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

I'm Chris Cooper.

If you're thinking about starting a garden next spring, now is a good time to start preparing the soil.

Also, we're answering viewer questions.

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 Mr. D. - Howdy.

- Good to have you Mr. D. - It's a great day to be outside, man, it's beautiful.

- Nice day, wonderful day.

- Good fall day.

- Guess what we're gonna do today?

- We're gonna play in the dirt.

- We gonna have a good time.

- Yeah.

- You ready for it?

- I'm ready.

- Alright.

We also did our soil test!

- Right, we always talk about soil tests.

We did the right thing, we practiced what we preach.

- That's right, so what does it look like?

- Well, it looks pretty good, you know.

We did the soil tests this time, this time of the year's a good time to do the soil test even though this is not the time of the year to apply fertilizer.

However, it is the time of the year to apply lime.

Anytime is the time to apply lime if you need it.

So the main reason we went ahead and checked the soil here is to try to determine whether or not we needed to adjust the pH any.

Well the pH is 7.83 - (Chris) Oh yeah.

- (Mike) So it's very high.

- (Chris) That's pretty high.

- We definitely do not need any lime.

We have almost 5000 pound of calcium per acre out here, which is highly sufficient.

But we do know, now that've done the soil test, that next spring before we plant the garden we need to apply fifteen pounds of triple fifteen per thousand square feet.

Now we've measured this, and it is 25 feet long and 20 feet wide, so it just happens to be exactly 500 square feet.

- It's right on it.

- So we know that next spring we'll need to apply seven-and-a-half pounds of triple-15 over this area, for vegetables.

That's what we need.

I think what we're gonna do this year, the upper part to my right is fairly dry, and so we are going to go ahead and apply some soil amendments to that soil to open it up a little bit.

This is 50% cotton burr and 50% leaf litter, I understand.

We're gonna put about three inches, a three inch cover, and till it into the soil on the upper part.

The lower part is really too wet for us to do anything with.

It's gonna be a test, we're gonna put our soil amendments out here in the fall on half of this 500 square feet, this lower half, on the left, we're gonna leave it and let it just lay here all winter, and then we're going to apply the soil amendments here early next spring before we plant.

What we've done to this area already, about ten days ago we sprayed this area with glyphosate.

The grass didn't completely turn brown, it yellowed up a little bit, and the reason is glyphosate is a systemic herbicide, and it works best when plants are actively growing.

Well in the last couple of weeks we've had some cool nights and cool weather.

- (Chris) And a lot of rain.

- So the Bermuda grass is kinda shutting down a little bit.

It's still dead, the plant had taken up the glyphosate, and so it's still dead.

You don't have to wait until it's completely brown if you do apply it this time of the year.

Then we went in here and tilled it, yesterday, I think, is when we tilled it, and that's when we discovered that this is a little too wet to do anything to.

So that's what we've done so far.

So I think what we're ready to do now is start applying this cotton burr and leaf litter mix.

- Looks pretty good, huh?

- It looks really good, yeah.

Organic matter on this soil was 2.61%, so this will get it on up there.

If we can get to 5% or 6%, that would really, really be good.

But we did learn that our phosphorus levels and potassium levels are medium, which is good.

If we go with this triple-15 every year, we'll eventually have extremely high levels of phosphorus, so that's why we're gonna follow this soil test report for about three or four years, and then we're gonna re-test, and at that time, I predict the recommendation will change from triple-15 to 13-0-13 or 15-0-15.

I predict we will have built the levels of potassium up high enough that we won't need to add potassium.

And we do that for two or three years, that level will come down, and then we're gonna have to go with a balanced fertilizer again.

That's why it's very important to soil test.

Not every year, you don't have to do it every year.

This will last three or four years.

- (Chris) Three to four years is what they recommend.

- But then we need to redo it.

- We're gonna hold you to those predictions.

We're gonna see how good you are.

- Okay, write it down.

- Alright, alright.

- So, are we ready to do a little tilling?

- I'm ready.

- Let's do it.

- Let's do it.

