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

I'm Chris Cooper.

A few weeks ago we show how to lay down several types of organic mulch.

Today we will be planting vegetables in that mulch.

Also, we'll be talking about how to grow organically.

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 Peter Richards.

Peter is our local gardener.

- Hey.

- Good to see you, Peter.

- Yeah, good to see you too.

- All right, so last time we planted in sheet mulch.

- Right.

- This time we're gonna plant in organic mulch.

- Right.

These are organic mulches.

So it's, you know, you're still gonna plant it.

- Okay.

- The same way we're gonna plant, we have a row of flowers, a row that has a tomato plant and two peppers, and a row that has beans and watermelons.

- Got it.

- But with this, it's a different process.

So, we're gonna start out, we're gonna plant our tomato plant first.

- All right.

- So, we're gonna plant it right here.

And this is a technique I learned from Joellen.

- Okay.

Yeah.

[laughs] - You know?

But- - Which does work.

- Yep.

But we just gonna move the mulch outta the way.

- Okay.

- Dig a hole.

- All right.

So, do we need to look for the irrigation line?

- Here we- - Do you see?

- Our irrigation line's right here.

- Okay, good.

- With the sheet mulch, it was an issue because we were using a knife or a flame to cut through the mulch.

- Yeah.

- And so, we didn't wanna cut our irrigation line.

This is a little less of a big deal.

Like, this isn't gonna break the irrigation line.

So anyway, and when I scoot it apart, I'm gonna be able to see it anyway.

So, let's go ahead and dig our hole right here and grab a tomato plant.

- Right.

- So, yep, these are determinate plants.

They're Better Bush.

We picked determinate because we have a smaller space to grow in here.

- Okay.

- So, we're gonna go ahead.

I'm going to plant this a little deeper than the pot because all the little hairs on the side of a tomato, those all turn into roots if they're below the soil.

So, gonna do that now.

- Go like this?

- Yep.

Let's go ahead and push the mulch up around it.

- Okay.

- Now, if you notice, the tomato plant looks a little buried.

It'll grow through it.

- Yeah, it will.

- It's fine.

And then, also later on this season, we'll, you know, once the tomato plant's a foot taller, so then we can put more mulch up against it.

It's not gonna be that big of a deal.

But one of the great things about all of these mulches is that they're gonna help keep the soil from splashing up on the tomato plant when it rains.

So, hopefully they're really gonna cut down on our fungus problems.

- Yeah.

- On tomato plants, which is a huge problem around here.

- It's a huge problem.

Blight, you know?

- Yep.

- They're one of the major diseases of tomatoes.

- Yep.

- It'll be interesting to see.

- Yep, so let's go down here and we're gonna go ahead and plant our peppers.

- Okay.

- So same thing, we'll just, we'll plant one there and we'll plant one here.

- Right.

- We're gonna plant these a little closer together 'cause they're not gonna grow as big.

So, we'll just, just go ahead and put this one in.

Now these, we wanna plant at the same level that they were in the pot.

- Got it.

- So, let's do that.

And then same thing, we just kinda push the mulch up around it.

- Yeah.

- These are smaller, so we're gonna have to leave a little bigger of a hole.

- Yeah, just a little bit.

- We'll just put it in.

Okay.

[mulch rustling] We now need to do our plants that are seeds.

So, these are gonna be a little bit different because we're going to have to create, you know, we have to bury 'em in a trench.

- Okay.

- They're seeds.

So, we can't put 'em, put the mulch over.

We're gonna have to leave the mulch open until they start growing and then we can push the mulch up.

- Got it.

Got it.

- So, we're gonna put our watermelons here against the... Let's see, let's do a little bit better job with the mulch there.

- Yeah.

- We're gonna do our watermelons against the center here.

Reason being that if we do it against the center, then they can run into our pathways.

So, they have a little bit more space to run.

And also, I'm wearing gloves.

I noticed this 'cause I have to do some fine dexterity work here.

But when you're dealing with these organic mulches, that's gonna get pretty pokey.

- Yes it is.

- And where you think, oh, well, it's just pine needles.

