August 26, 2025 • 41 mins
Tuesday 08/26/25 Hour 2. With The Master Gardeners.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
And now thoughts of a wife watching your husband draft
his fantasy football team.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Oh lord, it's already that time of year again.
Speaker 3 (00:08):
I don't know why I'm complaining. The more time he
spends on the draft, the last time he's washing the car.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
The neighbors don't want to see you shirtless Gerald.
Speaker 4 (00:17):
Wait, is he crying because he got Tyreek Hill as
his wide receiver?
Speaker 3 (00:23):
Thank god, the dog's outside.
Speaker 5 (00:25):
The last thing I need are too idiots howling inside
the house.
Speaker 6 (00:28):
Oh well, at least he's.
Speaker 3 (00:30):
Using the Kleenex next to the computer for something wholesome.
Speaker 7 (00:34):
Huh.
Speaker 3 (00:34):
I wonder who he got his tight end?
Speaker 6 (00:37):
Oh my god, you got Taylor's boyfriend.
Speaker 8 (00:41):
I think I'm gonna cry.
Speaker 5 (00:43):
That was thoughts of a wife watching your husband draft
his fantasy football team.
Speaker 9 (00:47):
We're celebrating, hooray.
Speaker 5 (00:49):
You think is National toilet paper Day?
Speaker 6 (00:51):
We toilet paper everywhere, toilet paper Day.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
It's National toilet paper Day.
Speaker 10 (00:54):
I'm not happy with the toilet paper.
Speaker 11 (00:56):
The toilet paper feels like sandpaper.
Speaker 3 (00:59):
It's when he get this, what's off?
Speaker 11 (01:00):
This?
Speaker 3 (01:00):
Most beautiful toilet paper.
Speaker 12 (01:02):
Extra expensive toilet paper, toilet papers.
Speaker 10 (01:06):
Toilet pap for your toilet paper?
Speaker 3 (01:09):
Showtime in this present crisis. Government is not the solution
to our problem.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
Government is the problem.
Speaker 3 (01:20):
This is Charlotte County Speaks.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
Your chance to let your voice be heard on local, state,
in national issues, and now broadcasting live from a dumpy
little warehouse behind a taco bell, the host of Charlotte
County Speaks, Can Love Joy, Thank.
Speaker 11 (01:39):
You, Johnny News Radio fifteen eighty one hundred point nine
FMWCCF Radio dot com, and on your iHeartRadio app. Charlotte
County Speaks. Our number two ten oh nine is the time.
Master Gardners in the house. Phone lines are open. You
have a question for him at nine four one two
zero six fifteen eighty toll free eight eight eight four
(02:01):
four one eighty Ralph.
Speaker 6 (02:03):
How you doing. I'm doing good and glad I'm here. Yes,
we're all glad.
Speaker 11 (02:09):
Unusual to see you.
Speaker 6 (02:10):
Well. First thing I want to do is is uh
present you with a gator pin. Oh cool, and it's
made of solid base metal.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
Uh that's important, it is.
Speaker 6 (02:21):
But it's a nice pin. And so just to thank you,
very nice, seal our relationship with you. Shouldn't it be
a flower? Well, I do it for flowers here. So
but there's a lot of weedy flowers.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
Don't go there, flowers, I just don't go there.
Speaker 6 (02:40):
Well, thank you certainly appreciate it. I guess you know,
you always ask us what's going on. So we've got
for September a lot of vegetable programs because we did,
you know, needs assessment last year year before, and of
course I think we knew this, but vegetables was high
on the list of programs. People want it, and even edibles,
(03:02):
even edible ornamental. So and this is now live, I
believe on event Bright. But we've got vegetable gardening in
Southwest Florida. That's Saturday, September thirteenth, nine thirty am at
Centennial Park. That's our office area. There. On September seventeenth
at nine thirty is square Foot Gardening and that's at
(03:25):
An and Chuck Dever Regional Park Rec Center. That's a
little bit different. And then on September nineteenth, backyard vegetable
Gardening at nine thirty the Centennial Park and that's Bill
and myself will be doing that. And then the last
one how to Grow your Own Veggie September twentieth and
nine thirty at the Harold Avenue Rec Center. And I
(03:48):
believe that's you, Mike. Yes, yes, so we should swamp
the knowledge of vegetable growing during.
Speaker 3 (04:00):
To all my vegetable garden fans to be there.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
Okay, yeah, all three of them.
Speaker 8 (04:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:07):
You know when I read through this, it and who
was presenting at these they every person has a slightly
different perspective on vegetable gardening. So if you wanted to
attend more than one, it would be beneficial.
Speaker 3 (04:20):
I would highly recommend that if you can make it,
I can recommend that.
Speaker 1 (04:24):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (04:25):
I mean I have to say with that when I
do one of these events like this, it seems like,
even if the same people show up, it's different each
time because we have different things happen in the environment,
and we try different things in the soil, and I
(04:47):
just come up with different ideas. So I'm giving you
my perspective from what I know, not what the world is,
because it changes constantly. And my wife says to me
every year, you keep telling me it's just an experiment,
and it is. Trust me, you can do great one
(05:08):
year and you can do awful the next.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
It's that's true. I mean, it is an experiment. The
when you live up north and when I lived up North,
gardening was not an experiment. You just did certain things
and boom, unless you had a really bad summer. Occasionally,
where you something up north called.
Speaker 3 (05:28):
Soil, well that's a good start, and.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
You nowhere else has soil. It's homestead. We went down
to Alamarad a few days and we drove by homestead
and where August the they were growing corn that was
almost ready to pick corn in homestead in August.
Speaker 11 (05:47):
They probably imported a bunch of soil.
Speaker 3 (05:49):
No, it's it's called the swamp shed. It's the shed
of the of the everglades. You got very fertile soil
there in that way. Anything over years, it's just moved.
I mean the Lake Okochobia is where all the kalladiums
are grown. That's a shed of very rich, fertile soil. South,
(06:11):
I would say the same thing about Puntagorda. Pinagorda is
better than Port Charlotte is because there's at least if
you're near the water, there's more fertilization already in the soil,
so the amendments are less required and that sort of thing.
