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

I'm Chris Cooper.

Beautiful summer roses require spring pruning.

Also, squash are tasty and a great addition to any garden.

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

- (female announcer) Production funding for The Family Plot: Gardening in the Mid-South is provided by the WKNO Production Fund, the WKNO Endowment Fund, and by viewers like you, thank you.

[upbeat country music] - Welcome to The Family Plot, I'm Chris Cooper.

Joining me today is Mr. Bill Dickerson.

Mr. Bill is our rose expert.

Alright, Mr. Bill.

You've got some roses here right?

- Yes sir.

- So what is the first thing we need to do when it comes down to pruning roses?

- Well to start with the tools, the big older stuff just to facilitate easing cutting I use the heavy lopping pruners.

I do most of mine with this middle size.

- I like that too, it's a pretty good size.

- Which is easier on my hands.

And then I use the hand pruners.

Good gloves, cause these things will eat you alive.

And then I've got this handy little stool that I can sit on and get in and do what I need to do.

First thing I usually do is look for dead wood.

This is dead here at the bottom and so I just close to the main cane, I just cut that off.

And as you can see it's brown and it's not live, healthy tissue.

- Now once you've made that cut do you actually clean those off before you make the next cut?

- Well I usually wear a blue jean shirt.

Typically in between bushes I'll use a cleaner and I'll sterilize my pruners from bush to bush and from customer to customer.

But one bush, it's either got it or it doesn't so I don't.

So I'll just do one and then I'll clean.

Okay now this, it's big and healthy at the top, but right here you see it's starting to get brown and it's dead so just to facilitate, I cut it as close as I can.

Here's a small one which is kind of a small cane, I'll get rid of that.

And I'm opening the bush up as I go.

Anything smaller than a pencil you try to get rid off.

I'm just gonna take this out to open up the center of the bush.

- So why do we need to open it up though, just to get the air moving through?

- Air moving through, black spot is your biggest enemy and you have to spray which is a fungicide.

And if you've got air going through it doesn't just sit in there.

Anything if it's too closed you're gonna get disease.

If you get rid of the dead wood and the little small stuff, it just kind of gets easier and easier to figure out where you are.

- You can see it pretty good huh?

- You can see.

Now keep in mind I'm gonna go down depending on the bush.

The bigger bush if I left it here, it's gonna have more blooms with smaller blooms.

Now if you cut it down to 12 inches, 18 inches you're gonna have fewer blooms but they'll be bigger.

So if you're wanting to take them in the house, you may cut them down a little more hard.

If you want a lot of blooms you just leave them out just for a garden rose.

Now here's another one that's kind of going in the middle.

I'm gonna take it out.

You always clean up after yourself, 'cause if you don't you come by here two or three days later and you gonna need to look at something and those prickles and thorns will get you.

Just a little small growth that's not gonna do anything, I take those out.

- So again, anything that's growing on the inside you definitely wanna take those out.

- I try to make everything grow out.

Now find a good example.

Right here example I cut right above where the leaf actual is and we're a little late because everything's leafing out.

Ideally you want it where there's nothing there.

But when you see these leaf structures at the leaf axle, if I cut above this, that next cane's gonna go into the bush.

If I cut above this one it's gonna go the same way this is.

So I kind of manipulate Mother Nature, I try to cut this new cane where I cut it off last year, I cut it so that it would grow out and not in.

- And this probably took years of practice right?

To be able to get the way you want to?

- The first time I'm like oh I don't know how I'm gonna do this but if you mess up it's just like a bad haircut it comes back and you just learn from your mistakes.

This'll come up and be out of the way I'll just kind of take that off.

This is in the middle.

It's a little harsh but you kind of have to teach this> I'm just gonna take this whole big guy out.

And it just opens up the bush.

And the more you take off, you're gonna put that energy into the canes that you have left.

Here I'm gonna look for a bud eye, there's one facing up towards Chris.

I'm gonna cut it back that direction.

And I kind of think about what I'm doing.

I may have them a little taller in the middle of the bush and then on the bottom, where they're away from each other and you'll have a nice form.

Here's a crossing cane, this is a big bulb, this is a little smaller.

So I'm gonna sacrifice that one.

Now here's some dead wood.

And the more you open it up, the more you can see.

Here's some dead wood I'm gonna take it out.

And then I'm gonna take this to there.

I'm gonna leave this bush typically a little taller than most.

I found a bud eye right here, I want it to come out so I'm gonna cut there.

I'm gonna face this because there's a bud eye here and the next cane will come out.

- Now could you tell us, bud eye, what do you mean when you say that?

- Well on the cane, where this comes out you've got a shot for three.

Here's two right here.

Where a leaf is gonna be, you cut it right above that.

