From the solanaceous studios of Lehigh Valley Public Media in Bethlehem, PA, it is time for another mysterious episode of chemical-free horticultural hijinks You Bet Your Garden.

I'm your host, Mike McGrath.

What does it mean when your potato plants sprout little green balls on top?

On today's show, we'll explain with those freaky things are and what you can and cannot do with them.

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

That's right.

We're going to take that heaping helping of your telecommunicated questions, comments, tips, tricks, suggestions and lamentably lethargic lamorifications.

So keep your eyes and/or your ears right here, true believers, because it's all coming up faster than you trying to sprout potato seed at Christmas time.

Right after this.

- Support for You Bet Your Garden is provided by the Espoma company, offering a complete selection of natural organic plant foods and potting soils.

More information about Espoma and the Espoma natural gardening community - can be found at... Well, welcome to another thrilling episode of You Bet Your Garden from the studios of Lehigh Valley Public Media in Bethlehem, PA.

I am your host, Mike McGrath.

And today we're going to tell you about weird things that may appear when you grow potatoes, but mostly it's a fabulous phone call show, cats and kittens.

And that means we're taking that heaping helping at... Wally, welcome to You Bet Your Garden.

- Thank you.

Pleasure to call in.

- It's a pleasure to have you call, Wally.

Where are you, man?

- I am in Oklahoma City and currently at the Oklahoma City Zoo.

- So what's your favorite animal to go look at at the zoo, Wally?

- Oh, yeah, I get asked this question all the time.

I would have to go with the orangutans.

They are pretty fun to watch.

They interact with the guests and they have huge climbing structures and you can just see them having fun.

- That's an excellent choice.

The old man of the forest.

Alright, so what can we do here for today?

- So my main function here at the zoo is I work with school groups that come for field trips or take our lessons and some of our animals into schools.

And I am reevaluating some of our programs for this upcoming year.

And one of the lessons I want to teach is about weird nature.

So, weird plants, animals.

I was just calling to see kind of what recommendations you have for plants that would be not normal.

- Is there a personal aspect to asking me this question?

- I'm a long-time listener and I was listening to this a couple of weeks ago.

I was like, oh, you know what, I bet Mike knows more information about these plants than I do, so... - Boy's not right, Martha!

Boy's just not right.

So, weird plants...

I'm trying to think of... Well, you know what kids absolutely love are the carnivorous plants, the pitcher plants, and Venus flytraps especially are native to only a very small area in the Carolinas.

Now, obviously, that's not Oklahoma, but that is a true native plant that...

It's like South Philly.

Nobody ever moves out.

They just move next door or something like that.

And the pitcher plants, however, I think travel better.

And, you know, you can drug a house fly and pretend it jumped in on its own merits and got dissolved down in the bottom.

So, what do you got in mind?

- Yeah, I definitely had the Venus flytrap, the pitcher plants and...

Doing some research there.

The devil's fingers, stinkhorn, fungus.

That one looks really funny - Right.

And then maybe even the monkey no-climb tree.

Read about that one.

I've haven't done a lot of research into that one, but it's like the spikes on the trunk.

- Oh, OK. - Possibly even go with some of the native prairie grasses.

The 14-foot root system.

Most of the plant is underground... - Right.

And they are native.

- That's right.

- I will tell you that when I was in Cuba leading a cultural exchange person to person program, we saw the most amazing trees.

They have a lot of arboretums and kind of outdoor museums.

We actually got to go up into the mountains where Che Guevara and Fidel Castro hid out while they took over the country.

That's now a medicinal plant refuge.

But the trees were amazing.

I wish I could remember the name of the tree, but it had these giant salamis hanging down.

I mean, these things look like a 1950s delicatessen.

That should be up front.

They were, I don't know, three feet long, and the tree is covered in them.

And that was one of the most amazing things I'd seen.

And they have types of clumping bamboo, not the running bamboo that Americans get in trouble with.

But they had these clumping bamboos.

And one of them... My son was with me on the trip and he calls me over and says, Dad, you got to hear this.

And he raps on the side of the bamboo.

And it's like rapping on a piece of aluminum or sheet metal.

