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

The heat of summer can stress tomato plants.

Today, we are learning how to keep production going all summer long.

Also, we will be planting fall vegetables in the 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 Alainia Hagerty.

Alainia is the owner of Tomato Baby Company.

And Mr. D. will be joining me later.

Hi, Alainia.

- Hi, there.

- It's good to have you back in The Family Plot garden.

- Back to see the baby tomatoes again.

- Back to see the tomatoes you planted.

So what do you think so far?

- I think they look good.

- Think they look good?

- They look real good.

- All right so, it's been terribly hot here in Memphis this summer.

So, let's talk about summer tomato care.

So what do we need to start with that?

- Well I understand these are on a drip hose.

Drip irrigation.

And they look pretty great.

- They look pretty good?

- You're getting fruit.

Some of these can be picked ahead of time when they're still a little bit green, to ripen indoors.

That might help a little bit with the ripening.

I see one that, in the summer they're quick to go from almost-ripe, to way too ripe.

So sometimes you can pick them when they're maybe almost done.

And, even one that's still a little bit green on the green side.

You can pick something like this, it doesn't, just take it inside and set it indoors.

- Okay.

- Both the, upside down like that.

- Upside down!

How about that?

Okay.

- Well, there you go.

[chuckling] And they don't have to be in the sun, just put 'em in- - Okay.

- It could be dark, it doesn't matter.

- All right.

- I've got a few spent blooms that didn't get pollinated it looks like.

It's just the heat, - Right.

- They won't pollinate when it's above 90.

The pollen inside the flower is...

They're self-pollinated.

They've got both the female and the male parts.

They just have to move the pollen inside.

That's gonna be...

I saw a bumble bee here earlier that was doing some good deeds.

But you can go through here just to sort of help them along with the heat.

Tap the blooms, shake the whole thing.

Grab the plant and shake it, I've seen people do.

And that'll help 'cause generally they're wind pollinated as well as the insect pollinated.

I understand they're getting watered everyday.

They look pretty good.

There maybe some blight.

Might be a good time to...

Course there's a lot of heat stress too.

There might be good time to start some of your chemicals on the... if you want to go that route.

- Okay.

- For prevention.

- Okay, and some of those chemicals are of course chlorothalonil.

- Then your other field, mancozeb.

But they're preventative.

- Right.

- So maybe just heat stress is causing them to look a little bit yellowing at the bottom.

- Okay, now would you remove some of those diseased leaves?

- Ah you could.

You could just for good practice and discard them outside the garden.

- Okay.

- You want to look for hornworms.

- [chuckling] Those things are hard to find.

- Especially after the rain, they're hard to find.

- So it's interesting, you said after the rain.

- After the rain you could expect them within about a week.

- What?

How about the... - The ground's gotta be soft and... 'Cause they intend to eat and then go down in the ground to pupate.

So the hawk-moth or tomato hawk-moth or hummingbird moth will come along and lay like one to three eggs so generally if you see one, you've got more.

- Wow.

Okay.

- But be on the look on, they're hard to see.

But you can definitely see when the damage comes along.

- Wow, you can definitely see that.

- You'll have... you'll still have the stems but you don't have any of the leaves.

- Right.

- Now you can treat those and that's an organic treatment.

It's Bt.

When the worm eats it, you don't have to worry about them eating anymore.

So it'll kill 'em.

- Right.

- There's also...

Course we pick 'em off too.

That's the quickest way.

Now there's one hornworm that's a good hornworm that you do not wanna kill.

- There's a good horn worm?

- Nobody thought I'd say that.

If you see a hornworm that looks like it's got granules of rice sticking out of it's back, - Ah right.

I know where you're going.

- Parasitic wasps leave that worm alone.

It won't eat anymore.

Won't harm the plant at all at this point.

And you want to breed more of those wasps.

And they'll go out there and kill 'em on for you.

- Okay, it's the braconid wasp, hey I know what exactly talking' about.

- A little wasp, I guess.

And keeping' up with the fertilizer.

- Okay, so what kind of fertilizer would you use at this time of the year, you know?

