Avoiding poison hemlock, poison ivy, and the mob

Episode Transcript

(00:01):
Good morning, everybody. Welcome.I'm Ron Wilson, and you are in
the garden here on news radio six' ten WTVN eight two to one WTV
in eight hundred and six ten WTVand talking about yardening. It's Memorial Day
weekend. Can you believe that?I can't. But you know what,
having it earlier like this, it'slike we got another whole week of May
to go. You know, he'salways thinking May's over. We got another

(00:23):
whole week of May to go.So you know, if you if you
ever you know thought, man,if I don't have a plan to buy
Memorial weekend, you know we're intoJune. I'm done. Guess what you
got another week speaking a week toanother week next Saturday. I don't want
to tell you this right off thebat. We're gonna be at Dill's Greenhouse.
That's our next remote June first,Dill's Greenhouse, thirty three in Regga
Road. Kelly, Colleen, Jerry. Obviously fun when we're out there with

(00:47):
them, Corey Saidmack from Franklin.The soil and water is gonna be with
us. We're gonna talk about rainbarrels, Grant. We'll always have a
little taste test out there for himas well, with the herbs and things
like that. We all have alot of fun. So anyway, come
out and see us next Saturday,June first at Dill's Greenhouse. Let's kick
off our show as we always do, with a cup of Joe. That

(01:07):
would yeah, it would be acup of Joe Buggy Joe Boggs report.
Joe Boggs is just a professor corehonest, the University Extension. I know,
what's your department with an topology?Uh? Their website is byg L
dot O s U dot EEDU,Ladies and gentlemen, the one and not
only mister Buggy Joe Boggs. Andby the way, somebody asked me this
week, uh, you know,how do you get Buggy Joe to do

(01:30):
the show? And I said,you know, well, we gave him
an offer that he can't refuse.That's right, that's right. The guys
with no next started showing up andso so yeah, I'm happy to do
this. I mean it's a healthrelated issue, right yeah, right,
it's a pleasure. Do you knowI do have to say this and this

(01:53):
is and you don't have to helpme out with some dates so what my
wife? Yes, what's that?Does your wife know you want me to
do that? Well? Yeah,she's actually brought this up. I mean,
okay, I realized that that wasa poor choice of words. I
just so, but my wife playsa role in this because last weekend we

(02:16):
were driving through, driving through Hamilton, Ohio. Yes, and lint past
this uh uh basically a ranch stylehouse that's very close to the road and
has a big radio tower behind it. Okay, and I said, and
I said, I said to mywife, Julie, I said, oh,
that's that's incredible. I said,that's where it all started. And

(02:40):
of course, you know, shedidn't. I didn't know at first what
I was talking about, because youknow, we're just driving along. That's
where it all started. And that'swhere you know, I started coming in
in this Uh, it just itwas it was like a converted bedroom.
Wasn't there something where they had todo it was one of the bedrooms.

(03:02):
W m h, Yeah, itis there. It is the Yeah when
you know, actually you were onwith we were we actually first started uh
earlier than that, to the stationbefore that, just briefly, and then

(03:23):
we did yeah and then with yeah, and of course mh is where we
did that. We'd got that remotea feed store, garden Center feed store,
where we sat on the writing tractorsin the in the display window.
Yeah, and the display window ontwo writing tractors with headphones on the microphone.
You know, those are wonderful days. I still think we need to

(03:46):
repeat that one. I mean,that was really that was a lot of
fun. You know. Of course, now you know, people just start
throwing stuff at me. You know, it's like, oh my gosh,
you're ruining. That taught us tobe like a dunky. They think it
was a dunking booth, throw thingsat the window and stuff. Yeah,
but it just took me back becausewe imagine what kind of money we would

(04:06):
raise if you and I got ina dunking booth and you know, a
fundraiser or something. Oh man,I think people would travel through. There's
no doubt West Virginia. Could theybe from everywhere? Yeah, thats just
our relatives exactly, never mind thelisteners. So I really loved I love

