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

I'm Chris Cooper.

Hydrangeas, chipmunks, bugs, and weeds, what do they all have in common?

They're all viewer questions we are going to answer on today's show.

It's the Q&A Show, 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.

Every week we answer more questions than we have time to air.

We post them all online, but we also save them up for shows like this.

It's been a busy summer, we have lots of questions.

Let's start with one about tomatoes.

"My tomato plants keep dropping their flowers "after a few days.

"The flower seems to snap off on the stem "close to the flower.

"This has been happening for four years.

"I do get a few tomatoes, but most of the flowers drop off.

"How can I keep the flowers from dropping "and get more tomatoes?

Thank you."

And this is from Douglas.

So Alainia, we're gonna come to you, our tomato expert.

So how can you keep the flowers from dropping off and get more tomatoes?

What do you think the problem is here?

- Okay, Mr. Douglas.

They could be dropping due to stress, just from the heat stress, or water stress, or lack of water stress.

So first, look at the plant, see if the plant looks happy.

Okay?

[Chris giggling] You can't do anything about your heat as far as your, make sure that you're watering consistently.

You wanna water about what they're gonna drink inside that day.

But they will adapt.

But just be consistent with how you water.

But I would suspect if the temperatures are high with your summer heat, that temperatures over 90 degrees the pollen is not as viable.

So they're probably just dropping because they did not get pollinated.

- Right.

- With this, he might consider self-pollination.

And I think that'll probably fix it.

- Okay.

Right, 'cause most of your tomato plants are wind pollinated.

Yeah, if it's above 90 degrees though those flowers are just gonna abort.

- Right.

- It's gonna drop off.

Anything you wanna add to that Booker?

- No, that's good.

'Cause the heat, we've had some hot weather now and this could be some of the problem we having going around, the heat and the water stress on there, it could cause the tomato to do that.

- Right, so consistent watering, right?

- Do what you can.

- Do what you can.

- It will cool off.

- Will it?

- It will eventually.

But self pollinate, it gets you through the hot weather.

- Okay, gets you through.

- And you will get fruit.

- Okay, so you hear that Mr. Douglas?

Alainia says you will get fruit.

- You will get fruit.

- Be patient.

Be patient.

It won't be hot forever, she says.

[gentle country music] "I'm living in Minnesota, Zone 4B.

"I got some Asian pear trees.

"I have watched a lot of videos about pruning, "but I'm confused.

"What's the difference between summer pruning "and winter pruning for Asian pears?

Which one is for more fruit and which one is for shape?"

And this is Doug on YouTube.

So Minnesota, we know the zones, 4B, but just a little confusion.

So what's the difference, Mr. D, between summer pruning and winter pruning?

- I think that's true.

The difference is pretty much the same no matter where you are.

You know, winter pruning stimulates growth.

- Yeah.

- And it stimulates growth in the direction that you want it to grow.

And summer pruning controls growth.

Summer pruning is probably a little harder on the tree.

So it can kind of, there's some suppression because all of those leaves that you're taking off are, you know, they're undergoing photosynthesis and they're feeding the fruit.

So when you do a lot of summer pruning, you might affect the size and quality of the fruit that you've got on that tree at that time.

However, if you do some summer pruning it will reduce the amount of winter pruning that you've gotta do.

And you know, if you got clearly a limb growing in the wrong direction, and you have water sprouts, you know, popping up, you can take them off when they're a little smaller and have less effect on the tree, you know.

And so they're both valuable.

- Right.

- If I had to do just one, the easiest on the tree is the dormant, you know, the winter pruning.

Late winter pruning.

- And that seems to make more sense, right?

The tree's dormant.

Right.

- Right.

However, I do some pretty heavy summer pruning when I get slapped in the face when I'm riding the lawn mower and trying to mow under my fruit trees, you know.

I'm not supposed to cut that limb off right now.

Heck with that, I'm going to.

You know?

[Chris laughing] - You gotta learn to live together.