But Rock they have a different take on this.
Speaker 6 (06:30):
But well there there's I mean anywhere where there's residents,
there's residential fill soil, so it's not the native soil anymore.
So it's good, bad, and indifferent all mixed together. Yeah,
it's generally indifferent. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
And if you live on a canal like I do,
it's like, who the heck knows what you get. You
get a lot of marl and from the and a
lot of rock, yeah, I mean.
Speaker 3 (06:52):
And shell yeah, well and shell shell.
Speaker 6 (06:54):
So it's gonna be pretty alkaline. And I want to
mention about these, and there's more. I believe it's five
dollars per class, but it's like six twenty four on
the event right with the little fees attached to it.
But each participant gets ten vegetable seedlings. So yeah, we
got the seeds. We're having a contract grown. So if
(07:16):
everything goes well, our babies will arrive and we'll be
ready to give them out. And they're you know, select
good hybrid variety of tomatoes, egg plants, pepper's cabbage, califlower, broccoli.
I think we've got that.
Speaker 3 (07:31):
Do the speakers get any.
Speaker 6 (07:33):
I'm not saying, we'll see.
Speaker 3 (07:35):
Okay.
Speaker 6 (07:38):
Secondly, you probably you know I'm a speaker. Just walk
over there. Yeah, yeah, I gotta check this out.
Speaker 3 (07:45):
Well, if you don't, you don't get Yeah.
Speaker 6 (07:49):
Secondly, I want to mention that, of course, I was
driving out of our office area and I looked in
the mulch area and lo and behold what we got.
We got the invasive orchid, which is called the beautiful
crown orchid that's been here ten fifteen years now, and
it's spreading I think all the way up the Georgia
and all the way through Texas. Is that as good
(08:09):
as it looks? No, well, wow, it's a baby. This
is a baby. And I really think that people were saying, well,
it's it's in the mulch. They no. I think the
spores from the sea pods are blowing and they're landing
on the mulch, which is a perfect amendment for them
to grow on. And this is just the beginning. It
will get to the size of an onion, okay, but
(08:29):
most of it will be underground. And then it sends
up a very thin flower stalk with sort of a
greenish pinkish mini flowers and they're orchids, but they're not
all that.
Speaker 11 (08:42):
I don't know, they're not They're not a corsage.
Speaker 3 (08:46):
Orc say the same as the ground orchid.
Speaker 6 (08:48):
Well, it is a ground orc yeah for sure. Yeah,
And I think it came in through hobbyists in Florida,
you know, probably fifteen twenty years ago, and then like anything,
it spreads and now we've got it. But if you
see these, they're very distinct that the leaves look almost
like a daily leaf. But underground is this giant bulb
(09:08):
or a pseudobulb. And often there's multiple pieces to that.
So's that so it's not a pretty work.
Speaker 11 (09:15):
It's not a pretty Hence they call it invasive. Invasive,
and it was pretty, it would be showing up at
orchid shows and festivals.
Speaker 3 (09:25):
Well, it would at least be in the nurseries somewhere,
even if it's not really a good thing to happen.
Speaker 6 (09:30):
You know, if we had invasive mangos, everybody'd be happy
with that. What do you mean by invasive?
Speaker 11 (09:35):
It's just not it's not indigenous to Florida, so that.
Speaker 6 (09:39):
It's spreading and it's beginning to show up in areas
where it shouldn't, you know, and so it's I don't
know if it's a category do too right now, which
means it's it's showing up. But It hasn't changed ecological
environments as yet, but it could because it's just you know,
when the seats come out, which are like a dust,
there's probably millions of seeds in there and they're just
(10:00):
blowing the wind. When they land on something like mulch,
they just take it over, so they could push out
native plants or other things. But for sure they're a
nuisance right now, that you know.
Speaker 2 (10:14):
I have those in my art and I'm almost certain
it came from the composted soil that I got that
I was spreading in my yard.
Speaker 6 (10:20):
Yeah, I don't think so, you don't know, because look
at this here, this is a young one.
Speaker 2 (10:25):
And I don't know how else it's in my grass. Well,
it's it's in your grass or in your mulch grass.
That's why I think it came from the compost it, so.
Speaker 6 (10:33):
I poured it throughout my yard. I don't know. I
still think it's the spores. It can reproduce from the
site shoots, but I think most of it's recruiting or
getting into mulched areas by spores. So it's just floating
or floating breathing it right now, Yes.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
Floating or breathing okay, okay, and I think I'll skip
now to go right to these little weeds.
Speaker 6 (11:03):
Well, this weed for you right here. There's a lot
of weeds that are indicators of soil conditions. So you know,
do you know dollar weed? I do not. Okay. It
looks like a little lily pad and it shows up
in your lawn. People complain about coin. Yeah, like a coin,
and it's funny. In wet areas, it's called penny war.
(11:23):
In your lawn it's called dollar weed, different names, and
it's an indication of too much moisture, and so sometimes
if you're over irrigating, that will start growing and become
a problem. Another one is spurge. And spurges, well, this
is it right here, and if you pop it open
to identify it further, you say that milky saft that's
(11:46):
coming out there. It is an indicator of the presence
of nematodes, and a lot of nematodes. Nematodes don't damage
the spurge, they damage everything else. So if you see
nothing but spurge growl, you know nematodes are probably there
and have Greek tafoc on the other plants low fertility.
If you have a soil that's not very fertile, Creeping beggarweed,
(12:11):
which is the thing that has the little velcrow like
seeds that stick on your there, and craggrass and ragweed
and sandburrs. Everybody hates sandburds, the little their spiny Oh
I know, Oh they'll take, they'll give, they'll take blood
froudia there and so that's those are signs of things
(12:31):
that you could correct in some cases, or at least
indicators maybe don't plant this plant that.
Speaker 11 (12:41):
I guess that we'll take our first break and we'll
be right back on news radio fifteen eighty.
Speaker 9 (12:47):
There you feel my head with from propaganda.
Speaker 8 (12:49):
More propaganda coming up with Ken Lovejoy and Charlotte County
speaks on news radio fifteen eighty WCAH Investigation Nationed.
