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

Today, we're answering   questions about how drenches,   trees, weeds, and a lot   of other gardening things.

It's the Q and A show,   just ahead of 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.

Every week we receive many viewer questions and only have time to answer a few of them on the show.

This week we're going to spend the whole show catching up.

Let's start off with a couple   of questions about hydrangeas.

- "My limelight hydrangea   had huge blooms this year,   "and the heavy rain   in mid-August,   "the limbs all bent down and   have yet to come back up.

"I thought it should only   be cut back in late winter   "or early spring, but   the bush looks pitiful.

"I cut it back to around   three feet last spring,   "but it still grew   to about seven feet.

"Should I just cut   the blooms now,   and then limb in spring?"

Natheen, Cordova, Tennessee.

Interesting.

- Yeah.

- Yeah, well, the Limelights are very large, six to eight feet.

- Right, beautiful too.

- And so, if she wants it as a center place in that area, that's fine.

But when you get stems like that and they fallen over, I mean, you're not gonna get a bloom again this year.

Why don't you just stake them back up, use some stakes, and stake them back up so that they're out of the way and are more upright.

I mean, you could do that, but Chris, you can cut them if she wants to, but I would tend to want to stake them up, and see if I can't prop them up so they can look pretty for a little while longer.

- Okay.

- And then when you're cutting them, she says he does cut them every year, - Right, right.

- Which is good.

But I would leave them two, three feet tall because then next year when they start shooting up, those stems that high.

Again, the other stems that are there might help keep them upright.

- Also support.

- Yes support.

But then you know this happened this year.

Why don't you put some extra support in there to begin with?

And maybe that they won't flop clear over in the storms.

- And she's cutting back at the appropriate time, right?

- Right, she is cutting back at the appropriate time.

late winter, early spring.

- All right, so that is correct, okay.

[gentle country music]   "My hydrangeas developed   brown, dark spots all over.

Why did this happen?"

This is Salwa from Georgia.

Well, guess what Salwa, common fungal diseases, right?

Of hydrangeas include a couple but for that one, Cercospora leaf spot.

It is the number one fungal disease of hydrangeas, rainfall, and overhead watering actually intensifies this fungal disease, right?

And we're in that season now, okay.

You get the little tan spots, right, right outside of those tan spots, you have brown or purple boarders, and it looks bad aestatically, okay.

Here's a couple of things that you can do.

Number one is practice good sanitation.

So when those leaves do fall off, pick them up because they're still fungal spores on there.

- Right.

Right, so they can be carried by wind and splashing water, all right?

So that's number one, practice good sanitation.

Number two, we say this all the time, Mary.

Resistant varieties.

[Mary laughs] - Yeah.

- Look for those for varieties that are resistant to Cercospora leaf spot.

And then thirdly, you can use some fungicides.

There are some safe fungicides that you can use.

Copper-based fungicide   will actually work.

And then there's the old   standby, which is chlorohalonil   which is Daconil, that you   can use or myclobutanil,   is something else that   you can use as well.

But if you practice,   right, good sanitation, resistant varieties, you should be fine.

And then two, if your hydrangea's are up against the house, poor air circulation.

So it has to get real good air circulation because you want those leaves to dry off, right?

Because what's happening is those leaves are staying wet for a long period of time.

And then here comes the spores and they just land right there on a wet spot.

It's a Cercospora leaf spot.

- Yeah.

- Right.

It could do a lot of damage, but it just looks bad aesthetically.

[gentle country music]   "I have rooted cuttings   from 'knockout' roses.

"Should I plant them in the   fall or wait 'till spring?

"If I leave them potted, do   I need to bring them inside,   or leave them on my   porch or a storage shed?"

And this is Sheila from   Chapmanville, West Virginia.

So can we help her out with her rooted cuttings and these are "knockout" roses.

So, should she plant those in the fall, or would you wait 'til the spring?

- If they're rooted and they're starting, I'd put the pot in the ground.

I used to take my cuttings and do mostly in the spring.

- Okay.

- But then the heat, and the summer and the lack of rain gets you and it knocks down their survival rate, but fall is gonna be cooler and it let's the roots get established.

- All right.

- Now they'll freeze and that's gonna kill them.

But I would, once they're rooted, keep them in the shade.

But then when winter comes, either keep them from freezing or put them in the ground.

I start my cuttings, I just stick them in the ground to start with.

- So you have to keep them protected in the winter if you're gonna leave them outside?

- Yeah, because they'll freeze.

You can cover them up with dirt.

