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

I'm Chris Cooper.

Garden tools, especially pruners, can be a vector for disease.

Today we'll show how to clean them.

Also, weeds are a never ending problem.

Using pre-emerge may get rid of many of them before you have to pull.

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 Joellen Dimond.

Joellen is the Director of Landscape at the University of Memphis.

And Mr. D will be joining me later.

All right Joellen, I see we have tools on the table here.

- Yes.

- So we're gonna talk about what, cleaning those tools, right?

- Yes.

And keeping everything sanitized.

- Okay.

- And trying not to spread disease and insect problems in the garden.

- Right, and also weed seeds as well.

- And weed seeds too.

Yes.

I have to tell you, the number one tool that I use is these pruners.

- Okay.

- And there's a lot of moving parts on them.

So sometimes these will get loose, and you may need to have a screwdriver to tighten them or loosen them as you see fit.

So always have a screwdriver around for that.

A lot of times I will go through a garden, and I'll have touched a plant, and you know what?

I see some insects or some diseases.

And before I go to another plant, I like to spray it with a bleach solution, on the blades especially.

Just to make sure that I don't transfer some of the diseases and or pests, or seeds to anything else.

Now this is just a 10% solution of bleach and water.

And it's in little bottle, it's real easy to carry around with you.

You can hook it on your pocket, or anything else.

So it's easy to have around while you're doing the pruning.

- Okay.

- Yes, and so then when I get done, sometimes these are a mess.

And so the first thing I do is I clean them off, like I have here, but they're not quite a hundred percent finished, because sometimes with water, when you put water in and get moisture in here from plants, you need to do some extra care.

And I like to use some silicone spray on mine, and just spray the moving parts just a little bit, here and there.

And even on these, the part that goes between the two handles to keep them out, I like to spray that a little bit.

And then you just kind of work them.

And then, you know, look, that works really well, and I'm not fighting it.

- Right, right.

- It's just real easy.

And of course, the other thing we need to do is make sure that our blade is sharp, and you have files or different kind of files for that.

You want to file by going with the blade to sharpen it.

And you'll see that it turns shiny when you do this, and that's a good sign.

That means that you're gonna have a really sharp blade.

- Oh look, you got it.

- And I like to do it like that.

And then sometimes on the other side, it builds up a lot of debris.

- Right.

- So I like to file that, and keep it perpendicular with it.

I mean, excuse me, parallel with it.

And just try to get the debris off of it.

And you see, it becomes shiny.

- That sure does.

- And then you can see that that is gonna be nice and sharp, and ready for the next time that you want to prune.

So that's what I do with these all the time.

- Because you want clean cuts, right?

- Clean, clean cuts.

- You don't want to mash it.

- Lot easier.

Now this is an anvil style of pruner.

I usually like the scissor cut, but this one happens to be very good.

But debris gets in here, so I like to take an old toothbrush and make sure the debris is out of there before I then will then do the same thing with it.

- Okay.

I probably sharpen this every time that I use it, 'cause I like this to be really, really sharp.

And again, you go with the blade.

And when you're done, you know you're done because it's shiny.

It doesn't have to be a hundred percent shiny, but mostly, and if you have trouble getting in, a small prod, I like this little one.

And sometimes I use it on the small parts of this.

But I also like to use this over here, 'cause it gets in this area a little bit better.

I wanna make sure I knock off anything.

I want that blade area to be clean, and sharp.

- That's good and sharp.

- Yeah, good.

- And then again, sometimes, now for the end of the season, this has got a little bit, it's a little bit of hung up here.

So again, the silicone spray, just a little bit here and there, and it makes it, oh yeah.

A lot easier to move.

- Oh, yeah, just a bit.

- It doesn't take much.

But that also makes it a good tool to use the next time you need to use it, it's all ready for you.

And one thing you need to keep informed with about these anvil pruners, you gotta make sure this blade stays in this groove here, and doesn't get out of it.

- Ah, okay.

- Or else's not gonna work.

- Gotcha.

- So when you are actually physically cutting a branch, now these don't go more than a 1 1/2 inch diameter branch, you should cut with this.

- Okay.

- So once you cut it, just keep going straight.

Don't take it, and if you - Yeah.

- have to struggle it, - Yeah, yeah.