Speaker 5 (13:01):
Is it interesting how many people are I guess guilty
of mortgage fraud at this point in time, Adam Schiff,
Laticia James.
Speaker 3 (13:09):
I don't know who else is in that mix.
Speaker 5 (13:12):
And we keep hearing stories it's being investigated, and again
it reminds me of Raiders of the Lost Ark.
Speaker 3 (13:18):
We've got top men working on it right now.
Speaker 5 (13:21):
How long does it actually take to investigate something like this.
Speaker 3 (13:25):
It's pretty cut and dry.
Speaker 5 (13:27):
If you're gonna actually indict, just do it for crying
out what's taking you so long? And then we get
the John Bolton raid last week.
Speaker 3 (13:36):
And I'm no fan of.
Speaker 5 (13:38):
John Bolton for crying out loud, one of the biggest
warmongered neo cons out there. But correct me if I'm wrong.
Donald Trump wanted him to be a Secretary of State
and ran Paul Niche that you know again, you got
anything if you do, let's see it. Watchdog on Wall
Street dot.
Speaker 12 (13:58):
Com, News Radio fifteen eighty one hundred point nine FM
(14:22):
WCCF ten twenty seven just about here at Charlotte County
speaks with a master Gardner's in house.
Speaker 6 (14:27):
If you have a plant related.
Speaker 11 (14:28):
Question, dial us up at nine four one two zero
six fifteen eighty toll free eight eight eight four four
to one, fifteen eighty.
Speaker 6 (14:35):
Ralph Well I wanted to promote some talking about weeds
a little bit. A couple of good resources. One is
Weeds of Southern turf Grass and it was a University
of Florida publication. You could used to be able to
get it on the Iphis Bookstore, which is a website
where you can get a lot of stuff. I couldn't
find it there. We found it at some faraway resource,
(14:58):
but it was still available, and there's various authors. But
it has really good pictures of every weed you may
encounter here, and although it's about turf graphic, they can
show up just as well in bedding areas.
Speaker 11 (15:12):
All right, high collar, you're on the air with the
master gardeners.
Speaker 13 (15:16):
Hello, can you tell have them talk a little bit
about nematodes that's new for me and how to okay,
how do I control them? Like they seem to come
in and my tomatoes are doing great and then all
of a sudden they die.
Speaker 6 (15:29):
Well, okay, I'll give you my spiel on nematodes here.
So they're microscopic worms, and for the majority of nematodes
in the world, they're benign, but there's some that are
plant parasites. In the course, there's animal parasites too, like groundworms,
but the plant parasites are microscopic. And Florida's like the
capital of nematodes, and they will go after the roots
(15:53):
of the plants and cause them to decline, get stunted,
and eventually die. What to do in some situations there's
not much you can do, but we'll say for your
vegetable garden, you can solarize the soil during the summer
and that will cook the soil and kill them off. Often,
we find too, if you incorporate a lot of composts,
(16:15):
often the compost has organisms that suppress or kill nematodes too.
You can try to get nematode tolerant or resistant plants
like tomatoes, but the hotter it gets, the tolerance tends
to wear off. But that's one thing you can try.
Keep in mind that annual vegetables, by the time they
are succumbed, they're succumbing to nematodes. Their productive crop is
(16:41):
about over. Anyways, you may want to again rotate a
little bit or put things in containers in landscape areas.
There are some materials that can be used to suppress
nematodes on lawns and landscape areas, but not in the
particular vegetable garden. Keeping in mind that if you have
(17:03):
a problem with nematodes in one area, you might even
switch over to a plant that's adapted better to resist nematodes.
And there's some plants like tomatoes and okra and others.
You'll see the root knots on it, but things like
figs also getting bad. Barbari, barbadoes, cherry gets it very bad. Beats, beats,
(17:25):
and so carrots. If they go after carrots, it looks
like a fork. They just split off, and so it's
very weird looking there. But there's ways to suppress them.
We're never going to get rid of them, but it's
it's an ongoing battle with them.
Speaker 3 (17:40):
Is it also true that you need to keep that
soil moist but not just fertilized, not just fertile, but
also moisture tends to suppress.
Speaker 6 (17:49):
Things well, they live on a thin film of water,
but they can drown at the same time on how
that happens, and keeping in mind that if the plant
is growing well with nutrients and moisture, it will help
outgrow the damage that the nematodes cause and which is
often gradual.
Speaker 2 (18:10):
Yeah, and what Ralph said is, you know, my experience
has been that once you once a plant starts looking
like it's not getting water yank it and there's a
good chance that it's got nematodes and rotating crops has
been helpful. It's it's good to yank them sooner rather
(18:30):
than later. I know it's hard to do. Rotating crops
has been very very helpful. Nematodes the last couple of
years have been less in my garden because I keep
adding composted soil every year.
Speaker 6 (18:42):
That works for me. I mean it had a lot
of oprah SoC with that and it suppresses them.
Speaker 2 (18:48):
But you will if you leave them in long enough.
I mean, if you take it into the summer, then
the nematodes will start getting them.
Speaker 6 (18:55):
All right. Thank you for the call, High Coller.
Speaker 11 (18:57):
You're on with the master gardeners here.
Speaker 9 (19:00):
Good morning. Is it true that some of the products
that we buys in the tour is like I'm altered
that they don't they do not reproduce and the farmers
continue to have the produce selling them to this tour,
like avocados, mangos, pineapples. You buy the ministore and after
(19:22):
a few days time they turn black and brown in
the inside. That means they're altered and so forth.
Speaker 6 (19:28):
And you mean altered as in genetically altered. H you
you said altered as in genetically altered.
Speaker 9 (19:41):
Yeah, because you certain stop you're buying this toy, he says,
organic from the helpful store, and you plant them there
still doesn't does not reproduce, so that means there's alteration
somewhere that that is being done to them.
Speaker 6 (19:56):
Well, I don't think about any of the fruits you mentioned.
I think I think they did do some work with
apples so they wouldn't brown as quickly when they got
exposed to air, you know, simple things like that, but
they will generally, you know, tell you of course if
that's going on. I guess grains have been to some degree.
