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

I'm Chris Cooper.

There are so many insecticides on the shelf.

Which one do you pick?

Today we're going to look at the most common ones.

Also, it's fall and it's time for chrysanthemums.

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 Joellen Dimond will be joining me later.

Always good to see you, Mr. D. - Good to see you.

Glad to be here.

- All right, so we're gonna talk about common insecticides, but before we do that, when should we use insecticides?

- Use insecticides when the threshold is reached that you need to use them.

And I say that because I always like to give beneficial insects a chance to take out my bad bugs.

And there's a predator-prey relationship that exists that means the prey has to be available before the predator can thrive.

With many insects, there are economic thresholds with aesthetic plants.

There are aesthetic thresholds.

How much damage can you live with- - Yeah, that's what I was asking.

- Before you need to go in there with the big guns and take them out.

So I would... And in many cases, I know on agricultural crops, there are economic thresholds that exist.

And the folks that go out and scout agricultural crops, they go out and they count insects.

Pecans, you count insects.

And when it reaches the point that gets to a certain number that triggers an insecticide application.

So it's when the numbers get high enough that you really need to spray.

- That's good.

- Many times, most of the times aphid numbers will get up to a high enough level that of course you got lace bugs and there are a lot of beneficial insects to feed on, but also, they can reach a certain level where they get a disease and they die.

They just die off.

So that's when you apply an insecticide.

- So that's when you apply.

So now let's talk about those common insecticides that we have out there.

- Common insecticides.

And I like to go with as general product as I can, the easiest on the environment as I can first.

- Okay.

- And that means the biologicals.

But the most common biological insecticide is Bt, Bacillus thuringiensis.

It's been around a long time and it works mostly on caterpillars.

It'll work on your tomato hornworm, tomato fruitworm, tobacco hornworm, cabbage loopers, a lot of your vegetable insects.

Bagworms that get on your ornamentals.

Armyworms, it'll give you some control of armyworms.

- That's right.

- But if it's a caterpillar, most caterpillars are controlled by Bt.

There are some that are not.

Another biological is clarified neem oil and it does a pretty good job on aphids, also will work on armyworms.

But it also take out some beetles, scales, spider mites, and white flies.

Now, if Bt doesn't do the trick, two of the oldest and most common insecticides are carbaryl and malathion.

Carbaryl is known for working on insects with chewing mouthparts.

And it still does a pretty good job on a lot of the worms, and caterpillars have chewing mouthparts.

So you're talking about armyworms, bean leaf beetles, corn earworms, European corn borer, Japanese beetles, cabbage worm, Mexican bean beetles.

And I already mentioned hornworms.

Malathion is known for working on insects that have piercing-sucking mouth parts.

And so they do a better job on aphids, some of the immature scale insects.

Leaf bugs, plant bugs, maybe stink bugs.

Squash bugs and- - Those are tough, yeah.

- Thrips and even white flies and things like that.

So those are some of your old standbys.

Unfortunately, especially with carbaryl, there are some insects that have developed a resistance, somewhat of a resistance to some of those older ones.

Little hotter products.

Pyrethrum is a naturally occurring insecticide made from chrysanthemums.

- Right.

- And it is extremely hot.

And it will take care of all of those in insects that I mentioned that carbaryl will take care of them.

Starting, I guess in the '80s, late '70s and '80s, a synthetic pyrethroid was developed, which is a synthetic pyrethrum.

And these are byfenthrin, beta-cypermethrin, cyfluthrin, esfenvalerate, permethrin.

You see how it can be kind of confusing.

But those are all synthetic pyrethroids.

And they will control all of the insects that the pyrethrins control.

But they have a little bit longer life in the environment.

They'll last a little bit longer.

- Residual.

- And they're probably a little bit cheaper than this.

They're probably easier to synthesize and cheaper to synthesize than the pyrethrins from the chrysanthemum.

But they are very, very common and commonly recommended for spider control in your houses.

And a lot of the harder to kill insects like stink bugs, they will give you a little bit better control on stink bugs, squash bugs.

Right now they're probably the most common insect, also flying insect killers, the wasp killers and bee killers, they all have the synthetic pyrethroids in 'em.

