- Hi, thanks for joining us for The Family Plot:
Gardening in the Mid-South. I'm Chris Cooper. Our vegetable garden
can provide food, but it can also leave a
gardener with lots of questions. Today, we are answering some. It's The Q&A Show, next 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 m
usic] - Welcome to The Family
Plot, I'm Chris Cooper. Whether it is
problems with peppers, disease that wipes out
your crops, or soil issues, there always seems to
be a puzzling problem in the home vegetable garden. That happened to some of
our viewers last season, and they sent us
their questions. Today we're answering them. Hopefully our answers
will help you too. Let's start with a
question about leeks. [upbeat country music] "My leeks are growing
well, I think." [Celeste laughs]
"What should
I do to get them "to fully mature
with thick stalks? "I thought about using
hay to shade them. "Will this work? When should I expect them
to be ready for harvest?" And this is Brian from
Powell, Tennessee. So, if you know
anything about leeks, leeks are, Celeste,
- No, I do not. - Related to onions. I actually know some
folks who grow leeks. - Oh, good, I'm gonna
let you carry this. - At Shelby County
Community Gardens. - I'm gonna let you carry
on this leek situation. - So, the thing about the
leeks is going to be this. I'll answer the last
question first, right? So we're look at
about 100 to 120 days to full maturity. - Okay, that's a long,
that's a long time that you gotta be
watching these leeks grow. - That's a long time. So this is what one of
those gardeners told me. And I listen to these
seasoned gardeners who've been around
for a while, right? So he uses transplants, okay? So when he plants
them in the ground, he plants half of the
leeks in the ground. Half of the leek
transp
lants in the ground. So you have a half
in the ground, half up top.
- Okay. - As it starts to grow,
guess what he does? He uses the soil to hill up the area around the leeks.
- Around it. Okay. - Right, which allows
for more growth and also for blanching, right? Blanching is good for nutrition. - Okay, that helps
what, turn it white? - Helps to turn it white.
- Okay. - So that's what
it's for, right? So this is what a couple of
those gardeners like to do, and it seems to work. - Seems to work.
-
It seems to work. - So it sounds like his thought
about maybe using hay... - So using hay?
- Could work to help blanch? - I think it could work, right. But you're going to be
doing some hilling up, that soil up against the
leeks themselves, right? Which allows for better growth, - When you said the
season was so long, so 120 days. And then he was
concerned about them not like getting really
thick stalks. Maybe they're just
not mature enough? - They're not mature enough.
- To have those. - Maybe
they're
not mature enough. I mean, that's something
to think about, right? Because again, you
got to be patient. And I'm sure they probably
have some varieties that are probably early. You know, your
probably 60, 80 days, or something like that,
but for the most part, the ones that I know
that grow in this area, pretty much 100 to 120 days. And these folks have been growing them forever, right?
- Yeah. - But that's the method they
use, and it seems to work. But yeah, patience is involved. So yo
u're right, maybe he's just not
letting them mature enough. - I'm going to branch
out and try some leeks. - Try some leeks. I bet you had it before
and didn't realize you were eating leeks,
right, but they are good. All right, so, Brian, thank
you much for that question. We appreciate that. Yeah, so using the hay
we think could work. - Yeah.
- Right? But you definitely have
to hill up the soil around those leeks, right? For full maturity. [upbeat country music] "My okra plants were producing
goo
d fruit regularly. "But now the flower
buds don't even open. What is going on?" This is Saul on YouTube. Booker, I know you like
okra plants, don't you? - Man, but I'm just surprised
about the okra plant. We had the okra
plant in our yard, didn't nothing happen to it. It just stayed... I mean, we want something
to happen to my okra plant. To pick it...
- Tough to pick. - It's hard, but... Could be heat in there,
cause them to do that in there. But, but okra plant is a
really little tough plant f
or me in the landscape
and in your garden. So, I don't know. - Yeah, Alainia, it's
probably heat stress? That's what I'm thinking about. Because yeah, anytime
we have hot, dry weather, and the temperatures here
specifically in Memphis have been above, you know,
of course 90 degrees. So yeah, the flower
production is gonna decline, you know, just due
to heat, right? What you can do though, you can actually cut
that okra plant back above the soil line
6 to 12 inches, right? You can get a fall crop
. - Fall crop.
