
Watering Methods & Fall Vegetables
Season 13 Episode 18 | 27m 23sVideo has Closed Captions
Jason Reeves talks different methods of watering, and Walter Battle discusses fall veggies
This week on The Family Plot: Gardening in the Mid-South Jason Reeves from UT Gardens Jackson shows different watering methods for your garden. Also, UT Extension Area Specialist Walter Battle talks about fall vegetables.
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Watering Methods & Fall Vegetables
Season 13 Episode 18 | 27m 23sVideo has Closed Captions
This week on The Family Plot: Gardening in the Mid-South Jason Reeves from UT Gardens Jackson shows different watering methods for your garden. Also, UT Extension Area Specialist Walter Battle talks about fall vegetables.
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
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Learn Moreabout PBS online sponsorship- Hi, thanks for joining us for The Family Plot: Gardening in the Mid-South.
I'm Chris Cooper.
All plants need water.
Today, we're gonna talk about the different ways to water them.
Also, summer is the best time to start thinking about the fall vegetable garden.
That's just ahead on The Family Plot: Gardening in the Mid-South.
- (female announcer) Production funding for The Family Plot: Gardening in the Mid-South is provided by the WKNO Production Fund, the WKNO Endowment Fund, and by viewers like you, thank you.
[upbeat country music] - Welcome to The Family Plot.
I'm Chris Cooper.
Joining me today is Jason Reeves.
Jason's a horticulturalist at UT Gardens right here in Jackson, and Walter Battle will be joining me later.
Hi Jason, thank you for being here today.
- Yeah.
Good to be here.
- All right yeah, the UT Gardens here in Jackson.
- That's right.
- All right.
- Thanks for coming out to us today.
This is awesome.
- This is gonna be great.
So this isn't the studio but it's great being here on site so.
- Oh, this is going to be good.
This is a good hot day.
- It is.
- And we're going to talk about watering, right?
- Yeah, yes we are.
It's it is a hot day.
You can see I'm already drenched [Chris laughs] and it's, we're going in a period here of lack of water.
And so we're spending a lot of time watering and so thought it'll be a great time to talk about different methods of watering so.
- This is appropriate.
So, where do you want to start?
- All right, were gonna start out with one of the simplest ways is watering by hand.
And, one of the easiest ways to water by hand is to use a watering wand that hooks on to a water hose.
- Okay.
- And I've been using a watering wand I guess, 30-plus years, and I definitely have my favorites and there's definitely a difference in quality.
So, check out the different qualities when you are shopping for a watering wand whether it's the local garden center, or online, or the box store.
But one of my favorite here is one that is all metal and has metal head, or rose, or breaker, they go by all different names.
- Okay.
- And it can be replaced if, - it does wear out.
- oh so it does come out.
- Yeah it just screws on and off.
So I wouldn't buy one that has a permanent head, - Got it.
- because if you mess it up and the remainder part is okay, you can't use it.
- Got it.
- One advantage to that metal head is if you drop it, or you are out on concrete, or asphalt, it is more durable as opposed to this plastic head, - Got it.
- that's on the end here.
- Okay.
- We tend to use this in the greenhouse.
It's a little bit lighter weight, but outside on the ground, especially on the concrete we want that metal head.
- Okay.
Now would you have to clean this out every once in a while?
- Yes, well glad you mentioned that, you can, yes, if you end up with trash - - Okay.
- in the end and your pressure is affected, you can take this off, and you know, with your air hose, or just take the water - - Oh.
- and run it and sometimes I just take my finger [Chris laughs] and get a little bits and pieces that are caught.
That is definitely important.
You can buy these that have all different size holes and more holes than others.
I will tell you, the finer that hole is the more likely it is to get trash in it.
- Okay, finer, got it.
- You do want one with a whole lot of holes and they go by numbers, and I couldn't even tell you what these are.
[Chris laughs] What I do not like, is one that has an adjustable head up here, that has the dial.
So you know, there's a fan spray, - Ah, I've seen those.
- And a cone shape.
