- Hi.

Thanks for joining us for The Family Plot: Gardening in the Mid-South.

I'm Chris Cooper.

There are many kinds of blueberry plants, but which variety is best for your garden?

Also, cucumbers are a great addition to any 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 Mike Dennison.

Mr. D. is a retired UT Extension agent, and Tom Mashour will be joining me later.

All right, Mr. D., we're gonna talk about blueberries.

And I know you know a lot about blueberries 'cause you grow blueberries.

- Got a little experience with blueberries.

- A little experience.

- That's right.

- So let's start with the varieties here in the South.

- Okay, here in the South, we recommend the rabbiteye type and the Southern highbush.

And they do require cross-pollination, so you do need to plant two different varieties.

But here in the southern United States, the rabbiteye types that are recommended are Brightwell, Premier, Centurion, Alapaha, Austin, Tifblue, Climax, Powderblue, and Baldwin.

Southern highbush, which is a hybrid cross of the Northern highbush and rabbiteye types, they include O'Neal, Gulf Coast, Cooper, Georgia Gem, Cape Fear, Reveille, Bladen, Blue Ridge, Jubilee, Magnolia, Pearl River, and Biloxi.

[both laugh] And those clearly were produced [Chris laughs] by Mississippi State University.

- Clearly.

[laughs] - I'm sure.

But the Southern highbush varieties require two to 300 chill hours.

And that's down toward the Gulf Coast north, you know, up to probably the Tennessee-Kentucky line, something like that.

That's pushing it, northern part of Tennessee.

- Okay.

- Northern part of the country.

And this information, I got from Purdue University, and that's from the state of Missouri, Kentucky north.

The Northern highbush varieties require over 800 chill hours.

- That's a lot.

- And the chill hour is the number of hours accumulated over the winter between 32 degrees and 45 degrees.

That's how you come up with your chill hours.

And your Extension service can help you with that.

- They can help you with that.

[laughs] - Northern highbush varieties are Bluecrop, Blueray, Chandler, Elliott, Duke, Jersey, and Toro.

Now, the Northern highbush blueberries generally are self-fertile.

They will produce without cross-pollination.

However, research has proven that if you cross-pollinate them, the blueberries will be bigger.

And who doesn't like a big blueberry, you know?

- I do, that's for sure.

- I like 'em.

The bigger ones are better.

Out West, California is such a long state.

- Yes, it is.

- In southern California, you use the same varieties that we use here in the South, the rabbiteye and the Southern highbush.

Northern California, gotta go with the Northern highbush.

And also Pacific Northwest, in that neck of the woods.

Another couple of types of blueberries that are out there.

And I received this information from Oregon State University.

These are a blueberry that'll grow across the entire northern United States, and in southern provinces of Canada.

They are called lowbush blueberries.

They are native to that area that I mentioned.

They are a low-growing shrub.

They spread by underground stems.

There are a few cultivars that are named.

Blomidon, Burgundy, and Brunswick are named cultivars of the lowbush blueberries.

Now, another type of blueberry is a cross between those lowbush blueberries that I just mentioned and the Northern highbush varieties.

And they're called Half-high blueberries.

- Wow.

- They also require cross-pollination because their parents do.

- Okay.

- Several of those varieties are out there.

Polaris, Northland, Northcountry, Northsky, Chippewa, Northblue, BrazelBerry, Sunshine Blue, and Perpetua.

- Sunshine Blue.

I like it.

- So those are the varieties that will work.

And that's a lot more varieties and a lot more types than were common back in the day that I was doing Extension work.

- No doubt about it.

And since you mentioned Extension work, this is free information - That's right.

- From the Extension service.

- Well, it's not free.

Your tax dollars.

- Well, tax dollars.

- Your tax dollars.

There's nothing free.

- Right.

[laughs] - Your taxes cover that.

- Right.

That's right.

So it's all covered.

- So take advantage of it.

- Take advantage of it.

Research-based.

- Research based information.

And there's a lot of research going on and experiment stations around the country on blueberries, obviously.

- I mean, obviously.

- These are varieties that in the last 15 years, it's amazing how many different varieties have been produced since then, different types.

- Yeah, it's good.

So let's move into planting.

- Planting them.