It's either gonna come out as a cane or it's gonna come out as a leaf.

And you've got three shots to get a cane to come out of there.

So a lot of times if I was gonna do this, I'd just break it off.

Cause I don't want leaves cause it's little late.

I want a cane to come out.

Typically this time of year I try to do it before they start leafing out.

You can see this is starting to leaf out, now it's already leafed out.

And I'll break this off and then hope that I'll get a cane out of it instead of a leaf.

Alright over here there's a little sticking out on this side.

Later on that'll have a leaf on it.

In the spring everything starts from the top and works its way down so where I prune here, the canes will come up from the top.

You'll get some from the bottom, but most of where I pruned that next cane like this is gonna come back that way.

This is coming in the middle and I see it's bothering Chris.

I'm just gonna take it down real low.

And you're like oh no I've got this big.

Well once I cut it, and let's just say I cut it here last year, the new cane's gonna come out and you want your bigger canes at the bottom instead of up here at the top.

Because at the end of the year like some of these, they'll be ten foot tall.

That's questionable.

Is there a hole in there Chris?

- There is a hole.

- Alright here's the culprit.

Do you see where a cane bore?

And that's why you use the Elmer's glue.

After I prune I'll come on top of these and put just a dab of Elmer's glue, not a lot just a dab.

And that's just enough, it's a little old critter.

And he'll drill and lay his eggs and he might go a half inch or he might come all the way down.

So if you go ahead and do that'll you'll save a big cane like that.

- So it can be saved though at the end of the day?

- It can and what I typically do, is I just cut.

See he went down pretty deep.

So I'm gonna look to see how deep he went.

But you wanna get the healthy white pith in the center.

When you do cut it back, as fat as that looks, and I'm gonna stop there it's starting to brown up some.

Then you'll have a healthy cane come out.

Now this is a new cane, which you want to do.

It's not a basal growth which comes at the root graft.

Wish I had eyes in the back of my head, I'll go back and double-check that.

I'm gonna cut that so next year it'll have a cane and a bloom.

Which is takes about 40 days depending on the size of the bloom.

Once you cut that in 40 days you'll get a new cane come up.

It develops a cane and then you'll get a bloom.

And then 30-40 days then prune it back.

And I see where this is gonna go this way.

I see the little red dot.

I'm gonna cut typically about a quarter of an inch.

Ideally if you do it at an angle and run the water away that's fine.

Sometimes I do that and sometimes I don't.

And ideally a bush is 8, 10, 12 years old, you wanna take a big healthy cane like this, cut it out in hopes of getting a newer cane.

'Cause sooner or later it's gonna die.

So you get rid of it, you get rid of all that energy that's spent through that and you're putting it in a new cane.

And that way you keep your bush invigorated.

- Alright Mr. Bill we definitely appreciate this pruning demonstration that you've shown us today.

- Thank you Chris.

[upbeat country music] - The strawberries are looking pretty good.

We did have some cold weather about a week ago.

And, if you notice, it didn't completely, immediately kill the bloom.

Here, it's dark on the inside of this bloom.

This is one of the older blooms.

That strawberry is dead, it's not gonna make it.

But, if you look at these here to the side, these were probably not in full bloom last week.

They were just before bloom, so they were able to handle the 29 degrees.

When you have a bloom on peaches, strawberries, almost anything open bloom, a good heavy frost will actually kill that bloom.

If it's before bloom or after bloom, sometimes it can stand temperatures down to about 28 degrees.

So, we were in the range of where these strawberries got hit pretty hard.

Good thing about strawberries, if you knock all of the blooms off because of a frost, they will start blooming again.

And, 30 days from when that first bloom starts you will have ripe fruit.

[upbeat country music] - Alright Walter, let's talk a little bit about squash, and I see you have some on the table for us to look at, right?

- Oh yes, you know, 'course everybody knows the yellow squash.

- (Chris) Right.

- I mean, it's been with us for a long, long time.

And basically, these yellow squash come basically in two different cultivars, I guess, if you wanna use that word.

You have what we call the summer crook neck, and also you have the yellow summer straight neck.

And as you can see, the difference is that this is obviously straight, and this has a little bit of curve.

Now, these used to really, the breeders have kinda bred the curve out, because think about it, in a store they would break, and it would be easy to break them.

So, really the crook neck is kind of getting straight, as you can see.

So, I guess somewhere, some plant breeder has crossed these in to these, and they're kind of getting that result, as well.

- Okay.

Oh, these plant breeders, huh?

[laughing] - Oh, they're comin' up with somethin' all the time.

- Yeah, exactly.

- And then of course, we have our zucchini squash.

You have these green zucchini, and you have a black zucchini which gets very, very, very dark green.

