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

I'm Chris Cooper.

Tomatoes get big and   have to have support.

Today we're going to look at   several ways to hold them up.

Also certain plants   help each other grow   and keep away bugs.

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 Peter Richards.

Peter is our local garden expert.

Hi Peter, it's warming up, people are anxious to get their vegetables into the ground.

Of course, tomatoes are high on everybody's list to grow, right?

- Yeah, no, they're definitely the queen of the garden.

- Yes.

So let's show the folks a few ways you can support your tomato growth.

- Yes.

Okay.

So the traditional way that people think, Oh support tomatoes is tomato cages.

Just like this one, this is a large tomato cage.

You can get to be much smaller than this but they don't really support tomatoes.

- Alright.

- They're really good for peppers.

But if you look here, we have a poor tomato plant.

- It's a good example.

- Yeah, and you notice it knocked the cage right over.

There's no support here.

It's all over the ground.

It's very, there's lots of fungus as a result.

[Chris chuckling] Because the water was able to splash up even down at the end where it was laying on the ground.

So it just didn't work.

I don't recommend using regular tomato cages.

So I said for peppers, they work really good cause the pepper stay smaller, but not for tomatoes.

- So for peppers and not tomatoes.

- Right.

- Gotcha.

- Okay.

Now, if we look here, this next one, this is a, this is also a tomato cage but this is much heftier and a lot bigger.

- Yes sturdier.

- Yeah, so what I did here was I took four pieces   of cattle panel,   and I wired them together   in a couple of places.

So it created a square   and with cattle panel,   because it's in the grid, I cut   it so that there were spikes   on the bottom and just   kind of put the spikes in.

- Okay.

- And it is, it helps   holds up really good.

You can tell that it holds the tomato plant up, keeps it all off the ground.

This would work really good for determinate tomato plant.

But if you have an indeterminate tomato plants and your tomato plants grow a lot vegetatively through the year, this might end up actually being too small.

You can see that it started out the top here.

When we're taping this we're at the end of the year so it's not a big deal, but you know, if it grew much more than this, it's gonna go right back down to the ground again.

- So I'm gonna ask you this, - So let's tell the folks again about determinate and indeterminate tomatoes.

What's the difference?

- So determinate tomatoes will grow up to a certain point and then they basically stop growing.

And they put on all their fruit at once, which can be something you want.

So that's the kind of tomato plant that commercial growers grow because you can go through and you can pick the field a couple of times and you're done.

Indeterminate tomato plants are tomato plants that just keep growing and growing and growing.

Until they get killed by frost or something else.

And so a lot of times home gardeners like those, because you can pick them all through the year and they keep, they keep going all year long.

And a little secret on the determinate-- - Oh we got secrets!

- the indeterminate tomato plants.

So if you have an end like this right here, so this is the end of a vine.

If you pinch off the end right there that will stop the growth.

Now, it will try and grow somewhere else with a sucker but you've stopped that branch.

- Got it.

- And so that takes care of the growth there.

So you kinda control it a little bit.

- Good tip.

- So let's move on here to the Florida Weave.

And this is another way that   you can support your tomatoes   as the tomatoes grow, as they   get up about eight inches,   ten inches above the   previous string you put in,   you just put a string   from one post to another   and back again.

So you just kind of, you're   holding them up as they grow.

Now, you can see that   there is a problem here, and that is that they all tended to fall this way this way - Yeah.

- And so if you have more than a couple of tomato plants I'd recommend that you put a stake,   maybe every two tomato plants   and then weave it there.

So that way they can't   fall too far at once.

This is a great method.

Once again, this might work a little better on determinate plants, because you do have a limited amount of height before you run out of stake.

It's good,   it can be difficult because   it's hard to get   the fungicide in.

And it's hard to, because   the tomatoes tend to   get very dense in the middle, but it keeps your fruit off the ground.

It keeps the tomatoes off the ground.

It keeps the tomatoes compact you know, so they're really in a very narrow line.

- And that's what you want.

- Yeah.

And you can keep your tomato plants.

You can put more tomato plants in because you could put a line of tomatoes here and really you only need, you know, three foot over you could put another line of tomatoes and still get in between them to work 'em during the year.

- Makes sense, okay.

It's also, it makes it easier   to harvest your tomatoes.

- Yep.

Yep.

Okay, so this is the first time I've tried this method and what this is, is this is just a horizontal cattle panel.

- Okay.