But most of the things that we eat as far
(20:19):
as vegetables, are bread by standard breeding practices, you know,
parents produce an offspring seed that is better than the
separate parents there, so it's a hybrid. For the few
genetically modified organisms again, often they are going to be
(20:42):
labeled these days too, as far as no GMO as
you would see there, and I wouldn't be too concerned
about it.
Speaker 10 (20:51):
I for.
Speaker 9 (20:53):
Costa Rica, there were yellow and sweets and nice no
if you buy a and after that says coast Arica.
When they are ripe, they are black and brown and
the inside and once one set of them start to
run before they even fully ride, and I can't green
had help foods to a Richard right here and to
(21:15):
a Charlotte some years ago, and they go five seat
tills and blowing stuff and nothing. I took them, pulled
them up, and took them back to the to the
store and shut to them. They gave me back my
money because they did not produce nothing. And I could
not tell the years I ever planned can or many
(21:36):
of the stuffs that you buy in the packages from
the tour, they will not produce anything.
Speaker 6 (21:43):
M hmmm, well it all depends.
Speaker 11 (21:46):
Yeah, I guess it all depends, all right, Thanks for
the call.
Speaker 3 (21:49):
Again. It's an experiment, it is. And I've had I've
looked at so many wonderful looking plants and I've bothered them,
and I've tried to grow them, and I I go,
what was so wonderful about this?
Speaker 2 (22:04):
Yeah, just you know, And sometimes it takes time, like
this year is the first year I've been trying to
grow dragon fruit for probably and then Ian came and
for some reason that pollinated one of my dragon fruit
and I got two dragon fruit this year. I probably
are gonna I'm probably going to get over a dozen.
And yeah, wow, was right.
Speaker 6 (22:24):
That's pretty rare.
Speaker 2 (22:26):
Well, And and I do have a number of plants
that I've been propagating, and same with mangoes. I mean
I have not had mangos and this year. The raccoons
are an issue, but that's a whole nother story. But
I've and they were so good. I mean they were
(22:48):
just very very good, even the small ones that you
know didn't. I saved them all because it was a battle.
The raccoons leave the small ones they want the big ones.
Speaker 11 (22:57):
Go figure, right, But well they were just being nice.
Speaker 2 (23:02):
Yeah, that's.
Speaker 3 (23:04):
I think green bananas, not the over ripened ones.
Speaker 6 (23:08):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (23:10):
So in my bananas, I've had more bananas this year
than I've ever had of my own homegrown. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (23:17):
People asking me to take their bananas all the time
this year, and it seems like everybody's had really good LUCKA.
Speaker 2 (23:24):
Why is that?
Speaker 6 (23:24):
Do you think just cyclic?
Speaker 3 (23:26):
I think Ralph will probably tell you the same thing.
I think this whole hurricane thing tends to mess with cycles.
Speaker 6 (23:33):
Yeah, it does.
Speaker 2 (23:33):
I am convinced of it.
Speaker 3 (23:35):
And and I've seen a lot of different plants act a
lot differently this year than I've seen in a while.
And Ian was three years ago. But we had milk
last year, so they're not getting a breakout here. So
there's things that are not working that normally would, and
then there's other things that you say, oh, well, no,
that's never going to work now because you know we
(23:56):
had these storms and they come out great.
Speaker 6 (23:58):
Well, you know the storms will tend to smash them down. Well,
that means they got to start all over again. But
all those remains you should have been ina is, keep
them in place because they'll recycle back. So it may
have been reinvigoration. But remember when you get those bunches
and they're like seventy five pounds and they're all ripening
at the same time, you need to get.
Speaker 1 (24:19):
No.
Speaker 2 (24:20):
Yeah, and you know, I know I did find out
this year as well. They were splitting. The bananas were
splitting on the tree.
Speaker 6 (24:28):
That could be a moisture.
Speaker 2 (24:30):
Well I was reading about it, and it could be
the moisture thing. But they were saying because that's not
uncommon because they go from starch to sweet. Yeah, and
it's that process. Because I now squeeze the bananas and
they're really really tight, the ones, and you can they're
not bursting this time though, but I'm watering them a
(24:52):
little differently.
Speaker 6 (24:54):
So interesting, Well, I wanted to follow up too with
this last weed thing and then I'll let Bill do
his guardening in a minute there. But this other one
is Weeds of South Florida. It's a really good guy,
good pictures, good information, and it's by doctor George Rogers,
Palm Beach State College Horticulturalists and so and it's online
(25:17):
you can actually just download it, download it nice. So
I just think these are so helpful. And once you
see a weed, you'll begin to know it.
Speaker 11 (25:26):
So yeah, because you know, you just move down here
and there's so much jungle environment you don't know what's
a weed and what's a plant exactly.
Speaker 2 (25:35):
It's like, you know that's a weed. Nope, not a weed.
Speaker 6 (25:40):
Now, Gardening in a minute, Gardening in a minute.
Speaker 2 (25:44):
The uh you know I mentioned before, I'm hooked on
hydroponics sort of like to hook do on phonics. And
that's thanks to master gardener Bob Pryor that I got
hooked on hydropronic gardening. Hydroponic gardening this past winter. He
uses five gallon buckets and plastic bins of various sizes,
and the plastic bins are called the krat Key system.
(26:06):
Even with my late start I was very pleased with
my green beans, lipstick peppers thanks Mike, and to a
lesser degree, basil and cilantro. My zucchini, which started great,
didn't end great. I'm not sure what happened there with
the hydroponics, so I decided to experiment with growing several
crops hydroponically, even though summer is not to put it mildly,
(26:31):
not the best time to grow what I would describe
as traditional vegetables and herbs not the type that Ralph
likes to grow during the summer that are more tropical.
I started with bell peppers. They did okay until the
week got really hot and humidity picked up. I planted herbs,
basil and cilantro. Basil is done okay, Cilantro not so much.