- It would be the same all the way throughout just read the directions whether you do uh...

I generally use the higher dose.

So, I only have to do it every couple weeks or so.

- Okay.

- But just keep 'em fed.

You can't do anything about the heat.

They'll show some leaf curls sometimes just from stress of the heat, but it'll get better as it cools off.

- Any other diseases?

Anything else we should know about?

- No, I think they look really good.

- Okay - A lot of people get blossom end rot and that is... they'll say calcium deficiency but it's really most and I... You don't have any of that.

And I think it's because y'all are watering every morning, and it's just maintaining that moisture so they don't go without the calcium intake from like the ground being too dry to take it up in.

- All right.

So what if you add some like cracked fruit?

- Okay, generally that's from when it rains then we'll get too much rain it'll have a growth spurt - Okay.

- And the calcium or just the normal growth doesn't keep up with the kind of water that we get.

- But we can't do anything about that.

But you can mulch and just what you're doing with the morning watering, with the irrigation, just being consistent.

And probably after rain look for the cracked fruit.

And that when that happens, and usually you can harvest those then they might even ripen a little bit before, but you can hold on to them for a few days.

- Okay.

You mentioned mulch a couple of times.

So what type of mulch do you like to use or would you prefer?

- There's so many methods.

Some people use dried hay bales or, you know, straw.

I've seen...

I use pine needles and I put newspaper up under them.

And that way it just keeps the weeds out.

- Got it.

- Tomatoes being a annual, I mean we only have to keep, 'round here it's Bermuda.

But you just have to keep the grass out of there for a few months so I try not to use... A lot of people use black plastic.

It makes it easier.

- Right.

- I'm using, generally my garden area's the same one, the same spot every year.

So I try not to use any plastic that's gonna be trouble to get up later.

But put newspaper down, it'll till in and add to the soil.

- Okay.

- So, it's beneficial?

- Yes, and pine needles, pine needles work great.

They dry out and that just keeps the soil level with your mulch.

It being dry is gonna keep the wet and the disease away from your plants.

- That's good.

That's what you want.

- Right, and the watering at the bottom like you've got it, that keeps it from... keeps you from getting the plants wet which is encouraging the disease.

- Yeah we definitely want to get that especially the bottom foliage wet for sure.

Hey Alainia, we appreciate that.

Yeah, getting us summer tomato care, right?

- Yes.

- And so far, so good like you said, right?

- And they look great.

- So far so good.

All right so thank you much.

We appreciate that.

- Okay.

[upbeat country music] - This is at the planting of the old flowering begonia which is an annual that's been around for many decades.

Often you'll see it advertised for use in sun or shade, and yeah well, but, maybe.

It actually does a little bit better in some shade.

And this is a really good example right here.

This patch is doing so well and lush and covered in flowers actually getting some shade from this overhang during the midday sun and the afternoon sun which is the hottest part.

Although it does get morning sun, which is ideal so that it will continue to flower well, if you look at this area, they're certainly baking in the hot sun for longer parts of the day, not doing as well.

The temptation might be that you water it more heavily then.

But in fact begonias are plants that suffers from too much water.

So you don't want to keep soil too wet.

You will rot the roots and lose that planting.

So be sure you checked to be sure that it does need watering again.

You also might want to check out some of the new forms that have the larger leaves and are really beautiful additions to the landscape.

[upbeat country music] - Hi Mr. D., let's talk about fall vegetable gardening.

What do we need to know?

- Well, you need to know that gardening is a year-long affair.

It's not just a springtime affair and an efficient gardener will, after he harvests a crop of corn, will have picked the corn out and they'll plant some fall crops.

The University of Tennessee has an excellent publication called Fall Vegetable Gardens.

And I encourage you anyone interested in gardening to grab one of these publications because not only does it have a good chart that tells you when you can plant and what you can plant.

See I have things highlighted here that we're saying we can plant until September 1.

And that's about now.

But this guide is a recommendation for the entire state of Tennessee.

On the back page of this publication it has neat little table that tells you the average day that an area receives the first 32-degree temperature.

