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Hi, I'm Chris Cooper.
Welcome to "The Family Plot: Gardening in the Mid-South."
Thanks for joining us.
We've been dormant for a couple of months this winter.
But we're back in time to help get your lawn and garden ready
for spring.
It won't be long until all kind of insect pests start to drive
us crazy.
For centuries, horticulture oils have been an important tool in
managing certain pest problems.
If you haven't done it already, now is the time to apply a
dormant oil.
So Mr.D is here to give us some tips on how,
when and where to use it.
And it won't be long until we start seeing those annoying
weeds popping up all over our lawns unless we listen to Booker
T Leigh.
He's here to help us get a jump start on a beautiful green lawn.
All of that and more is coming up next on "The Family Plot:
Gardening in the Mid-South," so stay with us.
(female announcer) This is a production of WKNO - Memphis.
Production funding for "The Family Plot: Gardening in the
Mid-South" is provided by Good Winds Landscape and Garden
Center in Germantown since 1943 and continuing to offer it's
plants for successful gardening with seven greenhouses and three
acres of plants plus comprehensive landscape
services..
[soft music] ♪♪♪
[theme music] ♪♪♪
Hi!
Welcome to "The Family Plot."
I'm Chris Cooper.
So to get us off to a good start in the new year,
Mr. D is here.
Glad to be here.
And helping us out with our lawn care issue,
Mr. Booker T Leigh.
I'm glad to be here.
Alright.
Booker's an extension agent right here in Shelby County.
Thanks for joining me.
Oh, glad to be here Chris.
Y'all ready to get it kicked off for the New Year?
Ready to get it kicked off!
Look, you guys have been dormant.
I've been hibernating.
[laughter]
This has been some good weather to hibernate in.
Long, cold winter.
I've never seen this in a long time.
I think this is a real winter this time.
This is a real winter.
We needed a real winter for a while though.
Alright.
Now speaking of winter, there are a number of pests you can
control with dormant oil.
Now is the time to do that.
So Mr. D, what do we need to know about dormant oil?
Okay.
Most of the dormant oils or the horticultural oils out there are
derived from petroleum sources or they're derived from mineral
oils.
And they do a real good job of controlling several of the
insect pests that over-winter on the bark of trees.
And examples of those include some of the mites,
aphids, and things like that.
Some of the caterpillar eggs like Eastern tent caterpillar
that we're gonna be seeing in a few weeks,
the oils help control those too.
They also have some activity, some fungicidal activities on
some of the fungal diseases, for example,
powdery mildew and some of those things like that.
They have some activity on them.
But now is a good time to put them out there provided you meet
the temperature restrictions on the label.
If it's gonna be below freezing, you don't need to apply it.
And then the main reason is if the temperatures are below 32
degrees when you put the oil out there,
it doesn't disperse as well.
And so you won't get as good of coverage and it won't work as
well.
It's not going to hurt the plant that you put it on.
Okay.
Also, you don't need to put it out there if it's over 100
degrees.
[laughter]
And I don't think that's gonna be a problem.
When you put, you know, summer oils out there or the lighter
oils out there, you don't want to do that when the temperatures
over 100 degrees because that could possibly hurt the plant.
The plant's stressed anyway at that time.
And you may have some phytotoxic problems and um..
But we're not worried about that right now.
Not right now.
Now let me ask you this.
What's the best temperature then?
The best temperature would be between 32 and 100 degrees.
[laughter]
Pretty much anywhere in that range.
So basically we're talking about if you get the temperatures up
to 40s and 50s and you know, you'll be okay.
Even the upper 30s.
But just make sure you get a good spray coverage.
These oils have changed over the years.
They've become better.
They're more refined.
They have things in them that help them disperse and make them
somewhat water soluble so they do a pretty good job.
They evaporate fairly quickly.
They won't hurt beneficial insects and they are fairly..
You know they don't hurt people either.
You know they aren't toxic to people.
So it's a good tool to use.
It's one of the best tools that you can use in the winter time.
And I highly recommend that you do that with especially your
fruit trees.
You know if you have problems with aphids on your shades and
other *** plants, you know you can use it too with those
dormant plants.
Ang again, it's like you said before.
Coverage is..
Coverage is very good.
You know very important to make sure you get good coverage.
You know you can use the same equipment that you use to put
out other pesticides.
Your sprayers will do a good job,
you know regular sprayers, backpacks and pump-up type
sprayers will do a good job putting the product out.