(04:28):
what you said. And that's andit's funny that I just realized. I
mean, about half hour ago,I was looking at my schedule and thinking
about things and I realized, oh, my goodness, there is a whole
extra week you know, of May, May and yeah, and it dawned
on me that you're you know,usually we think Memorial Day. I mean,

(04:49):
boy, that's when everything kicks off. May's done, June's here.
But yes, we have a littlebit longer, so there's a little longer
period of time for us to waitfor bagworms to hatch. And how did
you I was talking to Ron Roethlisthis morning and he told me he had

(05:09):
already seen him hatched. Well,I I believe that has to be the
case. It's just and of coursethis is this is as that's southern Ohio
to that's that's right, that's right, and and the other thing and a
lot of insects are this way.You know, bagworms, the eggs are

(05:31):
going to hatch, you know,on the side of the tree or side
of the plant, you know that'swarmest. So you can have uh,
you know, a juniper you know, with with bags that contain eggs from
last year all over the shrub,but those that are near the you know,
like southwest exposure, that they canhatch you know, a week or

(05:54):
even longer before the other eggs andso that creates a bit of an issue
in that along the way, andwhen I post on this, there will
be a picture that I took acouple of years ago where I have bags
that are, oh my goodness,they're like half an inch long, at

(06:15):
the same time on the same plantwhere I had bags that were more than
an inch long, about an inchand a half, and the only difference
was, no doubt that the existshatched at different times. But that does
create a bit of an issue becauseinsecticides are very effective against a bit how
about said box treama against bagworm andagainst box treama too, Well, that's

(06:41):
true, but with bagworms in particular, as the caterpillars get older, they
become less sensitive to the insecticides.Of course, if we're using something like
basilic Ringiensis BT and naturally occurring bacteriumthat's very effective against caterpillars, it's most
effective against the early stages of thecaterpillars, so as they get larger,

(07:03):
it becomes a whole lot less effective. But again with bagworms, apparently they
do have when they get to beolder caterpillars, they can actually sense that
they're becoming intoxicated and develop and putpaid early and that creates a bit of
an issue, and not many insectsthat can do that. But if they

(07:27):
do that, that that means thatyou haven't really reduced the population for next
season, right, I mean,they just go ahead and get and wrap
up. But that's why it's soimportant to just monitor. And we always
talk about that, right, youknow, get out there, take a
close look at what's going on.Identify the weeds, for example. That's
extremely important. And that's a greatsegue, isn't it into our I'm glad

(07:51):
you say that because you know,and again people bring in samples all the
time or you and I both alwayslooking at these things, and you know,
you you tell folks, you know, especially the weeds. Well,
I got these weeds that are poppingup, and I tried this and this,
and they won't go away and keepcoming back. And I said,
you know, first of all,do you know what kind of weeds they
are? They're like, oh no, that's right. And it's like,
you know, if we know,because first of all, annual perennial,

(08:15):
you know, what is it?Blah blah blah? Does it do?
How does it react to whatever?And then you know, you have.
Even with weeds, you've got to, you know, figure it out as
far as what they are, orat least try to, because it makes
it so much easier for you totry to control them. And I think
with the insect thing, which youknow you've talked about this forever and and
me as well. You know,you identify what's going on, what it

(08:37):
is, first of all, whetherit's even worth you know, is it
going to do any harm to theplant? Could not do anything? Uh?
If it does, then what arethe control methods? Look at some
of the more environmentally friendly ones,and as you always say, you know,
the thing of it is, youknow, never rule out the buggy
joe stomp, the hand picking,you know, and in a hard stream

(09:00):
of water, because you know thoseare other options too. But the whole
idea is identifying exactly what you're dealingwith and then take it from there,
is trying to figure out whether ornot and what the solution would be.
And I've learned that from you,well, I know, you got it
started way back when in Hamilton,Ohio. That's where I first learned it

(09:22):
from you. No, but it'strue, and it's you know, it
may take a little extra time.Sometimes you can't, I you know,
sometimes you can't figure out exactly whatit is, but you try to anyway
to make it so you're more successfuland doing only what you need to do
to get it under control. Thatmakes sense as in fact, we know
I had a guy somebody last weekthat said they needed to spray their parsley

