From the pricking, thinning and hardened off studios of the Univest Public Media Center in Bethlehem PA, it is time for another end of the line episode of chemical free horticultural hijinks - You Bet Your Garden.

I'm your host, Mike McGrath.

We're almost there, cats and kittens.

On today's show, we'll finish off our thrilling series on seed starting, from pricking and thinning all the way to hardening off.

Plus, your fabulous phone call questions, comments, tips, tricks, suggestions and effusively endemic elongations.

So keep your eyes and/or ears right here, cats and kittens, because it's all coming up faster than you not killing your baby plants.

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... - Welcome to another excellent edition of You Bet Your Garden from the studios of Univest Public Media Center in Bethlehem PA.

I am your host, Mike McGrath.

And coming up later on the show, we're going to finally finish our seed starting extravaganza with chapter six.

You won't want to miss it, and you won't as long as you keep listening to our fabulous phone calls at... Roxanne, welcome to You Bet Your Garden!

- Hi.

- Hi.

- Hi, Mike.

Thank you.

- Oh, thank you.

How are you doing?

- I am peachy.

How are you doing?

- Well, guess who you get to introduce!

Now, Ducky... - Ducky?

- No, Ducky is still here.

But... - OK. - Ducky's cousin is visiting from Minnesota.

- Oh, how fun.

- Yeah.

So, yes, so I'm double ducky.

All right.

Where are you?

- I'm in Stewartsville, New Jersey, and my question is about tomatoes, I actually bought a house down in Florida.

I'm a New Jersey girl.

I've been here all my life, 53 years, and I'm looking to continue to have nice tomatoes down in Florida.

- Mm-hmm.

- And I was wondering if there's anything that will compare to the nice New Jersey tomatoes that we have up here.

You had mentioned some kind of purple tomato a few weeks ago, and I was wondering if there's something that I could try and grow down there.

- Oh, well, purple tomatoes are not Jersey tomatoes.

Three pound for a half a dollar Jersey tomatoes.

Let's see.

What part of Florida are you in?

- So I'm going to be in Citrus County, which is on the west coast, north of Tampa.

- Right.

How low or how far south are you?

- It's...

The more north in the state, northwest.

- Right.

- Um, kind of straight in from Orlando.

So the lot that we have is a nice wooded lot.

It's not out in the sun, it's got pine trees and oak trees.

It's got moss growing in the yard on the side.

- Yeah.

And how is that good?

How is that good for tomatoes?

- Well, I have hopes of, uh, you know, having different plants around the area.

And I was just wondering if you have a recommendation of a of a tomato to try to get as close as I can to that nice Jersey taste?

- Well, you're far above the frost line.

You're going to get... ..weather.

You're going to get winter to some degree, not as much as I get, but you're in a relatively normal clime.

Did anybody tell you what your USDA growing zone is?

- I do not know.

- OK, so I'm going to recommend two things.

Now, the Jersey tomato, nobody can really agree on exactly what variety it was, but it seems likely that the seed was distributed by Heinz and Campbell's to growers in New Jersey because it was close to the factory.

You know, you don't want to... You don't want to travel with those tomatoes.

And that tomato is called Rutgers.

And that that is a great all-around tomato.

But many people have claimed that different varieties are Jersey tomatoes.

So I want you to do two things.

Go...

Contact your local state extension service and ask them the recommended varieties for your region.

They'll have a bulletin, they'll have a list.

- Got it.

- Secondly, check out Totally Tomatoes.

It is the most inclusive tomato catalog that's out there now.

I don't think you need extreme hot weather tomatoes like in Phoenix, but you want tomatoes that like it warm.

And I think if you combine those two lists, take a look at what they say grow best there and look at the catalog descriptions in Totally Tomatoes.

I think you'll come up with exactly what you want.

- OK.

Awesome.

That sounds like great advice.

I will do that.

- Thank you.

Of course, it's great advice!

Are you kidding me?

Geez.

Get them, Ducky!

All right, thanks for calling.

- Barry, welcome... - Yes.

..to You Bet Your Garden.

- How are you doing, Mike?

I am just ducky!

And Ducky has a little friend who's come to visit and we can't get a mask on this little guy, so he runs away.

