Caring for your garden in the extreme heat

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Good morning, everybody. Welcome.I'm Ron Wilson and you are in the
garden here on news radio six'ten WTVN, A two to one w
tv in eight hundred and sixty tenWTVN talking about yardening on a hot Hot,
Hot hot Saturday and Sunday and yesterdayand Thursday and Wednesday. Uh,
well we get a break. Idon't know, I hope so. Uh

(00:21):
we'll see what happens. But inthe meantime, watering is key. Right
now, watering is key. We'lltalk more about that because a little bit
later on, because it's time forthe Buggy Joe Boggs Report. It would
be Joe of Boggs. He's fromthe Ohio State University. He's just a
professor commercial country dear Hustate University.I oh, some of the hard boys.
His website is byg L dot OSUdot EEDU. Ladies and gentlemen,

(00:44):
mister common sense, it go BuggyJoe Boggs. Are you staying cool?
I mean, I'm staying in thebase. But that's how I'm staying cool.
I mean, yeah, hanging inthe basement. You know, it
wasn't so bad though at this pastweek. You know, I was outside,
you know, doing a little wateringand walking around now, and it
wasn't bad at all. Of course, it was two in the morning.

(01:04):
I couldn't see a lot, butyou know it worked, right. Should
you have been out there watering attwo in the morning? Oh, did
I say that loud? You knowthat that is a very good question.
You know, I could be Butwhere would I be directing the water just
to the soil only exactly? Youknow, that's something we do tend to

(01:26):
forget. And I realized under theseconditions it's hard to conform to all the
things that we want people to do, right. Yeah, yeah, you
know. I mean I contend it'sfar better to just get them watered,
you know, than to Yeah,they're not water because you can't do it
properly. So you're absolutely right.Things like tomatoes, for example, Now,

(01:49):
first, it's a good idea tomoltz them, and you know this,
I always love straw mults and thatholds the moisture in the soil.
It also, though, keeps fromvarious pathogens from splashing up onto the tomatoes
and starting from the bottom up,such as you know, early blight and
late blight and bacterial spot and allthese other really bad things. But you

(02:13):
can also avoid the problem too bytrying to keep that water from splashing up.
Of course, can't you know,we can't do anything about a thunderstorm,
which we hope we get tomorrow,right, I mean I hope so,
I really hope so. But andof course that's where the multch comes
in. But if you can keepfor example, the water off roses,

(02:34):
because you know, black spot isa disease that loves to have a lot
of water, then that's then that'sa good idea. But on the other
hand, you know, if youhave to water and get the foliage wet,
as you have recommended numerous times,you know, your water in the
early morning, not two am,but just before the sun comes up or

(02:54):
as the sun's coming up, sothat fullys dries more quickly rather than water
r in the evening or letting youknow, letting the water stay on the
foliage overnight. But if that's theonly time, if that's the only time
you can do it, like yousaid, do it, yeah, that's
a very and still try to keepit off the foliage if you can.

(03:15):
But you know, if if that'swhen you got a water then that's what
you've got a water well. Ihad a call some years ago and and
it was it was I did that. Yes, that's the last phone call
was some years ago. But thegentleman worked during the day and and he
simply couldn't water before he went towork, so he had the water when

(03:36):
he got home. And uh andand and there was you know, there
were the issues and and you know, we chatted about that. And he
had quite a few roses. Actuallyhe had hybrid tees, and he knew,
you know, that watering at thattime could present an issue. But
like you said, it was muchbetter that he Yes, he had some
disease development, but he was buthe still had live roses. Important thing.

