Giant pumpkin expert Jerry Rose

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Good morning everybody, Welcome back. I'm Ron Wilson, and you
are in the garden here on news radio six '
ten WTVN talking your ardening. And you know it's uh here.
We are in the month of August, already hard to believe,
and in about four to five weeks we're going to
start talking about giant pumpkin Wayoffs. Can you believe that?
It's right around the corner? Falls right around the corner.

(00:21):
So where do we stay in right now? Where do
you think they are as far as these giant pumpkins?
How big are they at this stage? And how big
are they going to be once we get to September
and October to the Wayoffs? Well, you know we have
questions about giant pumpkins, we always go to our giant
pumpkin expert from Northeastern Ohio, mister Jerry Rose. Good morning, sir.

Speaker 2 (00:41):
Hey, how you doing today?

Speaker 1 (00:42):
I am doing absolutely wonderful. Of course, great website, Big
pumpkins dot Com for folks that want to learn more
about it. I guarantee you you have been out and
I'm just guessing, but I'm going to say I guarantee you.
I'll put a check on it. You've spent at least
two hours with your pumpkins this morning.

Speaker 2 (00:58):
Ok, no time, is it an sit five hours? Geeze
on Pete's I'm just trying to finish right now. I
got Jerry over here, trying to get the sprayer going.
The sprayer's giving me problem, you know how it is,
and just everything is breaking on me this morning.

Speaker 1 (01:12):
Did I under well, yeah, it never fails, there's no
doubt about it. Did I understand? And talking about Jerry,
it's number three, right, Jerry number three?

Speaker 2 (01:21):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (01:22):
Did I understand? He's got his he's broken away now
and he has his own pumpkin patch.

Speaker 2 (01:27):
Yeah, that's It's funny, is he got his own punkin patch.
But some way or another, all my equipment gets used
to take care of it. Like I said, I got
another property next door, and he's over there. That's what
we just. I got to steal missed floor and which
giving me some issues. We're just getting to run and
got a tank of spray in it so he can
go spray his pumpkins real quick. I just finished up
with mine.

Speaker 1 (01:46):
Well, let me ask you what are you spraying your
pumpkins for?

Speaker 2 (01:49):
Right now? We got powdery mildew downy mildew, acids and
cucumber beetles. I got like three different, four different fung
just sides. I mix up one bug killer all you know,
do different alternations using like quintech and phoss fights for
powdery mildew and I think it's called rand Man for

(02:09):
the downing downy milldew. And then I use Bravo You'll forever,
you know, I mean that's been around forever just for
your general general fungicide, you know.

Speaker 1 (02:17):
Yeah, so trying to keep them as to protect it
as much as you can. So you know, here we are,
we're at the first of August, and I know this
becomes a really crucial time for you giant pumpkin growers
because they're really starting to put on the weight and all.
Now you personally, I know you retired a couple of
years ago just so you can get into this even
more so you made a major switch and how you

(02:39):
grow pumpkins. And now you're using the high tonal method.
You know, last year I said, you said, you know,
you learned a lot. You know, you got a lot
of adjustments to make. Is this your second year now
with a high tone?

Speaker 2 (02:51):
This is the third and third year yeah, third, third year,
made some adjustments, mainly with trying to sterilize my soil
a little bit better and got some trying to get
some fans going in there to keep some you know rotating,
you know, get the air circulated in there a little
bit better.

Speaker 3 (03:07):
Right.

Speaker 2 (03:09):
Yeah, plants knock on some woods somewhere here. They look
pretty good right now, but you know we still got
a long ways to go.

Speaker 1 (03:17):
Yeah, I mean that four or five weeks before you
get to that first one, and of course you got
more going September October. Your whole goal now is to
just to maintain those vines, which a lot of homeowners
are doing right now, trying to watch for the powdery
mildew and the downy milldew and all the other issues
that can come across, to keep that vine going as
healthy as you can, to keep supplying that pumpkin. So

(03:39):
as we look out there right now, and I know
you can't tell me how many or the size or whatever,
but as you're looking out there right now, looking pretty
good for Jerry Rose, Yeah.

Speaker 2 (03:49):
I started out, I'll tell how many. I started out
with six. I lost one a week or so ago,
don't know why, about eleven hundred pounds and it just
we called a boarding you know, I mean like any
any any vegetable can do and they don't normally do
it when they're that big. And it's actually it's got
it's setting out here. I'm gonna open it up, see
if I can get some feeds out of it. My
other five are doing pretty good in there, anywhere from

(04:11):
probably uh thirteen hundred to fifteen hundred pounds and still
growing fairly.

