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

I'm Chris Cooper.

Houseplants need special soil.

Today we're going to be   looking at the different kinds   and which to pick.

Also just when the   garden gets going,   the bugs arrive.

Today we're   going to talk about   the pests of   tomato and squash.

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 Celeste Scott.

Celeste is a UT Extension Agent in Madison County.

And Dr. Frank Hale will be joining me later.

All right Celeste, we have soil on the table today.

So what are we going to talk about?

- Yes, so I wanted to do, you know, a quick demo just to show people what our soil products are made of and what the differences are between them.

You know, you go to the store and you see all these different specialty mixes, potting mixes, and you oftentimes wonder, well, what's the big difference, right?

Well, there is a pretty drastic difference in specialty mixes for a variety of different plants.

So today just kind of wanted to highlight some of those and help people know what's inside the bag before they buy.

- And we're talking about houseplant media.

- Yes, yes, media for houseplants particularly.

And so I guess we'll just jump right into it.

So basically all of those are gonna have some mixture of some of these basic components that we have right here.

This is peat moss and you can see how fine and dry this is.

And this is going to be one of the base components of a really the majority of our soil mixes.

So it's hydrophobic by nature, means it repels water.

However, if we put water in here, mix it in really well and help that moisture get into these very fine fibers.

Once it's moistened, it will have excellent retention of water.

So you can moisten it easily and then it will hold that water and make it available to the plants.

And then another attribute that it has, which seems a bit counterintuitive, is that it has pretty good drainage because of the very fine particles.

Another thing that we'll find oftentimes in some of our soil mixes is this product called perlite.

And you can tell here, it's very, very fine.

It's almost like a ground up styrofoam, I guess if you will, is what it looks like in texture.

And so perlite added to mixes.

What they provide to that mix is improved drainage.

And then a third product here is the vermiculite.

And again, it has a bit of a different texture.

It's almost corky feeling.

It has the ability to absorb moisture and it could also be used in the mix to help improve drainage, just by creating some space inside that media and allowing channels for water to go down through there.

I didn't bring any today, but other things that you might commonly see in your mixes   would be shredded   barks, sand even and in some cases, some more unique type products like coconut fibers and things of that nature.

So a lot of different base products that go into making some of these specialty mixes.

And so before we get into talking about the mixes, I'd like for us to just talk a little bit about what are the basic jobs that a potting media needs to provide to a houseplant, right?

So we've kind of mentioned it already.

Of course, it needs to be able to accept and hold water.

[Celeste chuckles] - Yes, please.

- If the media can't hold water, then it's not available to the root zone of those plants, right.

Another thing that's tied very closely with that same concept is nutrient uptake.

That nutrients is dissolved in what we call a soil solution.

And then that solution is taken up through the roots.

So those are the two basic jobs that we're really looking for these things to do.

Other kind of supporting aspects would be stabilization.

- Okay.

- So when we have larger foliage plants, some of those actually could benefit from a heavier soil media to help anchor their roots and hold them upright.

And then the final thing I'd like to mention there as far as their basic jobs is aeration some- - That's so important.

- Yeah some plants actually believe it or not, don't need soil at all.

So lots of different options and we want to make sure that our plants are being delivered the things that they need to thrive.

- Okay.

- And that's-- - So before you into that, so soilless.

- Oh yes, good point, okay.

So I hope you've noticed that we've been referring to our medias as media and not soil, okay.

So when you hear someone say a soilless media, that means that there is no native soil in these products.

Okay, so peat moss is not soil, it's peat moss.

[Celeste laughs] If it had soil in it, and well, I'll say some advantages of a soilless media, is that we have better control over the density of that product, better control over water retention and aeration.

And then also we know that soilless medias are disease and weed free and really that's the number one.

- That's key, yeah okay.

- Super, super important.

So if you just went out in your yard and, you know, dug up a couple of buckets of soil and tried to plant your house plants in them, you probably would not have the success that you have in mind.

- Good point Celeste - That you'd be looking for.

So that's what we're referring to when we say soilless media.

- Yeah 'cause we get it a lot these days, this soilless media.

- Yes, so much.

So thanks for asking that.

Okay, great.

So we'll just jump in to a few of the different mixes.

Now there's lots of brands out there on the market, right.

