- Hi.
Thanks for joining us for The Family Plot: Gardening in the Mid-South.
I'm Chris Cooper.
In the heat of summer, many plants stop blooming, but the crape myrtle is covered with flowers.
Also, we're going to learn about the most common diseases of apple trees.
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 Director of Landscape at the University of Memphis.
And Mr. D will be joining me later.
All right, Joellen, we're gonna talk about crape myrtles.
- Crape myrtles.
Yes.
- Yeah, one of my favorite plants.
- It's a lot of people's favorite plant.
- I love it, yeah.
- Very popular plant.
And for good reason.
Huge blooms on 'em.
- I love 'em.
- Six to eight inches by three to five inches.
And it blooms from June, July clear through September and sometimes October.
So a very long bloom time.
And there are very few plants with that spectacular of flowering that lasts that long in the growing season.
So that's why they're very popular.
And they also have, what I would call an incredible size range.
[Chris chuckles] Yeah.
- They grow from 18 inches tall, or actually 8 inches tall, clear up to over 30 feet.
The one thing you need to do is your homework.
There is a size that's for any garden.
And we're gonna talk about that.
They range in 4 different categories.
First is what's called miniature.
- Miniature.
[chuckles] All right.
- Miniature.
That's eight inches to four feet.
And one called Baton Rouge is red, and it's about three feet tall.
Houston is about two feet tall, bright watermelon.
Pixie White.
Of course, white is about 2 1/2 feet tall.
Pocomoke, two feet tall to rosy pink.
And New Orleans.
- Ah.
- And that's the one that's eight inches tall and used as groundcover.
And it blooms a bright purple.
- Hm, really?
- Those are the miniature ones.
- Okay.
Okay.
- Then it goes from miniature up to dwarf.
- Okay, all right.
- And that's 5 feet to 12 feet.
- Okay.
- Acoma.
That is a really popular white crape myrtle, only gets about 10 feet tall.
Caddo, seven feet tall, bright pink.
Nice plant.
Cherokee, an eight-foot red one.
Tonto is a 10-foot magenta red one, very pretty.
I have that one.
- Okay.
- And Hopi, which is about eight foot, pink.
So those are the dwarf size.
And probably the most that people should have, especially if they're putting them anywhere near around their house or in small yards, that's the size range that they should stay in.
Then it goes up from there.
- Okay.
[chuckles] - We have what they call medium or intermediate-size crape myrtles.
- All right.
- And those are from 13 feet to 20 feet.
So these are Dallas Red, very popular one.
Eighteen feet, red tree.
Potomac, 15-foot, light pink.
Catawba, which I have at my house, Eighteen feet, and it's purple.
Osage, 15 feet, light pink.
Sioux, 15 feet, dark pink.
[Chris chuckles] - And Seminole.
These are all real name.
Fifteen feet, coral pink.
Those are very popular.
I mean, there's lots of them.
But these are the ones that are the most popular.
So that's what I mentioned.
- Just scratchin' the surface like that.
- It's just scratchin' the surface.
Then you get into what everybody uses that they shouldn't because they get too tall for the area to put 'em.
- Ah, yeah.
- And that's the tall tree types that are 21 to 33 plus feet.
Number one that's grown a lot, Natchez, white.
That's what I have, gets over 21 feet tall, and it gets up to 30.
It's beautiful.
Love it.
- Sarah's favorite.
Yes.
Now that is a beautiful white crape myrtles with cinnamon bark and nice pendulous branches, 25 feet.
Tuscarora.
One of the most popular reds, the dark watermelon red, 25 feet tall.
- Tall, yeah.
- And Tuskegee, which is also 25 feet and a kind of a more pinkish watermelon red.
- Okay.
- So those are the main categories.
So every crape myrtle out there can be categorized in one of these areas, and that's what you should research.
- Right?
- When you wanna put a crape myrtle in your yard know you want a 20-foot crape myrtle, or you want only a 10 or a 12 foot crape myrtle, and you wouldn't have to do what we call crape murder, which is, cutting huge trunks of the tree.
And it really doesn't do the tree justice and all that it's it's... - Right plant right place, right?
- Yeah.
'Cause there's a proper way to prune crape myrtles.
- Right.
- And when they are the right size you don't have to cut very much off of them and that's, that's how you cut them.
You take the little small stuff off, the crossing branches, the little things, and you end up with a tree shaped tree that looks like it looks just like a tree still, even though it's been pruned back.
- Right.
- And then it will bloom the next spring, I mean the next summer and it looks perfectly fine.
And you just do that every year.
I actually do every year or every two years pruning mine down like that.
- Okay.
