July 15, 2023 • 44 mins
This week, Scott Ricca and Dr. Allan Owings from Clegg's Nursery are getting hot, hot, hot on the WJBO Lawn & Garden Show! Proper care for your stressed plants in this heat is all about making sure you're watering everything correctly - and no, your thumb on the hose isn't the answer!
Plus, caller questions about satsuma leaves curling, proper lawn maintenance, and making sure you're treating your dayliillies right!
You can be part of the WJBO Lawn & Garden Show - just give us a call at (225) 499-9526 between 8 and 9 am central Saturday mornings! You can also leave us a message anytime on our iHeartRadio app by using the Talkback Mic when you listen to WJBO Newsradio!
Plus, caller questions about satsuma leaves curling, proper lawn maintenance, and making sure you're treating your dayliillies right!
You can be part of the WJBO Lawn & Garden Show - just give us a call at (225) 499-9526 between 8 and 9 am central Saturday mornings! You can also leave us a message anytime on our iHeartRadio app by using the Talkback Mic when you listen to WJBO Newsradio!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:02):
Good Saturday morning, and welcome tothe WGBO Lanning Garden Show, brought to
you by Clegg's Nursery. If youhave a question about seasonal planting, lanning
garden concerns or questions about landscaping,called four nine nine w g BO.
That's four nine nine ninety five twosix. Good morning, Batton Rose.
(00:26):
Here we are again at the wJBO Wanting Garden Show. My name is
Scott Ricket here this morning with doctorAllen Owen's Good morning Alan, and Alan's
trying to get situated and get apair of headphones on at work this morning
for him. Good morning, Scott, beautiful day another it's not one hundred
summer another summertime Saturday. Yeah,yeah, it's been a it's been a
(00:50):
Watson's. I've been on with youalways enjoy and the last time we were
in we were on last month,I believe, one Saturday, one Saturday.
Yeah. Yeah, I'm kind ofmore I'm usually with Butch and Zane.
Yeah. Yeah, Well it's goodto be here today today with you.
Good to see you, and youknow you and I were just talking.
I mean, it looks like youdid a little homework for things to
(01:10):
talk about today, and me Iwalked in with my usual you know,
anyway we're gonna talk about today.It's on outside. You're so good,
Scott, you don't need prep.Yeah yeah, so uh gosh. I
guess one of the biggest things goingon right now is guys who wants to
work out in the yard because it'sso dog on hot. That's what everybody's
(01:30):
talking about. I did get alot of you know, industry and home
gardener questions yesterday, and it reallywasn't all about the weather, so I
was, you know, pleased,pleased to try to help a few folks.
So when they're trying to source plantsand camelia issues and some azalea issues
and the every hour turf issues,and believe it or not, Crown right
(01:53):
on the rip this time year,which I was kind of surprised here,
but they were they irrigating. Thatwas in shreport. I didn't get much
information, but I think they've beengetting a little bit. But I haven't
been seeing as much crown right onground covers as we were seeing five years
ago. So no, and thenthey've changed some of the varieties more resistance,
(02:13):
so thank goodness for that. It'san ever changing thing that the nursery
industry, whether the person that drivesdown the road knows it or not.
A lot of what's planted they mightlook the same, but there's improvements that
are made, are worked on allthe time for the industry. Variety changes
or fast and furious are to keepup. Yeah, and that's one of
the things you do, Like like, oh, last time I was here,
(02:38):
we talked about the bedding plant trials, and I went to US Mother
States in June and we got athere's an LSU Accident or Nursery Landscape Industry
Day in Hammond on a Friday thiscoming week. So I haven't looked at
their bedding plants yet this year.In details, I want to go see
what's going on in Hammond. Iread through that other day, and I
(03:00):
mean, it's just it's just interestinghow much industry itself is always working to
improve itself, that it never stops. It never stops. I'll tell you
this morning, before I left thehouse to come in this direction, I've
had my I've got some potted plantsthat are supposed to go on the ground
(03:22):
eventually, some some um lemonade,blueberries, pink lemonade, blueberries and some
um and a triple crown BlackBerry whichis already setting another set of fruit on
it. But I took them fromthe nursery and brought them to the house.
And you know, sometimes I mightmiss a day of watering. Well,
(03:44):
my gosh, the way things aregoing now, my blueberries, Oh
gosh, maybe thirty percent of thefoliage went south because I missed watering one
day, exactly. Exactly. Insome plants, you know, depending on
the situation, container, landscape bed, they may need irrigation twice a day,
just depending on how you take careof them and how much direct sun
or reflectively eat they're getting. Imean, I am the king of not
(04:09):
watering installed plants in the ground,and I have a tremendous luck with how
I do things. But you know, quite often part of the problem is
people are watering improperly. Yes,they're either watering they go out there with
their finger in the end of thehose and they shoot it for about thirty
(04:29):
seconds. It's oh, yeah,I watered it. Yeah that's fast adequate.
No it's not at yeah yeah,yeah you watered the spot, but
you didn't water the plant well enough. And it seems like We talk about
that on every episode the last amonth or so. But that's right.
We need to um try to tryto help folks with their variegation. Water
man. I was just talking tosomebody about it yesterday. Water manage.
(04:50):
Water management. Sometimes when a plantquote unquote permanently wilt, so it's not
coming back, that's right, that'sright. Yeah, And it's like,
oh is it is it dead?Well, no, it's not technically dead
at this point, but how longdo you want to wait for it to
look good again in your landscape?Sometimes time to rip it out put a
new one in, right, Soon my situation for those I put all
(05:13):
of those small container plants into somelarger container plants, yes, so that
I have a greater water holding capacity. So if I do happen to miss
you know, a day, yes, I'm not you know, damaging the
plant ten a large degree. Oneof my favorite inquiries that I get is
how long do I need to waitfor my dead plant to come back?
(05:36):
Yeah? Yeah, but there arebut there are definitely some plant issues out
there with a dry weather. Soyou want me to tell you how much
rain we've had lately? Yeah?Okay, So baton rouge and I assume
this is the official weather station inBaton Rouge. We did get some rain
in early May, so that wasgood. Well, from May the eighth
to May thirty first we got oneinch, okay, so one inch last
(06:00):
three weeks in May. June wedid get some rain. In June it
was three inches. And that maysound like adequate rain, but when we're
used to getting why the inch ofrain a week, one and a half
inches of rain a week, twoinches a week in Louisia during some months,
that's really not a whole lot ofrain. And then what's today?
(06:23):
Is it the fifteenth? At fifteenthwe've had point two seven inches in July,
so we're like three point two seveninches the last nine weeks. So
that's horrible that that's not getting itdone, all right, And so I
hate to drag hoses at home becauseI drag hoses at work. But it's
time for me to drag some hoses, and I pay attention. I've got
(06:46):
a little bit of is a isup underneath some crape myrtles, and I
can walk out and I sometimes youknow, if you look at it,
you might see a The intensity ofthe green isn't quite as much or a
very slight wilting or whatever, andthose are some indicators of plant. He's
not trying to tell us, butit's obvious that he needs some water.
(07:09):
And when you do water, thebest way to water is maybe a low
velocity so it's not running off andrunning down to the curb for longer duration,
so you have the ability to soakthat soil more vertically through the soil
profile, so it'll last longer.And years ago, I can remember Elsh
(07:30):
would put out something and I thinkit was for long irrigation, and they
were saying to on this particular one, it said to water at night,
which you know, for all practicalpurposes most of the time we tell people
to water early enough in a dayto where the leaves are drive by night,
exactly to minimize fungal problems. Ididn't like the fact that on that
(07:53):
particular publication I can remember. Ididn't like it because they didn't tell you
why to water at night at nightor what time the water right so,
but it was obviously to me tominimize evaporation so you get a better movement
into the soil. But when youwater, the best way to water is
put a sprinkler out that puts outa low volume for a longer period of
(08:16):
time and let it run a while. And if it's a well established garden,
what an inch a week is whatI normally tell people. Kind that's
that's good. That's good, andthat would be true for your law.
And also and if you're like myfront yard is sloped, if I tried
to water too fast, it runsfrom the top to the bottom anyway,
so I split it up, Imight run it for a while and turn
(08:39):
it off. Run it for awhile, turn it off, and so
I get more penetration instead of runoffoff the surface. Right. So,
and if you have any slope changesor you know, areas around concrete in
your landscape, those are going tostay. You know, areas by the
concrete it're gonna stay dry, oryour higher areas on your property you're gonna
(09:01):
stay dry, or lower areas it'sgonna stay damper and all water a little
bit better. So yeah, andso those are things that and the better
you make your raised landscape bed,the faster it's going to dry out.
That's right, that's right, becauseeverything for us is water management. Yes,
And of course we get pierds ofthe air when we get so much
water. We're trying to when we'remaking a bed, we're trying to be
(09:24):
on the safe side of the highwater times. So we're always recommending raised
beds. And I know, likethe we sell two different bedding soil mixes,
right, and one of the onesI like the most is our raised
bed blend. It drains so wellthat that's one of those things. If
it's a newly planted area, youmight be watering it twice a day until
(09:48):
the roots get out. That's true, that's true, and that's not typical
of what we would tell you,like if you're not if you're planting just
a tree out in the yard,you're putting the same soul back in.
