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

I'm Chris Cooper.

Potatoes are a staple, and today we're going to plant some.

Also, invite a frog or toad to your garden to help with insect control.

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 Walter Battle.

Walter is a UT Extension area specialist, and Mary Schmidt will be joining me later.

How's it going, Walt?

- Oh, it's going fine, Chris.

- Good to see you today.

We are out in the Family Plot Garden.

- Yes.

- And we understand you're gonna be planting potatoes for us today.

- Oh, yes, one of my favorites.

- That's one your favorites.

- It's something I love to do.

And the way, you know, we get started with that, I like to plant mine in the ground, and that will start with me just digging a nice, straight trench here so that I can put the potatoes in.

- Okay, so it's gonna be nice and straight, right?

- Oh, yes.

Oh, yes.

Years of experience doing it.

- Okay, all right.

- I can do it straight.

All right, so let me get started.

- No pressure.

- Okay, all right.

[laughs] - So all you want to do is just basically have this at about six inches deep.

This garden soil has been tilled up very, very nicely.

And because you really don't wanna plant 'em too deep, because later in the year we're going to come by, and we're going to do what we call hilling.

So we wanna leave a little soil where we can always just kind of hill it up so that it'll keep from getting those green potatoes.

- Okay, so as you're doing that Walter, when is the best time to actually plant potatoes?

- Here in the Mid-South, we can plant potatoes really, I like the month of March as a good time to plant 'em here.

And you can also plant potatoes, some people, to get fall potatoes can plant 'em also in July, actually, the latter part of July, and then those can be your fall potatoes.

- Okay.

- You know, a lot of people don't do that too much anymore, so, but you can do it.

- But you can, okay.

- Mm-hmm.

- So you can actually plant in March.

You know, it's considered to be a cool period.

- Yes.

- So that's fine?

- Yes, and actually, you can sneak out there, if it's a very warm February, the latter end of February, you can do it too.

- Okay.

- Because the thing about potatoes, potatoes can take light frost.

- Okay, so they can.

- They can handle it.

You know, so when the temperatures get like, you know, 28, 32, something like that, they can still handle it, it's no problem.

And I think I measured that pretty good.

- Huh, look at that.

- It's pretty good straight, isn't it?

- Pretty good, yeah, it's pretty straight.

[laughs] - I've been doing it for years.

[laughs] - I didn't doubt you.

I didn't doubt.

- So there's, our trench is dug fairly straight.

- Fairly straight.

- And so now I can go get the potatoes and just drop 'em in.

- Okay, all right.

- Okay?

All right, let me remove my shovel.

- I can hold that for you.

- Oh, okay.

- All right.

So can you use store-bought potatoes to plant?

- No, do not use store-bought potatoes because what they do on those potatoes, they spray 'em with, you know, with something to prevent 'em from sprouting.

So therefore if you, you know, if you use those potatoes, it probably won't, it's not gonna work.

- Okay.

- Okay?

So, and one thing I want you to see with using these potatoes, these are what we call seed potatoes.

That's what you'll see 'em called if you go to some farm supply store or something like that.

And basically you have these sprouts, and these sprouts are where, what we used to call, what people call the potato eye.

- Yeah, I remember that, right.

- Okay, and all you simply do is just place it with the eye up.

- Okay, now, how deep is that?

- That's six inches.

- Oh, six inches, okay.

- Now watch this.

There's something was on me.

And then you're gonna go, you going to plant every foot.

- Okay.

- So every 12 inches, I have the eye up.

- Okay, all right.

- And I have... - How many more you got?

- I have one more.

But I wanna do something with this one.

- All right.

- Since this is the last one, let me set that aside.

You can also cut these in two where you see the eye.

- All right.

- Cut 'em by the eye.

And you can then, of course you would like to cure these, but I think they'll still work, and you can just, you can plant it with, you know, like that.

- Okay, so the flesh sides goes down in the ground.

- Yes, mm-hmm, yeah.