(09:43):
because there was this green caterpillar describedit with it and I said, whoa,
stop, don't spray it's a it'sthe black tailed swallow Oh yeah,
swallow tail. Yeah, yeah,yes, that's and of course you we
want to protect, you know,our showy butterflies out there, but we

(10:05):
tend to forget that we don't havebutterflies like caterpillars, right, and they
have to eat something. So butyou know, back to the weed identification
or any identification for a past orweed problem, You're right, identification and
then learn about the life cycle now, and I know it takes a little
longer perhaps, but if you're gatheringinformation on your own, then the exploiting

(10:28):
where they are most vulnerable in thelife cycle, which of course you know
that's what we do for past managementfor example, But that's going to be
a great segue into managing the weedsthat we're going to talk about. I'm
assuming after the break, am Iright? I would say that let's take
a break, Joe, and thenwhen we come back, we will talk

(10:48):
more about those weeds that we needto control with Buggy Joe Boggs here on
news Radio six ten WTVN. Iknow right now Buggy Joe is doing the
Buggy Joe two step, drinking anothercup of coffee. Welcome back here in
the garden with Ron Wilson. You'reon news Radio six' ten, Part

(11:09):
two with the Buggy Joe Boggs Reportfrom OSU Extension. By the way,
Joe, uh cell phone lit upmy text messages after I said something about
you and me and a dunking booth. Oh no, I'm serious, just
interre going bang bang bang bing.Bob Randolph used to you know, used
to sometimes produce the show, andof course I called him a ranger Smith

(11:31):
because you sound like a Hannah Barbaracharacter. He uh, he said he
would pay triple extra to push thebutton. Oh my goodness, my goodness.
So at au. So what you'resaying at a county fair near you,
right, is that what we're hearingBuggy Joe in the Yard Boy in
the Dunking Book. Oh my goodness. Well, of course there would be

(11:52):
a competition, you know, likewhich one because hopefully we'd have them side
by side. Right. Oh yeah, so you could the most money,
that's right. So where were we? Well, we were talking about we
were talking weeds identification. And thereare two weeds roun that you and I
have talked about numerous times over theyears. And the most frustrating thing is

(12:16):
when we talk about these and thenwe get you know, pictures or a
phone call you know that says Ihave this weed and what is it and
how do I control it? Andit's too late. And what we're talking
about, of course, is poisonhemlock and wild parsnip. Now I'm putting

(12:39):
those together because for reasons that Imean, I have no idea why this
happens, but it happens. Bothof these non native weeds are very commonly
found in Ohio growing together. Ithink it's they just must require I mean,
they are kind of related. Imean, they're in the same family,
but it maybe they just require usimilar you know, environmental conditions that

(13:03):
where one exists, the other doeswell on some one, but like you,
well, not maintained disturb soil,no competition, and that's very important.
These are not very competitive weeds,meaning that if there's there are other
things growing there, they just can'tthey can't make it. And that may

(13:24):
be due to you know, exposureto the sun, seas being exposed to
the sun. That's the least kindof a theory that I have on this
particular uh, these particular weeds.But just very quickly, they do two
different things. Poison hemlock is oneof the most poisonous plants we have in
North America. And it was youknow, used to kill Socrates by the

(13:46):
Greeks and and and who knows who. But you have to you have to
get the toxin inside of you.I mean, that's important. It could
be accidentally ingested through the eyes.We got to be careful if we're cutting
these the big stalks on the plant, because there's some evidence that you could

(14:07):
accidentally aerosolize the sap and inhale it. So uh And as I'm talking along
here, I just realized that Ialso want to stress and we're not trying
to scare anyone. Basically, whatwe're trying to do is just alert people,
just like if you didn't know aboutpoison ivy, right, and we

(14:28):
all grew up knowing about poison ivy, So let's just add these plants to
that list. So poison hemlock,it can kill people if you get to
toxin inside of your wile. Wildparsonup with a poison act and poison hemlock
has a white seed head. Fireheadhas white flowers. Wild parsnip has yellow

(14:52):
flowers. Uh, and they looklike upside down umbrellas. That's the carrot
family. But wild parson it's thesap that we worry about. If the
sap gets on your skin and thenyou know you're exposed to UV radiation from
the sun, you can get severeblistering. I mean these are blisters that

(15:13):
well, you just wouldn't wish thison anyone. So two very different modes
of action. And both of theseweeds have been just gradually spreading across Ohio.
I mean we started seeing them insouthwest Ohio and then central Ohio and
and now they're all the way upinto what is that state up north?

