Peach Breeding

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Glad you're here with us. I'm with Mark Wessel there
you wake up Mark, chief horticolturist at Gardens Alive. That
would be the Catalogs spring Hill, brex keurnesk van Burgundane
Garden Supply and also Isley Nursery. And he's also a
birthday boy I forgot. Yeah, yeah, thanks for getting up

(00:24):
at five am on your birthday.

Speaker 2 (00:27):
Yeah yeah, four for I slept in a little bit.

Speaker 1 (00:31):
Yeah. Yeah, he did get here a little later than usual,
maybe a little nervous.

Speaker 2 (00:35):
But it's quite a day.

Speaker 1 (00:37):
Yeah, you got a bunch packed in Jordan.

Speaker 2 (00:39):
This, which course is the highlight of my day.

Speaker 1 (00:41):
Yeah. You're giving a talk to the Dahias Society.

Speaker 2 (00:44):
Yeah that at two pm.

Speaker 1 (00:45):
I'm you're dedicated professional buddy, right right.

Speaker 2 (00:49):
Yeah, zoom presentation to the Knoxville Dallia Society. That's all
one Knoxville listeners. You're in the Dallia Society.

Speaker 1 (00:56):
Tune in, man, right, tune in. And you just had
a three day whirlwind trip to South Carolina. So what
is that eight seven, eight ten hour?

Speaker 2 (01:07):
If everything works perfect, it would be around seven and.

Speaker 1 (01:10):
A seven hours, But I forty is washed out and
so it complicates.

Speaker 2 (01:13):
Yeah, you know, it ends up your route changes. You
just have to keep watching your route because if something
happens on forty where the hurricane damage from a few
years ago.

Speaker 1 (01:24):
Yeah, it just it's you don't want to lane in
each direction because you would be stuck for hours. And
I'll tell you what if you haven't driven that. That
is a sight to see where the whole mountain side
washed out and half the freeway went with it. And
they're trying to rebuild this, this freeway on the side
of a mountain. And I don't know how that.

Speaker 2 (01:42):
It's amazing it is. You want to really look at it,
but you're drying.

Speaker 1 (01:46):
Yeah, it's real narrow there.

Speaker 2 (01:49):
It's amazing what engineering and it's my dam but it
might be. It's a major project.

Speaker 1 (01:56):
I don't you know. How do you build a side
of a mountain back up that isn't going to wash
out again? Yeah?

Speaker 2 (02:01):
And but the good point was, you know, it took
me this round about different way, but you know, you
go through smaller roads.

Speaker 1 (02:09):
I did the same thing and it was a real treat.
Actually it added some time, but it was beautiful, right,
And that's such a pretty part of the country.

Speaker 2 (02:17):
It is it is.

Speaker 3 (02:18):
This is around Asheville, yea, and I just want to
stop a lot and yeah, people have their little vegetable
gardens out there, the frown poleb.

Speaker 1 (02:25):
Grab a cover. Yeah, So tell me about your trip.
I didn't get a chance to talk to you about it,
so I don't know what to ask, but I do
know you went and met with a preach, a peach breeder,
h peach.

Speaker 2 (02:37):
The main goal. I had several visits down there, but
the main goal was to visit with the peach breeding
program at Universe Clemson University, which is let's say, let's
south west of Charlotte by maybe a few hours, okay,
or kind of southeast of Ashville by or west of Ashville.

Speaker 1 (02:58):
Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (03:00):
So so I went to their research station which is
kind of on this peninsula in this big finger ye lake.

Speaker 1 (03:07):
Okay, So it's got that moderated it does climate.

Speaker 2 (03:11):
A little bit, it does, but they still have to
deal with frost. So at first, you know, the director
of the station took me around and you know, with
a few people, and just to see what all's going
down there, which is always fun to see though you know,
the inner workings of what all they're working on. These universities,
they just do a lot of great work that impacts
the industry. And they're a peach growing state. Yes, so

(03:34):
it's vital that they, you know, do this research.

Speaker 1 (03:37):
Yeah, further the agricultural sector. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (03:41):
And I've never visited with this breeder, so I just
wanted to doctor Gassick, doctor Gasick at ye at Clemson,
great lady, real straight shooter. It was just such an
education for me, and she was happy to talk to me.