No matter the varieties that I mentioned, the Northern highbush, rabbiteye types, lowbush, all of these require, they need an acidic soil, which is kinda unusual.

Most plants need a soil that is only slightly acidic.

Blueberries need one, and azaleas.

- Azaleas.

- Camellias.

So they need the one that's very acidic, or the more acidic, the better, to a point, 4.8 to 5.2.

- That's acidic.

- And I would lean toward the 4.8.

Get a soil test.

Start with a soil test.

And you tell them, in the soil test, that you're gonna grow blueberries, and they will tell you how much elemental sulfur to mix or to spread in the area to lower the pH to the level it needs to be lowered to.

And if you haven't planted them yet, I would, if you till that in, that will make, that will lower the pH a lot quicker.

Till it in.

If you have planted them already, or if you don't wanna till, you can just put it on top of the ground.

And it is water-soluble, and Mother Nature will take it on down.

Water it in or let the rain take it in.

But get that pH down.

When you plant the blueberries, select the site that's got at least six hours of sunlight.

You need a well-drained soil.

They don't like wet feet.

Your planting hole, dig a planting hole that's twice as wide as the root ball if you're planting it.

Now, my blueberries and most blueberries are two-year-old seedlings, and there's not a great big root ball, but dig a wide hole.

And you're gonna wanna add a couple of shovel fulls of peat moss or a good compost to increase the organic matter of that planting soil.

And that is very, very important.

That's as important as getting the pH right.

Kind of mix that in with your soil as you, and make sure you get it around the roots and everything.

And that will help increase the survivability of those plants.

Of course, plant it at the depth that it grew in the nursery.

And prune back the top of the plant by about 1/3.

That will help balance the root zone with the above-ground portion of the plant.

Because no matter how careful you are during the transplanting process, you're gonna damage some of the roots.

And you will get a flush of growth after that, trying to compensate for that pruning that you do.

Probably gonna need to irrigate or water the first two or three years.

Well, you know, once they get established.

That's not... And you don't have to do that.

I don't irrigate mine.

They probably would be better if I did, [Chris laughs] but irrigation's not gonna hurt.

- Right.

[laughs] - If you don't over-irrigate, don't over-irrigate.

Plant 'em further apart than you think you need to plant 'em.

The directions say six to eight feet.

I'd say for your rabbiteye types, eight to ten feet.

And then the lowbush varieties, and even the highbush, it's kind of strange.

Highbush are not as big as rabbiteye types, you know?

Highbush oughta be called lowbush, [Chris laughs] in my opinion.

But there are lowbush ones out there.

But, so you can plant the highbush varieties a little closer than we do the rabbiteye types.

The rabbiteye types, spread 'em out a little bit.

But, again, very, very important to get that pH low.

I've seen in commercial plantings, where, if you didn't do that, you had to redo it.

Do it over again.

So, pH, organic matter in the planting hole, then you're good.

- Give it a good start.

- That's it.

- All right.

Don't forget to check your local Extension service.

They will definitely have this information for you.

Mr. D., that was good.

Thank you much.

- You're welcome.

- It's good.

[upbeat country music] - Let's talk about assumptions.

Assumptions can get you in trouble.

For example, Roundup is a common herbicide, non-selective herbicide, that used to have glyphosate as its active ingredient.

Now there are products called Roundup that have other active ingredients in them.

This one has three different herbicides, three different active ingredients in it.

This product is called Sevin.

Carbaryl used to be the active ingredient, the only active ingredient that you would find in Sevin.

Now, there are several products out there that have ingredients other than carbaryl in them.

My point is, read the label, read and follow the label directions.

You might learn something.

[upbeat country music] - All right, Mr. Tom, let's talk about cucumbers.

- One of my favorite vegetables.

I realize it's a fruit- - Ah-ha.

- Legally speaking, but if it's in the garden, it's a vegetable.

- It's a vegetable.

[laughs] - It's a vegetable.

- All right, so you gonna start with varieties first?

- Yeah, there is tremendous number of varieties of cucumbers.

I'm particularly partial toward the light-skinned cucumbers.

You got the dark skins, like Straight Eights and so forth, and some bush cucumbers.

The thing I like about the light-skinned ones is they don't seem to get bitter in the summertime.