If you're watering it twice a day, you're going down the road of killing
the tree, right, right,So knowing the situations and adapting to those
situations. You know what I haven'tdone, though? What have you know?
(10:11):
I haven't told people that they canpick up the phone if they have
any questions give us a call tostudio at six as four nine nine w
j BO. If you have anyquestions, please pick up the phone,
give us a call, Um andI live. I live in Hammond,
scott and we've actually been getting rain. But you know, I come to
Baton Rouge two or three times aweek and it does seem definitely drier in
(10:31):
Baton Rouge than it does in Hammond. And I actually laugh. Yet and
like Charles are drier than we arein Baton Rouge. I don't know what.
So it just depends where you're outthere listening to to us as to
what your particular situation and rainfall amountsmay have been. Yeah, And and
oftentimes I'm looking at the mapping forthe you know, for the day,
(10:52):
and I'm watching those clouds that keepgoing north of Baton Rouge. They're din't
it. Sometimes they're down to life. Yet then they're going north feast right
over the top of Baton Rouge andboom nothing and Interstate twenty in North Mississippi
has had a lot of rain thelast seven to ten days, and we've
had very little, very little.Well, my friend Eddie Martin in a
(11:13):
bell Chase, he's a he's ahorticulture guy. He said he got five
drops yesterday. He was so thankful. But they are bone dry in New
Orleans and bell Chasing down that way. I mean they may be drier than
baton rouge is. Yeah, it'sjust horrible. So go out look at
your yard. Keep your plants healthy, even if you don't think home my
(11:35):
yards like it's it's okay. Butyou know, we haven't had any water.
Get out there, give it.What's it hurt to go out and
give it some water? Yes,keep it, keep it feeling it.
Don't wait till it's feeling bad beforeyou try to perk your back up,
because it's easier to keep your plantsat a certain level. If you're letting
them drop below, then you're playingcatch up. So but driving around yesterday,
(12:00):
some of the lawn areas I saw, especially you know, microclimates surrounded
by concrete. The lawn that wasthere is gone. It's not coming back,
I can tell. And it wasalready stressed from this winter. Yes,
yes, so you had stress tostress. We we've we've had the
cold weather and then now now we'rebrutally hot and dry as and then this
(12:22):
is the time when it's brutally hotand dry, when chinch bugs I could
come in and there's already been somechinch bug problems identified in the area.
Yeah, Johnny Naylor told me he'sbeen seeing chinch bug samples the last two
weeks. So yeah, well Ithink he found some in his own yard.
Okay, the first the first reportwas from his but he said they
went to insect Kevin So yes,um so, and so that that's pretty
(12:48):
interesting about the weather. How aboutthe temperature ranges and the temperature so um.
I don't know if you saw thedata, Scott, but h June
and Baton was the hottest June onrecord. I felt that the second hottest
June on record in Baton, Rougewas last June. So that I don't
(13:09):
feel good about the trend I'm seeingthere. And in May, depending on
whether you look at acuaweather or weatherdot com, we had twelve to fifteen
days above ninety. In June wehad twenty eight or thirty days above ninety.
And of course in July every dayhas been above ninety, and we've
(13:33):
had I think we're approaching twenty fivedays ninety five or hotter. And do
not look at the forecast for todaythrough next Saturday. Do not look at
it is that brutal hot It isthat brutal. It's crucious. Yeah,
but it is time for everybody,because they're asking me they want to plant
(13:54):
their tomatoes to get that fall harbor. I sold I sold over a trade
tomatous to somebody yesterday. Now he'sgonna take those those little cell packs and
he's going to put them into alarger pot and keep them. He's not
going to drop him into the gardenright now, but he'll he'll put them
where they're get in good sunlight,where they stay nice and stocky, and
(14:16):
let them get a little more sizeto them. But yeah, it's that
time. Fall tomatoes are not plantedin the fall, right, You harvest
in the exactly exactly, so sothere's warm season vegetables that you plant in
August September, you know, andand also when you get to September October,
you're starting to plant the cool seasonvegetables. So make sure you know,
(14:41):
you know, and there are thingsyou could plant now, I mean,
you can do crowder peaks and westill have time. Yeah, you
got him out another week to plantpumpkins if you want to. Yeah,
you know, yeah, I've neverdone pumpkins. But somebody brought in a
candle up yesterday that was literally hemeasured it it's large than a basketball.
(15:01):
Wow, it was huge. I'vegot a picture I'll show you later,
but you know, it's just amazing. And it was from a um a
seed from his brother in laws.Um it was just a chance seedling that
came up and he planted it andit grew and now they've been saving the
seeds for several years. Okay,okay, And this morning with doctor Alan
(15:24):
Owens from Clegg's and Bracy's and youknow who knows where else and whatever idea
idiots I do these days, youknow, yeah, and you do quite
a bit. You keep us verybusy agendas. Oh man, I'm kind
of tired. You know. Ican understand that, but I can't.
I can't believe y'all were putting ina container yard in this heat. You
know. Well, you know Iused to be able to do that,
(15:45):
Scott. I don't know if Icould do it anymore. But you know,
when it's cool weather, we're busywith customers. We're always busy.
It just changes what we were customers. We were building in a container yard.
This is like fifteen years ago atthe research station on S and Lane,
and it was like we were wewere working on it all week.
But you know, we we gotthe gravel and limestone or whatever he in
(16:10):
like on Thursday and got a lotof that spread and ed bush and I
got the risers put in and wewere working out there on Friday. It
was like ninety eight one hundred degrees, you know, and after lunch,
I found myself I was only oneleft out there. I'm going on.
(16:30):
My shirt was soaked, my shortswere totally saturated. Yeah, that's how
I've been the last two days puttingthat cloth down. It takes a lot
of yeah, a lot of work, literally knee pads and all my hands
and knees for the last two days, which is not a lot of fun,
but it's work. It needs tobe done for the nursery. Yes,
yes, well, Alan, wehad somebody call in and just leave
(16:53):
a message for us. Okay.They had a set sumlar that the leaves
are curling, and I didn't seethat that had been put on the bottom
of the screen earlier. But Iknow why that's happened, because he's doing
it to mind too. Yes,I've seen I see a zealous dry their
(17:14):
leaf curling, and I would notbe surprised if that's happening on sister's trace
tea well, and I also couldbe leaf miners also, depending on what
the situation is. Yeah, well, actually I've got two different sets.
Soon was at my house and oneof them is on a dwarfroot stalking.
I planted those. I think wemoved into the house in two thousand and
(17:37):
four, so I think I plannedthem in two thousand and four. So
they're almost twenty years old in theground, and you would think that they'd
be pretty strong against most everything.But I had to take at least thirty
percent of the canopy out after thatcrazy freeze at the end of the season,
so I lost about a third ofthe canopy, and then I truly
haven't been taking care of them aswell all side normally did. I did
(18:00):
put some fertilizer out maybe in April, which, by the way, your
citrus fertilization usually I tell people theend of June. So if you haven't
done your second fertilization for the season, go out and get it done now.
It will help the tree, Ithelps with fruit production even for the
next year. To keep your planthealthy now, and we don't want to
(18:25):
we don't usually recommend doing a fallfertilization here because of the way our weather
trends are, sometimes you can stimulatenew growth which would be more easily damaged.
So get it done now, okay. And what you're trying to get
out now mostly some extra nitrogen forthe growth. But on that tree,
it was stressed so badly, andinsects have a way of sensing stress.
(18:47):
I had and afid infestation on thatone tree, which is fifteen feet from
another set zona and fifteen feet onthe other side is a big blood orange
tree that the bugs knew it was. Yeah, right, had had a
little issue going on. I hadan aphid infestation like you wouldn't believe.
(19:10):
I mean, the leaves were justall curled around themselves. Now, if
you have an aphid problem, youcan actually take the leaf and try to
unfold it and you'll see all theaphids again. And that's usually on the
newest growth. And as you mentioned, citrus leaf miners that causes a distorted
leaf also, and in that caseyou see trails. So the aphids,
(19:30):
I think of the two are easierto treat. You can go out there
and you can spray a mouth ionworks. It's so hot now. But
one of the old citrus sprays usedto be just a combination of mouthion and
horticultural oil. So but you coulduse mouthion, you could use a pyres
rum, you could use you know, some different things and spray the leaf
(19:56):
miners. A little more funny aboutspraying because timing is much more involved with
a leaf miner. So so andit's it's a lot of cosmetic damage,
doesn't actually do a whole lot ofdamage to the leaf is still green,
it's still making energy exactly. Soum Spinoza said is good for leaf miners.