- Okay, we're gonna dump this soil amendment out here, and spread it about three inches thick over this, but there's no need to take a shovel and sling this out, we're gonna just dump it.

I've got a rake, and we're gonna spread it, a nd we'll check it every few inches or few feet, and make sure it's about three inches thick.

Think that'll do it.

- Think that'll do it?

- Think it will.

- Alright.

- Well, we look like we've done a real good job.

We've got about a three inch cover of this soil amendment out here, and I'm about to crank up our machine here.

We got horsepower.

I'm gonna crank this thing up and see if I can mix this in a little bit with the soil.

[motor running] [motor dies down] - Why did you go in different directions?

- Better mixing.

- Better mixing?

- Mix it better.

- Alright.

- Ideally you'd go hit it again.

You want to mix it as good as you can.

And if you kept going in the same direction, you might have the same ridges and all that.

Why do you mow your yard in different directions?

- I want my grass to stand out.

- Yeah, and also your wheel pattern.

- Yeah, you're not gonna compact it and all that.

- So what do you think?

- It's pretty good, it's pretty good shape just like that.

But I'd probably give it one more time longways.

- Alright.

Looks good though.

- You noticed, I picked it up a little bit coming back.

- I noticed that.

- Kind of neaten it up a little, level it up a little bit, that's what I'm trying to do.

- Mr. D., we appreciate you doing that for us.

- Oh man, most welcome.

- We'll see what it looks like, we'll see if we see any difference next year in the crops.

- Yeah, I was just gonna say that, I can't wait to see what it looks like next year.

- Thanks a bunch, man.

- Alright man, take care.

[upbeat country music] - Now what about transpiration.

- It's kinda like perspiration, sorta [Lelia chuckles] For people, yeah.

But, let's see.

Transpiration is the movement of moisture through a plant originating probably from the roots, and then the moisture comes out all the way up through some cells in the le aves that are called stomata.

And, at that time it's water vapor.

Transpiration is the movement of moisture through the plant, and it's released as water vapor.

And you, fruit even transpires.

And, it's, you can put-- For example, you know how if you put some plant material or some cuttings in a plastic bag, and if you've got 'em out where the sun hits 'em, which makes transpiration work faster, because that triggers those cells to open, you know.

And so the vapor comes out, and you'll get all that condensate, you know, and that's the result of transpiration.

And that's a good way to illustrate it to kids, you know.

This is how water moves through the plant, and water vapor comes out.

- So, the plant's essentially trying to cool itself.

- Yeah, yep.

It's kinda like we kinda perspire, I guess, same thing, sorta.

[upbeat country music] - Alright Mr. D., we have a lot of viewer questions.

They're good questions.

- Yes they are.

- Are you ready for them?

- Let's do it.

- Alright, let's do it.

Here's our first viewer email.

"Should I do a separate soil test in different areas of my yard?"

And this is from Ms. Bethany in Jackson.

So different areas of my yard, she wants to do soil tests.

What do you think about that?

- It depends.

- It depends, that's what I thought.

- It depends on how big your yard is, if it's more than 10 acres, you do.

Because a soil test, if the soil conditions are the same, well, you can sample up to 10 acres over one sample.

If in your yard you know that your soil is pretty much the same all over your yard, and it probably is-- - It probably is, right.

- Then one sample is enough.

The thing that's important to do is make sure that you list on the form that goes in with your soil test everything that you're gonna grow in that yard, and you'll get detailed directions on how to treat the soil depending on what you're gonna grow.

If you're gonna have blueberries, blackberries, vegetables, turf grass, shrubs and ornamentals, just list everything that you will grow, and you'll get instructions on how to handle that.

But the only reason I can think of you needing more than one sample in the yard is if you did a lot of grading and in one area of your yard you did a lot of fill, you brought in a lot of topsoil and added it, then you might need to do another sample for that area.

But in 99% of the home lawns that I've been associated with, one sample is good enough.

And it'll last you three or four years, but after three or four years you need to do that again.

- And I would agree, I think the soils are probably gonna be the same.

- That's right.

- Right, okay.