I dug up some roses, somebody had some construction site, had a shed or something, and I dug them up a nice root ball, put them in a corner, covered them with hardwood mulch, the next spring, when it was finished, I dug a hole and when I just pulled them up out of the ground, out of that mulch, there was white roots everywhere.

- Awesome.

- It was amazing.

- Okay.

- But I'd stick them in pots in the ground.

I mean, their winter's a little harsher than ours.

- Right, right and if you think about their plant zone in West Virginia, it's gonna be 6A, 6B.

So, the plants have to survive temperatures of -10 degrees.

- And cover them up with mulches.

- Right, right, that's why I cover them up.

- That's what I do.

- That's what you do, good luck.

[gentle country music] "I have planted over two dozen varieties of irises "through the years.

"Only the three or four most common varieties bloom.

"I've tried moving the others to different locations, "dug them up to ensure they were not planted too deep "and used Bloom Buster, "plenty of healthy leaves, but no blooms.

"How do I get   my iris to bloom?

Help, please!"

Michael, from   Chattanooga, Tennessee.

Interesting.

- Yes.

- So Michael tried to do everything that we talked about to do.

- Yeah, he has.

- So what else needs to be done, do you think?

- Well, I'm just wondering how much he's fertilizing.

Because according to the Iris Society's website, you're really only supposed to fertilize two times a year.

Once is in the early spring, before they start blooming.

And once is about a month after they finished blooming.

So if you have a bunch of different varieties that bloom slightly different times, you're gonna have to watch your timing on that after fertilizer application.

- I would agree with that, cause yeah, the Bloom Buster, yeah.

- How often is, if he's got gorgeous foliage, he could be just, it's getting too much nitrogen somehow and producing too much foliage rather than- - The blooms, - The blooms that you really, really want.

- Right.

- I hardly ever fertilize my iris, it's a state flower of Tennessee.

He's doing the right thing, but definitely avoid the high nitrogen fertilizers.

And I know he's bloom boosters usually doesn't have a whole lot of nitrogen in it, but if you're putting it down too much, it could be too much.

And you might wanna check the pH, pH needs to be 6.8.

So he might wanna check the pH for that too, and make sure he's getting six to eight hours of sun for full sun location for them.

- Okay.

- Because all of those things can affect it.

So hopefully one of those is a key to getting his iris to bloom again.

- And I agree with that, I think it might be too much, how much is he fertilizing?

'Cause yeah, Bloom Buster, it probably has more phosphorus than nitrogen in it, - Which is good.

- How often is he doing that.

- Yeah, they don't need that much fertilizer.

[gentle country music] - "My brother-in-law says he uses peroxide, "one cup to one gallon of water "to spray his tomatoes for blight.

"We started using copper per your recommendation, "but peroxide would be cheaper.

"What do you think?

Does copper fungicide   or peroxide work better?"

This is Geneva in   Brighton, Tennessee.

So what do you think copper   fungicide or peroxide?

I wouldn't use peroxide [laughs].

- I would not use peroxide, I mean I just, I know for one it's not labeled.

- It's not labeled, right.

- And you're eating these tomatoes and H2O2 is what peroxide is, so you know, I don't think I would do that.

I don't know that it has antifungal properties at all.

It might, but the fungicides that we recommend   for blight control in   tomatoes in Tennessee,   are chlororthalonil   or Mancozeb,   - Mancozeb.

- And you can kind of   mix those up, I mean, one at one at a time, but I probably would not use the same fungicide all the time.

- You would rotate it.

- I would rotate it around a little bit, yeah.

But for tomatoes, stick with the old - Chlororthalonil - Or Mancozeb and you'll be all right.

And you won't have to be worried about eating the fruit from it either.

'Cause you got to, to control blight, when you've got to spray when you got ripe fruit on there, on the plant.

[gentle country music] - "I'm altering the pH for blueberries.

"If I change the   soil pH in one area,   "how large an area does   that change affect?

Will it impact other plants   in a border garden situation?"

Create Stuff on YouTube.

It's an interesting   question, right?

- Yes.

- They're doing the right thing, right?

- Yeah they are.

- So they want to alter the pH for blueberries because we know blueberries need a pretty - Low - Acidic soil.

So what do you think about that?

- Well, she's right to be concerned, because when you apply, either the granules or the liquid to try to lower the pH in one area, it will stay mostly in the area, but it doesn't exactly stay exactly in the area.

But I mean, and if it's a smaller situation and other plants are around, their root systems go way out.

So the root systems might be affected by other plants that are nearby.

- Right, cause yeah, we don't know how close, the blueberries are to her garden situation, border garden situation.

- Yeah.

