Making It Grow is brought to you in part by Certified South Carolina.

This cooperative effort among farmers, retailers and the South Carolina Department of Agriculture helps consumers identify foods and agricultural products that are grown, harvested or raised right here in the Palmetto State.

McLeod Farms in McBee, South Carolina, family owned and operated since 1916.

This family farm offers seasonal produce, including over 40 varieties of peaches.

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Additional funding provided by the South Carolina Farm Bureau Federation and Farm Bureau Insurance and Boone Hall Farms.

♪ ♪ ♪ Well, good evening, and welcome to Making It Grow.

We're so glad that you can join us tonight.

I'm Amanda McNulty, and I'm a horticulture agent with Clemson Extension, I get to come over here and be with my co-host, Terasa Lott.

And, we just have such wonderful people who come, Terasa, and help us.

We learn so much from them.

>> We do.

We are very fortunate to work for Clemson Extension and to have such talented individuals that bring their own unique wealth of knowledge and then share that with our viewers.

Amanda> And, and you are now the district director for the Midlands area.

And so you're, you're home base is in Sumter.

Aren't you lucky?

>> I am very lucky.

And we have a beautiful new space, new to us, thanks to support from the county.

Amanda> It's just beautiful.

It really, really is.

Well, Paul Thompson is the urban horticulture agent.

Chester, Lancaster, and York: That's got, that includes some pretty fast growing areas of the state.

Paul> It is a very fast growing area.

Yeah.

Amanda> Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And you moved up there from Charleston, I think, didn't you.

>> Well, we lived in Mount Pleasant.

Yeah.

But I covered Berkeley and Dorchester down there.

Amanda> Yeah.

How about that?

Okay.

Well, we're glad to have you with us.

I think you've been on the show for about 30 years now.

Paul> Something like that.

Terasa> Perhaps we can coax him back because Paul is retiring.

Amanda> I know, I know, I know, and he's got a precious new baby girl, daughter.

Granddaughter.

Yeah.

Her name is not, not -- >> Letty Quinn Shanahan.

Amanda> Yeah, that sounds like it's -- >> Perfectly Irish name.

(laughter) And the Quinn just.

It sounded good to 'em.

It, it has no, no family or anything.

Amanda> Oh.

That's funny, but she really is a cute little thing.

>> Yes, she is.

Amanda> Good, good, good, going to be smart as a whip and beautiful and all that kind of stuff, right?

Yeah.

All the things we think when we get new babies in our lives.

Phillip Carnley, you're the commercial horticulture agent in Calhoun and Orangeburg, and, I think in Calhoun, are they growing more vegetables than they used to be?

>> So vegetable production is picking up in Calhoun County.

We have several large farms that are incorporating different vegetables into their rotation with corn, cotton, soybeans and peanuts.

Amanda> Into the rotation?

>> Yes, ma'am.

So instead of having your traditional rotation, they've added another year rotation, which is quite good for disease and insect management.

Amanda> Oh, okay.

Do they have to get different equipment to harvest and plant and everything?

>> So the planting is usually the same so long as you're doing everything from seed.

But there are some specialized equipment as far as picking and harvesting goes.

Amanda> Gosh, do they, like, share among themselves or... >> So there are some that will custom harvest for other other farmers around, depending on the crop.

Amanda> Oh, okay.

Well, that's interesting.

Well, I'm learning about my home county.

Thank you so much for telling me.

And Jennifer Weaver, you're the urban horticulture agent in Aiken and Lexington.

Do you kind of try to run down to both places a couple of times a week, or how does it work?

>> Usually, I just try to go down for meetings and things like that, or some seminars they might have.

I try to support our folks down in Aiken, as well, but I'm mainly located in Lexington.

Amanda> Okay, and there's a, that's a big growing county.

Jennifer> It really is.

Our office, I think we have one of the highest, you know, walk ins and soil samples.

Amanda> Really?

Gosh.

Oh.

Jennifer> Always busy.

Which is good.

>> Are you dealing with a lot of people who don't know anything about trying to grow plants in South Carolina?

>> Well, a lot of people moved here.

We have had a lot of transplants.

I call them "from the North."

>> Yeah.

And they're just unsure of how to take care of our warm season lawns and things like that.

So hope we can help them, you know, just give them some good advice.

Amanda> I'm sure you do.

Well, thank you for coming.

>> Thank you for having me.

Amanda> For some advice today, we really do appreciate it.

And then, we're going to have a little later in the show for you, Davis Sanders.

Everybody loves him.

And Davis comes from South Pleasantburg Nursery.

He's going to talk about salvia.

And then, we go to one of our favorite places, McLeod farms, where the peaches are just, ah!

South Carolina peaches are just the best peaches in the world, I think.

Don't you think so?

And they have mighty good ones up there.

But I think, Terasa, you're go start us off with Gardens of the Week.

Terasa> It would be my pleasure.

Gardens of the Week is the time that we showcase what you're doing in your yard, your garden.

Or maybe you've captured a beautiful place in our state of South Carolina.

We begin today with Lisa Griffin, who shared a picturesque view.

She said there's lots to look at, but she particularly enjoys the water lily and her water feature that plays off the hydrangea in her perennial garden.

From Drew Hines, let's see if I can let this roll off the tongue, gourds galore in Greer.

(laughter) A lot of alliteration going on there.

From Trudy Black, a view of her flower garden from her back deck.

And I can see she has a Certified Carolina yard because there's a flag displayed on her metal trellis, so we appreciate her commitment to environmentally friendly landscaping.

From Michelle Bailey, a bright and cheerful yellow sunflower.

And last but not least, Teresa Thompson shared a the very deep blue flowers in her patch of salvia.

Thanks to everyone who shared their photos.

It is so fun for me to see, and I know you at home enjoy that as well.

Don't be shy when we make our call for Gardens of the Week, just post your photos in the comments and you might see them on air.