(20:17):
But you're timing, don't. Youhave to get that. So the
the adult lays its eggs only onimmature leads, right right, and so
you have that small window from whenthe egg hatches till it gets inside,
you know. So the leaf minershave been out there on your trees for
probably two months, and now you'reseeing the damage and it's really getting too
late to treat where you're going tobe very effective right now. A lot
(20:38):
of times in the fall we haveanother push of growth, right. So
what I normally tell people for theSpinoza because sitcher sometimes we put it out
a big flush of growth all atonce, and then those leaves mature and
then it does it again, andit might do that three or four times
this season, depending on your growthrate. So what I tell people when
you see that big push of growth, when the leaves about half an inch
(21:00):
long because they lay their eggs onthe immature leaves, to go out and
spray your spinosad product. Wait aweek and spray it again, and then
just let those leaves mature. Soyou really have to be aware of the
growth pattern of your tree. Thereis also a systemic material that you can
put out. It's a bear product. It's listed for use on Citrus and
(21:23):
I have used it. It's ana metacloprid product where you literally just mix
it in a bucket and pour itat the base of your tree, usually
more in the spring, and thatwill get you through most all of the
entire growing season with minimal damage.It usually runs out near the end of
the season. Yeah, yeah,it's not going to be thereafter you know,
(21:47):
midsummer, late summer. Yeah,But more important than than I think
getting back out and getting your fertilization, another fertilization done and watering and water
you know, the water out tohelp those nutrients being taken up by the
plant, right, and uh,you know citrus, you know they're they're
(22:08):
all kinds of various stages of stresson citrus out there right now. So
we need to do everything we cancultural wise to to help them along.
Right. Citrus are usually very lowmaintenance fruit, but there are a few
things we need to do to themto to help in the Fertilization is critical.
And if you're lucky enough to havefruit set on your trees, which
(22:30):
this year I have almost nothing.One tree that was a little more protected
I have in my lemon tree isgood because I protected it. But if
you're lucky enough to have fruit onyour trees, this watering during this drought,
otherwise you can have a late seasondrop. Yes, So get out
there and water it at least onegood slow soaking a week to keep that
(22:53):
fruit production going along as well asjust a normal right growth of the tree.
And you know, and I justwanted something I thought came in my
head. Anything that you're fertilizing atthis time of the year, if you're
putting the fertilizer out and the soilis dry, you make sure you water
them furtilizer again, because that's usman, that's a great recipe for burning,
(23:15):
yes, your plant. Yeah,that's critical. Yeah. Yeah.
And even even if you want toput a little bit of fertilizer on some
of your warm seas and bedding plantbeds like thinka that are going to go
all the way through whenso the fall, make sure you have some good irrigation
out before you water a day ortwo a head, before you fertilize a
(23:36):
day or two a head. Yeah, that's so saturated because so what the
fertilizer and uh minimally moist soil.Yes, you put the furtizer out,
it's drawing that moisture to the fertilizerand that's when you really get your root
burning. So to make sure thesoil is moist before you put it out
exactly, and then even watering itin after the fact much more important during
(23:56):
conditions like now. But I'm youknow, and then on the bedding plant
I'm seeing some nice looking up bettingplant beds out there. So if you're
watering and um did everything right withplanning in your bed prep, even in
this drought and heat, you canhave bet you have nus plants that are
going to be really really good.Yeah, there's some gorgeous xenias and in
the front of my neighborhood. Justyes, so, and I did have
(24:22):
somebody going back to citrus. Ididn't have somebody this week asking about their
fruit on their citrus. And youknow they I think they expected to be
growing the fruit to be growing alittle bit faster right now. But uh,
but with the weather conditions, Ithink they're kind of stagnant. And
everybody wants their citrus to mature,and you know, no, and you
(24:47):
know, people forget that citrus October, November, December, January. Yeah,
I mean you can get a fewcom quots and satsumas in uh in
October. But yes, well,you know what we've been talking. But
this gentleman has been patiently holding on. Let's go to James James. Good
(25:08):
morning, thanks for calling the WJBOLawn and Garden Show. What's up with
you today? I've got two questions. One the cutting heights of our grass
now that it's getting so hot,and the second one is when the next
time to fertilize our fate august singgrass. I'll take the first one,
(25:29):
okay, unless you want to sothe mowing height really doesn't need to vary
depending on the environmental conditions. Soif you think, oh it's summer,
I need to let it grow taller, it should be cut at a decent
level. Always. I would nevercut my Saint Augustine personally less than two
(25:49):
inches tall. Okay, most mostpeople, especially if somebody else mows your
grass, they go in and theyscalp it. The stems that run along
the ground. They call those thestolens. They're supposed to be shaded.
And when you scalped the lawn toomuch, it lets sunlight down to those
(26:11):
stolens. That's stressful for your grass. You should never be doing that.
Just been leaving it a little higherthan normal. That's the that's the smart
way to play at, James,that's the smart way to play it.
Yeah, and most and most peopleyou know, do mow their lawn lower
(26:32):
than it should. Absolutely, yes, I see that all the time.
What's wrapping And I look at apictures like, well, first of all,
you're cutting it. I can seethe stolens all over the ground.
You're supposed to have leaves on topof that. You know, you're not
supposed to cut them short. Andthat is that's a you know, and
and that doesn't vary from from seasonto season. If it's springtime, you're
still cutting at that same level thatyou do it in July. You're consistent,
(26:56):
Okay, across the lawn on rightnow, I can turn around and
footprint, well, that means it'sdry. Yeah, you know, dry
and dry. That's dry. Yourgrass should not do that if it's properly
hydrated. Okay, so you needto water. Don't worry about your mowing
height. Worry about water at thispoint. And then you know, depending
(27:22):
on the weather, you know,mid August late August labor day for your
next fertilization. I'm not sure whatyour fertilization scheduleist be in, but that's
when I would do it. Youreally don't want to be fertilizing much when
you get past or early to midSeptember, because you may stimulate too much
growth. And we have if wehave some early cool weather or something like
(27:47):
that. So right, and andhow many times if your lawn was doing
well, you might fertlize it twicea season. If there was some reason
where, um, your grass wasnot doing as well as that you wanted
to, you could push in athird fertilization, but you don't want to
push them late, like Alan says. So there is a great chart on
(28:11):
the l shoe Accenter website l shoacenterdot com. There's a best Lawn Management
Practices publication and it actually has alittle chart describes whether fast release or slow
release, and we would always recommendslow release, and it would give you
the timing for that, James.And it's readily accessible. I pull it
(28:33):
up for people all the time toshow them how they can access it at
their home. But it's l shuacenterdot com Best Lawn Management Practices. I
used to be able to tell youthe publication number, but that one escapes
me right now. And it willgive you that chart where you can do
that, and it it also tellsyou your preferred pH for that type of
grass, the preferred mowing height forthat grass, and and the amount of
(28:59):
fertilizer nitrogen base per thousand square feetper season on that right, So it
gives you tons of information. James, Okay, thank you so much.
All Right, you are more thanwelcome. Hope you have a great day,
all right, and that great question. But yeah, yeah, the
um and we need to make surewe're keeping our lawns well irrigated. And
(29:21):
uh, you know going into thefall, you don't want your lawn to
go into the fall stressed, sono, because that that can set you
up for you know, then thenyou don't flush out well in the spring.
And hopefully we'll have an average winterthis year. But just like the
temperatures, you know, we've hadvery cold weather the last two winters for
a very isolated period of time,and the whole rest of the winter we've
(29:44):
been very warm. So we've hada lot of lawn issues um as a
result of the winter growing conditions thelast two springs. Yeah, and this
year with all that damage, thismight have been a year for a for
a three fertilization season, you probablyget some things back in again. If
(30:07):
you're fertilizing, you're not. Irrigationis more important than the fertilization. If
you're grass and stress from from drought, it's not going to make any forward
progress. So I mean, yousee that pale of green gray or green
gray or blue color coming on onyour lawn and you see your footprints,
you know you're you're on the verydry side, all right, Yeah,
(30:30):
you should not be able to seeyour foot impressions as you walk across your
wall. So, um, greatquestion. I forgot what we had been
kind of I don't know, Yeah, so what are we gonna talk about
next? So? Uh, youknow what micro irrigation. Yes, my
gosh, that stuff is so easyto put into a bed. It's ridiculous
to the garden faucet. You canlay it on the surface and just put
(30:51):
some mulch over the top of it. Uh. The only tool you need
is like a pair of utility scissorsto cut the big tube. And there's
a little pushpin thing that you youknow, push to make a hole into
big tube and then search a littlepiece. Gosh, it's so easy.
I will never do a bed everwithout them again. So I took three
or four pictures of all our irrigationsupplied and hoses and micro irrigation supplies at
(31:15):
one of the stores about two weeksago, and I've been posting that on
Facebook, just let folks know thatwe're a good source for all the micro
irrigation materials and soaker hoses and sprinklersand water hoses and everything you need to
do. Though, something besides yourthumb and the end of the host.
Yes, anything that's a Texas Aand M method. Yeah, anything beats
(31:40):
the thumb and the end of thehose because you're not watering it thoroughly,
I guarantee you. So put asprinkle on it. Walk away, Go
get a glass of cold water,Sit down in your chair, you know,
play with your YouTube on your phonefor a while, and then go
out and move it later. Soyou're your lawn and your plant fold is
your your leaf blades are losing moistureevery day, but also your soil loses
(32:07):
moisture every day. So on thedaily agricultural climate report, they tell you
what's your evapo transpiration was this week? You know how many inches of water
you're losing from your your soil youknow during this week. And so basically
you need to be replenishing your soil, right because that's where the that's where
(32:28):
the plant's grabbing it from. Itall starts at the soil, right,
It all starts at the soil.So, but when it's really hot,
Alan, I go out and Iand I spray my plants down every day
on the leaves because it's hot.Yeah, how often do you hear that?