Especially my favorite, I mentioned this a couple years ago, is Sumter, S-U-M-T-E-R. - I remember that.

- It's a pickling cucumber.

Just good, flat eating.

[Chris laughs] And like I said, it never gets bitter.

A lotta times on the dark green cucumbers, that you can prevent the bitterness, to a certain degree, by maintaining a moist soil.

What'll usually cause the bitterness is switching from dry to wet soil.

- Ah-ha.

- And that pretty much causes it.

But, like I said, with the light-skinned ones, you don't have to worry about that.

But, like I said, there is a tremendous variety.

They go from small ones, to one of the larger ones is the Armenian Yard-Long.

- Wow.

- And it grows in a curve.

And can get 24 or longer.

I had actually one that did actually grow three feet.

- That's a pretty good size.

- But it's an unusual one.

It doesn't produce that many, but what it does produce are big.

- Big.

Yard.

- Yeah.

[laughs] - Okay.

Yard, it's in the name.

How about that?

Now, what about planting cucumbers?

How do we need to prepare the soils and how do we need to plant those?

- Well, typically, it's not a very demanding plant.

Matter of fact, you don't even have to till it.

You can just dig a hole [Chris laughs] and plant it.

Now, I like to start pretty much all my plants in containers, and then transplant 'em.

I don't like to get down on my hands and knees and thin.

- Okay.

[laughs] - So any thinning I gotta do, I will do it in a flat, and then pot 'em in that way.

I even, I start now my beets in containers.

Those multi-cell, 54 to a count, flat-type cells.

Having tremendous success with that.

But as far as, and that's pretty much it.

Now, when I first started growing cucumbers, I just let 'em sprawl.

But as I started putting more things in my garden, like blueberries and stuff like that, my gardening area gets smaller and smaller.

So I went to trellising 'em.

And I used the cow panels.

And I put 'em on the back or the south side of the garden so they don't shade the plants in front of 'em.

Tremendous success doing that.

They just climb right up.

Initially, you have to give 'em a little head start, you know, tell 'em where to go.

[Chris laughs] And then once they figure out that, hey, this is where I need to go, they'll start wrapping their tendrils around it, and up they go.

- They got it.

Okay.

Now, what about soil pH?

- Cucumbers, like most vegetables, they like it on the slightly acid range.

Seven is neutral, as most people know.

But 6.8, and all the way up to 7.3, which is slightly sweet, they do fine.

No big problem.

- Okay.

All right, so what about fertilizing?

Do you fertilize your cucumbers?

- Yes, I do.

Of course, a lot of it depends on their soilness.

Every master gardener knows- - Yeah.

[laughs] - First thing you always say is take a soil sample.

But on the soil samples, they don't test for nitrogen because it's very migratory.

And vast majority of nitrogen is in the air.

So you put nitrogen in your soil, eventually, it wants to go back home, [Chris laughs] so you have to keep adding it.

Where the phosphorus, potassium, our minerals, they have a tendency to stay in the soil.

So what I like to do is I like to alternate.

And I fertilize lightly every two weeks.

And I alternate between a high nitrogen fertilizer, and then two weeks later, a balanced fertilizer.

15-15-15, 10-10-10.

13-13-13.

And by doing that, it seems to be the right combination.

And a secret for growing big plants, one word: nitrogen.

- Nitrogen.

[laughs] One word.

- Mm-hm.

- Okay.

All right, now what about diseases, though, you know?

Because these are vines, right?

They're gonna be bunched up together, you know, for the most part.

What about diseases?

- Well, the cucumber beetle is probably the number one major problem.

- Okay.

- An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

And Sevin, or carbaryl.

Is that how you pronounce it?

- Carbaryl.

- Carbaryl.

And it doesn't have to be Sevin, but if it's a carbaryl sort of a product sprayed on it.

And I like to use the liquid because the liquid, I can get under the leaves and stuff like that, which is much easier way of doing it than trying to do it with a powder.

And the powder has a tendency to wash off in the rain.

The liquid type has a little bit more persistency to it.

But keeping it sprayed once every 7 to 10 days, as Mike used to say, will work great for ya.

Now, I do not know the organic equivalent.