Insecticidal soaps is something that does a pretty good job on scale insects and some aphids.

- Yeah, lot of the soft biting insects.

- Things like that.

That'll give you some help of white flies, even the larvae of white flies, especially spider mites.

They may smother anything that can clog up and smother breathing tubes, and then soaps will do that.

Give you a little bit of that.

Horticultural oils are also good for aphids and larvae, beetle larvae like Colorado potato beetle larvae, leaf hoppers and leaf miners, scale, thrips and white flies.

Spinosad, that's a microbial or another biological that does an amazingly good job on armyworms, caterpillars, Colorado potato beetle, Diamondback moth, European corn borer, flea beetles and imported cabbage worm, leaf miners and loopers.

So that's another one that if you're organically minded.

- How do you know which one of those insecticides to use for your situation?

- Read the label.

- Read the label.

- Read that label.

That label is a document that a lot of work has gone into.

And then if it's a caterpillar, if it's a worm, if it's a caterpillar, I'm gonna throw Dipel at it first.

Dipel, that's a trade name, one trade name.

The old trade name for Bacillus thuringiensis, Bt.

If it's got piercing sucking mouthparts, if it's an aphid sucking the juices out of my plants, I'm gonna throw malathion at it.

I go ahead that at that angle.

If it's a brown recluse spider, I'm gonna do a little research and I'm gonna see which one of those synthetic pyrethroids is gonna do the trick.

Probably gonna be byfenthrin or something like that.

- Yeah.

- So identify your problem.

- That's key.

- And then do a little research.

Make sure it's on the label.

- Right.

- Just because it's on the label doesn't necessarily mean it is the best product.

- Right.

Got it.

- One thing, almost all of these insecticides, with the exception of Bt, will kill honeybees and pollinating insects.

So if you have a lot of blooming plants, and don't spray the blooms.

Wait until after bloom you can to use these insecticides.

- That's good stuff, Mr. D. And I will add this, if you see the aphids out there, maybe some water and knock them off sometimes.

You don't always have to go grab the insecticide on the shelf.

- That's right.

Give that lacewing a chance to come in there and take 'em out.

- All right.

Thank you, Mr. D. That's good information man.

We appreciate that.

[upbeat country music] - So we're four months into this experiment with mulch and fungicides on tomatoes.

And we have our three plants here.

This plant right here, we did not put any mulch down and we did not apply any fungicide through the season so far.

You can see that it has quite a bit of damage.

There's quite a few branches that have dried up and shriveled up because of the fungus.

So it was completely unprotected.

Moving on here to this next plant, it had mulch but no fungicide.

So that kind of prevents the fungus from splashing up off the dirt.

And you can see that it has some fungal damage here, but not nearly as much as the first plant.

And then moving on to the third plant here, this one was mulched and also had fungicide applied on regular interval.

And you can see that it is looking the most healthy of the three plants and it has very little fungal damage.

So I think at this point, we could draw the conclusion that mulch and fungicide help with tomato blight.

[upbeat country music] - Let's talk about chrysanthemums 'cause that time it's almost near, right?

- Yes.

- Okay.

- September.

Perfect time to get chrysanthemums.

Now they'll be showing up in all the stores and everywhere.

All different colors.

They have done an excellent job of creating all of these different colors for us to have beauty at our own house.

Decorate for fall decorations, everything.

And this is one the thing you have to, if you see something in September blooming and it's beautiful and you wanna bring it home, that's great.

It'll last about two to three weeks depending on the weather.

The cooler it is, the longer the blooms will last.

- Okay.

- But that was an early-blooming mum.

Yeah.

There's early, mid, and late-blooming mums.

That's why when you see, well, I see them at the stores all the time, well, yeah, when they get them in, they have early-blooming mums.

There's midseason-blooming mums and there's late season-blooming mums.

But just okay, you can go find another one and replace it.

So that's the beauty of the long season of mums because we have those three different kinds.

Now a lot of people ask will the mums last?

- Will they last?

That's gonna be the question.

- Yes, because chrysanthemums are perennial and they all came from perennial mums, but they've been hybridized so much.