- Yeah.
- And the reason I don't, even if you've got it on the setting with a bunch of holes, it doesn't put out near the volume of water that this does.
- Got it.
- This puts out a huge amount of water, gently and you don't have to stand in one spot as long to water-- - Good deal.
- With that, so keep that in mind.
Forget those adjustable things.
- Okay, forget 'em, right [laughs] - Also the way the water hose, the wand turns on and off, you definitely want some kind of valve on there, so you have to run back to the water hose.
So you aren't wasting water also when you are moving from plant to plant, or pot to pot.
So this one has a valve that turns on and off, with the lever system.
There are all different quality of these.
You can buy these in plastic, you can buy in brass, you can buy 'em in nickel.
And in this particular one has a built-in system, - - Yeah, that's different.
called a one touch, and I love this.
It's thumb operated.
- One touch.
- And so it works really well.
The one, the particular wand, wand [Chris laughs] that I don't like, is one that has this trigger here.
- I've seen those.
- And the reason I don't like that, if you are pulling it across the lawn, you're pulling your hose, that trigger can get caught on things.
- Okay, got it.
- Plants, grass, - Got it.
- or whatever.
Also can break off easy.
- Okay.
- So its better from my experience-- - Let's see that.
- To have something like this, that's so easy to operate.
- Ah, yes.
Okay.
- Or again, this valve here.
Of course, one disadvantage of this is, if this were to malfunction, you've got to get rid of the whole device - - Got it.
Okay.
- 'cause it's built-in.
Or you can replace these valves on the wand.
But a wand is a great way to water particularly container plants.
The long handle makes it a lot easier to reach in there.
- Okay.
- Of course greenhouses and nurseries have been using these for years.
- So if you are using the wand though, how would you water your plants, would you water over the top, or would you water right in the root zone or does it matter?
- If, you know, it's best if you can get the water down low.
I tell you, those of us who work in the industry, and in our nursery area here, I mean if we watered underneath every one, we'd be here for days.
- Oh right, sure, sure.
- We gotta go quickly movin' across.
It's best to water in the morning, because you lose less water to evaporation.
- Okay.
- And if you watering late in the evening, there's a chance, especially with overhead watering which we're talking about today, chance of disease, you know, fungus building up, because you've got that water on the foliage that remains there all evening.
So, morning's the best time.
You know, as working people, we have to water when we can.
- When you can, right.
That's right.
- So I water when I-- - That's right, that's right.
- Get home in the evening.
- I leave home at 5:15 in the morning, I'm not going to water in the morning.
- No, no, no.
- And so when a plant needs water, it needs water.
It doesn't matter the time of day.
You know, a plant wilts for one reason.
It's not getting water.
Now, it can be, not getting enough water for several reasons.
One, it could have root rot from too much water.
So the roots are rotting, so it's not takin' up water.
It can be that it's so hot, plants, particularly hydrangaes, have big leaves, big flowers, they can't take up the water fast enough.
- Okay.
- So, it may not be that the soil is dry, it just can't take it up fast enough.
And then the third reason is, truly it is dry and it needs water.
- Sure, okay.
Yeah.
- So you always want to check your plant to be sure that it actually needs water before watering.
- So how would you check your plants though?
- So I would check the soil.
- Okay, good soil.
- It doesn't mean the soil three feet above, it means the soil around the base of the plant.
- Okay.
[laughs] - Particularly when you've just planted a new plant in the ground, a little, say annual or perennial, you want to stick your finger in the actual, the soil it was growing in to begin with.
Until those roots run into the existing soil, it's not going to be able to absorb water.
- Got it.
- So put your finger down in there, and visibly test to see if needs moisture.
- Good point.
- And generally, you're wanting to put approximately one inch of water on a week.
And so, whether you are doing that with the overhead or the in-ground.
And there are devices that you can purchase that collect the water and kind of adjust to that, particularly if you have the in-ground system.
But you know in the ideal world, we don't get one inch of water once a week.
- Yeah.