Just, you know, right there, and there you go.

- All right.

- And then you'll simply come back.

You can take your shovel or what have you, and you can, you know, well, I can just take my hand.

I probably, I guess I'll use the shovel.

- So how long before we see a sprout, you think?

I would probably give it about, maybe about, hm, I guess about 15 days, twenty days, somewhere like that.

We should see something shooting up.

- Okay.

- Bottom line is we know that they're here.

- Most of the time, we talk about the hilling of the potatoes.

- Yes.

- So what does that mean, and why do we need to hill our potatoes?

- You'll come back probably in another three or four weeks.

And as these, you know, as the potatoes come, and then over time just pull more soil up around it as you see that stem come up.

- Right.

- Because that prevents them from, you know, getting that green.

You know how sometimes your potatoes are green?

- Yeah.

- That prevents that.

- Okay.

So once we start, you know, getting to the hilling process, now, how long before we harvest?

- Okay, you're gonna harvest in about 90 days.

- Oh, wow, okay.

- And you will harvest, once the stems die back and turn brown, that's when you will harvest.

- Okay.

- About two weeks after you kinda see that.

- Okay.

- Mm-hmm.

- So how do we handle the potatoes after the harvesting process?

- Okay, after- - So when you get ready to store, so how do we do that?

- After the harvesting process, you would dig 'em, but do not wash 'em.

- Do not wash 'em, all right.

- You're just gonna dig 'em, bring 'em up, and if you can, store 'em in a place of about 40 degrees, if you can, a dark place with, you know, and basically do that for about two weeks, and then you're good to go.

- Hmm, that sounds good.

- Yes.

- Okay.

So any major diseases, you know, or insect pests we need to be concerned about?

- The only thing you have to worry about, you do have a potato beetle.

You know, there's some insecticides that kinda handle with him, but also you do have scab.

But if you use scab-resistant cultivars, you won't have that problem at all.

- Okay.

- So that's pretty much it.

- Okay, so what about the old wireworm?

Haven't we heard about that?

Is that gonna be a problem with potatoes?

- It will not be.

Great question.

It will not be a problem in this bed because we're planting in a garden spot that's previously been, you know, tilled and gardened.

- Got it, okay.

- Now, do not ever, ever, ever plant potatoes in ground that has never been cultivated before, because you will get wireworms, and you can also get wireworms if you plant your potatoes in the spot where you had sweet corn last year.

- Oh, okay, didn't know that.

- So you don't wanna follow a cereal crop or grain crop- - Gotcha.

- With them either.

- Okay, it's important.

Do you have any favorite varieties that you like of potatoes, huh?

- Yes, I will tell you, I still like, as far as the white potato go, Irish potato, I like the old Kennebec.

Kennebec has been around with us for a long time.

It does a good job.

If you're looking for a red variety, the Red Norland is a very, very good potato to plant.

Also, if you look for that gold variety, I kinda like the Yukon Gold.

- Ah, yeah, Yukon Gold.

- And then I'm, at some point, I'm gonna experiment with some Adirondack Blue.

I wanna try some of those blue- - You wanna try it?

- Some of those blue potatoes.

- That sounds good.

- Yes.

- All right, well, Walter, we appreciate you doing that demonstration for us.

So we'll get this watered, and we'll get you some water too after this, right.

- All right, no problem.

- Thank you so much for the demonstration.

- Yes, yes, happy to do so.

[upbeat country music] - So this Mr. Lincoln rose was killed back to the ground by frost this year.

It was actually killed back to the graft and now is growing back from the rootstock.

So again, it was a Mr. Lincoln rose, but because the freeze that we had this year killed it back to the graft, it is actually growing back from the rootstock.

So the rootstock, of course, is a different plant.

Then above the graft union would be a different plant as well.

So we have two different plants here, but again, the frost that we had this year killed it back to the graft.

So now it's growing back on a separate plant from the rootstock.

[upbeat country music] Guess what we have on the table here, Mr. D?