- The tomato plants grow up   through the cattle panel   and then as they get heavy   they fall back down on it,   but keeps them off the ground.

- Alright.

- So they just   lay right across?

- Yeah.

- Okay.

- And so this is the first time I've done this this method, but I did it about 24 inches off the ground.

If I did it again, I   would probably take it   down to about 18   inches off the ground.

Reason being that the tomato plant started to fall over before they got up through the cattle panel.

- Right.

Right.

Gotcha   - I've been pretty   pleased with this.

- So you like this?

- I kinda like this, yeah.

It takes a lot of space.

That's it's downside really,   is because this is about a   four foot by four foot space   for two tomato plants, which, you know compared to Florida Weave.

it's quite a bit of space.

But it was very easy to go in   and treat with fungicide   because I could spray above   and then I could   spray underneath.

The benefit kinda is the   bottom part of the plant   the leaves got   blighted and fell off.

And so it, it made it so   all their vegetative growth   was right here on the level.

This just like the other ones is made out of cattle panel which you can get at your local big box hardware store or at your farm supply store.

You have to have pretty heavy, probably bolt cutters to cut it.

But if you have those it's really easy to do.

And then T-posts, which are easy to find,   and they're fairly cheap.

And so that's pretty easy   but that's the basis   of all of these.

- Okay.

So then right.

- We'll look at the next one.

- So this next one here this is a single stake per tomato plant.

[Chris chuckling]   And what you do is as   the tomato plant grows,   you use some sort   of soft fabric.

In this case, I cut   up an old bed sheet   and you tie it up   towards the stake.

It's pretty good.

It has, I think its   big weakness is,   is that you end up   with a whole bunch   of growth concentrated   in one spot.

- That's a lot of growth, it sure is.

- And so that kind of invites the disease, the diseases and the blights to get it.

- So how about treating you with a fungicide was it easy for you to do so?

- Yes and no.

- It's bunched here.

- You can get all the way around it pretty easy.

But you, you know, you're sticking your wand in and you're not sure if you get all of it, but you know, as you can see, you know, this right here, this would be a branch that I'd come back in here and you know, tie it up.

So it's about that far away.

And just kind of keep gathering it up as it goes.

Now, if you have an indeterminate tomato plant it can get really tall which if you notice here, this is actually, this post, this pipe was made by Tom Mashour, who shown some, shown us how to use it in the past but you can continue now to,   you can go up.

You got about 10 feet   that you could   continue to gather up.

Now it's close to   the end of the season when we're taping this so I've just kinda let it go.

But you know, you can continue to, continue to go.

Okay, now this last one, and this one is actually my favorite.

- It's your favorite huh?

- Now, it's not my favorite because it's easy, [Chris laughing] because this one actually takes, this one actually takes a fair amount of work.

And what this is is I have, when the tomato plants were little, I cut them or I pruned them so that I only had two or three main branches.

- Okay.

- And then I wrapped them around string that was attached to this top cross post up here.

And so as they continue to grow, I wrapped them.

And then the other thing you have to do is-- - A lot of work.

- You have to cut off all the suckers as they grow.

So for instance, this right here is a sucker and you can tell it's a sucker because there's a leaf right here and it has grown out between the main stem and the leaf.

So you cut those off.

Best place to get it, is when they're really little like this right here.

And then you can just take it off with your thumb nail and it's good to go.

But something I really like about this and you can see that there's not a lot of blight-- - There's not.

- On this plant.

- It is not.

- And the reason is, you cut the leaves off as you go.

So every week or so you come out and you cut off the bottom three leaves of each vine.

And so what happens is before the blight has a chance to get established you've cut it off the plant.

- Which is so good.

- Yeah, and so, - So good, cause you don't have to worry about it spreading that way.

- Right.

It doesn't spread.

You don't, I've grown plants like this where I've maybe sprayed them twice in the whole year.

And I don't have any blight on them or at least not until the very end when they slow down, when they slow down then the blight starts to catch up with them.

But yeah, so I really liked this because if you're gonna go organic, in my opinion, - This is it.

- This is the only way to do it and you can do it.

And your tomato plants will last longer than, you know mid-July - So it was good to get the fungicide on.

And it's also good to harvest.

- Yeah, it's, it's easy to harvest.

Now, you can see that the tomato plants have gotten up close to the top.

- Yeah, pretty close.

- I made this really tall.

You don't have to make it that tall.

You can make it a little bit shorter.