So I guess that would be the first frost.

And Memphis, where we are right now, is November 6th.

And if you look down through here, that is by far the latest date of a first frost.

So that tells me that in Memphis I can add a couple of weeks to that September 1 date.

And not worry about it a whole lot.

On the other hand, if you happen to be in Allardt, Tennessee, September the 19th.

So in a couple of weeks you guys are gonna get frost and forget about the September 1 date.

It's not gonna do you any good.

So just keep in mind the date is an average across the state of Tennessee.

It's very important to look at, you know, Memphis November 6th, hey Newbern where I'm... My hometown, October 13th, you know and it's a real handy tool to use.

So what we're gonna do is we're gonna pull this corn out and we're going to try to get rid of some of these weeds that have grown up in here.

- There's a lot of spurge in there.

- And do a little bit of light tilling.

It would be nice if we had a tiller but we... this is a really small area and I think we can take care of it with hand tools.

And we're not gonna do the entire area.

I think we're gonna do just the first four feet across here.

Okay, so we're gonna plant cabbage, cauliflower, and broccoli, lettuce and spinach.

The first three that I mentioned, cabbage, cauliflower and broccoli need more room than the spinach and lettuce need, so really we need about 18 inches apart and I'm gonna... so that we'll have enough room.

[Chris chuckling] We'll go ahead and make my little hill - Okay - And then we'll plant several seeds in each hill and then we're gonna thin them down to one or two.

So there's where we gonna do our first one.

In the fall, you probably need to plant deeper than you would plant in spring and all of these is in this publication.

This soil is very moist.

It was irrigated before we're planting which is a good thing to do.

You definitely need, or gonna probably need to irrigate.

And you can irrigate before or after you plant but it's better to irrigate before you plant.

Plant in the moist soil, that way you don't have to deal with irrigating after you plant and forming a crust.

- Right.

- This soil has really good organic matter, so water-holding capacity shouldn't be a problem.

So I'm gonna put one about here and then one about here.

So we're gonna use that, utilize all of our space here - Okay.

- And just basically doing this to mark it more than anything.

And the Bermuda grass sprig, we're not gonna stand for that.

[Chris chuckling] - You gotta go somewhere else.

- Yeah.

- Okay.

- The Bermuda's gonna love this plot after a while though if you don't get it out of there.

- I'm gonna do the same thing for the other two rows.

They're gonna be a kinda be a little grid kinda like the corn that we had.

So that's three.

You know I've been called an artist with a hoe.

[laughing] - Not really.

Fairly dangerous as a matter of fact.

- All right.

- Okay.

Let's plant.

Okay, what do you want first?

Cabbage, broccoli or cauliflower?

Which do you prefer first?

- Cabbage, man - Cabbage?

- Like cabbage.

- Okay.

[package rustling] - That's all we need.

- Yeah.

- Oh no, where is it?

- Remember the... that's it.

That's it.

That's right there.

- Yeah, that's where I pulled that Bermuda grass out, wasn't it?

- It was.

You have another mound in here.

- It's planted.

- All right.

- Those seeds go a long way.

Okay, next broccoli, cauliflower?

- I'll go to broccoli.

- You'll definitely have to do some thinning.

Now that leaves... - Cauliflower, right?

- Cauliflower.

Lettuce or spinach?

- Lettuce.

We can do that.

Okay.

- Let me see it.

- Three to six inches between plants.

- Three to six inches on the lettuce.

- Okay.

- All right.

We should remind folks you don't have to plant those seeds that deep, right?

- You don't have to plant them that deep, but they need to be deeper than in the spring.

- Right.

- And the average rule of thumb is four times the diameter of the seed.

So seed that small, you actually... You can throw it on top of the ground and drag a harrow over it or something and be all right.

- Oh yeah.

All right, so what's the last one?

- Spinach.

- Ah.

- Popeye's favorite.

- Popeye.

- Do you think that really worked for kids?

- I don't know.

I've tried it.

- Because of Popeye?

- Because of Popeye.

- Okay.

I guess it does then.

- I thought I was strong anyway when I ate it.