Okay, and this will be good for you Azalea lace bugs because I
know we'll get that question coming up here pretty soon.
One of those..
I mean it will help.
Okay.
But you really, really need to make sure you get the -- apply
that to the underside of the leaf to get good coverage on the
underside of the Azalea leaves.
Okay.
So we have dormant oils, summer oils,
spray oil.
What's the different between the three?
Well of course dormant oils..
At one time, dormant oils were a heavier oil.
And now, because the oils are so refined,
you can pretty much use, you know..
The term dormant oil simple means that you apply it during
dormancy.
We really use pretty much the same oils in the summer as the
winter time because they're so well-refined now.
Summer oil simply means -- if it's on the label,
it means that's the time of the year that you apply it.
So really not any difference between summer oil and a dormant
oil other than when you apply it.
And um..
The, uh, spray oils that you're talking about..
Now these are oils that you mix with pesticides to increase or
improve their affectiveness.
And so I know on the herbicides we use out there on the farm,
we always use crop oil concentrates and things like
that.
And some of the herbicides basically say you must do that
for them to be effective.
So you really, really need to real the label and,
you know, follow the label with oils like you do with anything
else.
And what was the other?
You said those are the three.
That's fine.
Now let me ask you this.
Can I make my own dormant oil?
Oh, you can!
You can!
Sure I can!
There is a..
There are a couple of recipes here.
Cornell has one.
And these are real recipes?
These are real recipes.
You know I can actually show you a picture of this.
But I've got three or four recipes here.
The one from Cornell basically..
You mix ultrafine canola oil.
I'm not really sure what ultrafine canola oil is.
I know that canola oil is a fine product.
But ultrafine product probably.
But it's just readily available and very commonly used out
there.
But one tablespoon of baking soda mixed with a gallon of
water, two tablespoons of ultra fine canola oil will..
So this is an example of a horticultural oil which is not..
Doesn't have a mineral oil base.
It's got a vegetable oil base.
And those work pretty well too.
And these recipes, most of them are using vegetable oils.
For example, Cornell also has a nourishing formula,
which also has insecticidal and fungicidal properties,
which has two tablespoons of horticultural oil.
So that would be a mineral based oil.
And a tablespoon of baking soda, a tablespoon of kelp -- seaweed.
And a tablespoon of mild dish soap mixed with a gallon of
water.
Another recipe is two tablespoons of baking soda,
five tablespoons of hydrogen peroxide.
So this is gonna bleach them out of a little bit.
Two tablespoons of castile soap, which is made from olive oil.
And a gallon of water.
So this one would be a vegetable oil based,
you know, product here.
And then another is a tablespoon of vegetable cooking oil and one
teaspoon of non-degreasing liquid dishwashing detergent.
So that means don't use Dawn.
Okay, wow!
But non-degreasing.
What is a non-degreasing dishwashing detergent?
Why would you want one that wouldn't break grease down?
[laughter]
May want to look a little harder at that one right there.
Alright, thanks Mr. D.
We definitely appreciate that information.
Good deal.
There are a number of gardening events going on in the next
couple of weeks.
Here are just a few that might interest you.
[theme music] ♪♪♪
Alright Booker, let's see if we can help the
people out with their lawns.
It's that time of year again.
And we're getting close to that time.
Man, I'm getting ready to pull that lawnmower again and get
that started two or three a week of cutting.
It's coming soon.
We're gonna let him have that cutting twice a week.
That's my exercise, man.
You know you need to get out there and cut that grass two or
three times a week and just really enjoy.
Like I said, the only thing I hate when I get out there is I
have no gas and need to get started.
But we're getting ready for it again.
We're gonna have to get you some gas.
Get me some gas and I'll get started and everything.
Alright, well let's get started on a couple of questions.
Okay, let's do that then.
Here's our first one.
Is it too late to put down a pre-emerge herbicide on my lawn?
And that's a standard question that we actually get this time
of the year.
So what do you think?
Well let them know what a pre-emerge is.
A pre-emerge is to prevent the weeds from germinating.
And you put it down.
Now for your winter weeds now, it's probably just a little too
late for some of your summer weeds to begin to come up.
I'd go on and put it down because it will kill the seed
before it germinates.
It's not gonna kill what's already up.
It will prevent seeds from germinating.
For your summer weeds to begin to come up later on,
it'll do that.
Right now, go on and put that pre-emerge down in your lawn.
One thing about your pre-emerge, you need to water it in.
