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

I'm Chris Cooper.

Each growing season a gardener learns new things and has new questions.

Today, we're going to answer some of those questions.

That's just to head 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 Director of Landscape at The University of Memphis.

And Mr. D is with us today.

How y'all doing?

- Hello.

Good, doing good.

- All right, so here's our Q&A segment.

Y'all ready?

- Yes.

- Let's do it.

- All right, we have a lot of questions here, all right?

Here's our first viewer email.

"I have two weeping yaupon holly foundation plants "that are around 15 to 18 feet tall.

"I'm concerned about the roots.

"Both are within inches of the foundation.

"Should I be concerned about possible foundation "and plumbing damage from these plants?

"The house is 24 years old.

Thank you for your opinion."

This is Doug from Hernando, Mississippi.

So, Joellen, what do you think about those foundation plantings of those yaupon hollies?

- Yeah.

Yaupon hollies are basically trees.

And so you're not supposed to plant a tree any closer than four feet from your foundation, and he's got it a little close.

The fact that the tree has probably been there almost 24 years, or at least 20 years out of that.

It's time, most landscapes last 15 to 20 years.

So since it's so close to the foundation, I would recommend him removing those and starting over with something different there.

And if it's gonna be a tree eventually, make sure it's at least planted four feet from the foundation.

- Right.

So would you have to be concerned about the roots and the foundation?

I mean, there's a lot of stories about that.

Myths about that.

- Yeah.

But you're just... That tree may not have roots that can do that kind of damage to the tree, 'cause it's not an aggressive, root growing tree.

Yeah, I don't see any surface roots growing around it.

But I would still not want something that close to my foundation.

- I'd have to agree with that.

All right.

Mr. D, anything you wanna add to that?

- Nope.

Got it covered.

- Got it covered.

All right, thank you for that question.

We appreciate that.

Here's our next viewer email.

I think Mr. D gonna like this one Joellen.

"What can you suggest "to remedy the intrusion of armadillos?

Please advise, thank you."

And this is Estelle from southwest Mississippi.

Mr. D, southwest Mississippi.

- By far, the best option is a 12-year-old with a 20-gauge shotgun or a .22 rifle, I guess.

In southwest Mississippi, you know, I used to live down there pretty close to Lucedale.

So I know, well, that's on the other side of Mississippi.

But that's actually, probably, the best way to handle armadillos is with a trap.

- Yeah.

- And armadillos aren't the smartest creatures in the world and you probably don't just have one.

They're born as quadruples.

- Oh wow.

- Identical quadruple.

So there's four to a litter and it'll either be four little males or four little females and they'll become four big, whatever.

And they do a lot of damage.

But a live trap, you probably need to construct wings for that trap using one by sixes or even one by fours or two by fours even, would probably work to kind of guide them into the trap.

Put 'em on the edge of the trap and angle 'em out.

And as they're feeding around, they're looking for grub worms.

That's what their favorite diet is.

And so as they're feeding, you can kind of direct 'em into the trap and then bait it with rotten fruit, fetted fruit or something that'll have larvae in it and things like that even that'll probably be the best bet.

And then when you catch 'em- - Yeah, that's the million dollar question.

What do you do with them?

- Uh-huh.

- Do you have a neighbor you don't like?

[Chris laughs] I guess.

It's up to you to handle that situation once you catch them, that may be where you wanna bring the 12-year-old in.

- Oh boy.

- Oh my.

- But trapping is what you have to do?

- Trapping is the best way to get rid of them.

Controlling grub worms, you know, might help a little bit, but they're gonna look for an area that hadn't been disturbed and probably feed on an earthworm every once in a while too.

But trapping is the best method to get rid of them.

- All right, Ms. Estelle trapping is the best method.

And I remember before Mr. D, you actually showed us how to do that.

- I did, I did.

I have actually constructed them.

And I have personally, I've had better luck with the 20 gauge shotgun personally.

- Personally, he says.

All right.

So thank you for that question, Ms. Estelle.

Be careful, all right?

Here's our next viewer email.

"I have several walnut and hickory trees in my yard.