(15:37):
I have I've been I've been workingat Yes, Yes, Michigan. So
the point we're making though, isget these identified because right now in southwest
Ohio, poison hemlock is already floweringand many of those flowers are mature.

(15:58):
So yeah, if you cut theplant dam or even spread, you can
still get seed developing. With wildparson, of the seeds are already developing.
So that means that really it's toolate to do anything about the plants
that exist. And it goes backto what you said earlier about learning the
life cycle. Both of these plantshave what we call biennial life cycle.

(16:21):
First year is spent with a plantgrowing very low to the ground, producing
a root system to support the secondyear's growth, which is when they do
something called bolting, which is areproductive stage they move into and that's when
they flower. So right now youhave these maturing plants that are flowering or

(16:41):
producing seed, and underneath them youhave the plants that germinated from seed that
will do the same thing next year. So this presents a bit of an
opportunity though or also a problem,and that is if you look at that
life cycle, if you catch bothof these plants when they're bolting and use

(17:04):
an herbicide, which is honestly onthe safest approach, particularly the wild parsonp
We don't even recommend mowing wild parsnup, but if that applications may when those
plants are bolting, you then cankill the plants before they produce seed,
as well as the understory, whatwe call the rosettes that will do the

(17:26):
same thing next year. Unfortunately we'remissing that, and I have a feeling
that in central Ohio it's pretty muchthe same with our hot weather. So
right now it just means identifying andthen making plans for next year. And
by the way, if a persondecides, well, I'm just going to

(17:47):
cut these down after they produce seed, well the problem there is that you're
opening up the ground for that seedto germinate. I'm not saying don't cut
them down, but you're not doinganything to to manage them. Right,
But you can still get I meansomebody says, well, Joe said,
don't take them. You can stillcut them down. Oh yeah, still

(18:07):
get rid of them. The pointis you need to do it, actually
do it earlier to try to stopthe spread of them down the road.
And since they will the plants dieafter they produce seed. I should have
said that perennials. Don't these do? So plants die after they produce seed,
and yes, the stalks become brownand unsightly and so on. But
like you said, you mean youcould cut those down and make it look

(18:30):
better, but just just know thatyou have a problem developing. And a
person could spray those rosettes. Buthere's the challenge. The seeds can germinate
in the fall, late summer,fall to spring. I saw a lot
of the last late last falls.It is just incredible. And in this

(18:52):
spring I saw a lot of seedlingsthat germinated. So if you apply to
nerbouside in the fall, you'd missthe plants that are going to develop from
seeds germinating in the spring. Soit's just simply a matter that we're trying
to just raise awareness, right,people aware, don't be fearful. I
should have said that. I mean, it's like it is like poison ivy

(19:12):
exactly. Be fearful. Well yeah, yeah, be fearful of it and
learn about it so that you knowand you can tell other people as well,
just like we have with poison ivy. We've you know, we've told
as we've grow and grown up,and now we throw those two more into
the category poison hemlock and wild parsnipsand poison ivy. Now you get all
three of them. We all needto learn about and teach the kids and

(19:34):
the grandkids to you know what theyare and stay away from from all of
them, and of course do everythingyou can to help control them. And
you've got a great tip sheet onthis. It was released this week bygl
dot o issu dot eedu or onour special website at Ron Wilson online dot
com. Joe, you really wentinto details with that this particular posting and

(19:56):
it's outstanding and folks need to goto that print it out and and great
information for in the future as well. We got to go. Have a
great weekend, my friend. Youhave a great weekend too, Ron Hight
and take care. We'll talk toyou next Saturday. All right, quick,
quick break, we come back.Phone lines are up for you at
a two to one w t vN here on news Radio six ten w