- and do this, 'cause that will bend the blade, and it won't be in the right groove for the anvil cut anymore.

- Okay, now that, that's good, that's good.

- But the sharper that you keep it, you don't have to fight with it, because it just goes through a branch like butter.

- No, that, that is good.

'Cause I'm guilty of going, - Yeah, don't do that.

- Yeah.

Because you wanna keep them nice and sharp, and working in good order.

Now then you have some other, like this, this is probably the most used shovel that I have, 'cause I don't dig big things anymore.

- Okay.

- And also I spray this with bleach when I get done with it too, just to make sure that there's no diseases, or seeds hanging on it.

And now this is the end of the season for this.

- Okay.

- So I do like to keep it sharp, and as you can see, I have been sharpening it.

- Yeah, I can tell.

- And this one is sharpened this way.

[tools clanking] There's a little bit of a bevel on there.

And you wanna keep it sharp.

[tools clanking] But then you see that it's shiny, and that means that I've sharpened it a little bit, and you know, you can feel, it's a little bit sharper at the base.

- Yeah, you sure can tell.

Good thing.

- It doesn't take much to sharpen it.

And it doesn't take a lot of brawn to sharpen it either.

But then at the end of the season, sometimes I will put a little silicone spray at the base.

[spray can hissing] And then of course, this one happens to be a wood handle.

So I like to use a little linseed oil.

- Oh, you've got to pop it open, there you go, all right.

- It doesn't take a whole lot of this.

And you simply see there's some wood spaces, and you just simply rub this on the wood handle, all the way up and down.

- Yeah.

- And you see how it's changed colors, and gotten shinier, and it doesn't take much.

That's basically half done.

- And I guess once you finish with that, then you go ahead and store it?

- I just hang it in the garage.

- In the garage.

- you know, in the storage.

And if I ever have to use it again, I just wanna make sure that I keep the blade at the end nice and clean, for the next time I use it.

And there we go.

It doesn't take much.

- Doesn't take much.

- Doesn't take much.

- Well Joellen, we appreciate that, and we'll let you finish up, - Yep.

- you know, with your other tool.

But yeah, this is a good practice to do, you know, as the season winds down, right?

- Yes.

- Appreciate that much.

Thank you.

- You're welcome.

[upbeat country music] - It looks like a rodent has been in our flower bed, and from the damage here, I think it was an armadillo.

Armadillos like to root up your lawn.

They also like to root up your flower beds, hence displacing your flowers.

They're actually in here looking for grubs and earthworms, 'cause that is their diets.

And as you can tell, it has scurried along the way here, throughout the flower beds.

If you happen to see the armadillo, make sure you don't handle it, because it does carry the bacterium which leads to human leprosy.

Even though they don't run that fast, you can run up behind them.

But I would not suggest doing that.

So again, the best way to do that is set up a wing trap, lure them in with bait, and that way you can get them.

[upbeat country music] All right.

Mr. D, let's talk a little bit about pre-emerge.

- Pre-emergent herbicides.

- Yeah.

Herbicides.

- That's right.

A very, very useful and important tool to use.

- I would agree with that.

- For homeowners and commercial farmers.

And you know, if you don't believe that, then I would encourage you to treat half of your front yard [Chris laughing] with pre-emergent herbicide, and leave the other half untreated.

- Right.

- The problem that probably most folks have with putting out pre-emergent herbicides is, you know, if they're doing it themselves, if they don't see any weed out there, they don't think they need to do anything.

And if you wait until the weeds emerge, the pre-emergent herbicide is not gonna do anything for the emerged weeds.

Now that's not gonna say that it's not gonna help you.

If you apply pre-emergent herbicide after weeds have emerged, it will stop any more weeds from emerging.

But the ones that are there will continue to grow.

So you'll have to mix a post-emergent product with the pre-emergent product to take care of your problem.

The timing is important.

- Yes, for sure.

- For mostly in the fall, you put out pre-emergent herbicide in the fall of the year to control winter weeds.

And then in the spring of the year to control summer weeds.

And in the fall, when temperatures drop below 60 degrees at night, that is when you need to control winter annuals.

And that, you know, happens fairly early in many cases.

In the springtime, when daytime temperatures reach sixty-five degrees Fahrenheit for four or more days, that's when you need to put that out.