Now, one thing I would like to tell people about squash is this, you need to pick your squash when they are probably about, I guess about five inches, like this.

Because if you do not pick this plant when it's like this, come back two days later, and this thing is probably easily a foot long.

Therefore, it'll be tough and no one will wanna use it.

I think they make zucchini bread when it gets to that point.

Or you can feed it to the hogs, if you got some hogs.

[laughing] Hey, hogs love squash, trust me on that.

I like squash also.

And then there's another squash that we see a lot in the stores called a little white squash, the little pattypan squash.

It's kinda round, and some of 'em are kind of shaped a little bit like a sunflower, you know-- - (Chris) I've seen those.

- With the little ridges around it.

And they're fun to grow also.

They grow well here in our climate.

- Okay, and what about the winter squash?

- Yes, there are two different types, obviously today we're talking about the summer varieties.

But yes, you do have the winter squash, which would be your acorn squash, your spaghetti squash, your butternut squash, I'm sure there's some others.

And those tend to grow well, we plant them in the fall of the season, and you know, those tend to be harvested in the fall.

But they are very delicious as well.

- Okay, so what type of squash grows best for us in West Tennessee?

- Well, pretty much the yellow squash, the yellow crook neck, the yellow straight neck, the zucchini squash grow well here in our climate, also the pattypan squash grows well, and those winter squashes I just mentioned, they grow alright in our climate, as well.

- Yeah, but if you're gonna grow 'em, you're gonna need what, Ms. Suzy?

Space.

- Yes you need space.

- Right, so what about that?

- Alright, well basically for squash, I like to have about a four foot apart on the rows.

- (Chris) Okay.

- Because they will put out, and just, you know, and just spread all over the place.

You have to remember, they are a member of the cucurbit family.

Which include pumpkins, and watermelons, and cantaloupes.

So, these things love to get out and put out vines.

- (Chris) Yes.

- That's what they love to do.

And I also plant them about two feet apart.

So, you have four feet wide, as far as your row ends, and then two feet apart per plant.

And you usually can do okay with 'em that way.

- Okay, alright, then when should they be planted?

- Okay, I like to plant them, basically, about May 1 throughout June, they'll be fine.

All the soils are good and warm to plant them.

Now obviously, you can plant 'em a little earlier if you use transplants.

You know, you can get them out there a little earlier, maybe.

And if you wanna cover them up with, you know, buckets and things like that.

Just in case we have some kind of late frost again, or something like that.

But basically, you can plant them all the way up through June, easily, June 30th, easily.

- Now, we always talk about crop rotation, right?

In our vegetable gardens.

So-- - Yes.

- What should the cucurbits, specifically the squash, follow in that crop rotation?

- Well, you really don't wanna follow a cucurbit crop with another cucurbit crop.

Because those diseases, I mean, if there's ever a family that will be attacked by the same diseases and insects, it's the cucurbit family.

So, if you had watermelons in the spot, you wouldn't wanna put squash there this year.

- (Chris) Right.

- But you would wanna plant your squash probably in a place where you may have had corn last year, or maybe you had your green beans last year, you might wanna put it there, where you had your sweet potatoes last year.

You just wanna put squash in those areas and you'll be fine.

- Okay, alright, well since you mentioned it, what about the major insects, pests, & diseases of the squash?

- Oh man, I will tell you, squash has its enemies.

The cucumber beetle, the squash bug, the vine borer.

- (Chris) We hear about that one a lot.

- Yes, and I would probably call that the number one pest of squash.

And what you see there is, one day your squash vines will just be beautiful and gorgeous, and all of sudden you come back the next day and they just like, wilted.

- (Chris) Yeah, just collapsed.

- Fell to the ground, yes.

And that's just where the squash borer has gotten in there and he's just bored all into that base of that plant, and disrupted all those nutrients and stuff goin' up, and the plant dies.

Now, another pest would be also aphids.

And the reason that aphids are a big problem with your squash plants, is because they carry that mosaic virus.

So, if you see your squash vines begin to look like, what they call that, Zodiac?

Whatever, you know, look real groovy.

[laughing] The problem you have there is really, you have the mosaic virus, is what you have.

- (Chris) Right.

- And there's not much you can do.

It will even make the squash turn those colors as well, the fruit of the plant, as well.

So you have to really control your aphids to control that disease.

And another big disease that they get.

They will get powdery mildew, and usually your chlorothalonil products will clean that up and take care of it.

- But if the virus is there, there's not too much you can do about that virus, right?

- There's not much you can go about the virus, just unfortunately just pretty much pull 'em up, and better luck next time.

But that's why you have to control the aphids.

- (Chris) Right.

- Throughout your garden, and throughout your landscape.

- (Chris) Right.