Amanda> And you know that blue salvia that grows pretty quickly, and mine's been part shade, but hummingbirds just love it.

You know, I mean, you know, I mean, it was a surprise because, you know, we think of them wanting to go to red flowers and things like that.

But I guess it's just shaped just perfect for them.

Terasa> That tubular flower makes it easy for them to access and, and, and just so beautiful.

We don't see a lot of truly blue flowers.

Amanda> That one is, I would say that's blue.

Don't you think?

Okay.

Well, Terasa, can we help some people?

>> I am quite sure we can.

Let's try helping Jenny in Lancaster.

She shared a photograph and said, what are these spots on this shrub?

Some of the worst affected leaves are falling off.

Yikes.

Amanda> An overused plant, perhaps?

Paul?

Paul> Well, it's an Indian Hawthorn.

And they were very, very popular, popularly used, for many years.

Amanda> Ubiquitous, I mean, everywhere.

Paul> And if you think back, some of you might be too young, I don't know, think back to our glorified red tip photinia.

Amanda> Yeah.

So this is a different species of the same fungus that basically took out the red tip.

And the reason why I took out the red tip was because people were planting red tips where they were trying to maintain them, you know, a much smaller size and what they would grow to be 30ft tall.

So they were constantly creating new leaves.

Amanda> Oh, and the new growth... >> New growth is what susceptible to this leaf spot disease.

So, with the Indian Hawthorn, it's, it's, it's probably not lethal with them because the get defoliated once during the growing season instead of multiple times because people don't prune them like they did the red tips, but, you know, the best thing is to see if you can wean yourself off of this plant.

I know I wouldn't own a plant that I would have to go out there and make about 3 or 4 fungicide applications every single spring to keep that from happening, and there's plenty of, especially nowadays, everything has gotten, the nursery industry is moving towards smaller plants.

You know, dwarf, dwarf things are really popular now.

And there's just a lot of selections out there of different plants that aren't going to be susceptible to that disease.

Amanda> Okay.

>> I mentioned that Viburnum before, but, you know, there's Abelias of all types now, there's, there's just a lot of plants that aren't going to have those kind of problems.

Amanda> And it might be prettier, I mean, even if Indian Hawthorn was at its healthiest, some of the others might have features that make them more fun.

Paul> If they're interested in, you know, they want to keep their Indian Hawthorns, then it's a matter of selecting the right fungicide.

And off the top of my head, I can't remember those things anymore.

There's so many new ones.

Amanda> Yeah.

But really, you just need to get it through about that first month and a half until the leaves have matured.

So it's not that you have to keep it up all season long.

Amanda> Well, okay.

But still.

>> And cleaning up the litter in the wintertime can, raking out the dead leaves.

Amanda> Yeah.

And if you just had maybe 1 or 2 in the yard, but in so many places there were huge hedges of them all around and they plant them so close together.

And I guess being that close together, is that going to be a problem too?

>> Yes, because the spores will splash or, yeah, move from plant, to leaf to leaf and, yeah, that type of thing.

Amanda> Oh.

Well, I doubt if they're as popular to plant as they were back when you all were still in kindergarten.

(laughs) All righty.

>> I don't see them going in as much, but I do see remnants of them, for sure.

They were very popular in gas stations, too, in landscaping.

Paul> Yeah, a very extensively used commercial landscape plant because they didn't need a lot of pruning.

Landscapers liked them for that reason because they have that nice tight growth habit.

Amanda> Yeah.

Paul> You know, and they seem very durable in those kind of heat islands and stuff like that, but that disease is just... Amanda> It's out there.

>> Yeah.

Okay.

Well, Terasa?

Terasa> Well, this is also a problem but a different plant.

Bonnie from Florence reached out and shared a photo said "What is going on with my snap beans?

"The leafs kind of look pale overall and have large yellow splotches."

Amanda> Well, that doesn't sound very promising.

(laughter) Phillip?

Is this, is this the end of snap beans, or?

Phillip> So, it's not the end of the snap beans.

What we see here is a compound problem.

So, large yellow splotches do look like a chemical injury of some sort, whether it be herbicide or fertilizer burn.

>> Oh!

But there is also a nutrient deficiency of either nitrogen or magnesium, and you can see that with the interveinal chlorosis or yellowing in, in between the veins of the leaves on the plants.

Amanda> Oh.

In between.

Okay.

Phillip> And, and it's very pronounced when you have that dark green central vein, which we can see in some of these pictures or the picture, but it should grow out.

Now, we are a little hot for snap beans right now in South Carolina so that they may not be the happiest, so you may be seeing some environmental stressors as well right now.

Amanda> Do people usually plant snap beans twice in the, in the summer growing season?

>> So we can get two plantings in South Carolina.

We can get an early spring planting, from about the second week of March, through May.

Amanda> Yes?

And then you can plant a second time for a summer application or harvest, no later than May 1st, Amanda> Goodness!

>> A lot of people think that's a little bit late.

A lot of growers or producers won't wait to plant that late, and if you miss that May 1st window, then you wait until the fall to plant another crop of snap beans.

Amanda> Oh, so you could plant them in the fall?

Phillip> Yes, ma'am.

>> When would you do that?

Phillip> Usually around that September time frame.

Amanda> Oh, and they'll have time to make?

>> They will have time to make.

They're a fairly quick crop.

Amanda> Okay.

So, in the heat of the summer, they just won't set fruit?

>> We have difficulty setting fruit.

Plant mortality is higher in the summer, due to the heat.

Pollen sterilization is an issue.

Amanda> Oh, yeah, because it's so hot at night, yeah.

>> And they will drop bloom, or drop their blooms in the heat.

So your yield is considerably less, and it's a lot less productive or cost effective to grow them in the summer.

Amanda> Do, do we have a lot of people who grow them commercially?

