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

Planting vegetables indoors   before the last frost   gives your garden a headstart.

Also, what should you   consider before choosing seeds   or transplants at the store?

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

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

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

Joining me today is Lee Sammons.

Lee's a UT Extension Agent in Hardeman County and Joellen Dimond will be joining me later.

All right, Lee, we're glad you're here today.

- Thanks Chris.

- Thank you as always for being here.

Now, we have a good question for you.

How do we start vegetables seeds indoors?

What do we need to know about that?

- Okay, but first we need to look at the seed and select what seeds we want to plant in that garden this year.

If you carried seeds over from last year, you may, maybe before we get ready to plant, test the germination.

- Sure.

- And make sure that they are viable seeds so that you don't lose 10 days in planting those.

So you can put those in   like in a wet paper towel   and keep them warm and just   see if they start to swell.

So that indicates that the   seeds are viable at that point.

- So we know that   they're good and ready to go at that point?

- That's right.

- Okay.

- So then we can take those that we saved from last year.

Or if you go to store and look at the seed packs, you can purchase off the different seed racks that are available in your area.

Look on the back of the seed pack,   and it's going to give   you lots of information,   no matter where you live   in the United States,   it's gonna tell you,   when is the right time   to plant those seeds.

So you look at the   number of days before   your last frost is,   and then you wanna   count backwards.

So you know when to plant   them, not too early,   but on the right time.

- Okay, and it's no matter   where you're living, right?

- That's correct.

- That seed packet it gives you the information that you need.

- It gives you all the information you need.

- All right, so what about soil?

Everybody wants to know what kind of soil do I need, to get my vegetable seed started?

- You wanna buy something that is a peat like mix, something that will stay moist.

You can't just go out in the yard and dig up the clay soil that we have in the South.

- Now why can't we do that though?

- Because you're not gonna get the drainage to occur in the germination mix.

So we like to get an external mix.

You may also, if you get something out of the yard, you may get a lot of fungus that might keep it, your plants from doing good.

- Sure, now, what about containers though?

What are the best containers to use for starting those vegetables seeds?

- We wanna start with a clean container, whether it is a tray that you can buy at the store, or whether you have a pot left from last year, you wanna wash it and make sure that it is sterile.

Doesn't have any fungus on the pot.

And one that has drainage of some type, 'cause you don't want just seedlings sitting in just water.

Or you can buy a different type of tray packs that already have these plugs that you can use to germinate.

You soak these in water and they will swell up and you have your seed in the center there, and it will swell up and keep, stay moist all the time.

And they sell these tray packs at different stores you can have.

Some of them will have just a small plug that's, will swell and fill up the entire pack.

And you plant in that direct.

- Okay, and these are readily available for homeowners?

- Homeowners, they're gonna get them at different type stores, farm stores, your box stores available in nurseries and garden centers all over the United States.

- Okay, pretty inexpensive.

- Inexpensive.

- Good, good.

Homeowners wanna hear that, inexpensive.

- But yeah.

You can spend as much as you want to.

- I'm sure you can.

Now you've mentioned a couple of times about fungus.

So why is that important when we're dealing with starting our seeds?

- Right, if we keep it too wet, the fungus grows in the soil and you'll get into the disease in the root system and dampening off.

And they'll come up, but then they will collapse.

- Sure.

- And that's usually from fungus in the soil.

- Okay, yeah, we definitely don't want that, right?

- Right.

- All right, so now let's talk about temperature effects.

And we get that question a lot as an extension agent.

So, let's talk a little bit about that.

- Right, and that'll be on your seed packet.

Tell you what temperature to start your plants at.

Most of our vegetables, like about 70 to 75 degree temperature.

Some of our cooler crops like cabbage or broccoli of that type, you can start them a little bit cooler.

- Okay.

- But your peppers and tomatoes, they need a warm, eggplant need a warm temperature of 70, 75 degrees, constant temperature in the soil.

- Wow, 70 to 75 degrees.

Okay, all right, now what about the moisture conditions?

'Cause you know what happens most people tend to overwater.

- Right.

- So yeah, how do we, yeah get the correct moisture conditions?

- That's one of the nice things about these tray packs because it has a drainage hole there in the bottom.

And you water it and it swells, and the water in the bottom of the tray will keep it moist all the time.