"I have trouble telling the difference.

"Anyway, I notice these weird spots on one tree's leaves.

"In the center of the spot there is a hole through the leaf.

"Should I be concerned?

"If so, what is the problem?

"And what should I do?

Thank you."

And this is Eric.

So Mr. D we wanna come back to you.

What do you think that is?

- It's a phylloxera.

It's an insect that actually it attacks the tree right at the leaves are coming out or at bud break.

And as the leaf grows that structure grows also.

You know, you can spray with an insecticide at bud break if it's a problem, but it's not gonna kill the tree.

The trees can tolerate that kind of damage.

A lot more common on pecan trees than hickorys.

Not really a problem in commercial pecan orchards, because they do spray, have bud break sprays and they take care of that.

But in your landscape situation, if it's a small tree that you can spray, you know, you may wanna spray at bud break with one of the insecticides.

But it's kind of unsightly.

There's also a stem phylloxera, that is probably a little more problematic than the leaf phylloxera, but that's what it is.

If it gets worse...

I think some varieties are more susceptible, are more of a problem than others, but if it's a problem, figure out a way to spray at bud break.

Spraying, you know, later in the year does absolutely no good at all.

There's no good, you know.

So bud break is the time to take care of the problem, if you were to go that route.

If the tree's large, a hose end sprayer.

Or, you know, not many homeowners have an air blast sprayer that can blow all the way to the top of the tree, but... - So, timing.

Anything you wanna add to that, Joellen?

- Yeah, well, supposed to know which is which, you know, the walnut trees and the hickory trees, both are compound leaves.

And that's probably where the confusion lies.

But walnut trees tend to have each leaflet on that leaf, about the same size.

Whereas hickory trees usually have a little bit larger leaflets towards the tip of the leaf.

So she might look at that and see if she can tell the difference.

- Okay, that's good.

All right, well, thank you for that question.

Appreciate that.

Timing is everything, all right?

Here's our next viewer email.

"I've been fighting chamber bitter "in my raised vegetable garden beds "for three years to no avail.

"It spreads like wildfire and I can't pull it fast enough.

"My question is, "can I kill chamber bitter and all the seeds "by covering my raised bed with a tarp in the summer sun?

"This would let me start fresh next year.

"I know I will kill my soil doing that.

"This is why I haven't done it thus far.

"I don't want chemicals in it.

Thanks in advance."

And this is Create Again on YouTube.

So Joellen, what do you think about that?

So wants to control chamber bitter in a raised bed with a tarp under summer sun.

- Well, you can do that, but I would tend to, if you wanna do solarization, which will help kill the weeds in the first what inch or two of soil, you really needed to use clear plastic so that the traps the hot air on top.

That's how that solarization works.

I have used tarps and things like that, but it works, but solarization with the clear plastic will work better.

Now, I don't know if it's been long enough.

It's hard, it's already August, September.

You know, it might not be enough hot weather for that to work this year.

So my suggestion is this, why don't you cut it in half and do that to half of the garden next year, use the other half and plant, but put mulch down.

If you put enough mulch down, some of that chamber bitter will not germinate, because it's not gonna have light to germinate.

So, I would just put a lot of heavy mulching.

And you know, I use hay for mulching my beds, because I think it works better than straw.

But I have used straw too.

But yeah, put some in pine needles, I've even used pine needles in my bed for mulch.

But I would put some type of, you know, mulch down around my plants and to help keep the weeds down, including the chamber bitter.

- Definitely do that, 'cause chamber bitter is tough, Mr. D?

- Yeah, it's hard to kill.

- Yeah.

- And he mentions that he's afraid that he'll kill his soil.

- Yeah, so let's address that.

- Solarization will not kill the soil.

It'll only kill organisms in the soil.

Which hopefully kill the seeds and the bad bugs that you don't want down there.

But I wouldn't worry about killing my soil if I use solarization at all.

Wouldn't worry about that.

It just makes things better.

- Makes things better.

Yeah, won't worry about that.

You know, as well.

Yeah, but chamber bitter can be real tough.

It's called little mimosa.