Speaker 1 (03:59):
Of course, you guys sell a lot of peaches, peach tree,
peach trees, Yeah, trees a lot.

Speaker 2 (04:05):
Beaches are a big category, and they're a great tree
for the home home gardener.

Speaker 1 (04:10):
Yeah. Yeah, So what did you learn about like great
new varieties coming or well.

Speaker 2 (04:16):
You know, there's there was some very interesting things there.
I can't talk about real specifics, but there's just I'll
just tell you what she's you know, she's breeding for
resistance to diseases.

Speaker 1 (04:29):
Yeah, which is so important.

Speaker 2 (04:30):
Yes, Yeah, especially the further south you go, it seems
like the pressure is heavier and realier.

Speaker 1 (04:37):
So and we're talking about leaf funguses.

Speaker 2 (04:39):
And well they they affect the whole tree, so it's
bacterial spot Okay, And brown rot, which is a huge issue.
You know, you have this peach tree loaded and you're
just as until they're right.

Speaker 1 (04:55):
And you're already they turn brown and fuzzy.

Speaker 2 (04:57):
And yeah, they just start rotten and quickly turn fuzzy.

Speaker 1 (05:00):
So super disappointed.

Speaker 2 (05:01):
So, which that would be just an excellent trait if
you could get a peach that doesn't get it or
would require reduced sprays. And then it was just an education.
She was showing me little traits and trees of what
happens when these peaches get frosted near frozen, but they're

(05:22):
still semi viable, but it impacts the fruit. You get
these little immature fruits. I've seen them before and I
didn't know what they were. They're called button peaches. So
the freeze kills the seed, the embryo, but the fruit
stays alive. But you need that seed in there to
give it to make it feel like it needs to

(05:44):
like yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 (05:48):
So are those peaches good to eat? No?

Speaker 2 (05:50):
No, they never amount to anything. And the problem is,
you know, you need to thin your fruit, which is
really key.

Speaker 1 (05:59):
I mean easy to do, labor intensive.

Speaker 2 (06:02):
Incredibly labor intensive. Even if you just have one peach.
If it's overcropped, and you've seen those trees and breaking
and breaking and and there's a lot of peaches, and
you know you want them about every six inches, let's say.
But the thing with this problem with those peaches, you
don't know what's going to be a button and what's

(06:24):
not at thinning time. Oh so she showed me branches
where all that was left were the button peaches. Not many,
but so it's just one of those interesting little things
to know about.

Speaker 1 (06:38):
What else did you see her? What was interesting? You know?
For me?

Speaker 2 (06:42):
Well, there was some there was an interesting nectarine that
had It was purple, the skin was purple, and it
was the most intense like lemonadey mango flavored. It was
very unusually flavored.

Speaker 1 (06:59):
You know, I've always liked are the plumb cuts or
the what's the other one? The terrible names and somebody
could come up with some but plum apricot or what
was the other one?

Speaker 2 (07:14):
Plum apricots, plum cherries. You know, there's they're they're crossing
all the stone fruits together, peaches, nectarines, cherries.

Speaker 1 (07:25):
Some of those plums plumb cuts are so good, but
you don't see them that much, you know.

Speaker 2 (07:30):
Well, they we don't grow them much in the east.
They're better on the west, the western side, but there
are some that grow here. She had some and they're
just they're insanely sweet.

Speaker 1 (07:42):
Yeah, it's just so good.

Speaker 2 (07:45):
I actually did go to a tasting out west and
and they're fruit out there. They can get their fruit
sweeter because of the clear days, more sunshine, and then
it cools off at night. The sugars, well, I don't
know what it does, but that is key. And they
get in these roots that are twice as sweet as

(08:05):
what we can and it just my teeth.

Speaker 1 (08:08):
Making my mouth water. Yeah. Yeah, when we come back, Mark, well,
let's talk about Cultivate. We both went up to the
Cultivate Show, big trade show in Ohio, Columbus, and it's,
you know, all the major players, nurseries and suppliers and
more show up there and it was a CNBC kind
of event. And we'll talk about it when we come back.

(08:31):
Mark Wessel, my good friend and birthday boy. You don't
want to say what age do you? I'm over over.

Speaker 2 (08:37):
I'm younger than you, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, but you're
an old I'm sixty one today.