I mean all different kinds of brands, all different types of mixes, but I've picked four to share with everybody today that I feel like are pretty common.

So lots of folks grow African violets.

All right, if you're not familiar with African violets, know that they really prefer to be watered from underneath.

They don't like to have a lot of moisture on their leaves.

And so this is the product that we're looking at for African violet.

- Looks good and rich.

- It does look rich and let me kind of do this so you can see the texture of it.

So if you can look in here, you can actually see that we have quite, the base of course is a peat moss, but we have quite a bit of bark in here as well.

Like shredded pieces of bark, finely shredded, you know, not big pieces, but finely shredded bark.

You can see these white dots here.

That's perlite.

- Perlite, okay.

- Having that component of the peat moss allows this mix to be able to wick moisture up from the base of that African violet container.

The next one on our list here is a succulent mix.

And it has a much different even color, not only texture but color.

You can see this one's a lot lighter, a lot dryer.

And I'm going to say that probably, you know, ninety-eight percent of that, the base is peat moss.

And, you know, depending on what you're doing, you could use a succulent mix for your cactus.

But if you've been out there shopping, you will notice that they even have a specialty mix for cactus.

And you can see this one is much darker in color, and it actually has a heavier feel to it than the other one did.

And so I know that you can't tell it, but this one actually has quite a bit of sand in the mix.

So what is sand doing?

Sand is a very coarse particle.

And so it's providing again, drainage.

So even more drainage in this mix than what we were finding in the succulent mix.

And then the last one that I wanted to share with you all today, this is really unique.

So this is a mix that you might use for orchids.

If you're repotting orchids up.

It's very, very coarse.

It has no peat moss in it.

This is all bark, shredded bark, largely shredded bark.

And then let me pick up one of these pieces.

So you can see here, this is charcoal.

- Yeah that's something, yeah charcoal.

- Yeah, and so that also does a lot for preventing fungus development.

So like we talked about before orchids really need excellent aeration.

They do not want their roots to be in a heavy type media that's going to retain moisture for any amount of time.

You could add some orchids actually could survive just on misting.

So just missing those roots periodically.

But if you, again, you know, it's a big orchid, you need something that needs an anchor, you know, to hold it up and you're doing those in pots, that would be an excellent option.

And so with that, I'd like to point out that there's lots of university resources for mix your own recipes for specialty soil mixes.

- How about that.

- Yes.

- And of course, we'll have those links on our website.

- Excellent, I'm glad that you mentioned that.

- And I'm glad you mentioned that as well.

Good stuff Celeste.

- Good.

- Thank you much.

- Yes sir, you're welcome, anytime.

[upbeat country music] Okay so this is a sumac and I wanted to show y'all something very unique, leaf galls on the undersides of these leaves.

Leaf galls are unique.

All galls are unique   and that they can be caused   from a number of   different things.

Usually vectored by   insects, sucking insects   like parasitic wasps, aphids,   mites, things of that nature.

And they create these abnormal growths on leaves.

I'm going to break one open and on the insides of these galls, usually you will see the developing insects.

And if you get there later on in the life cycle, sometimes they have already busted outside of those galls, you know, had exit holes.

So these leaf galls are purely cosmetic.

They are not affecting the health of this plant.

And we wouldn't recommend any type of treatment.

[upbeat country music] - Let's talk about vegetable pests, all right.

Specifically, let's talk about squash pests.

- Sure, I brought a squash plant here today just to show you.

We often use transplants, put them into the garden and guess what?

The insects are just waiting for these plants, okay.

And one thing we often see attacking the leaves are these little cucumber beetles.

- Yes.

- So they can smell a squash   plant pretty far away.

And they zoom in on it   so many times you'll see   the leaves just tattered.

So one thing I might suggest   there's a thing called   a floating row cover   or cheesecloth,   something like that.

You can actually   cover tender plants, but still let the light in, but kind of exclude these pests.

And then that way you don't have to use so much insecticide because otherwise they could eat the plants almost to the ground.

- Wow, 'cause they pretty much what, skeletonize the leaves.

- Yes, yeah they look all skeletonized.

You can see feeding between the vein or even, you know, more feeding than that.

- Okay, all right.