So hope that helps you out, Ms. Bethany.

Alright, here's our next viewer email.

"We planted some late potatoes and just began "harvesting a few, and have found "that something is eating a lot of them.

Who are we feeding?"

And this is from Claire, Midtown Memphis.

So take a look at that, Mr. D. Who are they feeding?

- You know, that looks like voles, rodents.

- Voles are the first thing that came to my mind.

Yeah, that's what that looks like to me.

- (Chris) And underground.

- (Mike) A furry little critter in your potatoes, that's right.

I mean, that looks like tooth prints.

And I've not seen any kind of insect that will do that kind of damage.

I know there are wire worms, grub worms, things like that that will damage potatoes, but they don't do damage like that.

They're doing quite a bit, I mean, that's about as bad as I've ever seen.

- That is as bad as I've ever seen, yeah.

These are late potatoes, and of course they're in the ground, and your voles are gonna be hanging out.

- They just think they're mighty handy, I'm sure, if you're a vole.

- So they just had a nice little buffet, that's what it looks like to me.

- That's right.

- Alright, so Ms. Claire, looks like voles to us.

- It's voles with a V. - With a V, right, and obviously they eat pretty good.

- Right.

- Alright, here's our next viewer email.

"It's fall, and my fruit trees have started "to put out new leaves and are blooming.

"They also have this clear, sticky jelly on the limbs.

"What do I do about this?

Will this ruin my trees?"

And this is from Ms. Elizabeth in Marianna, Arkansas.

So, it's fall, fruit trees are leafing out.

But she has this clear, sticky jelly.

I think we know what that is, 'cause you've talked about this before.

- Yeah, yeah.

Anything that's leafing out and blooming now, in the fall of the year, is under a lot of stress.

And it's trying to survive, and it's kind of making a last ditch effort trying to survive.

I would bet that these are either peaches, plums, or nectarines, or something like that.

And they are probably infested with peach tree borerrs.

If that gum is coming from some of the smaller branches in the upper part of the tree, then it's the lesser peach tree borer.

The regular peach tree borer or greater peach tree borer bores into the stem and trunk and lower limbs and down near the soil sometimes.

The lesser, or the ones in the upper part of the plant, probably won't kill the tree.

But the ones down in the trunk can kill the tree.

And the fact that the plant is blooming and leafing out right now tells me that probably both of those borers are present.

And not a whole lot you can do about that right now.

I think you probably lost those trees.

Next year, if you will spray with an insecticide that has some residual activity, in July, that's when the adults are laying eggs, June and July two or three applications at a couple-of-week intervals, that might prevent that from happening.

But it's just a tough situation trying to grow peach, plums, and nectarines in a home lawn situation.

It's really hard to do.

- And what is that spray, do you know what that is?

- Actually, the last time I looked, Dursban was still on the market.

Commercial growers can still use Dursban, chlorpyrifos.

And for homeowners, I'm not real sure.

We probably need to check on that.

- I think it's Astro, which is permethrin.

- Okay, I don't know how much residual that's got.

- Yeah, I don't know how much is in, but I think that's for the homeowners.

- But again, that's not gonna help you right now because the borer is in that tree right now, and you're not gonna get any insecticide in there.

One time they were trying to develop a nematode that was a parasitic nematode that you could spray it around and inject it, try to get it into the tree, and it had shown a little bit of promise, but I've not heard anything about that lately.

- (Chris) I have not either.

- Don't know whether that panned out or not.

Afraid it didn't.

Anything that sounds too good to be true, usually is.

- It usually is.

Alright, so there you have it, Ms. Elizabeth.

Might not be too good for that tree.

Here's our next viewer email.

"What do I use to kill scale on my crape myrtle?"

And this is Ms. Anita from Cordova.

- You can handle that, can't you.

- Yeah, I think we talked about this a lot for those crapes.

Here's the deal, this time of year I wouldn't do anything.

I would wait until spring, and we're talking April, May, June, to treat with one of the systemic drenches, systemic insecticide.

Bayer, Bayer Advanced makes a product that you can use that contains imidacloprid.

