- From the sweltering studios of Rodale Institute Radio and Television at Lehigh Valley Public Media in the still Christmas City of Bethlehem, PA, it is time for another death defying hour of chemical free horticultural hijinks... A listener in hot and sunny Spain wants to know how to keep his potted Christmas tree alive, even though said tree is native to fairly frigid mountain weather.

I'm your host, Mike McGrath and today's show, we'll reveal how he just might be able to pull it off.

Otherwise, it's a fabulous phone call show, cats and kittens.

Yes, potential guests are still sitting in Times Square waiting for the ball to drop.

So we will take that heaping helping of your telecommunicated questions, comments, tips, tricks, suggestions and resolutely restitute reassurances.

So, keep your eyes and/or ears right here, true believers, because it's all coming up faster than you getting to hang tinsel on the same tree twice.

Right after this.

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- Dan, welcome to... .

- Well, thanks.

Really great to talk to you, Mike.

- Really good to talk to you, Dan, how are you doing?

- I'm doing fine.

I'm intrigued where I'm at now and pumped up to try to talk to you.

I'm going to use you as a part of my due diligence here with some questions.

- OK, all right.

And where is your due diligence being done?

- Well, it's being done in a little bump in the road in south-middle Tennessee in a small farm on the Buffalo River.

And it's that's it's north of Lawrenceburg, Tennessee.

But to give you a better perspective, it's about 70 miles southwest of Nashville.

- So, what can we do you for?

- Well, I ran into something, you know, I've been gardening for probably, oh, I don't know, 45 years or so making mistakes in at least five different states.

And six, if you count the state of confusion.

- That's it.

It's the only way.

It's the only way men learn, Dan.

- Oh, yeah.

I'll tell you.

And even there, you got to relearn it.

But the whole thing with with this is I ran into something the first time that I've ever, ever seen it.

And I can't believe that that's the first I've heard of it.

But I wanted to know if you had any experience with chitosan.

That's C-H-I... - Oh, um, chiton!

From shellfish.

- It's a chiton derivate, yeah, a chiton derivative.

- Yes, I'm familiar with chiton.

- OK, well, the reason I looked at it was I was reading a book by Harold McGee.

It was called Nose Dove.

It's a new one.

It's a Field Guide to the World's Smells.

And the reason why it's so interesting is he's got the chemistry down on all kinds of stuff through.

And I found out that he was a consultant and a mentor for a course at Harvard, where it's a cross between culinary arts and physics, a joint program that's been going on for ten years.

- Sure, yeah, absolutely.

- So, anyway I looked at it and pulled up the book.

I bought the book and read the book, and I ran across just a real brief little couple paragraphs in there that was talking about using a bio stimulant, an elicitor, to prime the immune system of plants to basically kick into defensive mechanisms and produce a whole lot of green leaf volatiles and a whole series of like changing their basal metabolism to the point that they can go ahead and produce a lot of defensive compounds that will both kill off or stave off attacks from insects or fungus and so forth.

- Well, let me say that already, we have research that was conducted back in the '90s that showed mixing chiton-rich material like crab shells and shrimp shells into working compost, created finished compost that allowed plants not only to resist non-beneficial nematodes, the root-knot nematodes that plague gardeners down south and out west.

- Right.

- But if this compost was applied for a couple of years in a row, it would actually eradicate the root-knot nematodes.

They wouldn't come near the soil.

So and you realize maybe that that's a godsend for people who have these creatures that, you know, literally tie up the root systems and don't allow the plants to absorb nutrients anymore.

- Sure, sure.

No, this is, well, this is...

Absolutely supporting.

I did a deep dive down the rabbit hole, you know... - And maybe you've heard me mention on the air a compost company.

The reason I mention them is I see their products all over the country called Coast of Maine, and they make really premium compost.

And one of their compost is a lobster compost.

They take all the the shellings from a factory that processes lobsters and they mix it in with their working compost.

And, to me, that's a dream if you've got root-knot nematodes.

- Oh, yeah.

Yeah.

Well, that's one of the things that I found that I found very interesting is that I found a company that actually does the extraction and makes essentially the like the chitosan acetate and extracts that between one and 3% solutions.

