- Hi, thanks for joining us for The Family Plot: Gardening in the Mid-South, I'm Chris Cooper.

It's spring and gardeners   are getting ready   for another growing season.

Today we're helping get ready   by answering lots   of viewer questions.

Shrubs, trees, seeds, and bugs.

That's just ahead   on The Family Plot:   Gardening in the Mid-South.

- (female announcer)   Production funding for   The Family Plot:   Gardening in the Mid-South   is provided by   The WKNO Production Fund,   The 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 Joellen Dimond.

Joellen is the Director of Landscape at the University of Memphis.

And Booker T. Leigh is here.

Mr. Booker is UT Extension Agent right here in Shelby County.

- Thanks for having us on the show, glad to be here.

- Thank you all for being here.

This is gonna be fun.

- Yes.

- I hope so.

- Oh it will be.

It will definitely be fun.

All right.

So here's our first viewer email.

"I have dogwood problems.

"Two years ago my dogwood died.

"I bought a new one last year and it's doing the same thing.

"The leaves are turning brown and falling off.

"This is a slow process, but it keeps getting worse.

"It is in full sun.

"I water it once or twice a day.

"I live in the desert.

"I don't know if it's too much or if I'm not watering enough.

How do I keep my dogwood   from turning brown and dying?"

And this is from Jenny,   from Goshen, Utah.

- Wow.

- Utah.

- So think about this for a second, right?

Dogwood, full sun.

So what do you think about that Booker?

- One thing that we take dogwood tree and move them from their habitat, they normally out in the woods somewhere and then we bring them into our landscape.

And they like to be under other trees, down in the woods, under other trees.

And they grow under other trees.

So they put 'em in full sun.

It's probably not just going to do the best in that.

If anything, then you probably give them a lot of water.

And the sun Probably some of the things that's going on with that causing that tree to do that.

So we done moved it from its habitat and put it into our landscape, it's going to have some problems, that dogwood tree.

I think it need to be out under another tree some kind of way.

- Okay.

Maybe the shade of another tree.

What about you Joellen?

- Shade of another tree or the shade of a building somewhere in the shade though.

- In the shade yeah.

- And you know he might, it doesn't say this here, but it does sounds like he's planting in the yard.

So maybe try a container, 'cause you know you could move the container or plant around, you know to follow the shade somewhere.

Soil moist crystals added to the ground could help with the watering.

But if he's watering one or twice, once or twice a day I would want to know if it actually needed water.

- Okay.

- It's the desert.

- It is the desert, but does he have any organic matter incorporated in right around the actual plant where it's planted?

I would hope some organic matter would help also with soil, with water retention.

- It definitely would.

In the desert.

- And they might well try to put some little moisture around the tree, around the bark of the tree of the tree and try to keep that soil cooler sometimes.

It makes it kind of think it think that it's out under another tree, put you some moisture and put you on like a, something round the base of the tree for the moisture not to land real close to the trunk.

- Okay.

- But he don't have a dogwood under the sun.

- Full sun, live in the desert and there's something else too when you think about dogwood trees they're shallow-rooted trees.

- Okay - Right?

So yeah, the intense heat on those roots, it's going to be a problem.

- You might put a little moisture might help some.

- It's going to be a problem Jenny.

So hope that helped you out there.

All right.

Good luck to you.

- Good luck.

- Here's our next viewer email.

"I have several   boxwood growing   "in large terracotta pots.

"One plant is healthy,   "the other two looks sick.

What is happening here?"

Lynn in Hillsborough, Illinois.

Joellen, you know a little bit about Illinois.

- Yeah.

- So what do you think is going on with the boxwood then?

- Well, it looks like they have spider mites.

And you know, there's several things you can do.

You can use some horticulture oil or some neem oil on them or you can, you know, use an insecticide that's labeled for spider mites, insecticidal soap or something like that.

Depends on what you want to do, but read the label directions.

That's what's going on with those.

And I would just like to, you know they're in containers, so how are they separated?