(04:01):
Yeah, so we're seeing some interestingthings magnolia scale, which I'm going
to bring this back to watering herein just a bit. But you and
I both have been getting slammed byquestions about magnolia scale, haven't we Between
that and rose slugs, I don'tthink there's anything in between. Yeah,

(04:21):
and we talked about that before therose slugs and of course rust on roses,
which we've pretty well come to anend on that. But yeah,
I posted an alert about that becausewell, honestly, ron I really never
saw much in a way of rustin the past, but this season it

(04:42):
was a major challenge. But withmagnolia scale, what we're seeing is something
that is a native insects. Solet's start there. Magnolia scale and the
posting that I did in the forthe black ey yarn garden line, I
handled both magnolia and tree scales becausethose two native insects affect the two genera

(05:06):
found in the family Magnolia, themagnolia magnolia family. Now, magnolia scale
only infests Magnolia's whereas tulip tree scalecan infest both magnolias and Leriodendron, the
other genus, which is, ofcourse, you know, the yellow poplar

(05:29):
tulip tree genus. So tulip treescale a little wider host range, but
it's much more rare. Well,we're having an outbreak right now in southeast
Ohio. I'm getting some reports outof Monroe County of some pretty heavy dripping
of honeydew. And of course that'swhat soft scales do. They extract so
much fluid out of flowham they're actuallyafter the little bit of amino acids in

(05:54):
that fluid to you know, tobuild proteins and enzymes. But they they
have to extract a lot of fluidto get as you know, that little
bit of amino acids, and theyneed to expel the excess and that comes
out the back end in the formof sticky, sugary honeydew. Of course,
that then gets covered by black citymolds. It also attracts flies and

(06:18):
bees and you know, trees canbe buzzing. The real key though here
is that these are native insects andmagnolia scale doesn't do much on our native
magnolias, but it's more of apest on the non natives, which I'm

(06:38):
not saying don't plant non native magnolias. I'm just saying be aware of this.
And they're kind of sneaky because theystart out the season, you know,
a little flattened things. You hardlysee them. That's how they overwinter.
And then as those females start pullingin more fluid from the flow them,
they start puffing up. But atfirst they're covered in this white pottery

(07:00):
material. It makes them look alot like they kind of look like mealy
bugs or something else. And we'restill in that stage right now. I
mean, some of the pictures I'mgetting are from people that watch all this
white stuff all over my magnolia.But that will soon rub off. It'll
soon come off, and then you'llbe able to see the scales. And

(07:21):
I have a feeling of break mustbe coming up pretty soon. Is that
right? About a minute and ahalf. Oh, okay, Well,
so the big point here is thevery first thing to do is consider what
they're doing to the plant and whatthey're doing to the to the to the
tree is they're extracting a lot offluid. So the worst thing that can
happen are those It would be forthose trees to be under severe stress,

(07:46):
such as in a drought. Ohit's hot and dry. So if you
have a magnolia tree with magnolia scale, you really can't do anything much about
it right now except something we'll talkabout after the break. But the first
thing you really need to do isto keep that tree from becoming drought stressed.

(08:07):
And then the second thing you cando is kind of fun. Okay,
let's leave it hanging with that one. What kind of fun could Joe
be suggestioning? I don't know,but we'll take a break and come back
and find out with Buggy Joe Boggshere on news radio six y ten WTVN.
You know, I rode back ona plane from Seattle, Washington with

(08:28):
blood, sweat and tears, andI had the drummer I think, sitting
next to me, and the othertwo were behind us, two or three
of them. He was telling methat, and this was about seven or
eight years ago. He was tellingme that they're having more fun today than
they did back back then when theywere on the road all the time.
Oh my goodness. And he said, they all have professional jobs and then

(08:50):
their manager booked something for them eitherFriday or Saturday night, so they head
out Friday or Saturday, do it, and back home by Sunday evening by
six clock or so, and backto their eight. He said, we're
making more money than we did everback then. And he said we just
have a good time. You knowthat. You never told me that story.
That is incredible. That's really something. Yeah, that's a I don't

(09:13):
even know how to segue. Imean, I think probably, Joe,
do you make us so very happy? Well, here's I'm so glad.
Yeah, here's what could make usvery happy and my big alert. I
just I realize, I think Igot I think I put something like the
cart before the horse. Because we'retalking about soft scales, and they're called

(09:35):
soft scales magnolia and tool tree scale, Calico scales and other soft scale European
fruit lacinian there are a bunch ofthem. They're called soft scales because you
can mash them. But we'll getto that in just a minute. In
twenty twenty one, I had amagnolia scale outbreak on a little magnolia in
my backyard, and you know it, I saw it developing. Now,

