Effective watering, plus upgrading your gravy with chorizo!

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Good morning, everybody. Welcome.I'm Ron Wilson, and you are in
the garden here on news radio sixto ten WTVN eight two to one WTV
in eight hundred and six to tenWTV and talking about the yardening Hot Hot
Hot and all that kind of stuff. And we'll talk more about that later
because of this time to kick offwith the Buggy Joe Boggs report. That
would be Joe Boggs. You allknow Joe Boggs, right, He's an

(00:23):
assistant professor commercial to Kitchen. Ican't help it. I just I mean,
he really can't. Man, evenyou know what's it was bad?
Even Ella laughs at me anymore.I know. I just that. Yeah,
I don't know. Maybe I waswondering how much I have to pay
Buggy Joe to get him to sitin the audience for my stand up shows,

(00:46):
because I could use a guy thatlaughs at anything. I'll tell you,
I will just well, it startsin the morning when I look in
the mirror. Did I hear arim shot there? I mean, come
on, what a day, I'lltell you. But that's okay, you're

(01:07):
no longer in control of this show. I'm just going to sit back and
let you too, got it,have at it. That's it, that's
it. Okay, is the EllenJoe show? Right? What happened to?
Ron? It's all us? Soyeah, if you could be you
could be Buggy Joe on this showand plant Joe because you'll be my plant
at my shows. I like it. I like it. I'm a vegetable.

(01:30):
Wait a turn. I don't knowwhat happened there. I think we
have to come back, please pleasecome back. Too much dead air.
There's dead air that he took off. I think I've seen gone down the
road. Ron. It's my mom'sbirthday and she's a big fan. So

(01:55):
if you don't do the show today, it's going to ruin her birthday.
Oh well, that's the pressure ison? Wow, the pressure. Yeah,
there you go, boy, I'lltell you that's interesting. And her
birthday was last week too, right? Is that? No? Wait a
second, did I say that loud? Yeah? In April and January too.

(02:15):
I think that's her go to toget us, but to get us
back, that's what it is.She turns fifty today. Oh my goodness,
just a child. Yeah. Iwas gonna say, you know,
that's I've kind of forgotten what thatwas like about, Oh no, Ron,
I mean, you're two. Whatwhat's that? My mom's probably forgotten

(02:38):
what fifties? Like to I wasthat was my birthday gift to her.
I was going to say, thatwas your happy birthday mom. Oh yes,
this is great. I thought itwas. I thought it was actually
forty five. I mean, Ijust well that's what I heard. I
mean, I don't know she hasthat forty five look. Yes, are
we talking about me understanding? You'reno, you have the more twenty nine

(03:06):
look that took. That took areally bad turn, didn't it. My?
My? My? You know,I spoke with you earlier this morning.
We had a brief chat with youand I about a couple of things,
and you know what, ever sincethen, I have been starving.
I know. I brought up thething with his sauces, biscuits and gravy,

(03:28):
which got me going. And thenyou brought up the uh the blue
cheese chips from City Camp Diner andI'm gonna have to go there. You're
well, you don't have to haveit for both of us, because I'm
not going to be able to getup there for for a while. But
well, I have to have thechili too. Oh well, I steak

(03:49):
chili with black with the black beans, and you got me started thinking about
that this morning. I know,normally it's just donuts from me, but
I gotta tell you, yeah,it's yeah. I've been on the staycation
this week. You know, wewere diving around a little bit, and
like I said earlier this week,we were down in Kentucky and came across
a great biscuit place. You know, just I mean, what more can

(04:13):
you ask for? Right? Imean, I mean truly for me,
I'm not sure which ranks they had, biscuits or doughnuts. I have to
be honest, that's a toss upright there. But if you say,
well, yeah, and if yousay gravy, well there's no there's just
no comparison, there's no competition.Put the gravy on top. Well that's

(04:33):
the end of that. And Ithink I told you this morning, Hero,
maybe a month or so ago,I made some gravy with chreesa sausage,
and that that should be all Ican say. Oh you get the
heat from the sausage. Oh,everything, I mean everything I tell you.