And I try to time mine when I know it's gonna rain.
You know I look at the weather and say I need to put some down
now then make sure I get it watered in.
I don't want to come
out there and help you put that water hose out again and next
thing I know, we've got some more cold weather in there.
So I would just wait on the rain.
Because most of it comes in a granular form.
Right.
And with only putting a pre-emerge down,
make sure you get it on the lawn.
Don't let it get on the sidewalk and everything like that and
wash into the drain.
You know just make sure you get it on your lawn.
Okay.
A lot fo times, you waste a lot of fertilizing stuff putting it
on the sidewalk.
We don't want to do that when you're putting your pre-emerge
down.
Yeah, that's a good point.
Because at the end of the day, what's at the end of that?
Fish -- when it goes down the drain.
That's why we get a lot of things they are taking off of
the market because they find it in the water and all of that.
So we need to make sure that we use it correctly.
Alright.
Here's our second question.
Can I seed my lawn after using a pre-emerge herbicide?
A pre-emerge don't know the difference.
It doesn't know the difference with weed seed or grass seeds.
So you need..
I wouldn't put it down then.
I would read the label just to make sure that there's a waiting
period before I could overseed my grass with a seed.
And just till your own there.
You might need to wait six weeks or something before you can
overseed again with a grass seed.
When you put it down right then, you wonder where's my grass at.
It's not coming up.
But what had happened is you put a pre-emerge down it would
prevent that from germinating also.
So make sure that you read the label before you wait and put a
grass seed to put a pre-emerge down and vice versa.
You don't want to do it either way.
So you need to make sure that you read the label on that.
Okay.
But I wouldn't put it down.
I would wait a while before I do that.
Key point -- pre-emerge doesn't know the difference between a
grass seed and a weed seed.
There you go.
One of things is just read the label on there.
It will tell you the waiting period before you can do over
seed.
Alright, what problems might I see this spring on my lawn from
this cold winter?
And it has been cold, especially up your way.
So I mean it's definitely getting cold.
One of the things about grass.
especially warm season grass, is it's dormant.
It's not in active growth.
But the roots are still alive.
And you know the top part that you're seeing is really what's
dead.
And the problem you might see if you have some standing water
somewhere on your lawn and it didn't drain well,
and the water freezes over there for a period of time.
And that maybe could damage the root system or something like
that because the water is frozen in there.
But make sure you're looking in your lawn.
Make sure there's no standing water no where around.
But grass, Zoysia grass and Bermuda grass are tough grass.
It should be okay and everything.
And you might see some that might come back a little late
because you had standing water in there.
But it should be okay.
But this was a cold winter now.
The only thing you might see now that people might have been
having is centipede grass and St. Augustine grass with this
cold weather now, you might see some different in that.
Probably just too cold for that.
But the Bermuda will be fine.
Bermuda is tough grass.
You know I like Bermuda and Zoysia grass.
It's tough grass.
It's gonna survive.
Alright.
Can I put down fertilizer and lime at the same time?
You can do that.
You can put down at the same time.
But one of the things you'll do is a soil test because the lime
-- you don't want to get it too high.
So you might not need to add lime down if your P-H is already
high in there.
But the fertilizer -- use phorphorus and postassium.
They stay in the soil for a period of time.
And they don't break down like nitrogen fertilizer within a
period of time.
But I'm trying to tell you now, the best thing to do is do a
soil test.
If you need to put both of them down,
you can put them down together and everything.
It's not gonna hurt anything.
Okay.
And both of them products -- both of them need to be watered
in over a period of time in there and stuff in there.
So make sure you do that in there.
But do that soil test.
We all recommend soil tests for $7.
You can't go wrong with that.
It's gonna give you results back and that's what's going on.
And you know to add to it, mhm.
If you need lime, you need to put it down anytime.
If you need lime, you need it now.
And the soil test is gonna tell you that.
But it is too dang early to put fertilizer out right now.
Yeah, fertilizer, yeah.
You know I opened the instructions on nitrogen
fertilizer on your lawn because with things going on,
we might get some warm days again.
Cold days.
You don't want to start bringing up Bermuda grass out of dormancy
before time.
That cold weather will knock it out.
Winter kill.
Then you see that in the spring when it starts beginning to come
up.
Okay.
Good points.
Yeah, that's good there.
I had leaves left on my lawn all winter.
Do I need to remove them?
Yes.
I'm so glad I don't have no trees now.
[laughter]
But if you have leaves on your lawn,
you need to move those off there.