And how else does that work out? Very common, very common.
It doesn't matter. Get the waterto your media, to your soil,
to soil. The plants don't registerheat the same way we do, right,
(32:52):
right, I told somebody yesterday,if the plant is not suited to
live in our heat, we won'tsell it, right unless it's you know,
something that's you know, maybe aknown to be a short term you
know, something to put on thetable or whatever. But yeah, the
water needs to go to the soil. It doesn't really do the plant any
(33:13):
good wetting the leaves unless you're justtrying to knock the dust off, right,
and getting water just to the topof the malts. To us no
good either. That's why we keeplooking underneath your pine. I'll look underneath
your pine bark and see what yourmoisture content is. And that couple of
inches where you're your roots on yourbedding plants, and the roots on your
roses, and the roots on yourazaleas, where those roots are. Yeah,
(33:35):
I tell people when they water,they want to try to get maybe
at least about three inches of penetrationdown into the soil itself. I tell
them I have to do horticulture.CSI. That's right, Go out there,
well, how do I how longdo I let it run? We'll
let it run for thirty minutes,and go out and put your shovel in
it, and move your shovel tothe side and look to see how wet
the soil is going. It's funnyhow much I use my hands on air
(33:55):
in it, but literally check itand then say, oh gosh, that
only soaked in a quarter of aninch, And he said, I'm supposed
to have three inches. Run inanother thirty minutes. Check it again,
run in another thirty minute, andthen you'll have knowledge of how long you
need to water that bed at yourhouse. It might be different from the
bed on the back side of thehouse. The soul composition, so check
(34:21):
each one. You know, it'snot hard. And once you do it
the first time, you have theinformation. Yes, write it down in
your little horticulture notebook. You know, and and you know, we're certainly
at Clegg's a glad to try tohelp everyone with, you know, some
of these problems that are out there. But when you take a picture and
(34:42):
bring it to us, you know, we need the background information. We
need to know what's been happening.And it is horticulture CSI. Yeah,
And you know, in order foryou to get a good answer to a
question, we need the background information. Yeah, or if there was a
you know, several posts on gardeningfacebook pages this week. It's just it
(35:05):
just frustrates me to no end.And you know, all the people answering,
oh, yes, these lawn problems, Well, you can't diagnose a
lawn problem from a picture. Andyou know, I quit. I quit
watching those things. I would say. I would literally sit in bed sometimes
reading some things, and my wifewould hear me going, I'm going that
(35:28):
person's an idiot. That person's anidiot. That person and she said,
what are you doing. It's likeI'm reading some of these answers. She
just quit and I quit. Youknow, yeah, it needs more than
a picture. Yes, yes,have you been water? Did you not
water? Did it have damage comingout of the winter? When did it
turn brown? Did it turn brownin February? Did it turn brown in
(35:51):
July? Did it turn brown inFebruary? But you just took a picture
of it in July, And nowyou think it's chinch bugs, but really
it wasn't chinch bugs. It tappenedto you know, there's a lot to
it and a picture from six feetaway on a leaf. Please, you
know, if it's all possible,bring in a portion for us to look
at in hand. It seems likea lot of people don't want to show
(36:13):
us a picture of our whole lawn. They want to show a little close
up picture. Right. We needto see even if it looks bad.
We need to see what it lookslike. It gives us the basis to
make a proper diagnosis. One ofmy favorite restaurants here in Back Rouge,
I've been looking at their lawn thelast five years, and I took a
picture of it yesterday. And Iknow what's happened to that law in the
(36:36):
last five years, but bye bye, just putting a picture of that lawn
on Facebook or bring it in intous at the garden Center that we could
not give a definite diagnosis without somebackground information, right, and the background
information on this lawn is five yearsold. I think you're missing an opportunity
(36:57):
for a free meal, That's whatI think. And we've kind of been
talking all all over the place.But if you have a question and you'd
like to have us try to giveyou an answer to it, or have
a discussion with it. Pick upthe phone, give us call at four
five two six, that's four ninenine w JBO. It's We've talked about
the weather and how hot. We'vetalked about the low moisture levels we've had.
(37:23):
We've talked about how important moisture managementis for the health of your plant.
It's one of the one of themost important things. You can have
all the proper fertilizer, the pHcan be right, you can have a
beautiful malt to suppress the weeds,and you have your pre emerging out.
If your plants not get enough water, he's not happy. It's never the
plant's fault. Everybody wants to blamethe plant. It's the environment or the
(37:45):
people. The environment or the peoplekills the plants. And we can control
some environmental conditions. So if it'sdry, we can water. But and
that's one of the most simple thingsto do. But one of the things
that people ignore the most, orthey do improperly and think they're doing what
they need to do, which we'vekind of talked about. I've talked about
(38:07):
watering slowly and longer term and maybean inch of water per week, maybe
something different. If it's newly installedand planting it properly. I'm sorry that
little studder that I was trying toremember somebody that came in earlier this week.
They had planted their plants like threeinches deeper than what the original level
(38:30):
was in the container, and theirroots and their plant was suffering, and
it was on decline because it wasbeing smothered by the soil over the top.
Roots need the proper ratio of moistureand air in the soil to be
healthy, and a lot of thatair is that exchanges at the surface.
(38:52):
So if you take and bury whatthe plant had as its surface, now
it's three inches below the soil,he suffocating. The roots are gonna die.
I tell people all the time,planting a plant is like building a
high rise building. The first thingyou have to build is a good foundation,
and that's that root system. Soif you can help the root system
(39:13):
become established by planting it at theproper level, making sure that it's elevated
if necessary, so that it won'tstay too wet during the rainy seasons,
if you take that and people allthe time, don't buy a plant that's
root bound. But most plants truthfullyare root bound when you buy them otherwise
they won't look nice enough size wisefor the container. You either think that
(39:37):
it's a value anyway, but youcan take it. You take that outer
portion of that root, mask theroot ball, and loosen it with your
fingertips. One of those things thatworks really well is one of those little
three prong cultivators. They break itdown aside you only I only want you
to break in a quarter of aninch all the way around. That's like
pruning in the top of the plantto make the branching get thicker. Or
(39:58):
you're pruning the roots and as theyregenerate, they spread out more and give
you that lateral development faster. Yeah, that's that's an amazing difference, and
people don't realize that. Yes,we've got a call. OK, go
to Margo. Margo, good morning, and thanks for calling the WJBO Lawn
a Garden show. What's up thismorning? Thank you. I am wondering
(40:20):
about Dai lilies and I had heardyou're supposed to cut them back like the
end of July. But I wonderedwhat it is the proper way to care
for them. I don't know thatcutting them back at the end of July
is anything I would recommend unless they'reloaded with fulliar disease. Yeah. Yeah,
No, I don't, I don'treally, I don't really think that's
necessary, Margo. You maybe wantto remove some of the old blooms and
(40:46):
uh, do some things like that, but no need to to cut the
foliage back to stimulate new growth thattime of year. Yeah, and so
a lot of times maybe the olderfoliage, of course, is going to
be the outside leaves on the custer, and if they're looking, you can
just grab those. Sometimes you justyank them and they'll just pull right offs.
(41:07):
Right. And if you have thescapes, the stems that the flowers
had been held on and they're turningbrown, reach down and sometimes if they're
brown enough, they'll pull out.Oh wise you might have to clip them
with the papruners and just clean upyour plant. Don't. Don't cut the
whole thing back now, if youdid, they would start to grow again.
(41:27):
Yeah, but it's not necessary,and you're putting some extra stress on
the plant. If some of thefolders looks good, why cut it back?
Why why get rid of it andmake the plant use additional energy just
to grow back, which it didn'tneed to lose anyway, so you never
cut it back anytime during the year. You just clean it up, clean
it up. Now there aren't there'ssome foliar diseases that if they're bad,
(41:52):
I might tell you the easiest thingis to cut it back to the ground
and as it comes out, starta spray program. But unless you have
that, I don't see the needfor that. All right. I have
been using, you know, ona fungicide on it because they do tend
to get that whatever the disease,right, And if you're spraying with the
(42:17):
funder side, you should change thefungicide periodically for a fungicide that works in
a different mode of action so thatthe fungus doesn't become adapted to it.
Okay, So yeah, so umyeah, so if you are doing that,
(42:37):
you should swap periodically. There's soI think mancozeb is listed. I'm
thinking DAK and Hill maybe I don'tremember if dall. I mean, you
could even use the fir loam systemicfungicide has some proboconazole in it that's good
for day lily rust, right,so yeah yeah, so yeah, to
(43:01):
just clean them up. You couldfertilize them and keep them watered Margo.
All right, well, I appreciatethank you. All right, you have
a great day. Well, Idon't think we have time for any other
calls. We got baby, yeah, a minute and a half something like
that. Allen, So, um, I've seen some day lily's looking fairly
(43:22):
nice. I haven't seen as muchdaylily rust. Uh. I do see
some of that or drought stress anduh. But if you keep removing those
old flower scapes off, you canget traditional blooms right right, and and
if if they look horrible, yes, cutting them back to the ground is
an option. But if your plantsnot looking horrible, I don't think I
(43:45):
would do that, right. Sowater, right, is that one of
our biggest topics. We've continue towater or start doing what you need to
do on your landscape. Irrigation.Yeah good. If you linger much longer,
you're gonna start seeing plant law,dammage, that's right, that's right.