Speaker 1 (08:43):
Sixty one that I almost remember that.

Speaker 2 (08:46):
I feel so immature for my age. I don't feel.

Speaker 1 (08:48):
Sixty same here. I feel like I'm twelve. Yeah, act
like it, so I know, which I kind of like.
You know. It's one of the things I like about
myself is that I still feel young. I think gardening
does that to me. Anyway, welcome back. We both went
to the Cultivate Show. And by the way, give us

(09:11):
a coffee. You want to any questions you've got, we
will try to answer. Eight hundred eighty two three eight
fifty five. But we went to one of the bigger
trade shows this past week. It's called the Cultivate Show.
It's for professionals, green industry professionals. It covers a full
gamut from everything from annual growers to a few of
the tree nurseries, but mostly it's about annuals or perennials.

(09:34):
All the big breeder, breeding and marketing companies go there,
the chemical companies, the suppliers of containers and pots and tools, and.

Speaker 2 (09:43):
All kinds of custries.

Speaker 1 (09:45):
So what were you struck by when you were there
this this past week.

Speaker 2 (09:49):
Well, of course, God, I'll get it right out there.
The what everybody was talking about, the Terra Nova hookahs,
the coral bells. They made a big, very eye catching
a new trait.

Speaker 1 (10:02):
Yeah, it's called the fire Wing F y R E
Wing series and it's believe it or not, And this
was kept secret literally until Monday this week. It's a
cut leaf form of fucra and they really looked cool.

Speaker 2 (10:19):
They do look cool.

Speaker 1 (10:20):
Yeah, I don't like. My rule of thumb with Hugre
for this area with heavy clay humid weather is I
if it's got velosa blood in it, which is a
native species, Uh, it's going to do fine. But if
it doesn't, it's really questionable. And I don't know if
this if this fire Wing series has any velosa in

(10:42):
it or not, or how well it will do in
this area.

Speaker 2 (10:46):
Even if it doesn't, you know, if you provide good
drain each week. Yeah, so that goes a really long way.

Speaker 1 (10:51):
People you think of them as sort of shade loving
plants and and sort of assume I think a lot
of times that oh, they like moisture, and but no,
they really. We have some straight velosa at the zoo
growing out of a rock retaining wall that is mortared.

(11:12):
There's there's no soil. I don't know what how they
they blew in on seed by seed and they're growing
out of mortar and I.

Speaker 2 (11:21):
Don't know how well when you see various species, not
all of them, they're often growing out of rock walls.

Speaker 1 (11:27):
Yeah, so this looked really cool. Everybody was talking about it.

Speaker 2 (11:31):
The whole series.

Speaker 1 (11:32):
Colors probably I think I saw at least six or
eight maybe, but yeah, Yeah, and I don't know how
they kept a secret. No one knew about it until amazing.

Speaker 2 (11:42):
Yeah, but it just goes show you Tara Nova's probably
the most well known hooka a breeder for a long
long time, and this trait just popped up, you know,
somewhere in the genetic code, and eventually it just popped
out and then they just ran.

Speaker 1 (12:00):
With it, ran with it, and from there came up
with different who knows what they had to do. They
maybe had to make it smaller or bigger, they had to, uh,
they worked with it to give it all these different
colors and still keep that trade. But they the series
looked very uniform.

Speaker 2 (12:17):
I'm sure they put a lot of many years.

Speaker 1 (12:19):
And yeah, and that just goes to show when you
buy that, you know, fifteen dollars perennial or twenty dollars perennial.
Nowadays it seems like that, you know, you're you might
be griping, oh, you know, wow, twenty dollars for a plant,
and yet years and years of labor and hopes and

(12:39):
dreams and dreams dashed, and and just the amount of
science that goes into it and then growing it out
and building it up in numbers that you can sell,
you know, get to retailers. Is a process, and it's
it's an arduous one.

Speaker 2 (12:54):
And I don't mean to be you know, throw any
wet blankets over there, but it's still I mean, yeah,
years down the road that we'll find they may find
a problem.

Speaker 1 (13:03):
And remember that the choreopsis back maybe ten twenty years
that that came out, that was it would hit with
a big splashes like this, I forget the name right now,
but everybody sold it, you know, it was a huge,
big deal and every because it looked beautiful, it was great,

(13:25):
it's popular, it was popular, it sold well, and it
didn't survive winners.