- We get it, in the ideal would, we get it divided up about three times a week.
- Right, yeah.
So that's kind of you're doing when you're watering.
You are watering a couple of times a week.
That's if you are talking about in the ground.
If you've got containers, that's a different story, you may have to water those everyday.
- Sure, sure.
- But in general, one inch of water a week during the summer, is what you need to add to your landscape.
- Okay.
Good deal.
- If you're not getting rainfall.
All right, so then we're gonna talk a couple different forms of overhead sprinklers.
And I've got several in front of me here today were gonna talk about.
The first one here is called an impact sprinkler.
And I'm going to turn it on in a few minutes.
And I have different versions of this.
I have this all metal one which is heavy, which I really like.
- Yeah.
- Because it's heavy.
- It's sturdy.
- It stays in place.
- Yeah.
- If you've got good water pressure, as we do here, you cannot use one of these plastic ones [Chris laughs] This will actually flop around and will fall over.
And you have to actually weight it down, which is a pain.
[Chris laughs] So when you're buying a sprinkler, look for one that's heavy, that's going to serve the purpose you're looking for.
- Okay.
- So this impact sprinkler also comes on a tripod - Mm.
I've seen those.
- Which you can set in the garden that gets the water higher up, you know, you've got lots of tall shrubs, or plants you may need to get the water above them, so it's not blocking, the water isn't getting blocked.
So it can be purchased that way.
You can also buy this where this is actually on a stake that you stick in the ground.
I would, don't advise that because once you get in the ground, if you can get it in the ground, if it's soft enough.
- All right.
- Once you've watered a little bit, it kind of waddles out the hole, again if you have good water pressure it can actually come out of the ground.
- Ah I've got it, got it.
- So you really need one with a big base and again metal is better, cause it's heavy.
- Okay, that's definitely heavy.
- And then we also have this one that just makes a circle, it goes around, around, around.
- I've seen that a lot of places.
- And, it's not adjustable, where this impact, I'm going to show you in a few minutes, is adjustable.
This just makes a circle, and you cannot adjust the pattern at all on it.
Also this is floppy, this one falls over for me.
- Okay, so it's lighter.
- I don't get much water pressure.
It's metal, but it's just not big enough.
- Yeah, yeah.
- And then there's the oscillator sprinkler, that goes back and forth-- - Yeah, Yeah.
- And again we're going to demonstrate that.
And we use a combination of impact and oscillator here, depending on the area we're watering in.
Depending on the shape of the bed, depending on the plants in the area, whether I've got to go up and over them, with a arch out of this, or whether it can be lower down on the ground.
So, we're gonna walk over here and demonstrate these.
- Okay.
- Both of these have, we have taken a valve, like you see on the water one here.
I've taken this valve, and I have put one on each of these sprinklers.
Which is here for a couple of advantages.
One, it allows me to control the water pressure, so I'm not watering a bigger area than I want.
But also just moving from one location to the other in the garden with the sprinkler.
I don't have to go back to the end of the hose-- - Oh, turn it off.
- And turn it off.
You know a long day here, at the end of the day, - I'm sure man.
- I don't want to walk a hundred feet away at the end of the hose, - Yeah, I'm sure.
- Turn it off to move the sprinkler, I can adjust it right here.
So this is really handy.
Again I've got this valve here, and I'm going to turn it on with this valve and again, I can control my pressure.
- Ah, there it goes.
[sprinkler sprays] So that's the sound.
- And so by adjusting these little tabs here, again I can adjust how far it's spraying.
So once it hits the stop, it turns and goes back the other direction.
- Okay.
[sprinkler spraying] - And you can see it gets that shh-shh-shh sound.
So again you can see the spray going out here by adjusting this little tab here, [sprinkler spraying] it brings it closer to you.
- Right.
- So it doesn't go as far out.
I'm going to lift it back up, and then the screw here also adjusts the way the fan of the spray goes.
So you can see, - Wow, that's interesting.
- It fans it out more.
- Got it.