(09:58):
they don't usually just start, know, out of the blue. You'll see
a few, and each female canlay all between fifteen hundred to three thousand
eggs, so they can really buildrapidly. So I'm watching this occurring and
thinking, now what am I goingto do about this? And then I
started seeing these little things that lookedexactly I'll tell you're they really did look

(10:18):
like meaebugs. They were covered ina white waxy material, but they were
moving around, and melli bugs,I mean they don't move around, they
stay put. Well, these turnedout to be a type of lady beetle
larvae, called a signet lady beetle. The adults are kind of pretty.
They're black with two red spots.And those lady beetle larvae completely eliminated the

(10:45):
magnolia scale. And they also wentto two other trees just up the street
in my neighborhood, small small starMagnoia as mine was a saucer, and
they wiped out those those magnolia scales. They have not they were neighbor I
think, yes, and and thescales have not come back, I mean,

(11:07):
unfortunately for me taking pictures. Butthey've never come back on either my
tree or the neighbors or the treesup the street. So the first thing
to do is to just take avery good look and see if you have
you know, if you have predators, because these are native insects, they
do have native enemies. We callthose the three p's, predators, parasitoids,

(11:31):
and pathogens. And we know it'show for example, a tulip tree
scale, why it's and now yousee them, Now you don't proposition.
They come and go so rapidly.So first inspect the tree to see if
you see these little mealy bug likecreatures that are crawling around, and if
you do, then it's probably bestjust to set back and let nature take

(11:52):
its course because these are highly effective. And I've heard this from others.
I've actually heard this from a fewlandscape managers you know that watch the same
thing occur. However, if youdon't find any help, if you don't
see that nature's you know, givingyou a hand, then you can go
back to the fun thing, Ithink, and get your kids involved,

(12:15):
and that is take a toilet brushor scrub brush. And because there's saft
scales and those females are so bigand they're just stuck to the surface of
the bark, they're not embedded,you can easily just brush them off.
Now you and I talked about thisanother time, and it's also not a
bad idea after the scale massacre thatyou've just done to maybe you know,

(12:39):
take a hose and kind of youknow, stream off the tree sort of
make it look better. But therewas a study that was published in twenty
nineteen and it was on the Universityof Kentucky campus. Now, they did
this with calico scale and the scrapinghappened in twenty eighteen, and so they
students out, you know, withtoilet brushes. I would love to have

(13:03):
seen that. Yeah, and theywere scraping the trees. Now, it
does work best on small trees,but these students actually had some toilet brushes
attached to poles. So then yougo, you know, way up into
some fairly large trees. Well,ron not only did they eliminate the calico
scale, which could be a realproblem on things like honeylocus in twenty eighteen

(13:28):
that was done, my understanding ison most of those trees the scales have
not returned, so it's a highlyeffective approach. Again, check for you
know, predators, first, youdon't want to kill those because scraping off
you would also kill these very delicatelady beetle larvae. If you don't find
them, to go ahead and dothe scraping. If you can't do that,

(13:50):
well, the very last thing thatdoes limit the impact on beneficial insects
would be to use a systemic insecticidelater in the season. You won't be
able to kill the females that arethere now, but later in the season,
you know, sometime in late August, they will start laying it laying
eggs, and when those eggs hatch, they hatch into what we call crawlers.

(14:16):
Those crawlers disperse and then they theylikewise stick their piercing, sucking mouthparts
into flowing vessels. And if youhave a systemic then they'll take up the
insecticide and be killed. But welike to think of that as being you
know, held in reserve. Dothese other things first, and again full
circle. Make sure the tree isis is being watered, particularly if you're

(14:43):
you know, thinking about an insecticide, because these insecticides work best if the
tree is taking up water. Butdo the first things, you know,
the first two things. First,what are that I'm losing track? Good,
you're good. We got it,We got it. Can you imagine
Can you imagine being a potential UKstudent there in high you know, senior

(15:09):
with your parents, visiting the campusof the University of Kentucky to turn the
corner and see a bunch of studentswith toilet brushes in their hands scrubbing down
a tree. There must have beensome stories, you know, that is
a that's an excellent point because nowI'm sorry, darling, you're not going