- These seeds are a little bigger.

- They are.

- Three to four inches between plants.

That plant is a little thick.

- All right.

- Volunteers.

- Volunteers.

[laughing] - The seed that I planted was 2017 seed.

So they're a little old, not real old.

But I planted them a little thick to make up for any poor germination.

So when they come up, and I expect more will come up than we need.

So you probably gonna have to thin everything.

Everything that I planted I planted a too thick a rate.

- Okay.

- And you need to do that when you're putting seeds out.

When you're planting transplants you don't necessarily have to do that.

Transplant's already up and going.

- Right.

- But I'll firm that a little bit.

This Bermuda grass is ready to go.

I mean it's gonna jump, gonna take off.

So we have to deal with that.

- All right.

- Then some weed control right here.

- All right.

- But now we got a fall garden.

Sit back, if we don't get a rain in a few days probably need to irrigate it.

If you do get rain, Mother Nature's taking care of it for you.

- Taking care of it for us.

- And see what happens.

Might look out for insects because they're hungry.

- Yes.

- This time of the year.

And um... - And the Bermuda again like we mentioned.

Yeah.

- Weeds and insects are probably gonna be you're biggest problem.

- Right.

All right Mr. D., we sure appreciate that demonstration.

- Okay.

Good deal.

- Let's go get some water, man.

- Let's do, yeah.

Hydrate.

[laughing] [upbeat country music] - I've got a trick for you today.

You'll notice in the summer you don't get many fruit, when the temperatures are hot and it's above 90 degrees it's a good chance your tomato plant just can't have fruit pollinated.

Today, we're gonna use a toothbrush and you just go to the blooms and buzz them.

The plants are so fertile you just have to move the pollen around.

That's what your bees are usually doing for you.

And then it's gonna blur.

You don't have to get each into individual one just put in on the stem and make it all vibrate at one time and you will get fruit.

You can do this probably every other day or run through the blooms every other day and you'll end up with plants loaded full of fruit.

[upbeat country music] - All right here is our Q and A segment.

Y'all ready?

- Ready.

- These are great questions.

Here's our first viewer email.

"Hi, what can I do to get rid of moss in my lawn?

Thank you," Mrs. Suji.

So Suji, we got the lawn guy right here, right?

Mr. Booker T. Lee.

So how do you get rid of moss?

So first of all, what causes moss?

- Sometimes people like moss.

They stop trying to fight with it.

They see where the moss don't come in they look good in my yard so let it stay there.

But what causes moss, a lot of times you got poor drainage, and another thing could be your soil pH in that done changed some.

And also get a lot of shade.

But look for the poor drainage is one of the thing and a lot of shade.

So you got a lot of shade and you want the grass to grow.

whatever you want to grow there you might want to limb the tree up some and also you might want to do a soil test to check that soil pH and get that lime right in there that will stop moss from growing also too.

But a lot of people like moss and it begin to look good in your yard so I can't fight it, I can't deal with it.

They let it grow and everything.

So and it look good in your landscape.

So get a small spot, let it go.

Let me have moss in my yard.

Yeah but again, that would be really good.

But I... shade and poor drainage.

- And poor drainage.

Okay.

Alainia anything you want to add to that?

- Possibly trench off, if you've got some water collecting.

I've got some water collecting between roots.

But I've been meaning to and haven't done it yet, but get a shovel and just sort trench a little ditch off so you've got some drainage.

If...

But I like moss.

- She likes moss.

- I don't have to mow it.

[laughing] - You don't have to mow it, that's right.

- Okay that's one good thing, you don't have to mow it, mow it, yeah.

- Don't have to mow it but yeah, so there you have it Suji.

And a couple other things I like to mention too as well.

Course you can do core aeration, all right?

You said light penetration, you gotta get air movement.

The question that always comes up can I use chemical?

Chemicals are only temporary.

So there's iron sulfate that you can use.

And there's potassium salts of fatty acids that you can use as well.

We need to follow the label.

But those are temporary, temporary.

So, the cultural practices that you all talked about is what I would do first.

Do those first.

- Let the moss grow.