And the florist trade has really taken on mums and there are a lot of florist mums in the trade, meaning you get a flower arrangement from any place and they've got mums in them.

So those are grown for different reasons.

And they were all perennial at one time and they probably still are in certain places.

Now the garden mums you get at the store, they can be perennial, but they're usually zones, what, two to nine?

Somewhere in there.

So those people can usually keep them if they have the right spot.

And that's the problem, finding the right spot.

Now I have kept them before and they'll stay for a few years, but then something will happen and some of them will go.

A lot of people I know will have them, but they're usually in raised areas.

They're well drained 'cause they don't like to have wet roots at all.

And that's kind of the trouble in the Mid-South area that we have 'cause there it's so wet around here in the winter.

- Especially that time of the year.

Right.

- Rainy season for us.

So that's the key, is to keep them well drained in the wintertime and then most likely they will come back.

One thing to not do if you are going to try to make them perennial in your yard, please, when they die in the cool of the frosts that come, leave the foliage there because that's gonna protect the crown.

And you're really supposed to leave the dead foliage.

Sometimes in some places further north from here, they even suggest putting straw around the crown in amongst the stems of chrysanthemums for protection or some mulch of some kind that's loose.

And then in the spring, you can remove all of that and then they should come back up again and you should fertilize them in the spring.

- And what would you use the fertilizer?

- A complete fertilizer, any kind of complete fertilizer.

You can do a long-lasting one or one that doesn't last long.

Sometimes they'll fertilize them again in the end of June.

Now some people say, well, mine are starting to bloom.

Yeah, wat happens is they'll start to bloom maybe in July.

- Oh really?

- Yeah, or August, and so- - In the heat?

- In the heat.

But if you don't prune them before that, if you go ahead and start letting them bloom, just go ahead and let them bloom.

They may bloom again in the fall when it gets cooler, 'cause some of them are actually bred to bloom twice like that.

So you never know.

But if you only want the nice fall flush of bloom, then you should cut them before the 4th of July.

- Cut them before.

- Yeah.

Cut them back before the 4th of July.

And then when they come back out, they'll have time and then they'll bloom in the fall just once.

- Okay.

- But yeah, so they are perennial, but sometimes, around here especially, it's kind of tricky to keep them.

But well-drained soils is key.

- Okay.

Fertilize, okay.

- We fertilize in the spring and sometimes again in July, end of July, and then get a nice flush of blooms in the fall.

- Okay.

So how much are we cutting back?

- Just enough to cut off the top where the blooms are trying to form.

Just the tips.

- Just the tips.

- And most of these are bred to be nice and bushy like they are.

So you really don't have to do a whole lot.

Mine just naturally grow bushy, just like they were when I got them the year before.

But yeah, just tip off all of the blooms where the blooms would be and that will cause them to stop and regrow again and then bloom later in the fall.

- Okay, any pest problems we need to know about or fungal issues?

- No, I've never seen fungal problems with them, but that doesn't mean they won't get some, but bugs sometimes do chew on the leaves.

And a lot of times, I've seen that it might actually be a caterpillar of some kind.

- Right.

- And so Bt would help that.

But you just look at them often.

But chrysanthemums, the chemical pyrethrin comes from chrysanthemums.

So really not a whole lot bothers them.

- Right, yeah.

And of course, Mr. D mentions that all the time.

Right.

Yeah.

So they shouldn't have any major problem.

- No, they really don't have.

I've never had any on mine, so... - Okay.

- They're real good and they're easy to grow.

Like I said, you take a chance.

Buy the beautiful ones that you want in the fall, try to save them, put them in a nice, well drained area, mulch them up in the winter, see if they'll come back for you.

- And I guess full sun?

- They love full sun.

Yeah, I'd say at least four to six hours of sun a day would be good for them because I've had them on one side of the house and my mother has them on one side of the house and it doesn't get sun all day long, but part of the day.

- I actually have another question for you.

So when you're out picking mums for your home, do you look for the ones that have all of the blooms on them?

Or that are open or closed or what?

- That's a good point, yes.

No, I like to buy them with lots of buds on them.