Speaker 1 (04:17):
Well wow, so what do you mean? What do you
so it's just just disconnected from the vine or the
vine collapse or what.

Speaker 2 (04:24):
They just quit growing. Plant look fine and everything. We
measure them once a week and it went from growing
about fifty pounds a day to the next week it
grew uh thirty pounds a day and it's nothing wow,
but still alive.

Speaker 1 (04:40):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (04:41):
Well no, we've noticed it's getting soft spots on it
now and everything. It's good. But you know, we thought
sometimes they'll split on the bottom where you can't see them.
But when we picked it up, we didn't see no
splits in the bottom. Uh. Just it's we don't know
it just none of us know what happened. It don't
look like a disease to that you know, got into
the plant, you know, into the root system, maybe travel
up the vine, but the plant still looks pretty good.

Speaker 1 (05:03):
Interesting, and of course for folks to understand, it's one
pumpkin per vine, yat per plant, right yep, yep, yeah,
And how.

Speaker 2 (05:12):
Much space I'm gonna get rid of that plant? Plant
me a couple of zucchinis and a couple of rows of
late green beans and maybe some other late stuff. And
Michael used that space up in the greenow for something
right now.

Speaker 1 (05:22):
That's a true gardener right there. Talking with Jerry Rose,
of course, he has held many, many records when it
comes to giant pumpkins, and he is our expert, our
go to when we talk about giant pumpkins. And a
great website check it out. It's big pumpkins dot com.
So Jerry as you're of course you're involved Facebook and
this website and all and talking to all your friends
around the country. Any kind of a feel you're getting,

(05:44):
I mean, last year, what was it, twenty seven forty
nine was the was the world's record. That's a that's
a pretty good sized pumpkin. Any feel for what's going
on out there right Now there are some good.

Speaker 2 (05:56):
Ones getting out there. I mean now you like I said,
mine are doing fairly well. I don't think I got
a world record out there. So there's a couple other
guys in high I know that are doing well. The
guys over there in England, you know, they're doing outstanding
there already had like twenty one to twenty three hundred
pounds already and uh, you know, and I think they
said it twenty one hundred. They're still doing twenty five

(06:17):
pounds a day, so they're wow there goal. I mean
they've already told I said, we went there last winter
and stayed with them and last February and a couple
of days and seeing their set up and everything, and
they're if they grow the world record, at least the
one brothers, because it's two twin brothers. The one brother says,
if I grow of the world record, I've set my goal.
I'm done growing giant pumpkins. Really yep, he's he's well,

(06:39):
I don't think he said that. He said the world
record plus three thousand pounds. I think he was ultimate
three thousand pounds.

Speaker 1 (06:44):
Huh. How long you think it'll take? How long do
you think it's going to take to I mean when
you and I first met, it was several years ago
at way Off at Oakland, and I think back then
we were looking at jeez, if you had a nine
hundred pound pumpkin, you were doing pretty darn good. Yeah.
Now your throwaways are fifteen sixteen hundred pounds.

Speaker 2 (07:05):
Yep, exactly. It's I gives you most of these way
off now. I know in Canfield last year, our Ohio
Valley giant pumpin growers way Off, I think we had
eight of them over two thousand pounds. I brung in
an eighteen hundred pounder last year and that took thirteenth place.

Speaker 1 (07:21):
Sheese yep.

Speaker 2 (07:23):
Even you've seen it down to Oakland. I think there
was I don't know three or four over two thousand
I think down there.

Speaker 1 (07:28):
Yeah, yeah, it's phenomenal. So what do you Yeah, I
mean every year, so we're getting bigger and bigger all
the time, you know, and you're talking about technology and
new things that you're doing. Is it the breeding that's
that's causing needs to be bigger? Is it? Is it
the breeding and the technology? Are we just learning more?
Why the big increase that we're seeing.