So you're not having to regulate.

- Okay, good.

- If you're doing just a regular mix yourself in a pot, you could use a mister to keep it most.

Sometimes you try to just pour water on, you may wash the soil out.

- Sure.

- It'd be too much force.

But keep it constant, just moist.

- Right, can you do the same thing with a pot?

If you put.

- You can do the same thing with just a pot, you can plant your seedlings in just in a pot.

- Okay, got that.

So how can you tell though, if you got your seedlings too wet?

What would be those signs?

- Well, it would be collapsing or it could not even germinate just may swell and never send up the plant itself, so.

- Okay, yeah.

All right, now most important, right?

The light conditions 'cause again, this is a question we get often about the grow lights and such.

So what do you say about that?

- Well, the grow lights you can buy the fluorescent or LED, you want to keep the lights about four to eight inches above the plant when you're starting out.

- Something there, okay.

- And as the plant grows and you raise your lights up, if you have got it too low, then you may get into little problems.

Versus too high you may get into more of a leggy plant where they're stretching.

- All right.

- Trying to find the light.

- Get splendly, all right.

- And get splendly a lot.

- And trying to get to the light.

Okay, and so those lights again are something that homeowners could purchase?

- Right.

- At the stores and things like that?

Okay.

- Average lighting in the house is not enough for a plant seedling to germinate and grow off to a good seedling itself.

- Okay, so you would recommended grow lights?

- Right.

- Yeah, if at all possible?

- Yeah, if you don't have a greenhouse setting or something that way.

- Right yeah, and then most people.

- Most people.

- Most people probably will not have one, so okay.

So how do you get the seedlings ready to go outside though?

- Well, once this comes up and you have two true leaves on the seedling.

Most time people we'll even transplant it into a bigger pot for it to grow off.

Or if you're using these type of starter pots and kits, you can leave it in those.

And once it gets some up of size, you may want to harden it off a little bit lower that temperature.

Once the seedling comes up, we really like for the light, the night temperature to be a little bit lower than the day temperature and that hardens those cells off a little bit.

- Okay, so the night temperature lower.

- Lower than the day temperature.

- That's how it hardens off, good, good.

All right, so what are the common problems and possible causes that seedlings not growing?

- Most problem is it's not enough light, and unless you're doing some type of grow light, really, it's just not enough light for that seedling to grow.

And the other problem is the plants elongate and stretch 'cause there's not enough light.

And they get leggy and they're not hardened off enough to go out in the cold.

Because we've set them out early, we're going to have some cool nights.

If that plant's not hardened off, it's not gonna do well.

- Okay, so we have the plants, right?

In the pots.

- Right.

- So how do we know to go from the pot to the ground?

- Well, when it gets up of size, usually about four to six inches in height.

And our temperature outside is going to be a controlling thing if it hasn't, if they're still talking about having cold nights then you may need to hold off a while.

Or if you've got a garage or a carport or something that you can protect them from frost, but they still get some cool temperatures.

That'd be okay, they'd be hardened off.

- All right, Lee we appreciate that good information about starting those vegetables seeds indoors.

And you probably have a lot of experience with that.

Don't you?

- I do.

- I'm sure you do, we appreciate that information.

- All right.

[upbeat country music] - Damping off.

- Yeah, that's a real descriptive term   and it refers to a condition   or a disease that happens.

It's all kinds, it can be a   different kinds of pathogens   that cause this.

And it's a, when the   conditions are wet and cool   happens in germination beds   with young seedlings usually.

And just to prevent that, which is very common.

It's a very common problem that happens when we try to grow seedlings, a lot particularly now.

When we wanna grow something on the window sill, it's still cool and kind of damp there by the window or whatever.

So you get little low   seedlings, they just flop over,   they die, the stem will   die at the soil level   and they just flop over.

Damping off, they   fall off or fall over,   but you can prevent   that by not putting them in cool and wet conditions.

If you've got a little germination tray or something or using a sterile mix.

Like go buy one of those soil mixes, don't get it out of your yard, which could be full of those kinds of pathogens.

So that's a good way to prevent it too.

Always start with fresh mix for your germination beds.

- All right, Ms. Joellen, seed or a transplant which one?

- Well, it, that depends.

- Depends, okay.

- I actually do both, 'cause I go by like a lot of people do the length of time that it takes a seed to germinate and grow to a producing fruit.