I wanna be able to see the color.

Some of them are breaking and some of them are blooming.

So I know what it's gonna look like.

But I like to buy lots of buds 'cause I know it'll last in the landscape a lot longer.

- Okay.

Yeah, I've often wondered that 'cause of course when you see them out the big box stores and some other place, they're full of blooms and some are not.

Just have a little buds on them.

When you get the early ones, Mr. D, there's some more coming behind that one.

- There's a lot.

- Coming behind that one.

- That's right.

- Gotcha.

- Because they are beautiful.

- Gorgeous.

- Especially during the fall you can decorate with them.

I actually try to have some out in the yard so that...

I do like them but I didn't know about the early, middle and the late.

That was new to me, so I hope the folks got that.

- Yes.

- Okay.

Well thank you, Joellen.

That was good.

- You're welcome.

- Appreciate that.

[gentle country music] Let's take a look at this bell pepper plant.

If you look at the fruit of this plant, this bell pepper, it has this strange looking tanish pattern to it.

And if you notice, it's just on the skin.

I didn't know at first what could have caused this damage.

But as I started thinking about it, mites came to mind.

So mites have piercing-sucking mouthparts.

I think what happened is when this bell pepper was young and developing, those mites attacked this bell pepper and they injected their saliva into the skin causing this tanish, russet appearance on this bell pepper.

But here's the thing.

It doesn't affect the inside of the fruit itself of the bell pepper.

So what you can do is actually just scrape this russet appearance off, and the fruit is actually good.

Although this russet appearance may not look attractive to you, what you can do, just cut it open.

As you can see, it is edible.

You can eat it.

[upbeat country music] All right.

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

You ready?

- Yes, sir.

- These are some great questions.

- Yes, sir.

- Here's our first viewer email.

Good question, right?

"Why is there a maximum number of applications that can be made per year with an insecticide?"

And this is Michael from Lake Jackson, Texas.

He also wants to know "how he can keep his fruit protected over the 100 days it takes to ripen with only a maximum of four applications."

Specific.

Right?

- He can't.

- He can't.

- He probably can't.

- Yeah.

- I made 15 applications on my fruit trees this year, and I haven't sprayed in the month of August.

I finished my cover sprays in July, last week of July, and it took me 15.

But you can mix up your chemistry.

You don't have to use the same product all the time.

And there are different fungicides and there are different insecticides out there.

So that's the way you do it.

The reason that there are a maximum number of fungicide and insecticide applications is because of there's a couple reasons.

The main reason is because the residues.

You don't want to build up too much residue.

And with herbicides, you can actually build up residue on the ground and you may actually create problems next year on what you plant.

- That's good.

- But with the insecticides and fungicides, mainly residues, also resistance issues.

- Yeah.

That's the first thing I thought about.

- If you use the same thing over and over again, you are creating resistance to both insects and diseases.

- Yeah.

- So just mix it up.

There's several different products out there that will control the same diseases and insects and just kind of mix it up.

Mix it up so that you don't get in trouble, you know?

- Yeah.

Do some research.

Look at those modes of actions.

- That's right.

- Mix it up.

- That's right.

- Thank you for that question.

It's a good question.

- It is a good question.

- Appreciate that question.

Here's our next viewer email.

"My grapevine seems to have black rot.

"What should I do?

Can it be saved?"

And this is Zoltan from Morehead, Kentucky for the old black rot, which is a devastating disease of grape.

I learned that from you.

- It is devastating.

And it has a really, really pretty copper-colored spot.

- It does.

- And it really makes that grape look...

It shrivels up black and dies.

- Yeah.

- But yeah, you can control it.

There are a couple of fungicides.

You need to put it on a spray program.

Mancozeb is one, and then myclobutanil, which is Immunox.

- Yeah.

- I don't know that it has another trade name.

Those two products, you can alternate those.

Use them up until the maximum number of applications per year.

But they will control black rot.

- How early would you spray?

- I would start spraying at bloom.

- Ah, bloom.

Okay.

- Yeah.

Early, bud break.

And it's gonna be your first application.

- Yeah.