- It's just amazing.

- Wow.

- And fig trees.

I don't know how long you've been listening or if you've heard the show where I interviewed the guy who wrote Gods, Wasps and Stranglers, The History Of The Fig, but fig trees are amazing in what they can do.

They form entire clumps that are one tree by producing branches that then go down and root in the ground.

And it's just one organism.

You know, for kids, anything you can get them to grow and have success with that's really cool, that's where you're going to lure them into this game, and I don't think there's anything better out there than ornamental sunflowers, not the big oil-producing sunflowers, but there are sunflowers that are as small as six inches tall and then all the way up, two feet, three feet, whatever you want, with the most amazing reds and yellows.

And then at the end of the season, the ornamental ones are visited by goldfinches.

Alright, man?

- Alright.

Thank you so much.

- Thank you.

You take care and say hi to all my friends in OKC.

It is a great, great town.

- Will do.

And enjoy Pennsylvania.

- Yep.

Alright.

I will until it starts snowing again.

Take care, man.

Number to call... Suzanne, Welcome to You Bet Your Garden.

- Oh, thank you.

Hi, Mike, how are you?

- I am just ducky, thanks for asking.

How is Suzanne doing?

- I'm standing in my swimming pool up to my waist right now and enjoying the sunshine and the shade at the same time.

- And now you expect me to be nice to you!

What can we do for Suzanne?

- My concern is that, oh, maybe eight years ago, I purchased a type of evergreen tree and I knew the name of it at the time.

I usually save the tags, but I don't have this one.

It was maybe three feet tall.

And it looks like it's some kind of cypress.

Definitely not a Leyland cypress, not a garden variety.

It's glossy and I bought it to put next to my front door in a garden about ten feet away because there's a plug there and I've been decorating it - for Christmas.

- Sure.

- And it's just really gotten big.

I was told it's a miniature but it's too big.

It's ten feet tall, about six feet wide.

It's really full.

And I would like to move it somewhere else in my yard, if that seems like a feasible idea.

- OK, so where did you say you were again?

Did I ask you?

- Oh, no, I live in Hockessin, Delaware, which is right next to Kennett Square.

- Right.

I know where it is.

And the tree is planted right next to the house?

- About ten feet away and then next to a walkway that goes out to a circular driveway.

and it has blocked the view from my front porch.

I've naturalized my front yard, it's about an acre, into a meadow.

And there's all kinds of things growing out there.

We've really gotten a good meadow, but we can't see it now because the tree is in the way.

We could move our chairs.

But I don't know.

The older we get, the harder it is to move our chairs.

- Yeah, well, if you think chairs are hard to move, boy!

Here's the deal.

You would call hopefully three certified arborists who have experience with this kind of moving, maybe get some recommendations from your local independent garden center for people who have the right equipment and the right knowledge.

And you would get estimates from each of them.

And if you decide that you can afford it, they'll come out with a giant...

They're called bucket trucks, cos they scoop the tree out of the ground, roots and all.

And you would do this at the very end of fall.

Maybe midwinter would be ideal, and spring would be fine, too.

You don't want to move it during hot weather.

- No, I know that.

- And then after it gets to its new resting place, so to speak, you want to make sure it's watered as if it were a new tree.

Water it really well the first couple of years.

Don't let it dry out and don't improve the soil in the planting hole.

When they take out the tree, they're going to take out a lot of soil.

You know, you want the biggest root ball you can.

And obviously they're going to have to dig the new hole on top of that.

But you want to try to move this... Like when my children were small, I had developed a talent for bringing them indoors, back inside the house.

on Thanksgiving or Christmas when we had been at the grandparents' and they were sound asleep.

What I learned is if your timing is right, you can bang their heads against a doorway or something.

They're not going to wake up.

And so the more dormant the tree is, the easier this is going to be.

Ideally, it'll be...

The tree won't know it was moved.

It'll have a different view of the landscape.

But if it's done correctly, the tree should suffer no ill-effects at all.

But that's really I think is your option because you don't want to cut down - this beautiful tree.

- Alright.

- Alright.

But that's it for now.

- Thank you.

- My pleasure.

Good luck.

Take care.