Phillip> We have probably about 500 acres, give or take in my area alone, which would be the Midlands, right smack dab in the middle of the state, that are contract grown.

So we are, the growers will grow for a company.

The company will follow the harvest from one part of the country to the next, and when we get to our harvest window, their harvesting crew will come through.

So our growers only have to grow, to grow the crop, but not harvest it.

Amanda> So are they growing it for fresh market, or for...?

Phillip> Most of it is for canning, canned green beans or snap beans.

There are some fresh market growers that are smaller sized, and that acreage is considerably less, but there are plenty of small backyard growers that grow for, for the fresh market.

Amanda> Okay, okay.

Well, I love snap beans.

I just think they're wonderful.

Terasa> And, you know, it really doesn't take a large space to get very much, so we grow.

I grew up enjoying green and yellow snap beans.

And we would can them every year, pressure can them.

So I don't grow on that larger scale.

I just have one raised bed planter.

I can't think of the dimensions off of off the top of my head, but we just harvested harvested about 2 pounds of beans before I went on vacation the last week in May.

And then we came back.

I had about 4 pounds.

Amanda> Gracious!

So they're they're pretty productive, so I'd encourage people to try it if they haven't.

Phillip> And there's some really awesome research going on right now with snap beans at the Charleston Research Station.

Dr. Sandra Branham.

Amanda> Yeah!

Yeah!

She's our plant breeder for beans.

And she's working on heat tolerance in snap beans.

Amanda> Whoa.

>> So she's got some very promising work coming out, and hopefully we'll see the fruits of that labor in the years to come.

Amanda> As it's, you know, as it's getting warmer, I think they are really trying to make sure that our commercial farmers and even home gardeners have things that they can count on.

>> The heat tolerance is a, is a big concern, and most of our commercial crops, especially our bean crops, and luckily, Clemson is addressing that with our breeders, and plant technicians and growing, trying for, for that heat tolerance, especially in butter beans and in snap beans.

Amanda> I was going to ask you about butter beans because I just live for butter beans.

Phillip> Oh, me too.

Amanda> Yeah, they really are wonderful.

I guess the only thing we don't have to worry about is, I think, I don't think okra has problems with heat.

Phillip> Oh, no, it loves the heat.

Amanda> It loves the heat.

(laughs) Okay.

Terasa?

Terasa> Let's see what else we have.

From Lexington, we've got, Ron says, "I need some tree work done in my yard.

Who should I call?"

That's a great question.

Amanda> It is.

Yeah, I just, we have a Celtis laevigata.

What is...?

(crosstalk) Phillip> Sugarberry.

>> Sugarberry.

Yeah.

And the huge loom fell off in my garden the other day, so I'm gonna have to deal with that.

But it's off, so.

But, but if I wanted to, maybe if I'd had constructive work done earlier, maybe it wouldn't have fallen off.

Jennifer> Right.

You want to, you know, train your trees to have good structure as they're younger so that you won't, you know, have those problems when they're older.

But if you do need to hire an arborist, you should try to hire a certified arborist with the International Society of Arboriculture.

They have to pass a test with 12 different domains.

Amanda> So, somebody could advertise as being an arborist.

But you're saying there's a specific category of people who've had certain training?

Jennifer> That's right, certified arborist.

That's what you want to look for if you can, and you should ask them for credentials, and.

Amanda> So what are some of the areas that they've been trained in?

>> Oh, a lot of tree biology, proper tree care.

There are methods, you know, that are approved and all certified arborists follow those same tree methods.

Amanda> Okay.

And you should ask for their credentials.

And, usually they display those.

They have to carry around their little certificate, their membership card.

Amanda> Okay.

You should also ask for references, people that you can call, work that they have had, you know, done in the past.

You can call them for references.

You should get a work proposal that states when they're going to do the work, how they're going to do the work.

Amanda> Okay.

And methods of payments.

Amanda> Okay.

And also want to make sure they're licensed in bonded in case there's an accident or something like that.

Amanda> Oh.

Something fell on the house or your neighbor's house.

Yeah.

Jennifer> And if they're sure, they usually talk about that freely with you.

So that's usually not too concerned.

Amanda> Are you an arborist?

Jennifer> I am, I am a certified arborist.

I've had my license for about 25 years.

Amanda> How did you get interested in doing that?

>> Well, I worked for the University of South Carolina previously, which is interesting.

I graduated from Clemson and then ended up working at USC, but it was a great job.

And I helped out with the tree care while I worked at University of South Carolina.

Amanda> They have some beautiful trees on campus.

Jennifer> They do, they do.

Amanda> Don't they?

Yeah.

It's a beautiful campus.

Amanda> Yeah.

The trees really add a lot to downtown Columbia too.

Jennifer> I agree.

Yeah, yeah.

Well, thanks for sharing that with us.

Jennifer> Thank you.

>> I appreciate it.

Paul> You might want to mention, you can go to a website.

TreesAreGood.org, Amanda> Yeah?

which is kind of a consumer information side of the International Society of Arboriculture.

Amanda> Oh, Okay.

Paul> And there's a link right up the top that says find a certified arborist.

And you can actually extend the mileage away from you and your location and things like that.

Amanda> All right.

>> I usually search by zip code versus a town name.

Amanda> Okay.

Trees are good.

Paul> TreesAreGood.org.

Amanda> I can remember that.

Yeah.

And trees ARE good.

You know, since we don't have central heat or air, I mean, if we didn't have those big trees, you know, around our house cooling things down, I don't know what we would do, Terasa.

(laughs) Terasa> That's right, that's right.

It is a fantastic resource.

It makes it easy to find someone who has that credential.

And it's quite rigorous because there's also continuing education involved, so it's not.

Jennifer> That's right.

>> You know, you know, that that person has has become certified and then maintained that certification.

Paul> Right.

Jennifer> Every three years.

Every three years you have to get 30 credits.

So you're always learning new and keeping up with the current recommendations.

