soft-bodied insects.

So they're out there - Like the aphids.

- Yes, those aphids are out there trying to consume the pest population and help us even, even the score.

- Yes, yeah, so let those beneficials do their job.

- For sure.

- They would do that.

And I would like to go back to the tulip poplar.

- Oh yes, yes.

- Tulip tree scales.

Is what that's gonna be.

And they produce a copious amount of honeydew.

- They do.

- Which supports the growth of black sooty mold.

- Mm-hm, so check out those limbs.

- Check 'em out.

- And it's gonna look kind of gross, it'll look bubbly, almost.

- Oh, it looks bad.

- Like, you'll be like why is, why are all the little limbs and sticks so like, look like they have warts on 'em.

- Mm-hm, like little bumps.

- Like when you get closer, you'll be able to tell it's just those scale piled on top of each other.

- Yeah.

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Thanks for sending in the questions.

To get more information on anything we talked about, or to see answers to even more questions, go to FamilyPlotGarden.com.

While you're there, feel free to 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]