And the nice part about that is they were actually paying for the the fishery waste from fishermen who were, you know, basically having to get rid of the waste anyway and give them a little bit more of an income stream, you know, while at the same time recycling that waste and turning into something that is actually soluble water, and they're talking about low concentrations triggering this same effect without having issues.

And I just dug through a hole.

I must have looked at 50 to 100 research papers from around the world so far getting just getting started.

And, you know, my whole background was trying to find basically like process hazard review and chemical safety and that sort of thing.

And I'm a certified skeptic, you know... - You got the paper on the wall and everything, right?

- Exactly.

And, I mean... - And all it says is, "I don't believe what you're telling me."

- Right, and what I'm getting to now, after a fair amount of digging and, you know, skepticism is that this is looking more and more like a win-win situation.

And so I mainly wanted to know if you also if you ever used any of it directly or something like the chitosan acetate solutions, I trigger these.

- I don't go for these concentrated things.

I'm even a skeptic about some vitamins.

- Oh, no.

Me, too.

- I'm one of these people.

And, you know, the true experts that I've met over the decades I've been in this business always reinforce you're going to get better results from the bulk natural material.

And for me, I have been in a pinch.

Sometimes, I've been, you know, down in Florida, or up in like Colorado.

And I've had to put on a demonstration of like container gardening.

And I would go and I would, you know, get some good potting soil.

And if I could find the Coast of Maine lobster compost, because I thought it was also interesting and it would it would get people's attention, and I have used it at home in my own garden, you know, just for fun, you know, because I make enough compost for all my plants.

- Sure.

- But there have been products over the years where sometimes I'm just in the mood to actually test them.

And, you know, I'll have a control and then I'll have the active and I got great results from it and I won't mention this other product, but it was heavily promoted in another soil conditioner and it killed all my starts, so... Yeah.

But as long as you do this right, you know, and it sounds like you know exactly how to run an experiment like this, please do it.

Keep good records and then call us back at the end of the season and let us know how it went.

- I will, because you're exactly, exactly right.

I remember when I first started gardening way back, I moved from urban north to rural south.

And I had a neighbor who had been gardening at that time for 50 years.

And actually I was subscribing to Organic Gardening back at that time and discussing some of the stuff with him.

And I wanted an asparagus bed and I didn't know anything about it.

So, I just dug some trenches in the hard, unimproved clay, red clay soil, planted asparagus seeds six inches deep and covered it over.

Well, it turned out it was like one of the best asparagus beds and the most productive that lasted for years.

And I went over my neighbor and told them what I did.

And he looked me in the eye and he said, "Anything works once."

So that was part of the lessons learned... - Yeah, I want that T-shirt.

- Exactly.

Me, too.

Well, anyway, I really appreciate the input.

And I will I am going to try some of this stuff and just see for myself how it acts and I'll let you know.

- take good notes and send us a couple of emails and we'll follow this with you.

- Sounds great, Mike.

Thanks so much for your help.

I really appreciate it.

- All right.

You take care, sir.

- Bye-bye.

- All right.

Scratch this number into the wall... Ken, welcome to You Bet Your Garden.

- Well, thank you for having me.

- Well, thank you for being had, Ken.

Where are you?

- Williamsburg, Virginia, it's a great place to live.

It's not a very good place to garden, frankly.

It's too hot in the summer and the soil is all clay and the deer are...

There are multiple deer around.

- Well, that's why we always say don't try to garden in your own crappy soil.

Build raised beds, fill them with a great growing medium, and your three quarters of the way to the finish line.

- Well, that's what my question's about is what do I do?

I help run a school garden for an elementary school here and we have about 14 raised beds and we've been getting less, we've been doing this for about ten years.

- Right.

- And and now in the last two years, it seems to me we've gotten less production.

We especially noticed it in our sweet potato bed.

And we know it's really not weather related because we have a sister garden that had a very good crop this year.

That's about a mile and a half away... Yeah, no, the soil, the soil's probably exhausted.

Are you feeding the beds with anything?

- We we top it every year with an inch or two of compost.