Number to call... Scratch it in sidewalk chalk on your most expensive wallpaper... Scott, welcome to You Bet Your Garden.

- Thanks so much, Mike.

- Oh, thank you, Scott.

How are you doing, man?

- Yeah, pretty good.

- Where are you, Scott?

- I am in Elkins Park, Pennsylvania.

- Oh, sure, where all the Elkins meet!

What can we do for you?

- Yes, so my question is, many years back, I got interested in edible landscaping and read a little bit about these pawpaws.

So I decided it sounded like a good idea, since they're native to the area, that I should I should plant some pawpaws.

So I planted two pawpaws.

And the place that seemed best at that time was about six to eight feet off of my home in my front yard as both an edible landscape and as an ornamental.

- Right.

- My concern, as I've thought further about this and as the trees have gotten much larger, is I've noticed that they send out these roots that send up these little shoots, I think commonly known as suckers.

And I started to stay up at night thinking about, are these roots going to damage my foundation?

- Suckers, which is, you know, above-ground roots kind of shooting up, they're not a sign of any damaging roots underground.

Are these trees mulched with something?

- They have been.

You know, we go through seasons of good mulch density and then seasons of fighting the weeds.

= Oh, OK. Because if you were to over-mulch these trees, that would encourage them to send up these adventurous shoots.

So you want the root flare of the tree to be visible.

You can put some compost down, but you don't want to ever have anything touching the plant itself where it enters the ground because that can cause girdling, and girdling can cause shoots to come up.

So I'll tell you, first, that the best way to get rid of the shoots is to snap them off.

according to my friend Lee Reich.

Pruning them off kind of stimulates some hormonal production that keeps them coming, but snapping them off seems to be much more effective.

- That sounds great.

- And again, I'm trying to figure out what are the two trees closest to a sidewalk, the house?

- They're about...

The one that I'm probably most concerned about that's in this kind of triangle between the three, it's about equidistant from everything.

- OK, but let's say, then, what is the equidistance?

- Is it five feet?

- Probably... Yeah, probably around...

Probably around five to six feet.

- And you've noticed no true above-ground roots or any kind of buckling?

- No, I haven't noticed that and I haven't seen anything that's specifically made me concerned.

I just started to think there's a lot that happens underground.

I wonder if I set myself up for an issue down the line.

- Well, come on, Scott, be honest.

If it wasn't this, you'd be worried about your car overheating or termites or something else.

It's always something.

If you feel that the roots are heading towards maybe a water source, maybe a broken pipe or something like that, you can just have somebody trench out the area right next to the concrete or whatever structure it is.

These trees can survive with like a third of their roots cut away, although it's not ideal, obviously.

I wouldn't worry about it, to be honest.

If you don't see any signs of buckling, then don't worry.

If you do start to see some signs, then just hire somebody to trench out a thin line between the root system and the walkway and that'll kind of divert the roots to the other direction.

Anyway, don't worry about it.

Enjoy your pawpaws.

I'm a little bit jealous of that.

And have a good harvest this year.

- Hey, thanks so much.

Well, that's it.

It is time for the Question of the Week, which we are calling, for the benefit of any other old-time radio fans out in the audience... Alex and Lois in East Greenville, PA, write... We are long-time listeners and watchers.

OK, I know that's only the first sentence, but I have to digress here to mention to our podcast and radio families that there is a half hour television version of this show that appears on PBS Channel 39. or it's cableistic equivalent in your area.

We're on in Pennsylvania, southern New Jersey and Delaware.

And of course, you can watch online.

Conversely, we re-inform our TV audience that an hour long audio version of each week's show is available on selected NPR stations across the nation, the US Virgin Islands and as a popular podcast.

Alex and Lois - remember them?

- continue... We love your show and your unparalleled knowledge of everything that grows in the dirt.

Actually, my knowledge of such things is extremely paralleled, but who am I to contradict such an obviously nice couple?

Alex and Lois try to continue once again with... Well, despite your naive certainty, I actually did know what they are, or were.

I don't always pick these questions at random, you know, although some days I wish I would randomize more and research less.

But before we reveal the anxiously awaited answer, I must make one last digression.