- But yeah, so yeah, in the immediate area, yes it would - Yeah.

- Change the pH, but yeah, If you have other plants nearby and they have extensive root systems, then there's a chance.

- Yeah.

- Right?

That they can pick up some of those nutrients as well and be effected by the change in pH, 'cause most of your plants, for the most part, a good pH between 6.0, 6.5 is good.

- Yeah.

- But yeah, we started talking about 5.2, 5.5 - Five-point-four.

- And four.

- Some of the things they just won't like that, and like I said, it depends on how far away, - Right.

- But mostly it does stay in just the area that you put the amendment.

- Right, it does.

- It doesn't go very far away from that.

- Right.

- If that's what she's concerned about.

so, and just like I said, it does depend on how far away the other plants are.

- I would agree with that, because again, if we're talking about altering or lowering the pH, we're talking about elemental sulfur and things like that.

So yeah, it just depends on- - How far away they are.

- Yeah, it just depends.

[gentle country music]   - "What are some of the   sweetest sweet corn?

Are there any   bi-color varieties?"

And this is Mark from   Bethel Springs, Tennessee.

- Sweetest sweet corn.

- Sweetest sweet corn.

- Oh, there's there's a lot - Oh, man.

- Of good variety out there and there are a lot of bi-color varieties out there.

Sweet corn has a rating, an su, an se or sh2.

- Okay.

- You know what those   mean?

Su is sugary,   - I know the sugary.

- se is sugar-enhanced.

- Okay.

- And the sh2 is supersweet.

- Okay.

- I used to think Peaches and   Cream was just one variety, and it may be Peaches and Cream may be a variety, but there are a lot of bi-color sweet corns out there.

Ambrosia is one,   - I know Ambrosia   - Serendipity.

- That's another one that   comes to my, Obsession.

- Okay.

- Yeah,   that's bi-color,   I'm familiar with.

- Multisweet is good one   - That's a good one.

- American Dream.

- I've heard of   American Dream.

- American Dream has   won some awards, yeah.

- I think the Multisweet and   American Dream are bi-color.

- Bi-color.

- Silver Queen   is not bi-color, [Chris laughs]   but it's probably   a parent of some of these hybrids, these are hybrids.

But yeah, you got a lot of different varieties out there.

- Okay, a lot of different varieties.

For the sweet corn, right?

- Sweetest sweet corn.

- Sweetest sweet corn out there and the super-sweet, there's a couple of varieties I have here on those.

The Vision MXR is just yellow, I think.

But they have one bi-color and it's called Honey and Pearl.

- Honey and Pearl.

- Yeah, so that's a super sweet bi-color.

So you might wanna check that out.

- Yeah, check that out, that sounds good.

Great names, right.

- You're gonna have to go to a lot of trouble to keep the raccoons out.

[Chris laughs] - I'm sure.

- Electric fences will do it.

- Okay, electric fences.

- Short, don't have to be tall.

[gentle country music]   - "Two years ago,   "I started having problems   with a flowerbed weed   "that I believe   is chamber bitter.

"I mulch every spring,   "but it seems to do little   to control this weed.

"At a very early age   the plant developed seeds   "beneath the leaves,   so pulling the plants   "actually helps to   spread the seeds.

"I started spraying,   but don't like to,   "even when spraying   and I use Amine 400,   "it will kill   the current crop,   "but the chamber bitter   will return in a month or so.

Any suggestions for controllin   this aggressive weed?"

Mike from   Gardendale, Alabama.

Chamber bitter is tough.

- Yeah.

- Do you know anything about chamber bitter?

- I have not experienced that.

- It looks like mimosa trees   so they call it little mimosa.

- Oh yeah, yeah.

- You've seen it around, right?

- Yeah, I've seen it.

- It's a broadleaf weed   Of course,   it's an annual weed   that you see pretty   much in the summer.

- Do you know, something?

Every time I've seen that,   I pull it out right away   while it's still young.

- You better, you better.

- And then if it   keeps coming up,   I just keep pulling it.

And eventually the carbohydrates are gone.

- Better.

- But if it's been left there, oh, that's can be a lot of problems.

And yes, I have seen areas that are completely covered in it, but I know he doesn't wanna spray, but that's what we'd use if it's a large mat of it, that's what I have done, is put some glyphosate on it, and it is taken it out.

But it's mostly young.

I mean, we're talking just a few inches tall.

- Right.

- I don't let it get big.

- No, you better not.

Because it will produce a lot of seeds, in those little branchlets.

And this is in his flower bed, right?

So the thing about that is, so let's go back to the cultural practices first.

- Yeah.

- Right.