And I'm reading from a publication that a friend of mine, Dr. Roy Bullock Fitzroy Bullock, - Oh, yeah!

- From Tennessee State University has put out, it's called "Lawn Weed Management".

- That's a good one.

- And that information is in here.

He also has some really nice pictures of examples of winter weeds and summer weeds, which will help you.

It is important to identify what your problem is.

- Sure.

- Before you go out there and try to treat it.

- Know the weed, yes sir.

- Right.

And some examples of summer weeds are wild violet, spurge, white clover, horse nettle, green foxtail, sickle pod, yellow nutsedge, johnsongrass, crabgrass, buckhorn plantain, you know, carpetweed, things like that.

Winter weeds, annual bluegrass is one of the toughest ones, - It's there now, yes.

- Thistle, musk thistle, carolina geranium, wild lettuce, purple dead nettle, wild garlic, orchard grass, hop clover, henbit, chickweed, dandelion.

And you know, others.

Many of the herbicides will take care of more than one species.

A grass pre-emergent herbicide will not kill the broadleaf.

The broadleaf pre-emergent herbicide will not kill the grass, the grasses that you're trying to kill.

So in many cases you're gonna have to use two pre herbicides, mixed together.

You need to make sure that the product that you use is labeled for the turf grass that you have.

- Yes.

- That is the most important thing, - Yes.

- Because if you put a grass material out that killed Bermuda grass in a fescue lawn, you don't wanna put that out in a Bermuda grass lawn.

Right?

- Right.

- Because it'll kill your Bermuda grass.

But there's a lot of choices out there, as with all pesticides.

Just very, very important that you read the label.

- Yes.

Very important that you properly calibrate your equipment, know that you're putting the right amount out there.

Because many of these type products, if you overdo it, they will kill the grass that you're trying to protect, of the lawn that you're trying to protect.

It's not a case where a little bit does a little good and a lot does a lot better.

It's a little bit does good, - A good enough job.

- And too much will kill your turf grass.

But yeah, that's kind of in a nutshell.

I know there are different formulations, there are granular products and there are liquid formulations.

- Which one would you prefer?

Which one do you think would be the best?

- Personally I prefer the liquids, because number one, they're cheaper usually, you know, on a per acre basis, or per 1,000 square foot basis, I can do a better job of getting a more even distribution out there.

It probably takes a little bit less water to activate it than the granular products.

Sometimes granular products, there are places that you need to use it, around flower beds, or there are places you can't drag a sprayer, in really small areas.

The granular products, most of the time, you can put out with a drop spreader, - Yeah.

- A broadcast fertilizer type spreader.

Or even the spreader that you hold in your hand, Or there are those that you strap on, and put out.

But I think there's a significant difference in cost.

Granulars are quite a bit more expensive than the liquid products.

- And the granulars have to be watered in, which is, - They've gotta be watered in.

Almost all of them have to be watered in.

And a quarter to a half inch of water is important with even the liquid, a lot of the liquid products that you put out.

So the label will tell you that, and follow the label.

Now on the other hand, if you've got an irrigation system, and there's a rain forecast like we have forecast in the future, within 24 to 48 hours, then you don't run your irrigation system, because too much water can be a bad thing.

- That's right.

- It can leach it out of the root zone.

Pre-emergent herbicides, they don't necessarily keep a seed from germinating, but you know when that seed germinates it puts out a little stem and a root, and a pre-emergent herbicide, when it comes in contact with that, it stops it from going any further.

- Yeah, usually inhibits the formation of roots, that's usually what that is.

- Right, right.

- And sometimes the granulars are easier for people to use, and for timing too, with rain events and things.

- Right, right.

- It's easier, 'cause you can have it down on the ground and the timing of where the water has to be on it is not as critical as it would be with the liquids.

- It'll wait for you, it'll wait for you a little bit.

That's true.

- So I'm sure, do you use a lot of the granulars, or liquid?

- Yeah, we use both, - At University of Memphis?

- But granulars is more of a way we're gonna go, because we overseed a lot of areas.

- Right, so you have to be careful.

- So we don't put any of the pre-emergence in that area in the fall.

- Yeah, that's important.

- That's really important.

- If you're gonna overseed with a ryegrass, you know, or anything.