(26:56):
I also tried larsanato ko that did not work out
very well. I am also growing pineapples, which are doing
well hydroponically. They seemed to develop a root system very quickly,
so I'm leaning towards starting all my pineapple tops hydroponically
to develop a solid root system then transplant into the soil. However,
(27:17):
I do plan to grow a couple of pineapples hydroponically
to see how they do, mainly because I told Holly
I would. I discovered several things so far that should
help me grow hydroponically in the future. In the winter
and well into the summer, I had very little rain. However,
once it rained, I got a lot of rain that
totally messed up my water pH and was literally killing
(27:40):
plants within days. The reason I found out plants can
absorb nutrients from water if the pH is out of balance.
I also read where cooling the water helps. Bob couldn't
stop laughing when I told him that Ralph just shakes
his head. So I put frozen bottles of water into
the water into the buckets that seem to help. I
(28:06):
also started getting algae in the water in several containers,
which also prohibits the plant from absorbing nutrients. So now
I add a half to one teaspoon of hydrogen peroxide
to the water. The jury is out on how that
will work, although all my literature reading says that it will.
I grow hydroponically because I do live on a small lot,
(28:28):
so my garden is small. I like the idea of
using five gallon buckets and plastic bins of different sizes,
so that it can expand the variety of vegetables and
herbs I grow successfully. And I also like to be
able to move them around from the shade into the
sun into the shade where they don't get as much rain.
Just the ability to do that seems to be helpful.
(28:51):
But growing hydroponically takes some effort, at least initially, I
should check my pH. Should check my pH, I said,
should check my every seven to ten days, or every
time it rains significantly. I initially use rain water in
my hydroponics, which is more acidic than city water. Thank you, Ralph.
(29:11):
Now I am using city water, which seems to stabilize
my pH. It is not always easy to correct the pH.
If it is acidic, you need to add baking soda.
If it is alkaline, you add vinegar. I discovered a
little baking soda will shoot up the alkalinity from pH
three to ten or more. However, you need a lot
of vinegar to lower the pH. Like a cup barely
(29:34):
moves the needle. Certain vegetables grow better from me hydroponically.
Green Beans are an example. In dirt mine get diseased
very easily easily growing from seedaling to harvest is also quicker.
I've noticed pests are less of a problem, but that
could be because of spacing between the plants. Putting the
frozen bottles of water. It seems to help when temperatures
(29:56):
get warmer. I will continue to fine tune my hydroponic
gardening over the next growing season. I would like to
grow more let us, kale and herbs.
Speaker 3 (30:03):
This way.
Speaker 2 (30:04):
That's gardening in a minute, my four and.
Speaker 6 (30:06):
A half minutes.
Speaker 2 (30:08):
For more information, call night about gardening. You can count
count contact your county extension nine four one seven six
four four three four Oh visit ass iphis from the
New University of Florida website.
Speaker 10 (30:21):
All right, high collar, you're on the air, yes, and
now you're talking about growing season. My tomatoes in July
just got leggy and doll died win tomatoes and Florida.
Speaker 6 (30:34):
September you can put them. You can well, you can
put them in starting now, even if you can get
almost September. It's almost uptember.
Speaker 3 (30:43):
It's almost September.
Speaker 6 (30:44):
Because it will it will allow enough growing time to
get the fruits developed. Now you have to watch December, January,
February that you may get a freezer frost. But generally
everything's ready to go by that time, So get them in.
Speaker 13 (30:57):
Now, oh, right now, right now for a winter.
Speaker 6 (31:01):
For this, I call it the fall early winter garden.
Speaker 3 (31:06):
Thank you. And I would typically say about that also
that if you don't have your season already, you need
to get them in this week.
Speaker 2 (31:15):
Can you get two seasons out of tomatoes?
Speaker 3 (31:18):
Yes, old Doc Watson. Could I've done it. I've done
it multiple Yeah, and then I'll talk about this later. No, what, Okay,
I have a amazing garden this year. Peppers that just
(31:38):
kept coming, kept common, kept coming. We finally took them
out of three weeks ago.
Speaker 11 (31:43):
And Ralph always brings me stuff.
Speaker 3 (31:46):
You have pictures word for it, Yes, exactly. We reached
a point that where we don't give anything away. We
process it and keep it and I I have many, many,
too many freezers at this point. But beyond that, my
real point here is that I just want to tell
(32:08):
people that there is a seed out there that if
you can find it, and I know it's pretty ready
readily available these days. It's called in Everglades tomato. I
have them in my yard twenty four seven, three sixty five.
They grow, They grow for about two three months put
on tremendous amount of small, current sized tomatoes, very tasty,
(32:33):
thin skinned, lots of flavor, not to acidic, and they
are great in salag You don't even have to cut them.
It's not like a cherry tomato that goes flying across
the table. So I recommend if you can find them
everglade tomatoes. Once you have one in your garden, you
will have them forever thanks to the birds.
Speaker 2 (32:53):
Are they determinate or indeterminate?
Speaker 3 (32:56):
They are sprawling indeterminate plants, I say, but they do
only get to a certain size. They may be a determinant.
Speaker 6 (33:04):
I grew them and they were very interesting in all.
But the problem is my sausage sized fingers. Every time
I tried to pick a right one, they pop. You're broken.
We got to take another break.
Speaker 11 (33:17):
We'll be right back on news radio fifteen eighty.
Speaker 6 (33:19):
No doubts about it.
Speaker 2 (33:20):
You have become a great show man.
Speaker 8 (33:23):
Can love Joyce Kevin right back with more. Charlotte County
Speaks on news radio fifteen eighty WCCF.
Speaker 4 (33:31):
I bought a box of animal crackers. It said do
not eat if seal is broken.
Speaker 6 (33:36):
I open it up.
Speaker 4 (33:46):
Sure enough, the giraffe was fine. Now what I don't
(34:08):
get are these people instead of buying like a four
pack or an eight pack of toilet paper, they buy
the single individual role.
Speaker 2 (34:18):
Are you trying to quit?
Speaker 11 (34:26):
News Radio fifteen eighty one hundred point nine FM WCCF
ten fifty three just about here on a Tuesday at
Charlie County speaks with the master gardeners in the house
and the phone lines open at nine four one two
zero six, fifteen eighty.
Speaker 6 (34:41):
So Mike's going to talk about salvia.