OK, it might be the last one, I still got 500 words to go here and comment on the success you have had with raised beds, because you are far from alone.

I received tons of emails every fall from people who have struggled for decades trying to grow in flat earth, finally move up to raised beds and suddenly find success.

Don't wait decades.

It's like you trying to build a house before you pour the foundation.

Start small, build a few raised beds a season, fill them correctly and your harvests will greatly improve.

That leads us to one last digression.

Again, I have no idea whether, quote, composted soil means topsoil or compost, but it is important to fill those beds with the right stuff from day one.

And there is no such thing as composted soil.

If there was, how could you tell when it was done?

It was soil to start with and now it's composted soil.

What happened?

All right.

Raised beds should be filled with approximately half yard waste compost, half high quality screened topsoil and a lot of perlite for superior drainage and water retention.

Perlite is a natural mined volcanic glass that is popped into little white balls in giant ovens.

So, no, that white stuff in your potting soil is not Styrofoam.

And this little detour does not count as a digression, mostly because I'm the only one doing the counting.

Now, back to Alex and Lois.

Remember Alex and Lois, that nice couple we abandoned at a non-working bus stop a while back?

Well, those little green balls that appeared at the tops of your potato plants are filled with potato seeds, a topic that is devilishly hard to research, because the disease-free whole potatoes you buy for planting are called seed potatoes.

So, you got your potato seeds and you got your seed potatoes.

Good luck to you.

Anyway, you plant healthy sprouted potatoes as soon as the soil can be worked in the spring.

Potatoes love to grow in cooler weather.

I personally plant whole potatoes, large-scale growers and/or people who simply think it must be done quoin their potatoes into chunks with at least one or two good eyes apiece to save money.

If you're a potato newbie, always start with whole potatoes.

Then you can allow your false bravado to enter the game.

Then you can go back to whole potatoes.

The above-ground growth will be green and lush, and at one point a single stem will often appear atop each plant adorned with beautiful flowers that reflect the color of the spuds growing underground.

It's really cool.

Now, this doesn't always happen, but when it does, you should examine those flowers carefully, as they are gorgeous.

You should also note the date those flowers appear, as fingerlings, small spuds with intense flavor and nutrition, can be harvested three to four weeks after that.

Or you can allow the potatoes to mature to a much larger size at the end of the season.

Either way, pull those potatoes off after they begin to fade.

Otherwise, they will progress into those weird round green things that really do contain growable potato seeds.

If you wish, you can try and use these seeds to grow whole potatoes.

It will take a full season and a coolish clime to get them to a decent size.

But it can be done.

Warning, warning, warning - do not attempt to eat the actual seeds and/or seed pods.

They are incredibly toxic, as are any green areas of a potato caused when the spuds are exposed to sunlight instead of being covered by soil.

If a harvested potato is green, compost it.

If only small portions are green, cut them off and eat the rest.

That sure was some important advice for those of us who got crazy green growth at the tops of our potato plants now, wasn't it?

Luckily, you can read it over again at your "lezure" or your "leezure" because the Question of the Week always appears at the Gardens Alive website.

Just click the link for the Question of the Week at our website, which is still and will forever be youbetyourgarden.org.

Gardens Alive supports the You Bet Your Garden Question of the Week.

And you always, always find the latest Question of the Week at the Gardens Alive website.

You Bet Your Garden is a half hour public television show, an hour long public radio show and podcast, all produced and delivered to you weekly by Lehigh Valley Public Media in Bethlehem, PA. Our radio show is distributed by PRX, the Public Radio Exchange.

You Bet Your Garden was created by Mike McGrath.

Mike McGrath was created when he was bitten by a radioactive lightning bug and ever since has been forced to endure taunts of pants on fire, pants on fire all summer long.

Yikes.

My producer is threatening to prematurely plunder my potatoes if I don't get out of this studio.

We must be out of time.

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If it's not there, tell us and we'll fix it.

I'm your host, Mike McGrath, and I'll be busy getting ready for that second season of gardening, enjoying those super sweet salad greens fresh from the garden, and praying for frost so the tomato plants can finally die, until I see you again next week.