Usually when we have a wet spring you're gonna have problems with black rot for the most part.

- Yep.

- I think it's tough.

Practice good sanitation too.

Practice good sanitation.

And there may be some resistant cultivars out there.

I'll research that as well.

- Look for that.

- Okay.

Appreciate that question, Zoltan.

All right.

Here's our next viewer email.

"I have many spots on my peach leaves.

What is it and how do I take care of it?"

And this is Jay from New Market, Maryland.

So what do you think about the spots on those peach leaves?

And thank you for the picture.

It's a good picture.

- Yeah, looking at that, Entomosporium leaf spot is what I think it is.

Entomosporium leaf spot, which is a common leaf spot disease, which gets on the ornamentals and gets on Photinia.

- Yeah, it does.

- It gets on a lot of plants and it can be controlled with fungicides.

I don't think copper is probably the best one.

- Right, 'cause he's tried the copper fungicide.

It's not getting better.

The trees are two years old.

Should he get rid of them you think, or just start over?

- No, no, I think if he goes with chlorothalonil, Immunox, propiconazole, tebuconazole, those are all fungicides that are recommended to control Entomosporium, control that leaf spot disease.

And if they're only two years old, they're not fruiting.

So they're not fruiting.

- Yeah, and I'll definitely practice good sanitation if those leaves are on the ground.

- Yeah, but he's eventually gonna have to go with a...

If they're peaches, he's gonna have to go with a cover spray, and it won't be copper.

It'll be... And whatever cover spray he goes with, it's gonna take care of all, pretty much all of the leaf spot diseases.

And if he's gonna...

If he wants fruit, he's gonna have to go with that cover spray and that'll take care of that.

- That'll take care of it?

Yeah, you used to always say, well, peaches, plums and nectarines.

- You gotta either spray or buy them from the local market.

- Or buy them from the local market.

- That's right.

- All right, Jay, appreciate that question and the picture.

Thank you much.

Here's our next viewer email.

"What kind of tree is this?

"It produces hard green berries, but no flowers that I see.

It also sends out suckers everywhere."

And this is Jessie from West Tennessee.

"What can I do to control the suckers?"

is an additional question.

So what kind of tree you think that is?

- Black Tupelo.

- Okay.

- Black gum is another common name.

Sour gum is a common name for it.

I think it's a Tupelo, very common in our area.

She's from West Tennessee.

That's where we are here today.

And very, very common in this area.

Controlling the suckers is different.

- That's gonna be tough, yeah.

- If... Herbicides are like fungicides and there are contact herbicides and there are systemic herbicides.

You don't wanna spray a systemic herbicide on a sucker, a true sucker, unless you want to kill the whole plant, when you take a chance of killing the whole plant.

There are very few contact herbicides that are labeled for home use that I know of.

If this is not in a home situation, it's a farm situation, you can spray it with Gramoxone or Glufosinate, those kind of are contact herbicides.

Glyphosate is a systemic and that's Roundup and the generics.

And if these suckers are coming up from seeds, those little berries that fell down on the ground, then you can use a systemic and take them out.

But otherwise, mechanical.

Weed eater.

Weed eater with a blade if they're too tough for the weed eater to take them out or pruning sheers and things like that.

Mechanical removal is... - And you probably have to do a lot of that, yeah.

- Probably a lot of it.

- Have to do a lot of that.

- But I mean, I got a blade on my weed eater.

I can cover some ground.

I can cover some ground and you don't have to do it every week.

Maybe once a month even.

If it's just one tree, shouldn't be that big an issue to mechanically remove 'em.

- Right, yeah, I would definitely suggest that than using a herbicide.

For sure.

- Get a blade on a weed eater, and that'll do the trick.

- All right, Jesse, thank you for the picture and the question.

Yeah.

Blade will do the trick, right?

- That's right.

- All right.

Thank you, Mr. D. It's fun.

Fun as always.

Appreciate that.

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 Farm 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 see how to mix up and apply some of the insecticides Mike talked about, head on over to FamilyPlotGarden.com.

While you're there, you can learn about tons of other gardening topics.

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

Be safe.

[upbeat country music] [acoustic guitar chords]