Right now it's probably too wet to get the lawn mower out there
and cut them up, you know.
You rake those off them and spread them over your vegetable
garden.
Just don't put them beside the curb.
Put them with your vegetable garden and spread them over
there or start you a compost pile.
That'd be a good thing to do is start a compost pile.
But get those leaves off the lawn.
It could be matting it down.
And all the rain we've been having and the cold weather
we're having, that could damage right there.
You might see a kind of dead spot when it begins to come out.
Might come back kind of slow.
But get those leaves off that lawn and start them in a compost
pile or put them over your vegetable garden.
And when you start tilling your vegetable garden up,
they'll be already compost and begin to rot already.
So that'll be good to add to your soil.
Another thing but don't go out in that garden and start working
on your garden now because it's too wet.
Too wet.
It's too wet, yeah.
Yeah, recycle your leaves.
It's good.
Don't put them on the curb.
Just throwing money away.
You throwing good money away.
Yeah, you're throwing it away.
You need to save that good fertilizer.
It's organic fertilizer.
You can tell the different in the garden soil when you begin
to work in it.
Alright.
Here's our next question.
When is the best time to aerate my warm season grasses?
Aerate is you go out there and you begin to get some of that
dead grass out of there.
We were just talking about it.
When you want to aerate your lawn just when it begins to
start coming out of dormancy.
When you start seeing some new green begin to come in there,
you wanna aerate then.
You don't want to aerate in the witner time because you're
exposing those root systems to cold weather.
And aerate.
You probably need to do it over like every three years.
Unless you got a lot of traffic on your lawn or a lot of things
that go on your lawn and stuff in there,
you might need to aerate to loosen that soil up because
you're not getting that dead grass out of there.
Because a lot of things that you're putting down,
a lot of fertilizer you're putting down,
it's not getting down to the root system.
That's why you need to aerate to loosen that soil and get that
dead grass out of there.
Okay.
Another thing they will tell you about aerating that compact soil
is you gotta lawn service.
And they're cutting your grass.
Normally you're on a schedule when they cut the grass.
And we have some rain or something at night and they come
cut your grass in that and they're gonna be on that big
tractor and they're probably gonna pack that soil down just a
little bit more with that tractor going across there.
So if you're on a schedule and it rains -- I don't want to cut
my grass really when that soil is kind of wet and going across
that big tractor and stuff in there.
Okay.
It's good info.
We actually appreciate that Booker.
Well thank you!
Here's our Q and A session.
Y'all ready for this?
Ready for it.
Alright, here's our first question which is a good
question.
I've heard this quite a few times over the winter.
Do you think it's been cold enough to kill some of the bugs
that we usually see in the spring?
What do you think about that, Mr. D?
You know normally I say probably not.
But I tell ya this winter has been different.
One thing that I'm really looking forward to seeing is..
You know back when the fire ant line was slowly marching north,
when we would get a real cold winter,
it would freeze the ground down, you know,
eight, ten, twelve inches.
It would always push that fire ant line back 50 or 60 miles.
And then they would start marching back north with mild
winters.
And it's gonna be interesting to see if we have fewer fire ants
in the northern part of the fire ant range this year than we did
last year.
But, uh..
You know we may have a few, uh..
Early, we may have a few less insects than we normally have
early.
But it doesn't take them long to bounce back.
So don't..
Don't put your sprayer in the attic.
Go ahead and leave it ready to use.
One thing in mind because it might help somebody.
It might be a surprise cold.
You know it might have been real warm.
It be 70 degrees one day and the next thing you know,
it's down near 20-something.
That might be a surprise cold.
Might have helped some, too.
I don't know.
You know a surprise cold..
But it's hard to kill an insect.
They can hide anywhere.
They're tough.
They know how to adapt to the weather.
If you don't believe it, go to Alaska or Canada in the
summertime.
Wow.
There's plenty of bugs.
Plenty of bugs and mosquitos.
Well below zero.
Wow.
Alright, so don't put that sprayer up.
Don't retire your sprayer.
Get it out, clean it up and get it ready.
And there ya have it.
Are there some vegetables I can plant right now?
What do you think about that?
Yeah.
You're even late on some.
You need to look at the vegetable planning guide that
U-T has online.
They have a table that's got a guide to spring planted
cool-season vegetables.
You see the ones I have high-lighted?
Those are the ones that you can plant now.