- Let common sense kick in there, too.

And of course it's got a big fruit hanging there, I will mow around it.

I will dodge it, you know.

- Sure.

- Leave that fruit on there.

- So it really doesn't matter, right?

But that winter pruning is pretty much the best?

- Winter pruning is what's best.

But, with pretty much any plant winter pruning, just remember it encourages growth and summer pruning controls.

You're pretty much controlling the growth and kind of holding that back a little bit.

[gentle country music] - "I have escaped with my family "to northern Michigan for a week in July to escape the Mid-South heat."

That sounds good, huh?

- That sounds great.

- "While there, I saw a few of these trees "which appeared to be a type of maple.

"Can you identify it?

"Would it grow here in the Mid-South?

Thanks."

And this is Tommy from Cordova, Tennessee.

Mr. Tommy, it's actually Joellen's favorite maple.

She's gonna tell you about it.

- Yes.

Acer griseum, paperbark maple.

It's gorgeous.

Gorgeous foliage.

Yeah, it's one of my first maples that I learned and I have loved it ever since.

- You talk about it quite a bit, quite a few times.

- We have it at the university in a raised area, and it's irrigated.

So that's what I'm gonna recommend, something... You gotta make sure you get it irrigated because we are in a zone, I believe 7B.

About 8 is the lowest zone that the Acer griseum will live in.

So, we are about the lowest area that they will survive.

So I would suggest afternoon shade.

And make sure it's well drained because, you know, in Michigan and Illinois their soils are completely different than ours.

Ours are a little thicker.

So, I would make sure it's in a well-drained area 'cause too much water would be the worst thing for it.

Well drained area, afternoon shade, and you'll get it to grow.

- You'll get it to grow.

- Very pretty.

- Beautiful tree specimen.

Yeah, I like the bark.

- Oh, I love the bark.

- When I saw the picture I was like, "I know what this is, Joellen's favorite maple."

[gentle country music] "For the last three years "something gets on my hibiscus leaves "before they have a chance to grow big and bloom.

"The leaves have tiny holes all over them.

"I assume it's a tiny bug, but I cannot see them.

"The leaves will eventually turn to a skeleton-look.

"The plants get compost and mulch, "plus they have a drip system.

"I spray with insecticidal soap, "but I have to do it several times.

"How do I keep my hibiscus leaves from getting eaten by insects?"

And this is Debbie.

Debbie gave us a good description there.

- Excellent description.

- Good job with that.

So, hibiscus.

- Not having a picture, but with a great description.

- That was good.

So I grow hibiscus, right, and I can tell you what that is.

The hibiscus sawfly is what that is.

So the larvae, which camouflages very well, right?

Pale green body, dark head.

Would eat the entire leaf and leave the mid-ribs, or the veins.

And they pretty much eat in groups.

Okay.

- Oh.

- The thing about that is you have to learn about the life cycle, right?

They're easy to control in the larval stage.

And I would use what she mentioned, insecticidal soap, horticultural oil, neem oil.

- Yeah.

- That's what I would use.

Low-impact pesticides, okay.

Now once they get larger than that, yeah then there's some other things that you would have to use.

But you would scout first.

Okay.

'Cause she said she couldn't see them because they camouflage very well with the leaf.

Okay.

Now here's the thing about the hibiscus sawfly, right?

Most people want to use Bt, Bacillus thuringiensis.

- That's not gonna work.

- They're not caterpillars.

- No.

- Yeah, they're actually in the Hymenoptera order.

Bees and wasps.

So you can't use Bt.

- No.

- So yeah, go with your insecticidal soap and your oils in the larvae stage.

- Yeah.

- That's the difference - If they get much bigger you'll have to just bring out the big guns like the insecticidal drenches, systemic insecticide drenches, and things like that that you really don't want to use.

- You don't have to use that, not for hibiscus.

You know, and then there's another carbaryl, but you don't want to use carbaryl either.

Especially, you know, if bees are around foraging.

- Blooming.

No.