- We got some toady frogs, I think.

- We gotta talk about frogs and toads, and we're glad to have you, Mary.

- I'm glad to be back.

I'm glad to be talking today about these beneficial amphibians.

And I brought some of my friends, some frogs and toads, and we're gonna talk a little bit about why you want them in your garden.

- Okay, well let's go ahead and pick up on that right now.

All right?

- Okay.

So frogs and toads are misunderstood.

So they're in the group of amphibians, and amphibians have a typical life cycle that's tied to water.

- All right.

- So all the amphibians, frogs, toads, salamanders are gonna start out as eggs laid in the water, and then they're gonna go through the tadpole stage until eventually most of them come out of the water as adult frogs.

- Okay.

- So, like I said, some of the stuff that they're misunderstood about is, one of the things we get all the time is, "Don't pick up a toad.

You'll get warts," right?

- I remember that as a kid.

I'd hear that.

- Yeah, me too.

I handle toads.

I don't have any warts on my hands.

But that's a myth.

Warts are caused by a virus, not by frogs and toads.

But what that myth comes from is toads are covered with bumps and warts, and that's actually one of the ways that they protect themselves.

So if, say, a raccoon or a curious dog is going up to a toad, they can actually secrete a toxin from those large glands right behind their eyes.

And so that's one of the ways they protect themselves.

- Interesting, okay, now what kind of frogs and toads do you have for us today, though?

- Okay, so a lot, basically everything can be called a frog.

Okay?

- Okay, okay.

- So, but they kind of start to break down into different families.

And so I brought representatives of most of what we see in the Mid-South.

- Okay, good.

- So the typical frogs, like the bullfrog, leopard frog, those guys have long back legs, and they leap.

They're not hoppers, like, our true toads have shorter, stubbier legs, lumpy and bumpy on their backs, and they hop.

And then I also brought a tree frog.

- Yeah, which is neat.

- Yeah, we were talking about tree frogs.

A lot of people think they're a tropical species, but we do get tree frogs here in the Mid-South.

And this is a representative of the green tree frog.

And then lastly, I brought along a spadefoot, which is one that a lot of people probably have in their gardens, but they don't see them because they stay buried in their substrate most of the time.

- Okay, now let's explain it to the folks, especially gardeners, how are they beneficial though?

- Great, so they're beneficial in a number of different ways.

So the one that we think of and probably most gardeners appreciate is that they eat a lot of insects.

So bullfrogs, for example, will eat anything that moves, anything they can fit in their mouth.

And so they're really beneficial that way.

But frogs and toads can absorb things through their skin, so things like pollutants, or they're susceptible to different funguses.

So they can be a big indicator that something might be going on in your yard as far as maybe there's a, you're using a pesticide or something that's affecting the amphibian population.

So they can be good environmental indicators as well.

- Okay, good, okay.

- And then of course what I like about frogs and toads, too, especially starting in the spring, is their sounds.

- Aha, right.

- And so, especially warm nights, that's when we'll start to hear things like the tree frogs, and then the bullfrogs have that call where they get their name.

They sound kind of like the sound of a cow or a bull, and that's how they get their names.

And so springtime, it's a great chorus of frogs and toads.

- Oh, sure, Mr. D, you probably hear some of those bullfrogs out your way.

- I do hear some of those bullfrogs, and I've eaten some of those bullfrogs before, too.

- Oh, wow.

- Yeah, they're very tasty.

- Oh, wow.

How about that?

[laughs] - Yeah, so that's what we were talking about.

If you've eaten frog legs, most of the time they come from an American bullfrog because it's one of the largest frogs, native frogs that we get in North America.

- Okay, that's good to know.

So how do we attract those frogs and toads in our gardens?

- Okay, so I have a couple tips on attracting these, and the first one is, you know, we think about what kind of habitat are we providing.

When we talk about their lifecycle, they're all tied to water.

So if you have some sort of water source or protecting our watersheds and our wetlands, those are definitely beneficial.

