Making it Grow is brought to you in part by the South Carolina Department of Agriculture Certified South Carolina Grown helps consumers identify, find, and buy South Carolina products Mcleod Farms in Mcbee, South Carolina.

This family farm offers seasonal produce including over 22 varieties of peaches, additional funding provided by International Paper and the South Carolina Farm Bureau Federation and Farm Bureau Insurance.

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

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

I'm Amanda McNulty, a Clemson Extension agent and our show is a joint collaboration between Clemson University and SCETV and we have a really great group of experts to help you with your gardening questions tonight.

So, you're going to learn a lot and have a good time at the same time.

Terasa Lott, wants to start us out with something joyful and happy, because, of course, a lot of times were asked we're I'm trying to answer questions about problems.

So, let's start out, Terasa with some of those beautiful Garden of The Week pictures.

>> Let's do that.

We have so many to choose from.

I'm glad that we just use a random sampling, because I could never select what would be considered the best.

First, we will begin with Monty Pittman, who shared what I think is called shades of pink with some lovely day lilies and Gerbera daisies.

Marianne Brady shared sort of wildlife area with an assortment of plants, including a bird bath.

Karen Harris-Sweetman has a close up of a white flower Datura, sometimes called devil's trumpet.

Janet Marie showed us some nice ripe tomatoes.

I bet she's having a nice tomato sandwich.

Frederick Woodley was lucky to capture a monarch visiting his lantana.

And what I love about this photo is the angle.

It feels just like I am part of the butterfly flying down.

And wrapping up, we have April Scott's 4-H. family, Maddie, Allie, Mason and Jason.

And she loves that their 4-H experience has been making and sharing lots of memories.

Thanks to everyone who shared photos through email and through our Facebook page.

I encourage everyone to take a look.

I think we had over 70 submissions.

<Amanda> Whoa.

And so, all people have to do is go to Making It Grow's Facebook page and see all the ones that were equally fun, we just can't use them all.

Isn't that right, Terasa?

<Terasa> That is correct.

>> Well, Terasa, you're so good about people always sending messages and writing out questions on Facebook and that I know people write to you even through your email with things in their garden.

Have you got something that we might start off with?

<Terasa> I do we get questions all sorts of ways, sometimes even through text messages.

Our first one today is from Jared in Blythewood, who writes, "My cantaloupe vines are wilting.

"It's affecting some of the vines, "but not all of them.

What could be the cause?"

>> Well, I am so happy to welcome to Making It Grow Rob Last, who's one of our agents who helps commercial growers down in the Barnwell and area's surrounding counties.

And Rob, I know that - I think melon production is big in that area - - is this something that you've run into?

And do you think you could help this person?

>> That's absolutely correct Amanda.

We do produce a lot of cantaloupes and watermelons commercially in the campus I look after.

There's a couple of things that it really could be.

The first one, which I think is unlikely, it could be nematodes.

And those would be eating on the roots.

And rather than just an individual vine on the plant with a nematode attack, you'd see the whole plant start to wilt.

So that would be every vine that's on there.

There are a couple of insects that could also cause it, particularly cucumber beetle and squash bug.

Now, there's an easy way to tell what's going on.

If you take one of those wilted vines and cut it at the stem and place the cut stem into a clear glass of water, that way you'll see if there's any bacterial ooze come out of the stem and what will look like is clouds of liquid coming out and it'll create a cloudy effect within the water.

That's indicative of cucurbit bacterial wilt which this could well be.

And cucurbit bacterial wilt is spread by cucumber beetles.

In fact, it's actually, it's one of the bacterial diseases vective cucumber beetle feeding activity.

So, if you look closely at that wilted vine, you may find, some evidence of some insect feeding damage actually on that vine before where it's starting to wilt.

So that's a really good test.

>> If that happens, is there anything you can do, or is that just it?

>> The prevention for it Amanda and that's a really great question is actually to keep control of cucumber beetle numbers within those vines.

And the threshold that we use commercially is five beetles per plant and that's going to warrant treatment with an insecticide.

>> So if you have it is there anything you can do at that point, or is the vine just on its way out and it's too bad?

>> You can certainly try to prune out the wilting vines that may protect the rest of the plant by removing the source of infection.

Just remember if you're going to do that, that we need to sanitize our pruners to make sure we don't risk spreading that disease further around.

>> Okay, so you can use alcohol or a weak bleach solution or something like that?

>> Absolutely.

Absolutely.

>> You've got on a beautiful blue Clemson shirt.

And I'm going to say I prefer the alcohol route, because every time I get around bleach I seem to get it on myself as well as on my [laughs] thing.