We don't want you to use that.

- No, low-impact pesticides, Ms. Debbie.

- Well, and if she knows she's had a problem with it maybe she can scout earlier so then the very first sign of something, then that's when she puts her insecticidal soaps.

Because that timing is crucial.

- Yeah, timing is everything, which is why I say you gotta get out there and scout.

Yeah, timing's gonna be everything.

And learning about the life cycle too.

Because your insecticidal soap, you know, it's pretty much a contact pesticide.

- Right.

And they have to be there.

- Right.

So it works, and then they're safe for your pollinators.

- Right.

- All right, so there you have a Ms. Debbie.

Yeah, get out there and scout.

They are hard to see.

But yeah, once they start eating that leaf, oh you will know.

You will know.

I have that problem just about every year it seems like.

But yeah, just get out there early.

[gentle country music] "My bobo hydrangeas are growing like crazy, "but they're developing brown spot.

"Should I trim the bottom "to lift them up and increase airflow?

Then I want to spray with a fungicide."

This is Shane on YouTube.

So, Joellen - He's listening, airflow.

- Hey, airflow, there it goes.

I thought you would like that.

- That's perfect.

And he's thinking, and he's doing the right thought process.

I wanna question though, is what else is around it?

- Okay.

- Because if he's, you know, lifting it up, he wants to lift it up a little bit and is concerned about the airflow, are there shrubs or is it against a building?

- Yeah, see, that's a problem.

- I mean where is the air flowing around it?

'Cause I even have one that's in the middle of shrub area, but it's such a solid shrub area that there's not a good airflow around there.

And I just have to watch the watering, and mulch, puts some mulch down so that the soil doesn't splash up onto the leaves.

So I understand his thought process of getting rid of the lower leaves for that.

And he can spray with... - Yeah, he wants to spray with a fungicide.

- Fungicides, you can spray with fungicides for that but it's preventative.

And I would like to go with cultural practices first.

- I would.

- 'Cause a lot of the newer hydrangeas are less susceptible to the funguses on the leaves.

So make sure you're getting a resistant variety also.

- Right, and it's probably a Cercospora leaf spot, you know.

Of course it's one of the number one diseases, fungal diseases.

So, Okay.

Mr. D, anything to add to that?

- Nope, y'all got it covered.

- Got it covered, all right.

But yeah, so yeah, he's listening.

I thought you would like that.

- I love it.

It's like, oh, airflow, yay, he's listening.

- The airflow.

And read and follow the label on that fungicide.

- Yes.

- You'll be fine.

[gentle country music] "I grow a few vegetables in large containers.

"When they are finished growing "is there's something I can do "to get the soil ready for next year?

"I cover the containers for winter.

"I would like to enrich the soil a"nd destroy any harmful pest that survive the winter.

"My husband and I are no longer able "to lift heavy bags of soil.

Thanks."

And this is Pat from West Virginia.

So yeah, we don't want them to have to lift those heavy bags of soil 'cause they are heavy.

- Of course not.

- That's what grandchildren are for.

- Those things are heavy.

So can we help Ms. Pat out, Joellen?

- Oh sure.

- Is there something she could do to get that soil ready?

In her containers, now.

- They're in containers.

Make sure when she's at the end of the season and she's done with the vegetables, she takes all the plant material out.

Even the little leaves that fall on the top of the surface.

Because you don't want any of that to overwinter because that's where insects will overwinter.

And that could be a problem that she might have had in the past.

- Okay.

- So take all the plant material out.

And, you know, what would be wrong with putting a cover crop in?

'Cause that would help enrich the soil.

She could put some greens or any something like that, nitrogen-fixating plants in there.

- Yeah, she could grow lettuces, and mushrooms, and kale.

- Yeah, and then in the spring when you're done with that, then you just take a trowel and turn that under and that would help enrich the soil and they would decompose right there and add to the nutrients in her containers.

- I like it.

All right, so a couple of different options here for you Ms. Pat.

- And then good sanitation, as she said.