Slow. I know we talk aboutit every week, but keep on
(44:06):
talking about it as long as weneed to. That's right. It's an
issue, and that's one of theeasiest things to start taking care of.
So I hope everybody gets out today, walk around your yard, enjoy your
yard. Go out and see whatyou can do to help it look a
little better. Maybe a little fertilizationas some water bat rouge. Have a
great day and thanks for listening tothe WJBO Lawn and Garden Show
Good Saturday morning, and welcome tothe WGBO Lanning Garden Show, brought to
you by Clegg's Nursery. If youhave a question about seasonal planting, lanning
garden concerns or questions about landscaping,called four nine nine w g BO.
That's four nine nine ninety five twosix. Good morning, Batton Rose.
(00:26):
Here we are again at the wJBO Wanting Garden Show. My name is
Scott Ricket here this morning with doctorAllen Owen's Good morning Alan, and Alan's
trying to get situated and get apair of headphones on at work this morning
for him. Good morning, Scott, beautiful day another it's not one hundred
summer another summertime Saturday. Yeah,yeah, it's been a it's been a
(00:50):
Watson's. I've been on with youalways enjoy and the last time we were
in we were on last month,I believe, one Saturday, one Saturday.
Yeah. Yeah, I'm kind ofmore I'm usually with Butch and Zane.
Yeah. Yeah, Well it's goodto be here today today with you.
Good to see you, and youknow you and I were just talking.
I mean, it looks like youdid a little homework for things to
(01:10):
talk about today, and me Iwalked in with my usual you know,
anyway we're gonna talk about today.It's on outside. You're so good,
Scott, you don't need prep.Yeah yeah, so uh gosh. I
guess one of the biggest things goingon right now is guys who wants to
work out in the yard because it'sso dog on hot. That's what everybody's
(01:30):
talking about. I did get alot of you know, industry and home
gardener questions yesterday, and it reallywasn't all about the weather, so I
was, you know, pleased,pleased to try to help a few folks.
So when they're trying to source plantsand camelia issues and some azalea issues
and the every hour turf issues,and believe it or not, Crown right
(01:53):
on the rip this time year,which I was kind of surprised here,
but they were they irrigating. Thatwas in shreport. I didn't get much
information, but I think they've beengetting a little bit. But I haven't
been seeing as much crown right onground covers as we were seeing five years
ago. So no, and thenthey've changed some of the varieties more resistance,
(02:13):
so thank goodness for that. It'san ever changing thing that the nursery
industry, whether the person that drivesdown the road knows it or not.
A lot of what's planted they mightlook the same, but there's improvements that
are made, are worked on allthe time for the industry. Variety changes
or fast and furious are to keepup. Yeah, and that's one of
the things you do, Like like, oh, last time I was here,
(02:38):
we talked about the bedding plant trials, and I went to US Mother
States in June and we got athere's an LSU Accident or Nursery Landscape Industry
Day in Hammond on a Friday thiscoming week. So I haven't looked at
their bedding plants yet this year.In details, I want to go see
what's going on in Hammond. Iread through that other day, and I
(03:00):
mean, it's just it's just interestinghow much industry itself is always working to
improve itself, that it never stops. It never stops. I'll tell you
this morning, before I left thehouse to come in this direction, I've
had my I've got some potted plantsthat are supposed to go on the ground
(03:22):
eventually, some some um lemonade,blueberries, pink lemonade, blueberries and some
um and a triple crown BlackBerry whichis already setting another set of fruit on
it. But I took them fromthe nursery and brought them to the house.
And you know, sometimes I mightmiss a day of watering. Well,
(03:44):
my gosh, the way things aregoing now, my blueberries, Oh
gosh, maybe thirty percent of thefoliage went south because I missed watering one
day, exactly. Exactly. Insome plants, you know, depending on
the situation, container, landscape bed, they may need irrigation twice a day,
just depending on how you take careof them and how much direct sun
or reflectively eat they're getting. Imean, I am the king of not
(04:09):
watering installed plants in the ground,and I have a tremendous luck with how
I do things. But you know, quite often part of the problem is
people are watering improperly. Yes,they're either watering they go out there with
their finger in the end of thehose and they shoot it for about thirty
(04:29):
seconds. It's oh, yeah,I watered it. Yeah that's fast adequate.
No it's not at yeah yeah,yeah you watered the spot, but
you didn't water the plant well enough. And it seems like We talk about
that on every episode the last amonth or so. But that's right.
We need to um try to tryto help folks with their variegation. Water
man. I was just talking tosomebody about it yesterday. Water manage.
(04:50):
Water management. Sometimes when a plantquote unquote permanently wilt, so it's not
coming back, that's right, that'sright. Yeah, And it's like,
oh is it is it dead?Well, no, it's not technically dead
at this point, but how longdo you want to wait for it to
look good again in your landscape?Sometimes time to rip it out put a
new one in, right, Soon my situation for those I put all
(05:13):
of those small container plants into somelarger container plants, yes, so that
I have a greater water holding capacity. So if I do happen to miss
you know, a day, yes, I'm not you know, damaging the
plant ten a large degree. Oneof my favorite inquiries that I get is
how long do I need to waitfor my dead plant to come back?
(05:36):
Yeah? Yeah, but there arebut there are definitely some plant issues out
there with a dry weather. Soyou want me to tell you how much
rain we've had lately? Yeah?Okay, So baton rouge and I assume
this is the official weather station inBaton Rouge. We did get some rain
in early May, so that wasgood. Well, from May the eighth
to May thirty first we got oneinch, okay, so one inch last
(06:00):
three weeks in May. June wedid get some rain. In June it
was three inches. And that maysound like adequate rain, but when we're
used to getting why the inch ofrain a week, one and a half
inches of rain a week, twoinches a week in Louisia during some months,
that's really not a whole lot ofrain. And then what's today?
(06:23):
Is it the fifteenth? At fifteenthwe've had point two seven inches in July,
so we're like three point two seveninches the last nine weeks. So
that's horrible that that's not getting itdone, all right, And so I
hate to drag hoses at home becauseI drag hoses at work. But it's
time for me to drag some hoses, and I pay attention. I've got
(06:46):
a little bit of is a isup underneath some crape myrtles, and I
can walk out and I sometimes youknow, if you look at it,
you might see a The intensity ofthe green isn't quite as much or a
very slight wilting or whatever, andthose are some indicators of plant. He's
not trying to tell us, butit's obvious that he needs some water.
(07:09):
And when you do water, thebest way to water is maybe a low
velocity so it's not running off andrunning down to the curb for longer duration,
so you have the ability to soakthat soil more vertically through the soil
profile, so it'll last longer.And years ago, I can remember Elsh
(07:30):
would put out something and I thinkit was for long irrigation, and they
were saying to on this particular one, it said to water at night,
which you know, for all practicalpurposes most of the time we tell people
to water early enough in a dayto where the leaves are drive by night,
exactly to minimize fungal problems. Ididn't like the fact that on that
(07:53):
particular publication I can remember. Ididn't like it because they didn't tell you
why to water at night at nightor what time the water right so,
but it was obviously to me tominimize evaporation so you get a better movement
into the soil. But when youwater, the best way to water is
put a sprinkler out that puts outa low volume for a longer period of
(08:16):
time and let it run a while. And if it's a well established garden,
what an inch a week is whatI normally tell people. Kind that's
that's good. That's good, andthat would be true for your law.
And also and if you're like myfront yard is sloped, if I tried
to water too fast, it runsfrom the top to the bottom anyway,
so I split it up, Imight run it for a while and turn
(08:39):
it off. Run it for awhile, turn it off, and so
I get more penetration instead of runoffoff the surface. Right. So,
and if you have any slope changesor you know, areas around concrete in
your landscape, those are going tostay. You know, areas by the
concrete it're gonna stay dry, oryour higher areas on your property you're gonna
(09:01):
stay dry, or lower areas it'sgonna stay damper and all water a little
bit better. So yeah, andso those are things that and the better
you make your raised landscape bed,the faster it's going to dry out.
That's right, that's right, becauseeverything for us is water management. Yes,
And of course we get pierds ofthe air when we get so much
water. We're trying to when we'remaking a bed, we're trying to be
(09:24):
on the safe side of the highwater times. So we're always recommending raised
beds. And I know, likethe we sell two different bedding soil mixes,
right, and one of the onesI like the most is our raised
bed blend. It drains so wellthat that's one of those things. If
it's a newly planted area, youmight be watering it twice a day until
(09:48):
the roots get out. That's true, that's true, and that's not typical
of what we would tell you,like if you're not if you're planting just
a tree out in the yard,you're putting the same soul back in.
If you're watering it twice a day, you're going down the road of killing
the tree, right, right,So knowing the situations and adapting to those
situations. You know what I haven'tdone, though? What have you know?
(10:11):
I haven't told people that they canpick up the phone if they have
any questions give us a call tostudio at six as four nine nine w
j BO. If you have anyquestions, please pick up the phone,
give us a call, Um andI live. I live in Hammond,
scott and we've actually been getting rain. But you know, I come to
Baton Rouge two or three times aweek and it does seem definitely drier in
(10:31):
Baton Rouge than it does in Hammond. And I actually laugh. Yet and
like Charles are drier than we arein Baton Rouge. I don't know what.