- And so, [sprinkler sprays] so an impact will water as small as, say a quarter of a circle, or a pie, piece of pie, or a complete circle, depending on how you adjust it.
- Okay.
- If you have really good water pressure, some devices like this particular one, you can actually hook another hose up, and have another sprinkler-- - Nice.
- On the other end.
But again you've gotta have good water pressure for that.
- Right.
- So, this has got one where you can hook another water hose up to it.
- So is that the one you like to use the most?
- Actually I use the oscillator the most-- - The oscillator, okay.
- Just because our beds here are really not circles.
- Okay, got it.
- Now if I'm watering a lawn setting, this would definitely be a good way to use.
- Okay.
- A good one to use.
- For the lawn, all right.
- And then the oscillating sprinkler.
- Yeah.
- So an oscillating goes back and forth.
- Yeah.
- Oscillates back and forth.
And again I've got the valve on here, I'm going to go ahead and turn this one on.
It has tabs that control how far back and forth it goes.
So I've already got it set so it won't get me wet.
[Chris laughs] [sprinkler sprays] - So it comes out in a fan shape.
Turn the pressure up a little bit more.
And so you can adjust again how far out it goes by the amount of pressure, but also how far, you can adjust it by adjusting the tabs back and forth.
- Okay.
- So right now I've just got it going one direction.
Better quality sprinklers like this will have, tabs that adjust easier than others.
Some of them have this dial that's a little bit more difficult.
This one really works well.
Again, I recommend a metal sprinkler.
I've had these in plastic as well and they, again if you have good water pressure, they can flop and cause a problem with flopping and not working properly.
This one also has a valve up at the top that can control the pressure as well, but it doesn't actually turn it all the way off.
So again, I like that valve on the end to adjust-- - That works pretty good.
- 'Til it's completely turned off.
Another misnomer is, when the sun's out and water drops hit a plant-- - Yeah, I was just about to ask you that.
- It does not burn the leaves.
- So, it does not burn the leaves.
- That is a misnomer I was just about to ask you that.
- That's an old wives tale, so don't worry about that.
- Got it.
Well, Jason we appreciate that.
Looks like you need to hop in to water.
- All right.
[both laugh] [upbeat country music] - All right, this is a neat plant called Morus alba.
This is actually a white mulberry.
So, some of you might be familiar with the common leaf structure of a white mulberry.
But this is a really unique plant.
So this is a naturally occurring sport, you can see how crinkly the leaves are here.
So that makes it a lot different from that original straight species.
And when they found this, naturally occurring sport, they did vegetate a propagation, and created this cultivar called Ho-O, H, O, dash O.
So that's just a really neat fun new cultivar.
Occasionally, on these sports, you will see reversion, where the leaves return to their normal state.
And we do have a limb here that's reverting.
And so you want to make sure to prune these reversions off, just to make sure you keep your original sport.
[upbeat country music] - So Walt, believe it or not, it's time to start talking about fall vegetables, right?
- Absolutely.
And you know a lot of people, you know they it's like they have this magical thing like oh, we'll start thinking about fall vegetables come October one.
[laughing] No, you have to start thinking about that good stuff back in July.
You know what I'm saying?
So that's really when we plant a lot of the fall vegetables.
- You gotta start thinking about it when it's hot.
- That's right.
You gotta start thinking about it when it's hot.
So yes, this is the good stuff, get to those good cole crops.
- Okay.
- Yes.
- I can tell you like those cole crops too, huh?
- Yes sir, yes sir, yes sir.
[Chris laughs] - All right, so what are some of the vegetables that can be raised in the fall?
- Okay, well I'm going to stick for now with the traditional cole crops that we see.
And usually, you think about the cole crops, I always like to think about like, broccoli.
Oh, cabbage, - Yes.
- Oh, cauliflower, and also your greens your kale, those types of plants.
Now, what's a lot of fun with them is that, you know, they provide us the green leafy stuff that the people who talk about nutrition say that you need.
So, and I also like to think of the cole crops as coleslaw.
[all laugh] Because that's what you use, you know the cabbage, and broccoli.