Could this show get any sillier?

I don't think so.

All right, where are you, Barry?

- I am in beautiful Whitehall Township.

- All right, Barry.

What can we do you for?

- Well, I have a question regarding pruning roses.

- Good.

- What is the proper time and how far back should they be cut?

- OK, the proper time to prune roses is in the spring, about two weeks after new growth appears and when all chance of frost is gone.

In terms of how far to go, that's really up to you.

You know, sometimes the... Oh, excuse me.

Sometimes the...

Excuse me again.

Laah!

Sometimes the ugliest stems produce the most beautiful offshoots, so, really, you prune them to get rid of any severely damaged or diseased-looking areas.

If it's a big, clumpy rose, you prune out some stuff in the center to improve the airflow.

But otherwise, the height is up to you.

Some people like to keep them low.

Some people, you know, especially with the climbing rose, I got one that's 30 feet long, so that's a lot of flowers on that...

So it depends somewhat on the variety of rose, but it's easy peasy if you do it at the right time.

You can't really make a huge mistake.

- OK. Yeah, I was pruning them around this time of year.

That's probably what I was doing wrong.

I was a little too early.

And I'd cut off anything that was above any new shoots I saw.

So I thought that was the right thing to do.

- No, I mean, you can if you want to, you know, if you want to be that way, but I just go out there and prune off the tops, get rid of any ugly parts and open up the center.

I don't look at where the shoots are coming out.

I don't have time for that.

- OK. - I'm told you have another question.

- Yes.

When do I take down my suet and bird feeders?

- That's an excellent question.

I was just thinking about that today.

I have had so much action at my bird... - Me too.

- My goodness!

Have you ever seen this many birds?

- No.

- Certainly not in a seed feeder.

- Yeah, I get a lot of birds.

- Oh, I've got like eight different kind of woodpeckers, chickadees, the titmouse, wrens... - Goldfinches.

I get goldfinches.

- It's amazing.

Yeah.

One thing people don't realize is that at this time of year, when we're coming out of winter and the birds are mating and nesting, they need extra fat, extra protein, and it's good for the shells of their eggs.

So I intend to leave my suet feeders up until it gets really warm, - maybe even in June... - OK. - Well, because the egg-layers can use it.

But then when they come down, that's the end of the feeding.

Then I just put out fresh water.

- OK. All right, very good.

- All right, sir, you take care.

- Thank you, Mike.

You too.

- Stop at Target for me and pick up a few things.

- OK. - All right.

Take care, man.

- All right.

- Bye-bye.

- So long.

- Rose, welcome to You Bet Your Garden!

- Thank you and welcome.

How's Mike, today?

- Oh, Mike is just ducky!

And Ducky has a little friend visiting from Minnesota.

So, you know, it's just a party here.

What's your location?

- I'm located in the Ozark Mountains near Branson in southwest Missouri.

- OK, very good.

What can we do you for?

- Well, I learn a lot from your program and you had a program where you're talking about keeping the deer out of the garden.

I had a long time ago put up a seven-foot fence around my veggie garden.

I use hardware cloth around my roses, I tried to put milkweed into my pollinator gardens, and the deer just kept coming by and chewing the tops off of the milkweed.

Finally, after trying different things, I found what seems to really work here.

When I needed more fencing, I pulled fencing from an area just north of my house, where there had been a vegetable garden surrounded by what's called woven wire.

And I took that, put it around my pollinator garden, and it seems to keep the deer off.

- Yeah... - Not able to... Go ahead.

- I'm waiting on you.

- OK. Just got an idea of what makes the difference between the woven wire and the other fence was there was a deer with her fawn had come by and I noticed the fawn had gotten stuck in the fence.

And I had to take my leather gloves and my fencing tool over to release the baby.

All I had to do was push the fence down and she kicked her way out and then she turned to the right and got stuck in the fence again.

- Yeah.

- I had to repeat it.

- They are not...

They are not God's brightest children.

Um, OK, so... ..there is a professional, invisible deer fencing system.

It was created by a guy named Benner - B-E-N-N-E-R, and he's up in the Poconos near us here, and it's eight feet tall and it has special stakes and it's invisible from almost every angle.