- Another thing you might want to keep the row cover on for a while because we have other pests that will get on squash.

Squash bugs overwinter,   around your garden.

A good thing to do is   lay down flat boards   around the edge   of your garden.

Lift those boards   up in the spring.

You'll see the overwintering   squash bugs will be there.

You can just tap those boards into a bucket of soapy water and get rid of them because they're going to move into the garden   and start laying their   bronze color eggs.

So if you see those eggs Chris,   what do you do with them?

- Get them off.

- Yeah, you squish them with   your forefinger and your thumb.

Just crush them.

- Squash them.

- Or tear off the part of   the leaf that they're on.

Because those are going to   give rise to the little nymphs   and they're going to   be a little gray bugs.

And before you know it,   you can be covered   up with squash bugs.

Another pest we have is called the squash vine borer.

It's a clear-wing   moth borer.

It's related to dogwood   borers and peachtree borers.

It's a red moth and   most moths fly at night.

This one flies during the day.

It likes the bright sunshine.

And once that squash starts trailing out, growing a little bit, it's gonna lay its eggs on the vine.

So until the plant, maybe it is just starting to, it's gonna take a while for the squash plant to start blooming.

Up until then keep that floating row cover on it.

So it doesn't lay an egg   because the caterpillar   that arises from that egg   will tunnel into the vine,   devour it from the inside.

And about the time you   have squash producing,   the vine might just die.

- Wow, just collapses.

- Now, when you have this, try not to put the row cover over the flowers and when it starts blooming you got to have an entry way for the bees to pollinate it.

Squash bees and other native bees.

- I guess too for the squash bug going back to that, practice good sanitation would be something else that you would recommend as well.

- Yeah, cleaning up debris and stuff around the garden.

But putting those boards down, they're going to need a place to overwinter, fence rows and overgrown places like that.

Same for, you know, Colorado potato beetles would do same thing on potatoes.

They move out from the weedy areas back in the garden.

- Wow and these are considered to be the major pest of the squash.

- Yeah, that's the main thing.

I think the worst thing truthfully has to be that squash vine borer, because it can kill the whole vine so we can use insecticides sprays for that.

But it's difficult because you have a plant that's blooming at the same time and you really don't want to spray the flowers when a plant's blooming 'cause that could hurt the bees.

- Good point.

- So you have to be very careful and maybe spray the base and up 'til or stop where the blooms are.

You don't want to spray blooms.

- Good stuff.

Now let's talk about tomato pests.

And everybody likes to grow tomatoes.

- Everybody has at least one or two tomatoes, maybe a pepper thrown in there.

I brought a tomato plant today.

It's going good.

When they put those in the ground, sometimes you find them the next day and they've been clipped off.

Now, what could do that?

- It's the cutworm.

- Cutworm, exactly.

Most, a lot of these cutworms   don't even overwinter here   but they fly up on the spring   storm fronts that we have.

So the moth lives down south,   like the black cutworm.

They lay their eggs   on weeds and things.

And then as soon as you   start tilling your garden and planting your vegetables, guess what?

They're looking for something to eat.

They're nocturnal feeders.

So they're under clumps of dirt in the soil during the daytime.

They come out at night   and then they clip a plant   and pull it back into their   underground den to feed on.

- Wow it's interesting.

- So some people will get around the plant, put a little circle with aluminum foil, that will kind of deter the cutworms a little bit.

Some people organic, they might put within that circle, they might put diatomaceous earth or something irritating the insect.

So those are some things.

And then of course we have insecticides that you could spray the soil.

You want to spray the soil around the plant and the base of the plant so that when they walk across the soil at night, they pick up the insecticide.

- Okay, how about that.

And what about aphids?

- Yeah aphids, they can fly.

Some aphids fly and they'll move in from wild host plants, weeds and such.

They'll land on usually the terminal of the plant.

These new tender leaves.

And aphids can give rise to other aphids very quickly.

The female can either lay eggs   or she can give rise to a   live young, so live birth.

So you have lots of   aphids very quick.

Their life cycle's very fast.

And so you can start out   with just a few wing forms   that come in, they start   laying eggs or giving birth   and then you have   lots of aphids.

So I like to, if I   see aphids on a plant and I haven't put it in the ground, I take it laying on its side and wash it down with soapy water, with a hose and really strong jet of water.