Amanda> Whoa!

That's a lot.

Wow.

Goodness gracious.

>> And that's really, you know, you have a lot of people that do tree work or do good tree work.

They do good tree removal as long as they're bonded and insured and you're, you know, cutting down a dead tree or, you know, a tree's been heavily damaged in a storm or even blown over.

Those guys are great for that as long as they're bonded and insured.

But if you want pruning work done, an arborist, really, they're, you know, they try to keep the trees alive.

That's their goal.

That's what they are trained to do, versus somebody that's just going to, you know, remove a tree.

But, you know, if somebody tells you you need to remove a tree, then I would contact a certified arborist for a second opinion.

Amanda> And, we have, in the middle of our property, there are probably 40 pine trees that somebody planted a long time ago.

And every now and then, one gets hit by lightning, and then it does.

And I'm not going to take the whole tree down this time.

I'm just going to take part of it down because so many birds are cavity nesters and a dead pine tree is pretty easy to peck a hole into.

And, and I just feel like, you know, I can certainly not worry about damage to anything nearby if I leave a certain amount of it up.

Don't you think, Terasa?

Terasa> Yeah.

So you're removing the part that could potentially be the hazard and then leaving that component.

It's a great idea if people are able to do that and able to tolerate having that dead portion left in their yard.

Amanda> Well, and I just think, you know, we've lost, what, 3 billion birds in the last 50 years in North America.

And, I think we all ought to do anything we can to try to.

Jennifer> It's a good idea to leave those snags to provide, you know, shelter for them too.

Yes.

Paul> I had, when my parents lived in Aiken, and I was in high school, we had a, we had a pine.

The top got blown out during a storm, and it was a, you know, just a dead stump, 20ft tall.

And, we had a, we had a clan of flying squirrels that took up residence in a hollow.

And you could go out there with a stick and tap on the trunk.

Amanda> Yeah?

And they'd all fly out one at a time.

Amanda> Come on!

Yeah, they just, (laughter) so that was fun to show the kids and stuff.

Amanda> Of course.

Yeah.

Paul> But they were there for several years.

>> Yeah.

Until I guess we aggravated them too much.

So, I just think, yeah, you know, we, I think we now know that, you know, maybe we shouldn't be quite some neat and tidy in our yard.

And we have to, you know, share with all the other animals.

Yeah.

Okay.

Well, that was good.

Thank you.

Well, Davis Sanders is such a treat when he comes down here from South Pleasantburg Nursery, up in Greenville.

And he brings fun things.

And he came and talked a lot about some of these new salvias that are out there.

I'm with Davis Sanders, who comes down from South Pleasantburg Nursery in Greenville.

He brings all kinds of fun plants.

And I think these are things that we could really have color in our gardens this summer with.

>> These are a lot of fun, too.

They're, they're all long blooming annuals or even perennials.

They're all of the same genus.

These are all salvias or sages.

>> Yes.

The ones that the people that most people are most familiar with are going to be the culinary sage that brings, evokes memories of Thanksgivings past and cornbread dressing and, just that wonderful fragrance.

beside that are some of the, the annual salvias that are, grown as bedding plants.

They, they make excellent border plants.

The thing about all of the salvias, the flowering salvias is the fact that they set a lot of nectar.

So they're, they're excellent hummingbird and butterfly attractors.

>> What fun.

Yeah, they're great little plants.

They don't need a whole lot of water.

They'll thrive in full sun or just a little bit of shade.

Amanda> Okay, and long blooming.

Davis> Very long blooming.

All of these will bloom all summer long.

The, the, the one just in front of you, Amanda, there is a, is Salvia farinacea.

That's the the mealycup sage.

That's the Victoria cultivar, which is by far the most common one.

But those have been further refined to produce either more compact foliage, more compact or larger flowers, and just, just a nicer form.

That one is one called Misty, the purple one.

And the white one is simply white mealycup sage.

But, but both of them are equally beautiful and equally attractive to insects.

Amanda> So it really would kind of depend on, if you had a big space, you might want one that's taller, but if you were using containers, these might suit you better.

Davis> Exactly.

Amanda> Okay.

Davis> And the one thing about those is, although they're usually offered as annuals, they're, they're, they're pretty dependable perennials.

So, we tell people to take it home, plant it, give it a lot of love, and if it comes back next year, rejoice.

Amanda> There you go.

Davis> Moving into some of the, some of the newer hybrids.

We've got a couple, a couple here.

This one is is part of the Unplugged series.

This one is Unplugged rose.

And this one is purple cultivar of basically the same plant.

Now, these are definitely tender perennials.

Probably, probably in the Pee Dee and even in the Midlands, these are probably going to be pretty dependable perennials, but, in the, in the Upstate, we treat them as annuals.

>> All right.

And moving on from there, we have the Jewel series.

And these are extremely floriferous, tiny little salvia that just have beautiful flowers.

Unfortunately, I didn't have any of the red ones to bring with me.

I did bring the white and the pink.

the flowers are a lot more delicate, a lot more further spaced out on the, on the stems.

Amanda> It's very showy, though.

Very showy, I think.

Davis> It's an excellent filler for a container because it's just it's going to be very open and, but still have a lot of foliage and a lot of flowers.

This one, while not a perennial, being a true annual, will occasionally reseed, so if you have it in a pot, don't be surprised if next year you see some of them springing up from the ground around it.

>> But if not, you can always go to the nursery and buy more.

Davis> This is true.

Amanda> I love this one.

It has a very different aspect to it, doesn't it?

>> Right.

It really does.

And the, the volunteers, if they do, if it does reseed, the volunteers usually don't start blooming until July or even August.

So it's a, it's a very late bloomer.

But usually when you find it in a nursery setting, they're already in bloom and they will continue to bloom as long as you trim them back a little bit, deadhead them periodically, you'll you'll have color all summer.