Some other things you can do, I brought along here, almost all of our gardeners will have some sort of pot.

Maybe it's got a crack in it, or it's not really useful anymore as a pot.

You can make it into what we call a toad abode.

And so what you do is- - All right.

- If you've got one of these clay pots and a couple nice rocks, just kind of prop it up, and that gives a little respite for the toad to hide out during the heat of the spring and summertime.

- Okay.

- If you have a pot and it has a nice hole right here, you can, you don't even need the rocks, the toad can get in that way.

- Okay.

How about that?

So what do y'all feed the toads and frogs out at Lichterman Nature Center?

- So at Lichterman Nature Center, their diet is insects and mainly crickets.

- Mainly crickets.

- And sometimes mealworms, too.

The toads, which a lot of our kids get a big kick out of this, sometimes are pretty good at eating in front of people.

So this is an American toad, and they're basically, they're looking for things that might be moving.

And what they use is those kind of bulging eyes, which is another characteristic of the toads is they have kind of these big bulging eyes versus the frogs, but they're gonna use those eyes.

They go into their head and help push that food to the back of their mouth.

- Wow, how about that?

Okay, now we talked a little earlier, you did mention that the bullfrogs will consume other frogs, too, though, right?

- That's right, bullfrogs- - Oh!

He got him!

- Are really known to eat anything they can fit in their mouth.

So they'll eat other frogs.

They'll definitely eat a lot of insects, and they're gonna eat things as large as birds, as long as they can fit 'em in their mouth, and they're opportunist feeders, so whatever they can catch.

- Whatever they can catch.

- Yeah.

- Oh, my goodness, yeah.

- Did you see his eyes closing?

- Yeah, I just saw that!

- Yeah!

- I think that is so neat.

I'm sure the kids actually enjoy that, don't they?

- They do, yeah.

- Wow, now, if you were a kid and you want to, you know, catch a frog or whatever, what's the best way to do that?

- So the best way to do that is to look for the right environment.

So I find them sometimes in my garden around the house.

So you're looking for the right sort of environment.

They aren't gonna be in a dry field.

They need some sort of moisture.

And then just kind of listening for them.

If you're hearing them, they're definitely around.

And then you always wanna let 'em go after you kind of observe them for a while, let 'em back in their environment so they can finish eating and potentially find a mate.

- Okay, 'cause that's what they wanna do, right, find a mate?

- Yeah.

- So those are some of those calls that we hear, right, some of those sounds?

I mean, is that why they're making those sounds?

- Absolutely, those sounds, most of the time they're trying to attract a mate.

Sometimes it's territorial, trying to keep another male away, but most of the time it's to attract a mate.

- All right, so there you go, Mr. D. Those are the sounds you're hearing out there.

- This toad is extremely unhappy because he just saw his buddy eat a meal, and he sees these worms- - He does.

- Over here in this little canister, and he's trying to get to 'em-- - Yeah, let's see if we can bring him out and give him a- - Okay.

- Yeah.

- Give him one, too.

But they're, what they're doing is they're looking for movement.

So he's seeing those mealworms move around.

And that's what he's, that's what he wants.

- How much can they eat, though?

- Well, they'll eat quite a bit.

Now, we kind of don't wanna overfeed them at the Nature Center, but they're opportunist feeders just like the bullfrog.

So toads, they're gonna to eat maybe 8 to 10 crickets every day, if you give them that many.

- Right.

So, but they're really beneficial 'cause they're not just eating crickets.

- Wow, there he goes.

- They're eating any of the insects.

- Okay.

- Another one bites the dust.

- Yeah.

[laughs] - They get 'em pretty quick, too.

Not too long.

- They are, yep.

- How about that?

Well, Mary, we appreciate that.

- Yeah.

- We thank you for bringing the frogs and toads and keeping us entertained.

- Thanks for having me.

- Yeah, they're entertaining us.

- Yeah!

- How about that?