(15:30):
to the University of Kentucky. Yeah, can't that they're cleaning their trees?
What is going on? Here.You know, I need to look at
the date. That's really a funny. Or maybe they would like that because
yeah, they're so clean down herethat they even clean their trees. I
need to check the dates. Ikind of wonder if that did occur,

(15:50):
you know, when perspective students weremaking new visits for them. That would
be really funny. But it wasa way to involve students in science.
That was other point of the payOh yeah, good connection there, Yeah,
good, great connection there. Sojust be on the lookout for the
soft scales, be a lookout forfor fireflies, and then you may come

(16:12):
across the firefly that doesn't have afire, so flameless fireflies. But now
you'll leave us hanging with that onefor next week. I'm leaving you hanging.
Isn't that terrible? Yeah, that'sthe way you are. I tell
you what you tease? All right, appreciate it. Joe Boggs. Always
a pleasure. That again. Thewebsite is bygl dot OSU dot EEDU.

(16:32):
Have a great weekend. You staycool, ron take care bye bye,
all right, take care quick break, we come back. We'll have the
phone lines open for you at eighttwo to one WTV in coming off the
top of the hour. It's theItchy and Scratchy Show. Yeah, what
does that mean. We're going totalk about things that make you itch and
scratch. Dan Bowman from Zanvil willbe with us always, Like heaven,

(16:52):
Dan on the show. Lots offun. That's what we call it,
The Itchy and Scratchy Show here onNews Radio six to en WTVN. Yes,
it is hot out there, there'sno doubt about it. Hopefully you
can stay cool, keep your plantscool, keep them water. Tough time
of the year. I've always saidit, June can be really tough,
especially if June gets hit with theweather like we're getting right now, because

(17:15):
you planted those plants back in thespring or even in the fall or sometime
last year, and now they're tryingto you know, they're not fully established
and they're trying to get their wayfrom a wonderful spring and pretty timely rain
showers to now extreme hot temperatures,not so many rain showers, and you're
trying to water and keep them,keep them water properly and cool, and

(17:36):
it's a it can be tough,So you know, do expect plants to
lose some leaves they're gonna turn yellow, especially to the inside. They do
that naturally, they're just shedding,compensating for the lack of moisture being able
to support those leaves. In somecases you still have plenty of moisture,
but they just can't take it upfast enough to replace those When it's hot

(17:56):
and sunny and there's so much moisturecoming out of those leaves and those stems
into the atmosphere, and they're tryingto replace that from the moisture that's in
the soil down below, and sometimesespecially with hydrangeas you know, newly planted
ones are probably the worst, buteven established ones in the right location or
wrong where it's real sunny and hot. We get up in the morning,

(18:18):
they look great, but by twoo'clock they look horrible. They're wilted down,
and then again by ten o'clock atnight they look good again. If
they're doing that, typically that's becausethere is enough moisture in the ground to
replenish what's coming out, but theycan't do it fast enough. So make
sure you don't overwater in a situationlike that. You know, most of

(18:40):
the time when we lose plants.I used to say it was overwatering anymore,
seems to be underwater, just notreally soaking it well enough and thorough
enough hydrangeas In many cases newly plantedones are overwatered and taken out because of
the fact that they just rot becauseit stays wet all the time, because
you think you're supposed to be wateringand they really have the moisture, just

(19:00):
can't put it up in the plantfast enough. So you know, kind
of watch your plants. They'll tellyou what they're doing. A little a
needle, a little leaf shedding rightnow, very normal as they as they
able to adjust, stick with them. Soak it dry, soak it dry.
I don't know, you know,if you're getting a little bit of
yelling on there. I don't knowthat I'd be using too much. As

(19:21):
far as fertilizers right now. Idon't like to do that when it's hot
and dry out. If you douse something like a root stimulant, it's
very low in the numbers. Typicallyhe can't burn anything up, so to
speak. Over fertilized that would beokay, but you know, be cautious
about using those. And I'd becautious about spraying anything right now with the

(19:41):
way the temperatures are insecticide funge ofsides herbicides. You know he gets above
eighty five degrees, it can reallybe bad news spraying with those products.
So read the label. There arerestrictions there, and I would be very
cautious about using any of those productswhen you know that. But you're going
to go above eighty five degrees.Eight two to one WTV in del Mar,