Yeah, but when you handle it for a while, it's gonna tear your hands up a little bit.

- Sure will.

- But at the same time it tears your hands up, but it also does the same to a lot of insects, especially slugs and snails.

- Slugs and snails.

- So, this bed, I will just tell you right now, this bed will be slug and snail free.

[Chris laughs] Because any slug and snail that tries to come in here is gonna get torn up by the- - Yeah.

- Little spines on the- - They will not wanna come across this.

- No, no.

- Yeah.

- Now, we're leaving this open.

- Oh, leave it open.

All right.

- So they can germinate and we can see what's going on.

- Okay.

- Once they come up, then we'll go ahead and push the mulch up around them.

- Got it.

- Now, the beans here.

- You're still doing two rows, right?

- Yep.

We're going to do two rows of beans.

And I'm gonna kinda be a little lazy here and I'm going to go ahead and just clear the whole area as opposed to trying to clear two narrow rows in this.

- Okay.

[mulch rustling] - So, once again though, once they sprout, we'll pull the mulch back up.

- Got it, yeah.

- Just drag a line here.

- Okay.

I'll give you those back.

- Okay.

If you wouldn't mind covering those up for me?

- Yeah, I will.

- All right.

- Okay.

And we got the irrigation going right down the middle of it.

Keep 'em watered.

Okay.

So, we're done here in this area and we're going to go ahead and move on to the shredded mulch.

This is gonna be a lot the same as that.

We're just gonna pull the mulch apart.

We're gonna plant through in the holes.

- Okay.

- And cover it up as best we can with the seeds we can.

- Got it.

- So- - Got it.

- Let's go ahead and do that.

- And the thing about the shredded bark mulch, you know, a lot of homeowners use this kind of mulch.

Yeah, so definitely wanna see what's gonna happen here.

- Let's move on here.

- Uh-huh.

- To the cardboard.

- Aah.

- So, this is definitely a different kind of mulch.

- It's gonna be different.

- Yep.

So, we've got some dirt on it.

That is gonna hold it down when the wind blows.

We also have some cinder blocks.

So, two different ways that you can hold it down.

- Okay.

- With this, we're gonna go ahead, we're gonna put our tomato over there.

We're gonna put our two peppers over here.

- Okay.

- But I'm gonna have to cut through it.

- Ah.

- Now, in the middle here, we have two layers.

- Okay.

- Of cardboard 'cause they overlap a little bit but... [cardboard rustling] This is gonna be- - You're using the cross?

- I'm still using the cross.

I'm probably gonna do a little more of it.

- Cut it up.

- Diamondy circle.

[cardboard rustling] Diamond circle, something along those lines.

And I got through one of them.

- That's good.

That's a good cut.

- Ah.

And there's the other.

Okay, so yeah, we had our irrigation line there.

- Yeah.

- Hope I didn't hit it.

- Yeah.

Hope you didn't.

- The bigger the hole you cut, the more chance there is for weeds.

So, you wanna cut small holes.

That just means it's harder to work through the hole, but it means the weeds, it's harder for the weeds to grow through the hole too.

- And that's what we want.

- We picked this up at a construction site and it had been in a big rainstorm.

- Oh, okay.

- So it was already, you know, you can already see it starting to separate a little bit, but- - It's pre soaked.

- Yeah, pre-soaked.

[laughs] Yeah.

- But it'll hold together well enough.

- Yeah.

- So, there's another method that's similar to this, which is to put down newspaper.

And if you think about it, newspaper is just cardboard that's already fallen apart, so, - I hadn't thought about it like that, but you're right.

- Yeah, so, you know, the cardboard's gonna fall apart, but it'll do just fine.

Now, something I am noticing here is that you notice we're on our hands and knees right here.

- Yeah.

- And it's more comfortable to work that way.

When we were on the pine straw and the shredded wood you can't go down on your knees.

- Yeah.

And this is our tomato.

- Tomato here.

Yep.

And there we go.

- The tomato's gonna be just fine.

- Yeah.

Tomato will be good.

Just like we did with the plastic mulch, we're just going to cut a long slit.