>> Gosh!

Now, this is one of the most popular of the hybrid salvias.

This one is called black and blue.

Can you guess why?

>> Well, because this, the unopened buds are really almost like ebony.

Davis> Uh-huh.

And then the, the flower itself, comes out into a really nice deep purple, which actually horticulturally speaking, that's a blue color.

But, this one is extremely popular.

It also gets extremely large.

This one can get up 5 or 6ft.

So this is one for the back of the border.

Amanda> Whoa, golly Pete!

What a stunning thing to have there.

Davis> And, and last but not least, we have a very large group of, of salvias that are known as the autumn sages.

>> Oh!

These are the greggii salvias.

>> Yes?

And, originally, you could get these in pink or red, but in the past few years, they've developed salmon, they've developed purple, they've developed a blue one that's closer in color to this one.

There's hot pink.

There's one called Hot Lips that is white and red by color.

There's radio red that really broadcasts its color out.

It's just a wonderful group of the salvias.

And, this is also another great one for a filler in a bed, because these are going to get up, you know, three feet tall, and they can spread 4 or 5ft if you, if you don't trim them back.

But most people deadhead them and trim them back a little bit to keep them more compact and keep them flowering longer.

>> Wow, what an incredible group of plants the salvias are.

And, I think a lot of people would love to incorporate them into their containers or just their beds.

Thank you so much for telling us about them.

Davis, Oh, you're welcome.

Thanks for having me.

Davis brings really cool plants.

It's a treat when he comes, isn't it, Terasa?

Terasa> Oh, it is.

And he's just such an easy person to talk to.

Amanda> Really nice fella.

Yeah.

Anyway, and salvias are fun things to have in your garden.

So, in Calhoun County, we had, and I think you'll agree with me, it had been like a month since we'd had any rain.

Phillip> It had been awfully dry.

Amanda> It was just terrible.

And, anyway, so, it finally poured down rain, and I had this dead tree limb, and I couldn't get out in the garden.

So when Lil and I went to the grocery store, I just got something at the grocery store for a hat.

But, but that's okay, you know, because somebody is growing them somewhere.

I'm supporting the floriculture industry, right?

Terasa> That is right.

Yeah, yeah.

So I got some peonies and some phlox and it did make a pretty, a nice, pretty hat, I think.

So, anyway... Well, Terasa?

>> I think Paul has brought some show and tell for us.

Amanda> Okay.

What you got there, Paul?

>> Well, you can see this is a, well, this happens to be a plum tree.

But this is a fungal disease that'll get on many of your plum varieties.

and it's called black knot.

And so, this black area right here is where it had erupted through the bark, and it's sporulating, and so the spores will just get -- Amanda> Blown away?

Paul> Moved around, and the infection will just go from twig to twig, branch to branch, and, pretty much will kill your tree eventually or make it totally unuseful for production.

And this is actually from one of our plum trees at the Chester Garden.

Amanda> Wow.

And it happened to be a variety called Bruce, which is one of the Japanese plums, which is a really good plum.

And it was our favorite plum in the garden.

But there are some resistant varieties or ones that have a little more resistance.

One of them is one called Santa Rosa, which is, there's a Santa Rosa plum growing right next to this, and it has no black knot.

But I don't think the plums are any good, just not as tasty.

They seem to either be not ripe or too ripe and just no where in between.

But anyway, you know, the common treatment for this disease is catch it early.

You know, when you first see it appear on your plant, if you can prune it out, and, and get rid of it.

The problem is it doesn't show up right away because this branch, this is all looked all nice, fine and healthy a couple of months ago.

Amanda> Goodness.

Paul> And it was already infected, and it erupted through the bark.

Amanda> Oh, I see.

Paul> There are fungicides you got to spray at a certain time in the spring for a period of time, when it's doing the sporulation and stuff.

But it really will wreak havoc on a plum tree.

and, you know, it's just hard to keep up with trying to prune it out.

Amanda> Sean and I were visiting shooting the other day, and they had a plum tree, and the plums were delicious, but they all had a little hole in them.

So isn't there an insect that always gets in the plum tree and the plums?

Phillip> Plum curculio.

Amanda> Tell us all about that.

Phillip> Well, it's a, it's a weevil.

Amanda> A weevil!

>> Yep, an actual weevil, much like, a boll weevil.

They look very similar.

And there's several different species of weevil.

But plum curculio it does feed -- Amanda> Curculio.

>> Yeah.

(stammers) Curculio.

Thank you.

That is correct.

It's a weird spelling.

And you always hear I mispronounce it, my growers mispronounce it, but you have to treat continuously for it, because it is very hard to kill.

Once the larvae is in the fruit, most insecticides won't get, are not translocated in through the fruit, so you can't kill the larva.

So you're focusing on trying to stop mating.

Amanda> Oh, before they even get there and make an egg.

>> Correct, and, and it pupates in the ground once it's finished it's life cycle or feeding in the fruit and it crawls back down the tree and pupates in the ground.

And once it's in its pupal case, very few, if any, insecticides are effective then, as well.

Amanda> Well, like I said, the ones that seem pretty good, I just ate around that spot and they seem perfectly fine to me.

Terasa> You didn't find any, any immature larvae in there?

Amanda> You know, I mean, I didn't, you know, I mean, I knew what was going, I knew there was something that was in there.

And I just said, well, it seems silly because the rest, you know, they were nice sized plums and they were delicious.

Paul> Don't they actually go after the pit?

Phillip> They will go after the pit.

And there is another curculio called cowpea curculio or curculio that attacks southern peas, field peas or cowpeas, and we are starting to see that one become more of an issue in pea production in South Carolina.

Amanda> Gosh, and, you know, that's supposed to be easy, Southern peas are, supposedly.

Paul> You do see, sometimes, people painting their peach trunks white, because the adult is kind of, they don't like to fly.