So, a homeowner if they needed to treat the cucumber beetles, I would imagine at our H.G.I.C.

factsheet page, they could find information on how to go about that?

>> Absolutely, there's some amazing fact sheets within our home and garden information center that are readily available.

Yeah.

And that will give you some control options for a variety of pests within cucurbits.

>> Well, thank you and we're so glad that we can look forward to having you help - your helping those farmers down there, because I do think that there's nothing better than our wonderful South Carolina watermelons when they start coming in.

Thanks a lot for all the help you're giving our farmers.

>> My pleasure and thank you Amanda.

>> Terasa I was looking at our Facebook page, Making It Grow's Facebook page.

And I saw that there's a survey that's posted there.

And I wondered if you could tell me a little more about it, please.

>> I would be happy to.

That link is to what we would call a needs assessment.

So, rather than us taking viewer questions, we're sort of posing the question back to viewers.

What is it that you want to know?

Here with us tonight is Cory Tanner, who is Program Team Director for our horticulture team at Clemson Extension.

Cory, could you share a little bit more about the nature of that needs assessment?

>> Sure.

Thank you, Terasa and Amanda.

Happy to be here with you this evening.

Yeah, we just want feedback from home gardeners of any skill level, from the novice beginning gardener, all the way to the most advanced gardeners out there.

We'd like to know in Extension how we can best serve you.

What are the things that you most need and what are the ways that you'd like to receive gardening education and information?

You know, COVID through us a lot of curve balls and so we had to shift our Extension programming for a year plus to a mostly online, virtual environment.

And we saw great benefits of that and we would like to know from our viewers and our gardeners in South Carolina, how much of that you'd like to see continue as far as online virtual opportunities, versus in person traditional programming options?

And so this survey is one way to capture some of that information, as well as just what gardening topics you're most interested in learning more about.

So, we'd really appreciate it.

The survey takes less than ten minutes to complete.

You can find it in a number of different locations, the Clemson Extension horticulture page is linked to the banner on that page, as well as multiple Facebook pages for Clemson Extension and Making It Grow.

And there's a blog post on the Home and Garden Information Center website, as well.

So any of those routes will get you to that page and we'd like to take as many responses as possible, because again our job is to serve the needs of the people of South Carolina and we only know what those needs are when people tell us.

So, I would really like for people to complete that survey and let us know how we can serve you.

>> Cory, I think that although it was difficult for all of us to to have to change gears, because we're always comfortable in our regular pair of shoes, I think almost everyone at Clemson in the Extension program has found that we stretched and learned new ways of reaching people.

It's been a hard road - I think in the long run, it's been beneficial, don't you?

>> Oh, yes.

Absolutely Amanda.

It was difficult, but our team and our colleagues across Extension were up to the task, and we made some things happen and we reached new audiences as a result of that.

So, we were able to expand the reach of Extension programs virtually, even what we did here on Making It Grow, making this shift and the way the show is produced and disseminated has made a big difference in how we do business.

And some of that will stick and some things will go back to more normal, but right now we really just would like to know how people would like to interact with us and how we can best serve the needs of South Carolina.

>> You'll never know if you don't ask.

So, I think this is a great idea.

Thanks so much.

>> Thank you >> We always appreciate it when Cory Tanner can come and help us he's got a lot of responsibilities on his shoulders as the head of the hort team.

It's kind of like Terasa trying to herd all those cats, the Master Gardener Program Coordinator is and I'm afraid the hort team - it's a little like herding cats there sometimes too.

It is always so rewarding to find someone in agriculture who finds a situation where they can do something to help their community.

And we met the Roberts family up in Anderson and they have turned a little interest in sunflowers that started in their backyard into a tremendously wonderful program that brings beauty and to certain parts of the county and also supports some wonderful activities ♪ ♪ I'm outside of Anderson, South Carolina speaking with Danielle Roberts, who's the proprietor of Sol Farms and boy what a field of sunflowers we have.

>>Thank you.

Thank you.

We have about five acres, right here.

>> And this started out in the backyard in town, I think.

>> It did.

>> Tell us a little about your story.

>> Well, we just had a little family backyard garden and we grew lots of things, tomatoes and cucumbers, but we also always wound up with a nice big long row of sunflowers, just for the fun of it, And it just sort of was maybe the beginning of something much larger.

>> Well, originally I think your daughter's used that as a way to help fund going to college and things like that.

Tell us how they started getting these flowers to the market.

>> Okay well they did.

We built them a little garden of their own and we helped them learn to grow the sunflowers and they would harvest them and take them, to our local farmers market, and they got a little pocket change, had a little money to take with them to college and learned a valuable lesson in hard work and it turned into something that we all loved.