So it just depends where you're outthere listening to to us as to
what your particular situation and rainfall amountsmay have been. Yeah, And and
oftentimes I'm looking at the mapping forthe you know, for the day,
(10:52):
and I'm watching those clouds that keepgoing north of Baton Rouge. They're din't
it. Sometimes they're down to life. Yet then they're going north feast right
over the top of Baton Rouge andboom nothing and Interstate twenty in North Mississippi
has had a lot of rain thelast seven to ten days, and we've
had very little, very little.Well, my friend Eddie Martin in a
(11:13):
bell Chase, he's a he's ahorticulture guy. He said he got five
drops yesterday. He was so thankful. But they are bone dry in New
Orleans and bell Chasing down that way. I mean they may be drier than
baton rouge is. Yeah, it'sjust horrible. So go out look at
your yard. Keep your plants healthy, even if you don't think home my
(11:35):
yards like it's it's okay. Butyou know, we haven't had any water.
Get out there, give it.What's it hurt to go out and
give it some water? Yes,keep it, keep it feeling it.
Don't wait till it's feeling bad beforeyou try to perk your back up,
because it's easier to keep your plantsat a certain level. If you're letting
them drop below, then you're playingcatch up. So but driving around yesterday,
(12:00):
some of the lawn areas I saw, especially you know, microclimates surrounded
by concrete. The lawn that wasthere is gone. It's not coming back,
I can tell. And it wasalready stressed from this winter. Yes,
yes, so you had stress tostress. We we've we've had the
cold weather and then now now we'rebrutally hot and dry as and then this
(12:22):
is the time when it's brutally hotand dry, when chinch bugs I could
come in and there's already been somechinch bug problems identified in the area.
Yeah, Johnny Naylor told me he'sbeen seeing chinch bug samples the last two
weeks. So yeah, well Ithink he found some in his own yard.
Okay, the first the first reportwas from his but he said they
went to insect Kevin So yes,um so, and so that that's pretty
(12:48):
interesting about the weather. How aboutthe temperature ranges and the temperature so um.
I don't know if you saw thedata, Scott, but h June
and Baton was the hottest June onrecord. I felt that the second hottest
June on record in Baton, Rougewas last June. So that I don't
(13:09):
feel good about the trend I'm seeingthere. And in May, depending on
whether you look at acuaweather or weatherdot com, we had twelve to fifteen
days above ninety. In June wehad twenty eight or thirty days above ninety.
And of course in July every dayhas been above ninety, and we've
(13:33):
had I think we're approaching twenty fivedays ninety five or hotter. And do
not look at the forecast for todaythrough next Saturday. Do not look at
it is that brutal hot It isthat brutal. It's crucious. Yeah,
but it is time for everybody,because they're asking me they want to plant
(13:54):
their tomatoes to get that fall harbor. I sold I sold over a trade
tomatous to somebody yesterday. Now he'sgonna take those those little cell packs and
he's going to put them into alarger pot and keep them. He's not
going to drop him into the gardenright now, but he'll he'll put them
where they're get in good sunlight,where they stay nice and stocky, and
(14:16):
let them get a little more sizeto them. But yeah, it's that
time. Fall tomatoes are not plantedin the fall, right, You harvest
in the exactly exactly, so sothere's warm season vegetables that you plant in
August September, you know, andand also when you get to September October,
you're starting to plant the cool seasonvegetables. So make sure you know,
(14:41):
you know, and there are thingsyou could plant now, I mean,
you can do crowder peaks and westill have time. Yeah, you
got him out another week to plantpumpkins if you want to. Yeah,
you know, yeah, I've neverdone pumpkins. But somebody brought in a
candle up yesterday that was literally hemeasured it it's large than a basketball.
(15:01):
Wow, it was huge. I'vegot a picture I'll show you later,
but you know, it's just amazing. And it was from a um a
seed from his brother in laws.Um it was just a chance seedling that
came up and he planted it andit grew and now they've been saving the
seeds for several years. Okay,okay, And this morning with doctor Alan
(15:24):
Owens from Clegg's and Bracy's and youknow who knows where else and whatever idea
idiots I do these days, youknow, yeah, and you do quite
a bit. You keep us verybusy agendas. Oh man, I'm kind
of tired. You know. Ican understand that, but I can't.
I can't believe y'all were putting ina container yard in this heat. You
know. Well, you know Iused to be able to do that,
(15:45):
Scott. I don't know if Icould do it anymore. But you know,
when it's cool weather, we're busywith customers. We're always busy.
It just changes what we were customers. We were building in a container yard.
This is like fifteen years ago atthe research station on S and Lane,
and it was like we were wewere working on it all week.
But you know, we we gotthe gravel and limestone or whatever he in
(16:10):
like on Thursday and got a lotof that spread and ed bush and I
got the risers put in and wewere working out there on Friday. It
was like ninety eight one hundred degrees, you know, and after lunch,
I found myself I was only oneleft out there. I'm going on.
(16:30):
My shirt was soaked, my shortswere totally saturated. Yeah, that's how
I've been the last two days puttingthat cloth down. It takes a lot
of yeah, a lot of work, literally knee pads and all my hands
and knees for the last two days, which is not a lot of fun,
but it's work. It needs tobe done for the nursery. Yes,
yes, well, Alan, wehad somebody call in and just leave
(16:53):
a message for us. Okay.They had a set sumlar that the leaves
are curling, and I didn't seethat that had been put on the bottom
of the screen earlier. But Iknow why that's happened, because he's doing
it to mind too. Yes,I've seen I see a zealous dry their
(17:14):
leaf curling, and I would notbe surprised if that's happening on sister's trace
tea well, and I also couldbe leaf miners also, depending on what
the situation is. Yeah, well, actually I've got two different sets.
Soon was at my house and oneof them is on a dwarfroot stalking.
I planted those. I think wemoved into the house in two thousand and
(17:37):
four, so I think I plannedthem in two thousand and four. So
they're almost twenty years old in theground, and you would think that they'd
be pretty strong against most everything.But I had to take at least thirty
percent of the canopy out after thatcrazy freeze at the end of the season,
so I lost about a third ofthe canopy, and then I truly
haven't been taking care of them aswell all side normally did. I did
(18:00):
put some fertilizer out maybe in April, which, by the way, your
citrus fertilization usually I tell people theend of June. So if you haven't
done your second fertilization for the season, go out and get it done now.
It will help the tree, Ithelps with fruit production even for the
next year. To keep your planthealthy now, and we don't want to
(18:25):
we don't usually recommend doing a fallfertilization here because of the way our weather
trends are, sometimes you can stimulatenew growth which would be more easily damaged.
So get it done now, okay. And what you're trying to get
out now mostly some extra nitrogen forthe growth. But on that tree,
it was stressed so badly, andinsects have a way of sensing stress.
(18:47):
I had and afid infestation on thatone tree, which is fifteen feet from
another set zona and fifteen feet onthe other side is a big blood orange
tree that the bugs knew it was. Yeah, right, had had a
little issue going on. I hadan aphid infestation like you wouldn't believe.
(19:10):
I mean, the leaves were justall curled around themselves. Now, if
you have an aphid problem, youcan actually take the leaf and try to
unfold it and you'll see all theaphids again. And that's usually on the
newest growth. And as you mentioned, citrus leaf miners that causes a distorted
leaf also, and in that caseyou see trails. So the aphids,
(19:30):
I think of the two are easierto treat. You can go out there
and you can spray a mouth ionworks. It's so hot now. But
one of the old citrus sprays usedto be just a combination of mouthion and
horticultural oil. So but you coulduse mouthion, you could use a pyres
rum, you could use you know, some different things and spray the leaf
(19:56):
miners. A little more funny aboutspraying because timing is much more involved with
a leaf miner. So so andit's it's a lot of cosmetic damage,
doesn't actually do a whole lot ofdamage to the leaf is still green,
it's still making energy exactly. Soum Spinoza said is good for leaf miners.
(20:17):
But you're timing, don't. Youhave to get that. So the
the adult lays its eggs only onimmature leads, right right, and so
you have that small window from whenthe egg hatches till it gets inside,
you know. So the leaf minershave been out there on your trees for
probably two months, and now you'reseeing the damage and it's really getting too
late to treat where you're going tobe very effective right now. A lot
(20:38):
of times in the fall we haveanother push of growth, right. So
what I normally tell people for theSpinoza because sitcher sometimes we put it out
a big flush of growth all atonce, and then those leaves mature and
then it does it again, andit might do that three or four times
this season, depending on your growthrate. So what I tell people when
you see that big push of growth, when the leaves about half an inch
(21:00):
long because they lay their eggs onthe immature leaves, to go out and
spray your spinosad product. Wait aweek and spray it again, and then
just let those leaves mature. Soyou really have to be aware of the
growth pattern of your tree. Thereis also a systemic material that you can
put out. It's a bear product. It's listed for use on Citrus and
(21:23):
I have used it. It's ana metacloprid product where you literally just mix
it in a bucket and pour itat the base of your tree, usually
more in the spring, and thatwill get you through most all of the
entire growing season with minimal damage.It usually runs out near the end of
the season. Yeah, yeah,it's not going to be thereafter you know,
(21:47):
midsummer, late summer. Yeah,But more important than than I think
getting back out and getting your fertilization, another fertilization done and watering and water
you know, the water out tohelp those nutrients being taken up by the
plant, right, and uh,you know citrus, you know they're they're
(22:08):
all kinds of various stages of stresson citrus out there right now. So
we need to do everything we cancultural wise to to help them along.