Speaker 3 (34:43):
Ooh, salvia? Is this REWI known as sage?
Speaker 6 (34:48):
Sage?
Speaker 3 (34:48):
Okay? Uh? This information that I'm about to share with
everyone came from a website called uh Swedish hill dot com.
But it's not Swedish like Sweden. It's Swedish like sweets. Okay,
s W E E T I s H H I
(35:11):
l L dot com. Very interesting. Website goes into a
lot of detail about many different plants, but I found
this information about sage or salvia pretty interesting. The culinary
sage plant typically used as salvia. You can correct on
this when it's necessary of of ficinalis of ficinalis. It's
(35:34):
the most common type of sage that's used for cooking.
You can use it as tea. Uh, there's several uses
for stuffing. Yeah, stuffing is absolutely necessary and stuffing, but
you could use it in soups, stews, any kind of
dish like that. Is it's great in there. The question
starts to become about some of the ornamentals salvia and
(35:59):
whether or not they're at and the question the answer
to that question is basically not a good idea.
Speaker 11 (36:06):
Yes, that's the kind of sage that you burn to
get rid of the bad spirits.
Speaker 3 (36:10):
Dead ago, Yeah, or to create more what would that be,
charcoal in your in your soil, Yeah, just to get
rid of them anyway.
Speaker 10 (36:20):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (36:21):
Are they poisonous? Well, there's a there's a chemical called
fou jon or thu jone. It can be poisonous if
you get enough of it. Now, when you cook it,
it cooks it out. In other words, it's flammable, I
guess you would say.
Speaker 6 (36:38):
So.
Speaker 3 (36:38):
It tends to it tends to cook it out of it,
So it's not a dangerous thing. However, if you if
you try this, you tried doing the same thing with
ornamental type, then you're going to find out that there's
a serious amount of it in there. And thus we
don't use it for cooking. But taking it in high
dose as the compound contained in garden sage, may cause convulsions. Yeah,
(37:03):
kind of serious stuff. But again, if you're cooking it,
you're cooking out like ninety nine percent of this, so
it's not that big a deal. You're really after the
aroma and the kind of the taste in there. Now
let's go to the ornamental side of it. Ornamentally, these
plants are awesome. You put them in your yard, you
pretty much forget them. I believe they come in an
(37:24):
annual and a perennial type. You could even get them
as a vine, not necessarily a vine, but more of
a sprawling look or just a standing plant, which typically
is between one and maybe three feet. They have a
beautiful flower. They come in red, blue, white, and several
(37:46):
others in between. But take a look find the salvia.
It's really easy to maintain, not really pretty high resistance
to any kind of pass so you're not going to
be having a lot of issues with that kind of
a plant in your garden. The one thing I will
say is that they will start to spread, so watch
out for that. But you can keep them contained fairly easily.
(38:09):
They're not any kind of an invasive of any sort.
So great plant to have in your garden. Highly recommended.
And I think there's tropical what do we got We
have annuals, there's tropical stage and then there's red, white, purple,
and apricot in the annual type, perennial types coming in
(38:30):
blue and whites, and then there's Mexican sage. So there's
lots of different varieties here to look at and check
your garden centers. But remember, if you want the edible type,
it is I'm looking for that. I'm looking for that
Salvia olficinalis.
Speaker 2 (38:51):
So that's the only edible type because when you're talking
that if something's edible or not an edible and it's
the same.
Speaker 6 (38:59):
Well, if you an herb, it's used as an herb. Yes,
that's mainly what that's for.
Speaker 3 (39:03):
Yeah, that's the that's the herb type that people typically find.
Are you finding the store that's already caught up?
Speaker 2 (39:10):
Someone goes to the store that doesn't They just want
to cook and they go, oh, this is salvi.
Speaker 6 (39:14):
Up get this?
Speaker 10 (39:16):
Yeah?
Speaker 6 (39:20):
Ornamental?
Speaker 3 (39:20):
Yes, okay, yeah, there you go.
Speaker 6 (39:22):
And I think some of the sage is even h
some there's one pineapple I think there there's some other
flavors that are available.
Speaker 3 (39:31):
To There's a lot to learn about the plant, and
I was just amazed. And this website does a really
really good job this. There's pages and pages of information here,
so if you want to take it, look at it.
It is Swedish Hill dot com.
Speaker 6 (39:48):
I've got one last thing here too. Uh. This is
cassia or netl plum. Again. This is planted at our office.
Beautiful white flowers that smell like jasmine. It is very prickly.
Sometimes it's used as out of a protective thing, so
there's so many spines, and it does produce an edible fruit.
This is not fully right, but it generally needs to
(40:10):
be cooked and you can make a cranberry substitute type
relish or sauce out of it too.
Speaker 2 (40:17):
Nice.
Speaker 6 (40:18):
There's also which is interesting too, that there's groundcover type cassia.
There's variegated, and there's spiny, but there's also spineless, so
be careful what you buy when you're using cassia.
Speaker 3 (40:33):
I'll just add to that as well. I have one
of those in my yard and it takes the frost
very well. It's got a deep dark green, very dark foliage,
very dark green, beautiful plant, very easy to control. I
like the thorny types for underneath your windows. All right,
(40:54):
and that's great, A great thing to have as well.
Speaker 11 (40:57):
So thanks guys.
Speaker 6 (40:59):
All right, next month by you get.
Speaker 11 (41:03):
Any more jokes, any funny, Nope, nope, all right, see
you folks.
Speaker 7 (41:08):
If you are not sad, easily, you're close. If you're
not the then you are the crew. Please leave, we
are close. Make your way to the door.
Speaker 9 (41:22):
Please.
Speaker 3 (41:23):
We're in news radio fifteen eighty AM w CCF Punda
Gorda and FM one hundred point nine W two sixty
five EA, Punda Gorda
And now thoughts of a wife watching your husband draft
his fantasy football team.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Oh lord, it's already that time of year again.
Speaker 3 (00:08):
I don't know why I'm complaining. The more time he
spends on the draft, the last time he's washing the car.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
The neighbors don't want to see you shirtless Gerald.