Speaker 2 (13:30):
Yeah, and yeah, that was kind of the case for
a whole group of those choreopsis. Yeah, they just were
not They're more like an annual.

Speaker 1 (13:38):
Yeah, and I think you might still be able to
get it in for that, like in a container or
something if you wanted. Man, that name is right on
the tip of my tongue too. But anyway, what what
else did you see up there that you liked?

Speaker 2 (13:53):
Hmm Ooh that sun bechia or from Blooming Easy Boy,
like a it's not really a palm palm. There were
really no ray petals, were there? There was yeah, strange, Yeah,
a pin cushion kind of look.

Speaker 1 (14:09):
I saw a different one and did have the ray
petals and it was stunning. Yeah, but I didn't see
this one, so there's like almost no petals to it.
It's more like the brown cone.

Speaker 2 (14:19):
Yeah, but it was yellow and orange. You know, I
should have looked into this more. But yeah, it was
a striking plant. It was one of the black eyed Susans. Yeah,
like the gloriosa daisy type.

Speaker 1 (14:30):
Yeah, but it's actually is this was a sun bechia
or red beca. I think it was, Oh, okay, okay,
because the sun bechys are crosses between healing at this
or sun sunflowers and red becchia's and that's what I
was seeing.

Speaker 2 (14:46):
Rubia and echinesia.

Speaker 1 (14:49):
Oh oh, it's no.

Speaker 3 (14:52):
I thought it was a sunflower sun beas No oh no, yeah,
achinesia or equebecia.

Speaker 2 (15:00):
That's what I'm there's.

Speaker 1 (15:02):
Yeah, there's too many these weird crosses that probably shouldn't happen,
those weird things. Of course, it's a cultivated is always
a good place to see people. I saw David Hoffman,
who will be later on on the show. H He
and his father John always so fun to talk to.
And Steve great people. Yeah, I saw Alan Armitage. Got

(15:23):
to get him back on the show. And then all
the big players like proven winners Ball Seed Ball Floor,
pan Am Seed, Doom and Syngenta Brokers you know Ehr
Jordan was on the show a few months ago. Uh.
So it's really good to make those connections. It used
to be these shows primarily were where you placed your orders.

Speaker 3 (15:46):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (15:46):
You know, buyers would come to the show, place their
orders with the big producers and be set for the
year or for the next year. Nowadays, with that all
being online and everything, you know, for a while, the
trade shows are like really losing steam because of that.
People were like, why do I need to go to
a trade show when I could just place my order online?
But you know, we're learning that the connections are so important,

(16:09):
learning what's new, seeing things.

Speaker 2 (16:11):
Yeah, and part I was only there one day. Normally
I go the following day as well. But meetings your
meet you also schedule meetings. You're not making orders, but
you're looking, like to see what's in the pipeline or
discussing problems. So it was just like your one meeting
on one side and then fifteen minutes later, you know,
you're just back and forth.

Speaker 1 (16:32):
But one of the cool coolest things about Cultivate is
the uh what they call it the new introductions. Yeh yeah,
so all the a lot of the new plants are
on display there so you can see what they look
like and what they're going to be and uh, you know,
of course you can't really tell how they're going to grow,
but you can tell how they're going to look like,
what they're going to look like. And there's some great ones.

(16:53):
Charged up Colius's that series looked really cool, Uh, Sweet
cair Line, Bewitched After Midnight, Did you see that one?
There's a new sweet Potato. Oh yeah, yeah, y so
cool looking like bat wings or something like that. You
are listening to That's Garden with Scott Berlin. The podcasts
are available wherever you can get podcasts and believe it

(17:15):
or I just learned the show live streams on the
iHeart site. And who am I saying hi to Dave
and Norway in Norway is listening way the country. Stay
with us. We'll get back in just a few minutes. Something.
I was tangled in the court here entangled in the court. Yep,

(17:36):
I am here with Mark Wessel and we are enjoying ourselves.
I hope you are too. You can call us if
joining the fun if you want to. Eight hundred eight
two three eighty two fifty five. Sarah gut your Bean
just texted and said she's listening to so Dave. We
know we have Dave and Sarah listening, and of course
Sarah is my co host on the show usually like

(17:57):
when you're not and she'll be here next week. And
we've we've got a cool subject we're gonna do. We're
gonna do our top favorite trees, shrubs, perennials and annuals
for both beauty and ecological function. So it to be
a good at both what our top fives of those are.