(20:04):
Good morning, How are you today? Great? I'm doing great.
How about yourself? Good? Good? Hey. I had a question for
that Omies fellow, but I guesshe's going a ready, yes, sir.
What's the question? Well, I'vefound this bug. It's the size
of a lightning bug. It hasan orange head and then a stripe of

(20:30):
white with black dots, then orangeagain, then white was quite with black
dots career down his body. Whatis it? Well, good question,
But I'll tell you what I don'tknow without seeing it, and I'm not
sure Joe could tell either. ButI'll tell you what you can do,
Delmar. If you got it,take a picture of it with your cell
phone and email it to me andI'll get it to Joe or if I

(20:52):
if I can't identify it and we'llcome right back to you and tell you
what it is. It's pretty easy. We do that all the time.
So if you can, if youcan take a shot with your cell phone,
email it to me. I gotyou covered, all right, I'll
do that all right. Del Mar, good talking to you. Appreciate it.
And Ed. Good morning, Goodmorning, Ron. How are you

(21:15):
today? Good? Thanks. IWe just got in a couple of trees
from a very reputable nursery and Idon't know if we made a mistake or
not, but we instructed them toremove the wire cage on the BnB tree.
It's a it's a dogwood tree,okay, because we had a problem
before where a tree had died andwhen they removed the tree, not a

(21:36):
single root had grown beyond the wirecage at all, and it was like
two years into the into the tree, okay, And so we had to
remove the cage on this one.Is there any danger in that? Do
we do the right thing? No? As a matter of fact, a
lot of a lot of procedures thatare put together, like the Arbor Society
and things like that, will suggesttaking off part of or all of the

(22:00):
wire cage once it's down in thehole. And if I came to your
house to plant something in the largeball and it has a wire cage on
it, usually the wire cage isthere for a reason. It's to hold
that root ball together. And ifI get if I can get that ball
down in the ground and then takesome wire snips and get that off or
get half of it off, I'lldo that. But I don't think.

(22:22):
I don't think the wire cage wasthe issue with your tree not rooting out.
Usually those that are also have theburlap around the outside. Was the
burlap still there when you took thoseother two out? The burlap was still
there on the other one on theSo what happened, I'm guessing, But
what I'm happy has happened is thatthose plants, for some reason never started

(22:45):
to root out, and so everythingstayed within the burlapped root ball. And
so you know when you pull itout, still the root ball. There
maybe a few hair roots coming outof the burlap, and that was it.
So the burlap becomes a little bitmore restricting. So what I typically
will recommend when it's a burlap andthe cage is to put them all on
the ground. If you can snipthe cage off. Great, If you

(23:07):
at least snip half the cage offthe top half great, get that off
of there, and then take aknife, and you want to slice the
burr lap all the way, justkeep working your way around it, slicing
it open, but leaving it intactbecause it's still going to hold the soil
together. Take the burlap off thetop so it's opened up at the top,
and then put your soil back aroundit. And now you're good to

(23:30):
go. Now you've opened it up, water can flow through, and you're
good to go. But you know, did you do the wrong thing.
No, you can do that ifthey can do it without the ball falling
apart. Super. But that's notwhat restricted those other two trees from dying.
Something else, some reason. Theyjust didn't root in and did weren't
able to come out through that burlap. All right, I got another question.

(23:51):
I have a disagreement with my wifeon watering flowers. Oh great,
now I'm going to get involved.Well, because I think I heard it
at your show. My theory Ibelieve I heard in your show is you're
better off watering the flowers thoroughly ratherthan just sprinkling them with the hoes,
you know, with the you know, with the showering a hole just for
a couple of seconds, booming goingon. You're better off letting waters,

(24:12):
whether you use a sprinkle system wherethey stand there and pull there for several
minutes. But you want to soaktheir soil thoroughly, especially the flowers in
the pots, plants in the garden, the grounds for you know, cart
soil or heat and soak them throughrather than just sprink them a little bit.
Do you stress them more when youjust sprinkle them a little bit and
go on to the next you canand what you set yourself up where I