<Amanda> But those girls have gone on to careers, and you had an interest in local organizations that were supporting families and children issues, and I believe your husband was on a foundation that you thought maybe you could help support.

>>> That's right.

We've always been very involved in the community and we love where we live.

So we wanted to do something to sort of give back.

We like it here.

We raised our children here.

And it was just a thought that maybe we could do something on a larger scale to return a little bit of that back to our community, and you're right my husband does sit on the board of the Foothills Community Foundation, and it was a great place for us to put the money, so that it can go out into this community and do the most good for the most number of people.

<Amanda> And that supports three counties, I believe.

<Danielle> That's right Anderson, Oconee and Pickens County.

<Amanda> And the goal of Community Foundations is to encourage people to support local charities, that way you can really see where the effect is going to be made.

>> That's right.

>> Well, how do you market these flowers, or take donations for them?

>> Okay.

Well, we have a Facebook page, Sol Flowers of Anderson and we did most of the marketing just through Facebook.

We don't do a lot of advertising, very little advertising of any other kind, but the Facebook page opened us up to all kinds of publicity, so not only were we reaching a number of people with our Facebook page, we were also gaining some interest from newspapers and news stations who would come out here and do things, and it really helped the word spread, and again just with very little paid advertising.

>> I believe two weekends of the year people are invited to come out here.

>> That's right.

We plant the seed late in April, because we know that's how long it will take them to come in, right around the fourth of July, which is the week we like to have the event out here.

We have people come out on the weekend before and the weekend after.

They're invited to come out and take pictures stroll through the fields and just enjoy all these gorgeous sunflowers.

<Amanda> And you have people helping you cut the flowers, and at a station they are ready for people to trade for a donation, to the foundation.

<Danielle> That's right.

We'll cut the flowers and bring them up out of the field, and then they'll be cleaned up real nice and bundled up and prepared for people to take them home.

>> How much have y'all been able to give to the foundation?

>> Well, to date, and we don't know what this year's proceeds are yet, but in the prior three years that we've done this, we've raised over 30 thousand dollars.

>> And this is because people allow you to use the land at no cost?

Someone helps you with the equipment, the planting?

>> That's right.

We have a, family that allows us to come out here and use their land, and we have some great farmers that come out and help us with the planting and with their equipment, and get the field looking real nice for us.

>> Now, this is not a florist type sunflower and there are some advantages to that for you.

>> That's right, Amanda.

These are production sunflowers, and by production, I mean these are used typically for sunflower oil.

But the advantage to me is that they are less expensive, and they're great pollinators.

<Amanda> The pollinators out here are just phenomenal.

It's so exciting to see them.

You see butterflies and all kinds of bees and different things on them, and then of course, one of the thing is that most people think sunflowers follow the sun, but because this is such a big strong sunflower, tell me how it acts.

>> Well, early on you may see a little a little bit of weight >> twist and shout?

>> Yeah.

- while the plants are young and tender, but as they get more and more established this particular variety is going to all face to the east.

>> And that's because they have such a great big flower head full of seeds, they really have to have a strong system to support that.

>> That's right.

>> What do you do about - ?

I don't see a irrigation.

What do you do about water?

<Danielle> We just, we depend on rain.

And luckily we've had some great rain this year.

We had a nice amount of rain right after we planted, and then a few more smaller rains to come through.

The rain has everything to do with the height.

The flowers look good no matter how much water they get, but if we can get some good rain, we can get nice height.

<Amanda> I think people like to come out and take photographs, too.

Don't they?

>> They do.

We have lots of people that come out to do family photographs.

Moms bring their iPhones.

We have professionals that come out and do professional photography out here.

So, we see a lot of that.

<Amanda> Danielle, if people want to know more about you and what's your family doing out here, what's the best way to get that information?

>> You can go to our Facebook page, Sol Flowers of Anderson, South Carolina and that's S-O-L Flowers.

Also you could go to the foundation's website, which is Foothills Community Foundation.org.

>> Well, thank you for what your family's doing to support good causes in Anderson, Oconee and Pickens County.

And thank you for sharing your story with us today.

>> You're welcome.

Thanks for coming out today.

♪ >> Well you can see what a beautiful sight a field of sunflowers is and the Roberts family has - an event planned, a big weekend, or whatever day the weather cooperates.

So if you want to be a part of that check their Facebook page and Instagram account and you won't miss that fun outdoor experience.

Terasa, I bet you got another question for us.

Let's hear what it is.

>> All right.

Well, Nelson in Chesterfield asks, "I'd really like to grow hostas, "but never seem to have any luck.