Speaker 2 (07:49):
Breeding and technology I don't think he could have took
seeds from twenty years and go and grow twenty five
pounds twenty seven hundred pound pumpkins. Technology though with more guys,
with the keeping eyes on the salts, soluble salts and
that the EC meters. And I told you before there's
a guy that's got one buried in his soil and

(08:10):
he's keeping an eye on his EC. That's how he
worries about fertilizing. If the EC starts to drop, he
pounds him with some fertilizer. If it goes goes up,
he slows down on the mount of fertilizer. And I
know the fellows over there in London. Yeah, they're they're
doing that type of setup, but I don't have one yet.
I guess that's my next step. I did check the
EC of my water this year. One thing I amn't

(08:31):
changed this year. I'm not watering out of a pond.
I'm watering out of my water well because I thought
I might be getting disease from my pond even though
I was treating it. And I know the EC of
my water coming on my well is about I think
it was about point eighty six. And you know they
say you're okay if you're under one. Uh so, I
guess I'm okay there. I may if this works well

(08:55):
the well water and keeping disease down, I may punch
a separate well just for the pumpkins. Because my water
well produces enough water to supply my house all day long,
but when I'm trying to irrigate out of it and
supply the house. The wife wasn't very happy the other
day whenever her shower went dry.

Speaker 1 (09:12):
No, I don't think that would that would go over
very well.

Speaker 2 (09:15):
No, he wasn't half Sophie hair and everything not feeling
or covers off the bed. It's just got Sophie hair.
What do you think on that ron? Thing's going?

Speaker 1 (09:23):
You didn't think? You didn't suggest you go jump in
the pond, did you? No?

Speaker 2 (09:28):
I never thought of it. Thanks, I got a new idea.

Speaker 1 (09:31):
Oh now I'm in trouble with missus Rose. Great, It's
just exactly what I needed. It's like a quick break.
We got a lot more questions for Jerry Rose again.
Check out The website is Big Pumpkins dot com. It's
a really cool website. You can see all the records
there and all the weigh ins and all that for
all the different vegetables that they do this with, so
be sure and check that out. We come back. I
got more questions for Jerry and kind of a last

(09:53):
minute because this is a crucial time for him when
it comes to giant pumpkin growing. It's all happen here
on news Radio six ten WTVN. We're talking giant pumpkins
here on news radio six ' ten wtv IN Welcome back.
I am Ron Wilson, your personal yard boy, and with
me this morning is our giant pumpkin expert, and he's

(10:13):
he's held a lot of records, Jerry Rose, and he's
out there as a matter of fact right now with
us pumpkins trying to get the sprayer to work so
he can spray them and keep him protected. Crucial time
right now. I know you talk about how they grow
so much during the month of August, but from what
I'm hearing from you, it sounds like this started a
little bit earlier.

Speaker 2 (10:32):
Yeah, we're getting you know, not only myself, but the
other guys are going more of these heating cables in
the grounds and heat lamps on the you know, in
this earlier in the year to get the soil heated
up to get them. The plants started a little bit earlier,
and like I said, I started my first one pollinated
on the seventh of June, the last ones eleventh. That's

(10:53):
only four days and that's probably solid over two weeks,
probably two and a half to three weeks ahead of
what I used to be. So now I'm getting peak growth.
A couple of weeks ago they were averaging. My best
ones did like fifty five fifty six a day. The
other ones were right around fifty or so. Now last

(11:13):
week the best ones were doing forty three day I
think it was, but we did have a couple of
cold nights in that week too that were dropped down
into the forties. Now this I'm gonna be interested to
see what they do this week because this whole seven
I measure Monday to Monday seven day stretch, and this
whole seven days, it looks like we're going to be

(11:33):
in the at least sixty five that'll close to seventy
degrees at nighttime. And that's that's the big deal. You know,
if we need to keep them temperatures above fifty degrees
at nighttime, and if if I if my disease issues
start to have. If I start to figure that kind
of stuff out, my next step will be to have
a furnace in there so it never drops below sixty
degrees any any night of the growing season.

Speaker 1 (11:55):
So how long is Jerry? I mean, so how long
you have to keep that regiment up? As we get
closer to the way off times? I mean, you carry
that right to the very.

Speaker 2 (12:04):
End, that kind.

Speaker 1 (12:05):
Of weight to the conditions. So you know you want
to keep them warm at night? I mean, are you
doing that right up until the October?

Speaker 2 (12:13):
Right? I would you know? I have a feeling the
month of September this year being my pumpkins will be
getting pretty old. I'm hoping in the month of August
to say, let's say, get eight hundred pounds of growth
this month. Okay, maybe two hundred pounds in the month
of September. It used to be a little I could
get four to five hundred in September when the pumpkins
were younger pumpkins. What I used to do then was
I would make a framework and put floating rope cover

(12:36):
over top of the plants. And I even used to
put heaters net in there in September to keep it.
I won't be quite as critical on that this year.
If they're talking frost. I'll try to, you know, make
sure I keep the plants alive and everything, But I
think their major growth will be done this month, all right.