And if it's a long time, there's so many things can, that can go wrong.

Like there's the weather, there's diseases, disease pathogens, there's weeds, there's all sorts of those pressures in the ground.

And if you transplant, ahead of time, you still have the same thing you've got, you don't really have all of the correct temperature or the moisture level consistent enough to germinate seeds.

Now there are a lot of things you can buy.

- Sure.

- You can buy grow lights, you can buy germination chambers and all sorts of things that will help you, and you will have great success with that.

So if that's what's, if that's a hobby of yours and you like that, that'd be great.

If you have a greenhouse, that's even better, but a lot of us don't have those things.

And so transplants for things that take a long time like tomatoes, peppers, and even cool-season crops that we can get here this month, like broccoli, cauliflower and the cabbages.

The time that, they have to be sown to able to get a seed transplant is usually in the hotter weather or too cold.

And so the germination is not that great.

So buying transplants of those helps that process along.

So you've got already got a plant and, but you've gotta be willing.

Somebody has gone to the trouble to grow that plant.

So, they're gonna cost a little more than a packet of seeds, but I like to do both.

And some of the things I think that are great to grow from seeds are sunflowers, beans, peas, squash, all of those kinds of things.

Things are easy to germinate that don't take long to germinate are good candidates for seed production.

And things that take a long time, like tomatoes and peppers, those are better for buying transplants.

Now there are some seed productions that, I mean, I don't, have not seen anybody have transplants of carrots.

Mostly you have to seed those in the ground.

But one thing you gotta remember, you, the root vegetables like that when you sow those seeds, they're small.

So you're gonna get a whole bunch of them coming up all at once.

You gotta be willing to thin them and just leave some so there's room enough for that root to produce in the ground.

And that's the only thing you have a little bit more work that way with those types of seeds.

- Yeah, you wanna eliminate the competition of course.

- Yes definitely do.

- If that is, okay all right.

- So that's basically, and I do both.

I do some seeds 'cause I just like watching things grow from seeds.

And, but I do buy transplants, especially of broccolis and the tomatoes and things that take longer.

And I don't have a greenhouse or the facilities or their apparatuses to have those grow.

So I tend to buy those as transplants.

- I think the majority of gardeners buy transplants anyway, especially tomatoes and peppers.

I mean, 'cause you see a lot of those at the big box stores and at your nurseries.

- Yeah, but you don't get as much variety.

- All right.

- I mean the seeds.

There's such a large variety of seeds available and you might find one that you really liked.

So it's, you're willing to go to that trouble to grow that particular one, if, 'cause you can't find it already grown out in the industry.

So those are, that's one drawback of just going with transplants all the time.

You're at the, whoever wanted to grow what, and is available to you, that's all you have to choose from, where the catalog full of seeds, it's got a much wider variety of plants to choose from.

- Right, I agree with that.

Okay, all right, so what are you gonna demonstrate for us today?

- Well, I have a fun little project that kids love.

This is a good family project.

And I do my window sill gardening this way.

- All right.

- And I make my own, we're into recycling and environmentally sustainable.

So we've got these wood newspaper pot makers, there's all different kinds.

You just buy one that you like and you, this particular one says to cut your newspaper about 3.5 inches by 10 inches.

And you simply take it at the edge of the pot and you roll it, then you fold it over the ends.

And then you set it in place by doing this, you see it comes out like that.

And then you pull it out and you have a pot.

- I think I can do that.

- And you can, the thing is this, with the newspapers now, the ink is soy-based.

So, you can just plant this directly in the ground, but then you will fill it with soil.

This is a germination-type soil.

So it's a fine, 'cause it's for seeds.

And so any kind of germination soil will do and you put it in.

I had this little tray that I put it in.

And I, here's some squash, we'll plant some squash, and we've got some sunflowers.

So, and I, a lot of people say, plant one, well, this is window sill gardening.

- Gotta plant more than one.

- So I'll plant like two or three, but you just, and you remember the seeds are big.

So you're gonna put this down in the soil about twice the width of the seed.

- Right.

- So when I, I'll set it in place and then I simply push it down.

And then I'll water it, and the good thing that this is, you can water the tray and it will soak it up.

So you don't have to keep pouring over the top.