And something else I like about crape myrtles, exfoliating bark.
- Yes it does.
It's beautiful.
- So summer bloom, but winter interest.
- Not only is the bark interesting in the wintertime, but it also has good fall foliage.
A lot of them do do.
- Yep.
- Now they live in zones seven through nine, and sometimes into six.
- Sometimes.
Okay.
- And some of they're, they are doing a lot of research trying to get them into colder climates.
So zone six is becoming more of a reality for them, but you've gotta understand -5 to -10 degrees is about the limit between having something that's perennial and comes back like a tree to dying down to the ground.
- Got it.
Okay.
- So -5 to -10.
And that's what they're trying to work on to get a more cold hardy.
- So let me ask you about any major diseases, or insect pests we need to know about?
- Oh, unfortunately.
- Yeah.
There for you out there.
- Yes.
For, number one for us in this area is, crape myrtle bark scale.
- Yeah.
- And it's not been here for very long it's, it's blown up from the southern of Texas area, on up through the, the southeast.
It hasn't even reached all of the southeast yet, so... - Hasn't yes, - but it's bad.
We, you have to treat it everywhere.
It's usually a soil drench of insect, systemic insecticide, that the tree picks up in the spring, the best time to apply it is in the spring.
- Yeah.
- As the tree comes out, and it'll protect it for, and sometimes you get up to two years - Right.
- Of protection from, from one drench.
And I have known people and I have tried it myself.
You put the horticulture, dormant oils on it and it, you know, you make sure all the loose bark is off, and you spray it with the, the dormant oils.
- Right.
- And do all of that.
And it just, it, it, it kind of controls it, but you've gotta keep at it.
Whereas the drench just happens once.
- Yeah.
- And I have been able to get, and my house I've been able to get two years, - I have too.
- out of the drench.
So I mean, but in a higher, like a traffic area at the university, sometimes you have an islands in the middle of streets that are got crape myrtles.
We have to treat those every year because the stress on the plants is so much that they need that extra help.
- Yeah.
And that, and that makes sense.
So since you know, we talking about the university and I know y'all have a lot of plantings there at the university.
So what about the different cultivars as it relates to crape myrtle bark scale.
- I've seen not, not a whole lot of difference.
- Okay.
Not a whole lot difference.
Okay.
- So yeah, I think there's, there's actually studies out for that to see what varieties do best.
- It'd be interesting to see what they say.
- Yeah.
- But crape myrtle bark scale is a problem.
- Yeah.
And then there's the sooty mold with that.
That goes with that - Right, the fungus.
- and same thing, first thing you think of when it first started around here, thought, well, it has aphids 'cause they, they do get aphids a lot.
- Sure.
- And so you spray the aphids and the sooty mold goes away, but this was something different, and it's that crape myrtle bark scale - Yeah.
- But I I'd say yeah.
Pruning is also a good practice to help with the crape myrtle bark scale, 'cause they like to be on the tips of the plants.
If you prune it regularly every year and just take the tips off like your supposed to then you end up getting rid of a lot of it and then you spray it with the dormant oil.
And I think that's probably why I've been able to get two years or so - Okay.
- Of the drenches 'cause I do, I tip them, tip them and I spray them with dormant oil and, and then I, - This seems to work for you.
- Yeah.
It seems to, but they do come back.
It's usually the fall of the next year.
- Right.
Just gotta be persistent.
- Yeah.
- Persistent.
- Keep up with it.
- Yeah.
Just keep up with it.
But yeah, that's the major insect pests.
The major fungal disease is gonna be powdery mildew.
- Oh yeah.
- Right.
- Yeah.
And that's usually because now crape myrtles like full sun.
So a lot of times with when it gets into a shady area, and you you're thinking, there's other plants around it that's not getting air circulation.
And that's when you get the powdery mildew 'cause the plant stress, 'cause it's not in full sun, it's, it's thick.
There's not air, good air circulation and you get powdery mildew.
- Powdery mildew.
And some of those suckers, you know?
- Yeah.
Just sucker.
- Yeah, have powdery mildew, get rid of the suckers.
- Yeah.
- Yeah.
For sure.
- Yeah.
- Yeah, keep it a tree 'cause that mean they, sometimes it wants to be bushy, the smaller, the, you know, the miniatures and the dwarf tend to want to be a bush rather than a tree.
So you have to prune it into a tree.
So... - Okay.
- That's when you get a lot of problems, I'm, the tree forms are more open and less prone to getting a lot of the problems.
- Okay.
- Like the diseases for that.
- Right?
Yeah.
Full sun, good air circulation.
What you mentioned.
Yeah.
- Yep.