Speaker 4 (00:17):
Wait, is he crying because he got Tyreek Hill as
his wide receiver?
Speaker 3 (00:23):
Thank god, the dog's outside.
Speaker 5 (00:25):
The last thing I need are too idiots howling inside
the house.
Speaker 6 (00:28):
Oh well, at least he's.
Speaker 3 (00:30):
Using the Kleenex next to the computer for something wholesome.
Speaker 7 (00:34):
Huh.
Speaker 3 (00:34):
I wonder who he got his tight end?
Speaker 6 (00:37):
Oh my god, you got Taylor's boyfriend.
Speaker 8 (00:41):
I think I'm gonna cry.
Speaker 5 (00:43):
That was thoughts of a wife watching your husband draft
his fantasy football team.
Speaker 9 (00:47):
We're celebrating, hooray.
Speaker 5 (00:49):
You think is National toilet paper Day?
Speaker 6 (00:51):
We toilet paper everywhere, toilet paper Day.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
It's National toilet paper Day.
Speaker 10 (00:54):
I'm not happy with the toilet paper.
Speaker 11 (00:56):
The toilet paper feels like sandpaper.
Speaker 3 (00:59):
It's when he get this, what's off?
Speaker 11 (01:00):
This?
Speaker 3 (01:00):
Most beautiful toilet paper.
Speaker 12 (01:02):
Extra expensive toilet paper, toilet papers.
Speaker 10 (01:06):
Toilet pap for your toilet paper?
Speaker 3 (01:09):
Showtime in this present crisis. Government is not the solution
to our problem.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
Government is the problem.
Speaker 3 (01:20):
This is Charlotte County Speaks.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
Your chance to let your voice be heard on local, state,
in national issues, and now broadcasting live from a dumpy
little warehouse behind a taco bell, the host of Charlotte
County Speaks, Can Love Joy, Thank.
Speaker 11 (01:39):
You, Johnny News Radio fifteen eighty one hundred point nine
FMWCCF Radio dot com, and on your iHeartRadio app. Charlotte
County Speaks. Our number two ten oh nine is the time.
Master Gardners in the house. Phone lines are open. You
have a question for him at nine four one two
zero six fifteen eighty toll free eight eight eight four
(02:01):
four one eighty Ralph.
Speaker 6 (02:03):
How you doing. I'm doing good and glad I'm here. Yes,
we're all glad.
Speaker 11 (02:09):
Unusual to see you.
Speaker 6 (02:10):
Well. First thing I want to do is is uh
present you with a gator pin. Oh cool, and it's
made of solid base metal.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
Uh that's important, it is.
Speaker 6 (02:21):
But it's a nice pin. And so just to thank you,
very nice, seal our relationship with you. Shouldn't it be
a flower? Well, I do it for flowers here. So
but there's a lot of weedy flowers.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
Don't go there, flowers, I just don't go there.
Speaker 6 (02:40):
Well, thank you certainly appreciate it. I guess you know,
you always ask us what's going on. So we've got
for September a lot of vegetable programs because we did,
you know, needs assessment last year year before, and of
course I think we knew this, but vegetables was high
on the list of programs. People want it, and even edibles,
(03:02):
even edible ornamental. So and this is now live, I
believe on event Bright. But we've got vegetable gardening in
Southwest Florida. That's Saturday, September thirteenth, nine thirty am at
Centennial Park. That's our office area. There. On September seventeenth
at nine thirty is square Foot Gardening and that's at
(03:25):
An and Chuck Dever Regional Park Rec Center. That's a
little bit different. And then on September nineteenth, backyard vegetable
Gardening at nine thirty the Centennial Park and that's Bill
and myself will be doing that. And then the last
one how to Grow your Own Veggie September twentieth and
nine thirty at the Harold Avenue Rec Center. And I
(03:48):
believe that's you, Mike. Yes, yes, so we should swamp
the knowledge of vegetable growing during.
Speaker 3 (04:00):
To all my vegetable garden fans to be there.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
Okay, yeah, all three of them.
Speaker 8 (04:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:07):
You know when I read through this, it and who
was presenting at these they every person has a slightly
different perspective on vegetable gardening. So if you wanted to
attend more than one, it would be beneficial.
Speaker 3 (04:20):
I would highly recommend that if you can make it,
I can recommend that.
Speaker 1 (04:24):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (04:25):
I mean I have to say with that when I
do one of these events like this, it seems like,
even if the same people show up, it's different each
time because we have different things happen in the environment,
and we try different things in the soil, and I
(04:47):
just come up with different ideas. So I'm giving you
my perspective from what I know, not what the world is,
because it changes constantly. And my wife says to me
every year, you keep telling me it's just an experiment,
and it is. Trust me, you can do great one
(05:08):
year and you can do awful the next.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
It's that's true. I mean, it is an experiment. The
when you live up north and when I lived up North,
gardening was not an experiment. You just did certain things
and boom, unless you had a really bad summer. Occasionally,
where you something up north called.
Speaker 3 (05:28):
Soil, well that's a good start, and.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
You nowhere else has soil. It's homestead. We went down
to Alamarad a few days and we drove by homestead
and where August the they were growing corn that was
almost ready to pick corn in homestead in August.
Speaker 11 (05:47):
They probably imported a bunch of soil.
Speaker 3 (05:49):
No, it's it's called the swamp shed. It's the shed
of the of the everglades. You got very fertile soil
there in that way. Anything over years, it's just moved.
I mean the Lake Okochobia is where all the kalladiums
are grown. That's a shed of very rich, fertile soil. South,
(06:11):
I would say the same thing about Puntagorda. Pinagorda is
better than Port Charlotte is because there's at least if
you're near the water, there's more fertilization already in the soil,
so the amendments are less required and that sort of thing.
But Rock they have a different take on this.
Speaker 6 (06:30):
But well there there's I mean anywhere where there's residents,
there's residential fill soil, so it's not the native soil anymore.
So it's good, bad, and indifferent all mixed together. Yeah,
it's generally indifferent. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
And if you live on a canal like I do,
it's like, who the heck knows what you get. You
get a lot of marl and from the and a
lot of rock, yeah, I mean.