Where are they at?

Maybe if one is obviously not got anything and it's doing better try to replicate that environment where the other two are.

'Cause you know, sometimes spider mites and stuff, bugs in general, attack plants that are under stress.

- Right.

- So you know that one is not, so try to replicate the environment that that has for the other two containers.

- Okay.

Booker anything you want to add to that?

- Well another thing you want plants in container sometimes you, sometimes the roots might get too small.

They might get root bound in the container and everything.

And so when I do water my plants in a container I like to make sure I drain the water out the container after a while.

You want to sit in there, but make sure you got holes in the container where he can drain out the water there.

And that could be a problem that you have in that container.

Maybe they got too large for the container and that could be a problem with that.

And also could be poor drainage in that water kind of stand on that plant and cause him to do that.

- Right, which leads to the stress that Joellen was talking about.

But yeah.

So spider mites,   yeah use your oils   they're going to   attack new growth.

Stippling is what   that is on the leaf.

Stippling.

Because the spider mites   of course are sucking out   cell content   while you have those little   white spots of white blotches.

So yeah, just read and follow   the label on your oils.

And you will be just fine.

So your oils or your insecticidal soap and I think that'll do it for you and be good.

- Yeah.

I think he will be fine.

- Thank you for that question.

We appreciate that.

Here's our next viewer email.

"I just bought two barberries.

"I have been researching the Japanese barberry "and found it draws ticks and is invasive.

"Are all barberry plants   "invasive and draw ticks?

"Which are safe   for my garden?

"Please help.

"I want to dig them up after   reviewing several videos   on Japanese barberry dangers,   ticks and Lyme disease."

And this is May.

So this is an interesting question we have here, right?

So we're talking about the Japanese barberry   and the fact   that it draws ticks   and we know barberries   are invasive, right?

So are all the barberry plants   invasive and draw ticks?

- Well, yes and no.

There are native there is one native Berberis canadensis   that's native to   the United States.

But the thing is, I want   to know where is she at?

Is she in an area   that's prone?

Because here where we are we're not real prone to having tick populations and Lyme disease.

We have ticks, but not Lyme disease.

But if she's in an area that is prevalent with that then yeah, I would definitely not want to plant barberries.

Because, deer are attracted.

They will eat barberries.

So, you know you want to get deer resistant plants 'cause any kind of animal that is attracted to your yard is going to then attract the ticks and drop the ticks with the Lyme disease.

So if you can keep, and I think some of the preventative for the ticks with Lyme diseases have a mulch away from your house and then lawn area, a large lawn area before a woods, you know, something like that.

You're want to keep the litter down because that's the other thing with barberries is they lose their leaves.

So then and then people don't always clean out underneath them.

And so they'd have a nice perfect place for the ticks to breed.

So that's the other problem with that.

- Yeah, because yeah, it's a sticky plant.

So you don't clean up the leaves under it because you don't want to get stuck.

So you definitely look for maybe another plant.

- Another plant, yeah.

- I would look for another plant.

- Just to be safe, she wants to be safe.

- I would be safe.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Because, and do try to look if you have in an area where there's a lot of animals, especially deer then I would go with deer-resistant plants.

'Cause you don't want to bring the animals into your yard.

You want to keep them out so the ticks are less likely to be in your yard.

- Exactly right.

So thank you for your question.

I really appreciate that.

So here's our next viewer email.

"I live near the Four   Corners of New Mexico.

"Is it possible to grow   pistachios and cherries   from seed successfully?"

And this was   Laurie from YouTube.

So the Four Corners of   New Mexico, is it possible?

- Yes it's possible.

I mean, in fact, cherry trees.

Now the cherry for edible cherries, yeah, you can grow up from seed.

It's going to take a long time either way, either way because when you're talking seedlings and it's going to be hard a lot of pistachios 'cause actually pistachio forests or groves are in that area.

So they harvest them then but they usually are grafted onto something.