- Wow.
Yeah.
But those are what I consider like major, you know, problems with the crape myrtle.
- But they're worth it.
- But they're worth it.
- Yes.
[laughing] - Because they are so pretty.
- They're worth it.
They're worth it.
So again, right plant right place.
- Right.
Yes.
There are, there is a size crape myrtle for everyone, for any garden.
- Joellen that was good, that was good.
I can see you like crape myrtles a lot.
- I do.
I do.
- So do I, thank you much.
[upbeat country music] - Let's talk a little bit about summer heat care.
Usually when I'm in my yard, the first thing I do is I put on my big hat.
Then the next thing I do after that always use sunscreen.
So I will put on my sunscreen.
Now if I'm feeling hot, feeling thirsty, I always have some water with me, it's always best to drink water.
So I'll drink a little water.
And how about this idea?
Right.
So after I drink a little bit of the water, right?
How about we pour some of the water on this towel here?
Then we could put this wet towel ah, on your neck to cool you off.
How about that?
Now, remember this, anytime you're out in the garden, out in the yard, if you're feeling hot, right?
You're feeling tired, dizzy.
It's time to go inside.
We want you to be safe in the garden.
[upbeat country music] - Alright, Mr. D., let's talk about apple tree diseases.
Where would you like to start with that?
- I guess let's start with probably one of the most common problems that we have.
And it probably one of the earliest ones in the year, is fire blight.
- Blight.
- Fire blight is a bacterial disease.
It is common during cool wet conditions, which we have a lot of springs that are that way and the diagnostic, and I'm using a great publication from the University of Georgia.
This is a diagnostic, it's a pictorial diagnostic guide to common home orchard diseases.
And so it is the, I wanna give full credit to the University of Georgia.
And I just have the apple diseases here and, And fire blight, the symptom of it, that you see is it's called a shepherds crook.
You'll have a die back from the ends of the branches due to a bacterial tanker that's on that branch.
And it may be 10, 12 inches even longer.
The leaves will turn black.
There'll be a crook that will develop and they'll hang on the tree.
It'll just stay on the tree.
It won't fall off.
This disease, very common on pears and apples and the way you control it.
If you have a history of problems, some varieties are more susceptible than others.
But if you have a history of problems, then you need to spray during bloom with, actually twice, early bloom and late bloom with an antibiotic.
This is not something that's in your regular cover sprays for apples.
And it's Agrisept is one, streptomycin and Agrisept 17.
There's several of 'em out there.
They're listed for label for fire blight control.
So that's the way you control that, but it's gotta be taken care of before you see the problem.
When you see the problem, there's no need to do anything.
Just wait, wait 'til next year and try to take care of it.
- Okay.
So do we need to prune out then?
- You do need to prune out the dead tissue.
You know, later in the year.
You need to dip your pruning shears in a solution of one part bleach to nine parts water to keep from spreading-- - That's a good point.
- that bacterial infection to healthy tissue.
- Okay.
- And, but yes, you do need to prune that out and dispose of it.
Don't put it in your, your compost bin.
You need to either burn it, or get rid of it.
Another very, very common problem that will show up later in the year, cedar apple rust.
We have a lot of cedar trees around in our area.
This, this disease spends about half, it's spent part of its life cycle in a cedar tree.
When it's in the cedar tree, the gall, it's kind of a purplish looking gall, that will erupt into a beautiful University of Tennessee orange, UT orange structure, that will release spores.
And the spores will travel to an apple tree.
And on the apple tree, you have the bright UT orange spots on the leaf of the apple tree.
- All right.
So how do you treat it?
- Well, there's a couple of ways you can, if you cut down all the cedar trees within about a 10 or 15 mile radius, that will be one way to control it.
You take out the host, but a more practical way to take care of it is to follow the home orchard spray guide.
And for apple trees and it, you spray with a solution that contains Captan and malathion every 10 to 14 days, seven to ten days actually during the growing season.
And that will prevent that from being a problem.
- Okay.
Wow.
- Another problem, which is very common on apple trees is sooty blotch and fly speck.
- Yeah.
Know that one.
- When I grew up, I thought that all apples were supposed to have little spots on them.
And this is this, this disease or diseases.
This is kind of a, several fungal organism that caused the this it's pretty much on the, just on the skin of the apple.
- Okay.
- And you can peel it off if you scrub it off, you can actually scrub that off, but it will reduce the, the shelf life - Okay.
- Of an apple, the home or regular cover sprays will take care of that.
- Okay.
- And that's, again, the home orchard sprays that contain malathion and Captan.
And the next disease I wanna talk about is bitter rot.
