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

I'm Chris Cooper.

It is still hot outside but it's time to start thinking about fall cool season vegetables.

Also figs can bring an exotic taste to your garden.

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

- (female announcer) Production funding for The Family Plot: Gardening in the Mid-South is provided by, the WKNO Production Fund, the WKNO Endowment Fund, and by viewers like you, thank you.

[upbeat country music] - Welcome to The Family Plot, I'm Chris Cooper.

Joining me today is Tom Mashour.

Mr. Tom is a Master Gardener in Tipton County.

And Mr. Bill Colvard is here.

Mr. Bill is our local garden expert.

Thanks for joining us.

- Thank you.

- Thank you.

- Alright, so Mr. Tom, fall vegetables, it's that time of the year, right?

- It's the time to start planting them.

- Okay, now you wanted to start off first by talking about soil.

- Yeah.

I like to start most of my plants, in containers.

- Okay.

- And then transplant them into the garden.

Like the, summer and spring, we have such a short cool season, in the spring, that if you put the seeds directly like broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, and so forth into your garden at that time, there'll be enough cool season for them to, to grow to maturity.

Same thing in the wintertime.

We have such a short cool season in the fall, that we wanna start the plants up early, earlier.

And I've usually said this almost every time.

So people we'll be tired of it.

- I know what it is you're about to say.

- Cool season plants, and there is warm season plants.

Just by knowledge, there is no hot vegetable plants or cold vegetable plants.

Some plants can tolerate, tomatoes can tolerate the heat, but they don't like it.

- Okay.

- Nor do I.

[Chris laughs] And generally speaking, if it's comfortable to you, it's great for the plants, no matter if it's a cool season or warm season, if we get like 75 degrees.

Now I said, I'd like to start everything in containers, several reasons.

I'm starting off some really good growing medium, and I can control the watering and don't have to worry about dry spells in the garden, things walking over it and et cetera.

And the two mixtures I use, is the germinating mix, and pro mix.

And I'm saying, when I'm saying pro mix I'm talking about the same stuff that nurseries use for growing their plants.

- Well, okay.

- And I reserved this, I can say though, germinating mix is extremely fine.

And I use that for extremely fine seeds like begonias and petunias.

The seeds are very, very fine.

And they're actually broadcast on top of the soil.

- Okay.

- Cause they need light to germinate.

- Right.

- And then I cover them up with the clear dome, to keep the soil moist and without disturbing the seeds, but for the rest of them, I use the pro mix, the same stuff that the nurseries use.

- Right.

- I'm gonna plant two types of seeds.

On this particular container here, I'm gonna demonstrate planting onion seeds.

Now onion seeds is a monocot, meaning it puts out one leaf as compared to like over here, I have squash plants, you know, it's the first two leaves.

It puts out two leaves.

They call that the dicot.

- That's right.

- Okay well, onion seeds I don't need a big container to start those.

So I'm just gonna use this.

And there's 54 cells in there, so if they all work out fine, I should end up with 54 onions.

I'll be planting more, but for right now, that's what I'm gonna start off with.

- And that media again is your pro mix.

- This is the pro mix.

The same thing nurseries use, usually available at any commercial nursery.

It's not cheap, but it's a lot cheaper than, the germinating mix.

- And it works well, the pro mix, from your experience.

- It works absolutely, well, yes, it does.

I said, it's basically one of the things for perfect conditions, just like a baby.

You need to give it too what it needs, well the same thing with, I wonder if the reason why they call them nurseries.

I don't know.

[Chris laughs] - I never thought of that, how about that.

- But-- - They really have those seeds in there, don't they?

- Yeah, one of the things about onion seeds, they're not good keepers.

They don't last long.

It's very unusual if they last over a year, even if you have in a freezer or refrigerator, and they're small black seeds.

Now you do need a tool, a very specialized tool.

- They're really small.

- Now there's the seeds.

And the specialized tool, is called a dibble.

If you start plants from seed, you gotta have a dibble.

- You gotta have it.

- Now you can go on the internet, and buy stainless steel ones with reversible tips and so forth.

But this was in its former life, a pen.

- All right [laughs] - Now I gave it a new life, lease on life by using it as a dibble.

It makes holes, it could make drills.

You can lift plants up using this from the roots.

It works great.

And this is the more expensive one.

It's got a protective cover on it.

Now on these seeds, most of your vegetable seeds, you're gonna go a quarter inch.

- Okay.

- And I like to do, as I like to plant two, to a cup, to double my insurance, at least get one up.

Now I'm going down for a quarter and that's a little blue tip right there.

That's about a quarter inch.

That's all I have to go down.

So I just make a little hole there, a little hole there.

You wanna pre moisten, your planting medium, so that when you make your hole, it doesn't collapse.