Now with this one though, we're gonna have to open it up a little bit.

- Don't feel the irrigation line, do you?

- Oh, I don't know.

- Ah, you're good.

- I don't know.

It's here somewhere.

- Yeah, we're good.

- Four and five.

- Those camouflage so well.

- Yeah, they do.

[cardboard rustling] With the beans here, I could do two slits.

Like, kinda like watermelon size, or I could do one slit that's just double wide.

I think I'm gonna go for the one slit.

- Okay.

- Since these are gonna be four inches apart.

- Yeah.

- We're gonna put one right on this edge and one right on the other edge.

- Okay, Aand as you're doing that, Peter, as you can see, you already have little- - Yep, we got little weeds.

- Weed seedlings.

- Yep.

There.

We're doing all these different mulches.

We also are doing what in science we call a control group.

- Yeah, gotta do a control.

- So, we're doing a section that doesn't have mulch.

And so, if you could grab the plants over there for us.

- So, this area doesn't have mulch.

We will be keeping track of how much time we spend weeding each of these plots.

That's one of the things that we're gonna track this year.

- I think that's gonna be neat.

- And so, my guess is that this is gonna take the most weeding time.

- It's gonna take the most weeding.

- But who knows?

Let's find out.

- We'll see.

- All right, there's our tomato.

I'm gonna put a bell pepper right here.

Yep, so now we have our six test beds planted.

- Yes.

- So we will see which mulch, I don't wanna say does best.

Which mulches do well?

- Yeah.

- 'Cause I think we're gonna see a couple of different good performers.

- I think we will.

But it's also gonna be neat to see how long it takes to weed - Yes.

- You know, these plots.

So, I think that's gonna be good.

Thank you, Peter.

Appreciate that.

- Thanks.

- All right.

[upbeat country music] - This year we're doing an experiment here in the Family Plot garden.

We're trying five different kinds of mulch to see which one works best.

So we have two sheet mulches, which are plastic.

One is just a sheet of plastic and the other one is woven landscape fabric.

And then, we also have three different organic mulches that we're trying.

We have pine straw, we have ground wood, ground up, your typical mulch.

And then, we also have sheets of cardboard.

So, during the year we are going to go in and look and see how things are going with each of the areas of mulch and compare them to a control where we don't have any mulch at all.

So, we'll be looking at moisture levels, how much harvest we get, what the soil's like underneath, how well the plants grow, all that sort of stuff.

So, expect that coming up this year.

[upbeat country music] - All right, Tonya, let's talk a little bit about organic gardening.

- Okay.

- There's a lot of people are interested in gardening organically.

So, where do you wanna start with that?

- Well, there can be a lot of confusion when you go to buy your seed.

There's a lot of different labels and sometimes we've heard the terms, but we're not clear on exactly what they mean.

You've got your organic seed, you've got heirloom seed, you've got hybrid seed, you've got treated seeds.

So, I thought I'd start with kind of telling you a little bit about each one.

- Okay, that'd be fine.

- So organic seed are, they're produced from mother plants that were grown under organic conditions.

- Okay.

- That means the plant the seeds came from were grown without using synthetic fungicides or insecticides or anything like that.

- Okay.

- And then, you've got your heirloom seeds.

Now, an heirloom seed simply comes from a plant that's been open pollinated or self-pollinated.

Like for instance, tomato plants.

They're self-pollinated.

They pollinate their selves.

So, an heirloom seed just simply means if you grow that heirloom plant, you can save those seeds and plant them next year and you'll get the same type of plant.

- Okay.

- That you started with.

However, just because it's heirloom does not mean it's organic.

- Right.

- Some people think an heirloom seed is an organic seed, but not necessarily.

- Okay.

- Because you can still grow an heirloom plant using synthetic fertilizers, fungicides, insecticides.

And then, you've got your treated and untreated seeds.

Now, a treated seed has been coated with either a fungicide or an insecticide or both.

And that prevents things like damping off of fungal diseases.

Sometimes, if you plant your seed and it's a little too moist or the soil temperature is not warm enough, you'll get fungal problems and they'll die.