And it, that is a concentric circles in a, a rotten spot on the fruit of an apple tree.
It's caused by glomerella.
And it has kind of concentric rings like a target, but sometimes the, instead of being circular, they're kind of V-shaped and it actually sinks into the fruit and it goes on into the fruit.
But again, the home orchard, you know, spray guide, following the regular cover sprays with a mixture of Captan and malathion 7 to 10 days during the growing season will take care of that.
- Okay.
Now, is that considered to be a fungus?
- It is a fungal, - It is a fungal.
- It is a fungal, Glomerella is a fungal organism.
Another real common one is black rot.
- Wow.
- And this is kind of a brown, starts out as like a bruised area on the blossom end, or the calyx end of the apple.
And then it spreads, and it also goes up into the fruit.
It's botro-, but I can't say it today, Botryosphaeria.
But it is a fungal organism and it can be controlled by using, you know, regular cover sprays every 7 to 10 days with fungicide Captan and the malathian as an insecticide.
And I'm, you know, I'm throwing the insecticide in there because if you're gonna spray with a fungicide, you may as well control the insect while you're at it.
- So with the black rot and the bitter rot, I mean, the food is still edible.
- Yes.
Except it gets up in the fruit, you've gotta cut it out.
- Yeah.
Cut it out.
- You've gotta cut it out.
Unlike the, the fly speck, and the earlier ones that were just on the skin.
This will go into the fruit, and it will cause the entire, it can ruin the entire fruit.
And, with most of these, with the, the fruit will hang on the tree, like a mummy, will hang on the tree and sanitation is important.
You need to pick those off and get rid of 'em again, don't put 'em in your compost bin, you know, put 'em in the Walmart bag, double bag 'em get rid of 'em or something.
And put 'em in the garbage can.
Apple scab is another very common disease, and it is present on, on the leaves.
Sometimes it's called frogeye leaf spot.
- Ah, okay.
- But it has scabby lesions on the fruit and it tends to be more on the skin, but it's a very common problem in apples.
And it can be controlled again with a regular, you know, cover spray every 7 to 10 days.
- Wow.
- And you know, if you get a rain and it washes it off, it's gone.
You need to go back out there and do it again.
Can be really hard during rain conditions.
- Sure.
- But again, the cover sprays contain Captan and malathion.
White rot is again, Botryosphaeria.
It's the same genus, but a different species okay.
Causes, and it has depressed soft enlarged lesions on the fruit.
And it's really, it really will wipe out your fruit pretty quick, but it's more of a late season problem in apples and pears.
And it becomes soft really quick.
Most of the other rots the black rot and is, is kind of hard at first and it takes it a while to get soft, but serious disease.
Sanitation again, is important to remove the mummified apples that are hanging on the tree.
But prevent it from occurring with, by using a home orchard spray guide and, you know, regular cover sprays with a material that contains Captan, malathion.
- Wow.
- And that's, that's the main, those - Are the main ones.
- Apple diseases that we see.
And we see all of these.
- Do we have that here?
- You see 'em all in the Mid-South.
I sure do.
- Wow.
- Appreciate that good information, Mr. D. - Thank you, thank you.
[gentle country music] - We're in the Family Plot square foot garden.
We're gonna be looking at our carrots.
These carrots have been in the ground for about three months.
So let's check and see if this carrot is ready to be harvested.
I'm gonna move the soil back here that one's not ready.
Yeah, the crown is too small.
Like for that crown to be at least half an inch big, put the soil back over it like that.
And we'll go to another one.
This one may be ready to be harvested.
That's a good size crown there.
So let's see if it's ready.
We're gonna pull it.
So I'm gonna harvest this by pulling it close to the ground as possible.
I don't wanna grab up here, right, because I don't wanna destroy all of this foliage.
All right.
So let's dive in and see what we have.
Uh oh look at that.
Here it comes, this is a nice looking carrot.
Clean this off.
We'll be ready to eat this.
And we were able to get this before Bugs Bunny did.
How about that?
[gentle country music] All right, Joellen, here's our Q and A segment.
- Very good.
- You ready?
- Yes.
- All right.
Let's go.
Here's our first vewier email.
"Will rat poison kill moles?"
This is Rosetta on YouTube.
Rat poison!
- No.
- No.
- No rat poison's for rats.
Moles.
- Right.
- Moles actually eat earthworms and bugs and stuff.
So I don't, they wouldn't go for that.
Oh my goodness.
No.
- Right.
Yeah.
Rat poisons.
Yeah.
Mice.
Rats, right?
- Yeah.
Right.
- The moles, as you mentioned, insectivores.
- Yeah.