- Yeah, practice good sanitation.

Yeah, definitely do that.

And it's good that she wants to, you know, of course, make sure the soil is right for a container.

So yeah, we appreciate that Ms. Pat 'cause we don't want you to lift those heavy bags.

[gentle country music] "This appeared in a deck pot I had ready for planting.

"I let it go and decided it was a nice addition.

But what is it?"

This is Margie from Germantown, Tennessee.

So Joellen, we know what that is, don't we?

- Yes.

[Chris laughing] Well, you know, I looked at it and I said, well it does look like a nice plant in that pot, but why are they growing pokeweed in the pot?

- American pokeweed.

- Yeah, American pokeweed.

- Why are they growing that?

And then I saw the, you know, yeah.

- She said it's a nice addition, you know, to the pot.

But you have to be careful.

- You have be careful, the berries are poisonous.

- Yeah.

- The leaves are edible when they're young.

And I remember my mother picking poke salads.

And when the plants are about four, six inches tall, you know, cutting the leaves off and it's good.

It's a very good green.

It's got a little different taste from turnip greens, and collards, and things like that.

But the berry, it's also called inkberry.

That's another name for the plant.

And in the summer, late summer when we were getting ready to pick cotton, we were issued our cotton sacks and everybody had their own cotton sack.

And you would always put your initials in big letters, big block letters, you know, six inch letters on your cotton sack with poke berries.

- Ah, how about that?

- And of course, your fingers would be stained for a week.

[Chris laughing] But an interesting plant and very, very common.

Very common.

- Very common.

It's a perennial.

Gets about what, 10, yeah, I'd say about 10 feet tall.

- Huge.

- It gets tall.

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

All right, so there you have Ms. Margie.

Yeah, that's your addition to your pot there.

- Even wrote a song about it, "Poke Salad Annie".

- "Poke Salad Annie", how about that?

[gentle country music] "I have dead nettles in my garden.

"They come up every fall.

"I want to plant collared greens, "but the dead nettles seems to cover up the greens "when they're coming up and shade them out.

"What can I use as a pre-emergent "to get rid of dead nettle seeds before they sprout so I can plant my collard greens?"

And this is David from Millington, Tennessee.

So, Joellen, wants to get rid of the dead nettle using a pre-emerge to plant his collards.

- The problem is, if he uses a pre-emergent then the collard seeds aren't gonna germinate either.

- Yep.

- Unless he uses transplants.

But, I mean, I can't see a whole field of transplanting.

- No, there's Treflan, - Yeah.

- Is a pre-emergent that won't hurt your turnip.

- Oh, is it, good.

- So you may want to try Treflan.

Dacthal is another one.

And they've been around a long time.

So there's a couple of pre-emergent herbicides that you can try that are labeled for use on the turnip greens, and collard greens, and things like that.

- Oh, that's good.

- So it's good to know.

- That's definitely good to know.

- Yeah, 'cause there's gonna be something out there that you cannot use, like Preen would be one.

- Yes, don't use Preen.

- Or Pendulum would be another one.

Because they won't know the difference between the weed seed and the seed of your turnip greens.

- That's correct.

- Yeah.

- But, I found that on a North Carolina Extension publication.

- There you go.

- Yeah.

Pull that up and double check me.

- Okay.

So again, you can use... - Treflan and Dacthal.

- Dacthal.

- Yeah.

Trifluralin is the chemical name.

And DCPA is the active in Dacthal.

DCPA, and I'm not gonna try to pronounce what that stands for.

[Chris laughing] - Yeah, read and follow the label, Mr. David, on that.

Yeah, dead nettle can be an issue.

- Definitely.

Especially if you've got a big garden.

- Yeah, you got to get that.

Yeah, it's in a mint family, it grows like crazy.

Likes, you know, moist soils.

WIth a high fertility, so.

- Dr. Larry Steckel, UT Extension Weed Scientist, developed a publication talking about henbit and dead nettle and they are very closely related.