So you just blast the aphids off.

And you could really do that still when they're in the garden.

If you see a tomato plant in the morning, just blast the top of it, you see some aphids and just physically remove them.

And then let the lady   beetles and other predators.

So a lot of people, they want to do the first thing is use an insecticide, but I say caution with aphids.

Because if you just wait a couple of weeks,   lady beetles lay   their eggs there,   their lemon yellow eggs.

They lay them on the   leafs amongst the aphids.

There's also   a type of fly called   syrphid flies or hoverflies.

They'll lay a single white egg   right there where the aphids   are in the larva is predaceous.

So they'll just tear 'em apart.

There's a lot of good beneficial insects.

If we don't use a lot of insecticide in the garden, we can really build up good numbers of these insects.

- Good I'm glad you mentioned that.

Okay.

- So- - Yeah, go ahead.

- I was just going to say the next thing is protecting the fruit.

- Okay.

- So we have a plant we've got good size on it's flowering.

There's lots of different caterpillars that will lay eggs on the fruit or on the leaves nearby.

The probably, the big one you see is   the tomato or   tobacco horn worm.

And they have the little tail   looking thing in the tail end   and these   caterpillars will get   several inches   long on full size.

And often you don't see   them when they're small.

They kind of camouflage.

One time, not too long ago, I had tomatoes on my deck and guess what?

We had corn ear worms,   we had horn worms,   we had yellow   striped army worms,   we had southern army worms.

There's a whole bunch of caterpillars.

- And all of this you said was in the city.

- Yeah, this was right in suburbia.

And they find your plants.

So the moths are out at night, they lay their eggs on the leaves on the plant or on the fruit, and then they hatch out in a couple of days and those caterpillars might feed for a couple of weeks.

So when they're tiny, they don't do that much damage.

But maybe by the time they get inch long, when they're about a fourth or fifth instar or stage, they can do a lot of feeding damage.

- For sure.

- Yeah, so usually you can pick off, you just have a few plants, you can pick them off every day, but you have to be out there almost every day because they can do a lot of damage.

And they're hard to see.

Insecticides can be used.

One of the safer products for caterpillars is Bt.

Stands for bacillus   thuringiensis.

It's a bacterial toxin.

It's very safe for humans   to be around and pets   but it's very   toxic to caterpillars.

It paralyzes their mid gut, and then they stop feeding almost immediately and then they soon die.

But it won't hurt your beneficial insects, your lady beetles, syrphid flies and other things.

Green lacewings for instance.

So Bt is one of the safer things for gardeners to use.

We have a publication, UT Extension publication, it's called "You Can Control Garden Insects".

You might want to check that out online.

- It is a good publication.

- Yeah, it has some pictures of what the insects look for and also control recommendations.

- Okay.

- And also some on the beneficial insects.

- Doc, we're glad you're here, that's good stuff.

- All right, thank you Chris.

- Thank you, we can tell you love this stuff.

[laughs] - Oh it's great, what's better?

- Thank you.

[gentle country music] - All of the flowers that we planted seem to be doing very well, all three kinds, but we noticed that there are some that have got long shoots on them, are kind of legging.

We would like for them to bush out.

So now's the time, I know you might, a lot of people will have a hard time doing this because you end up cutting off some flowers.

But it's best to cut them back and head them back at this time.

And then they will we'll branch out and be prettier.

And you want to cut them back to a, another joint where a leaf comes out.

So you don't leave any empty stubs.

The key to good pruning is to know that you were never there.

So you prone so it doesn't look like you've ever pruned it.

Now all the long branches have been headed back and the plants will each try to bush out and become more beautiful.

[gentle country music] - All right Celeste, Q&A segment, are you ready?

- Yes, I'm ready.

- These are good questions.

- Roll them, throw them at me.

- All right, we're gonna throw them at ya, right.

Here's our first viewer email.

"For years, I've had an   issue with small black gnats   "infesting both my indoor   and outdoor potted plants.

"I've tried fungicidal   soap, dishwashing liquid,   "white vinegar,   etc, to no avail.

"How do I get rid of   and prevent these   infestations in the future?"

This is Edwinna from   Memphis, Tennessee.