- Right, right.
- I even make a broccoli slaw.
- How about that?
- So that's how I kind of look at it.
- Okay.
- Yes, and just leading off here, let's just talk about the, you know one of the main ones, and that's of course is cabbage.
- Oh cabbage, I like cabbage.
- And, you know yes, cabbage is very, very good, of course when you eat 'em, you're gonna have to, you know, burp a little bit.
[all laugh] But, there's a lot of different ways to cook 'em.
But you really want to plant them in July, if you're gonna do them by seed.
And, but you can transplant them up through about maybe August 10th or so, if you're gonna use transplants.
They need about 60 days to get to this size.
And so therefore, they'll be ready around October or so.
So that's where the best way to do 'em.
And you want to plant them in, on 36-inch rows, and plant them probably, I say probably about 18 inches apart.
And they should do well.
- Okay.
Do you have a favorite variety?
- Yes, I like Stonehead and I also like Red Rookie.
- Okay.
- Is that a red cabbage?
- Yes that's a red cabbage, - Oh yeah, that'd make-- - Red Rookie.
- A great colored slaw.
- Oh yes, yes.
That makes the slaw just even better, [all laugh] Yes, and the next one I talk about of course, is good old broccoli, which is - - Wow.
- Just healthy for you.
I mean, it just doesn't get any better.
And again, you can, basically you can transplant them up through about, again, August 10th, August 15th, somewhere along that line.
You want to set them out, 36-inch rows, eighteen inches apart, the plants.
And I'll tell you, the varieties that I really like for the fall is Emperor and Green Comet.
It just seems like they can handle a cooler weather a little better from what I've seen, just you know, planting them in my own garden.
- Okay.
- And then of course, another one of course, is good old cauliflower.
And I'll be honest with you, with both cauliflower and broccoli, I just eat those, just eat 'em.
[Chris laughs] I don't have to cook 'em.
But for cauliflower, again, I would say in mid, seed in mid-July, transplant up to about, again, mid-August or so.
Takes about, I think 60 days for it to make a crop, so that will put you again, be ready come October.
And there's one variety that I recommend for fall planting, and that is Snow Crown.
- Snow Crown.
- Yes, Snow Crown, and it's a good size cauliflower, it has good size to it.
And I've had a lot of success growing it.
- Okay.
- And then of course, one of my favorite plants that I just like to eat, is of course turnip greens.
And your turnip greens, you really want to plant them, you can plant them from August through September.
And it's going to take you about 30 days before you get a crop.
And now, the reason that I like planting turnip greens, and the variety that I like to plant in the fall is Seven Top.
But, the reason I like to plant them, I kind of lime my garden a little earlier than most people, because turnip green seeds are very, very small - Yes, they are.
- So, what I usually do, I mix them in with lime.
so the spots that I'm going to sow my turnip greens in, are also limed at the same time.
- That pelletized lime.
- Yes that pelletized, - Like I do mine, yeah, - Right right.
- That's a good idea.
- Yes, it just kind of, - Yeah.
- Is an easy way to sow 'em and I usually get a pretty good uniform crop, and like I said, I really like those.
And course, some people grow turnip greens also for the turnip, you know.
- Mm Mm.
- And Purple Top is the go-to variety for turnips.
Now when I cook turnip greens, a lot of times I'll even chop up a turnip and put it in there.
But again, and they will last you throughout the fall season.
I mean, they'll last you throughout.
Even on over into winter.
As a matter of fact, once it frosts on them, once it snows on them, they get bitter.
And I really like those bitter turnip greens, and put a little chow chow pickle with them.
[all laugh] and they're just real good.
- I bet you use hot sauce too.
- Yes.
[all laugh] And next, Chris, I would like to also, but fall gardening can also be extending the summer garden as well.
- Okay.
- And I'm going to use one of the big feature crops that we use for summer gardening, - Oh yeah.
- Of course is tomatoes.
- Tomatoes.
- But you can carry them on into, really into November.