So a lot of the literature that I found said that, you know it takes a while to grow it from seed to get it to be able to cut it off, to put a graft on it.

So I mean, but it can be done.

I mean, it depends on how much time you have and... - 'Cause they do grow up there.

- They do grow them there.

And there's a lot of, there's a certain way.

You have to stratify, especially with the pistachio.

There's a whole list of scarifications and cold temperatures, and I mean, it's certain days and weeks.

And so, but it's a science, but it can be done.

And there's a couple of publications that from New Mexico the fruit tree and pistachio area that will you know, will be available I guess, on our website to for her to look at.

But the cherry trees, they recommend not the sweet varieties but the sour varieties.

And I don't know what the seed is that she's got.

So, but they do recommend the sour cherry varieties.

And I think a couple of varieties are Balaton and Danube for that particular area of northwest of the northern part.

- Just need patience, I guess.

- Yeah, you gotta be patient.

- It's gonna take some time.

- Scarification, you know, the cold, chilling requirement is something that you go out to do as well for sure.

And something else too, Laurie.

Yeah, contact your local extension office.

Yeah, they will have some information available for you about, you know, growing those, you know plants from seed - And probably need more than one too when they get up some size though, for them to do well.

I know, especially - The pollination - The pollination process in there so, yeah.

- But it can be done.

- It can be done.

- Just going to take some patience, requires patience.

Yeah, check with your local extension office, Laurie and I think they may have some information for you.

So thank you for that question.

Here's our next viewer email.

"I have had this   plant invade my yard   "in the lasts five   to seven years.

"It appears to be a wild   strawberry or some sorts.

"it invades any new   scratched up ground   "or a new mulch   like wildfire.

"Off-the-shelf   herbicides only seem   "to stem the tide for a bit,   "and it's almost impossible   to keep pulling by hand.

"It does not seem to be   in my neighbor's yard   "that are very close.

How do I get rid   of this stuff?"

And this is Mark.

Booker, so how does he get rid of, and that's probably you know, Indian mock strawberries is what that is.

So how did you get rid of that?

- Well, I try to pull it up if I can if there not too much in there.

You think, by putting a pre-emerge down sometime it might help some in the year, try to keep them coming up on coming up again, that's what I would do.

And I also, I tried to make sure that when I pull it up in there, I try to get the root system too.

If you leave any kind of root system in the soil, it's going to come back again and stuff.

- Which may be the problem because I've been dealing with this five, five to seven years.

Right, so you got to get the root system out.

- You gotta get the root system out of there.

- What do you think Joellen?

- Yeah, I mean you, you have to get every bit of the root.

It reminds me of nutgrass, you know.

Any little root of that's left will grow into another plant.

So when you are digging it up I would suggest getting a shovel, even if it's a trowel, and dig, you know sideways and try to lift the whole area to try to get all the root system up.

- Okay, that's something else to think about.

- And here the root system is going to come back again and everything and then look up your pre-emerge so when can do that and see what the pre-emerge.

- I think a pre-emerge you know will probably help.

But you know, I always start with cultural practices.

So whatever it is that you're trying to grow they're making sure that it's appropriate for that area.

Right, so of course get your soil tested and things like that.

So pre-emerge, but if it's already there like in this instance, if you want to talk about a post-emerge, I would go with a three way herbicide, something that will control broadleaf weeds because wild strawberry plants are broadleaf weeds, right?

So they're broadleaf weeds.

So again, if you're going to use herbicide I would read and follow the label on that.

But I mean, that is an option but I always like to go with the cultural practices first make sure your pH is where it needs to be that you have the right grass or plants in the area that you want to cover the ground, right.

To provide competition for this strawberry we were talking about.

And then, you know, if that doesn't do the trick yeah.

Then use the post emerge, - Read the label.

- Read the label, read the label and you'll be fine.

So we thank you for that question, Mark.

Good luck.

Yeah, five to seven years.

Good luck.

Here's our next viewer email.