"Do you have any advice?"

<Amanda> Aha!

Keith, it's so good to have you here.

Keith Burns, the Director of Grounds at Historic Columbia.

And I don't know how you managed to keep all those beautiful properties looking so good, Keith.

But I've - and you have everything from sun to shade.

So, I bet you can help us with some hosta ideas.

>> Absolutely, if you - it is true, that in general hostas are a challenge for us, down here in the south, and one of the first things to think about, even before you acquire any hostas is the fact that there are some that do better than others for us.

And what's really important to look for on a hosta, if you're ordering it from maybe a website or a catalog or even at the nursery is to look and see if there's a hardiness zone info on the tag.

And really what you're looking for is a hosta that at the very least, lists being able to be grown in zone eight.

So, that will probably be the highest number on there.

And even better if you can find on that list being grown in zone nine.

Now, that is a little bit warmer than we are, but when you see something can be grown in zone nine it usually can do a lot better with our heat, a pretty good indicator.

And there are a couple of varieties that we grow that tend to do better for us.

One of those is called Abiqua Drinking gourd.

That's a long name, but it's an excellent plant.

It's a larger hosta.

It has these beautiful powdery blue leaves with sort of a puckery look to them, that cup, that make a really sort of a large cup, that holds a little bit of water when it rains and a really nice sort of white bloom, as well.

One of the other hostas that is our favorite is called Paradise Island.

And this one's got a little different look.

It's not as big as the first one.

Instead of having very much dark green, it's more of a chartreuse color, almost a yellow with some red coloration on the petals, which is really very nice.

>> Keith, let me say, let me ask you, it sounds like these would be good to group, and at least, I mean you've got such a big garden, but even in a home garden.

I mean just one by itself you'd get a lot more bang if you, put three of them together, wouldn't you?

>> Yes, if you're planting them in the ground, it gives you much more of a dramatic effect to have masses and drips of hostas.

There is the school of thought and it does seem to work pretty well, that if you're a good waterer, it's sometimes effective to have hostas in containers or in what some people like to call troughs.

If you've got maybe a little bed around a fountain, in your garden, which we do have one of those at Hampton Preston, if you're good about watering the containers in the troughs are pretty good, because they actually allow the plant to get just a bit cooler in the winter, which actually helps the hosta out.

>> So Keith, even though in the winter, you're not going to see the hosta, because it's going to die back.

The root system will be healthier and come through with less stress if it gets more cold, which it would being in that container.

>> Right, the hostas really do expect if you could say that, more cold than they generally get here.

>> You said that you've got them near a fountain.

I think of fountains as often, kind of being in a sunny spot, but a hosta wouldn't want to have too much direct light, would it?

What do you recommend?

>> They really, I don't recommend any full sun, maybe 30 minutes to an hour in the very early morning, might be okay, <Amanda> Oh!

>> because that's the coolest time of day.

It's very important to know how the light works in your garden at all times of day as during later in the day, the light is much harsher on plants especially in our summers.

But for hostas in general, what I really prefer is what I like to call high shade, which is trees that are very tall, and give you a filtered light, but still very bright.

It's kind of difficult to achieve sometimes, but I like to use large pecan trees as an example of the kind of light that's really ideal for hostas.

I do have some at Hampton-Preston that are under Live Oak trees, which you wouldn't think would work, cause they're so dark and they're so thick, but really we've done a lot of editing on the canopy of the trees to give us much more filtered light.

>> Aha!

And then as you say, if you have them in containers, you can kind of play with them until you find a place in your yard where they seem to be the happiest, if you're not quite sure about the light.

>> Yeah.

That's a great way to do that and when you do them in containers you have to make sure they have good room for their roots.

They're not one of those plants that generally loves to be tucked in tight.

>> Are slugs a problem - If you have me on the ground and they're coming back every year, do you sometimes have to worry about slugs as they're first emerging?

>> I would say that we've not had that issue here in Historic Columbia, but it certainly could be an issue given your conditions in your garden.

One way to do that to combat that would be again to make sure you have a lot of vertical space there in your shade because that will encourage air flow, which is going to dry out your soil surface or mulch surface or whatever you have, and sort of discourage a lot of that activity, outside of that, there's some other tricks I know that people use, like putting out a little bowl of beer at night to let the slugs in.

>> Okay.

Well - And Keith my last question is should you remove the spent flower head so that it doesn't use energy trying to make seeds?

>> Yes, there's not unless you're into hosta breeding, there's no real reason to leave those flowers scapes up after the flowers are finished.

You're correct.

It's just expending energy on making those fruits and seeds, that's not very useful for you in the garden.