So we thank you much.

[upbeat country music] All right, so as you can see here, this is our cabbage moth, right?

It's fluffing along.

It's probably trying to get down somewhere where it can lay a single egg.

There it goes.

So the moth just laid this single egg.

Here's the egg right here, and that egg, when it hatches will become the cabbage worm.

Look at that.

Pretty neat.

So the cabbage moth will lay an egg.

That egg will become the cabbage worm, and that cabbage worm can do some damage to your plants in the Brassica family.

They will eat holes in those leaves.

What you can do is a couple of different things here.

Bt is a product that you can use, Bacillus thuringiensis.

Read and follow the label on that.

And then there's some other chemicals that you could use, but I would much rather you use the Bt for that.

It's a low-impact pesticide.

So a beautiful moth will lay that one single egg.

That egg will hatch, will become a cabbage worm, and that cabbage worm camouflages very well, would eat holes in the leaves of those plants in the Brassica family.

[upbeat country music] All right, this is our Q&A segment.

Y'all ready?

- Ready.

- All right, these are some good questions we have here.

Here's our first viewer email.

"Can you tell me why my 20-year-old hornbeam trees began to ooze?"

And this is Sue from St. Louis, Missouri.

So what do you think about that one, Joellen?

- Yeah.

- Just began to ooze, right?

- Well, they are 20 years old.

So they're getting older, and they're, you know, they could be close together.

So there may not be as much air movement between 'em as they were when they were younger.

- Okay.

- There's not a whole lot of problems with hornbeams, but they do get cankers, and cankers can cause the oozing that she sees.

- Right.

- But the problem with canker is, I wondered if she's noticed it before, I mean, in the past year or so, because usually canker starts on a branch, and you're supposed to cut that branch off, and it takes the canker disease away.

- Okay.

- So, you know, but once it gets on the trunk and gets into the whole vascular system, that's, you're gonna have problems.

It may not, and what happens is that it weakens the tree, and then borers take over.

- Right, which becomes secondary.

- And those, yeah, becomes secondary, and that sometimes finishes off the trees.

- That's good cause, yeah, 'cause we're talking about the lower limbs, branches here, but she did indicate that it's not sticky or smelly.

- Yeah?

- So what do you think about that, Walter?

- Well, again, I just kinda can't put it together.

- Right, okay.

- This one right here, because I haven't had any experience seeing it.

- Right.

- But I was just gonna comment, I was more worried about the secondary infection-type stuff.

- Like the borers?

- You know, the insects and stuff like that.

That's what I was really focusing on with this question.

It could be secondary issues.

- So when I think oozing, of course, I think about bacteria wetwood.

You know, some people call it slime flux.

You know, it's a bacteria that gets, you know, of course into the heartwood or sapwood of the plant.

- Yes.

- Right?

So it has to release, you know, all of those gases and things like that.

So I mean, that's something that came to mind.

But can you fix it, though?

You know, we were talking about if there, if it's a canker, then for the most part you have to keep the tree as comfortable as possible.

- As possible, as long as you can.

- You know, fertilizing and watering.

- Right.

- Yeah, yeah.

Even some of the other, any kind of bacterial disease that could've, it could have, there are no cures.

- Right.

- So you just have to, yeah, like you said.

- Just keep it comfortable.

- Just keep the plant as healthy as you can.

Try to keep good air movement through them.

I mean, they're 20 years old, they're probably pretty big.

- Yeah, and they look like they're pretty big from the picture.

- Yeah.

- Yeah, all right.

So there you have it, Ms. Sue, and I would say this, yeah, just to see things like that, isn't it amazing?

It's just amazing to me, you know, to know the trees can do that.

It's simply amazing, so thank you for that picture, Sue.

Hope that helps you out.

Here's our next viewer email.

"Any tips on caring for an oakleaf hydrangea?

"Some of the stalks are not healthy, and the leaves are wilting," and this is Bruce.

So what do you think about that one, Joellen?