And so they often climb up the trunk just like the one that gets on pecans.

Amanda> Yeah?

>> And, so you'll see that whitewashing of the trunk to kind of just hide the... Phillip> It definitely makes it more difficult for the adult insect, and usually, they'll -- Amanda> Oh, you mean it can't -- Paul> It's a color thing.

Yeah.

Amanda> It can't tell if it's a tree trunk.

Paul> They don't see the dark trunk, or something.

Amanda> Well, that is pretty cool.

Phillip> And they'll also add an insecticide.

usually usually Carbaryl or Sevin, which most of us know, Sevin is not the same as it once was.

Now it has a different active ingredient.

So, be mindful of that as well.

Amanda> Goodness!

That's amazing we ever get anything out of the yard, isn't it?

(laughter) Terasa> It is.

Amanda> Okay, Terasa.

What's next?

Terasa> Oh, goodness.

How about we try to help Kay in Lexington who said What is wrong with my palmetto tree?

Amanda> Whew, well, I've got a good many of them, and I've changed my habits on these.

I leave all the old fronds because I found out that's a very important space for I think it's our yellowtailed bat.

but anyway, I'm just throwing that in.

Jennifer> Also those older leaves, even though they have some brown on, they're still providing nutrients for the tree.

Okay, well, what do you think's going on with this person's tree?

>> Well, the first thing I noticed were some of the holes in the tree.

And I was trying to come up with a reason for that.

Could have been a climber, that maybe was climbing up to do some pruning.

Amanda> Oh, my goodness!

Jennifer> And just a word of advice: You should never use climbing spikes on a live tree unless it's for a takedown.

And also there are some sap suckers and woodpeckers now that are looking for insects underneath.

It's called cortex, doesn't have a true bark.

And I also noticed some erosion of the cortex.

And that is normal on older barks, that some of the cortex just flaking off.

Some people think there's something wrong with the tree, but that's actually a normal occurrence in older palm trees.

Amanda> Okay.

And it doesn't affect the strength or the nutrient uptake ability of the palm.

So just know that it's a common thing, but it just appears unsightly.

That makes people worry that something's wrong with their trees.

Amanda> Okay.

well, like I said, I'm just letting mine do their thing now, and, it happened, Terasa, it was one night back when we had some huge thunderstorm, and the wind was just whipping along, and, like I said, I don't have anybody to come and cut the old fronds off mine.

And I thought, you know, if I were out there, I would climb under one of those things, because this would just be such a wonderful, protected site.

Terasa> And, I think, if I remember correctly, our friend Laura Lee Rose, who's now retired, she would talk about how the old fronds, you know, while they're still green, they're like a nursery and still providing nutrients for the tree.

And so you really shouldn't remove them until they're completely gone.

Amanda> Well, I don't think you should remove them at all.

Terasa> There you go.

Leave it.

(crosstalk) Nobody does it in nature.

Amanda> don't need to.

Yeah.

It's not gonna hurt the tree.

And it means that's a place where certain things can go.

As I said, some of these bats apparently nest there, so.

Paul> Well, nature doesn't care about the smoky brown cockroach.

(laughter) They love to live under those palm fronds down in the Lowcountry.

Terasa> As long as they don't get in the house.

Right?

Amanda> Anyway... All righty.

Well, we're now going to go to McLeod Farms, where they, of course, grow peaches.

And they are an underwriter of ours.

Amanda> I'm in McBee, South Carolina speaking with Spencer McLeod, and Spencer, I don't think anybody would take a blood donation from you because I think y'all probably bleed peach juice.

Don't you?

>> That's right!

That's right!

Amanda> Because it's been how many generations now?

Spencer> So, I am fifth generation, my great great granddad, Hector McLeod started our farm in 1916.

Amanda> Whoa, and things have changed dramatically since then, I mean, diseases and things.

And they're all kinds of new ways of doing things, and people think, Oh, the peaches are ripe, and they just go pick peaches, But - it's there's so much work that goes on, and it starts.

I mean, I guess you wake up on New Year's Day, and maybe you get to take that day off.

Right after that, you're out here.

Spencer> Yes.

Right now it is our busy time, but we've been working on this crop since January.

So January, we start pruning, and we prune from January through March.

And then after pruning, we have thinning and that happens around April or May and then we start our harvest.

Amanda> And these trees are grafted onto a special rootstock.

>> That right.

Amanda> That's resistant to some things that would be problematical.

Spencer> So all our trees, we get them from a nursery in Tennessee, and what's unique about a peach tree is that it actually has two different genetics.

So, you've got the rootstock that has disease resistance and nematode resistance for any soil born challenges that it's going to have.

And then what's grafted on top of that rootstock is actually the cultivar, the variety that we pick, that grows the peach that's red, big, and also the time of year that it comes off.

Amanda> Always delicious.

Spencer> That's right.

Amanda> But, um, so you prune to, I guess the trees have to get sunlight into them.

So, you have to prune for that.

And then you told me that only the new growth sets peaches, so you must prune pretty severely.

Spencer> That's right, so we're pruning just to maintain the tree.

To train the tree, we grow our peaches fairly tall.

But we have four main liters and so that helps maintain the trees health and also encourage new growth for next year.

Amanda> And then you've got to go in and start thinning because the tree would set far too many blossoms that it would be able to produce a good-sized peach from Spencer> That's right and our heavy crops, we can thin up to 80% of the peaches.

Amanda> That must be hard to look down and see all those peaches that you put in.

Spencer> That's always a challenge.

So, when you're when you're thinning a heavy crop, you don't want to look down because you're thinking, "Wow, I just destroyed my crop", but you really need to look up in the tree.

You know, you want to space your peaches out, because what we're for thinning is we're really trying to get that size, the tree is only going to take up so much nutrients and water, and so, by thinning we're getting a better sized peach.

We're getting a better tasting peach higher sugar content.

