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

I'm Chris Cooper.

Want to ward off evil or discover if your love will be a good partner?

We'll tell you which plants you can use.

Also, it's close to the end of the growing season and time to clean out the garden.

That's just ahead on The Family Plot: Gardening in the Mid-South.

- (female narrator) 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 Dr. Kelly.

Dr. Kelly's a horticulture expert.

And Mr. D. is here.

- Howdy.

- All right, this is gonna be fun.

- Yeah, buddy.

- All right, this is Halloween season, Dr. Kelly.

- Uh-huh.

- Plant superstitions.

- Yeah, kinda creepy.

- Ward off evil spirits and things like that.

- Yeah, yeah, we're gonna talk about all that stuff.

So want me start with warding off evil?

- Let's start it.

- Okie dokie.

- All right, let's do it.

- Well, according to legends and superstitions, and I wanna make sure that everybody understands this is not research-based information.

This is just purely entertainment purposes only.

So y'all don't, you know, take any of this to heart.

But it's just fun.

- It's fun.

- It's fun.

- It's fun.

- And plants through the ages have really played into a lot of our religious ceremonies and rites, so there's a lot of interesting, weird stuff about plants out there.

And one of the main things that plants are used for and were used for long, long ago, maybe still used today, I don't know, at this time a year when the spirits are out, is to ward off evil.

Of course, garlic is well-known, you know, to take care of the vampires, and I don't know, all these other demons and things that are roaming the Earth.

So you hang that out around your door.

And then fennel actually is another one that long ago people would put it outside their houses and would stick the seeds in the keyholes to, you know, that's how the spirits get in.

From the keyholes.

So they would stick the seed in there to keep the bad magic away and the black magic and stuff.

And it's kind of interesting, though, because now we know fennel has some really good health properties to kinda help maybe boost our immune system.

So actually, we need to be eating this stuff instead of sticking it in keyholes, to boost our immune system up so we can better ward off the boogers when they come, so.

[laughter] And there's a lot of other plants that were used to ward off evil, but we'll move on to one that is supposed to help you determine whether your partner is worthy.

- Yeah, let's see about this one.

- Yeah, your romantic partner.

And this one, in particular, I think is kinda interesting.

Because it kinda takes the negative instead of the positive.

So what you do, and everybody knows what basil is.

Very common, number one selling herb, you know.

So what you need to do if you have a prospective romantic person that you're interested in, you need to slip him or her a sprig of basil.

- (Chris) Ah, sprig of basil.

- And if it dies or wilts, that's a really good indication that they are impure.

- Of course, it could be good or bad.

[laughter] Depending on what you want, right?

- And unworthy.

- Unworthy.

- Unworthy.

Yeah, I like that.

Unworthy and impure.

So yeah, well, maybe you were looking for somebody impure.

So that would be a good test if you're looking for that kinda stuff.

Okay, let's talk about how witches are able to fly.

You ever wonder that?

- Okay.

- Well, I'm gonna tell you how to do it.

You take some foxglove, and then you get some lard, animal fat.

You make a big balm out of it, you know, like an ointment.

And you rub, the witches would rub that all over 'em, rub it in their broomstick, and they could fly.

- (Chris) And they could fly.

- Yeah, so I don't know whether I'd trust that, though, get up on the roof with my broomstick, and jump off, and I'm covered with lard and foxglove, which you know is a poison, so.

- It's a poison, right.

- (Mr. D.) Set it on fire maybe.

- Yeah, maybe that would work.

So when the new world was discovered, it opened up a lot of new plants for Europeans.

And they didn't quite know what to make of some of these things.

And see, they'd never seen potatoes.

So, Irish potatoes.

So, and the thing that bothered Europeans about the Irish potatoes was that they grew underground.

So they were considered to be the Devil's food.

- (Chris) Devil's food, how about that.

- So they still liked potatoes.

So what they had to do to ward off the Devil, was to plant 'em on Good Friday, and then water 'em with holy water.

And then you could eat 'em, and the Devil wouldn't get ya.

So-- - And then you could eat 'em.

- That makes total sense me.

- You're right, there you go, Mr. D. - Still has too many carbs.

[Chris laughing] - Yep, exactly.