You can have you some transplants that you set out, you know in like late June, July, and you'll end up getting some good tomato crops.
Now, one thing that people should remember, in the Mid-South area, you know, is November 13th, according to the Tennessee Department of Ag's weather statistic history, somebody keeps up with all that.
[all laugh] I don't know who does all that.
They say it's a 50% chance of first frost occurring on November 13th, in Memphis.
- Wow, okay.
- Yeah, so, kind of.
- 50% chance!
- Yeah, kind of do a little math backwards, and you can kind of see how you get your growing season in there to grow you some tomatoes.
- Right.
- I've even have carried tomatoes on up 'til about November 10th myself, simply by covering my tomatoes at night, so that in case it did frost, they would be covered.
But then once I know that it's pretty much going to be times that we're going to get a lot of cold weather and frost, I just go out there and pick my green tomatoes off, and if you live in the South, well, you know, - Fried green tomatoes.
- Fried green tomatoes.
[all laugh] So, and you can also set them in a window sill, in a south-facing window sill and they'll turn red as well, so.
That's how you can kind of extend your tomato crop, to go on into the fall as well.
- Now going back to our cole crops, so, if we get a, you know, a frost, freezing temps, are they goin' to be fine?
- They'll be fine, that's why they are listed, you know, as cold hardy crops and they can handle that.
Now, if you get some big devastating you know, freeze, - Right, sure.
- Event, something that, we rarely see or somethin', everything's kinda off the table here, but - Sure.
- Yes, this is just gettin' hold to this stuff on a good fall or winter day is [Chris laughs] very good.
- I can tell you like them.
[all laugh] Walt, we appreciate the good information man, and what a nice display?
- Yes, yes, yes, yes.
- Yeah.
- Thank you much, Walt, we appreciate that.
[gentle country music] - All right, we've got a Baptisia plant here that we noticed a week or so ago, was showing a little bit of bronzing.
So, from a distance, I though that it just had a slight covering of dust on the leaves and the upon closer inspection, we found that it had a pretty heavy infestation of spider mites.
And, if you see this on a plant and you're curious as to what may be going on, you can do a "White paper test."
Just give it a little tap.
[leaves rustling] And, of course, on your white piece of paper, you're gonna catch some debris and also shake off any of those spider mites or other insects that might be feeding on the plant.
And that's just gonna help you do a little more diagnostics with that.
These insects are very small, and have piercing mouthparts and are sucking the juices from the plants.
And in this circumstance, I'd probably wouldn't even treat this plant.
While there's quite a bit of feeding on it, it is not going to affect the overall health of this plant.
If I were to treat it, you'd want to use a systemic product, I really prefer root drenches that we can pour around the base of plants, that include a long-lasting residual, active ingredients like imidacloprid.
[upbeat country music] - Alright, here's our Q and A segment, y'all ready?
- Yes sir.
- Of course.
- These are great questions.
Alright, here's our first viewer email.
"I went outside one morning to find what looks "to me like some kind of fungus growing in my mulch.
"Do you know what it is, and, is there any reason for concern?"
This is Julie from Crossville, Tennessee.
So Celeste-- - Okay Julie.
- Any reason for concern?
And, what is it?
- Yes, so that was an excellent picture.
- Yeah, it was, it was.
- I wanna thank her first and a really good quality picture.
So, that has a really gross common name.
- Yes, it does.
- People call it dog vomit.
[both laugh] It's a slime mold, commonly occurs in mulch.
It's a fungus that feeds on decaying organic matter.
So like, that's what mulch is.
- Sure.
- Right?
Shredded bark mulch is decaying and doin' it's thing and so it would be natural that we would see this type of fungus develop there.
- All right.
- And there's a lot of different kinds of funguses that you'll see in mulch.
Artillery fungus, - Mm, which is cool, yeah.
- Which shoot those little, yeah, but, [grimmaces] it is gross.
- It's pretty cool.
- And it's hard to get off of things.
But these are just naturally occurring.
So, I'd say don't worry about it.