It's been my experience that dead nettle is harder to kill than henbit.

- Exactly right.

- But you may want to check out Dr. Steckel's publication.

- Right.

- Very good.

- Yeah, right here in Tennessee.

- It'll tell you more than you want to know.

[everybody laughing] [gentle country music] - "How late in the year can I fertilize my grass?"

This is Anna.

Hi Anna, we got Mr. Booker here.

So how late in the year?

And what kind of grass are we talking about?

- Now, if she's got but Bermuda grass, or warm-season grass, like Bermuda grass, zoysia grass, I don't like to fertilize with a nitrogen fertilizer after the middle of September.

- Okay.

- It's getting ready to start going dormant at that time depending where you live at.

You don't wanna give no nitrogen 'cause you don't want have that extra growth on there.

- Okay.

- Now if it's fescue, or a cool-season grass, now this is a good time to start fertilizing, sometime in September and everything in there.

And hold back on your fertilizer during the summer months if you can, depend on what's in there.

- For the fescue?

- For fescue lawn.

But Bermuda grass, when it starts going last or middle of September, you wanna hold back on that nitrogen fertilizer.

Now, you can do a soil test and see if you need to add in some phosphorous and potassium to that soil during that time.

But the nitrogen, you don't wanna get no extra growth.

Yeah, 'cause winter come in early, if you do it can damage your grass for next year.

So you want to make sure you don't do that.

- That's a good point.

But okay for the fescue?

- It's good for the fescue to fertilize, in the fall of the year.

But Bermuda grass, zoysia grass, warm-season grasses, make sure that you try to cut off in middle of September.

- Middle of September.

- Usually, for the nitrogen fertilizer.

- All right.

You got that Alainia?

So you gotta know your grasses, right, so you know when to fertilize.

[gentle country music] "Can hostas be grown inside in a pot?

"If so, how should they be taken care of?

Thanks in advance."

This is Deborah from Stone Mountain, Georgia.

So, Joellen, what do you think about that?

Can hostas be grown inside in a pot?

- Well, yes they can if you've got enough light.

The problem is they are perennial and they can't be in there in the winter.

They need a cold period.

In fact, they need 600 to 700 hours of a cold period to be able to thrive.

So, you know, if she wants to put it inside, you know, that's nice for the growing season.

But then I would put it outside, the pot outside, in the winter so it can get that cold period so that it can survive.

'Cause they need it to thrive.

- Right, they need a period of dormancy.

- Yeah.

- Wow.

- Of course, if you want some green all winter just keep them in the refrigerator all summer.

How about that?

[Chris laughing] - Well, that's a thought.

[Chris laughing] Yeah, that's a thought.

That is a thought.

- How about that?

So the answer to the question is, they can be grown inside in a pot.

- They can, but they've got to have a cold period of 600 to 700 hours.

- Wow.

Okay.

- So, like, they have to go dormant.

- Have to go dormant.

Okay.

So when you bring them inside, though, when they're actively growing; indirect sunlight?

- Well.

- Would it matter?

- The inside is hard to tell because it depends on the light changes in your house based on the direction of the sun all summer long.

So I mean, you may not want it in direct sunlight, but a lot of bright light, because thinking in the shade outside, it's still bright.

- Yeah, that's true.

- So you gotta give it enough light for it to thrive.

- Right.

And what about the watering?

- You gotta watch the watering too because in the summertime with it the cooler inside, you may not have to water it as much as you would if it was growing outside.

And you're still gonna have to fertilize a little bit.

I would put a little sprinkle of slow-release fertilizer around it.

- Okay.

All right.

And a nice pot.

- And a nice pot, yeah.

- All right, there you have it Ms. Deborah.

So they can be grown inside in a pot.

[gentle country music] "How do I keep chipmunks out of my garden bed?

Thank you."

This is Sandy from Chattanooga, Tennessee.

So, Ms. Sandy, we have somebody that struggles with chipmunks.

- Yep.

- Ms. Joellen.