(04:58):
Yeah, you know, pets,small children, you just put gravy
on everything you know. Yeah,that is that is true, isn't it.
I mean it's I have found eitherpeople love it. It's like since
night chili, right either either.But I also think it really speaks to

(05:19):
where you grew up, right,Yes, I mean if you if you
grew up in you know, inthe South or Appalachia. I mean,
if you didn't eat gravy, wellyou just you starve to death. That's
all there was to do it.Yeah, I mean that was me.
Well stuck carried you through the day, it did, it did, and
sometimes into the evening, I meansometimes the next day. Yeah, So

(05:45):
what we're going to talk about.I'll tell you there's a lot of stuff
happening out there, not the leastof which is that the weather has taken
a very good turn, hasn't it. Yes. I can't wait for tomorrow
and Monday, maybe even Tuesday alittle bit. Then it heats up and
back down it gets to be morenormal, I'll tell you. Yeah,
my wife and I were talking aboutthose, you know, the very warm

(06:08):
string of temperatures with now I knowthat you know, Columbus, Cincinnati,
Cleveland. That's one thing about ourstate that it can vary so much.
You know, within the state,and some locations were getting some thunderstorms you
know, through that very you know, intense heat. But I've never seen

(06:28):
so many strings of days, seehow to say this correctly with both high
temperatures and low humidity with wind andit was just like Santa Ana winds blowing.
You know that it just was dryingthings out so quickly and normally,
you know, our summer high temperaturesare coupled with what high humidity. I

(06:50):
mean, that's why everybody always saysabout the Midwest and the East. You
know, it's not the heat,it's the humidity. And there's some truth
to that, right but you know, and you can have the same temperatures
but very low humidity. But whatwe forget with plants is that our plants
are adapted not to desert conditions whereyou have you know, dry winds blowing,

(07:16):
which then you know blows away.You know, the moisture is being
lost through a appa transporation. Butfor us, when that occurs, those
plants are really pumping out a lotof water. It takes quite a bit
for them to start shutting down,and usually you know they're getting into trouble
when they do. That right,because it means the soil is drying out.

(07:39):
And I lost track of the numberof pictures I got of what we
call physiological leaf scorch, and that'skind of a fancy term for just leaves
plants drying out. It's a bittricky. Actually, I'm looking at my
watch. We talked about food untilthere must be a break coming up,

(07:59):
right, Yeah, you want totake a break and jump back into this.
Yeah, I think so, okay, So we'll do that. We'll
come back with that more than getJoe Boggs report here on news radio six
to ten w TV in uh talkingsauce, these biscuits and gravy and squirrel

(08:20):
brain gravy and oh my goodness,may maytag chips, blue cheese. And
by the way, that's Alfredo sauce. What's that that's Alfredo sauce. It
goes on there, Alfredo. Yes, well, I tell you you said
did you say you said holidays thoughtsto me earlier today? No, it's

(08:43):
it's alf alfreda either way. Nowone would work there, one would work.
So boy, I'll tell you westarted talking about food again, I
mean talking about food and that's it. That's it. I mean, I
think we should just I think Iwas right. I think we should start
a food show. You know,it could go. It might be the

(09:03):
first one, right, I don'tknow. Yes, yes, the food
show by people that know nothing aboutit except eating. If it's good.
Allen knows how to make pizza.Well there you go, and we know
how to eat pizza. So that'sa fine pairing, isn't it. So

(09:24):
what I was saying before the breakwas that I've been getting and well,
a lot of you know, myextension colleagues have been getting, you know,
reports and pictures showing, you know, various trees and shrubs, particularly
those that have been planted in thelast few years. And that's something you
know, Ron and I've talked aboutbefore, that the perception that, oh,

(09:46):
if you get them through one year, that you know you're done.
And as you and I both know, both containerized and if you get bald
and burlapp, it takes time,you know, for trees and shrubs are
fully established, so you know,one year is not just it. You
have to go some years. Andthe pictures I've been getting have been very

(10:07):
surprising that you and I both knowyou have one of two things that can
occur either the person maybe they're awayfrom on vacation, or they just didn't
think, you know that the treethat you know, if APO transferation was
causing the plants to dry out morequickly, or the other end of the