Okay, so treated seeds have usually a fungicide to keep 'em growing for you until they get established.

But that is not considered organic, so.

And then, you have your hybrid seeds.

Now, a hybrid seed is simply from a parent plant that was crossed with a similar variety to produce a superior fruit or a trait that we wanted, like bigger fruit or disease resistance, or something like that.

- Okay.

- So, they can still be organic though.

Just because something is hybrid does not mean that it's not organic.

You can grow a hybrid plant under organic conditions.

And as far as a GMO in your vegetable garden, you don't have to worry about that.

A hybrid seed is not the same thing as a GMO and they're not readily available for sale to the average homeowner.

- Right.

- So, we're just strictly talking about what do all the terms on the label mean.

- Okay.

- Now, and keep in mind, unless you are growing your produce for sale at a grocery store or a farmer's market, how you define organic is totally up to you.

So, even if you wanted to grow a hybrid tomato plant and then grow it under organic conditions in your garden, you can't sell that as an organic vegetable.

But you're totally, I mean, you can do it.

It is whatever you feel comfortable with.

Whatever level you feel comfortable with.

- Okay.

Good descriptions on those, okay?

So, what about using the transplants from the store?

'Cause of course, now everybody's, you know, going to your local big box stores to get all these transplants.

So, how do you go about doing that?

- Well, you can get transplants from your local store.

And I think now there may even be some in trade available that were grown organically.

- Okay.

- We're starting to see a little bit more of that type thing because there is so much interest in growing organically.

But once again, how organic you wanna be is up to you.

What you wanna make sure of if you're gonna grow organically is that you don't introduce weeds or insects or diseases into your home garden.

- Okay.

- So, if you're gonna buy a transplant from the store, look in the little peat pot and make sure you get out all of any kinda little weeds that might be growing in there.

Look on the underside of the leaves and in the leaf axils where the leaves connect to the stem and make sure there's no insects hiding in there.

Look for leaf spots.

That can be a sign of disease.

And then you may, if it's possible, some of them are in those little peat pots now and hard to take out.

But if you can look to see if it's got good white, healthy roots.

- That's right.

- That would be good too.

That'll give you a headstart on your organic garden.

- Right.

Yeah, I usually tell folks.

Yeah, do slide plants outta pots if you can.

- Uh-huh.

- Okay?

And if you get in any trouble, then you can just tell 'em Tonya said you can do so.

- Yeah.

[laughs] - You'd just be fine.

And you can be just fine.

All right, so what about soil prep, okay?

'Cause that's where it's gonna all start, right?

Gonna start with the soils.

So, how do you go about prepping the soil for organic gardens?

- Well, just like any other garden, you wanna do a soil test.

- Sure.

Sure you do.

- And University of Tennessee Extension can help you with that.

You can go to Chris's office and get a soil test kit.

And they'll explain to you exactly how to do it there at the office before you leave.

It's pretty inexpensive.

And in a couple of weeks, you'll get a report that tells you how many pounds of nitrogen that you'll need per, I think it's 100 square feet or something like that.

- It is.

It is.

- So, then you get to choose a source of nitrogen and other nutrients for your garden.

Any kind of an organic fertilizer is fine.

You can use compost that you've made or purchased.

You can use...

There's a variety of different things you can use.

Bone meal, grass clippings, leaves.

- Yeah.

- You can use pine needles, sawdust.

You can use all sorts of different organic materials.

And you can either buy some of these things pre-packaged at the store or make your own.

And the only thing about making your own is sometimes there can, there's a little uncertainty about how much nitrogen am I actually putting on my soil?

Whereas if you buy a bag, it'll have the numbers on the bag.

Like for instance, if you buy a bag of bone meal, it might say 6-11-0.

And those three numbers on the bag refer to nitrogen, phosphate and potash, N, P and K. So, the first number tells you what percentage of nitrogen is in that bag.

- Okay.

- So, let's say the first number is a 3.

That means that in 100 pounds you've got 3 pounds of nitrogen.

So, if your test result says that you need 3 pounds of nitrogen per 100 square feet, then you put on 100 pounds and then you know you've got 3 pounds of nitrogen in there.