Speaker 2 (18:15):
So that's interesting. I enjoy listening to the two of you.

Speaker 1 (18:18):
Yeah. Yeah, it's always fun and she has a great laugh.
She laughs at my jokes. You should laugh at my
jokes more, Mark, Oh, I would like you better if
you did that. Yeah. Well, man, if they were funnier,
more often than you would fall flat.

Speaker 2 (18:34):
I laugh.

Speaker 1 (18:35):
Yeah, you kind of snicker. I always get the impression
there you go, that you're laughing at me, not with me.

Speaker 2 (18:41):
Well, but I'm used to that depends on the situation.

Speaker 1 (18:44):
Yeah. Anyway, I've been following this news story and I
usually don't like to jump into controversy, and I especially
when I don't know the entire story. But it's been
looking into this for a little while, and dolls are
burnam in Newark, Ohio, which is up near Columbus, three
hours from US. I guess is moving forward with plants
to remove a twenty year old plot of roughly eight

(19:05):
hundred wild Central Asian apple species or trees. And they're
doing this because the study which was initiated twenty years
ago and collected what do you call it, parent plants
from Kyrgyzan and Kazakhstan which carry the original genetics of apples,

(19:28):
which could be very useful for research for breeding lots
of reasons they have this genetics material around. But anyway,
there the dolls is apparently concerned that this site, the
plot has been neglected. It's gotten weedy, it's filled with

(19:49):
some wild invasive species like poison, hemlock, wild parsnip, and
honey soul.

Speaker 2 (19:54):
Now that's what isn't you know?

Speaker 1 (19:56):
That's my point. One of my points is like, Okay,
you can eradicate those from there, and maybe you should
or at least control it. But it's not like those
things aren't surrounding the ar breeder already anyway, So they're
not like blowing in because of that one one thing.
So you know, I'm wondering if that's overstated. You know,

(20:17):
I wonder if there's something going on because I don't
I can't imagine our dolls, our readoms lacking for space. Yeah,
they have a lot of room up there.

Speaker 2 (20:28):
Yeah, I you know, I'm part of I'm kind of
on the periphery of the story because I'm the president
of the Midwest Apple Foundation and which kind of the
main person and is that is the person who collected
those Oh okay, these big trips, and you know, there
was a certain amount of neglect. I mean it wasn't

(20:50):
this front earner kind of thing. But I just assume
they want the space. I don't know, we have a
more media coming up, and I.

Speaker 3 (20:56):
Don't think i'll you know, find out more if the
juice detail give me the report, because I've been just.

Speaker 2 (21:01):
Trying to avoid this topic with you.

Speaker 1 (21:03):
Yeah, I know that, I'm sorry for dumping it on
your lap, but uh, yeah, it just seems like they're
playing hardball. And I don't know why they gave, uh
they relented and gave the researcher till March to collect
sian wood.

Speaker 2 (21:18):
Oh. Originally it was like you need to get sign wood.
The timing wasn't right right right away, and.

Speaker 1 (21:26):
And but that just doesn't seem right at all. And
I know there are like as an arboretum there on
the border of two things. They're they're in the world
where they're they're they're trying to educate people on invasive
species and things like that. And on the other hand, though,
they should be a place storing genetic important genetic plants

(21:47):
and materials. So I just don't understand why they're playing
such hardball, why they aren't getting and they blindsided apparently
the researcher.

Speaker 2 (21:55):
Because there was there was plans to improve the planting
and move on with some other Yeah, we got funding
for some other projects.

Speaker 1 (22:03):
And yeah, I don't understand this, so if you can
report back. And I have friends at Dolls Arena. I
love Dolls Arena, but it seems like they're.

Speaker 2 (22:10):
Just being Probably some new new person came in and
you know they get their ideas. Yeah, who knows. I
don't make their mark.

Speaker 1 (22:16):
I don't either, but yeah, as a feel good thing,
they said, oh, all the trees will go to be
browsed for zoo animals in local zoos. And I'm like,
that's in March over winter. There's not even any leaves
on the tree.