- Fall crop, right? - So there's bad
news and good news. - Yeah, so it's
bad, it's good news. - The bad news, you can't
do anything about the heat. But the good news is, you
can look forward to fall. And it's going to
cool off eventually. - It is. - If we could just even
get the nighttime temps up, you know, whereas 80
degrees, 90 degrees at night, it's still there
under a lot of stress. - Right, because yeah, the
plant is steady working twenty-four hours a day
when the temperatur
es are so warm at night. They don't get a
chance to [exhales] - Breathe.
- It'll get better. - Yeah.
- It'll cool off. - Let them cool off now, yeah.
- It can't cool off like that. So, that's what I think that is, environmental stress,
which is going be heat stress, right? Which is going to cause
the flower production again to decline
and almost shut off. - Like I said, we've been
staying hot at night. - Yeah.
- It's not getting a break. The plant's not getting a break. It is hot in the
daytime,
hot at night. So that's problem.
- It's working itself to death. - Working itself to death. It can't hardly, it
can't survive in there. If you do water your okra plant, try to do early the
morning time in there. But that's a tough
little plant, though. - Yeah, so consistent
watering, you know, as well. But yeah, just look forward
to a fall crop though. - That's good.
- That's what I would say. - And yeah, you shouldn't
be able to kill it. - No.
[everyone laughs] - It'll make it through.
- It'll
make it through, yeah. [upbeat country music] - "What's a collard green
plant that resists bugs?" And this is Joe. Wouldn't we all like
plants that resist bugs? [everyone laughs] So, so Lee what you
think about that? Is there a collard green
plant that resists bugs? - I don't know of a
collard green plant itself that would resist bugs, or a variety that
would resist bugs. I don't think that has
been developed yet. - Yeah, maybe we need
to get on that, right? [everyone laughs] Ms. Kim, what do
y
ou think about that? - That would be great.
- Wouldn't that be great? - Yeah, yeah. Maybe they can, you
know, the genetics, they can breed that into it. But I think the insects adapt. If you change, they change. - They change too, yeah. It would be nice to have
a collard green plant that could do that. But yeah, we know what
the cabbage looper, the cabbageworm, the
harlequin bug, the aphids. - Yeah.
- Oh, they're going to come. They're going to come, for sure. - Just plant enough
for them, I gue
ss. - Just plant enough, oh yeah. Plant your Flash,
your Champion variety of collard greens,
you'll be fine. - Right.
- You'll be fine. So what is the best way to
treat, like you had aphids, you know, in your
collard greens? - You could use some of
the horticulture oils, would be a good way
to try to control. - Sure, sure. And if you, you know,
for the cabbageworm, the cabbage looper, Bt.
- Bt, right. - Javelin, DiPel. Just read and follow the label. You know, give them
the stomach ache. They go
away, they die. But yeah, that'd be
interesting if we could... - Yeah. - Yeah, breed a
collard green plant that could resist bugs, Joe. So, we'll get on that
for you, all right? [upbeat country music] "I planted Peaches and
Cream corn", which is good. - I love it.
- "I bought at the local "feed store and not one came up. "I planted it again and
again, the same thing. "What's going on? "I have grown corn there before. I put triple-10 down first." And this is Richard from
Greenville, Tennessee. T
he corn is not coming up. It's not coming up. He's seeded, it's not coming up. - I feel your pain.
[Chris chuckles] Because, you know, you think, well, I can start planting
warm-season vegetables after the middle of April. - Mm? - Because it's time.
- It's time. It should be time.
- But the weather this spring, and the last few
springs, has been cold. And I did that mistake. I said, oh, I wanna get ahead 'cause I wanna get corn growing. So I planted seeds and
it was too cold and they, they did n
ot come up. And it was Peaches
and Cream too. - Peaches and cream is good.
- Yeah. - If the soil is too
damp and too cold... - Too damp and too cold, yeah.