- Right.

- There's a really good publication that I found online from Utah State, and you can just Google "Selecting and Using Organic Fertilizers".

- Okay.

- And it's from Utah State Extension.

So we know that it's research-based.

And they have the average N, P and K amounts for a whole bunch of organic materials.

It even has leaves, it has manures, it's got compost.

And they'll give you on average, for instance, compost they say has between 1 and 3% nitrogen, 1 and 2% P, and 1 and 2% of K. And it tells you how available it is.

If it's moderate, slow, or rapid.

- Wow.

How about that.

- And then, it'll also have a note if you need to look out for things like weed seed.

So, that's a really good resource that I found online that's research-based.

- Okay.

And we actually have that link on our website.

- Great.

- Right.

- Good.

- Because it is good information and we've used it before.

- Good.

- So, it's good stuff.

All right, so how do we get our plants off on the right foot?

So, what are some other tips that we can do?

- Okay, we already-- - To ensure that we get those plants off on the right start.

- Yeah, we already talked about don't introduce your pests.

- Right.

And you know, what I would do if I were growing organically, especially if you're new to it, plant extras.

- Ah!

Plant extras.

- Yes.

- Mr. D likes that one.

- Yes.

- Plant extras.

- Because sometimes the organic methods that we use, some of our insects are hard to control.

- Uh-huh, yes they are.

- Some of our fungal problems are harder to control.

- Yes.

- And expect some losses.

Expect the bugs to eat some of it.

So, I would say plant enough so that if you do lose a couple plants here and there, you still have something out there for yourself.

- Right.

'Cause we think they're tasty.

So do the bugs.

- Yes, that's right.

- They think they're tasty too.

- That's right.

So, plant extras.

You wanna wait until the danger of frost has passed.

I know we've had a really warm winter this year and I'm already looking and seeing tomato plants and transplants at the garden center.

But in our area, and it's different depending on where you live.

It's April 15th for your plant date.

That's just for the Memphis-Fayette County area.

But if you live in other parts, ask, call your local Extension agent and ask when the frost date is.

- Okay.

Tonya, great information.

We appreciate that.

- Thank you.

- All right.

Thank you much.

[upbeat country music] - It's been a really wet spring and in apple trees we're seeing a lot of fire blight this year as a result.

This is some fire blight on an apple tree.

The leaves are wilted and there is a hook on the end.

It's a bacterial infection that happens when you have warm, humid conditions, often after rain.

The temperature needs to be between 75 and 82 degrees, and the humidity greater than 60%.

Now, fire blight can be spread by insects.

It can be spread by wind to damaged tissue.

If you see it, you should prune it out.

And I'm gonna show you how to do that.

So, we have a couple of branches here with fire blight.

So, we have this branch right here, and I'm gonna go ahead and cut it a few inches, probably about eight inches below where I see the wilting, which is gonna be right about here.

I can just cut it right at that branch.

And let's take a look.

It looks clean.

Now, I'm going to sterilize my pruners.

And you want to do this after every single cut when you're dealing with fire blight.

So I have here, I have a 10% bleach solution.

I have this other branch right here that I'm going to cut right here.

[pruners clipping] So, now sterilize again.

Always remember to do that.

[sprayer spritzing] To be safe, I'm not real comfortable with that being fire blight-free.

Fire blight moves up the branch.

If it gets the trunk of the tree, the tree is dead.

So, in order to absolutely make sure that this fire blight is stopped, I'm actually gonna come all the way back here.

I'm gonna take this branch off.

Now, with fire blight, you don't wanna put that in the compost pile.

You wanna either burn it or you want to throw it away.

So it goes away with the trash.

You don't wanna keep it around.

If you see repeated occurrences of fire blight every year, there are a couple of chemicals that you can put on your tree in late winter to early spring.

You wanna do it to stop the fire blight in the blossoms.

So, that would be copper-based fungicide, streptomycin, or Bacillus subtilis can be sprayed on the tree to help reduce that.

Now, something interesting to note is that this is a Liberty apple tree, which is very resistant to fire blight, but it had fire blight anyway.