You know, it looks like a little mimosa tree.

So if you're gonna pull it up, you definitely gotta get all the root system.

- Yeah.

- Because if not, it'll come back with a vengeance.

- Come right back.

- Yeah.

It is pretty tough.

So thank you for that question.

All right, here's our next viewer email.

"In early August, I cut 15 bag worms off my Japanese maple.

"Two days later, there were that many more.

"Will bag worms kill my Japanese maple?

I am treating with Sevin."

This is Margaret in Memphis, Tennessee.

So Mr. D, so bag worms, right?

Japanese maple, treated with Sevin.

What do you think?

- First off, if you pull 15 off in August and then more appeared, they were already there.

You just didn't see 'em, because the bag worm, their starting early May and there's one generation per year.

And that's when they're small, that's when you can kill them with insecticides or Bt, Bacillus thuringiensis.

They're very susceptible to that, and that's what I would recommend that you use in May.

I wouldn't use Sevin.

Malathion, if you want to go with an insecticide, actually works better than Sevin.

But Bt will do the trick for you.

And it won't harm any of your beneficial insects.

Now, if you wait until August, nothing will kill them.

Even, even two bricks won't kill 'em.

All they'll do is hurt your fingers when you slam the bricks together.

But I mean, you can pick 'em off.

If you have 'em on the tree in August, they're not gonna kill the tree.

No, they're not gonna kill the red maple tree.

But if you have 'em on the tree in August, pick off all of them that you can and put 'em in a Walmart bag and double tie 'em and put 'em in the garbage or burn 'em.

Don't just throw 'em in your compost pile or something like that.

Because in August, those bags, many of them are just full of eggs and they're waiting to overwinter.

Or they're going they're in the pupal stage.

Or, you know, they're at a stage in their life cycle in August where they're probably not doing any anymore feeding at that point.

They are in that cocoon and that if you've ever tried to tear one of those cocoons apart... - You've tried that for us.

- Almost indestructible.

It's just almost indestructible.

You can't do it with your fingers.

You've gotta have knives and scissors and equipment and stuff like that.

But just if it's a problem for you early May go out there with Bt and spray and that'll take care of your problem.

- All right, Joellen, anything you'd like to add?

- Yeah, definitely.

If you see any more on there, take them off now.

Because the eggs overwintering there, not good.

So you don't wanna continue the problem.

But yeah.

And scout in May and put the Bt on and you might wanna apply it again every two to three weeks.

If you don't see the bag worms.

And a lot of times, if you notice them, they'll start wiggling and you go, "What is that?"

And then, so you put the Bt out and Bt works wonderfully.

It does a great job and it doesn't hurt anything.

- Good for the beneficials.

This is true.

All right Ms. Margaret, so timing is everything.

And knowing what to use is most important.

All right, that's for sure.

So here's our next viewer email.

"Hi, I have a Contender peach tree "and the leaves have red dots all over them "and they are falling off the tree.

"Any idea what is causing this "and any solutions that would help?

Thank you."

This Greg from central New York.

So there you go, Mr. D a peach tree growing in central New York.

- How about that?

- How about that?

- Yeah.

- How about that?

- And that is bacterial leaf spot.

And some varieties of peaches are more susceptible to bacterial leaf spot than others.

And obviously the Contender is susceptible.

It's not a fungal disease, it's a bacterial disease.

So there are some things that you can do early to help prevent that from being a problem.

Copper-containing products, Coside is one of the trade names that come to mind, but it's not going to kill the plant.

It's unsightly and it's not gonna help it at all.

It's gonna interfere with photosynthesis, but that's what it is, bacterial leaf spot.

- Bacterial leaf spot.

Practice good sanitation.

Pick up those diseased leaves.

And as you say, throw 'em in a trash.

Don't compost them.

Yep, and resistant varieties.

All right, great.

We appreciate that question.

Here's our next viewer email.

"A large tree I have had in my backyard "for decades is suddenly dying.

"The leaves are turning brown and curling and it is summer.

"What kind of tree is this?

And what can I do to save it?"