And so that's a, that's a process that we go through and it's a difficult time too.

We thin during a time where we could have a frost event, and so, you know do you take the peach off, do you not?

And so there's always a big decision to do that.

So, we try to wait as long as we can and that means that we generally hand thin our tree.

Amanda> These trees are big, and you all have a high density of trees, and that there's certain that's for certain reasons.

That's right.

So, because we have a tall tree, we have higher yields per acre.

And so, we use wind machines during frost events.

And so that helps justify that cost of having a wind machine protect more yield.

And also, that helps us with the irrigation and our infrastructure as far as placing an orchard and having more yield per acre.

Amanda> And y'all are very, very careful with water.

These trees are drip irrigated at each tree.

Spencer> That's right.

So, we've got dripper irrigation across all our peaches.

And so we, you know, that timing of watering in that final swell, we're really focused on the trees that we are picking right now.

And so, we try to manage our water as best we can.

Amanda> And interestingly, I think most of the trees bloom, kind of during the same time period, but some are early peaches, And some are later, because you want to be able to supply peaches to people for a long, long time.

Spencer> That's right, so we have about 40 to 50 different varieties of peaches on our farm, and what that allows us to do is pick peaches from the end of May, all the way to September, and so, we're picking that particular variety, over a two week period.

We'll have about six to eight different pickings over that two week period, that we generally go in the field every other day, or we may do a two day skip.

And so having those different maturity, varieties that allows us to have peaches throughout the season.

Amanda> Spencer, you have contracted people who come in, and you said that they have been here through several generations, and they are integral really to helping you have such high quality peaches.

Spencer> That's right.

We started using the H-2A program.

It's a visa program where we bring in migrant workers from Mexico, and they we've had some of the same people since the early 80s, 90s.

And they've become a part of our family in helping our operation to be successful.

If it wasn't for them, we wouldn't be here today.

Amanda> And I've learned so much about all that goes into getting a great peach and getting it off the tree, and now I want to learn some about getting these peaches to the people who want them.

Thanks for spending some time with me.

Spencer> Thank you.

♪ Amanda> I'm in the packing shed from McLeod Farm Peaches And I'm speaking with Doug McCormick.

Doug, you are a member of this family now.

<Doug> Yes, ma'am.

I married farmer's daughter, I'm in deep.

(laughs) Amanda> Well you did pretty good by yourself.

>> Yes, ma'am Amanda> As far as I'm concerned both ways.

But we've these peaches that are in from the field.

But that's just the very first step because then we got to get them in the hands of the consumers, and today, I don't know about you, but I'm kind of hot, and I think the peaches are too.

So, what's the first step to try to get those peaches cooled down.

Doug> So, when the peaches come here out of the field, the first thing we're going to do is we're going to run them through the hydra cooler.

And what's happening there, we're putting the bins of peaches on a chain that takes about 45 minutes to go through this hydra cooler.

And we're dumping cold water on them think of a cold shower.

So, we'll chill this water down to about 35 degrees.

And the objective here is to get that field heat out of the peach before it comes in here into the pack shed.

And that's what we're doing.

Like you said, it's hot today.

I'm hot.

You're hot.

The peaches are hot.

We've got to remove that heat before they come to the pack shed.

Amanda> Because they got to last for a couple of days till they get to the store, and if we just shipped them like they were, they would just be burning up and turning to mush.

Doug> Yes, ma'am.

It's going to slow the ripening process.

And you know, we want to get them cold.

And the thing is, we got to get them cold before we put them in a cooler, we can't put a hot peach in a cooler and expect the cooler to pull all that heat out of them.

So that's why we really need that cold shower, like say a 45 minutes in the hydra cooler.

And that's where it all begins right here.

Amanda> Well, maybe at the end of the day, we'll go stand there for a minute.

Doug> I don't know if I can make it 45 minutes.

>> But after that happens, where are they going next.?

So, when the peaches come out of the hydra cooler, we will pull them off of the chain with a fork truck and immediately put them in a cooler to keep them cold.

We've already got them cold.

We want to keep them cold.

So when we're ready to start packing, we'll pull the bin out of the bin cooler.

We'll put it on the chain and that's where it starts that bin will go through a dumper.

That dumper will dump the peaches onto the line.

At that point the peaches are moving with a conveyor.

We'll have our first check.

We'll have some people they're looking for the obvious.

This is this peach is soft.

Let's take it out.

This is mush.

Take it out.

We'll pull the leaves off.

After that, after that first initial check.

We'll run the peaches through a washer and what we're doing here is we're knocking the fuzz off of the peach.

We're also going to apply food grade wax, a thin coat of food grade wax to help preserve the peach health, the shelf life of a peach.

After the peach comes out of the washer.

We're going to run that peach across grade tables where we have people who are just great at grading peaches.

We have great help here at McLeod Farms and we couldn't do it without them.

What they're going to do, they're going to check that peach and say, "Is this peach soft?

"Yeah, let's take it from a number one grade "put it in a number two grade.

"Does this peach have a cosmetic defect?

"Yes, it needs to come out of "a number one grade, go into a number two grade."

Amanda> It's still a perfectly edible peach.

<Doug> That's right.

Amanda> And these grades are set by the government, I believe.

Doug> That's correct.

We have certain specifications that we have to go by, if we're going to call our blue box, our Mac's Pride blue box a U.S. extra number one, Amanda> All right.

Doug> So that's what we're grading out.

We're grading out, this piece doesn't belong in a in a blue box.

After it goes through these grade tables with people, we got a brand new machine last year.

And so prior to this machine, we were sorting peaches with a machine, but that was only by size.

you know, two and three quarter or two and a half inch, big, medium small.

Now we have the capability of sorting these peaches by grade.

So, with a machine we can also grade the peach.

Say, "This is not a number one peach."

"The machine saw soft spot.

"Pull it out, put it in a green "number two box."