Taking those off is going to encourage it as well, to divide a little bit faster.

>> Oh!

Okay, so you can't expect to multiply that they're going to multiply eventually, and you can start with one and after a couple of years have a couple - >> Right.

Now, they're slower than most, but they will divide out.

<Amanda> Okay.

Thank you so much.

>> Well, Terasa what's - I know we've got a big, you've got a big list of questions, and Keith did a good job answering that one.

What's the next one coming to the top of the pile?

>> Next up is Ginger in Greenville.

Ginger writes, "I've noticed lots "of apple varieties available, but they don't seem to be "available all at the same time.

"Why is that?"

<Amanda> Well, Terasa, we're lucky that Kerrie Roach who is our Extension agent up in Oconee County, which is kind of apple country if there is any apple country in South Carolina, is with us tonight, Kerrie thank you so much for joining us.

And can you help us understand what the - why some apples are coming in, and some are going out and when the fresh apples for the brand new year start coming in because I know that they do store apples, don't they?

>> Yeah.

So, you go to the grocery store and you can get apples anytime of the year, Right.

>> Yeah.

>> You don't ever know what's going to be the one you like, the one that's good or what not, but so growers and grocery stores they store those apples in cold storage and many of the varieties do really well with that.

Some get a little bit mealy and don't necessarily last as long in cold storage, but for the most part, the varieties that you'll see now in the store were actually from last year.

We are just beginning to start our apple season in the southernmost part of the United States, including South Carolina, in the end of July, and so we'll go from July all the way through October, even a little bit into November depending on the varieties.

So, we have a pretty long season when it comes to apples <Amanda> And so, I guess the stores as you say some do better in the cold storage than others, and so that may influence what the people are offering to the stores at any particular time.

>> Yeah, so we choose apples as a consumer with our eyes, right.

We eat with our eyes.

But as a grower, they are choosing apples for specific tasks or specific markets.

You know, whether it's going to be a fresh fruit apple, or whether it's going to go to wholesale market and be sold to grocery stores for cold storage, eventually, whether they might be keeping it, maybe they have a contract with a school system, and they have to provide apples throughout the whole school year, then they might be storing it on their own farm in cold storage.

So there's lots of different ways that they might be picking for that.

So, if you're an apple grower, and you're picking for fresh fruit, you're going to leave that apple on the tree as long as possible, because the longer it stays on the tree, the higher the sugar content is and the better flavor it's going to have.

<Amanda> Really.

>> Yeah, so if you're picking for a wholesale to sell to a wholesaler, then you're going to be picking a little bit earlier.

The sugar content's going to be a little bit lower, but it's going to have more pressure or a bigger crunch.

So, there's always that like optimum time for each variety, where you catch it where it has the best sugar content with the highest amount of crunch and that one week window comes together.

<Amanda> Wow!

That's a lot for them to have to keep up with, because it's going to differ from the right cultivar to cultivar, isn't it?

>> It is and the crazy part is that you might visit a grocery store or even a market stand and get a gala apple one week, and think, Oh this is my favorite, and then you visit a different grocery store or another stand and that gala apple tastes totally different.

>> Well, that's because they're not all created equal.

They're not the same apple.

There's different types or in the apple world, we call them sports or cultivars.

There's different types of galas.

<Amanda> Really >> Yep.

>> I would have thought it was all just the exact same genetic material.

>> Yeah, so there's different types of galas.

There's different type of golden delicious.

There's different types of red delicious.

There's different types of all those apples so when you get, even from the same grower, he or she might have different types of those apples on their farm, because they might ripen a little bit earlier or later, or even have a different disease resistance profile.

>> Whew, well, you know what, I'm real glad that I'm not in the apple business, because it sounds like it's above my head, and I'm glad you're up there to help give them some advice, because I sure do like a good crispy apple with a good flavor.

Thanks a lot Kerrie.

<Kerrie> You're welcome.

>> Terasa, I think the Gardens of the Week has been such a hit that we're kind of expanding and having occasionally kind of an in depth Garden of the Week, and I think you have one for us this week.

<Terasa> We do.

So we've mentioned Swan Lake Iris Gardens on the show many times, since it is right here in Sumter, and today our viewers have the opportunity to get that virtual field trip through our Gardens of the Week.

Let's take a look.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ <Amanda> Swan Lake is a beautiful jewel in the heart of Sumter, free and open to the public, and an absolutely gorgeous place to visit and see cypress trees.

There's a boardwalk, and of course an amazing collection of swans.

Well, I was out in the yard seeing what was still up and about this time of year, and I came across a few things, So this is a hodgepodge hat.

