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

I'm Chris Cooper.

We get lots of viewer questions every year, more than we can answer, but winter is a great time to catch up.

Today we have lots of questions from you.

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 Joellen Dimond.

Joellen is the Director of Landscape at the University of Memphis.

And Celeste Scott is with us today.

Celeste is a Horticulture Specialist with UT Extension.

Thank you for joining me, ladies.

- Yes, - Y'all ready?

- Good to be here.

- All right, so here's our first viewer email.

"How do I get rid of bindweed?"

And this is Sue from St. Louis, Missouri.

She says it is growing in her beds, especially around her hedges, Celeste.

So the old bindweed.

- I know.

It is so tough.

It is so tough's tough.

And so you could come at it from a couple different ways.

I feel like she mentioned that she's been pulling it for, you know, this past year at least anyway, but if you are committed to staying on top of that and pulling it year after year, you can have some success bringing those populations down.

But you have to, you really have to stay on top of it.

Like you can't skip a year and then expect to pick back up the next year where you left off.

Because then all your progress has been thrown out the window.

So staying on top of it with mechanical, you know, hand removing is one option.

Another option would be to use a non-selective type herbicide, like a glyphosate type active ingredient product.

And then timing is important for when you apply it to this plant.

So this is a perennial weed that has underground storage roots.

And so applying this product as we're coming into late summer into fall, that's kind of going to be the best time to target that plant with those products because it's going to, that's the time of year when the plant is fixing to kind of shut down, right, the above ground portions of the plant.

So it's rapidly sending things that come into contact with its leaves into those storage roots, okay?

And that's what we wanna do.

Yes, we wanna kill the aboveground part, but we are more concerned about what's underground and making sure that those aren't viable and can sprout back up the following year.

So if we target it at that time of year, you're gonna have better success getting the product to that storage route and have less resprouting the following year.

Again, that's not gonna be a once and done type situation.

You're gonna have to stay on top of it, run those energy reserves down on all those storage routes until we get to a point where it seems that we have things under control.

So that would be the strategy.

- That's a good strategy.

- And you know, when she's applying those glyphosates and things like that, you can do what they call a sponge method.

You can mix some of it up in a container, get your gloves on, read the label, how to mix it, put a sponge in the product and literally just tap it on the plant and then you won't be getting it on any of your other plants and it will translocate and get rid of it as best you can because it's gonna... - Yeah, that's a good tip.

And that way you don't have to worry about harming desirable plants that may be in your landscape.

- Alright, Ms. Sue.

Yeah, good explanation.

Yeah, so I think that works, Celeste.

So thank you so much for the information.

Yeah, and good luck with that bindweed, tough.

Same family as morning glory.

Yeah.

Beautiful blooms, but yeah, could be deadly, all right?

So yeah, good luck to you.

Here's our next viewer email.

"How do I get rid of quack weed?"

And this is Deb from Crawfordsville, Indiana.

She says it is taking over her flower beds.

She's tried digging but to no avail.

So how do we help her?

- Well keeping up with it and making sure as soon as you get green in the ground up, you pull it.

Again, you could put any kind of non-selective herbicide in a container and gloves and a sponge and just tap it on it to keep it away from all the other plants.

I've also seen people put a cup, a small cup over the top of their sprayer so that they nozzle can put the, you know, put the little cup over it and just spray that particular plant to get it away to not broadcast it to rest of the bed.

But you can keep pulling it again.

You can keep pulling it and you gotta keep up with that and have to have the time.

And some people say, well, I've done it.

I did it last month.

Well last month might be too long for it to regenerate and it likes the season and it's gonna grow even more.

So yeah, just keep up with it.

And I'd say a non-selective herbicide, other than pulling it would be the best way to selectively get rid of it in the bed.

- In the bed.

Anything you wanna add to that Celeste?

- No, other than, you know, was it in a bed or was it in a grassy like area?

- It was in her flower bed.

- Oh, okay.

In the flower bed, okay.

Then yes, that would be the best approach.

You know, some folks can have issues with quack grass in turf grass areas, and so that is a whole 'nother approach.

Yes, you could, you know, try to control with spot spraying of individual, you know, occurrences throughout that turf area with non-selective, but then you have, you know, dead spots all throughout your turf.