Speaker 2 (22:31):
Well there, they're going to bud They're going to collect
bud would in August and start butting these onto rootstock.
So that's where you just take this.

Speaker 1 (22:39):
Well, that's for the grafting and the propagation. But the
bulldozed trees are going to go to zoos in the
middle of winter. Yeah, yeah, and you know that. That's like, oh,
we're doing this nice thing, but it's it's ridiculous.

Speaker 2 (22:53):
Right.

Speaker 1 (22:54):
They show zoo in the world can take eight hundred
you know, eight hundred trees of applewood and doing thing
with it.

Speaker 2 (23:00):
Maybe they should send them to a barbecue place for
apples smoking.

Speaker 1 (23:04):
Yeah, yeah, that would be a better use in my opinion. Again,
I don't I hope. I'm not jumping in with a
bunch of belligerent talk. But it's an important it is
an important coction of what it could. Yeah, and now
the researcher's got to figure out where to go with
eight hundred trees and what kind of success rate we
will they have with grafting and propagate.

Speaker 2 (23:24):
Depends on who's doing the many factors. Yeah, I mean it,
budding can be very successful.

Speaker 1 (23:32):
Yeah. Anyway, I'm just concerned about this, and it just
it feels like Dolls isn't playing playing fair.

Speaker 2 (23:41):
Yes, yeah, Well, with your listenership and the way you
have because of this show, I think the grassroots movement
will start.

Speaker 1 (23:49):
I do. I do too, And I think somebody up
at Dolls Arboretum is quicking in their boots right now
and they should be. That's right, Yeah, right is right?
And what might my radio show has might? Yeah, another
thing came out the this is when did this come out?
Earlier this year? But the American Horticulture Society announced their

(24:13):
book awards for the year. So and I looked through.
You go to the website and they have what since
ninety seven? All the book awards listed since Yeah, like
ninety seven or something. So there's a lot of great
books you can go back and seek out from the past.

(24:34):
But this year's winners are Pansies by Brenda Estrada on
Timber Press and Wow, Pansy Pansy's. I was surprised by
that too. The quote here from Carol Michael was several
ward well. Several award committee members expressed surprise and delight

(24:54):
by the ways in which this book elevates an ornamental
plant often considered common and unassuming. So it must be
I mean to rise. You know that is true. It's
not a subject that's gonna super excite a lot of people,
and to become an award winner on that subject must
be really good for her. Yeah, I agree, Yeah, Brenda Estrada.

Speaker 2 (25:17):
Should have her on the show. Yeah, we did talk
Viola's and Pansies that one.

Speaker 1 (25:21):
I'm intrigued by them.

Speaker 2 (25:23):
I really like them. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (25:25):
Yeah. The other winner was Hidden World The Survival Systems
of Plants by Kevin Tarner and Rachel Hughes at the
University of Georgia Press. And this was an academic publication
on plant defenses and human interaction, and somehow, you know,
as an academic publication, it still impressed the award committee

(25:49):
enough to recommend it to the general gardening reader public.
So it too must be really really good.

Speaker 2 (25:57):
Yeah, because some of that academic stuff filled but dry dry.

Speaker 1 (26:01):
Yeah, so good for them. A couple honorable mentions designing
the Lush Dry Garden from Ruth or from the Ruth
Bancroft Garden.

Speaker 2 (26:12):
I've never been to that garden.

Speaker 1 (26:13):
I haven't either.

Speaker 2 (26:14):
Where is it? It's near La I think.

Speaker 1 (26:17):
Oh, out West Okay. Anyway. The book is by Cricket Riley,
Alice Kitta, Johnny Kitta, Gema and Kere Holmes, with photography
by Caitlin Atkinson. The Designing the Lush Dry Garden So
that sounds intriguing, and also Gardens of Texas by Pam
Benneck on Timber Press. In one last one, low Water Paradise. Oops,

(26:43):
mess that up. That's that's the subtitle for Designing the
Lush Garden. The subtitles Low Water Paradise by Cricket Riley
alice kit a gema and here homes, so look those,
look for those.

Speaker 2 (26:57):
You know, low low water is getting more and more.

Speaker 1 (27:02):
Yeah, especially out west, anywhere in the Colorado, any place
that relies on the Colorado River for your water, you
better be thinking differently when it comes to gardens.