There's another one, Safari, which is dinotefuran, which actually gets into the vascular tissue of the plant a lot quicker, it gives you the bell-shaped burst, but you got to re-apply.

With the imidacloprid, you have a longer-lasting residual.

But I would do that, again, spring because your plants, your trees are gonna be actively taking up nutrients and water.

- Is there any value in them putting a dormant oil on the crape myrtles during the wintertime?

- You can do that in the wintertime with the dormant oil because the thing about the crape myrtles are this, actually you can see 'em because the leaves are falling off, so you can see the structure real good, you can see the cracks and crevices, so you can actually get good coverage.

Is it 100%, no.

So you're still gonna have to follow up with one of the drenches.

And I know that from experience.

Right, so you're still gonna have to do that.

'Cause again, the oils they work, but they're not 100% - (Mike) Maybe help a little.

- Right.

So those are the products that you're gonna have to use, Ms. Anita, but I wouldn't use those until late spring, early summer.

Here's our next viewer email.

"Why or what is causing branches "on my pecan tree to fall off?

"This is only one of many branches that I've found on the ground that look like they have been cut."

And this is from Tom in Bartlett.

It's a good picture there, Mr. Tom.

We know what that is.

- We know definitely for sure what that is.

That's a pecan twig girdler.

Very, very common if you have pecans or oaks or hickories or anything like that, they're very common.

The adult emerges in late August through October, so that's why we're seeing all those limbs now under the tree.

The adult will start girdling on that twig, and most of 'em are pencil- sized, 3/8 inch in diameter, some of them are a little bit bigger, but most of them are about 3/8 inch in diameter.

And she will start laying eggs.

She'll lay eggs out toward the end of the twig.

Most of those twigs will have two to eight eggs in them.

Some of them have been found to have 40 eggs in them.

- (Chris) Oh, that's a lot.

- But she will girdle around that.

She won't cut it completely, and that's one way you can really tell it's a twig girdler that did it.

She will leave the very inside of that twig attached to the tree, and then when a wind storm comes, it will break it off.

The egg will hatch, and the larvae will feed on that branch just laying there on the ground.

It will feed there and then will pupate and emerge next year as an adult next August.

To control them, theoretically you oughta be able to pick up every one of those and destroy 'em.

Burn 'em, grind 'em up, or something like that.

Unfortunately, the adult is the longhorn wood borer, it's about 1/2 inch, 5/8 inches long and the antennae are longer than the body of the borer, they're pretty strong strong flyers, so they can cover territory.

And if you pick all of these up in your yard, you need to go out into the woods that's next to you and pick 'em up, you need to go to your neighbor's yard and get theirs too, and even if you do that, probably they're still gonna fly in there, they're gonna search out the pecan trees.

They really like 'em.

But we do not recommend spraying insecticide to control.

- And that's what I thought.

So just practice good sanitation, right?

- Good sanitation, get 'em up.

This is something you don't compost.

You don't pile 'em up in a brush pile for the rabbits to hide under because they'll hatch out, you'll get more and more and more.

I can tell you that I picked all mine up and I burn all mine, and I have 'em every year.

I don't think I have as many as I used to have though.

I really don't.

Maybe this year I don't have as many as I've had.

So maybe I'm beginning to do some good.

- There you go, but you pick them up, like you mentioned.

- I pick them up, but I don't go out in the woods back of the house and pick 'em up out there, and I have pecan trees out there and hickories and everything out there.

I'm never gonna do that.

- So there you have it, Mr. Tom, alright?

You have to practice good sanitation and pick those up.

Do like Mr. D. is doing, you'll be fine.

Here's our next viewer email. "

How do you prune grape vines?"

And this is from Richard, right here in Memphis.

So grape vines, what's the best way to prune 'em?

And when do you need to prune 'em?

- You need to prune 'em in late winter, near the end of your last frost.

We're talking about, so February 15th, March 15th, somewhere in that.

So it's well before your last frost, but late winter, after the hard freezes are gone.

And you never prune within 48 hours of when a hard freeze is forecast.