I have a hot pepper, a calla lily, calla lily leaf, some hydrangea, some poppy seed, dried poppy seed heads and an oleander.

So, this is hodgepodge hat night.

That's what we've got.

Well, Terasa, you are so kind to keep all these questions from viewers coming in, so tell me which one we are going to try to help with now.

>> We are going to try to help Beverly in Denmark.

Beverly writes, "What can I do with my vegetable "garden beds now to help prepare for the fall?"

>> Aha!

Well I always admire people who prepare because I'm always a day late and a dollar short.

Rob, I know that as someone that's helping commercial people, you are well aware of things that have to be done ahead of time, because they have to make money.

So, what advice would you give our viewer?

>> That's an excellent question.

The first thing I would usually start with is literally clearing out as much of the debris from any previous crops as possible.

That's going to minimize any pests and disease carry over into future, into your fall crop and fall plantings.

There are some really good things that we can do through the summer.

In South Carolina, we have really two growing seasons.

There's the cool season over the winter, and the warm season over the summer.

Well, we can grow things like buckwheat, cow peas, sorghums, as covers crops for our vegetable plots.

That's going to remove any excess fertilizer, and utilize any fertilizer that we apply to our spring vegetables, which can lock it up and into plants that we're currently growing, so our cover crops, which then, as they decompose in the fall, it's going to help us with nutrient and water retention, and our fall plantings of vegetables.

So, crops like buckwheat are also fantastic for pollinators.

So, it's another good way to bring some beneficial insects into our vegetable gardens, which can, A, help us with pest control, but can really help with pollination.

>> Well, so if people put these out, Rob, then are they going to naturally phase out when it's time for us to put in our fall garden, or do we have to come in, and mow them or crimp them, or what will a home gardener do?

>> They certainly need some management, Amanda.

You're absolutely right.

Mowing works really well.

The shorter we can often keep the cover crops, the easier they are to work in later in the fall.

So, as a general rule of thumb, we would be looking at mowing or cutting them down, when they're about a foot to two feet tall.

They're going to come back, and continue to produce that biomass, with any material that we cut, we can also use as a mulch.

which is going to go to improving our soil structures, and our organic matters within the topsoil.

Now, prior to planting, ideally we would want to try and till it and incorporate it into the soil, but they're are ways and means through crimping or through chemical application, if that's what you want to do to kill those crops out right.

And then we can plant directly back into the stubble of the cover crops, reducing the need to apply for the mulchers and keep those organic matter levels in the top soil really, really high.

>> And, David Coyle has published several places where you can read about the safety of glyphosate when used according to the label, and so I try to remind people that he's, of course, one of our wonderful professors and so if people are concerned about using a herbicide I would encourage them to try to find his writings on glyphosate.

Again, you always have to follow the directions and read the label, but he does give good information on how to use it effectively and safely.

And you just - one of the things you said just really caught me, Rob, because I hadn't thought of it, but in the summer it'll be hotter than blue blazes and we won't have had new rain, but sometimes we'll just get this huge damp deluge, and so you're right, any of the fertilizers would have been washed and kind of lost to us and possibly taken off site, but if we have a cover crop, they will take them up, and store them and then can be returned naturally.

That's just to me such a good environmental decision, it sounds like.

>> Absolutely it's a really good way of recycling our nutrients, which is not only good for our environment, be that surface or ground water, for that matter, but it's also going to save us money in the longer term, as well.

>> Okay, now when we take up the old crop residue, because you said it can harbor some insects or disease, do we need to take some of it off site or just far away from the - ?

What would you recommend?

>> I recommend taking it off site and potentially composting if you got a compost area.

That works really well.

Or it's going to be just disposing of it.

I wouldn't leave it close to the vegetable garden, because you can pathogenic transfer for things like powdery mildews, downy mildews.

Those spores will still be around, anytime you disturb them, they're going to be moving around, essentially with the plants.

>> So, really don't just pile it up at the edge of the road.

If you've got a large enough yard, take it as far away as you can, or find another disposal method that's allowed in your community.

>> Absolutely.

>> Okay, well that's just wonderful.

And the buck wheat's good for pollinators.

That's always fun for us, because we can go out there and have something to look at them on a day when maybe something else isn't as exciting, we can see a fun insect, can't we?

>> Absolutely.

>> Okay.

Thanks so much.

Terasa, who else has a question that we hope we can help them with the guests we have tonight?

>> Suzanne in North Charleston has a question.

She asks, "What is the best way to find a "professional in my area to assess the health "of a tree on my property?"