Speaker 2 (27:12):
Even here some years. But then, yeah, our garden wouldn't
have done so well with all these deluges of bread.

Speaker 1 (27:19):
You know, I felt like yesterday's delusion. I only got
a half inch, but some people got five inches. But
at least the ground wasn't bone dry, So even then
I think, you know, it meant something water soaked in.
But man, it cost havoc. It was rough. Another news
item here intrinsic perennials. Our friend Brent Horvath has debuted

(27:44):
a new prairie drop species or variety, Sparabilis heterolepis golden needles.
It's an all gold leaf form of intrinsics native prairie
drop seed with good size and vigor. It grows in
welder dry soils and turns of sharp truths by midsummer

(28:04):
in full sun. Grows two to three feet high eighteen
to twenty four and spread hard e three to seven,
so it's three to seven, so we maybe we'll mention
that with David when he's on coming up in a
half hour or fifteen minutes now, David Hoffman will be
joining us, and he's one of the top grass and
sedge experts in the country and we'll have a great

(28:25):
conversation with him. When we come back. We'll talk about
a few more things, and then David comes soon after.
So stay tuned. We'll be right back over the place
as a podcast and as a live stream. As I
just found out. Go to the iHeart app and go
to fifty five cars and we'll be there, apparently.

Speaker 2 (28:45):
In your sensation in Norway.

Speaker 1 (28:46):
In Norway, they're listening in Norway.

Speaker 2 (28:48):
Yeah, yeah, they doubled our listenership.

Speaker 1 (28:52):
Don't say that anyway. I'm just kidding. I know you're kidding. Yeah,
there must be one hundred people out there. I don't know, no,
I have no idea. But anyway, got a couple other
news items again, if you've got time to get a
call in if you want eight hundred two three eighty
two fifty five and David Hoffman, the grass Expert, will

(29:12):
show up uh in just about ten or fifteen minutes.
Now anyway, I read an article mark where cat knit
lotion works as well as deep at repelling mosquitoes according
to a study.

Speaker 3 (29:26):
Oh really, I what You're skeptical, Well I am, because
I know how I mean.

Speaker 2 (29:31):
They're finding that sometimes deep attracts mosquitoes that have been
conditioned to it.

Speaker 1 (29:37):
But really, I well, maybe eat something different, I put
I use deet on my clothing. Yeah, like you're supposed
to do.

Speaker 2 (29:44):
Yeah, yeah, and uh it's very effective.

Speaker 1 (29:46):
But yeah, I don't know.

Speaker 2 (29:48):
I don't want a bunch of cats. I know you're
I know you're loyal, and I like botanicals.

Speaker 1 (29:53):
Don't get me wrong, right, But they're saying that, Well,
this was a research study in Uganda and there The
findings were presented at the July seventh Society of Experimental
Biologies Annual Conference in Florence, Italy. More travel for you
man get to that one next year. The study comes

(30:13):
as malaria continues to pose a big health international health
challenge with malaria and other things. But they found that
cat nip, which comes from the pita cateria, the real
cat nip, not the mint. It's a member of the
mint family, contains a natural occurring compound called nepida lactone.

Speaker 2 (30:38):
This is very ironic. You're putting cat nip on in
a country that has large predator cats.

Speaker 1 (30:45):
I didn't think that maybe.

Speaker 2 (30:46):
They would just kind of purr and rub up against you.

Speaker 1 (30:49):
Maybe yeah, maybe they. Well, it says while it's best
known for triggering playful behavior, so maybe the big cats
will be playful carnivorous.

Speaker 2 (30:58):
You know, Rutgers University had a catnip that is really
has a lot of that active compound in it, and
I think somebody.

Speaker 1 (31:04):
Licenses it to fentanyl for Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly, that's
what it is.

Speaker 2 (31:08):
It's a kitty crack or something.

Speaker 1 (31:12):
Six percent catnip lotion made from the peda lactone with
the peda lactone in it worked as well as deep
well at a two percent formula offered nearly the same level.

Speaker 2 (31:28):
Okay, well I'll have to try that.