And this is Gisa from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Joellen, so how about that one?

- Yeah.

She's got a...

I think it's Norway maple, but it definitely is a maple.

But I believe it's a Norway maple.

And you know, Norway Maples are actually invasive.

So, it doesn't hurt my feelings too much if it's not quite living, but I know she's been used to those shade and you know, all the benefits she's had from a tree that everybody has.

The problem is, you know, it's a maple, that's the worst problem.

There's a list this long of diseases and insects that attack maples.

So, it could be a number of those things that are going on because it is an older tree and suddenly dying.

You know, the best thing I can think of is if you really wanna know what it is and trying to save it, I would get a certified arborist out there and have them look at the tree and see if they see any holes from borers in there.

If they can determine if there's any kind of damage to the tree like that could cause part of it to die.

All sorts of things, you know, weed eater damage, somebody's hit part of the bark at the base of one section.

There's all sorts of things can go wrong with a tree.

But without being there and seeing that, it's hard to tell.

So I would get a certified arborist out there 'cause it is a big tree and it is next to her house, so.

- Right.

Yeah.

So you don't want it to be a hazard?

- Hm-hm, no.

- All right, Gisa, thank you for that question.

Mr. D, anything you'd like to add to that?

- We had maple trees in my yard when I was growing up on the family farm and we had probably half dozen and three of them were big when I was a little boy and they're still there.

But the center of the tree is dying out, they're losing limbs, some of the little bitty maple trees that are now big maple trees and you know, they just don't last forever.

And like you said, there are a lot of problems that, you know, maple borer and you know, they're just a lot of problems that can affect maple trees.

And so that's probably, you know, it's just maybe time to... You know they really make good duck calls, pretty duck calls out of the trunks of maple trees.

Curly maple and things like that.

You may want to turn that tree into, take it to the woodworking shop.

Maybe, may be time.

- May be time.

All right, we appreciate that question.

Here's our next viewer email.

This one is interesting.

"We are trying to grow passionfruit.

"We have one purple vine "and one yellow banana passionfruit vine.

"Both have had three green passionfruit "for about three months, but they aren't ripening.

"Both grow in full sun and soil "raised up to about 30 centimeters "because the natural ground is very bad gray clay."

How about that?

"What can we do to get our passionfruit to ripen?

They were planted in September of 2021 in the spring."

And this is Deborah from Perth, western Australia.

How about that?

- Yes, that's great.

- So, you think we can help her out?

- Well, I hope so.

And I... - They're not ripening, so.

- I have a few questions though.

You know, how often does she water it?

What has the weather been like?

Has it been consistent rain?

Because I'm wondering if nutrients and watering are part of the reasons why it's not ripening.

But it takes a long time to ripen these fruits anyway.

But if they're just stunted and not doing anymore, I'm wondering what the watering and nutrient regime she has going on.

- I wonder the same thing, 'cause again, you have three green passionfruit that not been ripening for three months.

- Yeah, that's a little long.

- So, Mr. D, that's why, yeah.

- It's a little long.

- Of course some of the varieties take three months.

And some take longer.

And so I don't know whether... - But still I would like to know what watering and what fertilizing she has done and what the weather's been like.

- Right.

- Okay, yeah, different seasons for us.

September 2021, you know.

- Was spring for her.

- Yeah, spring.

Yeah, interesting.

But yeah, very bad gray clay.

So they're raised.

- I mean, that's a great idea and obviously the vines are doing well and she's gotten fruit on both of them, which is fantastic.

But they're just not ripening.

And hopefully, you know, she's been watering 'em during droughts and they're keeping them moist.

But I think, you know, just don't overwater 'em because I know that can be a problem with passionfruits too.

- Too much water, too little water can prevent them from ripening.

- Yes, sure can.

That and nutrients, that's for sure.

All right, Ms. Deborah, we appreciate that question.

- Hope that helps.

- Yeah, hope that helps you out there.

All right, here's our next viewer email.

"What has happened to my two-year-old rosemary?

"As you can see, I cut away a brown section, "but have more brown spots on the plant.

Is it because the dog waters that plant every day?"