>> Well, with hurricane season, I think a lot of us in South Carolina should keep an eye on those sorts of things, and I don't think there's anybody better than going to Cory for this, because I know he's has a lot of experience in that.

>> Hey Amanda.

Yeah I mean, that's a great question.

Trees are wonderful.

I love trees, but they're very large organisms, and unfortunately sometimes they fail and fall, and when they do they have the potential to do a lot of damage, and so there's a couple of definitions we use for a hazard tree, or there's a definition we use for a hazard tree.

Number one, it has to be a tree with a defect or some type of issue that could cause it to fail, but it also must have a target, something that it could hit and damage.

So a target.

The target's the easy part, that could be a house or a car, or if it's somewhere that could hit a person.

The defect, however can be quite tricky with a tree.

Some of them are obvious, when you have a dead limb or a broken limb or something that could fall from a tree, but a lot of times with large older trees, we have internal decay or rot inside the tree, that's not visible from the outside.

Occasionally you might see a mushroom growing off the tree or something like that.

And so that could be an indication that there's something going on, and so if you've got a tree, a large tree, it's older, and it's near your house or near your car where your children play, or something like that and you're concerned about it, we would recommend hiring or consulting with a certified arborist, an arborist or tree care professional certified by the International Society of Arboriculture.

You can find an arborist in your area, by going to their website www.treesaregood.org, trees are good.org, is the International Society for Arborticulture's consumer website where you can find arborists in your area, or if you're having difficulty there you could call your local Extension office and often times we can help you provide a list of local arborists who can come and help, but arborists are trained to assess the health and well being of trees, and so that's something that sometimes takes specialized tools to determine basically how sound the trunk of the tree is, and whether it will support the tree through a storm or whatever.

So anytime that you're concerned about the overall health of a tree, or perhaps you've done construction in the area, maybe you've paved the driveway or done other work, installed irrigation, where it might have severed some roots of that tree, and you're concerned about the long term health and survival of that tree, that would be another time to call an arborist to come in and look.

So, we work with arborists in Extension quite a bit, because again they have specialized tools and skills to assess trees that we often don't have in Extension.

So I would encourage people to use those professionals when needed.

>> Okay, and if you have a large yard or acreage, you can leave trees if they die, if they're not as you say, if they're not going to harm anything, because they're useful for wildlife.

>> Right.

If they don't have, if they're out in the forest or on the back of the property and there's not a very obvious target, where if it falls it's going to destroy damage or hurt something, then yeah we would encourage you to leave those, and let nature do its thing.

<Amanda> Okay, thank you so much.

Ben Powell is our apiculturist and bee - a pollinator specialist, I guess is another way to say it, and there is a very interesting interaction between bees and an evasive species tree, the tallow tree.

And so let's learn about that, by having a conversation with Ben.

I'm speaking with Ben Powell, and Ben is our apiculture specialist, and that means he knows a lot about bees and pollinators, in case you don't know what apiculture is, and Ben, we're going to talk about a topic that seems completely unrelated to that.

We're going to talk about an invasive species tree, the Chinese tallow tree.

So, I'm just going to take a second to say that this tree was real important in China for thousands of years because the seeds have a waxy coating on them that you could make fats and cooking oils and fats and all from, and even in the U. S. government in the 1900s was looking for new ways to make money and they brought and tried to establish this in Florida, as a way to make soap, and then that didn't work out, but let's talk about I'll let you say the scientific name, and what happened to that tree when you plant it in certain parts of the southeast United States, how it behaves.

<Ben> Sure.

So the plant is Triadica sebifera, or the Chinese tallow or sometimes called the popcorn tree, because the little white seed things that look a little bit like popcorn, and it is all the buzz in beekeeping circles right now.

>> Oh, oh!

I say that tongue in cheek, because this particular plant has long been known as being a very good nectar source for honey bees all across the Southeastern United States <Amanda> Wow!

>> - but it's also an extremely invasive plant, and we have learned that after decades of having this plant around expanding and displacing native species, that maybe the benefits that it provides to honey bees is not quite enough to overcome the negative affects it has on ecosystems.

>> You say that it is good for the beekeepers that it blooms at a time when other things are kind of dwindling a little bit, but if we could have more natural vegetation, are there other plants that potentially would be pollen producing or have nectar that the bees could use instead?

>> Oh yeah.

So, the beekeeping community is a little concerned about control efforts, because for a long time it's been understood that the Chinese tallow tree was an important nectar source late in the spring, and that large volumes of honey could be developed off of stands of Chinese tallow.

So we actually have a number of migratory beekeepers inside and outside of the state that move to the tallow stands when they're in bloom, and they're able to produce surplus honey, which obviously is important for them maintaining their bee keeping operations.