And that will be the last time this thing sees water, until they germinate.

Drop one, drop two, go over here, and over here, drop one, drop two.

Now normally I don't cover the hole up, until I get done, because I have a tendency to forget where I'd finished.

So by leaving a hole there, I know, okay that one's been done.

And then when I get them all done, then I go ahead and smooth out the holes, and label it.

Now you may remember what you put in there, but after a period of time, you will forget, especially if you plant various varieties and that's it.

I'm just gonna do those three, 'cause I'm gonna repeat it 54 times.

- All right.

- Put the seed back in there, in the wrong container actually.

But, because to me, onions put out just that single leaf and one long root, I don't need a big container.

- Okay.

- And I'm gonna cover that up, and I will go and finish planting these when I get home, make sure you do label them with the date, what they are.

This particular onion seed it's called a Granex, made famous by the Vidalia onion.

Doesn't mean if you plant a Granex you gonna get a Vidalia onion.

But that is a seed that they use.

- All right.

- Okay.

On the begonias, excuse me I said begonias.

Broccoli, thank you.

- Your broccoli.

- Thank you.

- All right.

- Also a quarter inch, not very much.

Now the plants get quite a bit bigger, and I want them to get fairly good size before I put them in the garden.

So I'm planting them in bigger pots.

Where do you get the pots at by the way?

Well, just let it be known, that you need pots for starting plants and they'll show up in your driveway, in front of your garage or your patio, if you got your back door open in your car, they'll find up in your backseat, but people don't wanna throw things away, but they didn't know what to do with it.

When they found someone who would take it, they'll recycle it, that's cool.

- Those seeds are even smaller.

- Yeah, and these are real small seeds, they're real tiny.

- Are we going to get you to put these quickly so we can talk about your grow light.

- Oh, okay, sure, sure this.

I'll just do one here.

- Okay.

- Again, quarter inch, one seed, two seed, one seed, one seed, quarter-inch, and that's, you don't have to take a tape measure and measure it.

That's just an approximate.

- Okay.

- If you wanna get exact then, what you do is measure it two and a half times, the diameter of the seed.

Okay, the grow light is real simple and easy to make.

It costs about $25 to make.

And the, you can move the chain up and down as the plants grow.

And like I said, it's just going to be for inside the house, which is comfortable for you.

It's gonna be comfortable for those plants, the plants will do well.

Again, 25 bucks.

Just a regular old shop light with fluorescent lights.

- Okay.

- And not the expensive type because they don't work any better than the regular shop lights, or lamp bulbs.

- How long would you keep your plantings down there?

Your little seedlings.

- Until they're big enough to go outside, depending on the weather.

For example, the tomatoes, you don't wanna put them out there until we're frost free.

- Okay.

- And from experience, I know that from putting the seed in, like on tomatoes, six weeks, and the plants will be ready to go out.

So you don't wanna plant them and start them up in January.

- Sure, sure.

- You also want a back up, say frost date is April 15th, backup six weeks would be by April the first.

- All right then, Mr. Tom, we definitely appreciate the demonstration.

- I appreciate talking about it.

- Alright.

[gentle country music] - Let's take a look at our blackberry canes.

As you can see here, some are starting to die out.

These canes have been here for about a couple of years, and there's not not to worry about right, because you're gonna get some new canes, and they're gonna grow from this.

So what I would do, I would actually wait, you know till these canes die all the way out, and then I would just prune them out.

And then your new canes, of course, would be up and growing, and everything would be just fine.

So again, don't worry.

These canes that you see here, canes you see here, let them go ahead and die out, prune them back as far as you can, down to the ground.

Those other canes will come up, and there'll be just fine.

So you don't have anything to worry about.

[gentle country music] Alright, Mr. Bill, we have you here today.

You are our local fig expert today.

So, we always get a lot of questions at the extension office about figs.

Let's start with this first question.

What are the best variety of figs?

- Best varieties is according to what you going to use the fig for.

- How about that?

- Figs come in a variety of sizes, colors, color on the inside of the encapsulated, group of buds that you have, that is, some of them have a strawberry colored interior.

Some of them have a gray interior.

Some of the ones that are really gray, do not look as appetizing when you open the fig, but usually they're sweeter, than the others.

At least that's my experience.

- Okay.

- The figs that we have in this area are quite different from the ones we have in the southwest.

- Okay.

- Which are basically, Iberian Peninsula figs from the Spain, Portugal, that area.

And, all of the figs, the edible ones that we use, well not completely all of them, but the vast majority of them are Mediterranean climate figs, so.

We have different growing conditions, have different sizes on the plants.

And, everybody talks about eating the fruit of the fig.

That is, what you're eating actually is an encapsulation of the buds and blossoms of the figs, that inner parts that turns so soft and sweet is actually the flower.