- The seeds will not germinate. - It won't, it won't. You got to wait 'til
the soil temperature is at least 70 degrees. Corn likes it warm. - Corn likes it hot, yeah. [Chris chuckles] Yeah, definitely have
to have, you know, warmer soil temperatures. - And it can't be wet. - And it definitely
can't be wet. - I mean, it can be
moist but not we
t. - Yeah, just rot out the roots. - Yeah.
- So again, if it's cold, the soil is damp, [Chris makes buzzer sound] - And, what happened
is they probably rotted in the ground before
the temperature was correct for them to germinate. - Probably, yep. - So that's what
I'm thinking happened. - That's definitely what
I'm thinking happened. So you're going to have to plant a little later, Mr. Richard. Yeah, wait 'til that
soil warms up, you know? Seventy degrees or more.
- Just make sure it's well drai
ned first. And, if he's planted
there before, I'm hoping he's
rotating his crops too. - Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- So he's not planting corn in the same place every year. - Yeah, yeah. - Because I don't plant, I have square and I just, every few years I
move the corn around. - Right. Now that's a good point. There's something else
I like to mention too, using the triple-10. Is that according
to the soil test? - Yeah, I was gonna say, make sure you need a
soil test because I, my garden wasn't doing
well
and I got a soil test. And I realized, all I
needed was nitrogen. 'Cause the other phosphorus,
potassium were very high. - Yeah.
- I didn't need that. So all I needed was nitrogen. And once I did that and
stopped putting, you know, other products on there, the garden did a lot better. - Yeah, it makes a difference. Yeah, it definitely does. I mean, we say it a
lot, but we mean it because it does, you
know, make a difference. - It helps. - pH is all about
nutrient availability. So yeah, make sur
e you get
that soil tested, Mr. Richard. But yeah, we're
thinking yeah, cold... - It's too cold. - Damp soils.
- And too wet. - Yeah. This has been a
very unusual spring. The last couple of years, like you mentioned.
- Yeah, it has. [upbeat country music] "Hi Chris. "Every year we plant tomatoes,
yellow squash, and cucumbers. "They seem to always have
a limited growing season "of about three weeks. "Tomatoes and cucumbers grow
the first part of July, "then wilt and die after
three weeks of beari
ng. "I just put down three
yards of certified composts "and I tried to get
indeterminate plants. "Also, I'm keeping up
with daily watering "in the hot days, but
careful not to overwater. "What's up, and how can I
extend the production season "up to frost if possible? Many thanks." And this is John from
Columbia, South Carolina. So it's good that
he's trying to grow all these different vegetables. But here's the thing, Celeste, tomatoes and cucumbers,
they will wilt and die. So what do we think
a
bout the tomato first. - Okay.
- Then we'll talk about the cucumber.
- Let's go tomatoes first. So, from the
picture that we saw, this looks very
similar to a blight, called early blight.
- Yes. - That we see on tomatoes. And it's a little confusing because it's called
early blight, but it doesn't always
happen early in the season. - Right, right.
- And they're like, it can't be early blight. We're in July. And I'm like, don't get
caught up in terminology. - Yeah, you're exactly right. - So that
's just
what we call it. It is soil borne. So like water, when it rains, it can splash up from the
soil onto the bottom leaves. You'll start seeing
death happening on those leaves nearest
the ground on the plant. And it'll work its way up. And there's a small
degree of this. It's gonna happen
eventually on the tomatoes. A lot of people
call that firing up. - Yes, I've heard that.
- Looks like they've been fired up from
the bottom, you know. But we certainly don't
want this disease to take out yo
ur plants
that early in the season before they've had
time to really produce a good harvest for you. So, the best way to manage
that is to start early before any signs of
foliar damage really are showing with preventative
applications of fungicide. The fungicides that are
available to homeowners are not curative in nature. So, once you see signs
of disease on the bottom, we'll say, two sets of leaves, you can count on those
leaves falling off. - Yes you can. [chuckles] - But when you spray
it wi
th the fungicide, you're protecting the leaves that haven't already been
exposed to those fungal spores. - Good. - So, that would be my best
recommendation for that, is just start early with a plan to have preventative fungicide
sprays on your tomatoes every two weeks.