It's not anything that's gonna infect your plants or cause things that are growin' in an area that look poorly.
There's really not a lot in a way of control.
They could just shovel up those areas - Yes.
- Scoop it up, yeah.
- If they wanted to.
And it's gonna be more prevalent in wet periods.
So, we're comin' into a dry period right now, if someone had an issue with-- - Right.
- Slime mold, I'd expect that to be kind of dying down.
- Yeah.
- You know what amazes me, how quick it grows.
Sometimes, you'd see it run-- - Yeah.
- On the side of the house.
- Yes.
- I feel something is not leavin' at all 'cause it spreads so quickly.
- I see that.
- I bet again, it's not going to hurt anything.
- Not gonna hurt anything, you don't need to use a chemical.
Thank you Ms. Julie, we appreciate that question.
I think Jason likes this one.
"How do I prevent the canna leaf roller from "eating up my beautiful cannas in a pollinator friendly way?"
And this Alice from Memphis, Tennessee.
So, a pollinator-friendly way.
- So, in a pollinator friendly way.
You're not gonna prevent the moth from comin' in and laying egg on the plant.
- So, it is a moth.
- It is a moth, yes, the lesser canna leaf rollers, a couple of different ones.
- Okay.
- But, you can control it with a couple of different methods.
If you're wanting to be pollinator friendly, Bt, which is a biological control that only affects caterpillars, will work on it and you would apply that to the foliage.
If you're, can't use that, or it's not working for you, can use a product like that contains carbonyl.
Is that right?
- Carbaryl.
- Carbaryl.
[all laugh] Carbaryl.
- Close enough, yeah.
- And, if you're gonna do that, this is what I use at my house a lot of times.
I cut all the blooms off the plant.
- Oh nice.
- So I remove all the flowers whether it's on a knockout rose that I am spraying for Japanese beetles, or the canna leaf roller, I cut the flowers off before I apply the product.
- Okay.
- And then, I am not worried about the bees getting the product on them.
- Oh good deal, good deal.
- And so that's a good way.
With that canna leaf roller, you need to start early in the season because once it gets down in that funnel-- - Yeah.
- that rolled up leaf, and it knits it together with its silk thread, it's hard to get the product down in there.
It's very frustrating.
[Chris laughs] If you've got a bad case out of, the best thing to do is to cut all the foliage off, and dispose of it, not in the compost.
- Sure.
- In the trash or burn it.
And then just fertilize 'em well and they'll put out new growth again.
They kind of feel good about jumpin' right back.
Oh yeah, cannas are tough.
So, you can just cut it down and start all over.
- So, how early again in the season would you?
- Well, I would start, I mean, I'd have them as early as the first of May-- - Wow.
- Depending on the season or the year, but typically more late May when I start seein' 'em This year, it was about middle May when I saw my first ones this year and I started the process.
- They aggravated me so bad [Jason grimmaces] I am just all but quit having cannas and I love 'em, I love 'em.
- I eliminated all the cannas here except in maybe three spots.
- Wow.
- 'Cause I just couldn't take care of it all and in my house, I've stuck with two that I really like, Mango Tiger and Tropicana, that I really grow up for the foliage anyway.
So, I keep the flowers cut off all the time.
- Oh so you do.
Okay.
- And then I don't have to worry about sprayin'.
- Don't worry about it.
- Oh good deal.
- I really grow them for the foliage, so.
- Good deal.
I thought Jason would like that one.
[Celeste laughs] Alright, so thank you Jason, thank you Celeste.
- You're welcome.
- It was fun.
It was fun.
- Had a great time.
Thank you much.
Remember, we love to hear from you.
Send us an e-mail or letter.
The e-mail 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.
We're about halfway through the growing season and I hope your garden is doing well.
If something is not growing quite right, go to FamilyPlotGarden.com.
We have hundreds of videos about all sorts of garden problems.
And, if you can't find your problem, ask us your gardening question.
You can do it on the website too.
Be sure to join us next week for The Family Plot: Gardening in the Mid-South.
Be safe.
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