- Or if you're seeding fescue even, you don't wanna put pre-emergents down there.

- Right.

- Right, right.

- How long do some of the herbicides last before they have to be reapplied?

And it usually will tell you that on the label on some of the products.

- Yeah, and that kind of brings up another point, and you know, probably, I don't know, many of the pre-emergent herbicides, they recommend doing a sequential or split application, and that extends the length of coverage in, I don't know, four to six weeks, is kind of probably an average.

- It is, if you're looking at Preen, trifluralin, - I think so.

- It is, yeah.

- But you know, it just depends.

I know the timing, 'cause we have interesting falls and winters around here because we don't necessarily get really the kind of steady typical weather that a lot of the other parts of the country are in.

So there's more opportunity for weeds to germinate.

So to ensure that that doesn't happen, and in the same thing with the fall and the spring.

- Yeah.

- Sometimes they will have three or four applications of pre-emergents during the year at different times, to try to hit those windows.

- And sequential is usually better, if you can go with more than one application.

One's probably not gonna do the trick.

- No, one's not gonna do the trick.

- No, no.

- It's gonna be multiple applications, and then, - One will help.

- Yeah, one'll help.

And a lot of that too depends on soil type, pH, you know, soil moisture.

- And what you're growing there.

- What you're growing, so.

- Right.

- Good stuff.

Mr. D, we appreciate that.

Really good stuff, thank you much.

[upbeat country music] - We're out here in The Family Plot garden, and we're going to be cleaning up the old spent cucumber vines that have been here and been highly productive for about four months.

And as you can see, we even still have some fruit still on the vine.

And if you have any that are still where you could use them, I would suggest getting all those off first, before you start pulling the vines.

So we're gonna get started pulling these vines, and then we will go from there.

[vines rustling] Okay, we've got all the vines removed, as you can see, and now we have a lot of the leaves laying down here and they are absolutely probably diseased, and harboring insects.

So we're gonna rake this all out now.

We don't want anything overwintering that could cause us problems next summer.

This is what we call good garden sanitation practices.

Okay, we got it all cleaned up, and this is our pile of vines, and weeds, and big cucumbers that we are not going to use.

So we don't wanna put this in our compost pile, because we could have some pathogens that overwinter, and then we put the compost back on the garden, and we're just perpetuating our problem.

So the thing to do is to just dispose of this another way, out of the garden, somewhere in a big garbage bag or something to take to the dump, or something like that.

So our garden's all clean and ready.

[upbeat country music] - All right, here's our Q and A segment.

Y'all ready?

- Yep.

- Yes.

- Oh this is gonna be fun.

Here's our first viewer email.

"My plums bloom, "but when they start to get bigger, "they fall off the tree.

"Why are my plums not producing fruit?

I have pruned them to an open center."

And this is David.

Dr. Kelly, he's done the right thing, the open center, to get the sunlight down.

- Right, yeah.

- But as they start to develop and get bigger, they drop off.

- Well I wonder what kind of preventive spray program he's doing.

- Aha.

- You know?

Because there's plum curculio, that can crawl, - That's the first thing that - You know, cause the drop.

- Came to my mind.

- So first thing I would say was, make sure you're doing a preventive fungicide and insecticide spray program.

Fruit trees just have all kind of problems in our climate.

All kind of problems.

And then naturally fruit trees have a drop, like their "June drop," they call it.

They got a very, very heavy fruit load.

They're naturally gonna throw off some of that fruit.

- Right.

- So that, you know, the plant can maintain what it has.

So that may be part of what's happening.

But I suspect that it's an insect problem.

- I suspect it as well, the old plum curculio.

- Yep, it's a bad one.

- I can hear Mr. D in my head now, talking about the plum curculio.

Yeah.

Will make those fruit drop for sure.

Joellen?

- Yeah, most extension offices and states have their own spray program for fruit trees.

I would consult that and then start using that program, - Right.

- For preventative.

'Cause all the spraying is a preventative.

- Yeah.

- Right.

- Not curative.

- Nope.

- Yep, preventative, yeah.

So yeah we have that, you know, publication in our office, it's the fruit tree spray guide, you know, for your trees.

I'll be happy to give you one, but yeah.

- So where is he, does it have a location?