Just don't do that.

Put your pruning shears up.

But with grapes, grapes fruit on current season's growth that comes from one-year-old wood.

So if you keep that in mind, current season's growth out of one-year-old wood.

And I think all grapes do that, muscadine and bunch type.

So if you go to every long vine, long runner, or long cane whatever you wanna call 'em, and you go all the way back to where it came out of the mother plant, leave two, three, four, five buds, and cut it off, all that that you're leaving is what next year will be one-year-old wood.

now if you go all the way back and you cut it off, all of it, and you severely prune it, and you cut it all the way back to larger s tems, to two-year-old wood, then next year all the wood you're gonna have is current season's growth out of two and three or four-year-old wood.

How many grapes do you think you're gonna have?

- (Chris) Oh my goodness, none.

- You'll have none.

So current season's growth out of one-year-old wood.

You can prune it all the way back, and thin 'em out.

Don't leave every one of those stubbed two or three inches or two or three buds on it.

Give 'em six or eight inches between 'em, you know, open 'em up a little bit.

So some of them you take back all the way to older wood.

But the ones that you want to fruit, for the most part, go back and leave from two to four.

With muscadines, two or three buds is plenty.

Some of the bunch types you wanna leave five buds, it's easy to see, and cut it.

And you will be taking out ninety percent of the vine when you do that.

And you're still leaving a lot of this year's wood, which next year will be one-year-old wood.

- So don't fret, it'll come back.

Even though it looks like it's a lot.

- And even if you didn't have any grapes this year because you went back and pruned all of the new wood off, everything that's out there now will fruit next year.

The buds that come out of what grew this year will fruit next year, so there's hope for next year.

- There's hope for next year, alright.

Well there you have it, Mr. Richard, there's hope.

Here's our next viewer email.

"I have a pecan tree that the squirrels just love.

"Most of the time they chew on the pecans "and then drop the remainder to go to waste.

"However, over the last three years, "we've found perfectly shelled pecans "on the ground, no bite marks or anything.

"They look like they were sh elled by a mechanical sheller "I will find a couple a day.

"What is going on?

"If we didn't live where we do, I would get rid of them by Mr. D.'s method.

Thanks."

And this is from Jerry and Ms. Dorothy in Bartlett.

So if they didn't live where they live, Mr. D., they would use your method.

- There are silent ways.

[Chris laughs] There are powerful BB guns out there nowadays.

But I would think that squirrels are doing that.

I mean, have you ever been to a ballgame, sitting there at a ballgame eating peanuts, and you shell a peanut, it's a big ol' peanut, and then all of a sudden you drop one.

And you're just getting ready to pop it in your mouth.

Squirrels are the same way.

And I'll bet you the reason they don't see many of those is because most squirrels when they drop a perfectly good pecan, they will go down the tree on their way out and grab it and eat it.

But I bet you when they see one or two like that, they walked up under that tree, and they surprised Mr. Squirrel, and he got nervous, and as he was scooting away he dropped a pecan, and he's quiet.

Now, he's up there and he's hiding from you.

So that's probably what happened.

But BB guns and pellet guns have really, technology has improved them quite a lot.

You might wanna consider that.

I mean, you just wanna burn 'em, chase 'em away is all you wanna do.

- Would that still require the 12-year-old though?

- Twelve-year-old would help.

They have more patience and time on their hands.

- All right, so Mr. Jerry, Ms. Dorothy, you hear from Mr. D., right?

- Twelve-year-old with a BB gun or a pellet gun, in urban environments.

- In urban environments, that's right.

Mr. D., we're out of time.

It's always fun to have you here with us.

- And I enjoy, it's always a pleasure.

- Appreciate you, thank you much.

Remember, we love to hear from you.

Send us a email or letter.

The email address is familyplot@wkno.org and the mailing address is Family Plot, 7151 Cherry Farms Road, Cordova, Tennessee 38016.

Or you can go online to FamilyPlotGarden.com.

That's all we have time for today.

Thanks for joining us.

For more information of what we talked about today, go to FamilyPlotGarden.com.

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]