"There is a mulberry tree   "in our backyard with   some dark coloring on it.

"This picture is from June.

"We cut off the little stub   of branch around that time.

"The dark coloring   has expanded   "further down the   tree since then.

"This is another   picture from September.

"We have been in this   house about six months.

"So I'm not sure how long   this has been an issue.

What is happening?"

And this is from Brooke.

And by the way, Brooke,   excellent pictures.

Right, so she documented everything.

So it's made it a little easier for us to see, you know, what's going on.

So as a tree expert here, what do you think that might be?

- I think it's a slime flux.

It, this happens to trees, mulberries, one of them is notorious to have this and it's not necessarily a death sentence for the plant because if it will heal over, it'll stop oozing.

But if it doesn't then it'll keep going and it is unsightly.

And if it keeps going, it will start smelling.

- It smells bad.

- And so, you know, it's just going to be up to her.

If, is how much of it you want to take?

You want to wait until it heals over.

If it's going to heal over, you know or do you want to get rid of it and start over again with something else.

If it starts smelling bad, and you're going to be out in your backyard you may not want to keep it around.

[Booker laughing] - All right.

- If it starts smelling bad.

- So there you have it Brooke.

Yeah, if it started smelling bad, just you know what it is, slime flux.

All right.

And again, it's not a death sentence so maybe - may not be - may not be, okay.

But if you have any questions Brooke, do contact certified arborist or maybe have a certified arborist come out and take a look at that tree.

Just assess the health of the tree.

- True.

- Okay, make sure you do that in your area.

That's for sure.

- Make sure they know it in the safe and they do it exactly.

- Right, so thank you for that, Brooke.

Here's our next viewer email.

"I received a Chamaecyparis   lawsoniana 'Ellwoodii'   "indoor plant as a gift.

"How do I care for it?

This is my first plant."

And this is Anga   in Singapore.

- Singapore, oooh.

- Singapore.

- Yes.

- This is pretty good.

So 'Elwoodii' - Yes.

- She received it as an indoor gift.

- Well, since Singapore is in the tropics I would say this is a actually in the zones five through eight.

It'll get up to 20 feet tall.

So, but it in the tropics in the container it's not going to get that big.

Yeah, but it is a conifer.

So she's gonna need to make sure it's well drained and don't overwater.

- It's got to be well-drained.

- And it's going to need a lot of light too.

Cause there's a lot of foliage there to sustain, so it's going to need some light.

- Okay.

Well how about that.

Indoor?

- Indoors yes.

- You'll get that tall, right?

- No, it won't get that big indoors.

I don't think no, it's in a container.

- Just make sure there is plenty of sunlight - And well-drained, and don't keep it, you know keep it on the, what I call the dry side of moist.

- Okay.

- Dry side of moist.

- Yeah, I mean, let it dry out a little bit between waterings because you want it to be well-drained.

'Cause if it starts getting dead spots on it that's probably a sign of it's got too much water.

- Too much water.

- Okay.

Right.

So if it's in a window, we were thinking south-facing?

- Yeah, I've definitely a south-facing window.

- Are you gonna have to... - I would think you would have to turn it.

- Yes.

- Just keep it straight because it's a tall, narrow plant.

So you'd want to, and evergreen, and she may want to, you know, as it grows you might want to put it in bigger containers.

- Sure.

- Whatever she wants to do, but yeah I think that's really neat.

- Pretty cool.

- Yes, and indoor plants in the tropics would be a conifer.

It's interesting.

- That's pretty good.

- That's nice ain't it?

[laughs] - Have fun Anga.

- Enjoy your plant.

- Like I said, have fun.

- Yeah, that's going to be pretty good and have fun with that.

So yeah, thank you for that question again.

Singapore is pretty cool.

All right.

Here's our next viewer email.

"These mushrooms   have been growing   "around the base of the   trunk of our oak tree   "for the last few falls.

Should I be   worried about this?"

And I already   see you Joellen.

I see the head nod.