- How tall is it?

- It's probably about nine feet.

- Nine, Okay.

- But you could make a little shorter if you wanted to but you should come up with a way as the tomato plants grow when they get to the top, have extra string up there and kinda start moving them down the board.

And so you'll have   vine at the bottom   and then they'll go up.

- Gotcha.

And as you continue   to prune them   they continue to grow.

Any special type of string that folks need to be concerned about it?

- I've used several different kinds of string just the cheapest stuff I can get at the store.

I would probably stay away from a cotton or maybe another organic string.

The reason being that it may not last the season.

- Right.

Yeah, it's gonna be out in the weather.

- Right.

Some of the cheaper, like the thin ropes I've used, will last about two years.

And then what'll happen is it will start breaking.

- Okay.

- And so, you know, it'll break and you'll come out and your tomato plant will be on the ground and you have to string it back up.

So I recommend new string every year.

- New string every year.

- But it's, you know, this is thin nylon twine.

It'll hold up just fine this year.

It's cheap, throw it away, get new stuff this year.

- Get new stuff?

- Mm.

- I think I like this method too.

This is pretty good.

- Yeah.

Yeah, this I learned from doing hydroponics.

- Hydroponics?

- Cause this is how they do it   in the hydroponic   greenhouses.

- Yep.

- How about that?

Alright.

Well, Peter, it's good information.

We appreciate the demonstration.

- Well thank you.

- Thank you.

[upbeat country music] - So we have a great example of spring dead spot.

The thing about spring dead spot is this.

It actually starts in the fall of the year.

If we have a wet fall, you're most likely gonna have spring dead spot in your warm season grasses.

It is a fungal disease.

As you can see, this area is bleached out but the other grasses around it are actually starting to transition to the green period.

How do you control spring dead spot?

Well, you have to use a fungicide.

I want you to read and follow the label on that fungicide.

It's gonna be a lawn fungicide.

There's a ready to use.

And there's also a liquid concentrate that you can put in a two or three gallon container.

So again, read and follow the label.

If you just leave it alone and don't treat it, it just gets worse.

It's probably going to be multiple applications but in the meantime make sure that you're getting your soil tested and you're fertilizing according to your soil test analysis.

[upbeat country music] Alright Tonya, let's talk a little bit about companion planting.

And I get a lot of questions about companion planting.

So first of all, what is it?

- Companion planting simply means that you're planting two different crops near each other.

And you're trying to influence pest pressure, maybe reduce insects or a get better yields better tasting fruit, something like that.

- Okay.

Now, can you give us some examples because that's what folks want to know.

Some good examples.

- Well, a companion planting the most famous example is from Native American history.

Many, many years ago, the Native Americans figured out that they could grow vegetables in a companion planting setting and get good results.

And they called it, "The Three Sisters."

So they would grow corn, beans and squash together.

The corn would provide support for the beans to climb.

And the squash at the bottom of the plant would provide shade and weed suppression for the plants and would help with moisture, moisture loss prevention.

And then the prickles on the squash would keep the raccoons out of the corn.

And also because those beans fix atmospheric nitrogen, it provided a nitrogen source for the corn and corn is a heavy feeder.

So they really had this thing figured out.

- So how can a home gardener know which combinations to try?

Because of course they go wanna try this.

- Right.

Well, unfortunately if you just simply go on the internet and type in companion planting you're gonna get a whole bunch of information.

And maybe some of it's not right.

Actually a lot of it may not be right.

There were a lot of lists circulated through the 1960s and 70s.

And it's like this plant likes this other plant and dislikes this plant.

And if you see a list like that it's, most of it has been debunked by research in the last couple three decades.

So those aren't reliable, but there've been a few combinations that have kind of withstood the scrutiny of the research.

So one of those is basil and tomatoes.

Now basil and tomatoes tastes great together on the plate [Chris laughing] and they also are really good to plant together in the garden.

For some reason, basil when planted with tomato   will give you a better   yield in your tomato plants   and you could also get   better tasting fruit.

And the basil will   keep away thrips   and help control   the hornworms.

Another one you can try same kind of concept as "The Three Sisters" is planting your potatoes with your beans or peas.

Because potatoes like   a lot of nitrogen   and the beans and   peas fix the nitrogen   and put it back into the   soil for the potatoes.

And then also onions.

The aroma of the onions kinda can keep away some insects.

And so one of those is onions and carrots.