I did a lotta research and I got a lot of opinions, [Chris laughs] but nothing factual that I can take to the bank.

- Right, right.

- But that's the number-one problem.

You don't have to worry about the squash borers because the vines are so thin that the little critter that lays the eggs doesn't bother it.

And, by the way, the cucumbers are a member of the cucurbits family.

And a distinguishing character is that they have male blossoms and female blossoms on the same plant.

And it's not really hard to identify it.

By the way, all the members of that includes not only cucumbers, but all your squashes, your melons, cantaloupes.

And on the squash, watermelons, cantaloupes, it's really easy to distinguish the male from the female in the fact that the male flower just has a straight stem and a blossom, whereas the female has a miniature fruit behind the blossom.

And if you wanna speed up pollination, all you have to do is take a brush and go from the male flower to the female flower.

And like I always mention, you know, soft music is optional.

[Chris laughs] And the more fruit that's on the plants, the smaller the fruit's gonna be.

- Sure.

- But it's just kinda cute.

I like looking at, I always like showing people that.

You know, the male and the female.

- It is pretty cool to see, though.

- Mm-hm.

Yeah.

But, like I said, they're all members of the same family.

And the distinguishing character, as you know, that when they're grouping plants together, is the blossom.

So, and since they all have male and female, that's how come they're all gathered together.

- Okay, now, you talked about the pest problems with cucumbers.

What about diseases?

Are there any diseases we need to know about?

- Not that I have noticed.

There is some diseases listed, but they're very kinda rare.

I think more of commercial farmers growing cucumbers would probably be more affected by the diseases than your typical home gardener.

But as far as the other diseases go, if you got infested, the only thing you can do is pull 'em out and trash 'em.

Do not throw 'em in a compost pile.

- Mm-hm.

All right, Mr. Tom, we appreciate that information about cucumbers.

- Oh, I appreciate it.

[upbeat country music] - Milkweed is a very important plant to have in your garden because it's the host plant for the monarch butterfly's caterpillars.

This is the only thing that they will eat, so it's very important that we grow it.

Now, unfortunately, it's also a favorite plant for these little, bright-yellow aphids, and they are completely covering these things up.

So the thing is, we wanna protect our monarch caterpillars.

We don't wanna hurt them with an insecticide.

So what we can do is just hose it off with water to try to get as many of the aphids off of it that we can.

Or we can just simply wait for the ladybugs to show up.

Because pretty soon, we'll have our beneficial insects arriving in our garden in the form of ladybug larva.

Make sure you know what they look like so you don't kill 'em.

And adult ladybugs.

And they'll help take care of the problem, too.

But, for now, since we don't see any ladybugs, I'm just gonna hose 'em down.

[water blasts] Now, we're not gonna get every single aphid this way.

And you may have to do this every day for a while because they will come back quickly.

[water blasts] All right, that took care of most of our aphids.

[upbeat country music] - All right.

Mr. D., here's our Q and A segment.

These are some great questions.

- They are.

- And so let's start with our first viewer email.

"Our thornless blackberries have gone wild.

How do I control them?"

And this is Catherine from Nesbit, Mississippi.

They're starting to sprout leaves.

Shoots are growing in the grass.

And she also wants to know, do I prune every year, and when?

All right.

[laughs] - That's kind of an unusual problem for us [Chris laughs] to get, isn't it?

Sounds like when they're growing too good.

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

- Yeah, so how does she control them if they're growing wild?

- Mowing.

- Okay.

- Hoeing.

- Ahh.

- Mulching.

[Chris laughs] Those are some things that'll help, you know, I would say.

You know, give 'em away, dig up some of the ones that are sprouting and give 'em away.

[Chris laughs] Spread 'em out.

But that's a good problem to have.

Do I prune every year?

And let me say, do not use herbicides, especially systemic herbicides, because if you spray the shoot, it will translocate- - That's right.

- To the mother plant, so you don't wanna do that.

Do you prune every year?

Yes, according to the National IPM Database.

And there are floricanes, which are previous year's growth, and primocanes, which are the new canes, current season's growth.

And according to the National IPM Database, you remove all of the old canes after harvest in the summertime.

That's a good thing to do.

And the first year that you plant them, you remove the primocanes, remove the new growth, to encourage more growth from the crown.