Right. Citrus are usually very lowmaintenance fruit, but there are a few
things we need to do to themto to help in the Fertilization is critical.
And if you're lucky enough to havefruit set on your trees, which
(22:30):
this year I have almost nothing.One tree that was a little more protected
I have in my lemon tree isgood because I protected it. But if
you're lucky enough to have fruit onyour trees, this watering during this drought,
otherwise you can have a late seasondrop. Yes, So get out
there and water it at least onegood slow soaking a week to keep that
(22:53):
fruit production going along as well asjust a normal right growth of the tree.
And you know, and I justwanted something I thought came in my
head. Anything that you're fertilizing atthis time of the year, if you're
putting the fertilizer out and the soilis dry, you make sure you water
them furtilizer again, because that's usman, that's a great recipe for burning,
(23:15):
yes, your plant. Yeah,that's critical. Yeah. Yeah.
And even even if you want toput a little bit of fertilizer on some
of your warm seas and bedding plantbeds like thinka that are going to go
all the way through whenso the fall, make sure you have some good irrigation
out before you water a day ortwo a head, before you fertilize a
(23:36):
day or two a head. Yeah, that's so saturated because so what the
fertilizer and uh minimally moist soil.Yes, you put the furtizer out,
it's drawing that moisture to the fertilizerand that's when you really get your root
burning. So to make sure thesoil is moist before you put it out
exactly, and then even watering itin after the fact much more important during
(23:56):
conditions like now. But I'm youknow, and then on the bedding plant
I'm seeing some nice looking up bettingplant beds out there. So if you're
watering and um did everything right withplanning in your bed prep, even in
this drought and heat, you canhave bet you have nus plants that are
going to be really really good.Yeah, there's some gorgeous xenias and in
the front of my neighborhood. Justyes, so, and I did have
(24:22):
somebody going back to citrus. Ididn't have somebody this week asking about their
fruit on their citrus. And youknow they I think they expected to be
growing the fruit to be growing alittle bit faster right now. But uh,
but with the weather conditions, Ithink they're kind of stagnant. And
everybody wants their citrus to mature,and you know, no, and you
(24:47):
know, people forget that citrus October, November, December, January. Yeah,
I mean you can get a fewcom quots and satsumas in uh in
October. But yes, well,you know what we've been talking. But
this gentleman has been patiently holding on. Let's go to James James. Good
(25:08):
morning, thanks for calling the WJBOLawn and Garden Show. What's up with
you today? I've got two questions. One the cutting heights of our grass
now that it's getting so hot,and the second one is when the next
time to fertilize our fate august singgrass. I'll take the first one,
(25:29):
okay, unless you want to sothe mowing height really doesn't need to vary
depending on the environmental conditions. Soif you think, oh it's summer,
I need to let it grow taller, it should be cut at a decent
level. Always. I would nevercut my Saint Augustine personally less than two
(25:49):
inches tall. Okay, most mostpeople, especially if somebody else mows your
grass, they go in and theyscalp it. The stems that run along
the ground. They call those thestolens. They're supposed to be shaded.
And when you scalped the lawn toomuch, it lets sunlight down to those
(26:11):
stolens. That's stressful for your grass. You should never be doing that.
Just been leaving it a little higherthan normal. That's the that's the smart
way to play at, James,that's the smart way to play it.
Yeah, and most and most peopleyou know, do mow their lawn lower
(26:32):
than it should. Absolutely, yes, I see that all the time.
What's wrapping And I look at apictures like, well, first of all,
you're cutting it. I can seethe stolens all over the ground.
You're supposed to have leaves on topof that. You know, you're not
supposed to cut them short. Andthat is that's a you know, and
and that doesn't vary from from seasonto season. If it's springtime, you're
still cutting at that same level thatyou do it in July. You're consistent,
(26:56):
Okay, across the lawn on rightnow, I can turn around and
footprint, well, that means it'sdry. Yeah, you know, dry
and dry. That's dry. Yourgrass should not do that if it's properly
hydrated. Okay, so you needto water. Don't worry about your mowing
height. Worry about water at thispoint. And then you know, depending
(27:22):
on the weather, you know,mid August late August labor day for your
next fertilization. I'm not sure whatyour fertilization scheduleist be in, but that's
when I would do it. Youreally don't want to be fertilizing much when
you get past or early to midSeptember, because you may stimulate too much
growth. And we have if wehave some early cool weather or something like
(27:47):
that. So right, and andhow many times if your lawn was doing
well, you might fertlize it twicea season. If there was some reason
where, um, your grass wasnot doing as well as that you wanted
to, you could push in athird fertilization, but you don't want to
push them late, like Alan says. So there is a great chart on
(28:11):
the l shoe Accenter website l shoacenterdot com. There's a best Lawn Management
Practices publication and it actually has alittle chart describes whether fast release or slow
release, and we would always recommendslow release, and it would give you
the timing for that, James.And it's readily accessible. I pull it
(28:33):
up for people all the time toshow them how they can access it at
their home. But it's l shuacenterdot com Best Lawn Management Practices. I
used to be able to tell youthe publication number, but that one escapes
me right now. And it willgive you that chart where you can do
that, and it it also tellsyou your preferred pH for that type of
grass, the preferred mowing height forthat grass, and and the amount of
(28:59):
fertilizer nitrogen base per thousand square feetper season on that right, So it
gives you tons of information. James, Okay, thank you so much.
All Right, you are more thanwelcome. Hope you have a great day,
all right, and that great question. But yeah, yeah, the
um and we need to make surewe're keeping our lawns well irrigated. And
(29:21):
uh, you know going into thefall, you don't want your lawn to
go into the fall stressed, sono, because that that can set you
up for you know, then thenyou don't flush out well in the spring.
And hopefully we'll have an average winterthis year. But just like the
temperatures, you know, we've hadvery cold weather the last two winters for
a very isolated period of time,and the whole rest of the winter we've
(29:44):
been very warm. So we've hada lot of lawn issues um as a
result of the winter growing conditions thelast two springs. Yeah, and this
year with all that damage, thismight have been a year for a for
a three fertilization season, you probablyget some things back in again. If
(30:07):
you're fertilizing, you're not. Irrigationis more important than the fertilization. If
you're grass and stress from from drought, it's not going to make any forward
progress. So I mean, yousee that pale of green gray or green
gray or blue color coming on onyour lawn and you see your footprints,
you know you're you're on the verydry side, all right, Yeah,
(30:30):
you should not be able to seeyour foot impressions as you walk across your
wall. So, um, greatquestion. I forgot what we had been
kind of I don't know, Yeah, so what are we gonna talk about
next? So? Uh, youknow what micro irrigation. Yes, my
gosh, that stuff is so easyto put into a bed. It's ridiculous
to the garden faucet. You canlay it on the surface and just put
(30:51):
some mulch over the top of it. Uh. The only tool you need
is like a pair of utility scissorsto cut the big tube. And there's
a little pushpin thing that you youknow, push to make a hole into
big tube and then search a littlepiece. Gosh, it's so easy.
I will never do a bed everwithout them again. So I took three
or four pictures of all our irrigationsupplied and hoses and micro irrigation supplies at
(31:15):
one of the stores about two weeksago, and I've been posting that on
Facebook, just let folks know thatwe're a good source for all the micro
irrigation materials and soaker hoses and sprinklersand water hoses and everything you need to
do. Though, something besides yourthumb and the end of the host.
Yes, anything that's a Texas Aand M method. Yeah, anything beats
(31:40):
the thumb and the end of thehose because you're not watering it thoroughly,
I guarantee you. So put asprinkle on it. Walk away, Go
get a glass of cold water,Sit down in your chair, you know,
play with your YouTube on your phonefor a while, and then go
out and move it later. Soyou're your lawn and your plant fold is
your your leaf blades are losing moistureevery day, but also your soil loses
(32:07):
moisture every day. So on thedaily agricultural climate report, they tell you
what's your evapo transpiration was this week? You know how many inches of water
you're losing from your your soil youknow during this week. And so basically
you need to be replenishing your soil, right because that's where the that's where
(32:28):
the plant's grabbing it from. Itall starts at the soil, right,
It all starts at the soil.So, but when it's really hot,
Alan, I go out and Iand I spray my plants down every day
on the leaves because it's hot.Yeah, how often do you hear that?
And how else does that work out? Very common, very common.