- Yes, I'm afraid you should because it is armillaria.

- Armillaria.

- And there's no coming back   from armallaria in a tree.

It will just slowly take   over and take out the tree.

Yeah, very slowly.

But because that's a very   large tree, but yeah.

That's the sign of   armallaria in the tree.

And I would definitely tell them to get a certified arborist to look at that.

- Right, I was about to mention that.

I would we get a certified arborist out to look at that.

- When I see something like that in that big of a tree I would definitely want an arborist's opinion of what I should do next.

- Right.

That is a pretty large oak tree.

We know armallaria will attack oak trees.

- It's like more than one place too around the tree, two or three locations.

So that means the tree in kind of bad shape right now, beginning to do that.

So you might get somebody to look at that real good.

- Certified arborist.

- Certified arborist.

- Just to help with that tree 'cause you don't want that tree to become a hazard.

- No, and we don't know if it's been dropping limbs or anything either, so yeah.

- Yeah, although those mushrooms look beautiful.

Those beautiful pictures, yes.

It can be detrimental to the health of the plant.

Get a certified arborist - Okay.

- to take a look at that yeah.

- Okay, here's our next viewer email.

"My dogwwod continues   to bloom each year   "but it doesn't look healthy   "and the bark has peeled away   in many different spots.

"I keep thinking it is dying   "but it continues to   bloom year after year.

Is there anything I can   do to fix this problem?"

This is Carolyn in   Memphis, Tennessee.

So Booker, what do you, what do you think about that?

- It's got a canker disease in that, in there.

And I also, when it not blooming real good lot of time a lot of your nutrients' not going up to the plant because of that spot on there.

And also she probably got it out in full sun that cause them to do that.

And something damaged that tree too to make that canker come in like that.

I don't know if something hit it or whatever happened to that, but when it not blooming well, you have a lot of nutrients not getting up to the plant like it should have.

And also she probably made maybe giving it too much fertilizer also that cause 'em to do that, especially the nitrogen fertilizer kept holding him back on the blooms too.

But the canker disease, a lot of nutrients not getting up to the plant where it should be.

- Right and it's trying to go around the area to get up to the tree, right?

- It looks like it's trying to callous over that area but still the, you know, when like Booker said there's no nutrients going up into a tree in that area.

And the, probably the reason why it's blooming so much is because when something is stressed and think it's going to die it will try to put out more seeds to try to survive.

So that's probably why it's blooming more, but I mean you can keep it alive as long as you can or you can start and put another plant in, buy another tree and plant it in a place that maybe it would like better like some more shade.

It's a shady area for a dogwood.

- So just keep it as healthy as you possibly can at this point, because it is definitely stressed.

And then I'm sitting here thinking about dogwood borers because the tree's already stressed.

There's areas for the bogwood borers to get in there you know, start eating away at the cambium layer.

So that's another layer, you know, to this situation here.

- We didn't see the base of the tree.

- Right, we didn't even see the base, exactly.

- It could be something going on down there too.

- So Carolyn yes.

Yeah, that's a issue there.

It's a pretty big issue.

So yeah, just try to keep that tree as healthy as you possibly can and enjoy the blooms while you can.

- I've never had a dogwood tree in my yard.

- So we thank you for that question, Carolyn.

All right.

Here's the next viewer email.

"Last year I found this mass   of caterpillars on the trunk   "of my black walnut tree.

"Have seen tent caterpillars   "in walnut trees   many times before   "but never   a mass like this.

"Are these   tents caterpillars,   "and would they migrate   into the canopy?

"I eliminated them   with insecticidal soap   while they were   close to the ground."

This is Jamie from   Springfield, Tennessee.

Yeah, beautiful   picture there Jamie.

We appreciate that.

So yes, we know that those are walnut caterpillars.

Right, and they pretty much did what I say you should do.

Yeah, they're that close to the ground and you can reach them.

Yeah take them out, take them out, you know get you a bucket of soapy water and just scrape them out into the bucket.