Speaker 1 (12:50):
So by the time you get into mid September or
September ish, it's just a matter of maintaining the vines,
keeping those healthy, keep feeding the plant is you know,
feeding it, meeting the vine, nurturing the the pumpkin until
you're able to harvest it and take it to the wayoffs.
Now you're the only one that's actually confessed out loud
that you actually sleep with your pumpkins during the crucial time.

(13:13):
I'm assuming that still happens. The blankets come out, the
white freezes inside. Now she can't rinse off because you've
used up all over water. Although she did say last
year she said that that's actually not bad now that
you do get out of the house and actually sleep
with your pumpkins. But you're still going to do that too.

Speaker 2 (13:30):
We've already started that. I told you we're in the
forties already. She's blankets are all stolen, and you know,
I actually had you know, they got a little vamp
out there, so I you know, got to have a
clothes line up, throw them over top over there to
get get them to get the do off of them
in that even in the greenhouse, get.

Speaker 1 (13:45):
To do you know.

Speaker 2 (13:45):
So yeah, she's okay, you know, I mean, you know,
just you know, it does. Just have to do what
you got to do, you know, break the old old blankets,
old holy blankets out of the closet or something like that.

Speaker 1 (13:56):
You know, I tell you, you know, meeting your wife,
she seems a lot nicer in the way you talk
about her. I don't want to start anything, but you know, she's.

Speaker 2 (14:05):
Been together, turned fifty this year, and I've been with her.
H I've been with her since she was seventeen. But
I started growing pumpkins forty five years ago, so I've
been with the pumpkins longer than i've been with her.

Speaker 1 (14:17):
Jeez, I love it. Nice lady. Though she's a.

Speaker 2 (14:20):
Saint good, she's a good one.

Speaker 1 (14:22):
She'll be putting she'll be putting put into sainthood, there's
no doubt about it. Talking with Jerry Rose Giant pumpkin
grower websites Big pumpkins dot com if you want to
check it out. The record is twenty seven forty nine
from last year that came out of Minnesota. Uh, Jerry,
Jerry's not sure if that'll get broken this year or not.
But you never know. Things things to change, So we'll see. Now,

(14:45):
of course you've got way off starting. What about the
first of September.

Speaker 2 (14:49):
Yeah, the Camfield Fair, which is they say it's the
biggest county fair in the state of Ohio. I mean,
it's almost as big as Ohio State Fair, I think,
and they offer fairly decent prize money and everything, and
a lot of times what we'll do is there's a
pumpkin that we're having a problem with, or maybe it's
just done growing or something like that, like that one
I told you that I had problems with that I lost.
If it would have been close enough to fare time,

(15:11):
I would have took it to the fair or something
like that. But one thing with the greenhouse and my
pumpkins is thirty foot wide by one hundred and eighty
foot long. If I do take one of the fair,
it has to be one of the ones on the end,
because I'm not destroying the other plants to get into
the middle of the greenhouse.

Speaker 1 (15:25):
Got it. There you go.

Speaker 2 (15:27):
The greenhouse is movabley I think I've told you that before.
I can hook my tractor to it, move it, but
I'm not moving it for to pick one punkin. They
don't get moved filled right at the end of our
September beginning of October.

Speaker 1 (15:38):
I love it. I love it well. I wish you
the best. I hopefully we can maybe talk to you
one more time to get that final feel as far
as when we get into the way off season, to
see where you stand and how everything worked out. And
so hopefully we can touch base here in another four
or five weeks here and kind of get that last
minute check up and see how it's going. See how
Jerry number three is doing. I understand his girl friends

(16:00):
even got her own pumpkin patch.

Speaker 2 (16:02):
Well, they're sharing it. He's actually sitting over here beside
me now there's they're sharing and she's trying to pick
up on everything. So you know, I think you'll have
a pretty decent one over there. I might go check
it out. He just he just sentished spraying and uh,
I might go check. We've had a little bit of
rainstorms here this morning. Actually looks like it's clearing off
now cause I'm glad because we're spraying. But that and
the biggest thing now my ultimate goal now the pumpkins

(16:24):
are slowing down, is keep figure out these uh Amarillis
is to keep get them ready for this winter.