- And just let it grow, right?

[laughing] - Let the moss have it's place.

Little space in your yard near everything so... - Have some stepping stones there because it's wet, it's gonna be wet and damp, stepping stones.

- Stepping stones, I like that idea.

- Let it go.

- That's right.

- So thank you for that question, Suji.

There you go all right?

Here's our next viewer email.

Great picture here as well.

"I need an urgent diagnosis.

"This is the first time I've ever planted black-eyed peas.

"They came up quickly and looked great.

"But yesterday, when I was checking my garden, "this is what saw.

"When I researched it, I kept coming up with curly top.

"That scares me "because they are near my peppers and tomatoes.

Will curly top affect my nearby plants?"

So what do you think about that one, Alainia.

We'll start with you.

Curly top black-eyed peas.

- If they're getting it then you're definitely, your tomatoes and your peppers will be very susceptible to it.

And you can definitely tell when the tomatoes and peppers get it because they've got mottled growth generally at the top where they're starting to grow incorrectly.

- Right, so you see the puckered leaves, right?

Kind of discoloration, could be a virus?

- Virus okay.

- Of course the leaf hopper actually transmits that virus.

So what you have to do is make sure you don't have weeds around the area, right?

So that's something else I would look at, and then resistant varieties.

I always like to go back to that, right?

It's always good to go resistant varieties.

So yeah, be careful.

Like you said, Alainia, your tomatoes and peppers are in the same family.

Right?

So they could definitely be susceptible to the curly top.

So, yeah, the research was done here.

Yes, good picture, you know, did some research.

Right?

We're thinking virus, maybe a little drift.

Control those weeds, you know, so you don't have those leaf hoppers.

- So you watch it for a while but if it gets worse, it probably won't produce.

- It probably will not.

- I agree with you on that.

- So you might have to, yeah... just consider doing it somewhere else - Somewhere else, plant it somewhere else.

- Then, you got a virus, be careful how you take it out the garden too.

You might want to put it in a bag or something when you move it out of the garden.

- That's right, that's a good point.

Practice good sanitation folks.

All right.

Thank you for the question.

Here's our next viewer email.

"I've heard about milky spore to control Japanese beetles.

Does it work?"

And this is Seth on YouTube.

So I'll jump in here first.

So the milky spores, right?

Has microbial activity, the thing about milky spores is this It's not 100% effective.

It does kill the grubs of Japanese beetles.

But you have to get good coverage, all right?

And it has to be watered in.

But at the end of the day, it's best to maintain a good turf if this is in a turf situation.

At the end of the day.

- Right.

- Right.

- You need a strong, thick turf in there and that'll fight a lot of stuff off for you, insects and everything in there.

- You know 'cause the population of Japanese beetles varies from year to year, right?

Your turf can actually deal with, you know, having a couple of, you know, grubs in a certain area.

Right, but yeah milky spores can be used.

It's expensive, but it's just not a hundred percent effective.

- Like I said, it's good to have a good, thick turf and everything, cut it the right height, the insects go away in there.

Just do that, like you said, milky spores will work.

- Yes it's not 100%, yeah.

I don't know if there is anything that's 100% yeah, but it's just, you know, it's something that can be used.

There's some other insecticides.

Systemic insecticides that can be used.

But this is specifically about the milky spores but yeah... - And read the label.

Know when to put it down too in there.

- You have to read and follow the label.

ou have to know a little bit about the life cycle of Japanese beetles, right?

So in the Memphis area you want to control Japanese beetle grubs, pretty much August 'til about the end of September, October, somewhere up in there.

So that's why life cycle is so important.

Yeah, I wouldn't worry about it too much, Seth.

But your question about the milky spores, yes, works, just not 100% effective.

Read and follow the label.

And know the life cycle of those Japanese beetles.

All right?

So Alainia, Booker that was fun.

Thank you much.

- Thank you.

- Remember, we 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 learn more about tomatoes or planting fall vegetables, or any other gardening topic, head on over to familyplotgarden.com.

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

Be safe.

[upbeat music] [acoustic guitar chords]