The outer container is just that, a container of the buds and the flowers.

- Interesting, interesting, about that.

- Figs are part of a family of plants that's one of the largest in the world.

Not all of them, in fact, very few of them are actually edible in the wild.

So, I have a problem with the figs, in the southeast especially because, they are a Mediterranean plant, and a Mediterranean is a hot, which figs require.

But they're from a dry climate, and we are far from a dry-- - Yeah, not dry.

- You do, think 'cause of humidity in the last few days, if you planted the wrong fig for our region, the figs will ferment on you real fast.

And, figs for our region should be the type of figs that have a smaller eye.

Those of you that aren't familiar with figs, if you look at the bottom of the fig, the opposite of the stem section, there is an eye on the fig.

The wider open that eye is, the more problems you're gonna have with ants.

- Wow.

- And things of that nature.

And also more, you're going to have a problem with the figs fermenting or ruining.

And you can tell when it is done that, if you pay close attention, it becomes rather translucent.

You can almost see down in the fig, on the way it is but, we have a problem in the South because figs carry a lot of different names, and what you know this particular fig by, and what I know may be completely different.

Same thing, problem we have with field peas in the South.

Everybody says purple hull.

Well, there a lot of varieties have a purple hull.

- Okay, I got you.

- You've got to be more specific.

- Okay, what about propagation though?

Let's hit propagation-- - Okay well, propagation, I looked at the Dixon handout earlier when I came in, Susie had given me a copy of it, and there are five different ways, and in theirs that they propagated them.

The most successful method is layering.

That is taking a the lower limb on an established plant, pull it to the ground, and find where your contacts going to be.

Dig a little trench on the ground on that particular landing spot.

Take the sharp end part of your pruners or a knife, and on the bottom limb of, bottom of the limb, wound the bark on the plant there, I mean a good strip out of it.

- Okay.

- Pin it into the trench, put a little dirt on top of it and put a rock, a brick or whatever will hold it in there.

- Hold it, ah okay.

- It's in contact with the ground, and let it stay there for the growing season.

When you get ready, when you think it's growing properly and it will, it'll start leafing it, leafing out and growing on its own, cut it free and let it stay in that spot for at least another month.

So those roots will get out and dig it up.

And you've got a stronger root system, than you would have by taking cuttings and going through the process of put it in a proper potting soil.

- Okay, well, let's talk about pests quickly.

So, any major pests or diseases?

- The major pest that I'm having this year, is a little black sugar ant that are almost microscopic.

But if the fig has an open eye on it, they're going inside to where the actual flower is, and get the nectar out of there.

And when they do, they've basically ruined the fig.

You might want, if you've got an ant problem there, squeeze your fig and break it at the end before you take a bite, 'cause you, may have numerous ants on the inside of it.

That is the major pest.

Of course, you've got the problem with birds, and if a bird pecks it, and injures it, and opens it up, even if the eye is closed, the ants will take advantage of the entrance that's there.

Thrashers in the garden, robins and mockingbirds all seem to be very fond of figs.

- Wow, so what do you do for that?

Maybe netting or some sort of.

Or just let them have their way?

- I don't net.

Did for years, and thought the plants that I had netted blueberries or figs or thing like that.

Most of these shrubs or small trees, grow rapidly.

And if you've got the netting on there and you don't, and you have it in contact with the plant, the plant is likely to grow through it.

- Okay.

- And that gives you a problem in taking it loose.

Some people net here that grow in a tree form.

We mostly have a bush form the way it comes up.

Mr. Bill, appreciate the good information about figs.

You think so?

- Oh yeah.

- Thank you much, appreciate it.

- I just learned some stuff I didn't know.

[upbeat country music] - All right, so one of our most common, maintenance practices in the garden is gonna be some preventative fungicides.

And you have a lot of options, there're biological options, there're also conventional fungicides.

You just wanna make sure that you know what disease you're addressing, and that you're following labels on the bottle.

This is actually, chlorothalonil is the active ingredient so it's a conventional fungicide, that's been on the market for quite some time, wide range of crops that it's appropriate for, early blight is one of them.

And so, we have it mixed up according to the label instructions, and we're gonna be applying.

I would prefer in the morning or in the late part of the day when we're not in the heat of the day.

And the most important thing when we think about fungicides for the home garden, is good coverage.

We wanna spread the undersides and the topsides, get good coverage from our protective or our control materials.

And so, chlorothalonil, a lot of the biologicals, really most of the fungicides that we would use in our garden are gonna be protective.

Which means that we're not gonna be wiping out existing infections, what we really wanna be doing, is getting coverage over our leaves so that we prevent that fungal inoculum from infecting more.

And so, what I wanna do is get good coverage over the plant and get as much of those interior leaves as possible.