Speaker 1 (16:29):
Well, you know what, that was my last question. How
many Amarillis kids did you wind up buying? Because you
kept sending me text messages after Christmas about all these
you have just another Amarillis and another Amarillis and I
know you were giving them away, and I know if
people loved him, how did you wind up growing?

Speaker 2 (16:46):
I don't know we had a dozen or fifteen, I
don't know. I think I still got a ten or
twelve out here in the little pots, you know. And
I guess I think it's getting ready to be time
to put them away. And then I guess play him
again back at the beginning of December and see if
he'd come back to life or something like that.

Speaker 1 (16:59):
Yeah, well, yeah, you can get something to happen for
the holiday season. So eight weeks, six to eight weeks
on the dormant and then bring them back out and
repot and see if you get into flower around the
holiday season sometime in January. So good luck with that
and I know you'll keep us posted on that one too. Hey,
good luck with everything. Good luck to Jerry number three
and his girlfriend with hers, and we'll touch base another

(17:20):
four or five weeks see where you are, and I
hope everything works out for you. I'm looking for that
record holder from you.

Speaker 2 (17:25):
Thanks Ron, We'll stay in touch.

Speaker 1 (17:27):
All right, Take care, Jerry Rose. And again, if you
want to learn more about growing giant pumpkins, go to
the website. It's big Pumpkins dot com. That's big Pumpkins
dot com. All right, quick break, we come back. Phone
lines will be open for you at eight two to
one WTVN eight hundred and six to ten WTVN. Here
on news radio six to ten WTVN, we are talking

(17:49):
to you already here on news radio six to ten
wtv In a couple quick announcements, we'll go back to
the gardening phone lines at eight two to one WTVN.
First of all, next Saturday, for made until noon out
in Marysville at the Union County Fairgrounds, we have the
Union County Master Gardener Plant Sale. They do this every year.

(18:10):
This is a twentieth year for doing this. By the way,
they have a sunshade perennials, native plants, shrubs, trees, bulbs, daylilies, grasses.
All plants are divided from the master gardener's own gardens.
Plants are sold at very reasonable prices as well. It
happens next Saturday, that would be the tenth of August
from eight until noon at the Union County Fairgrounds in Marysville, Ohio,

(18:34):
And it's a great fundraiser for them and you get
to a share and some really cool plants at very
reasonable prices. Also coming up next weekend on Sunday, so
you can do that on Saturday, and then on Sunday
you can participate in the Central Ohio Hostage Society's auction.
They have their auction every year again they do this.

(18:57):
It's at the Whitmeier Conference Room twenty four to ninety
Carmack Road, that's off of Lane on the north side
by the dairy farm buildings. You can park on site.
Building's air condition, has restrooms, so lots of comfort there
and they have ice cream floats for refreshments as well.
And the money they raised from this auction they give

(19:20):
help to give a scholarship to at know Issue Horse student,
give money to Franklin Park Conservatory, and help to keep
the society going as well. Jim Rush is the auctioneer.
They use a paddle system is fast, lasts about two hours,
and they said, I have a nice selection of hostage
to sell, over one hundred different selections for you to
take a look at to add to your host to collection. Again,
that's coming up next Sunday. All right, let's see, Yeah,

(19:46):
August the eleventh, one o'clock with Myer conference room on
Carmack Road in right off of Lane there. And that's
a lot of fun for everybody as well. So a
couple things for you to do next Saturday and Sunday. Terry,
thanks for holding on. You're in the garden with Ron Wilson.

Speaker 4 (20:04):
Wow.

Speaker 5 (20:04):
Thanks Ron, What a joy to be able to talk
to you, and your show has been for years for
me on Saturday mornings. And my goodness, I wasn't interested
in giant pumpkins, but I can't believe what I just learned.
Guests are just always amazing. Hey, I've been wanting to
plant a strip I would say seventy five yards long,

(20:27):
maybe three garden tractors swaths wide, just no traffic area
of cut flowers. Okay, I've been trying to figure out
where should I go for a plan to how to
get this started.