So, even if you have resistance, it doesn't mean you're fire blight proof in this case.

It just means that you're less likely to get it.

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

Y'all ready?

- Yeah.

- These are some great questions.

Here's our first viewer email.

"We have these on our fig tree.

"And research says they are Florida leaf-footed bug.

Can we safely control them on our fig tree?"

And this is Mark from Wimberley, Texas.

He says he "does not want to use pesticides and wants to make sure the fruits are still edible," which I can appreciate.

- Yes.

- So what do you think about that, Celeste?

- So, leaf-footed bugs in general, I don't feel like are gonna be a huge pest issue for that particular plant, especially if they're feeding, if you see them feeding primarily on the stems, trunks, leaves.

The main issue would be if they are causing damage to the fruit.

- Right.

Agree.

- So, as the fruit begins to ripen and those insects are in that environment, yes, they would potentially be feeding on those fruits and causing, like, some damaging spots.

So, if that is the case and they don't wanna use any type of pesticides, I'd say, you know, hand removal.

- Yes.

Mm-mm, yes.

- So, they're just going to need to be on top of scouting.

They know that this pest is an issue with this particular plant.

They've seen it in the past.

So, just be vigilant.

And then, when they see the population of that insect growing, do hand removal, maybe shake them off into a bucket of soapy water.

- Yeah.

- Would be one method.

Another method is to just kind of bolster your garden to be a thriving habitat for other predaceous insects that could help you right, control those pest-type populations.

So, lacewings are always a great option.

Just having lots of flowers, composite, small composite-type flowers that support those types of small insects could really go a long way into increasing those populations.

- Well, and also you can find their eggs and destroy their eggs.

- You sure can.

- So if you scout and you look at the underside of leaves or on stems.

- Yeah.

- It's a line of golden brown- - Yeah.

- Eggs.

- Pretty distinct.

- If you see it, just squish it.

Or you could even pick the leaf off.

- Yeah.

All right.

Well, thank you for that question.

We appreciate that, Mark.

Here's our next viewer email.

"How do you lower the pH in a lawn?"

And this is Debbie from Ocala, Florida.

She says she "tested her soil and it has a pH of seven," which is not bad.

Most of your turf grass is like a pH between six and seven.

So, what do you think about that, Peter?

- Yeah, so yeah, you're on the basic end of what you want.

- Okay.

- So, I might consider not doing anything.

- Oh, okay.

- But if you do want to, there's a couple of things that you can use.

Elemental sulfur, you can probably find it at co-op stores or farm supply stores.

It is the cheapest that you can get.

They may be willing to sell you a small amount.

You may have to buy a 50-pound bag, but at the same time, it's not gonna break the bank.

- Right.

- If you don't have that, there are some other chemicals that you can use that are available.

One is aluminum sulfate and then there's iron sulfate as well.

And those are more expensive.

And I know the last time I bought some aluminum sulfate, it was probably about $10 a pound, which is when you think you're trying to do your entire lawn, that's gonna be a lot of money.

- Yeah.

- And so, I would probably call around and try and find that elemental sulfur where you can.

Get your soil tested by a soil test lab and they will have recommendations as to how much to put down if necessary.

But it's not gonna be a whole bunch 'cause you don't really have to move your pH that far.

- Here's another means to lowering your pH.

But it's a slow process.

Adding organic matter, you know, to the soil will help.

It's natural.

It's something that happens over time, right?

So, that's something else I would consider 'cause you can actually do that too, possibly with the elemental sulfur.

It takes time but you'll have a healthy soil.

You know, it's all about soil health at the end of the day, right?

So, we appreciate that question, Ms. Debbie.

Thank you much.

Gave you a lot of options here, all right?

So, Celeste, Peter, it's fun as always.

- Thanks.

- Thank you much.

- Thank you.

- All right.

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 the pros and cons of different kinds of mulch, head on over to FamilyPlotGarden.com.

While you're there, you can ask us your gardening questions.

They may even make it on the show.

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

Be safe.

[upbeat country music] [acoustic guitar chords]