So make sure you're fertilizing correctly, according to your soil test, watering appropriately.

- And mulching.

- Mulching is important.

I know he said he does it every spring, two to three-inch layer, because yeah, the seeds are gonna need sunlight to germinate.

- Right.

- So I will still continue with the mulching.

If it happens to come up in areas that are not heavily mulched, yeah, I will pull it up right then.

Right then and there.

You can use a pre-emerge, okay.

- Yes, you can.

- There is a pre-emerge.

Anything that contains isoxaben   so Gallery or Snapshot,   read and follow   the label on that.

Now, if you're thinking about a post-emerge, yeah, I would again, go with a wipe technique.

This is in a flower bed.

- It's in a flower bed, yeah, and I would, yeah, the wipe technique.

- The wipe technique   with the glyphosate,   or again, 2,4-D,   MCPP, Dicamba,   which are broadleaf   weed killers.

I would protect those   desirable plants.

- Yeah.

- And just be careful, right.

Because chamber bitter is tough, but you have to get those weeds when they're young and actively growing [laughs].

- Yeah, whenever I've seen those I just get them out really, right away.

So I have never experienced the seed pool because I don't let them get that large.

- Right, because they have a pretty extensive, deep tap root system.

But once they get started, and you don't get them, they will continue to grow.

- Yeah, the wipe technique with the glyphosate, with your gloves on, reading label directions, and just sponging it on the top of the leaves.

- It works, it definitely works.

- It works really well.

- And you can do that with the glyphosate and you can do that with your three-way herbicides.

- That's right.

- So I would consider that, again read and follow the label.

[gentle country music] "I bought a new Brown Turkey fig tree "and have put it in a pot.

It has some dead branches.

"Should I cut off the dead   branches of my Brown Turkey fig   "in the fall, or should   I wait until spring?

"Do I need to bring the   pot in during the winter,   or just wrap the pot   so it stays warmer?"

Collette from YouTube.

So several different questions there.

- Yeah.

- Right?

So what about pruning off the dead branches?

- Oh yes.

- It's anytime.

- Anytime you get dead branches, 'cause you don't want it to continue down in dying, whatever it is down into the plant.

So you wanna cut those off, right away.

- Right.

- And I know she's got it in a container, and she probably thought it needed water, but maybe it didn't.

And when you get dead branches like that, it reminds me of something might be too wet for the plant.

- Good point.

- But I don't know.

But yes, you can cut those at any time.

- Anytime, anytime.

Now should she bring the pot in during the winter or leave it outside and?

- Well, that's a good question [Chris laughs] because we don't know where she's from.

- Oh, right, right, right.

- But I tell you, figs are hurt and don't live in 10 degrees Fahrenheit.

- Right.

- So if she's in a colder part of the country, then I would bring it inside.

We even had that cold temperatures here this last winter, year.

- Yes we did.

- And if it's in a container, even if you wrapped it outside, and you know it's gonna get cold like that, then I would bring the whole thing into the garage or somewhere protected.

- I would definitely do that Joellen, that's for sure.

'Cause we know that fig trees in this area, that were outdoors where killed back.

- Yes.

- Right, killed back to the roots.

A lot of them did resprout and of course came back up.

But yeah, if I had it in a pot, knew we were gonna get cold temps.

- I would bring it in.

- I would bring it inside, Collette.

I would definitely do that.

But yeah, prune those dead branches off, anytime, anything that's dead, dying, diseased or crossing, you can do that anytime.

- Cut it anytime.

- Anytime, and bring it inside if it gets too cold.

- Yeah.

[gentle country music]   - "My walnut trees are   dropping their walnuts.

"What could be the problem?

"This started about   the middle of July.

"The ground is   covered with them.

"Is it too much rain   or too much heat?

"We have had no   drought in this area.

Thanks," Charles, from   Marshall County, Tennessee.

So that one's   interesting to me.

So its dropping its walnuts, but too much rain, could be too much heat, but they didn't have a drought in the area.

- I've got several walnut trees in my yard.

- Okay.

- And they drop walnuts every year.

It's my opinion that walnuts do a pretty good job of self-thinning.

And I walked out and looked at my, [Chris laughs] so I picked up some walnuts yesterday to see if I could see any disease, now I did see some that may have some disease on it, which would be a function of the, all the rain there, - Sure.

- Extra rain that we've had.

So maybe there's some disease there but- - You're talking about fungal diseases?

- Right, right fungal diseases.

But most of the walnuts I looked at looked fine, looked like there was no sign of insect damage or no disease.

So I think walnuts and I had, I grew up with a walnut tree in my backyard.