Well, there's two interesting things I really wanna talk about.

And one of them is pretty serious, and that was the Salem Witch Trials back in 1691.

- (Chris) Remember hearing about those.

- Long, long time ago.

And people have often wondered, what in the world got into those young women, those eight young women, that made them think that they were possessed by demons?

And that they had been bewitched?

And so, now, researchers think that have found a plausible explanation as to what caused that.

And there is a, there's a fungus that can infect rye.

And rye was known to be grown by the early settlers as a grain for making a bread and whatever.

And we know that this fungus is called ergot.

And it's still around today.

There are no resistant strands of rye.

And, but to keep these spores that go through the whole process and wind up in whatever product, this causes people to have hallucinations, seizures, and to feel like stuff is crawling on their skin.

So the conditions for this ergo, ergot, to contaminate a rye crop is wet weather.

And they've gone back through the historical records and found out that that winter was a particularly wet winter in Salem.

And this was, people in Europe were just finding out that this was the association of this contamination of rye, caused this, this, so much of these symptoms.

But it never got to the colonies apparently in time.

So it was, they think, that that's a real plausible explanation for what made these girls have all these weird symptoms.

And they think that was it because it came and went so quickly, and that there was a wet winter, and the symptoms very much mimicked the symptoms of what can happen when you eat this contaminated grain.

So rye growers now prevent that very easily by just washing the grain in salt water so it kills the fungus.

Isn't that crazy?

- Salt water.

- Absolutely crazy.

Okay, the next one I wanna talk about is you ever wondered how the legend of vampires got started?

Huh, you ever wondered that?

- (Mr. D.) I have.

- Okay, good, that was the answer I was looking for.

[laughter] So, [laughing] the thing about it is, you have all of these symptoms of people who are supposed to be vampires.

And when you go back to eastern Europe, and you think about when this kinda started.

Bram Stoker's novel, Dracula, kinda brought it all to a head.

Because he took the symptoms of a known disease that was ravaging eastern Europe at that time.

And it is a disease called pellagra.

- (Chris) Pellagra.

- Pellagra.

And it's really, really interesting because the nother, from the New World, corn.

Corn was, of course, discovered with the Native Americans.

And the South Americans used corn as a staple.

But what they did to prevent the pellagra, which happens if you just have corn as your main diet.

Niacin is not available in corn at all.

So if you just live on corn, which is a big grain crop, you can develop this disease called pellagra, which is a vitamin deficiency of niacin.

Well, the symptoms of pellagra are just really bizarre.

Because it gives you this real pale pallor, you're sensitive to light, it makes you photosensitive.

And when you get out in the light, it causes blisters.

- (Mr. D.) Does it make you wanna bite people?

- It does, it does, you're right.

It makes, one of the things is dementia-- - Dementia.

- Yeah, dementia.

And aggressiveness.

Yeah, just being real irritable and ill. And these people would only get around at night.

And they'd be real mean, and they were real pale.

And also, one of the other symptoms in dogs, is called black tongue.

And you can get ulcers in your mouth.

And you don't wanna eat because of all these ulcers.

And they bleed, and then you get this crust of red, you know, blood around your mouth.

So people were saying, "Well, they've been sucking blood."

And actually, one of the symptoms is you don't wanna eat, but you want to suck things, and you want to eat weird food, like bugs and vermin.

I mean, it's just really a bizarre disease.

- This is fun.

Halloween stuff, huh?

- Yeah.

- Where's the Stevie Wonder music when you need it?

Very superstitious.

[laughter] Thank you, Dr. Kelly, appreciate that.

- (Dr. Kelly) Mm-hmm.

[upbeat country music] - I get a lot of questions about lichen.

"Is it gonna kill the tree?"

No, lichen will not kill the tree.

Lichen is a fungus actually, and it lives in a symbiotic relationship with algae or a cyanobacterium, and they kinda work together.

It grows on the tree.

Some people say it grows on the north side of the tree, but we got it growing on the north, south, east and west of this tree.

It's really spreading out on it here.

It's not gonna kill tree, however, it's gonna usually grow on a tree that is in a weakened state.

And this tree has a little bit of, not very much soil space.

Note this watersprout that's coming up on the base down here.

That's an indicator that this tree is under stress.