- The oak leaf hydrangea likes Zones 5 through 9.

- Okay.

- And where did you say- - Yeah, we don't know where he's- - We don't know where he's at.

So just make sure you're in Zones 5 through 9, and if you're in 5, that's a little cold for some of the oakleaf hydrangeas.

So it can probably be easily burned in the winter, so just watch that.

But wilting, there's some wilting on the picture.

- Definitely, mm-hmm.

- And so I don't know if it's from a frost maybe it had, or maybe it's just from not enough light, or maybe something cut the root system and it's wilting because of that, or something fell on part of the plant and broke the root system.

You don't know, but I would tend to wanna just cut that off and let the part that's living, you know, continue to do well.

And it looks like it could use a little more light.

I know hydrangeas like some shade, but if it's been there for a while, it might be getting too much shade.

Maybe thin out some of the trees or plants around it so it gets better air movement and a little more light.

- And to your point, if you look at the lower base, you know, the plant, it looks healthy.

- Looks healthy.

- Yeah, just up top.

So anything you wanna add, Walt?

- Well, actually that oakleaf hydrangea looked just like the one at my house.

[Chris laughing] So and I just simply just cut that dead part out, and you know, just continue on.

- Right.

- You know, and that usually takes care of it.

- Okay, yeah, 'cause it's definitely wilting, so yeah, we don't know if enough water's not getting there.

It could be frost damage or something like that.

- Something.

- But yeah, you just cut it off?

- Yes, I just prune it out and keep going, 'cause I love oakleaf hydrangeas, one of my favorite plants.

- All right, so there you have it, Mr. Bruce, one of Walter's favorite plants.

How about that?

We learn something new every day.

All right, here's our next viewer email.

"Will my two-year-old dogwood ever bloom again?

It bloomed year one, but there were no blooms year two."

And this is Mary from Rockville, Maryland.

So Joellen, what do you think about that, about the dogwood?

- I'm glad she put where she's from.

- Okay, yes.

- Because that area is, Maryland has lots of different zones, and she happens to be in 7b, which is similar to where we have, where we live here.

And you know, the, the Cornus florida that she has is native.

So, you know, I can understand why she would want, but you know what, there's been a lot of problems with things blooming around here in the spring because of the cold weather we've had the last couple of years.

So I would like to know if, I'm sure she had the same kind of weather we had, which was severely cold, and it could be that it got the buds for her tree, 'cause it's small, it's new.

- Right, right, it's two years old.

- So, you know, maybe that's what it is.

But they like afternoon shade.

They like to be at the edge of the forest.

That's where you see them in the wild.

When you're driving down the interstate, they're all at the edge of the forest.

They need some light, but they want some shade, and they like to keep their roots cool and moist, not wet, but moist environment and cool, 'cause the shade.

Fertilize it once a year in the spring, and that's about all you can do and hope that Mother Nature lets it bloom again.

- Right, 'cause they do have a shallow root system, so you definitely gotta keep it cool.

Yeah.

- Right, that's for sure, mulching or something like that.

Walter, anything you wanna add to that?

- Yes, and also, I'm trying to remember how their weather was up there last year, but I do know in drought years, they will not set the buds for next year's, I guess, bloom.

So I don't know what the weather was up there in that part of the world, but that could possibly be what she's looking at.

- Yeah, if they had a drought and she, you know, didn't get as much, enough water.

- Yeah, it's possible.

- It could have done that, too.

- Sure, and then too, yeah, when you fertilize that, not too much nitrogen fertilizer.

- No.

- Right.

- 'Cause you're gonna get more green growth than blooms.

- Right.

- All right, so Mary, hope that helps you out there.

We appreciate that question.

All right, so Walter, Joellen, we're outta time, fun as always.

- It is.

- 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 anything we talked about, head on over to familyplotgarden.com.

We have links to research-based Extension publications you can print and take out into your garden.

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

Be safe.

[upbeat country music] [acoustic guitar chords]