You don't see it.

But it's highly effective, completely effective, I would say.

So... - Is that a modern fence because I have a seven foot high, almost invisible, very tough fence going around my vegetable garden.

- Right.

And is that working?

- Excellent.

- Oh, good.

So I also want to mention an old tactic that I haven't talked about for a while.

You know what corrugated metal is like, right?

- Yes.

OK, old time farmers would surround their fields with a ring of corrugated metal.

You know, it's easy to find at scrap yards and stuff like that.

And the deer would not walk across it because, you know, it's not flat on the top.

They start rolling and rocking and everything.

So for people who don't want anything up in the air, so to speak, if you can position the corrugated metal, the deer will just stay away.

It just makes them uncomfortable.

And you might also want to look at a product called the wireless deer fence.

That's a stake you put in the ground.

You put a scent attractor in the top, because you want the deer to come up, and then you put it's two AA batteries in the belly of the beast.

And the deer in the fawns are starting to be active in the spring, they'll come up.

They're attracted by the scent.

It's the same thing hunters use.

And they'll lick it and they'll get a mild shock and they'll run away and they don't come back.

- Hmm.

What's that again?

- Wireless deer fence.

- Gotcha.

- OK. - Thank you.

- My pleasure.

That's some ideas for you, huh?

- That would really work.

I have only one problem with corrugated tin, as you mentioned.

Around here we call that tin roofing.

And my only drawback was that I had some on the ground and I had to call the conservation department and I had to get it off the ground because the snakes like to set up housekeeping under there.

- Well, you can't have everything.

You're not supposed to be walking on it.

- I think... - And besides... No, no, no.

Those snakes are eating mice and voles and rats and rabbits.

I mean, they're a very valuable garden protector.

- And I have such a balance here.

I'm not going to take up your radio time.

I have king snakes here.

And they eat venomous snakes and the rodents, and I also have possums and they go after that, and they have raccoons that kill yellowjackets.

- Whoa.

- I don't know if you know.

- So, they tear apart the nest?

- Yes, they tear apart the nest.

They eat the yellowjackets because that's where they get their fruit.

- Well, um, I think you deserve a plaque on the wall of sustainable, symbiotic everything.

- Well, don't credit me/ Give this to the Missouri Conservation Department, which is incredible.

That's where I get my information.

- Well, I'll tell you, my dear friend the late departed Dr Jim Duke, who was the beneficial expert, beneficial insect expert at the USDA for over 40 years, said an old trick - because he's from the same part of the world as you are growing up - and he said pour some honey over the top of the entrance hole and raccoons will go for that like crazy.

- Wonderful.

- All right, that's 18 tips.

We're moving on.

- OK. - All right.

You take care.

- Thank you.

- My pleasure.

All right.

It is time for the final chapter of our seed starting extravaganza, Chapter six, pricking out thinning and hardening off.

As you will recall from our previous five thrilling episodes, your brand-new starts are up and eating little bits of plant food.

Be sure to turn off all bottom heat, but keep the little plants close to your LED or fluorescent lights.

Depending on the size of your original cells, it will soon be pricking out time.

Yes, that is the actual horticultural term for moving baby starts into larger containers, which you should do at least once during their indoor time.

What a time is indoor?

Anyway, while they're still inside.

When?

I don't know.

I just do it when I have the time and...expansion plan.?

No, that's not right.

But let's say a month out.

A least two weeks afterwards, for them to recover from your ham-handed molestations.

Important note - If you're going to look up this term, type fast and get those last three letters in quick as a bunny.

For starts like peppers, eggplants, flowers, etc, take your individual containers or cells and massage the sides gently until the plant and soil are easy to remove.

Don't yank on the plants!

If you have one of those multi-cell seed starting units, you'll have to go a-pricking.

Take a thin knife and slide it down all four sides of the container in question and then use a spoon or something similar to try and lift out the entire thing, soil and all.

No matter how you do this, you'll fill around half of your new container with fresh potting soil, and plop - not an actual horticultural term - the baby plant on top, hopefully with lots of soil still attached to its roots.

If the old and new soil lines...line up, you're good.

If the old soil line is below the lip of the new container, lift it out.

Add soil to the bottom of the new container.