So Celeste, she's tried the fungicidal soap, dishwashing liquid, vinegar to no avail.

- No avail.

- So what is this that we're talking about, you think?

- Okay, sounds like fungus gnats to me.

- Ah I agree with that.

- Okay, so there   are a few things   even before I would, you know,   reach out to any   type of fungicides   or insecticides or chemicals   or anything like that.

Let's really focus   on the conditions because that is what is conducive to the replication of these fungus gnats, okay.

So more moist soil is, would be something that I would want to try to get away from.

That they lay their larva right at the surface of that moist soil.

And if the soil is allowed to dry out periodically, those larva might have been laid.

But if the soil surface dries, they can't develop.

- So making sure that we're not over-watering, - That's the key.

- Yes and just allowing time for that moisture level to fluctuate, drop and you wouldn't want to keep them constantly moist all the time.

So that would be my number one.

Number two, would be making sure that we're, you know, starting with clean soil.

So, try not to reuse soil that, you know, has been infested, you know, with fungus gnat larva in the past.

Those would be my two suggestions.

- Those are my two as well.

- Oh good.

- Yeah, if you keep that soil moist.

- On the same page, phew.

- Yeah, yeah, you're gonna have problems with that.

And we usually get questions about this all the time.

So yes, let that soil dry out.

- Early in spring when folks are trying to get their seeds started indoors and they don't want to let those seedlings dry out and which, you know, it's important, but at the same time, if we keep them too wet, that's when you start to see the development of those fungus gnats.

- 'Cause they are gonna breed and develop in moist soils.

Right, so let that soil dry out.

Now would you use anything like insecticidal soap or anything like that?

- I never have.

- Okay, I haven't either.

- But I mean, I haven't, I don't see why an insecticidal soap wouldn't, you know, provide some benefit in that type of situation, but really just cultural practices.

- Right, I would agree with that, cultural practices Ms. Edwinna.

Hope that helps you out.

Thank you for that question.

Here's our next viewer email.

"My Endless Summer Bloomstruck   hydrangea is drooping.

"I think it is because   the blooms are heavy.

"Should I attempt   to prop it up,   or should I cut back some   of the drooping branches."

Thanks, Marjorie in   Millington, Tennessee.

It's a good question.

So what do you think, should she prop it up or.

- If it were me, I would probably just cut those that are too heavy and bring them inside and enjoy them for a cut flower arrangement.

- Ah, there you go.

- Right, while, while it's nice, while they're in full bloom.

go ahead and make that cut.

Make the cut down pretty low.

And that's going to encourage some branching from that particular cane.

So next year, keeping in mind, you know, that you don't do any more pruning for this season, that cane that was too heavy this year is now shorter and has out out two lateral shoots.

So, you know, we're trying to build the sturdiness of this plant instead of having four or five shoots that are five feet tall.

Now we're going to have 10 that are, you know, four feet tall.

Does that make sense?

- Oh, I liked that Celeste, I like that.

I actually have one in this summer, a bloomed one, so when I get home so I'm gonna, yeah, I wrote my notes down on that one.

Yeah, so you just cut 'em and the thing about the end of summer is this, old wood, new wood, does it depend?

- Well, they do have some remont qualities so they can bloom on new wood, but that won't be until later into the growing season.

We're talking like, you know, in some cases like into July and August, so it depends on when your, you know, your first frost start where you're at in the country.

But in my zone, in seven, we had some at a county office that accidentally got sheared all the way to the ground in the early spring, which is not the appropriate time to prune those macrophyllas.

And I was so sad and they did not have a bloom display that spring, but the plants grew beautifully and I had a beautiful macrophylla display in late August.

- How about that.

- So yeah, it has the capabilities of having some bloom on new and old wood.

- Okay, good to know.

All right, Marjorie, there you have it.

Yeah, just prune some of that off and bring it into the house, I like that.

- Enjoy it.

- Enjoy it.

Celeste, fun as always.

Fun as always.

- Ah, thanks.

- Yeah, you did good.

- It's been fun, it's always a challenge.

I'm always nervous for question and answer.

- It's been good, thank you much.

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 houseplants or bugs that are eating your vegetables go to FamilyPlotGarden.com.

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

Be safe.

[upbeat country music] [acoustic guitar chords]