But she used the insecticide soap, which works.

So they're not tent caterpillars.

They're walnut caterpillars, and yes they will try to migrate, you know to the upper canopy of the tree, but you got them before then.

Again you used something that's safe, insecticidal soap.

So yeah, I would just, I would've just scraped it off and in a bucket and, a good picture.

Good job.

Yeah, use insecticide soap.

So that is something that we do recommend and it worked.

All right.

So we appreciate that question.

All right.

Here's our next viewer email.

"Is it true that old hybrid   tea roses quit flowering,   "even if they are getting   the correct nutrients?

"If not, what could I do to hel   an older hybrid tea rose bloom?

"It gets full sun from about noon to about 5 PM.

"I give it a half dose of 18-24-16 rose food.

"And a half dose of 10-52-10 and a gallon "of water once a week.

"Its leaves are beautiful, but maybe a little small.

"I will try Epsom salts, magnesium sulfate, as one "of your guests recommended.

What else would help?"

And this is Charles.

So let's go back to this for a second, half dose of 18-24-16 rose food.

And then we come back with another half dose of 10-52-10, and a gallon of water once a week.

What do you think Booker?

- One of the things I think, she giving it too much fertilizer really, especially the first number on the bag of fertilizer, I think it's probably doing a lot of growth in ther, trying to grow and stay green and everything.

It's not had time to set for the blooms to come on there.

- The leaves are beautiful and small.

- Yeah, but that's why it hasn't had blooms though.

She giving it too much, too much growth on there, green growth on there.

I would hold back on that first number some.

And I wouldn't fertilizer it that often-- - And tell us what that first number is again.

- Nitrogen.

I'd give more of that second number.

- And the second number is?

- Phosphorus.

Give more phosphorus in there.

And she can go buy some stuff like super phosphate or something like that and work it into the soil and that might help some on that rose.

What do you think Joellen?

- Well, yeah, I think, you know, she might want to do a pH test because I'm worried with all the fertilizer.

I don't know how the pH is there and you know I do know roses like more acidic, yeah.

And they, and they eat but that might be just a little much.

And I would like to do a pH test to see where I was as a marker.

But yeah, I think I would hold off on some of the fertilizer because again, plants that are think they're gonna, you know, have to hurry up and you know, the season's going to be over 'cause I'm getting the nutrients that I normally get, will end up trying to bloom and set seed.

So she needs to think, the plants need to think they're a little under stress for that time of year to be able to bloom.

And if you keep free flowing fertilizer to them, they're thinking, oh, there's no end in sight.

I can just grow, grow, grow, grow, grow.

So I would hold off on some of the fertilizer but I would like to see a pH test.

'Cause I'd like to know what's going on in the soil.

- Yeah, and again this is an older hybrid tea rose.

- Yeah.

- We know again that roses are heavy feeders, but I'm just looking at that.

- There's a lot of fertilizer in there.

- Then you want to come with the magnesium sulphate, the Epsom salt.

So it's like - I would like to know a pH test, see what's going on.

And you know, they can test for the magnesium content too.

- And organic in the soil, too.

- Sometimes you might, I know one time that you'd might've changed the rose to another location.

That soil might've been done got overused so much 'cause it's been there for a while.

And the soil is not producing good You know, sometimes the soil gets over too much stuff in and it's not producing well.

So she might want to look at that too and try to move it, maybe move to another location somewhere and start all over.

Give it some new fresh soil around there.

That's what I would try if it's just one or two roses and doing that.

- Right, right, right.

But I'm with Joellen.

I definitely wanna know the pH.

I'd be curious to know.

- I'm curious, I'm curious to know what's going on in the root zone.

- Yeah.

- I would check the soil pH and everything we did have, we did recommend soil test.

- So thank you Charles.

We appreciate that question.

Hope we helped you out.

Alright, so Booker and Joellen that was fun.

- Enjoyed it.

- Good questions.

- 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.

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