- Because the aphid can be comin' from somewhere else, and transmit that virus to that squash.

- Okay, so you would even eat that squash if it, of course had a virus, would you?

- Oh, yes, I would definitely.

- (Chris) You would eat it?

- Oh yeah, I would eat that.

It would just be a psychedelic type squash.

[laughing] Probably prettier in the skillet.

- But it does look good when it has those little colors to 'em, right?

- Yes.

- Alright, so look, how long though, is the growing season for your squash?

- Well really, about six weeks.

- (Chris) That's not long.

- Once they start producing.

And they key to really having a good productive squash growin' season is, you really need to harvest them when they're really, again, like three or four inches.

You wanna just constantly pick 'em, and they'll put on those new blooms, and the pollinators will be takin' care of business, and you'll just have a pretty good supply of squash.

And look, let me tell ya, folks, it don't take much squash to grow a lot.

I mean, they're heavy producers if they're in the right area.

- Right, so just a couple plants, you think?

- Oh, easily.

I may say four, maybe four.

And also, if you do not pick them whenever they're small, they'll end up becoming those big squash, and that just makes that plant spend all that energy trying to keep up that big fruit.

- (Chris) Right.

- So, that's kind of knocking off time on your harvest as well.

- Alright Walter, we can tell you like squash.

- Oh yes, I love it.

You can fry it, whatever, or boil it, whatever.

I'll eat it.

- Alright, well appreciate your good information about squash.

- Yeah.

- Alright.

[gentle country music] - Just like on Goldilocks, the three bowls of porridge, the soil has got to be in the right condition, too.

Example being this right here, this pile right here will not form a ball.

So, it's kind of a little bit on the dry side.

This one right here, this is way too wet.

This is one you're gonna let sit for a least two or three days and test it to find out if it's tillable.

You don't want to put a tiller in that.

Okay, this middle piece however, if I can form a ball and I throw it up in the air... Oops, and it breaks apart, then it's just right for tilling.

[upbeat country music] - Alright here's a Q & A session, you ready?

- Ready.

- These are good questions.

Alright here's our first viewer email.

"Can I still spray dormant oil on my shrubs?"

Can they still get away with that now?

- I think it's a little late.

- Think it's a little late?

- Dormant oil spray, it has to be dormant.

Horticultural spray is a lighter spray, and it depends on what she's trying to do with it.

But yeah dormant oil spray is for dormant plants.

And we don't know when things go dormant because we don't know about our weather.

We have had no frost clear into December some years.

And I wouldn't spray the dormant oil spray on them until all the leaves went off the trees.

Yeah our weather is unusual, but dormant oil spray is when it's dormant so whenever it's dormant.

And then February's probably the last time that I would spray it.

Unless we have a really early spring.

But yeah you have to spray it in the cold part of the winter for dormant oil spray.

- Right because if you spray it too late then there's a chance that you damaged those blooms or flowers.

- Yes and you can also burn the leaves.

If it's an evergreen you can burn the leaves with them too.

- So when the plants are dormant?

Alright.

So here's our next viewer email.

"Is early spring the best time to prune my azaleas?"

And you know what?

We get that question every year about this time at the office.

You would think people would understand it a little bit, but we still get that same question.

So what do you think?

- Well you can prune something that blooms after it finishes blooming.

So I would wait til they've bloomed first and then cut them back, even if it's severely.

But you're gonna cut off all your blooms if you cut it now before it blooms.

And that's the whole point of having azaleas they're beautiful.

So let them bloom first, and then cut them back.

And that goes for anything that blooms in the spring.

If it's gonna bloom in the spring, let it bloom then cut it back.

- Alright so do it after they're finished blooming okay.

Here's the next viewer email.

"When is the right time in the spring to plant lettuce and other leafy greens?"

And that's another question we get this time of the year.

So when is that time?

- Now is the perfect time.

Yeah early March.

- Of course if we're talking about collards, kale, mustard, turnips.

- And lettuces, radishes, radicchio, and mueslix.

All of those, spring.

This cool weather they love.

- I used to hear, my grandfather who was a farmer would say pretty much anytime after Valentine's Day you can plant your leafy greens.

So this would be the perfect time to get that done.

They're cool season crops.

- Definitely cool season.

- And they will definitely let you know when it gets too warm, 'cause they'll start bolting and they will not taste that well either.

- Yeah and bolting is when they start setting up flower heads and seeds.

And it's too late, time to turn them under for compost and plant some of those warm season vegetables.

- That's right.

So there you have it, go ahead and plant that now you'll be just fine and you can enjoy that crop going into the spring.

- That's right.

- Well, Joellen, we're out of time.

It was fun.

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 joining us.

For more information on what we talked about today, go to familyplotgarden.com 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]