This is Lisa in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, on Facebook.

So yeah, the dog waters it every day.

A lot of brown sections.

What comes to mind, Joellen?

- Well, yeah, I mean that can be contributing.

Because think of it, you know, the salt in that and as hot as it's been this summer would make me think that it's too high a salt content for the rosemary to keep staying green because it's just too salty.

And then are you watering it enough?

Washing it enough?

I would not want the dog watering my rosemary, especially if I'm gonna eat some.

But you know... - Let me get this straight.

- Here we go.

All right.

- Rosemary is a herb, right?

- Rosemary is a herb.

- Here we go.

- And we put herbs in the food that we eat?

- Yes.

- Okay.

- We see where this is going.

- Yeah, I'm just wondering if the rosemary tastes different or if the flavor is affected.

I'd be more worried about that than...

I wouldn't put the leaves with the brown spots on it, I wouldn't put that in my food.

[Chris laughs] - Yeah, I mean either move the plants, you know, so it's not its favorite place for the dog.

Or, you know, fashion a fence or something around it.

- Put it in a pot, put it higher up for the dog can't reach it.

- There you go, that's a better suggestion.

- That's a good suggestion.

- Electric fence, maybe?

- No, I don't think you need to go through that much trouble.

- Electricity, is a good thing, you know.

- But yeah, I mean, all that could be contributing to.

I mean, it's just a bunch of things.

And if she's continually rinsing it off and watering it, it could be a little bit of rot going on too, because it's too wet.

So moving it to a potted plant somewhere where the...

Which might fix a lot of these different problems.

- All right, get it away from the dog.

There you have it, Ms. Lisa.

Yeah, thank you for the question.

Here's our next viewer email.

"What are these white specks on my crape myrtle's leaves?"

And this is Lou.

So Joellen, what do you think that is?

- Well, you know, it looks like it could be aphids, 'cause aphids are notorious for being on crape myrtles and causing it to be the leaves to be sticky.

'Cause they're kind of shiny.

It could be a little bit of a scale too, but most likely aphids.

What I'm wondering is why aphids are on it to begin with.

I'm thinking air circulation, maybe lack of air circulation?

And I wanna know if the crape myrtle, it blooms where it's located?

I'd like to see, you know, the crape myrtle either thinned, or something?

Does the crape myrtle bloom?

And, but it looks... Aphids are a sign of stress.

And so I'm trying to think, crape myrtles like full sun and good airflow and I'm wondering if that's lacking in some of the area.

Now you can treat it.

Aphids are easy to treat, insecticidal soaps or neem oil or sometimes just washing 'em off.

Yeah, but easy, but I think there's a different problem that's causing the aphids and that's what I think he needs to look at and address.

- All right.

- Going along with that, sometimes aphid numbers can build up to a certain point where a natural disease will come in and take 'em out too.

So I don't know whether you've reached not your economic threshold, your aesthetic threshold.

When you reach your aesthetic threshold, you know, give it enough time to allow beneficials to come in and maybe take 'em out or a natural disease to come in and take 'em out.

But you know, then once you reach the point where you can't stand it anymore, 'cause it looks bad and you're getting a lot of sooty mold on the honey dew that they're secreting, then you need to do something then.

And you may never reach that point.

- True.

- But you're right, it's gotta be stress.

- Stress of some kind.

- Some type of stress, yeah.

'Cause it seems to be an aphid species for every plant species these days.

- Yes, and in all different colors.

- Yes.

That's for sure.

- But those little white structures we need to mention, those are the exoskeletons.

The aphids are molting and they're going through different life stages.

And that's why you see so many of the little bitty, funny looking white structures on the leaves.

- Pretty neat though.

If you can see that.

- It's a good picture.

- Yeah, it is a good picture.

Thank you for that, Lou.

We appreciate that.

All right, Joellen and Mr. D, that was fun.

A lot of questions, it was fun.

Thank you very 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 watching.

That was a lot of questions.

We answered a lot more while we were taping this show.

If you want to see those questions and answers, go to FamilyPlotGarden.com.

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

Be safe.

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