(10:28):
spectrum is they watered too much.And that's one that's kind of hard to
you know, that's one that's kindof hard to diagnose because we typically do
not think of too much water presentingthe same symptoms as not enough. But
back to those symptoms, you know, if we see leaves that are browning

(10:50):
along the edges and at the tips, and I have to be a little
careful with that because that depends onthe tree or the shrub. For example,
this physiological leaf scorch, it appearsvery different and it's always you know,
through me for a loop on bottlebrushbuckeye, there's a tendency for the

(11:11):
leafless to brown back towards the petiole. First, it's just the way it
responds to drying out. But ingeneral it starts the furthest away from the
source of water, which would bethe roots. If we eliminate and this
is very important, we first needto consider and eliminate a vascular wilt disease,

(11:31):
right, because anything that shuts down, you know, the flow of
water in a tree or shrub isgoing to cause this leaf scorch symptom.
And we use the term physiological whenwe mean that it's not being caused by
a pathogen. So that's kind ofyou know, the kind of verbiage that
we use to describe this. Butthat's very important to point out that it

(11:56):
can be disrupted anywhere, you know, in the flow of water, because
like I said, and the investigationyou have to eliminate other possibilities. But
at the end of the day,as I said earlier, trees and shrubs
present the same symptoms at opposite endsof the moisture the soil moisture spectrum,

(12:18):
and the reason for that is toomuch water. The roots first start depending
on the tree, right, ifit's not you know, something that is
adapted to wet conditions, like baldcypress for example. If they're not adapted
to those conditions, then the rootswill start shutting down. The you know,
we just say that root function iscompromised when it's in water logged soils.

(12:43):
Right. But eventually, of course, then those roots can start dying
and decaying, and then we mightget a root rotting pathogen in there.
Well, the top of the plantis going to look exactly the top of
the tree is going to look exactlylike what would happen if you don't have
enough water. So you and Ialways talk about this, and I've heard

(13:07):
you say this numerous times. Icall it the finger test. You put
your finger in the soil. Butof course you know that if the soil
is really hard, that's hard todo. But the point is, just
do a little investigation before you water, right right, just check check to
see if it needs it. Andthere's also kind of a deceptive situation where

(13:28):
if you have the tree or shrubplanted in the soil's it's a poorly drained
soil. Maybe it's compacted, maybeit's heavy clay. Well, you may
check the root ball out and findwell it is there's plenty of water,
but the surrounding soil is dry.Right, So it's kind of sitting in
a water a pot of water,and that likewise can lead to these problems.

(13:52):
But at the end of the day, it's when we're starting these high
temperatures and we start getting you know, no rain. But then the real
challenge for our you know, Midwestadapted plants are those those extremely low humidity,
extremely low humidity coupled with wind thatreally cause the app of transferation to

(14:15):
go into overdrive, right, andthey just dry out very quickly. So
hopefully we're coming out of that.Hopefully, hopefully we can keep our fingers
crossed. Right. Yeah, really, yeah, it's been. You know,
it's confusing. It's always hard touh and we talk about it almost
every week on the show The ProperWay to water and you know, it

(14:37):
varies so much, and how doyou generically talk about, you know,
the right way to do it andwhatever, And it's tough. Sometimes I
get it, and you know,I think a lot of times with folks
also is that after that first year, they have tend to forget that it's
still a getting itself established and ittakes it. I always say with evergreens,
it's a two or three year processeasily easily, yeah, easily,

(14:58):
And maybe with the suous plants andand and that it may established a little
bit quicker, but you're still dealingwith it. And folks will say,
well, it's been you know,it's the second year. Have you been
watering no, we watered last yearlike you're supposed to, and in this
year we really haven't done anything becauseyou know it's established, well it's not
established, you know, so andlet you know, I always there but

(15:20):
for the grace of God. GoI right. I mean, it's we've
all been there, right, Ohyeah, yeah, sure, you know.
But but you're you're you're exactly right. It's and we tend to forget
when we last watered. That's theother thing. And well, even you
know, talking with my wife this, you know, through this period of

(15:41):
high heat, drying conditions and soforth, every so often did I water
yesterday or the day before? Ofcourse that could be age related. I
say, that's yeah, I thinkthat's more age related than anything else I'm
claiming otherwise. But you know,I accept that. I love it.