It doesn't matter. Get the waterto your media, to your soil,
to soil. The plants don't registerheat the same way we do, right,
(32:52):
right, I told somebody yesterday,if the plant is not suited to
live in our heat, we won'tsell it, right unless it's you know,
something that's you know, maybe aknown to be a short term you
know, something to put on thetable or whatever. But yeah, the
water needs to go to the soil. It doesn't really do the plant any
(33:13):
good wetting the leaves unless you're justtrying to knock the dust off, right,
and getting water just to the topof the malts. To us no
good either. That's why we keeplooking underneath your pine. I'll look underneath
your pine bark and see what yourmoisture content is. And that couple of
inches where you're your roots on yourbedding plants, and the roots on your
roses, and the roots on yourazaleas, where those roots are. Yeah,
(33:35):
I tell people when they water,they want to try to get maybe
at least about three inches of penetrationdown into the soil itself. I tell
them I have to do horticulture.CSI. That's right, Go out there,
well, how do I how longdo I let it run? We'll
let it run for thirty minutes,and go out and put your shovel in
it, and move your shovel tothe side and look to see how wet
the soil is going. It's funnyhow much I use my hands on air
(33:55):
in it, but literally check itand then say, oh gosh, that
only soaked in a quarter of aninch, And he said, I'm supposed
to have three inches. Run inanother thirty minutes. Check it again,
run in another thirty minute, andthen you'll have knowledge of how long you
need to water that bed at yourhouse. It might be different from the
bed on the back side of thehouse. The soul composition, so check
(34:21):
each one. You know, it'snot hard. And once you do it
the first time, you have theinformation. Yes, write it down in
your little horticulture notebook. You know, and and you know, we're certainly
at Clegg's a glad to try tohelp everyone with, you know, some
of these problems that are out there. But when you take a picture and
(34:42):
bring it to us, you know, we need the background information. We
need to know what's been happening.And it is horticulture CSI. Yeah,
And you know, in order foryou to get a good answer to a
question, we need the background information. Yeah, or if there was a
you know, several posts on gardeningfacebook pages this week. It's just it
(35:05):
just frustrates me to no end.And you know, all the people answering,
oh, yes, these lawn problems, Well, you can't diagnose a
lawn problem from a picture. Andyou know, I quit. I quit
watching those things. I would say. I would literally sit in bed sometimes
reading some things, and my wifewould hear me going, I'm going that
(35:28):
person's an idiot. That person's anidiot. That person and she said,
what are you doing. It's likeI'm reading some of these answers. She
just quit and I quit. Youknow, yeah, it needs more than
a picture. Yes, yes,have you been water? Did you not
water? Did it have damage comingout of the winter? When did it
turn brown? Did it turn brownin February? Did it turn brown in
(35:51):
July? Did it turn brown inFebruary? But you just took a picture
of it in July, And nowyou think it's chinch bugs, but really
it wasn't chinch bugs. It tappenedto you know, there's a lot to
it and a picture from six feetaway on a leaf. Please, you
know, if it's all possible,bring in a portion for us to look
at in hand. It seems likea lot of people don't want to show
(36:13):
us a picture of our whole lawn. They want to show a little close
up picture. Right. We needto see even if it looks bad.
We need to see what it lookslike. It gives us the basis to
make a proper diagnosis. One ofmy favorite restaurants here in Back Rouge,
I've been looking at their lawn thelast five years, and I took a
picture of it yesterday. And Iknow what's happened to that law in the
(36:36):
last five years, but bye bye, just putting a picture of that lawn
on Facebook or bring it in intous at the garden Center that we could
not give a definite diagnosis without somebackground information, right, and the background
information on this lawn is five yearsold. I think you're missing an opportunity
(36:57):
for a free meal, That's whatI think. And we've kind of been
talking all all over the place.But if you have a question and you'd
like to have us try to giveyou an answer to it, or have
a discussion with it. Pick upthe phone, give us call at four
five two six, that's four ninenine w JBO. It's We've talked about
the weather and how hot. We'vetalked about the low moisture levels we've had.
(37:23):
We've talked about how important moisture managementis for the health of your plant.
It's one of the one of themost important things. You can have
all the proper fertilizer, the pHcan be right, you can have a
beautiful malt to suppress the weeds,and you have your pre emerging out.
If your plants not get enough water, he's not happy. It's never the
plant's fault. Everybody wants to blamethe plant. It's the environment or the
(37:45):
people. The environment or the peoplekills the plants. And we can control
some environmental conditions. So if it'sdry, we can water. But and
that's one of the most simple thingsto do. But one of the things
that people ignore the most, orthey do improperly and think they're doing what
they need to do, which we'vekind of talked about. I've talked about
(38:07):
watering slowly and longer term and maybean inch of water per week, maybe
something different. If it's newly installedand planting it properly. I'm sorry that
little studder that I was trying toremember somebody that came in earlier this week.
They had planted their plants like threeinches deeper than what the original level
(38:30):
was in the container, and theirroots and their plant was suffering, and
it was on decline because it wasbeing smothered by the soil over the top.
Roots need the proper ratio of moistureand air in the soil to be
healthy, and a lot of thatair is that exchanges at the surface.
(38:52):
So if you take and bury whatthe plant had as its surface, now
it's three inches below the soil,he suffocating. The roots are gonna die.
I tell people all the time,planting a plant is like building a
high rise building. The first thingyou have to build is a good foundation,
and that's that root system. Soif you can help the root system
(39:13):
become established by planting it at theproper level, making sure that it's elevated
if necessary, so that it won'tstay too wet during the rainy seasons,
if you take that and people allthe time, don't buy a plant that's
root bound. But most plants truthfullyare root bound when you buy them otherwise
they won't look nice enough size wisefor the container. You either think that
(39:37):
it's a value anyway, but youcan take it. You take that outer
portion of that root, mask theroot ball, and loosen it with your
fingertips. One of those things thatworks really well is one of those little
three prong cultivators. They break itdown aside you only I only want you
to break in a quarter of aninch all the way around. That's like
pruning in the top of the plantto make the branching get thicker. Or
(39:58):
you're pruning the roots and as theyregenerate, they spread out more and give
you that lateral development faster. Yeah, that's that's an amazing difference, and
people don't realize that. Yes,we've got a call. OK, go
to Margo. Margo, good morning, and thanks for calling the WJBO Lawn
a Garden show. What's up thismorning? Thank you. I am wondering
(40:20):
about Dai lilies and I had heardyou're supposed to cut them back like the
end of July. But I wonderedwhat it is the proper way to care
for them. I don't know thatcutting them back at the end of July
is anything I would recommend unless they'reloaded with fulliar disease. Yeah. Yeah,
No, I don't, I don'treally, I don't really think that's
necessary, Margo. You maybe wantto remove some of the old blooms and
(40:46):
uh, do some things like that, but no need to to cut the
foliage back to stimulate new growth thattime of year. Yeah, and so
a lot of times maybe the olderfoliage, of course, is going to
be the outside leaves on the custer, and if they're looking, you can
just grab those. Sometimes you justyank them and they'll just pull right offs.
(41:07):
Right. And if you have thescapes, the stems that the flowers
had been held on and they're turningbrown, reach down and sometimes if they're
brown enough, they'll pull out.Oh wise you might have to clip them
with the papruners and just clean upyour plant. Don't. Don't cut the
whole thing back now, if youdid, they would start to grow again.
(41:27):
Yeah, but it's not necessary,and you're putting some extra stress on
the plant. If some of thefolders looks good, why cut it back?
Why why get rid of it andmake the plant use additional energy just
to grow back, which it didn'tneed to lose anyway, so you never
cut it back anytime during the year. You just clean it up, clean
it up. Now there aren't there'ssome foliar diseases that if they're bad,
(41:52):
I might tell you the easiest thingis to cut it back to the ground
and as it comes out, starta spray program. But unless you have
that, I don't see the needfor that. All right. I have
been using, you know, ona fungicide on it because they do tend
to get that whatever the disease,right, And if you're spraying with the
(42:17):
funder side, you should change thefungicide periodically for a fungicide that works in
a different mode of action so thatthe fungus doesn't become adapted to it.
Okay, So yeah, so umyeah, so if you are doing that,
(42:37):
you should swap periodically. There's soI think mancozeb is listed. I'm
thinking DAK and Hill maybe I don'tremember if dall. I mean, you
could even use the fir loam systemicfungicide has some proboconazole in it that's good
for day lily rust, right,so yeah yeah, so yeah, to
(43:01):
just clean them up. You couldfertilize them and keep them watered Margo.
All right, well, I appreciatethank you. All right, you have
a great day. Well, Idon't think we have time for any other
calls. We got baby, yeah, a minute and a half something like
that. Allen, So, um, I've seen some day lily's looking fairly
(43:22):
nice. I haven't seen as muchdaylily rust. Uh. I do see
some of that or drought stress anduh. But if you keep removing those
old flower scapes off, you canget traditional blooms right right, and and
if if they look horrible, yes, cutting them back to the ground is
an option. But if your plantsnot looking horrible, I don't think I
(43:45):
would do that, right. Sowater, right, is that one of
our biggest topics. We've continue towater or start doing what you need to
do on your landscape. Irrigation.Yeah good. If you linger much longer,
you're gonna start seeing plant law,dammage, that's right, that's right.
Slow. I know we talk aboutit every week, but keep on
(44:06):
talking about it as long as weneed to. That's right. It's an
issue, and that's one of theeasiest things to start taking care of.
So I hope everybody gets out today, walk around your yard, enjoy your
yard. Go out and see whatyou can do to help it look a
little better. Maybe a little fertilizationas some water bat rouge. Have a
great day and thanks for listening tothe WJBO Lawn and Garden Show
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