If it's a little higher than before, that's fine.

Now, tomatoes.

Unlike almost anything else in the garden, tomatoes grow auxiliary roots all along any part of the stem that's buried.

And those roots grow fast.

It's not unusual for you to see tomato roots trying to escape the bottom of their pots.

So the rules are different for tomatoes.

Take your new, larger pot, plop the plant into the bottom and then fill in around the rest of the stem with fresh potting soil.

Pull off any lower leaves that would end up under the soil.

You will continue this process every time you move that tomato plant up, including at planting time.

Tomatoes should always be, quote, buried deep.

Everything else should always be at the same height as it was in the original container.

Thinning - if there was more than one plant in the container, it is best to snip out the weaker ones with a small pair of scissors.

That means the poorly colored and/or taller ones.

Tall is not good with starts.

It means that they're not getting enough light.

Use small scissors and cry later.

If you are experienced, brave and perhaps foolhardy, yes, you can empty out the pot, untangle the roots and plant each little plant in its own pot.

Before you decide to do so, one, if you're new to the game, use the scissors.

You can progress to screwing up royally in future seasons.

Number two - count your starts and then figure out how many plants your garden can realistically hold.

If you're already way over, snip, snip, snip.

If, however, you could use a few more plants, then you can try untangling.

Also, not real horticultural term.

If you're a newbie, ask an experienced gardener for help.

Bonus - they'll also tell you all the other things you're doing wrong.

After potting up, place the new containers in the legendary one to two inches of water in a sink and allow them to absorb that water through their drainage holes.

Try not to use city tap water.

Rainwater or purified water is best.

Sniff the water.

If you can smell chlorine, don't use it, and do not water your plants from overhead.

They're already going through a little transplant shock - which is an actual horticultural term.

When they're saturated, put them back under the lights and leave them alone for a couple of days to stabilize.

Wait a week before feeding.

Don't feed them for a week.

Remove any mulch from your garden beds outside to help the soil warm up in preparation for planting.

Hardening off - yes, another real horticultural term.

At six weeks of age, take your plants outside on warm, sunny days and bring them back inside before it starts to cool off.

A couple of hours the first day and then increasing the time outside gradually until the first night is in the 50s.

Then they get to spend the whole night out on the town.

Or the picnic table.

Planting - peppers, tomatoes, melons are all tropical plants that have no sense of humor when it comes to chilly nights.

Forget your last average frost date.

Forget daytime temps.

They don't count.

You can't do this by the calendar.

Instead, keep track of the night-time lows in the upcoming ten-day forecast.

If you see any 30s, forget about planting.

Same with low 40s.

But when you get to the high 40s, like 47 or above, it's OK.

But you'll get a much better yield if the ten-day shows all 50s at night, with maybe a few high 40s mixed in there.

Ignore this at your peril.

Research has shown time and time again that planting too early can set your precious plants back two to three weeks.

Well, that sure was a final intensive look at seed starting and pricking out, now, wasn't it?

Luckily for you, the Question of the Week appears in print at the Gardens Alive website.

Read it over in detail at your "leesure" or your "lesure".

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 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 the Univest Public Media Center in Bethlehem, PA.

It's going to take me a while to get used to that.

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 given the honor of carrying the Olympic torch and immediately tripped and fell, breaking his glasses.

Luckily, he was able to make out the fuzzy outline of something with fire on top, so he grabbed it and started running.

And that, boys and girls, is how the dread Dormammu wound up dazed and confused selling really hot pizza slices in Boston.

Yikes.

My producer is threatening to... ..to... ..darn, if I use any of those words again...

The FCC will be on me like fleas on a dog 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 emails, your tired, your poor, your wretched refuse teeming towards our garden shore at... Oh, please include your location.

I'm so sad when you don't.

You'll find all of this contact information at our website at, once again... ..where you'll also find the answers to lots of your garden questions, audio of this show, video of this show, audio and video of previous shows, and our podcast.

I'm your host, Mike McGrath, gearing to start up my own seeds on March 15th for planting outside on...

Wait a minute.

I'm starting my seeds on the Ides of March?

Oh, that might explain a lot.

I'm going to recheck that calendar and see you again next week.