They fell, they started falling early when you're mowing the yard, you hit them, in the middle of the summer.

And so I think that they self-thin, I don't know whether this is a young walnut tree that may be just started bearing and Charles just started noticing it, But I mean, it's my opinion that this year is really no different from others that they do a good job of self-thinning and which we wish we could get pecans to do.

[laughs] - That would be nice, wouldn't it?

So I'm actually familiar with with a couple of walnut trees that are in my area, it's the same thing.

- Yeah.

- They already dropping their walnuts.

Right, so I just think that they're yeah, being self-pruned, if you will.

It's not a problem because they come back, pretty much every year.

- Right, right.

- It's not a huge issue.

So I wouldn't be too concerned, Charles.

- I wouldn't either.

I don't think it's really that much different every year with mine anyway.

- Just pick them up.

[gentle country music]   "We have beautiful mature   trees in our front lawn,   "some type of oak, I think.

"A couple of them have   a lot of small growth   "on the main trunk.

Should we have these   low branches trimmed?"

And this is Dorian from   Lakeland, Tennessee.

- Yes.

- So what is that growth?

- That's called epicormic growth.

- Ah, look at you [laughs].

- And if you'll notice the branches are very close together.

So if they keep growing and they're not going to develop the kind of anchorage that they're gonna need and are going to be like more likely to fail, - Right.

- Plus they are taking nutrients away from the tree.

So yes, I would have them pruned and get rid of them because you wanna keep the rest of the tree really really healthy and not let these lower branches that aren't gonna be good branches anyway, develop.

- Right, right, so if you can reach them, I would go ahead and put them out?

- If not.

- If not, - Call certified arborist and let him trim them, him or her, trim them.

- Right, I'd definitely do that.

Epicormic growth, water sprouts.

- Water sprouts, yeah.

[gentle country music]   - This is interesting.

"I have 2 30-plus year   old sugar maple trees.

"For the past two years   the top of one tree   "has no green   leaves and the rest   "of the tree is turning   fall colors, prematurely.

"The other tree is larger   and it looks normal.

"Your advice would be   greatly appreciated.

Thank you," Ms. Florence.

So we have a good pictures here.

- They are.

- Okay.

- This would take a little bit more of an investigation.

I would start at the base of the tree and I would be looking for number one, weed eater damage.

- Ah, okay.

- Number two, girdling roots.

You know, when the roots go   around the base of the tree,   that's real common   from maple trees.

I don't know the history of these.

So I don't know if they, at one point they were overmulched or undermulched, or it looks like there's a lot of grass under those trees.

- Okay.

- The second thing I would look for and maybe four things, the second, with it being a sugar maple, look for squirrel damage up in the canopy.

Squirrels love to chew on that   sugary bark, and that's sap.

And so look for squirrel   damage up in the canopy.

- Okay.

- 'Cause if they chew around   that bark off of there, then naturally it's gonna stop the sap flow going up the tree.

- I didn't think of that, okay.

- Yeah, and then lastly, which this is just an assumption, but it's just one of the things that affects maple trees and it's Verticillium wilt.

- All right so that's what I was going to say.

- Yeah, yeah.

- Yeah, so we know that definitely affects, a lot of your maple trees.

- Yes.

- I mean, that might be the case.

- It might be.

- Might be.

I think it's gonna be some of the other.

- Okay.

- I would start with the flair of the tree and looked for girdling roots.

And then from that point, well, hey, look at all of it.

- Look at all of it.

- Yeah.

To test it for, it may take a certified arborist to test it for the Verticillium wilt or send it to UT.

- Right, it definitely will.

- But if you happen to get a twig that the squirrel threw out of the tree or whatever, or broke out of the tree, just take a pocket knife and scrape it back into the xylem tissue to see if you see any streaking of the wood in there.

- Right, yeah that would definitely take a certified arborist to do that and just send to a lab.

- Lab is the best way to test for that.

You don't wanna misdiagnose something.

- That's right, that's exactly right.

- Is Verticillium wilt treatable?

That's a tough one.

I can't name off any successful cases of that.

- I don't think your maple tree is gonna survive- - No.

- Verticillium wilt, I don't think so.

Remember, we love   to hear from you   send us an email or letter.

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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.

To get more information on any of the questions we answered this week, go to familyplotgarden.com.

We have all these questions listed on the home page with links to tons more information.

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Thanks for watching and be sure to keep sending in the questions.

I'm Chris Cooper.

Be sure to join us next week for The Family Plot: Gardening of the Mid-South.

Be safe.

[upbeat country music] [acoustic guitar chords]