When a tree puts out this secondary growth it's telling itself, "I need some water, I need some sunshine, I need some growth."

And it pushes out otherwise dormant growth, and it's a fighting chance to gain more sunlight, produce more energy for itself.

But lichen, symbiotic with the algae and the cyanobacterium.

[upbeat country music] All right, Mr. D. Garden cleanup, what do we need to know?

That time is here.

- So you want me to follow... [laughter] This with garden cleanup.

- With garden cleanup.

[laughing] Well, maybe you can get the gnomes to help you clean up, right?

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

- Ward off evil.

- That's the first thing I would do, have a gnome out there and count on it, let it do what'll it do.

- (Dr. Kelly) At night, yeah.

- So what it does.

Okay, I don't know, I don't know.

With garden cleanup, use a lot of common sense, I guess is one of the things that is really, really, important.

Let the gnomes do what they will do.

Let Mother Nature help you out a little bit.

Try to determ, first thing I would probably do is if you have any diseased plants that the gnomes left, or any rot, you know, plants that died because of fungal infections or something like that, get them out of there.

And you can either put put 'em in your trash to go off to a landfill somewhere, or if you've got a burn pit, you can burn 'em, you know, destroy them.

Do not put them in your compost pit.

The healthy plants that you've got, you can compost them.

All the annuals, the tomato plants, the things like that were healthy, you can put into a compost.

Cornstalks, just anything that's left out there, get it off.

if your plants are small enough, use your mower to mulch them.

You don't really have to get it off the garden site.

You can mulch and have it ready to incorporate into the soil next spring when you get out there and till it.

But as much as you can leave, the more that you can leave there, the better off you are.

We learned that in farming, when the more you take off of a field, the more fertilizer you have to have, because there are nutrients in the plant material.

If you have, oh, any inorganic material out there, stakes and black plastic, and things like that, of course, get that outta there, especially before you run over it with your mower, because that can create ya some problems.

If you have a young trees and things like that, you can try to protect them from voles and things like that.

That kinda gets up more into winterizing and things.

But you can sun scald, you can paint the lower trunk, the lower limbs, with white latex paint to prevent sun scald if it's gonna be a problem, and things like that.

You can, if you have anything you wanna protect, you can also use hardware cloth or tree guards and things like that to help protect from voles and deer and things like that.

You know, it's a pretty good idea, and not a bad idea to go with a cover crop, too, if you want to.

I mean, you're gonna have a cover crop there pretty quick, just the winter weeds.

They're gonna come in, and they're gonna provide a natural cover crop for you pretty quick.

But if you want to go with a clover or rye grass or something like that, that's not a bad idea to have.

- Vetch as well.

I know a lot of gardeners, the hairy vetch, they put out as a crop cover.

Okay.

- That's pretty much it.

It helps you get you ready for the springtime.

Of course, by all means, soil test.

Now is a good time to add lime.

Go ahead, and get your soil test.

And if you need to add lime, now is the time to do that.

- I know a lot of older folks always throw their rows up in the Fall.

- (Mr. D.) Throw them up.

- So mound their rows up.

And so, then the Spring, which is typically can be really, really wet, they can get in there and go ahead and plant.

Because actually what's you've got almost raised beds.

So I've heard a lot of, I mean, my parents and grandparents always did that.

They'd throw their row, what they call throw their rows up in the Fall so they could get into the garden early.

Now, that doesn't take care of your winter weeds and stuff, but they just plant their cabbage or whatever right in amongst, I guess the winter weeds.

- Well, up on top of those rows, it dries down faster.

- (Dr. Kelly) That's exactly right.

- And it warms up quicker.

So a little bit warmer.

- (Chris) Like a raised bed.

- (Dr. Kelly) That's right.

- You can get out there a little quicker if you do that.

- So how high are we talking about this, people throw their rows up?

- Well, I'd say you know, about eight inches.

Whatever, when you have a little tiller with a fur on it, a little plow on it.

Whatever, you know, some people use tractors.

Yeah, M-hmm.

- And this is also a good time in the Fall, of course, the leaves are dropping off the trees and whatever.

And I used to tell folks, instead of just raking them up and putting them on the curb, run over 'em with a lawn mower.