If you put onions and carrots together,   onion can kind of keep   away the carrot fly.

- Sure, I've heard that.

Have you heard some of those before too?

- Yeah, I've heard of some of those, but that's a new one on me.

The carrot fly with the onions and carrots.

That's a new one.

- That's good stuff.

Alright, but this is what we always hear about though.

What about planting those marigolds?

- Yes, that's probably the most common one that people will try.

And you know, marigolds can get rid of nematodes, soil nematodes in your garden.

However, if you really have a nematode problem that you're trying to use marigolds to control it's better to plant your marigolds a season or two before.

So that they can kind of have time to get rid of the nematodes.

So you can get the best results not with a true companion planting.

So if you plant 'em at the same time as the rest of the crops in your garden, you're not gonna get as good a control.

So it's not a true companion plant to get the best results.

Now, if you wanna try that, there are some cultivars that work better for that.

Like Nemagold, Golden Guardian, things that have "nema" in the titles.

[all laughing] - That gives you an idea about what it controls.

- That'll take care of the nematode problems.

And you know, there's been a study with marigolds thinking that they could ward off some insect pests.

- I was to ask you about that, okay.

- Yeah.

So some researchers planted green beans, some next to marigolds and some not next to marigolds to see if they could control the Mexican bean beetle.

As it turns out the beans near the marigolds had fewer bean beetles, but they also produced fewer green beans.

Because the marigolds can exude a chemical to inhibit the growth of other plants near them.

It's kind of like an allelopathic situation.

So marigolds can try to reduce competition by stunting other plants growth.

And that's what it did with the, with the beans.

So you kinda have to be careful, you know when you're going to use marigolds.

So yes, it did control the beetle but you didn't get the result that you wanted.

- Ooh, Tonya that's good.

I did not know that.

- Yeah.

- Okay.

So, but you need to plant the marigolds again, what a couple of seasons before?

- Before to get the nematode control to really get the nematodes out of there.

- How about that?

Yeah, 'cause folks are running out now to the, you know to the stores, nurseries, big box stores, to plant the marigolds, thinking that yeah if I plant 'em this season, they'll get rid of all the bugs for the season.

- But maybe not.

- But maybe not.

- Yeah.

- But they'll be in great shape two years from now.

- Yeah, two years from now.

[all laughing] How about that, though?

That's good stuff.

Okay.

Is there a big picture idea for the home gardener regarding companion planting?

- Yes, I'd say the big picture with companion planting is you wanna think polyculture instead of monoculture.

So poly just means many.

So you can kinda confuse your insects when they're flying by.

They're trying to find their favorite host plant.

And if you have a kind of a jumble of stuff out there, you've got things mixed together.

Instead of just everything in nice, neat little sections or a grid or a row, if you've got things mixed up that has different aromas, different bloom times, different ripening times, you can kind of confuse or they'll maybe miss or overlook their favorite host plant.

And I've successfully hidden parsley in my garden from caterpillars by putting it in the middle of a whole bunch of other things and make it a little bit harder for the caterpillars to find.

- So it actually worked out pretty good for you?

- Yeah, so think polyculture instead of monoculture.

And then the other thing you can do is plant lots of flowers.

which I always love to plant flowers anyway, but you don't even have to plant the flowers right next to your garden.

They can be a little, just in the vicinity and we call these insectaries.

And so what an insectary is, it's like a nursery for your beneficial insects.

So you want beneficial insects in your garden because things like ladybugs and lacewings kill your aphids and keep your vegetables, you know, a lower insect pressure.

So you wanna keep those things around and the way you can do that because they have wings and that can fly off if there's no aphids to eat.

But if you have a whole bunch of different flowering plants nearby then they can go there and they can, you know pollinate and they can kinda munch on stuff there.

It's a place for them to live until you have a pest problem, and then they'll fly over there and you take care of those and come back to your flowers.

It's also good just to attract bees and pollinators to your garden.

- Sure.

Wow Tonya, it's good stuff.

We appreciate that kind of information.

Thank you much.

- Thank you.

[upbeat country music] - The daffodils and the tulips have all finished blooming but you can see there are seed heads left.

Well, if you want it to be more attractive while you're waiting for the foliage to die down, to enrich the bulbs for the next year's bloom, you can cut them.

And so I'm going to cut down these, you notice you don't want them to go to seed.

So you want to cut the seed heads off.

So cause you want the energy to go down into the bulb to renew the bulb and not to go to seed.