So you know that that one's a kind of a difficult issue, but they tend to prefer compacted soils that don't have thick vegetative growth on them already.

So by just healthy turfs we can, that are going to out-compete and not allow that open space for the sun to hit the soil surface and allow those seeds to germinate.

That would be an approach for that weed issue in a turf grass type area.

- Right.

- And of course she can mulch it.

If it's bed, she can mulch it, she can put pre-emergents down when the seeds, you know, to keep the seed bed down so they won't keep regenerating themselves.

But, you know, some people don't like that.

Mulching would help.

- Yes.

You know, it's very difficult, you know, to try to eradicate.

Yeah, but it's in a flower bed setting.

Pull it, you know, pull it.

If you have moist, you know, conditions, it's easier to come out.

Something else too, when you're pulling it, especially if we have a mature quack grass weed, you gonna have to do.

Yeah, I would get a bag of something.

Put it it in the bag because if you shake it up, yeah, it's gonna be full of seeds.

So you're just spreading those seeds, you know, throughout the bed.

So Ms. Deb, you got some work to do, all right?

Yeah, good luck to you.

I hope that helps you out.

All right, here's our next viewer email.

"How do I get rid of the leaf miners on my Myer lemon?"

And this is Timothy from Palm City, Florida.

So what do you think about that one Joellen?

- Oh wow.

- Leaf miners.

- Yeah, leaf miners.

I've had problems with leaf miners on different types of plants, but the plant must be stressed though.

It might have too much water or not enough water, one way or the other, because a stressed plant usually does get insects like that.

And the best time to treat them is in the spring when they first see signs of leaf miners in the ground and coming out in the leaves.

You know, it has to be a soil drench.

This is the, for unfortunately you can't spray the top of the leaf.

The insect is inside the leaf.

So in order for to get to get it, you have to do a soil drench of some type of insecticide so that the plant will take it up and then they, and it's easy.

That's the easiest way to get rid of leaf miners.

And you can just look at the labels.

There's, I'm sure there the Extension there can help them get labels an insecticide that will be good for their lemons and won't hurt the lemons.

- It won't hurt the lemons.

- No.

- Okay.

And that should be on the label, you think?

- I would think so, yes.

- You know, follow the label?

- Yeah.

Read and follow the label.

- Anything you wanted to add to that Celeste?

I see you there thinking, - Oh no, I'm just processing.

I think that was an excellent answer and I would probably lean towards a systemic drench as well.

- I think that's gonna be your choice.

You know, when those leaves are young and you know, starting to develop.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Because that maggot is actually, you know, gonna feed right inside of that leaf tissue, right?

So there's not gonna be a foliar application.

- And then when it matures and leaves the plant it's, I mean, it's a flying insect that point.

So I mean, applying anything foliarly is not going to do any good.

- Right.

So it might to be a foliar, it's gonna have to be a drench.

- Let me add one more thing.

So those drench products are systemic products.

So lots of times they hold labels for foliar application as well.

So all systemic means is that it, you know, is able to disperse itself to other parts of the plant, right?

So yes, there are systemic products that you can apply to a leaf that then enter into the internal parts of the plant systemically.

So, you know, imidacloprid comes to mind, there are imidacloprid products that have instructions for drench as well as foliar and/or bark application.

So yeah, different opportunities for application, but the product itself, we wanna look for things that are systemic, able to move within the plant, within.

- Yeah.

That is good, yeah.

So move throughout the vascular system of the plant.

- And it depends how big the plant is.

If it's a large plant I would send to wanna do the soil drench so it wouldn't over spray onto anything else.

And I would have be able to get it up into the tree where the leaves are.

- And it'll take a while.

It's not something that's gonna like happen overnight.

You're not gonna drench, you know, your tree one day and then like three days later cured your leaf miner problem.

You know, it takes time to disperse throughout the plant and the larger the plant, the longer it's gonna take.

- Right.

Right.

- Yeah, the leaf miners that I've had here and different other plants, sometimes it's taken two years to get rid of them.

So... - But the good thing about the systemic products, they have a long residual.

Right.

I mean, so that definitely does help.