- Mulch 'em up.

Leave 'em there.

- Do what nature does, but just do it a little faster.

- Right, 'cause I was surprised at how many people would just bag 'em up and put 'em on the side of the road.

- I know, I know.

- On the curb.

- One of the best inventions they ever did was making a mulching blade on your lawn mower.

- It's just nutrient recycling.

It makes sense.

- Yeah, it does.

You're putting it right back in the soil.

- (Mr. D.) And it's neater when you're mowing your yard.

You don't have to-- - Yeah, exactly.

- It's easier, you're done when you get done.

- Yep, no raking, no more raking.

- No more raking, right, no more raking.

- A good thing.

- A good thing, right.

Appreciate that Mr. D. Yeah, hopefully, those garden gnomes can help out, too.

- There you are.

- Thank you much.

[cheerful country music] - It's important to know about proper timing to pick peppers.

Peppers are very strongly attached to a plant, and if you just try to pull the pepper off, you're gonna break the branches.

So I use pruning shears.

Pruning shears, scissors, or a good, sharp knife if you're very careful, will do a really good job.

'Kay, I'm gonna pull the, there's one on this plant that is clearly ready to be harvested.

We have a red one down here.

The sweetest bell peppers are red.

The green bell peppers are the least sweet bell peppers.

They're all good, depending on how you like bell peppers.

Leave a little bit of stem on that one.

This pepper is ready, it's sweet.

It still has a little bit of green left.

I could've left it another day or two.

That would be okay.

So this is the sweetest pepper on this plant.

Moving on down, these are beginning to turn a little bit yellow.

I'm gonna come on down and, it's reached full size.

It's not completely red, but it's next sweetest.

Peppers are like tomatoes.

If you have cold weather coming or frost coming, I would pick all of the big peppers off of this plant because they will continue to ripen inside.

They won't be quite as good as if they ripen on the plant or sweeter if it's ripened on the vine, but it's still a really good product.

[cheerful country music] - All right, here's our Q & A session.

Y'all ready?

- Yep.

- These are good questions.

All right, here's our first for your email.

"What herbs can be grown year-round indoors on a window sill?"

And this is from Lily in Nashville.

- (Dr. Kelly) Okay.

- (Mr. D) That'd be basil.

[laughter] - Yeah, yeah, exactly, basil, Well, actually, you're only limited by the availability of light.

You need a really good south-facing window, or you need to put some lights or something so that you can get some really, you know, strong sunlight-- - And how much light are we talking about?

- Well, we're talking about a lot.

[laughing] A south-facing unobstructed window or even a west window, or like I say, you could put it in an area that has bright, incandescent or fluorescent lights.

But basil will grow, I like the chives.

- (Chris) Oregano.

- Yeah, parsley.

- (Chris) Parsley.

- I mean, there's-- - (Chris) Mints.

- You can grow any of 'em.

Yeah, you really can.

And the problem with the light is if you don't have good light, they're gonna stretch.

But hey, you know, that's okay.

Just keep chopping 'em off and using 'em.

- And make sure you have well-drained soil-- - Well, true, yes.

M-hmm.

- Right, 'cause it has to be well draining for sure.

- Yeah.

- All right, so there you have it, Lily.

So you have a lot of options there, right?

- Yeah.

- A lot of options, all right.

Including the basil.

- Exactly.

[laughing] - All right, here's our next viewer email.

"What is causing these nasty-looking circles "on my tomatoes?

They start when the fruit is green and get worse."

And this is from Phyllis, Rosemark.

And I actually met Miss Phyllis and her husband at Rosemark Country Fair.

And I told her to send us a question, and she did.

So thank you, Miss Phyllis.

- There she goes.

We need to be really on our toes.

- We gotta be on our toes.

So here ya go, Miss Phyllis.

All right, so, what do we think that is?

- You wanna go?

- You go.

- No.

[laughs] All right.

- Well, according to my research, there's so many things that can happen with tomatoes, that can go wrong.

Even though they're the most popular, probably vegetable crop we grow for a home gardener, there's all kinda things that can go wrong.

And a lot of 'em, we can't control.

And this, I think, is one of those things.

It's an environmental disorder that is brought on by availability of water or non-availability of water that can cause these cracking and rough spots on the fruit, so.