Speaker 1 (20:43):
I'll tell you a great book. There's a couple of
them out there. One doctor Allan armand he's just revised
his He's got two different ones on growing cut flowers.
And the original one that he wrote was for the
commercial grower, and now he's got the second one is
a revised version for both the commercial and homeowners that
are interested in growing cut flowers. And he walks you

(21:05):
through his top choices of cut flowers and how when
to start, how to grow, how to cut, how to preserve.
And they are both actually if you go to his website,
it's Alan Armitage dot net and you'll find both. And
both of them are different, so you know, the old
version and the revised version, they're both a little bit different.

(21:26):
Those are absolutely outstanding. And what's interesting in the second
the second version, is that he actually addresses what it
takes to if you want to get into the business
of actually selling the cut flowers, what it takes. And
he I swear when I got done reading what he
talks about, I wouldn't want to grow as a profession.
It's a lot of work. But he brings out up

(21:47):
front to get you know, to make sure you're aware
of what's going on, and then he takes it from there.
Those are two outstanding books and I highly recommend those
for a starting point. And of course, once you connect
with the door Armitage, you can also email him and
ask questions and things like that. He has someone that
helped him co write those those are they're also available

(22:09):
to help you answer questions too, So I highly recommend
both those books for a nice place to start and
really in depth, good reference material once you decide what
you want to do.

Speaker 5 (22:23):
Okay, great, Well it is just for personal use, home use,
and there's no reason I should keep mowing all that
space all the time. And I enjoy cut flowers so much,
so I thought, well maybe I put it into something
like that.

Speaker 1 (22:38):
Oh, that'd be wonderful. And you know, the thing of
it is too, you know, only you get the dinner
in the show, but you know a lot of the
things that you're going to grow in there also are
great pollinator plants pollinators. Yeah, so now you're helping out
the bees and the pollinators and the butterfly. So not
only do you get your great flowers, but you're going
to see a little bit of an activity going on
here as well. So and do me a favor, Terry.
When you get this thing going next year, you got

(23:00):
to send us picture so we can see how it's
turning out for you.

Speaker 5 (23:04):
Well, I'm patient, and I know it takes a while
to establish, yes, but I will do that. Thank you
so much, Ron, keep on keeping on.

Speaker 1 (23:11):
All right, Terry, appreciate it. Appreciate the call. And you're
listening to our show a quick break, we come back.
We'll finish up here with a show. Got lots of
tips to share with you, and of course we'll still
take your calls at a two to one WTVN. Here
on news radio six to ten WTVN. Oh, we are
talking yarding here on news radio six ten WTVN. I
am Ron Wilson. And of course don't forget our special

(23:33):
website is Ron Wilson online dot com. We all kinds
of great information. Our plant picks of the week this week,
very interesting plants Indian cup and compass plant co m
P A S S. Compass plant. Check those out. Something
you don't see very often. They're out there, pretty bold
but very unusual perennials that look sunflower like very tall,

(23:56):
give them room, but pretty interesting little stories behind those,
but you'll find on our website at ron Wilson online
dot com. Back to the gardening phone lines, Kathy, good morning,
Good morning, mister, how are you.

Speaker 2 (24:09):
I'm great?

Speaker 4 (24:10):
How are you?

Speaker 1 (24:11):
I am doing good? Thanks?

Speaker 4 (24:12):
Good call the pro storicleville. I have some gorgeous flucks
that want to keep blooming, but I keep getting the
powdery mildew. And of course they have their planet in
my pollinator beds. So I really don't want to use,
you know, any insecticides that would kill the butterflies, ideas

(24:34):
on any natural.

Speaker 1 (24:37):
Well, you know, anytime you would spray anything, you know,
and again you're looking at funge of size to keep
that powdery mildew down, and you know, I guess you
could look and I'd have to look at the label
to see sulfur would be on that list. You know,
mem oil and and horticulture oil have also been used

(24:59):
for that. But again, you don't want that around the
butterfly larvae. The butterfly is not an issue. It's the
larvae that becomes the issue because once that drives on there,
it's okay for the butterflies it's just the larvae if
they start to ingest the leaves that that would be
on there. Otherwise, I don't, unfortunately, have another answer for

(25:20):
you other than there are some newer selections of the
plant breeding the garden flocks out there that are much
more resistant to powdery mildew, and somewhere down the road
that may be something you have to take a look
at of getting rid of the selections that you have
and investigating in some of these newer ones that are
doing a really good job showing powdery mildew resistance. And

(25:42):
then of course you don't have to worry so much
about about the sprays. But you know, funge of sides
are you know, a little bit different than the insecticides,
but you still have to be very cautious with it.
And like I say, I actually i'd have to look
at the label on sulfur how that would affect the larvae.
But other than that, I don't have another answer for
you besides new selections too.