- Grubs, spiders, centipedes, millipedes, earthworms, things like that, right.
You know our recommendation.
- Yes.
I do.
- The University of Tennessee Extension.
Mole traps.
- Yes.
- Mole traps, mole traps.
- You put, you put you out and you find you, you walk over the, the, the mounds.
And if the next day you come back and they've gone through it, you know, that's a major thoroughfare that they keep clear and that's where you set your trap.
But then you've gotta look at it every morning.
You set it in the evening and you go look at it in the morning.
- Yeah.
- You might have to move it around a few times, right?
- Yeah, you have to move it around.
- You have to move it around a few times, but yeah.
As far as using the rat poisons, no, Ms. Rosetta.
So use the traps.
You know, a lot of different home remedies that I've heard and you've heard some of, some ones broken glass, Juicy Fruit bubble gum.
- No.
- You know, poison pellets and things like that.
So I, yeah, I would just use the mole trap.
Yeah.
All right.
Thank you for the question.
Here's our next viewer email.
"Can you please identify these two maple seedlings for me?
"They both have reddish stalks, "but one has a more pointed leaf tip "and the other more blunt "and the lobe seemed slightly different.
"Also the one on the left has reddish new leaves.
"Are these red maples or something else?
Thanks in advance."
Anita in Florida.
So can we help Ms. Anita out?
- She's correct.
- Right.
- Those are red maples, but you know, that's the nature of red maples, they're variable.
The wild species are variable.
And who knows, there might be a cross, you know, some named variety somewhere and it's cross-pollinated with a native one.
And then they've got these seedlings, you just never know.
- Right.
But she's asking.
- Actually, they're, both of 'em are red maples.
- Yeah.
Red maples and enjoy them.
Yeah.
- Yeah.
Yeah.
- Beautiful colors.
You know, always red maples for sure.
All right Ms. Anita, thank you for the picture.
Yeah.
- Yeah.
Nice picture.
- For the question.
We appreciate that.
Here's our next viewer email.
"How do I treat fungus on crape myrtle?"
This is Hope in Queens, New York.
- Yes.
- So crape myrtle, Queens, New York.
- Yeah.
See that's again, it's the range.
It's in a, not the it's normal range.
It's kind of outside its range or close to the being outside its range.
So it's gonna be a little bit more stressed.
- Right.
And she's just gonna have to spray it with like something like daconil to get rid of the fungus.
- Right.
What kind of fungus you think it is?
I thought powdery mildew.
- I was thinking it is either powdry mildew or, it could be she had aphids on it.
- Aphids right.
And that, so it's sooty mold.
It's it's one of those two.
- So it's either sooty mold or powdery mildew.
If it's sooty mold, I'm definitely thinking it's from the aphids 'cause the crape myrtle bark scale hadn't gotten there yet.
- No, no, there's no bark scale.
- it's outta the range.
- Right.
So it'll probably be aphids.
There's aphid species for every plant species out there.
- There is.
- you seems like, so it's probably sooty mold.
If it's sooty mold, you have to control the aphids.
- Yeah.
- Right.
Definitely.
- Mother Nature take care of the sooty mold for you.
- Yeah.
Right.
- If it's a powdery mildew then what?
- Then that's when you use the daconil.
- Right.
- And you can use it for the, I mean, you can treat the sooty mold with the daconil too, but you gotta, you gotta, you, it is not gonna help that the aphids are still there.
- Right.
Right, right.
So yeah.
May be stressed.
- May be stressed a little.
If it's, you know, powdery mildew-- - You, so I would, I would give a little fertilizer in the spring, you know, when beginning of the growing season and help it out a little bit, - Help it out a little bit.
- Yeah.
- Okay.
Yeah.
We appreciate that question.
It'd been nice to see, you know, - A picture would've been great.
- Just picture.
Yeah.
Just to kinda see, but yeah, we definitely think it's either sooty mold or powdery mildew.
- Yeah.
It's one of those too.
- Right.
So we thank you for that question Hope.
Appreciate that.
Well Joellen that was fun.
- Yes, it was.
- Thanks again.
Appreciate that.
- No problem.
- Alright.
- Remember, we love to hear from you.
Send us an email or letter.
The email address is familyplot@wkno.org.
And the mailing address is Family Plot, 7151 Cherry Farms Road, Cordova, Tennessee 38016.
Or you can go online to familyplotgarden.com.
That's all we have time for today.
Thanks for watching.
If you want more information on crape myrtles or apple trees, just head on over to familyplotgarden.com.
Be sure to join us next week for The Family Plot: Gardening in the Mid-South.
Be safe.
[upbeat country music] [acoustic guitar chords]
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