But yeah, again, you know, make sure, Timothy, that you read and follow the label because, you know, for the homeowners you may not be able to get, you know, one of those systemics that have the foliar, you know, applications that you can actually apply, right?

So be cognizant of that, right?

- One more thing.

Yeah.

Is that there?

- This is good.

- I know.

Is that there are also, I mean, make sure that the one that you're using is labeled for use on food crops.

And as long as you are using it according to label directions, it's gonna be safe to eat those lemons.

So you see where I'm going with that?

Yeah.

So I mean, yes.

Lots of advantages to using those systemic products.

They're softer on our beneficial insects because they're, you know, not coming into direct contact with them.

So lots of, lots of benefits, if we use them properly.

- Yep.

So let's use it properly, Timothy.

Again, read 'em, follow the label on that.

We want you to be safe.

All right.

Thank you for that question.

We appreciate that.

"Is there a way to get rid of fairy rings in our grass?"

And this is Art from Olive Branch, Mississippi.

He says there is one under each of his oak trees, Celeste.

- Okay.

- Fairy ring, so what do you think about that?

- Well, unfortunately there is not going to be a magic solution as in the most, you know, most cases for things relating to plants, right?

We've come to find that out.

So there's not a product that he can, you know, go out and spray and it's gonna make these fairy rings go away.

But I can describe the conditions that are favorable for fairy rings and if we could change some of those conditions, then you would have a higher likeliness of moving away from them coming into being.

So fairy rings, I don't, I say prefer, we're gonna see them most often in compacted soils.

Soils that aren't able to accept and retain moisture.

Sometimes they're, if we have heavy thatch layers, thatches what's left over from the mowing of turf grasses, that can actually create like a hydrophobic layer.

And so the water, whenever it rains or we have irrigation, is never actually getting down to that soil surface.

So it's a combination of compacted soil areas and hydrophobic type films over those soils that aren't letting the moisture get down into the soil.

So if we can do some aeration, do some things to help loosen that soil and create pockets for water to get down into the soil profile, then that is gonna help with occurrences of fairy rings.

But then you have to think about the root system of those oak trees, right?

Are these mature, you know, old growth oak trees that are providing a large amount of shade.

Their root systems are going beyond their drip line, right.

The drip line of their canopies.

We have to be careful when we're doing any kind of disturbances in the root zones of trees.

There's like a rule of thumb, I think, is it like you don't wanna disturb more than like a third of the root zone of a, you know, a mature tree when we're doing any kind of renovations like this.

So you may not be able to do the whole area in one year, right?

So aeration is like cores that are essentially poking down into the soil and pulling those cores of the soil out, allowing them to lay on the surface of the soil mixed with that thatch and break down.

And so we've got these pockets for air and water to go down into.

So that's helping loosen that soil, helping water and air get down in there, but could also be causing damage to that root zone.

So you may not be able to do the entire area in one year.

I mean, I know that you are high on tree health and care, or would that be a good recommendation?

- Yeah, that's a great recommendation because I have treated fairy rings that were, it was compacted.

Trees were there in the past, which is why there's probably organic matter under the ground.

That was why we were getting fairy, but it was compacted so we, yeah, aerated it just like you said, fertilize it.

That's another thing you could do to fertilize it.

Try to get everything to be green around it and it kind of disguises the fairy ring, but the mushrooms still gonna be there and trying to get rid of all of that... - So let's stay there for a second.

Let's stay there for a second.

So what causes the mushrooms itself?

What causes fairy rings?

- It's organic matter in the soil.

And it could be an old root and if you've got a lots of roots.

Yeah, you're, think in the forest, where are you gonna find mushrooms?

They're in the forest where the root system is for the trees.

Good and bad.

- And fairy rings can display themselves in like three different forms.

So it might be circles of mushrooms, right?

So we are seeing that fruiting body happening above the soil surface.

It could display itself as just a ring of grass or vegetation that grows more vigorously than all the other vegetation around it.

On the flip side, it could be like a dead ring where everything else appears to be growing normally.

And this one ring is showing no growth or reduced growth.

So it can show its face in a few different ways.

- I think that's pretty interesting.

So recently I heard of course Dr.

Bowling, Becky Bowling's a turf grass specialist, talk about fairy wings.