And we'll just keep going and get rid of all of these seed heads.

But it is important to leave the foliage to die down naturally.

So it is able to put energy back into the bulbs so they can bloom again.

Now all the seed heads are gone, so the plants can concentrate their energy on enriching the bulbs so they will bloom next year.

And doesn't it look a lot nicer than seeing all those seed heads?

[upbeat country music] - So here's our first viewer email.

"What is this plant?

It is very happy in   Murfreesboro, Tennessee."

This is Lisa on Facebook.

I liked that, it's very happy   and nice picture there Lisa.

So Joellen what do you think that is?

I think you might know this one.

- It makes me wanna sneeze.

- Pretty good.

[Chris laughing] - Alright.

- 'Cause it's ragweed.

And that's what   causes hay fever   in the fall for everybody.

- Yeah, don't start that,   I'll be sneezing already.

- But it looks so good.

- Well, that course it does,   it's a weed in this area.

So in fact for a large part of the United States, it's a weed, native weed.

So, Yeah.

- You see it all pretty much all about the landscape though, you know, side of the road.

Yeah, I've seen it out in fields.

You see it everywhere.

- That's what have sneezing?

[Chris laughing] I'd be doing it man.

- It's that ragweed.

- The ragweed be having me going man.

- So it is nice and happy there.

So thank you for that, Lisa.

We appreciate that.

- It look good there, don't it?

- Definitely nice and happy.

Here's our next viewer email.

"What do you think about getting seed from the grocery "store to plant?

"I'm not talking about the packs of seeds.

"I'm talking about the bags of beans and corn "and things you can buy by the pound to cook.

"Can I also use seeds from tomatoes, "butternuts, pumpkin, sweet potatoes and potatoes?

"Will seeds in fruit   and dry packages   "from the grocery store grow   "and come back   true and edible?

"I've got seed from   kiwi and planted them   and they have come up   and grown and we ate them."

This is Roger from   Yadkin, North Carolina.

So interesting question, right?

- Yeah, yeah - Very interesting.

- They wanna get some seeds.

So let's look at the first one.

So can I also use seeds from tomatoes, butternut, pumpkin, sweet potatoes and potatoes?

So what do you think Joellen?

- I'd say yes.

- Okay.

- The one thing you gotta remember, a lot of the the fruit that you're getting from the store is a hybrid.

So the seed that comes from it will not be exactly the plant that you had before.

- So not true to form.

- It's not, not true.

But the potatoes and sweet potatoes they sometimes put some kind of a retardant gas or something in it that causes them to not produce eyes.

So I would just wait and see if they started producing eyes and if they did then you can plant them.

But if they don't, that's because it's purposely done so they don't produce eyes.

- Booker, anything you'd like to add-- - You see, from hybrid and they don't come true from that then there aint stuff in there.

But before I do that and put it in my yard, I'll try to plant them in some wet paper towel and just kinda see what happens.

- See if they germinate?

- See whether they germinate and everything before I go out there and sow a lot of 'em into my garden.

I just look at 'em and see if they don't come true.

Are they going to germinate?

I would try that first and see what happens.

- Alright.

- It'd be easy to do with beans.

- Yeah, you would do that with beans, - Yeah, just see what happens to them.

Yeah.

So tomatoes, I would say peppers, I would say, and your beans and peas.

Yeah, I would definitely give that a shot.

- Give it a shot and see what happens.

- I would definitely do that.

- Even a butternut squash will be alright.

- Yeah, I would give it a shot and something else you know, Roger, that I would do, this is gardening.

I would experiment.

I would just try, you know.

We all try, you know a lot of seeds and things like that at home.

Give it a shot and just see what happens.

He already tried it with the kiwi.

And it worked, right?

So I would encourage you, just go ahead and try, give it a shot.

But you know, we know that the success rate for things like tomatoes and peppers and your beans maybe a little higher, but I'll just give it a shot.

- And they say, it can't hurt nothin'.

- I mean everybody's at home, has been at home.

So, you know - Just try it.

- Try something.

- Try it.

Try it, Roger yeah, we appreciate that question.

It was a good question.

- Very good.

Alright, Booker and Joellen, that was fun.

- Enjoyed it, yeah enjoyed it much.

- Good questions.

- 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 joining us.

If you want to learn more about anything we talked about today, head on over to FamilyPlotGarden.com.

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

Be safe.

[upbeat country music] [acoustic guitar chords]