- And something else? - According to label.
- Yeah, according to label. And something else I'd
like to add to that, mulch. - Yes, oh that would be good. That's gonna help
prevent splash up. Yeah, definitely, use
a mulch of some so
rt. - Okay, so what
about the cucumbers? What do you think about that? - The cucumbers,
while it looks similar, 'cause they're both
wilting and right? And turning yellow
and drying up. That is being caused from a
completely different situation. Most likely feeding
from cucumber beetles that has vectored
bacterial wilt to those plants. Super common.
- Yes. - Nothing that this
person is doing wrong. Cucumber beetles are
in our environment. I've even was
telling you earlier, been noticing them on a
ll
kinds of plants in my garden. Not that they're
hurting my flowers, but I'll be out there
working around and I'm like, "What's that cucumber
beetle doing over here?" [Chris laughs] The garden's over there.
- Yeah. - But, definitely we
need to spray to control those cucumber beetles
so that we don't vector that disease and
get the decline, early decline of our plants. - Yeah.
- Yeah, those would help. - Those would
definitely help, yeah. - So just do some scouting. - Scouting... - Scout around,
make
sure that you know what you're looking for
as far as insects go. So that you know how to
time your applications. - Exactly right. And something else I'd
like to mention as well, how about resistant varieties? Could there be some
resistant varieties out there for your tomatoes?
- Yeah, there certainly can. So, when you buy a tomato plant and you look at the tag, it'll have all these
strange capital letter, look like acronym abbreviations. And those stand for a variety
of different diseases.
So, you know, TSWV is Tomato Spotted Wilt Virus. EB is early blight.
- Yeah. - LB, late blight,
and it goes on and on. There's lots of
diseases of tomatoes. But certainly check those tags and see if you know that you've been struggling
with early blight, see if you can find one that
has some resistance with that. [upbeat country music] - "I'm thinking this
is a cucumber beetle, "but I'm not sure. "It is really
destroying my garden. Would you know a non-pesticide
way to get rid of them?" And thi
s is Mike from
Buckley, Washington. So thank you for
that picture, Mike. That's a good
picture you had there. Is it a cucumber beetle? Oh yes.
- Yeah. [Chris laughs] - Oh yes, okay. But how would you get rid of it? Non-pesticide way.
[Joellen claps] - I would like smash it. [Joellen laughs] I'd pick it off
and I would smash it. - You would smash it? - Yeah, because you
know, a lot of the... You can use pyrethroids
and stuff like that, but you have to
actually get them on. - You got to contact th
e beetle. - Yeah, the contact. And sometimes you
don't see them. - Yeah. - Because the problem is
they'll bite the vegetable and then they
transfer the wilts. - Yeah, the bacterial.
- The bacterial. The bacterial wilt
and oh my goodness. - And when that happens...
- That's what just... Everything's gone, yeah. It's a downhill from there. So I don't, you know, other
than that, the pyrethroids. - Yeah, you can do
the pyrethroids. That neem oil, but again, it has to be there
for you to contact it.
- If you have neem oil and
you don't want to smash it, you can just chase them
around and spray them. - Spray 'em. - But, I mean, contact
insecticides are probably the least lethal way to do that. And they're hard to catch. - Right yeah, 'cause
they, you know, they can move pretty
rapidly and they can fly. - Yeah. - So those would be
pretty tough to use. But there are non
pesticide ways to control. There's a couple
other things, right? So you can use
floating row covers. - Oh, that's true. - Rig
ht, so you can
cover the plants. But then the thing about
it is you have to remove the row cover once
the plant in bloom. - That's true.
- So they get pollinated. - 'Cause you want
the bees to pollinate it. - Right, so you want them
them to get pollinated, so that's the thing about
the floating row cover. Something else that you can do is you can plant late. How about planting later? - Yeah.
- Okay. Or how about a trap crop? Just how about that. So you just plant
something else, you know, and ju
st let them have at that while you have this over here. - Yeah. - So that's something
else you could do. Or resistant varieties?
- Wait, yeah, and... - If there are any out there,
- And you can have-- - Do a little research.