- Right.

Okay.

- So only the first year do you remove the primocanes.

And the fruiting is gonna occur on floricanes.

But remove those old, the floricanes, and you oughta be, but that encourages them to do better.

- I was about to say, yeah they'll do a whole lot better.

- So they'll go wilder, I guess.

But, I don't know.

That's kind of an unusual problem.

But you got anything to add to that?

- Yeah.

So, you know, I learned a lot about, of course, you know, blackberries from you.

But here's my thing, you definitely don't want 'em to get too outta control because of diseases, though.

- Yeah.

- Right.

So, anthracnose, you know, is something that I thought about.

Rosette, you know, something else.

So that's why you definitely don't want 'em to, you know, get outta control.

- So, the pruning.

- So, pruning, so it goes back to pruning.

- It goes back to pruning.

- Right, it goes back to pruning at the end of the day, Ms. Catherine.

- Yep.

- Yep.

Yep, so I hope- - That's key.

- That's gonna be a lotta pruning, you know, to do, for sure, 'cause you definitely don't want any disease pressure.

- It may explain why I lost my blackberries.

[Chris laughs] 'Cause they went wild and then they died.

- They will definitely go wild.

So thank you, Ms. Catherine.

- And I didn't prune 'em.

- And you didn't prune 'em.

- No, I didn't prune 'em.

- There you go, Ms. Catherine.

- Don't make my mistake.

- Thank you for that question.

Good question.

Here's our next viewer email.

"Do I need a second plum tree to get fruit?"

And this is Mary from Montpelier, Virginia.

- The answer is yes.

- Yes.

- They do [Chris laughs] require cross-pollination.

Yeah, and that would solve that problem.

- Right.

So, yeah, different variety, of course, you know, would help.

Yeah, definitely help if you knew what the first variety was 'cause, yeah, you definitely need another variety.

- You may need to plant two more plum trees just in case you have to plant the same one that you got, and that way.

- Right.

'Cause, yeah, cross-pollination, yeah, is gonna enhance fruit yield, of course, and fruit quality.

- That's correct.

- You know, we know that at the end of the day.

So there you have it, Ms. Mary.

Yeah, you might need to get ya a couple more, you know, just in case.

- Or encourage your neighbor to, you know, because, you know, it sounds like there's not a plum tree close by.

- That's a good point.

All right, thank you for that question, Ms. Mary.

I hope that helps you out.

Here's our next viewer email.

"Why do my turnip greens sprout, just sit there, and then die?"

This is Mary.

She says she "has not had problems except the last few years."

- Hm.

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

[laughs] - Yeah.

They recommend not planting turnip greens in the same spot every year.

And, as a matter of fact, once you grow turnip greens, they recommend giving it a three-year rest before you put turnip greens back there again.

There's a whole bunch of diseases that will attack turnip greens, anthracnose, Cercospora leaf spot, white spot, downy mildew, bacterial leaf spot.

Those are some of the ones that could be a problem.

But that's probably the main thing, you need to move your turnip patch around your garden.

- Crop rotation is what we call that.

- Crop rotation.

Move it around.

And may mean you may have to have a little smaller turnip green, but if they do real well, you don't need as big a spot, you know?

- That is for sure.

- I mean, can you think of anything else?

- The thing with turnip greens, I would say, is they're probably best planted in the fall.

- Yeah, yeah.

- Yeah.

- When did she plant these?

- We don't know.

- Okay.

- See, I was gonna say- - I guess I assumed she planted them in the fall, but I- - Best planted in the fall, right, 'cause if you plant 'em too late in the, you know, once you get to spring, you know, it might get warm.

Yeah.

- Yeah, yeah.

- So I would do that in the fall.

- That's for sure.

- I would definitely do that.

Ms. Mary, hope that answers your question.

We appreciate that.

Mr. D., fun, as always.

Fun, as always.

Thank you much.

Remember, we love to hear from you.

Send us an email or letter.

The email address is questions@familyplotgarden.com, 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.

If you want to learn more about growing blueberries or cucumbers, head on over to familyplotgarden.com.

We have information there about these and many other fruits and vegetables.

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

Be safe.

[upbeat country music] [acoustic guitar chords]