(24:32):
always call up folks that do thata water tease. Now don't don't coller
that, but but I say it'sa water tease because all you're doing is
a light sprinkle to the top.So now everything's within the top inch or
so of the soil. So where'sall the roots going to go? They
go to wherever they gravitate, towhere the soil moisture is. So that
you set yourself up for those plantsto dry out quicker because they're now rooting

(24:55):
at the top, not rooting downdeep into the soil. So whenever you
water. You do it deeply andthoroughly, soak them really well. Let
them get close to drying out sothey breathe, they want to breathe,
and then come back in and soakagain. That is the best way to
water just about anything and everything asfar as I'm concerned. Anyway, perfect,
Thanks Ron, very grateful for yourhelp. All right, appreciate it,

(25:17):
and I hope you don't get introuble. All right, goodbye.
I always I've had happens every nowand then where I get in the middle
there, try to compromise. Youknow, the light sprinkling, it does
I mean, does it work ifyou do it all the time, if
you keep doing it two or threetimes a day. So you got good,
But what you set yourself up forthose plants rooting to the top,

(25:37):
and that's not what you want.Lawns right now, where the soil is
really dry, and there's an areawhere this you do want to sprinkle and
then come back in water where it'sreally dry, you need to rewet it
like wetting a sponge. So alot of times you turn the if it's
really dry, you turn the irrigationon, or you turn the sprinklers on.
And let it run for about fifteenor twenty minutes, turn it off,

(26:02):
and what you're doing is allowing thesoil to soak up some moisture,
get get hydrated a little bit,and then come back and do your main
water and you'll find that you don'thave any runoff across the top, and
now the soil will bring it backdown into the soil. By pre moistening
the soil, it'll soak it ina lot faster for you. As a
matter of fact, if I've gota container that's that way, I'll go

(26:22):
on water the top a little bitfirst, do all of them come back,
and then soak them thoroughly so thatI start the water process of soaking
all the way down through. Butthe general rule is soak it thoroughly.
Close to dry, soak it thoroughly. That's that is the best way to
water. Quick break, We comeback, Rich You're coming up next.
Don't forget. At the top ofthe hour, The Itchy and Scratchy Show

(26:44):
with Dan Bowman, We're going totalk about plants that make you itch.
You know what I'm talking about herein the garden with Ron Wilson on news
Radio six y ten WTVN talking toyour aready here on news radio six'
ten WTVN eight two to one.WTVN is our number, by the way,
talking about the rainfall and all,and hopefully we do get some tomorrow.
In the dryness of the soil.You know, when we talk about
soil additives all the time, whenyou're planting and mend the soil a little

(27:07):
bit at organic matter back here whenyou're prepping the bad at organic matter there.
When you're multi on the top,you're adding organic matter when you core
air rate the lawn, taking thatextra step coming back in and fine raking
in some fine composts back into thoseholes that you created, getting organic matter
back in the soil when you do, the more you do that, when
we do finally get the rainfall thatcomes through, it doesn't just run off.

(27:32):
It gets caught by that organic matterthat loaming your soil, that more
open soil and penetrates down and givesall your plants a much better opportunity to
grab a hold of that moisture,hold onto it for a little while.
And of course having that in thesoil also helps your plants to root in
better, so they actually root inbetter and then they absorb the moisture better,

(27:55):
and it's just everybody's happy. Theworms are happy. You pampered your
worms. You know, everybody's happy. So every time you're planting, you
should always have If you don't havea compost pile, you should have a
bag of something pine soil conditioner,composted manure the cow which is a great
manure, anything like that that youcan always keep adding back to the soil

(28:17):
to keep adding, or organic matter. The worms are going to love you,
The microbes are going to love you. Your plants are going to love
you. And when it rains,everybody's gonna love you because it's going to
grab that soil, that moisture andput it right back into the soil in
your yard, and your plants inyour lawn and everything else is going to
look a lot nicer because you've donethat. Trust me, Over time it
comes back to you, Rich.Thanks for holding on. You're in the