Speaker 1 (31:30):
Thing they said that's best about it is that it's
easy for local communities to make. Ah so, and maybe
you know, people at home rather than deet is expensive,
you know it is. Yeah, So if you got cat
mint and you can keep your cat away from it,
and you can make a lotion out of it, maybe
you've got a good mosquito. And this is only for

(31:51):
a study about mosquitoes. Who knows. Maybe it works for
you know, ticks and things, siggers, gigger, Oh, if it
works for I was about to say, I'd rather have
ticks and chiggers, but no, Sugars just are annoying. Ticks
can kill you or make you very, very sick. They're
bad news.

Speaker 2 (32:07):
Yeah, they have taken me. You know, back when I
was a kid, way back then, it was rare to
get tick. Well, you get tics, but you just pulled
them off and you went about your way. There wasn't
a lot. There was Rocky Mountain, spotted fever you always
talked about. Yeah, different things, but what lots of stuff.

Speaker 1 (32:22):
Also earlier well, in June, penn State announced that they
have been doing flower trials for ninety years so, and
that is at their Agricultural Research and Extension Center in Maynheim, Pennsylvania,
which I take is near Lancaster's.

Speaker 2 (32:41):
Yeah, it's in that area.

Speaker 1 (32:42):
Yeah, that area.

Speaker 2 (32:43):
They do good trialing.

Speaker 1 (32:44):
They really do good trialing, and they more recently, I
think that's the site where Claudia West is doing a
lot of studies with the ecosystem function of a lot
of different Oh I didn't know that. Yeah, some really
cool research, really deep stuff. I mean, I love Claudie.
I've had her come as a speaker. She's a wonderful speaker, man,

(33:05):
she is so scientific. And these kind of studies get
to where my head spins and I'm just feeling, you know,
hopelessly stupid, right, and not happy at all. But it
is good research. If somebody else comes along and digests
it and makes it in a more readable form, that's
where I live and function, right. Yeah. And oh, by

(33:27):
the way, those trials are for annuals and perennials and
potted no annuals and potted perennials, representing more than two
hundred million dollars for the industry in the state of Pennsylvania.
These are big business, nearly a thousand annuals and perennial
trials on her varieties on trial, and thirty floriculture companies

(33:50):
are represented, so big, big, and these are open. You know,
you can google where they are and they're just out there.
You can just park and walk around and see you
it looks great, what you like, what you don't, how
they're using it great way to learn plants.

Speaker 2 (34:08):
I'm with you. Yeah, a lot of good trial sites
in the in the country.

Speaker 1 (34:13):
Yeah, let's talk about we didn't get to this earlier,
but let's talk about some things what we're doing in
the uh in the yard now. Tasks that we need
to do, things we should have done last week. Okay,
that kind of stuff. Oh yeah, quite a back back
through my paperwork because I didn't think we were going
to get to it.

Speaker 2 (34:31):
Do you want me to start with one?

Speaker 1 (34:32):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (34:32):
Go, okay. So if you're growing they call them semi
erect blackberries, like Triple Crown or the Old Chester. They're
these big sprawling bushes, even some of the erect ones.
And you know when they once they get around four feet,
it's your top them and then it makes them send
out these branches. So now's the time to be cutting

(34:54):
those branches back to like twelve to eighteen inches. You
don't you just kind.

Speaker 1 (34:58):
Of keep printing with blackberries and raspberries. It's like so important.

Speaker 2 (35:03):
It is, especially blackberries. These semi RECs can just ramble
and ramble. Yeah, and it's good to me.

Speaker 1 (35:12):
Long cane oh yeah, yeah, can really take over and
and they're so thorny and you know.

Speaker 2 (35:18):
Yeah, well there's a lot of thornlessness now no, okay, yeah, yeah,
I've got thorny varieties. There are some really good ones,
but you know most they're heading all thornless.

Speaker 1 (35:32):
Good time of wheat. Stay on top of your weating
as always, uh, but be careful of the poison hemlock
uh and wild parsnip uh, beagle live b y g
l uh yarden garden uh is a good source for
good information. Joe Bobbs is put out there about how

(35:53):
and when to treat that. You know what a threat
it can make. My son just string trim some poison
ivy last week or two weeks ago, and he through
his blue jeans. He's got horrible itching and stuff all
over his legs. So it's rough. When we come back,

(36:14):
we will have David Hoffman with us. We'll talk. He's
a fun guy and we're going to talk about fun plants,
which are grasses and sedges. So say tuned for that.
We'll be back in just a few minut