Speaker 4 (26:05):
I had heard dusting them with baking soda would be
at a tearrance.

Speaker 1 (26:10):
Yeah, baking it's like two and a half teaspoons tablespoons
of baking soda, but they a lot of times they'll
add a little bit of hort oil in there with
it as well, uh, and then mix it and make
it as a spray and dissolve it in water. There
is that home remedy. Again, I don't know what the
label says about baking soda and butterfly larvae. I really

(26:32):
don't know how that would affect them. Now, the butterfly again,
once it dries, you're good to go. But I don't
know how to effect it would affect the larvae. But yeah,
baking soda is another one. It's you know, it's one
of those home home recipes that a lot of people
do use. And like I say, sometimes they'll add a
little bit of hort oil which I mentioned earlier in

(26:53):
there as well. But it's like two and a half
tablespoons to a gallon of water or something like that,
if I'm not mistaken. But I don't know, and I
don't think you know, if I don't know where you'd
find the researched, scientific based information about how that affects
the larvae of the butterfly, I'll start to look into it,
because that's a really good.

Speaker 4 (27:12):
Question, okay. And then where I've had the powdery mildew.
Do I have to sterilize that coil for the next season.

Speaker 1 (27:21):
Nope, it's not soil born. That's that's an airborne and
that's now you pull those out, get rid of the
fold age. Obviously, that's one of the best things to
start out fresh in the springtime. Now you don't have
do anything to the soil.

Speaker 4 (27:32):
Okay, well, thank you very much.

Speaker 1 (27:33):
All right, good luck with that. If you find anything
out about the baking soda, let me know I appreciate it.

Speaker 4 (27:38):
I sure will.

Speaker 1 (27:39):
Thanks, Okay, thank you, And Tomato Dick, how the heck
are you?

Speaker 3 (27:44):
I'm pretty good. I'm taking it easy now that I'm
not going to big garden over there. I just want
to let you know how my little garden's going here cool.
I have twenty four laid the plants in the one
spot there. I got four Kelloggs, I got twelve celebrities

(28:06):
and eight lemon booys. One lemon lemon boy plant has
about how much to say, it had about fifty on them.
I'm slowly getting them off of there. Celebrities are kind
of slow. Kellogg's got about five or six off of them,
so they're done pretty good. And then I got two
plants and the barrels, and uh one barrel's got two

(28:30):
cherokeys in it. They're coming real slow. And then it's
another one. Got one of the original green ZIB's. The
small ones, I got a few often, but those are
time I'm you know, starting to get that dry rot
on the bottom of it. I mean I'm not, you know,
kind of holding back onto watering. But you know, since
we started getting, no body rain too much for them.

(28:52):
And I've been putting a triple twelve in there so
I can say everything's growing good. And I have a
couple of these they called snow white, like a little
small cherry tomato, right, And there's like two plants just
growing in the ground and a couple of them in
the small barrels. Those things they just keep on growing.
It don't matter what size in a barrel. It's him.

(29:16):
And I have two great plants from the garden up there,
and they do have grapes on them this year, so
they're doing good. And then the red tomatoes. I like
red tomatoes, so I found a place over here, so
I've been running over there again my red ones. So
I have enough to eat on bread and I'm keeping
that little secret for myself, and then been gone to

(29:40):
for our farmers market o here and Grove City. They
got a lot of stuff, goat ad some stuff over there,
and then we have a guy over at Freshies that
steps up at eight for one and he's got the
best white corn. I've been buying his corn over there,
and I just went and got two dozens of days.
So anybody wants good corn, and I recommend.

Speaker 1 (30:01):
That where is that.

Speaker 3 (30:03):
That's over Freshies?

Speaker 1 (30:05):
Okay, yeah, right by.

Speaker 3 (30:07):
Two seventy and three c And he sets up in
the back and he's got some different vegetables there, but
he's got bicolor and the white corn. White corn is
not not silver queen, but don't know the name of it,
but it's it's really good good.

Speaker 1 (30:23):
So I thought it was interesting you went through your
list of tomatoes that you're growing in your own personal
garden there. I didn't hear giant.

Speaker 3 (30:31):
Tesk uh no, because no one I ain't got those
plants started for me.

Speaker 1 (30:37):
Got it that.