- Yeah, so we don't know where David is, but yeah, if he goes to his local extension office, I'm sure they have a, - I'm sure they do.

- Fruit tree spray guide, you know, for him.

'Cause I do think it's the plum curculio that's causing the problem.

All right, thank you for that question, David.

Appreciate that.

Here's our next viewer email.

"What is this weed?

"How do I kill it, and keep it from coming back next season?"

This is Larry.

So Joellen, what is that weed?

What is it?

- It's spurge.

- It's spurge.

- And it makes me sneeze just looking at it.

- Really?

- Yeah.

- Oh really?

- Oh my goodness.

- Oh wow.

- Spurge is one of those fall or late summer weeds that a lot of people are allergic to.

- Oh wow.

- Yeah, if I go and I start pulling a bunch of it, and all of a sudden I'll start, achoo!

- Oh my gosh, how about that?

- Yeah.

- I didn't know that.

So how would you control it?

- You know, because there's so many seeds, pre-emergents is really about the best way to keep those from coming back.

- Yeah, 'cause it does reproduce by seeds, of course, it produces a lot of seeds.

Dr. Kelly, anything you want to add to that?

- Yeah, well, I'm getting it in my garden now.

It is a late summer thing, you know.

- It is.

and there are jillions of seeds, I actually hand pull them, because they'll make a mat of foliage, real prostrate, you know, but it's only one root.

- Right.

- So you can grab that thing, and they're easy to pull up.

- Yeah, real shallow root system.

- They are, yeah.

They're pretty easy to weed out.

And then she's right, you need a pre-emerge.

- Yeah, use the pre-emerges for that.

Yeah, if you ever break it, it has a little milky sap.

- Oh it does, yeah, milky spurge.

- Yep, milky spurge, - That's the name of it, yep.

- And some people are actually allergic you to that, it gets on their skin and things like that.

- It's in the same genus as poinsettias, - How about that?

Which have, you know, the milky sap.

Euphorbia, yeah.

- Well the things you learn on this show, folks.

That's the good stuff.

But yeah, use a pre-emerge, and if somebody's probably thinking, hey, you know, it's already there.

I don't wanna use a pre-emerge.

There are three-way broadleaf weed herbicides that you can use.

- Sure, that's true.

Read and follow the label for that.

But they're easy to just pull up, easy to pull up.

So thank you for that question Larry.

Here's our next viewer email.

"Is it safe to grow vegetables using moldy soil?"

Joellen, so what do you think about that, moldy?

- Yeah, I feel her pain.

- Okay, you feel her pain.

- I've got bags of soil, and they're in the corner, and part of it is all moldy, and you know, I tend to not use it like potting soil, or for in the containers and stuff, to my vegetables, or mix it with amendment.

But I will put it in the compost pile, or put it somewhere in the yard where there might be a low spot, and I need some soil in there to make it up a little higher.

I'll put it in there.

I will use it.

I'm not gonna get rid of it, 'cause it's trying to decompose.

So I mean, that's nothing terrible about that.

And I'm sure she could use it, but I usually just take that, it's usually only part of the bag, and I use it for other things, and let it continue to decompose in other areas.

- Okay.

Doc, what you think about that?

- Well, I had a lot of questions about her question.

- Okay.

- Because is she using potting soil that's molded, or is she looking at an area of her yard that's got moldy soil?

And obviously if it is molded, that means it's too wet.

So she does not need to plant in that area, you know, with vegetables.

'Cause it's obviously a slow-draining and wet place, if mold is growing there.

Or you know, if you're just gonna get soil from an area and put it in your garden just to add more organic matter or something, I would say there's not any problem with that, because it's gonna die, incorporate it in there.

- Right, right.

I don't know.

I mean, depending on the situation, I would say she could use it or not use it.

- Okay.

- But if I was having it, if she's gonna use a container garden, then I wouldn't use it in that, because you don't want it to decompose in there while you're trying to grow vegetables.

So I would just set that little part that's moldy aside, and use it for something else.

I wouldn't discard it, I'd still use it.

- Yeah.

- All right, interesting though.

Okay.

All right, thank you much for that question.

All right, Joellen, Dr. Kelly, Fun, fun.

- Yes.

- Thank you much.

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[cheerful folk music] [acoustic guitar chords]