(20:17):
TVN. Great song talk at yourardening here on news radio six' ten
w t v N. By theway, we had a caller call in
said a couple questions, real quick, tell me the website again where I
can go check out the poison mlockuh the parsnips and it was beagle b
y g L dot O s Udot E d U. And I also

(20:41):
have the same posting on our specialwebsite at Ron Wilson online dot com.
So b y g L dot Os U dot E d U or Ron
Wilson online dot com. And I'llget both of those for you, and
then said to me at the sametime, grub control. When you put
down crub grub control of grub preventors, which is what you're looking to do.
Typically we don't get into that tillwe get into June. Weather starts

(21:03):
to consistently warm up. At thatpoint, beetles start to become more active
start laying ose eggs. So usuallyanytime through June into July with no problems,
sometimes even to early August. Youcan wait that long, but typically
by mid the latter part of Junethrough the middle part of July, trying
to get that in place, waterdon and ready to go, and it
lasts most those last about ninety daysand they're a grub prevnter takes care of

(21:29):
they lay the eggs. That takescare of at a very young stage just
out of that egg stage, soit gets them early. But that's typically
mid June, mid July or probablythe prime times for putting that down.
Back to the gardening phone as weshall go, John, good morning morning
to you. Yes, I havea container garden. Cost containers seems to

(21:52):
be going well. I was wonderingif you had any advice on fertilizing or
pruning that directed particularly for container gardening. As far as fertilizing, I think
the thing we have to remember whenit comes to feeding the fertilizer container plants
is that every time. Obviously,first of all, potting soil has no
nutrient sid unless you buy a pottingsoil that they've already added some nutrients.

(22:17):
And even at that, as you'rewatering on a more regular basis every two
or three or four days, thatconstant foot watering is leeching out the nutrients,
especially the nitrogen, right on throughthe soil. So what I like
to do is before I even plantthem, I'll mix Osma coat. And
Ozma coat's a slow release fertilizer thatwill last several months. So when you

(22:41):
put it in there and to mixit up put it down the lower the
end of the soil. As youwater, it releases back into and that's
a very light feeding, very lightfeeding. So but it's something And depending
on what you're growing. If I'mjust doing herbs and containers, that's usually
more than enough for the herbs.But if I'm doing greens or tomatoes or
peppers or whatever, then I comeback with a tomato food, a garden

(23:04):
fertilizer or whatever and granular so itbreaks down as I water. And then
I just watched the plants and ifall of a sudden, I see like
they're losing color a little bit,maybe it needs a little perk up.
That's when I resort to the watersoluble fertilizers like Miracle grow Jack's fertilizer,
things like that that maybe one timewhen I'm watering, I also feed at

(23:26):
the same time, so that canhelp to supplement and boost them up if
necessary. Usually that's something to gooduse, good good for you to use
later in the season when you're justlooking for a couple of last shots to
kind of limp them through until they'reall finished. So that's the way I
look at as far as the feedinggoes. And do you remember that again,

(23:47):
you're watering a lot, so itleadses through a lot faster than it
would have had it been you know, in the ground. Now. The
other question was what pruning. Yeah, any pruning advice for container garden?
What what do you what are yougrowing? Well, mostly tomatoes and some
peppers. That's the majority of whatI have out there. The only thing
I would suggest with the tomatoes ifyou're growing determinants, don't have to do

(24:14):
this quite so much, but youcan, or indeterminants will get taller.
The suckering or pruning of tomatoes,that'll help to take those out and opens
it up a little bit. Youget a better production. Actually, if
you do that bush tomatoes. Idon't do it very much. I just
let them do their thing. Butdefinitely the indeterminants. Pinching that sucker out
that comes out where the main branch, side branch comes off of the vine

(24:34):
itself. You can see that littlepiece that comes right out in the middle.
They rarely ever set flower, theyever, rarely ever do fruiting.
So you just pinch that out ofthere, and that helps to keep it
a little bit more open, andit focuses the energy onto the main vine.
The main branches and out to thefruit. So I'll do that pepper
wise, I'm not a big pepperpruner. Now. I know some folks