- Specifically, it's called cuticle cracking.

Cuticle cracking.

- So the cuticle cracks, yes.

And it makes this, but there's nothing wrong with the tomato.

You just peel it off and eat it, so.

- That's what I, I did a little bit of research.

And growth cracks is another thing I've seen it called.

But Judy Sedbrook, Colorado State University, had kind of an interesting comment about it.

She said the tomato is growing so fast, it split its pants.

[laughter] But especially after a dry period, you get excess moisture.

Or if you're not watering enough, and you finally remembered you're not watering enough, then you go out there and water it.

And it's a a physiological problem, abiotic problem.

Unfortunately, it can be little bitty shallow cracks, or it can be deeper cracks.

And if they're deeper cracks, sometimes you can get some other secondary problems.

- (Dr. Kelly) Fungus gets in there.

- Which you have to go with the fungicides then.

Inconsistent watering.

- You know, the fruit is still edible.

And that one that she sent the picture of, I'd just peel that stuff off.

'Cause it's not, it's only on the epidermis.

It's not down in, unless it's a deep crack, like you said.

Then it can be other pathogens in there causing some problems, but.

- Or you may have to go with a different variety.

I mean, of course, your heirloom tomatoes have thinner skin.

- Yeah, so they'd be more susceptible.

- And you have ones that have thicker.

So they'd be more susceptible.

- But it's nothing you did.

- But it's nothing you did, Miss.

Phyllis.

Nothing you did.

- So, yeah.

That's a good point.

- So thank you for that question, Miss Phyllis.

All right, here's our next email.

"There is a lot of crop dusting by my house.

"I will like to have bees and lots of flowers "so I can help our flying friends.

"I don't know what they are spraying.

"If I plant flowers by a crop-dusted field, "will I be planting a death sentence to our flying insect friends?"

And this is from Jennifer in Bells, Tennessee.

All right, interesting question, though.

- Yeah, a lot of people are worried about that.

Contamination of crop dusting.

- With good reasons.

- Yeah, and sometimes for good reason, because you can have contamination.

It's been known to happen.

But pretty unlikely because-- - It's all communication.

I would, I would go talk to my farmer neighbors and find out what they're using.

Let them know, if you have bees, if she wants to have bees, and I assume she's talking about a beehive or something like that, be sure that she lets her farmer neighbors know that she has bees.

Because then they will let her know, I think they will let her know if they're gonna be spraying something that can likely be a problem.

But just because they're spraying a field, crop-dusting, just because they're spraying a field, it doesn't mean that they're using insecticides.

It doesn't mean they're using an herbicide.

It could be a fungicide.

And it's very likely a fungicide.

There are a lot of fungicides used to prevent diseases in crops that probably wouldn't be a problem on flowers.

It might even help.

- It would be interesting to know what crops they're growing, whether it's cotton or corn or soybeans or whatever, you know.

- Okay, but-- - 'Cause now they're putting defoliants on cotton.

So I noticed some crop planes doing the defoliant this time a year on cotton-- - (Chris) I would be interested to know that.

- But if you had drift from defoliant, that could create, that could make your plants sick, but it's not gonna make the birds sick.

- (Dr. Kelly) No, it's gonna be more a plant problem.

- It could make your, defoliate your flowers.

- But you're right, she just needs to communicate.

- Communication is very important.

- Good neighbors.

- Yeah, talk to 'em, get to meet 'em.

- Yep, be a good neighbor.

- That's a good point.

All right, so there you have it.

Jennifer, we appreciate the question.

Yeah, talk to your neighbors.

Get to know your neighbors and see what they're spraying.

Right?

- (Dr. Kelly) Yeah.

- First approach.

So Mr. D., Dr. Kelly, it's been fun.

[laughter] - We're done?

- We're done.

- We're just getting primed.

We need some more questions.

- We are done.

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 we all have time for today.

Thanks for joining us.

Did you miss a show and want to catch up?

Everything we do is online at FamilyPlotGarden.com Go watch what you missed.

We also have several videos each week that are only available online.

Go check it out.

I'm Chris Cooper.

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

Be safe.

[upbeat country music] [acoustic guitar chords]