So to your point, type one, type two, type three, right?

So type one you usually see on golf courses.

Type two you see the lush green growth, you know, in your lawns.

Type three fairy rings you actually see in the fall after rain.

So how about that?

So type one, type two, type three.

- But all of it has to do with compacted soil, - Compacted soils, just like y'all talked about.

It is pretty much a cosmetic issue, you know, at the end of the day.

So you just kind of let it be, enjoy it.

You know, if you listen to, you know, medieval forklore, right?

They pop up after the fairies dance in that area.

How about that?

- There you go.

So get out there with your kids and have good fun.

Make up a fairytale.

- There you have it, Art.

See that's what happened when you read some of your kids' stories.

How about that?

You learn something.

So thank you so much for that question.

Here's our next viewer email.

All right.

"So what is this on my Mloukheyeh plant?

It's a way to treat it organically?"

And this is Fatma from McLean, Virginia.

All right.

So what do you think about that one, Celeste?

And I know we talked about this one.

We all kind of talked about it.

Didn't know how familiar we were with that plant.

- I was not familiar with that plant at all.

I had to get on the search engine and discover what this was.

So it's a type of jute plant.

And looking into it a a little more deeply and its growth habits and pests and diseases that are commonly associated with this plant.

And then seeing the pictures that the viewer had sent in to kind of accompany this question, I'm leaning towards a stem lesion that's caused by an anthracnose pathogen, right?

So that's a disease that is displaying itself on the stem near the inner nodes and is conducive when we have like hot, humid type conditions.

So where were they from again?

Virginia.

- Virginia.

- Yeah.

So I'd imagine it's humid in Virginia.

[laughing] And so as far as control, there are some products that you can use for control of these types of diseases, but for homeowners, the majority of them are preventative, so not curative.

It would have to be applying a fungicide before these circumstances even become an issue.

So if they've been growing this plant for a number of years and they know it always happens, be proactive and start trying to get those fungicide applications on when the plant is young.

before it really starts to develop lots of vegetation.

You can imagine the bigger the plant gets, the more humid it's gonna be inside that plant canopy.

So making sure that you get good coverage, just like we discussed before, staying on top of those reapplications.

One application is not gonna last all season.

And that's really the best that we can hope for.

- Yeah.

- And when you're harvesting it, instead of just harvesting all in one place, try to think of opening the plant up so we've got a good air circulation.

And take some from here, some from over here and not all in one place to get that huge amount of growth just in one area, which is gonna not have the air circulating, so... - Which is important.

- Yeah.

Just so I know they grow it probably 'cause they eat it, so...

But just when you're pruning it, take it from different areas to try to open the plant up and that will help dry it out and have less chance of the other diseases and watch your watering.

Don't overwater it.

- That's right.

Don't overwater.

All right Fatma, that was good information there.

Yeah.

We all learned something new.

- I know.

What a fun plant.

I always wanted to meet a new plant.

- That is so good.

- I like that.

- So thank you for the introduction Fatma we appreciate that.

All right, here's our next viewer email.

"Why do all my peaches all fall off the tree every year when they get about two inches in diameter?"

And this is Susan.

So I think we all gonna talk about this a little bit, right?

So we start with you Joellen, what do you think about that?

So they're all falling off, I think about two itches.

- Yeah.

I would think that it could be a pollination problem.

It's got low pollination.

If she doesn't have a lot of insects or bees to pollinate the plant, maybe you should take up beekeeping and make sure you have some bees around it.

But I think that's...

I mean it sounds like it's healthy.

It sounds like she's getting peaches to form but they don't go anywhere and that sounds like it's not been pollinated enough to keep growing.

- Right.

So she has thinned and used an insect drench.

So what do you think about that, Celeste?

She has thinned them and she used an insect drench.

- Well I feel like she's, you know, heading in the right direction.

So if we see trees that are dropping heavy loads of fruit, one of my first inclinations would be like, well let's thin the fruit ourselves.

And I mean that's a mechanism of those plants.

If they have too heavy of a load, they will self prune and drop the fruit that they know that they cannot support but would typically retain a number of fruit as well.

So I mean they're not just gonna like drop all the fruit because they know they can't sustain all of them, right?