(16:02):
Yeah, well you're right, andhopefully folks will, you know, keep
with us as we go through thesummer season. And and I think the
other thing I'm going to throw outthere real quick is to anticipate what the
future weather's looking like, because somany times, once we do get into
a drought situation or it becomes extremelydry, and then the plant starts to
show the symptoms. H then youstart watering it. Well. In some

(16:25):
cases, some of the decisionous plantswill recover from that. In many cases,
the evergreens that are starting to showit at that point won't recover from
that. That's right. So youknow you have to kind of look ahead
as well. And it's you know, and again, and you've got a
year or two, maybe three thatyou've got to work with those plants until
they do start to get somewhat rootedinto the ground. You know, it

(16:47):
is interesting. We've gone through aperiod of time. I thankfully it broke.
I mean, thankfully we're moving backinto more normal I to do this.
It's not a setting on the dryer, yea, what is normal.
But you know, we're moving intoconditions. Let's just say that we've had
more experience with it. Put itthat way, right. I Mean I
kind of tend to think of Julyand August as as being hot and dry,

(17:11):
or hot or hot with high humidity, you know, with occasional thunderstorms.
I mean, that's kind of whatI think of as July and August.
But as we move into this periodof time, it's important to though,
keep in mind, as I said, earlier, the pictures I got,
I got a picture of a ofa hybrid chestnut, you know,
one that's been that has you know, Asian jeens in it, and that

(17:36):
poor thing, I hate to sayit, probably you're right ron that with
with with conifers, they're even moreunforgiving. But I think this one is
probably in real trouble. And nomatter what happens, you know, well,
it's probably still going to be inreal trouble. So i'd say over
the next you know, a fewweeks, you know, if you're looking

(17:56):
at at a tree or shrub thatreally started suffering again, maybe away from
vacation or just didn't get to it, well this is the time, will
tell, right as we have tokeep an eye on them, but don't
over water. And that's well,that's that's that's the other thing. Yeah,
and we have to go and we'rerunning out of time. But and

(18:18):
I'll talk about this after the break, but you know that's the other thing
is And now you see it.Now you start pounding the water to it
and you make it even worse.That's right. As it floats down the
you know the stream, it's like, okay, well maybe I put too
much water on it. I don'tknow. Ah, my Joe, thanks
for all the great information. Havea great fourth of July. Oh you
too, Ron. Take care andmore biscuits and gravy. That's all I

(18:41):
can say. You got it allright, Take care, take care,
Bye bye, Bucky Joe Bogs again. The website is byg L dot OSU
dot e du quick Break we comeback. Phone lines are open for you
at eight two to one w tvIN Here on news Radio six ten WTVN
talking you Aready here on news Radiosix ten wtv IN and joining up Upper
Music as well. You know,we're talking about the watering. And I

(19:03):
don't want to harp on this throughthe whole show, but I wonder no
one last thing here. I hadsomeone sent me a picture of a sycamore
tree that they had planted last year, and same thing. You know,
it's like, all of a sudden, what's wrong with my sycamore? It's
all turning brown and yellow on theinside of the tree, and all the
things on the leaves on the outsideare great, but the inside's all brown

(19:23):
and yellow. And of course it'sbeen planning for two years. I emailed
back and I said, you knowhow often have you watered this year and
really haven't because it's been in fora year. Figured it was established well,
and that's obviously the reason why it'sstarting to shed like this. But
so they're going to get back intoit in water and it should be okay,
and you know, again not don'tdrown it or anything like that,

(19:44):
but you know, get the regularwatering back and it should recover. But
as I was looking at it,I also realized that that tree and a
few of the others that they haveplanted over the last couple of years have
mulch rings around the base of them, which is good. I applaud them
for doing that. Everybody should dothat. But they're only about twelve fourteen
inches in diameter basically from when theyplanted the tree. And I just fired

(20:11):
back and said, hey, justone last comment, and I share this
with everybody. When you plant atree like this, you know you're going
to find out that this tree doesso much better and will do so much
better. And research has shown itthat when you plant a tree, no
matter what the size is, ifyou start out with a minimum of a
three foot diameter circle around the baseof that tree, that gets mulched a