Speaker 3 (30:38):
I ended up going to dials and bots of Kelloggs right,
and I had well, my son in law started him.
He had them grow and a dog knocked them off
the table and destroyed them, so we didn't get no
giant ass like we got Kelloggs.

Speaker 1 (30:54):
That's that works. Well. Every time I see giant Esque,
I think of you.

Speaker 3 (31:00):
Yep, I miss him. That's one good And I talked.
I talked to George yesterday and we're gonna meet. It's
gonna meet Tuesday. We're supposed to go and see the
people that were the Garden Club that want us to talk.

Speaker 1 (31:17):
Good.

Speaker 3 (31:18):
We're over there on the fourteenth, so we said we
do it. They asked us from you know, last year,
and we said, yeah, no problem, we'll be there.

Speaker 1 (31:27):
Good for you. Good for you. Well, I appreciate you
calling and keeping us updated what you're doing.

Speaker 3 (31:32):
Yep. We'll try to listen to you when I can.

Speaker 1 (31:35):
I appreciate that and keep it, keep us in touch.

Speaker 3 (31:38):
Okay, we'll do it.

Speaker 1 (31:39):
Ron all right, all right, take care Tomato Dick, and
now he's just doing his own personal garden there and
that's uh uh. I'm kind of surprised you didn't have Giantess,
but now I understand why. But there you go. And
you always point about the cherry tomatoes. I've always said
that too. If you've never grown tomatoes before, you've tried
to grow them. You've had issues start out with cherries.

(32:01):
Whether it's a bush form of cherry or the indeterminate,
doesn't matter. Do the cherries. I don't care what you
do to them. You always get cherry tomatoes usually coming
out your ears. But you can have cherry tomatoes all
season long and container in the ground whatever. They have
got to be the easiest. I've never I've had a
couple of people say something about the white cherry tomato.

(32:22):
I've never had them, never grown them, never tasted one.
I wrote myself a note here because I think I'm
an have to take a look at that. If you've
grown that or tasted it, let me know. I'd be
curious to see your feedback on it's snow white. And
I will write that one down because that's something I
want to give a try for next year. Because and again,
I appreciate all the tomato George and Tomato Dick over

(32:43):
all the years, and they've been fun to talk with
and work with and learn about tomatoes and it's just wonderful.
So it's good to hear back from them. Are you
all going to make apparance at the Tomato Festival next weekend? No, Unfortunately,
maybe they'll be there. I don't know. I won't be
there or will you be there? Probably not not, okay,
just double checking to make sure we good, so neither

(33:05):
of us will be there. So none of us will
be there. Maybe we'll send somebody Tomato Richard. Tomato Richard
could go and give us a report from the Tomato festival.
So there you go. By the way, before we finish
up the show, a couple of things I want to
mention to everybody. One is I said something earlier about
this grass seating. If you've got you're going to redo

(33:26):
your lawn, You've got areas you want to redo that
were taken over by weeds or perennial grass or other
perennial weeds or whatever it may be, annuals that you
want to just clean out and get it taken care of.
Now's the time to go after that and kill everything
out so that you're ready to go. And remember August
the fifteenth through the end of September, those are our

(33:47):
optimum six weeks for sowing grass eat cool season grasses.
Now we get to the end of September, depending on
the weather, we'll still look at sowing the fescues and
the rise. But usually by then we kind of hold
off on the blue grasses because they take a little
bit warmer temperatures, longer time to germinate, longer time to
get established, so we'll kind of start backing off at

(34:09):
this point. But otherwise we're getting ready for grass seeding.
Can you believe that? But you've got to prepare for it,
and it takes ten days to two weeks to get
everything cleared out that you know is gone so you
can come back in and seed. So if you've got
those areas, get the glyphosate, get out there, and of
course you can find that with kills, all furtilums, kills,
all others out there in other forms as well, But

(34:32):
that's what you want to do right now. Get it
ready because August of fifteenth we start looking at prime
time for putting down the grass seed for the fall season.
So keep that in mind. Please, Thanks our callers, thanks
our sponsors, Thanks to lur producer, because as you all
well know, without Ella, none of the stuff would happens.
So thank you Ello so much for all that you
do to make this show happen. Now do yourself a

(34:53):
favor where you're going to plant a tree or two
or three this fall. Keep planting those native plants, keep
those kids and dogs involved with gardening, pamper your worms,
and by all means, make it the best weekend of
your life. See you