So, yes.

So I like that she is being proactive and doing fruit thinning.

So to kind of take that off the table, we know that that really isn't contributing to this situation.

I like that she or the viewer, I'm not sure has done a root drench.

Because that's helping us know that we are, this is not likely being caused from any kind of insect infestation or feeding.

You know, there's a number of fruit borers that attack peaches.

But that's pretty evident.

I mean, they would see entry and exit holes on the fruit.

So if they're not seeing that, I feel like I'm leaning towards, you know, the first part of our discussion with the pollination issue.

And then they didn't mention if the fruits look normal when they drop, do they look normal or are they kind of withered?

Are they a little shriveled that may be like a mummification, right.

So that might be from a disease.

Raising peaches in this area of Tennessee can be challenging because of the number of diseases that they're prone to contract.

And so we really have to get on and stay on a routine fungicide application treatment for our peaches.

So those, that would be where I would end up.

I'd say let's look at the possibility of this being caused by some kind of disease.

Maybe is it a brown rot?

Is it a, I don't know what all the different number of possibilities that that could be.

Or maybe a pollination issue.

- Right.

Yeah, so circle back around.

Yeah, so I think it's a pollination issue, right?

'Cause I can hear Mr. D in a head right now telling me this.

He says Chris, peaches, plums, nectars, nectarines always have to be on a spray schedule, right?

So it goes to the point, could it be a disease, could it be something stressing out the tree at the bottom, you know, there's a lesser peach tree borer.

There's a peach tree borer.

Could that be the case that's actually causing those limbs to abort, you know, the fruit?

Or yeah, thinning.

He talks about thinning all the time.

So you thin a half or a third, you know of those peaches, right?

Because yeah, you want them to get big, You want big peaches, right?

So I mean that's something to look at as well.

But yeah, lack of pollination.

Yeah.

That's also, you know, something that may, you know, cause those fruit to abort.

So there's a lot of different things going on there Ms. Susan.

But yeah, thank you for being proactive.

You did thin, you used the insect drench.

So hopefully, hopefully the next year things will work out for you.

All right.

So thank you for that question.

We appreciate that.

Alright, here's our next viewer email.

"If I use a drench close to my pecan trees, will that make the pecans inedible?"

And this is Chris from Dallas, Texas.

He says he needs to treat two holly plants with scale under his pecan tree, Celeste.

- Yeah.

- So how about that?

- Yeah, I think it's completely fine.

And I'm just gonna say he needs to select a product that is also labeled for safe use on pecans, right?

If he's wanting to collect those pecans and eat those pecans, we need to make sure that whatever the systemic product is that he selects has a safe recommendation label for edible crops.

And so that's, I don't wanna say it's tricky, he's just gonna have to pay attention because some products are going to clearly be marketed as landscape application products, right, for ornamental trees and shrubs.

If he opens that product label up and reads through there and does not see recommendations for use on edible plants/crops, that's not the product for him.

I'm not saying that, you know, yes that would be appropriate to use on the hollies for control of that scale, but it's not gonna, it doesn't have a label on it.

So that's against the law, right?

So we've gotta find a product that has an edible label as well as instructions for use on those ornamental landscape settings as well.

So just finding a product that has that broader spectrum label is where the niche is going to be.

- I would agree with that.

That's good.

- Yeah, that's good.

- Yeah, that's good.

Yeah.

Make sure the product has a label, read and follow the label.

Yeah.

- Yeah.

I mean they, pecans, they do insecticide drenches and everything on pecans.

- Pecan phylloxera, stink bugs.

- Stink bugs.

Oh yeah.

All sorts of stuff.

So I mean it will be doable.

He should be able to find a product fairly easy.

- Alright.

And I think that'll help you out, Chris.

Yeah, we need to find out what's going over those holly plants too, right?

He has scales.

So yeah, get those scales.

Yeah.

Treat it.

All right?

Read and follow the label.

All right.

Thank you for that question.

We appreciate that.

All right, so Celeste, Joellen, that was fun as always.

Learned so much too at the same time, right?

Yeah, so thank y'all so much for those questions.

Thank y'all for being here.

Remember we love to hear from you.

Send us an email or letter.

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