Most of the time what the directions will tell us is, spray to the point of runoff, right?

So we don't want the material completely dripping off the plant, but we want to get good coverage on those leaves, depending upon how often we get rain, lots of times we'll apply 7 to 10 days.

So keeping up that preventative fungicide is one of the best practices for maintaining disease free plants through the season.

[upbeat country music] - All right, this is our Q & A session.

Mr. Bill, you're jumping in to help us out, okay?

- Okay.

- All right, here's our first viewer email.

"How do you know when to pick figs?"

And guess what, we just happened to have a fig expert.

- Yeah, I hear ya.

- Sitting here today.

So Mr. Bill, how do you know when to pick the figs?

- Well, the figs will give you warning-- - Yeah warning [laughs] - To begin with.

The figs stay on the plant as a hard green, fairly small object for an excruciating amount of time.

And all of a sudden you will see it change color.

Even if it is not a dark fig, it will get lighter green.

And it will in about three days, double in size.

And then it's going to droop.

Now, some figs, the instant it droops, it's ready.

And you'll have to go by experience on what your variety is because a variety like LSU purple is an excellent fig, but it wants to stay on the vine or the bush one more day after it has drooped.

Well, you've got a problem, then.

That gives the birds an extra day, a shred day.

- To come get it, right.

- But, it does happen, and so, when it has drooped it is ready to be picked.

You can say it out of home, it's not going to get any sweeter in the kitchen, but it will get softer, and, more tasteful if you pick it like he did his tomatoes.

- Right.

- Pick it, take it inside, and leave it in something like in the kitchen where the temperature's steady.

- Okay, all right, that sounds good to me.

Alright, so here's our next viewer viewer email.

"I have a puzzling thing growing in my mulch.

What is it, and what do I need to do about it?"

And this is from Vanice.

As you can see there on the screen, this is what you call bird nest fungus.

'Cause if you look at it, see the little cups, like little nests.

Okay, I mean, actually it looks like little eggs, in the nest.

- Yeah, it really does.

- Okay.

But it's just living off of organic substrate.

That's all it's doing.

Okay, it's just the fungus.

What you can do is, just stir up, the little nest, the little fungus, or you can add more organic mulches to it, okay.

And it'll work.

There's no need to spray a fungicide or anything like that, just get out a rake, rake it, fluff it up, add some organic mulch to it, it'll be fine.

- Okay.

- It's just living off organic material, that's in the soil.

So it's not necessarily a bad thing.

- No.

- All right.

- But it tells you the fact you got good organic material.

- It does do that, that's good.

So I hope that helps you out Ms. Vanice.

All right, here's our next viewer email.

"My fig tree has gotten too tall, and I want cut it back.

When is the best time to prune fig trees?"

And this is from Steve.

So Mr. Bill, he wants to know when is the best time to prune his fig tree because it's gotten too big.

And we hear that a lot at the office.

- Right, well, the, if you're going to do extensive pruning, recommendation on it is to prune along about the latter part of March.

That's for heavy pruning.

The reason for waiting to the spring is we got some late bad weather.

We got an ice storm or something like that.

And you don't want to, the sap's already rising in the fig, and you don't wanna injure the trees severely,=.

When you are pruning, and you can prune it to a tree form.

Lady told me in one of the seminars that I was crazy that figs grew to a tree form.

In our area, they only grow to a tree form with extensive pruning.

- Okay, it's good to know.

- But you can cut the fig back as severely as you want to and not damage the next year's crop.

I have a friend who had big figs across the back of her lot but they were on the other side of the property line, but they share them, you know how it is.

And they sold the house and the new owner went in there and cut every fig tree down to about nine inches.

- Wow.

- And then put a fence up, a wooden fence.

And I said, well, don't worry about it.

She said, why?

I said, you'll be picking figs over the fence, before the summer's over.

And she basically told me I was crazy.

Everybody knows that anyway.

And the fig tree grew approximately eight feet from that root system, because it had a good root system down.

And it was an established tree, and it'll grow 8 to 10 feet sometimes.

You might wanna pinch the tops out to make the bush push out.

- Alright, good stuff.

All right, Mr. Tom, Mr. Bill, we are out of time.

Remember, we love to hear from you.

Send us an email or letter.

The email address is questions@familyplotgarden.com, and the mailing address is Family Plot, 7151 Cherry Farms Road Cordova, Tennessee, 38016.

Or you can go online to FamilyPlotGarden.com.

That's all we have time for today.

You can find out more about the things we talked about on today's show on FamilyPlotGarden.com.

We also have our past shows, if you want to see one again.

Thanks for watching.

I'm Chris Cooper.

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

Be safe.

[upbeat country music] [acoustic guitar chords]