(20:33):
minimum of three feet. Four feetwould be great, six feet would be
even better. And when you dothat, what you're doing you're doing a
whole bunch of things here. Oneis you're getting the grass away from the
base of the tree, so youdon't get lawnmower disease and string trim or
disease, right, so you're nothave to bump it and string trim it
and all that kind of stuff.Secondly, is when you take the grass
away from the base of the treeand where the root system is going to

(20:55):
get started and growing, you're takingaway the competition with the grass, and
that is a heavy competition for youngertrees trying to get established. It really
can set them back when you're competingwith the grass when it comes to getting
established. So getting it away fromthe trunk of the tree and away from
the root system helps cut down onthe competition. Then when you come back

(21:18):
and mulch on top of that,you're now adding organic matter, which over
time helps to bring that soil backalive into the root system. Right,
earthworms start to return in those areas, and you're actually now improving the soil
for the rooting system of the tree, and of course mulch all the benefits
that it has, keeping the weedsdown, helping to retain moisture, helping

(21:40):
to keep it cooler during the summer, and helping to keep it a little
bit warmer during the winter. Allthese benefits come back to help you out
when you're planting these trees and evergreensin the lawn in a grassy area by
putting a much larger ring of mulcharound them. So please do that.
If yours don't have it, nowdo it. And you can do it
this summer, you can do itin the fall. Either way would be

(22:00):
fine. And of course when yougo to water. Now, when you
go to water, you've got thisnice open area of no turf. You
put the sprinkler or the whatever you'regonna do in there and turn that on,
and you know, now you startto see that water going right down
around that tree and in that immediatecircle. Rather than watering the lawn and
everything else around it, you reallyconcentrate on that tree. Easier to feed,

(22:23):
easier to do all of those thingsby malching and having mault rings around
the tree one to three inches deep, and keep that mault at least four
to six inches away from the trunkof the tree as you're putting it down.
But you do all that stuff andthat's going to really help all those
new evergreens and trees that you've plantedto the guarding phone lines, gurn good
morning, Hey, good morning Ron. Can you hear me all right?

(22:45):
Yes, sir, I have aquestion about fertilizer. I have a bag
of turf builder weed and feed fromlast year and unfortunately I left it open
in the shed and it was humid, and so it's kind of it's not
granular like it used to be.It's it's still but it's obviously modified as

(23:06):
a clumpier and stuff like that.What I brought it in the office because
we have an we have an airconditioned home and thought that might help Drian
out. It's been here a weeknow and is that usable or should I
What do I do with that?Well, the problem is is will it
go through the calibrated spreader in theright calibration if the granules aren't the size
that they need to be. Sogetting it dried out first of all,

(23:29):
and make sure it's right out allthe way through, and then you know,
like a bag of ice it's frozen, and you drop it and break
it and and break it up.Try to do that and see if you
can get it back into the smallgranulars that they that it was at at
one time. If you can't dothat, I don't know how to tell
you to put it through a youknow, a spreader with the right calculations

(23:49):
of the right calibrator to get usto drop the right amount. So that's
just that's the problem you get into. Yeah, right, not the first
time this has happening, fortunately,but this is really fine. So all
right, you know, any tricksother than manipulated dropping it and put it
in the bag and dropping it.Nope, nope, that's all. I

(24:10):
mean. I've done it done myselfwhere it's gotten a little bit of moisture
in there and able to get itto dry, drop it and really pound
it around, you know, evenuse a you can even go, you
know, go as far as usingsome kind of a stamper, you know,
like where you're stamping the ground andthen trying to do that to really
pulverize it. If you have anotherbag of fertilizer that's the same product or
whatever, and you can see thegrain, you'll see how small they are.

(24:33):
You know, hopefully you can getthem to that size. And you
know, if you if you,if you're able to get it so you
can put it in a spreader.I'd probably do it at a lot less
rate than what you normally would wouldput it down at And that way you
make sure you don't over apply it, just just to be sure. But
that's the way I do it.Uh, you know, you hate to
waste it. I understand that justthat, And of course it's got the
weed killer in it, which isnot a good thing. But anyway,

(24:56):
all right, quick break, wecome back. Nina Bagley coming up next
here on new Is Radio six tenWTVN