February and March you can plant,
uh, cabbage, kale, kohlrabi, both head and leaf lettuce,
mustard, onions, for both bunch onions and storage onions,
english peas, snap peas, raddishes and spinach.
You can plant all of those things.
And then when we get over in to March,
you can beets, broccoli, cauliflower,
carrots, collards, chard, turnip greens,
turnip roots, you know.
So..
But you need to make sure your ground is not frozen.
You can't plant in to frozen ground and you don't need to
plant in to mud.
You need to make sure you can get your ground in good shape.
Got something you want to say, Booker?
No, that's good.
Make sure that you don't wet the soil and get mud in there and
tillin' it up and everything.
Yeah, that's some good things you can plant.
And all those you called out, I like all of them.
Every one of 'em!
I like that!
Don't put nothing in your garden you don't like.
Exactly right.
I like all those.
I could have a garden with all that in there.
You need a pretty good sized garden to plant all of those.
Yeah, yeah.
You're gonna be out there harvesting for a little while,
too.
Alright, here's our next question.
I got my soil tested like you said I should.
Somebody followed instructions.
How about that?
And it said I needed to add lime to an area in my vegetable
garden.
Do I add it now?
Yeah, I'd go on and put it out there.
And you know it's very stable.
Lime is very stable.
It's just gonna lay there.
It's gonna lay there until it's warm enough to work it in the
soil.
You might want to..
What you might want to do is put about half of the recommendation
out right now.
And then as soon as you can get in there and till it in to the
soil, you know put the other half after you till it.
You know till in part of it or, you know,
put the other half out right before you till.
And mix it up because that'll make it.
If you mix it in with a soil, till it in to the soil.
It will help make it or help it change the P-H.
It'll help it raise the P-H a little quicker.
Okay.
If you just put it on top of the ground and let the rain take it
down, you know, it will eventually leach down to the
soil and it will eventually raise the P-H but it will take
quite a bit longer.
But it's okay to put it.
It's not going anywhere.
You know you put it out there, it's not going anywhere.
Okay.
And I'm glad you mentioned that because most people are saying
till?
They don't want to till it in.
So I guess you can just still leave it on top.
You can leave it on top.
And it gets weather in.
It'll leach.
It will, slowly.
It's water soluble so it will slowly,
you know, leach down through the soil.
And it'll get tied up very quickly with the,
you know, the clay down there and clay portion of the soil.
And it will change the P-H.
It just takes it a little bit longer.
Right.
And lime is very important too because if your P-H is off
sometimes in your soil and in your vegetable garden,
it's gonna tie other nutrients up in the soil.
They're not gonna be used up by the plant like they should.
So you need to get that soil P-H correct.
That's why we always base it on a soil test.
And for most vegetable gardens, you're looking between a 6.0 and
6.5, somewhere like that for most vegetables.
That's what you want to get it to.
So do that soil test like the man who did his soil test.
I'm glad he's been following directions.
So he got it tested.
And that's good.
The P-H is really very important for the other nutrients that you
have in the soil.
And it's easier.
It's really easier to raise P-H than it is to lower it.
So if you over-do it..
And really most of the time, the only tiem I've seen a problem
with people having too high of a P-H is if they routinely put
wood ashes out on their garden site and just continue to put
wood ashes.
And wood ashes are very -- have very good liming properties.
And you can get in to a problem there.
You can lower P-H using sulfur, elemental sulfur.
But it's a little bit more of a problem,
a little bit harder to do.
But like you said, just soil test.
You don't have to every year.
Every two or three years.
We got boxes in the office.
They just call and come in and get the boxes and everything for
that soil test.
They be really, really happy and glad they did it in the long
run.
Alright.
Thanks for that good information, fellas.
Remember, we love to hear from you.
Send us a letter or an e-mail with your gardening questions.
Send your e-mails to Familyplot-at-wkno-dot-org.
The mailing address is Family Plot,
7151 Cherry Farms road, Cordova, Tennessee, 38016.
That's all we have time for today.
Thanks for watching.
I'm Chris Cooper.
Be sure to join us next time for "The Family Plot: Gardening in
the Mid-South."
Be safe!
[theme music] ♪♪♪
(female announcer) Production funding for
"The Family Plot: Gardening in the Mid-South" is provided by
Good Winds Landscape and Garden Center in Germantown since 1943
and continuing to offer it's plants for successful gardening
with seven greenhouses and three acres of plants plus
comprehensive landscape services..
CLOSED CAPTIONING PROVIDED BY WKNO - MEMPHIS.