And then if you of course take your pencil and your popsicle stick and you can write, well, this is the zucchini.

So you can sit it right there like that.

And then it's labeled.

And when it comes up, you'll know what was in that pot.

And if, you can see sometimes window sills if you wanna keep the temperature nice,   you'll put a piece   of plastic over   kind of make a little   greenhouse in your window sill.

And when they do   germinate and come up, they don't all come up.

There might be a, this one may not germinate   and there'll be plants   and all these others.

And there might be one,   or there might be two.

It is just, you never know.

Because it's not   an exact science.

You put it in a sunny window.

I say either east or, I mean west or south, I have put them in east windows, but don't have as much luck.

- Okay.

- Because the south and the west, the sun stays in the windows a little bit longer.

And is a little bit hotter, so.

It seem, they seem to germinate better there.

But this is not exact because you know the fluctuates from morning to night and your house temperature isn't always right, it's dry.

And then you may forget to water, and so it's not an exact science, but it sure is a lot of fun.

- Wow, so this is something that you do regularly?

- I do it every year, just 'cause it's fun.

- Look at the, look on her face.

Can't you tell it's fun?

- Yes.

- She's like a kid, okay.

That is neat, something to do with the kids and get them interested.

- Get them interested in gardening.

- In gardening.

- And then take the kids and you'd go outside.

Once you have them and you plant them in the ground and then they get to water and take care of, and then collect the fruit.

And then you cook with it and they eat more vegetables.

- That sounds good.

One last question though.

- Sure.

- Can you actually plant that in the ground like that with the paper?

- Yes.

- Okay, all right.

'Cause it will degrade, obviously, over time.

- It will degrade, it sure will.

- Good deal, I appreciate that demonstration Ms. Joellen.

- No problem.

- Thank you.

[gentle country music] - I have just seeded this tray with snapdragon seeds, which are very, very tiny.

And one of the ways I keep the little seed, 'cause it's close to the surface, from drying out is to put a little bit of vermiculite sprinkled over the top of the cell.

And I just take it like this.

I don't like the vermiculite under my fingernails, so I wear gloves.

But I just sprinkle a little on the top, over the seed.

And the seed is really just sitting right on the surface.

So this also helps it get good contact with the soil.

And then once I do this on the whole seed tray, I will put warm water on the tray and let the water soak up.

The vermiculite swells up and retains that moisture to keep that seed from drying out.

[gentle country music] - All right, here's our Q&A session.

You all ready?

- Sure.

- Ready.

- These are great questions.

All right, here's our first viewer email.

"My fig tree experienced   minus five degree temperatures   "in February 2021 Texas   winter and grew no figs.

Will figs return in 2022?"

And this is Laurie from Texas.

So Lee, what do you   think about that?

Minus five degrees.

- Minus five, she's lucky for it to survive.

They don't usually take more than like down to five degrees.

So if it survived and came back, then last year then, figs produce on their old wood.

So if she didn't have any figs last year, chances are, if it comes back this year, she'll have figs.

- Good deal.

Ms. Kim, anything you wanna add to that?

- No, I'm surprised it's still alive.

- I am too, figs are what subtropical... - Yeah.

- plants, yeah.

So anything in that cold, yeah.

Obviously it died down to the roots, it will come back from the roots.

And it usually comes back as a bush, a little shrub.

- More of a shrub.

- Right, and yeah, depending on the variety and we don't know the variety here, but yeah old wood, or next year.

- Next year.

- You get production next year.

- Right.

- All right, so there you have Ms. Laurie, hold on, right?

You get that production this year, 2022.

- Don't dig it up yet.

- Right, thank you for the question.

Here's our next viewer email.

This one's interesting.

"My backyard floods   very time it rains.

"What is an inexpensive way to   get control of this problem?

"There are several spots   like this in my yard.

"The water has nowhere to go.

"I just purchased a house and   want to plant fruit trees,   "vegetables, flowers,   palm banana trees.

"I'm scared to   invest in the plants   "if they're going to die   due to poor drainage.

Thank you," Anna.

I like the fact that she wants to plant - Plant.

- A lot of plant material, right?

But she has poor drainage.

So Kim I'm gonna throw it to you first.

What are some of the ways that you think she can correct?

- She's gonna have to.

- Inexpensive, all right.

- Inexpensive.