The problem is though, is the bees have to have a diversity of food sources.

They not only need nectar, but they need pollen, and they need it early in the season to build up their bee colonies, so that they're ready when the nectar flow happens and the problem with a plant like this is, if it displaces those other plant species, which are important during that build up phase, then it doesn't matter if it's a good honey source, if you can't get your bee colonies ready for it.

>> Aha!

So it would be like if we only had barbecue to eat our whole life and never got any vegetables, or what - >> What are you talking about?

I'd be good with that - <Amanda> But what you're saying is, just nectar isn't, it takes more than just nectar to have healthy bee colonies, and so if there's nothing else available, except just this one month of nectar, that's not really the best ecological environment for our bees.

>> That's right honey bees are adapted to be generalists and they are able to derive food from a variety of food sources, and they need that food over a long period of time.

The problem was something like Chinese tallow, is it only blooms for two, three, maybe four weeks, whereas it may be displacing plants that provide food for two, three or four months, and not to overlook the native pollinators, too that need that diversity of plants.

You know many of our native pollinators are specialists on one group of plants, and if that group of plants is eliminated from an ecosystem, then that pollinator is eliminated from that ecosystem.

>> Oh!

And we know from what you've told us and other people in the past that those native pollinators are really important, although we talk so much about the European honey bee, but those other guys they are major work horses within the whole agricultural system, aren't they?

>> That is true.

Yes.

>> Have y'all been doing some research on perhaps biological control, and is that something that is now a source of conversation and perhaps some confusion and some worry?

and can you shed some light on that for us, please?

>> Sure.

So, the US Department of Agriculture has a program to research control methods for a variety of invasive exotic species, and that includes researching physical controls like mowing and cultural controls like burning and chemical controls like herbicides, but also biological controls.

Going to the native range of that species and looking to see what pests, insects or diseases actually affect the growth, and through that investigation they determine, are any of these pests, insects of that species, the invasive plant, are they specialists?

Do they specialize on just that plant and could they be used and introduced to help slow the growth of the plant in other locations?

And they have through their research identified two species, one that's Lepidopteron or caterpillar, one leaf beetle that feed exclusively on the Chinese tallow and they have determined that it is not a threat to other plant species in our native ecosystem, so they are considering a release program, right now.

>> If that happened, how effective do you think it would be?

Do you think it will get rid of every all the Chinese tallow trees?

>> Think about it.

If I'm a specialist and the only thing I feed on is that one plant would I ever want to completely kill that plant?

Cause if I did, I'd kill myself, right.

Yeah.

So, typically the specialist pests or biological control agents don't eliminate their hosts.

They reduce its ability to reproduce, or they reduce it's growth rate, so that it can't expand as quickly, just kind of like in their home range, they're just a natural native pest that pressures that plant and sort of keeps it under control, but doesn't eliminate it.

>> We hope that it won't impact the beekeepers, that it actually might end up by helping the overall health of a colony be better fed or more balanced.

>> Right, well I always like in the terms ecology and economy to each other, when you're talking with your financial advisor, what did they tell you to do with your portfolio?

Diversify.

Diversify.

Diversify.

Right?

>> You're right.

Yeah.

>> If something bad happens on one side, the rest of your portfolio is able to take care of it and you don't lose a lot of money, same thing with the ecology.

Diversify the ecology.

Diversify the landscape and individual species will not suffer near as much if there's an adverse event.

>> Okay.

Well I want to thank you for what you're doing to help our beekeepers in the state.

We know that the bees have a lot of things that are giving them, that are difficult for them and we want them to be as healthy as possible everybody on a cool day, enjoys a cup of tea with honey and then there's nothing better in the summer when we're having some biscuits than to put some honey on them too.

Thank you, Ben for the work you're doing for the beekeepers and the people who enjoy honey in South Carolina.

>> Well, you're quite welcome and I hope everybody gets out to your local farmers market and supports your local beekeepers.

>> We'll do it.

>> Okay.

Thanks.

>> Well isn't it something when you have an invasive species that has a purpose, but we do not want this tree to spread, because it is really problematic when it does.

I want to thank y'all for being with us tonight and I sure hope that we'll see you next week, next time.

Good night from Making It Grow.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Making it Grow is brought to you in part by the South Carolina Department of Agriculture Certified South Carolina Grown helps consumers identify, find, and buy South Carolina products, Mcleod Farms in Mcbee, South Carolina.

This family farm offers seasonal produce including over 22 varieties of peaches, additional funding provided by International Paper and the South Carolina Farm Bureau Federation and Farm Bureau Insurance.