- I do.

- So, yeah, we'll listen to Joellen and see what she has to say.

- I have chipmunks in my...

I moved my garden, I've made a raised bed, and now the chipmunks are trying to go underneath it and on top of it.

But I fooled them.

There's wire mesh underneath the raised beds so they can't come up through the bottom of the wire mesh.

- Okay.

But... - But?

- They still come in there and, you know, my dogs chase them.

But, you know, I think once I start moving around and digging in there, I think that'll make them go away.

- Make them go away?

- Yeah.

I think they've just moved in the summer, during the summer, when, you know, I'm letting everything grow and there's a lot of foliage, you know, with melons, and squashes, and tomatoes, and green beans, and cucumbers, and all of that.

So they're probably thinking they're in a nice jungle home.

Well, when they start ripping up the garden for the end of the season, there's not gonna be any cover for them.

And I think that, well, and the disturbing of the soil will make them leave.

- Disturbing of the soil.

What do you think about that?

- You could trap them too.

- You could trap them, what do you think about that Doc?

Would you?

- Well.

- Would you trap them?

- Not exactly where we are.

Where I live, we do not have chipmunks, but we got squirrels.

So it's, you know, I know chipmunks kind of burrow and do things, which is a little different than a squirrel, but they dig.

They all like to dig.

And they eat up your little roots, and bulbs, and things, and whatever, you know.

So, I'm like, you know, I wish trapping would be effective, but you can trap and do something with them.

But there's just gonna be more if the environment is right, like you're talking about.

They have cover and you've got food for them that they're gonna be wanting to get after.

But there are products you can do.

But how effective they are, I don't know.

You know, I read about one that I'd never read about before.

It's called Bitrex, you ever heard of that?

- No, I've never heard of that one.

- It is the most bitter compound known to man.

It's not that bits, you know, what is that currency?

It's called bitrix, or whatever.

It's not that, it's B-I-T-R-E-X.

And it's the most bitter compound.

It's in a lot of different deterrents.

So the theory is, you know, they eat it and then they get [silence].

You know, and then they don't go back, you know?

So I don't know, you know, I don't know.

I have never heard of that.

And then there's, you know, the stuff you read about for squirrels and things, it's like cayenne pepper, garlic, human hair.

I don't know how effective all that is.

It's just temporary.

- Right.

Yeah, just temporary.

- Yeah, it is just temporary.

- It's all it is.

- Putting the wire down, like you said, you know, that's a lot of work.

But you know, it's just how much you're willing to tolerate.

You know?

I think that's the key to these nuisance critters.

It's just, you know, your tolerance level.

And people get, I get really frustrated, you know, with things eating up my pretty plants, you know, but it's just part of gardening.

- Just part of it.

- Yeah.

- Those old chipmunks.

Yeah.

- Bless their little hearts.

- Bless them.

I mean, you know, trapping can be an option, you know, if you wanna do that.

I would use a live trap.

- Or putting out poison bait, but you have to be careful with that.

- Yeah, you gotta be careful with that, the poison baits.

- You know, house cats or whatever.

- Other creatures.

Dogs.

- So disturbing or trap.

You know, I would pre-bait the trap, you know, let the bait stay out there for a little while.

You know, apple cubes, you know, peanuts, peanut butter and things like that.

Let them go in and out, in and out, and then set it.

You know if you wanna go that route.

- Do you have chipmunks in your garden.

- We actually have chipmunks.

- Do you?

- We have chipmunks.

Right.

But I'm fine.

I have a high tolerance level.

- Well, that's good, that's key.

Yeah.

- There you go.

- That is key.

- So I have no problem with the chipmunks.

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 sending in the questions.

To get more information on any of the questions we answered today, or to see answers to even more questions, go to FamilyPlotGarden.com.

And while you're there, if you have something that has stumped you in your garden, send us your question too.

Thanks for watching.

I'm Chris Cooper.

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

Be safe.

[gentle country music] [acoustic guitar chords]