(24:56):
that'll go in early on. They'lllet them get up twelve fifteen inches high
and kind of nip them a littlebit to get them to branch out a
little bit more. I typically getthem planted. I don't let them flour
and fruit early. I let themget two or three or four weeks going
and then let them start to setthe flour and fruit. As a matter
of fact, I was figured whereI was the other day and they had
smaller pepper plants for sale that hadpeppers on it. You could leave it

(25:19):
on there if you wanted to,but I take all that stuff off to
put all the energy into the plant, let it continue to grow, and
then when it sets fruit the nexttime, it's more established, a little
bit bigger, and you'll get betterfruit from it that way. But otherwise,
fruiting on the on the peppers reallynot all that necessary unless you just
want them to get them stay alittle bit stockier and branch out a little

(25:41):
bit more. Well, thank you. Do you ever take flowers off the
tomatoes? What do you mean?Pick them off? Yeah, if they're
real, if the tomatoes are smalland I just planted them and we're in
the first week. Now, there'sone exception to the rule, the ones
that are called tom toms, thoselittle dwarf there's a couple of the ones

(26:03):
to stay very small. Those aresupposed to flower at a younger, smaller
size that I leave alone because they'resupposed to do that. But the regular
again the determinants and the indeterminates thelarger size bush and the larger size of
the vining tomato. I will pickthose flowers off initially, just again let

(26:23):
it focus on getting rooted in andgrowing, and then when the next set
of flowers come on, I leavethose alone alone and let it go from
there. I do that. Somefolks will say, now, you don't
have to do that, You canget by without doing it, But I
do because I want to put theenergy into the plants, not into try
to develop fruit at an early stage. Thank you so much. All right,

(26:45):
John, good talking with you.Mary, good morning to thank you
too for your dedication to this program. It's really nice. I look forward
to it all the time. Well, thank you, I appreciate that You're
welcome. I have a couple things. The first one, when you were
at Darby Creek you had raved aboutthat tomato and I lost the spelling of

(27:07):
it. So do you remember whatI mean? Okay? Can you spell
it r A M A po ramaposeokay? Cool. Then the next thing
is I went to work in myraised bed that I bought from garden Center

(27:27):
last year, and I noticed somecatpoop in it, like they used it
for a litter box. So Icleaned that out, and then I noticed
a ton of little ants in it, and so I don't know. Also
my leaf compost. I went toget the compost out of there to put
in my plants, and I camepulled out with a ton of little ants?

(27:52):
And so is there a way toget rid of those? And what
should I do? I guess thatwould be one thing that you I mean,
you can get. You can getants infestation and end ground as well.
But of course they like to raisebeds because it's a loading or soil
nicer soil compost piles the same way. I don't do anything with them.
I just usually fluff up the soil. As you continue to water and plants

(28:14):
continue to grow, they seem todisappear or move their way back down to
the bottom or to the outside,because now you've got constant moisture coming in
there all the time, et cetera, et cetera. Don't typically have a
problem with with the ants. Ifyou do, I mean you can,
you know, you can boil pourboiling hot water where where, if you
might be able to find where thenest is, that's a natural way to

(28:37):
get rid of them. But otherwiseI really kind of just work around them
and don't do anything. And Ithink, you know, they're natural soil,
air fires and if you know,they're not bothering anything else. I
try to just leave them alone,let them do their thing. So I
try to work around them as bestI can. But the boiling water,
coffee ground sometimes may help to deterthem a little bit, things like that,

(29:00):
But otherwise I don't mess with themtoo much. I just just let
them do the thing. Mary,we gotta go. I appreciate the call.
Have a great Memorial weekend. We'lltake a quick break. We come
back. Katie Dubio is gonna bewith us. We're gonna talk about kind
of interesting women in horticulture. It'sa pretty interesting topic here. And why
we're gonna talk about it. We'llfind out more after the break Here in
the Garden with Roan Wilson on newsradio six to ten WTVN