She's gonna have to find a way, even if she's grading it to drain that water off or she could just use raised beds.

That's, a lot of people do that here because we have the clay soils and inexpensive is the problem.

There are ways to amend the soil and dry it, you amend the soil.

And then, but yeah, I would just do raised beds.

- You'd do raised beds?

- Beds, yeah.

- Lee, any thoughts?

- I would do raised beds.

- Yes.

- But she's right, fruit trees do not like poor drained soil.

- They do not.

- So I would not plant those until I get my drainage corrected.

- So I'm thinking raised beds came to mind for me.

Again, we're talking about inexpensive, right?

And you could try, once it gets graded, you could try to add, of course, organic matter, organic material to kind of build that soil up, right?

The third thing is this, you can always plant water-loving plants.

I mean, a lot of these that she listed are not, like the fruit trees, so that's an option.

But how about this way?

Maybe a rain garden.

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

To perhaps hold some of that water, to slowly infiltrates down to their profile.

So I mean, those are some options, but I know we're looking for inexpensive options.

- That would also kind of, if you've got stuff growing there, it would break up the soil a little after it's been there awhile.

and maybe she can, down the way, she could plant other things, so.

- Yeah, but yeah, it looks like Anna has her work cut out for yeah, for sure.

- Yeah.

- All right, Anna so those are some of your options.

Good luck.

All right, thank you for the question.

Here's our next viewer email.

"When you are cutting off   small twigs from tree trunks,   do you need to worry   about branch collars?"

This is Brandon on YouTube.

So Ms. Kim, I'm gonna start with you first?

What do you think about that?

Do you have to worry about that on the small?

- I would still try it, you don't want him to cut into the bark layer.

But just.

- Sure.

- Cut it as close as you can without, so it will heal over smoothly.

But I think you'll be fine.

As long as you don't wanna leave little stubs sticking out.

- Right I definitely agree.

- So you wanna go.

Yeah right up.

- Yeah.

So the key word that you mentioned, heal.

- Heal.

- You wanna make sure it heals properly for sure.

Lee, what do you think about that?

- I agree, just make sure you don't leave the stubs, but then it will not heal properly after.

- Yeah cut outside of the branch collar, right?

To prevent decay from entering the trunk.

- Yeah.

- Entering the trunk, yeah.

- All right.

So that's what you wanna do.

- And it'll heal over and especially those small twigs along the, I mean you won't even notice those after awhile, so.

- All right, Brandon, so I hope that helps you out.

Good question.

Thank you much.

Here's our next viewer email.

"Which is the best   peach tree to plant?

"Not too big.

Thank you," this is Paul from   Point Pleasant, West Virginia.

So Lee, best peach tree to plant.

And we're talking about West Virginia.

- I would recommend you check, call your local extension office in West Virginia.

They can give you recommendations on what varieties do well in that area.

- Right, they would have publications.

- Right.

- Of course of peach varieties from the area or for the area.

But here's something else too that actually, I know Dr. Natalie Bumgarner is from West Virginia.

Just happened to know that there are a couple of different zones, so pay attention to your plant zones.

'Cause their zones actually go from 5B to 7A.

Can you believe that?

5B to 7A.

So make sure that you, of course take note of that, and then yeah go to your local extension office.

They will have a publication on a peach varieties for your area.

I have seen a couple, Red Haven is one.

John Boy, that I've seen before, is another one.

And Bounty is one that I'm familiar with that you can grow up that way.

But those are just three, but I'm sure they have a list of more that you can grow in that area.

If he's looking for a small, then he looks for a dwarf.

- Right.

- Right.

- 'Cause they actually have too, not only that but you will have of course white flesh.

Or do you want yellow flesh?

Right, so they have those varieties, you know, as well, listed in their publications I'm sure.

All right, so thank you Paul, for that question.

Yeah, check your local extension office.

They're full of good information for you.

All right, Ms. Kim, Mr. Lee, that was fun.

Thank you much.

Appreciate it.

- Remember, we'd love   to hear from you.

Send us an email or letter.

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

Or you can go online to   familyplotgarden.com.

That's all we have time for today, thanks for watching.

If you want to find out more about starting vegetables, head on over to familypotgarden.com.

We also have a video about building a stand for a grow light for your vegetable seedlings.

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

[upbeat country music] [acoustic guitar chords]