So we're sorting it by that.

We're also sorting it by size.

And then we have all these different orders.

You might have a specialty pack for bags, for trays, You've got your volume filled blue boxes, and what we're doing there is we're sizing the peach.

We also have load sales where, we're weighing the peach, you know, for instance, a customer might want a 30 pound tray that contains 112 pieces of fruit.

Well, what we're doing, we're weighing that peach and we're saying send me all the peaches that average this weight.

Send them to the tray so that when I put 112 peaches in this tray, it weighs 30 pounds.

Amanda> And I think again, you are using the agricultural workers who come in under a Visa.

Is that correct?

Doug> We couldn't do it without our H-2A workers for me they're like family, you know.

They're my friends.

They're family.

And, you know, we have people here that their experience on this farm.

I mean, it far exceeds my own.

I mean, we have we have H-2A workers that I go to and say, "What do you think about this?

"What do you think about this peach?"

And so they are a vital, a vital part of McLeod Farms and Mac's Pride brand, and we couldn't do it without them.

And they're great at what they do.

Amanda> Y'all are a big family up here.

And for safety control, and, you have stamped the boxes are stamped with information on them, I believe.

Doug> Yes, ma'am.

Every lot and a lot means it'll contain the information of what variety is this peach?

What field did it come out of?

What day was it picked?

All that gets stamped on the box when we're packing.

So, we will know what variety, what field and we'll also know the Julian Date, what day that peach was packed, what day that peach was picked, and that also transfers over to when we load the truck with that box.

So when our produce goes on a truck, we know exactly what's on that truck, and that helps us with traceability of being able to know what we sent where.

Amanda> And then, so is the peach finally ready to go on the truck and go to the consumer?

Doug> Yes, ma'am.

After the peach is put into the box, it rides on a conveyor to the back, and that's where we will palletize basically stack the boxes up, get them ready to go on the truck.

After they're stacked up, we'll place that peach right back in a cooler.

Amanda> Of course.

And so we're back, not where we started, but we're back to keeping that peach cold.

Amanda> Quality, quality.

Doug> It'll stay in that cooler until we put it on a truck and even when the truck backs up, the truck will be cold as well.

Amanda> And then I think waste not want not even the peaches that got knocked off as not being perfect, can you send them to someone who can perhaps make a product out of them?

Doug> Oh, sure.

So, we've got our number one grade, and that's basically what we're sending out commercially what we're putting on the trucks, that's going to take the commercial loads to our buyers.

We also have a number two grade.

And I tell people all the time, there's nothing wrong with these peaches.

They're great, I mean, you might have to cut around a soft spot.

You might have to cut around you know a little cosmetic defect, but it's a great peach.

It still tastes well and you can still make a peach cobbler out of it.

You know!

That's our number two grade.

That's going to be our green box.

After everything that does have, made the number two grade.

So everything that's not good enough to go on a number two green box, that's basically mush.

That's trash, and we also you know we have some people come get those peaches and process those and make juices or smoothies or whatever you want to do with the you know process peaches, and so... Amanda> So, all the work that went into it, almost every peach finds a way to be used.

Doug> That's exactly right, and like I said, that's what's so rewarding for me, you know, this, this farm I'm an in-law.

This farm is over 100 years old.

There's a huge legacy here and when we are precise in putting the pieces where they need to go I feel like that I bring value and that I'm doing a small part in upholding that legacy of passion and I guess artistic whatever you want to call it growing peaches and just pouring our heart into it.

So, it feels great to be able to bring something to the table.

Amanda> You know it's just so exciting to see what our family farms in South Carolina do and I thank you for being with one of them and for explaining this part of the process to us.

>> I thank you for all you do.

Thank you for being here today.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ I think that South Carolina grows more peaches than anybody else.

But I know that South Carolina peaches are very, very tasty.

Phillip, I think you ran into something the other day that was kind of interesting.

Phillip> Yes.

We had a grower down in the Midlands that had late season collards.

And, I got the phone call to come look, and there was this little green chrysalis or imported cabbage moth worm had been found.

And it's unusual to see it this late in the season.

Usually you see it early on, and it's this big, fat, fuzzy cat green caterpillar.

and it is a true butterfly, and it forms a chrysalis, and it's one of the predators of cabbage.

Amanda> Come on.

Terasa> So, cabbage white?

Is that the adult?

Phillip> Yeah.

The cabbage white butterfly, white butterfly with two spots on the wings.

>> And my father wasn't allowed to go barefooted until he could catch a white butterfly when he was a little boy.

So I guess that was all just part of nature's plan, right?

Paul> Yes, ma'am.

Terasa> My great grandmother used to tell me that if you went into the yard with a salt shaker and you could put salt on a bird's tail, that you'd be able to catch it.

That kind of sounds like that.

Amanda> It does, doesn't it?

I think I may have actually tried it a time or two.

I was not successful.

(laughter) Amanda> Oh, gosh.

Well, y'all have been such a great crew for coming tonight.

I really, really appreciate it.

And, Terasa, thank you for all that you do, getting all the questions and Gardens of the Week for us.

Terasa> Happy to be a part of the show.

Amanda> It's a fun time.

We have a good time.

Anyway, we hope you've had a good time, and we hope you'll join us next week right here on Making It Grow.

Night night.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Making It Grow is brought to you in part by Certified South Carolina.

This cooperative effort among farmers, retailers, and the South Carolina Department of Agriculture helps consumers identify foods and agricultural products that are grown, harvested, or raised right here in the Palmetto State.

McLeod Farms in McBee, South Carolina Family owned and operated since 1916, this family farm offers seasonal produce, including over 40 varieties of peaches.

Wesley Commons, a full service continuing care retirement community located on more than 150 wooded acres in Greenwood, South Carolina.

Additional funding provided by the South Carolina Farm Bureau Federation and Farm Bureau Insurance and Boone Hall Farms.