- And then you can have the cucumber beetle
can bite them and they can have that the
the plant that it's biting is resistant to
the bacterial wilt. - Yep, at least
you have a plant. - At least you have your plant
and your fruits and stuff. - Yeah, so I mean those
are some of
the things I would consider, you know, if you, you know, don't
want to use neem oil, the pyrethroids...
- Or touch them. - Yeah, or touch them. But the floating row
covers, something's good, resistant varieties
if you can find that. Trap crop, you know, let
'em eat something else or just plant later. You know, 'cause by the
time the larva matures, becomes an adult, that's
early in the season. So they'll find
some else to eat. - Yeah, yes.
- And then you can have, you know, what you need in
your
own garden there, Mike. So, thank you for that question. And if you have any other
questions about that, yeah, do check with your
local Extension Office there. They may have some publications. - Yeah, and they may have...
- Can help you with control. - A good timing for him also. - Exactly, they sure may. [upbeat country music] "What is this stuff growing
on the bottom of my tomatoes?" And this is Jerome from
Millington, Tennessee. So what you think about that
doc, on the bottom right? - Yeah,
yeah. - We all grow tomatoes.
- Yeah, he had a picture. - He had it, so yeah. - So, I think we
all kind of agreed after we saw it, that
it was blossom end rot. - Yeah, blossom end rot. - Which is really,
really common. You know, especially with
our up and down water and rain and you know? So, that's a problem
that is only remedied with regular watering
and making sure you've got the pH right.
- That's right, exactly right. - So the calcium can be
uptake- 'cause there's a lack of calcium.
- Lack
of calcium, yeah. I would recommend mulching. You know, as well,
to help regulate, you know, soil moisture.
- That's true. That would be a good, yeah. - For sure, anything you
wanna add to that Mr. John? Yeah, this is, yeah,
definitely common. - No, definitely common. I think you covered it. - Oh, and it's
not just tomatoes. You know, you can get it
on squash and watermelons. And cucumbers and
all kind of things. - You sure can. - But typically, I
think most commonly, people realize that's
what
it is on tomatoes. - On tomatoes, and it's
the lack of calcium when that fruit is starting
to develop and enlarge. [upbeat country music] "We live near farm fields. "Is there anything
you can do to protect garden tomatoes from
farm herbicides?" And this is Clarence from
Walnut Ridge, Arkansas. Get that question a
lot around this way. Especially in the
Millington area. - Yeah. - So, I'm sure
you're very familiar with some of those questions.
- I am, I am. And you know, I've
worked in the industry
. - I know you have. - I've worked with farmers
and I work with homeowners. And I have a sister, Charlotte, lives over in
Caruthersville, Missouri, and she's unable
to grow tomatoes. She's not been able
to grow tomatoes for the last several years. My suggestion is to
talk to the farmer. See if you can identify, see if you can identify
where, which farmer. And if you know which
field it's coming from, go talk to the farmer
and just tell them that you like to grow tomatoes. And it may affect the c
rops that he plants
close to your house. - Okay. - He may completely
change so that he's not using one
of the herbicides that is very, the tomatoes
are very susceptible to. They may do that. He may offer to pay
you for the tomatoes if you've lost some. And I know Clarence is probably
not interested in that. He's probably not interested
in being paid for them. He just wants to be
able to grow tomatoes. Most people like
homegrown tomatoes. But, that's the
first thing I'd do. I'd go talk to the
far
mer and, you know, it doesn't have to be a
confrontational situation. Just say, hey, you know,
he probably knows him. They're probably friends. They may go to church together. - Right. - Just say, "Man, you know, "I sure am having trouble
growing tomatoes now for some reason, I don't
know what the problem is." And, and you know. But that's the best
way to handle that. - I like that. - Talk, communication, and see if you can work something out. - Right. I'm with you. Yeah, if you just
communicate
, you know, with the farmer,
maybe that helps. - Yeah, it may change. He may simply, you know, will
plant something else there where we won't have to
use one of those products. [upbeat country music] - "I want to transplant my
strawberries to a raised bed. "I then got concerned
about freeze risk. "How long before a frost do I need to move
my strawberries?" And this is Kevin from
Paola, Kansas, Mr. D. So he wants to transplant
those strawberries, right, before the frost. - Before the frost.