(28:38):
garden with Ron Wilson. Thank you, Ron. Hey. I have a
pinoak tree in my backyard, andlike a lot of pinoak trees, it
has a pleurosis where the leaves areyellow. Yes, And I recalled in
the past like I had an irontreament done to it where they down into

(29:00):
the base of the tree, andit lasts like three or four years or
five maybe where it kept dark.And then I had it done again last
year and it worked great, butnow it needs But this year it's yellow
again. And I was looking upan article about fertilizing oak trees, and

(29:21):
generally I said, they don't needfertilization, but I said you should only
do the iron treatment like once everyfour to five years. So I'm a
little confused, you know. Andagain it's a lack of iron, which
is most times now iron or chlorosiscan be caused by several things, but
iron is one of the reasons thatyou'll see that. But the reason you

(29:44):
have iron chlorosis and the recent pinoaksseem to get that more than other trees
is the fact that they like amore acidic soil. So when our soils
around here are usually seven four sevenfive, very rarely do you see an
acidic soil. And what happens inthose ihr pH soils the iron is not
available. It gets locked up.So they're growing right along and you can

(30:06):
feed them all you want to feedthem, but the problem is the iron
is not available. So that's whatyou see when you look at those those
leaves. So when you do theiron caps where you drill them into the
side, which is an immediate sourceof iron, a lot of arbists will
do that. A lot of arbistswill come out and do vertical mulching,
will actually drill around the root systemof the tree and then they'll they'll put

(30:27):
back in iron foster or iron sulfate. Iron sulfate gives you both the sulfur
to lower the pH and the ironas well. Uh. And it's something
you'll again you would be doing everythree or four years because that's about how
long that would last. Uh.But but that's two ways to look at

(30:47):
it. So the the caps,the metcaps are pretty instant. I mean,
it's immediate and it's and it's notthe roots aren't involved. Is right
up the the in the bark andright up the tree. But long term,
you could also look at that verticalmulching and the iron sulfate and the
iron height. You'll see that outthere at the local garden centers. But

(31:07):
that's another way to go. Butchanging the pH of the soil, which
is really difficult to do, especiallyin a large area like that, especially
around the base of a tree,makes it tough, and that's it's hard
to bring that pH back down again. But that would be the other way
to look at it would be usingthe iron sulfate also in addition to those

(31:30):
caps and trying to change the pahso naturally the iron would become more available
to that pinoak as well. Itell you, if you have that,
if that iron chlerosis just continues yearafter year after year, and you know
this, it'll start the tree willstart to decline, it'll start to die
back, and you can lose thoseover time. So you know, it's
one of those things that's kind ofturned me off with pinoaks. For the

(31:52):
most part. Northern pinoak is anotherselection that doesn't seem to require as much
of the lower pH. I'll seeas much chlorosis on it. Man,
that's straight quirk as polusterous it.It can do it, and it's you
see it all the time. It'shard to correct it. I'll be honest
with you. But you might suggestnext year, instead of doing the directly

(32:16):
into the base of the tree,the iron treament, like maybe doing vertical
multis with iron cellfing. Yep,that may be a great way to go.
And again, have you had anarbist do this or you doing it
yourself? Uh? I've had atree person and I've had a like a

(32:37):
a tree company to do it.And uh and in the past I've put
like the iron like around the dripline. Uh stuff. I got Oakland
Nursery and it worked really pretty welltoo. But set downe it all three
ways. Yeah, I've never hadvertical multing done. That's that's another way
to get it down into the soil. I mean, that's another way to

(32:59):
give it a and I it opensup the soil, it makes it again.
You can when you're all done,you can rake or gatting matter back
into those openings after you driw thoseholes, which a lot of folks will
do sometimes. But it's just anotherway to do it. And you know
for long term. You know,that's again it's hard to change the pH
but that is another way to attackit. Thank you. I appreciate your

(33:20):
advice. All right, Rich,good talking to you. Quick break.
We come back at the after thetop of the hour. We're gonna talk
to Dan Bowman. If you recallDan Bowman, he is from the folks
at Zanfell probably one of the onlyproducts on the market that will actually take
poison ivy oils off of your skin. We'll tell you more about that and
talk about those itchy plants. It'schya Scratchy show after the top of the
hour here on news Radio six tot n WTV in