- OK, that's a good start.

Where's the compost from?

- Comes from the county, so we don't know what's in it, but... - Well, that's not true.

- We assume they're probably not adding anything to it.

- But still, it's good to teach the kids to ask for the paper.

You could have some really interesting discussions with the result.

Anybody who composts in bulk, especially municipalities, will have their finished compost tested professionally several times a year.

So all you have to do is ask for it, it may even be up on their website, and it'll tell you what the of the finished compost is, which is hugely important, and what nutrients are there.

But that should... And where you are, and you're saying the summers are very hot, I would say that two inches of compost would be a minimum.

One inch of compost dressing is really not going to be able to resist that summer sun.

Now, are you rotating the crops in the bed, growing sweet potatoes?

- In general?

In general, we are.

It happened that last year by happenstance it didn't get rotated.

But we had noticed a fall-off the year before that.

- Mm-hm.

Well, um... - We do have a soil test.

- Yes.

And what did it tell you?

- Well, that was my real big question.

It's a soil test that was basically an organic garden.

- Yes.

- So the soil test, the state recommended we apply 1.5 lbs per 100, well, whatever it is, per 100 square feet of potassium nitrate.

- Right, of course, you know.

Otherwise, "Used as a high explosive, kids!"

- They can make things that'll - So, what do we do to make it natural?

- Oh, well, you don't follow their recommendations.

Almost all state soil labs will give you organic recommendations if you simply ask for them.

Off the top of my head, you say they said you're low in potassium.

- Yes.

- So one thing I would add is green sand.

Green sand is a wonderful soil amendment.

It comes from what used to be oceans in central New Jersey.

But of course, you know, the land and the sea have changed over and over, over over the millennia.

And these oceans are now dry.

But they have this material called green sand that was the original sand of that ocean.

And it's green in color.

And it has, you know, on on the bag, it'll seem to be a low level of potassium, but it's highly available to plants.

- Where do we get it?

- Oh, you can get it online, you can get it at any hip garden center.

- You know, you're not going to find it at at a big box store because it's healthy.

But if you go to independent garden centers, call around.

If they don't have it, they can order it for you.

I believe Espoma even packages it up and has it at retail, perhaps even in big box stores.

But I always feel people should frequent their local, independent garden center because these are businesses that deserve to be supported.

Did they tell you what your pH was of your soil?

- Yeah, and that's another problem is that they didn't say it's a problem, but it's 7.4.

- Well, then they really don't know what they're talking about.

Yeah, you want to lower that a whole... - Can I quote you on that?

- Yes.

Yes, that is... - I agree with you.

- That's too alkaline.

We're looking to grow a regular vegetable garden, in general, we're looking for a pH of 6.5.

Now, as you know, seven is neutral, but once you get above 7, it's like decibels.

Every time you add another tenth of a percent, it really becomes much more alkaline.

So keeping the peace between 6.5 and 7 is ideal.

And, for that, I would recommend elemental sulfur.

You would add wood ash or lime to a garden to raise the pH, but to lower the pH, you would use a lot of milled peat moss.

Now, have the beds become heavy and compact over the years?

- And yes, and because of you, we've added perlite last year.

- Excellent, excellent.

Well, I would consider adding milled peat moss as well, because that's naturally going to lower the pH as it makes the soil looser and livelier.

I would say, you know, these big bricks of milled peat moss from Canada where the peat is harvested sustainably, they're huge and they're really inexpensive.

It wouldn't be out of line for you to add one of those big bricks to each garden.

And even though I practice no-till, it it might be time to get in there and do some double digging.

Not so much tilling, but loosen it up, mix the peat moss in, but always, always put the compost on top.

- Yeah, that's a good idea.

- OK and... - OK. - And keep an eye on things, and email or call us if you have any other questions.

- All right, well, thank you very much, you've been very helpful.

Have a good day.

- You, too.

My pleasure.

Thank you.

Bye-bye.

- Bye-bye.

Yes, it is time for the Question of the Week...

Yes, in Spain.

We continue to hear from You Bet Your Gardeners far and wide.