- Bef
ore the frost. - And, you know, and
strawberries are perennial, so they can stand cold weather. They kind of go dormant
in the wintertime. In Paola, Kansas,
I would look around and try to figure out
when the commercial guys are planting their strawberries, and that's when I
would transplant mine. And it may be four weeks before the average killing frost
or something like that. Give them a little chance to
have some root development. The commercial guys are
just planting crowns. And they're not
p
utting, you know, live plants out there. They are live plants, but they're just the
strawberry crowns. So that might, you know, be a little factor. You may want to go a
little bit earlier. I don't know. So this is not something
that's typically done, you know, most of the time. You might want to consider
getting some strawberry crowns and putting 'em
in the raised beds and leaving these alone. You know, I don't know how many
you're talking about doing. You may have better
luck, you know, startin
g out with crowns
rather than a whole plant. - Interesting. - I've had a lot of bad luck
transplanting whole plants. The larger they are, the harder they are
for me to get to live when I'm planting
a bare-root plant. And that goes for trees,
shrubs, or anything. If I go with a
small one, you know, I have a lot better luck
than I do with a large one. So, I don't know. That's just kind of a
different kind of question. But, you know, four weeks. Two to four weeks before
killing frost, you know, if
you've done them. That'll do the trick for you. - Hopefully, she
can dig enough soil with the roots that
she's transplanting, so that will be less of a shock for them to transplant also. And, you know, and mulch it, when you get done.
- Mulch it, yeah. - I would say water it. Make sure you get it watered in - Water it in, good. - And mulch it - Mulch it.
- More contact, that's right. - And, see what happens. - See what happens. [upbeat country music] "We love fresh peppers and
our Hungarian hot
jalapeños "and sweet Italian
peppers did well. "But the habaneros
took so long to mature "that we lost most of
them to the frost. "Some of that was probably due "to a very cold, wet spring. "How can I improve their yields? I took these pictures right
before the first frost." And this is Eric and Sharon
in Pasco, Washington. - Oh.
- Okay. - So we had to think about
that, Washington right? - Yeah, so. So it is true that our
bells, our jalapeños, we're gonna be able to get
to fruiting sooner on tho
se. So a lot of those
hots, you know, we may have a longer season. So, I would think
about it in terms of, you know, a range
of, can we get in earlier in the spring, right? So they referenced
a cool wet spring, which actually we experienced
here in Tennessee. It was cold.
- Quite often, yeah. - 2022 was the latest
that I ever got in to the spring season. So are there things that
can help you get in earlier? Raised beds that drain faster. You know, so some of those sites may be able to give you
a
little bit of a window. The other thing is, and when I think
about hot peppers, especially ones that you're
probably not gonna use in a huge volume. You don't need that many plants. Maybe this is a
container option. It would allow you
to get in early. You could protect
later in the season to get a longer growing season. I know some hot
pepper aficionados who will overwinter
their peppers so that they have
a more mature plant starting earlier.
- How about that? - These are, obviously.
these woul
d be folks with greenhouses and
things like that. - I thought you were gonna
say crazy pepper people. - Well, I mean, I
wouldn't call any vegetable enthusiast crazy.
- Crazy, right. - But...
[everyone laughs] There are ways that you can
extend that growing season. I think containers would
be one of the things that I would go to. - Okay, that's good. Celeste, anything you
wanna add to that? - Nope. Nope, we're good. - Yeah, we let those
crazy vegetable... [everyone laughs] - Crazy pepper people.
[everyone laughs] - Nah, that is good. So Eric and Sharon, thank
you for that question. Yeah, Pasco, Washington, right? Yeah, so containers.
- Yeah. - There's your option there. Appreciate that.
- Growing earlier. - Yeah, early. Yeah, I do like that. I like that. Remember we love
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a thousand videos, and with each one, links
to Extension publications from all over the country. Thanks for watching,
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] [ac
oustic guitar chords]
Comments
Super Advice. I feel prepared to go out and get to planting❤