Now, I hope I'm going to pronounce this right.

Roy in Extremadura, Spain, quote, "Specifically, the area "known as Don Benito" "which is prime tomato country", writes... That turns out to be about 175 bucks American at the current exchange rate.

He continues... Well, before I even had time to email him back and ask, Roy followed up with the name of the tree.

I'm not even going to try to do this one, kids.

You can look it up at the Gardens Alive!

website where it's in print.

But wiki tells me it's also known as the Caucasian fir.

It's a fir tree native to cool wet mountains around the Black Sea in Turkey and Russia.

Its official USDA Zone is a chilly 4 to 6, and that means Pennsylvania and North.

And although it is felt to be an excellent Christmas tree, it is not recommended for warm climates, much less hot and dry summers.

Now in its native clime, it gets 40 inches of rain a year.

The region of Don Benito, from where you could easily walk to Portugal, is at a slight elevation around half a mile, not the two or three the tree is used to.

And it actually gets a decent amount of rain, most of it in September and none of it in July or August!

But all told, it gets a respectable 23 inches a year on average.

So, get a pot, black plastic is fine because we're going to paint it, that's about twice the size of the original.

But because you say the water already runs out quickly, we're going to fill in the extra spaces with compost as opposed to potting soil as the compost will hold moisture much better.

Now, I strongly recommend you place this big pot on a hand truck which will allow you to move the tree around much more easily.

My Diane taught me this trick when she moved my giant birds of paradise into the house for the winter.

OK, to repot the tree, deceive some of your friends into coming over, roll the old pot on inside and gently roll and bang on it until the root ball slides loose.

Place several inches of compost on the bottom of the new pot, and then have your friends muscle the honking-heavy plant into the new pot, adding compost all around.

But leave an inch open at the top to aid in watering.

Then, repay your friends with a nice meal.

Now, do the repotting soon.

Then, water lightly when you don't get rain and keep the plant in full sun in the winter, spring and fall.

When July comes near, use the hand truck to roll it into a spot with partial shade.

Then, when hot and heavy August comes calling, move it to almost full shade for a while, then gradually move it back out into the sun when the dogs stop hiding under the porch all day.

During the dry months, water it every other day only in the morning, and only slowly.

Give it about a pint of water.

Walk away, come back a half hour later, and give it another pint, pint?

Point?

Point, pint?

P, p, p, p-pint.

Repeat this tedious process until the water drains out the bottom and then go inside and drink three iced teas.

Before or after the repoting, which yes, you must do, coat the outside of the pot with white latex paint to reflect the sun during the dry and sunny times.

Black absorbs sunlight and would heat up the tree's roots which, being from the Caucasus Mountains, don't know from 90 degrees.

White reflects heat, which keeps the roots cooler, and helps the water last longer.

Well, that sure was some interesting information about keeping a live Christmas tree alive in a sunny and sultry summer clime now, wasn't it?

Luckily for yous, the Question of the Week appears in print at the Gardens Alive!

website.

To read it over in detail, just click the link for the Question of the Week at our website, which is still and will forever be... Gardens Alive!

supports the You Bet Your Garden Question of the Week and you will always find the latest Question of the Week at the Gardens Alive!

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Um, that's something you move cattle around with if you don't care about their rights.

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You Bet Your Garden was created by Mike McGrath.

Mike McGrath was created when Captain Nemo's famed Nautilus submarine rescued him from a mysterious island.

Or should we say THE mysterious island?

Yikes!

My producer is threatening to cut the top off my Tannenbaum if I don't get out of this studio.

We must be out of time, but you can call us any time at... Or send us your email, which is now working again, thank you.

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I'm your host, Mike McGrath.

I would say "Monstrous" Mike McGrath, but I can't because the official Marvel Comics nickname bestowed upon me by the late, great Stan Lee was, and I quote, "Mellow" Mike McGrath.

And it was in print, no less!

Oh, well, I've been trying to prove Stan wrong ever since, and I will continue to do so again next week.

Mellow, mellow!

He had to pick mellow.

Why not mellifluous?

Mangy?

Maniacal?

But, no!

He had to pick mellow!