Speaker 3 (06:52):
And shell yeah, well and shell shell.
Speaker 6 (06:54):
So it's gonna be pretty alkaline. And I want to
mention about these, and there's more. I believe it's five
dollars per class, but it's like six twenty four on
the event right with the little fees attached to it.
But each participant gets ten vegetable seedlings. So yeah, we
got the seeds. We're having a contract grown. So if
(07:16):
everything goes well, our babies will arrive and we'll be
ready to give them out. And they're you know, select
good hybrid variety of tomatoes, egg plants, pepper's cabbage, califlower, broccoli.
I think we've got that.
Speaker 3 (07:31):
Do the speakers get any.
Speaker 6 (07:33):
I'm not saying, we'll see.
Speaker 3 (07:35):
Okay.
Speaker 6 (07:38):
Secondly, you probably you know I'm a speaker. Just walk
over there. Yeah, yeah, I gotta check this out.
Speaker 3 (07:45):
Well, if you don't, you don't get Yeah.
Speaker 6 (07:49):
Secondly, I want to mention that, of course, I was
driving out of our office area and I looked in
the mulch area and lo and behold what we got.
We got the invasive orchid, which is called the beautiful
crown orchid that's been here ten fifteen years now, and
it's spreading I think all the way up the Georgia
and all the way through Texas. Is that as good
(08:09):
as it looks? No, well, wow, it's a baby. This
is a baby. And I really think that people were saying, well,
it's it's in the mulch. They no. I think the
spores from the sea pods are blowing and they're landing
on the mulch, which is a perfect amendment for them
to grow on. And this is just the beginning. It
will get to the size of an onion, okay, but
(08:29):
most of it will be underground. And then it sends
up a very thin flower stalk with sort of a
greenish pinkish mini flowers and they're orchids, but they're not
all that.
Speaker 11 (08:42):
I don't know, they're not They're not a corsage.
Speaker 3 (08:46):
Orc say the same as the ground orchid.
Speaker 6 (08:48):
Well, it is a ground orc yeah for sure. Yeah,
And I think it came in through hobbyists in Florida,
you know, probably fifteen twenty years ago, and then like anything,
it spreads and now we've got it. But if you
see these, they're very distinct that the leaves look almost
like a daily leaf. But underground is this giant bulb
(09:08):
or a pseudobulb. And often there's multiple pieces to that.
So's that so it's not a pretty work.
Speaker 11 (09:15):
It's not a pretty Hence they call it invasive. Invasive,
and it was pretty, it would be showing up at
orchid shows and festivals.
Speaker 3 (09:25):
Well, it would at least be in the nurseries somewhere,
even if it's not really a good thing to happen.
Speaker 6 (09:30):
You know, if we had invasive mangos, everybody'd be happy
with that. What do you mean by invasive?
Speaker 11 (09:35):
It's just not it's not indigenous to Florida, so that.
Speaker 6 (09:39):
It's spreading and it's beginning to show up in areas
where it shouldn't, you know, and so it's I don't
know if it's a category do too right now, which
means it's it's showing up. But It hasn't changed ecological
environments as yet, but it could because it's just you know,
when the seats come out, which are like a dust,
there's probably millions of seeds in there and they're just
(10:00):
blowing the wind. When they land on something like mulch,
they just take it over, so they could push out
native plants or other things. But for sure they're a
nuisance right now, that you know.
Speaker 2 (10:14):
I have those in my art and I'm almost certain
it came from the composted soil that I got that
I was spreading in my yard.
Speaker 6 (10:20):
Yeah, I don't think so, you don't know, because look
at this here, this is a young one.
Speaker 2 (10:25):
And I don't know how else it's in my grass. Well,
it's it's in your grass or in your mulch grass.
That's why I think it came from the compost it, so.
Speaker 6 (10:33):
I poured it throughout my yard. I don't know. I
still think it's the spores. It can reproduce from the
site shoots, but I think most of it's recruiting or
getting into mulched areas by spores. So it's just floating
or floating breathing it right now, Yes.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
Floating or breathing okay, okay, and I think I'll skip
now to go right to these little weeds.
Speaker 6 (11:03):
Well, this weed for you right here. There's a lot
of weeds that are indicators of soil conditions. So you know,
do you know dollar weed? I do not. Okay. It
looks like a little lily pad and it shows up
in your lawn. People complain about coin. Yeah, like a coin,
and it's funny. In wet areas, it's called penny war.
(11:23):
In your lawn it's called dollar weed, different names, and
it's an indication of too much moisture, and so sometimes
if you're over irrigating, that will start growing and become
a problem. Another one is spurge. And spurges, well, this
is it right here, and if you pop it open
to identify it further, you say that milky saft that's
(11:46):
coming out there. It is an indicator of the presence
of nematodes, and a lot of nematodes. Nematodes don't damage
the spurge, they damage everything else. So if you see
nothing but spurge growl, you know nematodes are probably there
and have Greek tafoc on the other plants low fertility.
If you have a soil that's not very fertile, Creeping beggarweed,
(12:11):
which is the thing that has the little velcrow like
seeds that stick on your there, and craggrass and ragweed
and sandburrs. Everybody hates sandburds, the little their spiny Oh
I know, Oh they'll take, they'll give, they'll take blood
froudia there and so that's those are signs of things
(12:31):
that you could correct in some cases, or at least
indicators maybe don't plant this plant that.
Speaker 11 (12:41):
I guess that we'll take our first break and we'll
be right back on news radio fifteen eighty.
Speaker 9 (12:47):
There you feel my head with from propaganda.
Speaker 8 (12:49):
More propaganda coming up with Ken Lovejoy and Charlotte County
speaks on news radio fifteen eighty WCAH Investigation Nationed.
Speaker 5 (13:01):
Is it interesting how many people are I guess guilty
of mortgage fraud at this point in time, Adam Schiff,
Laticia James.
Speaker 3 (13:09):
I don't know who else is in that mix.
Speaker 5 (13:12):
And we keep hearing stories it's being investigated, and again
it reminds me of Raiders of the Lost Ark.
Speaker 3 (13:18):
We've got top men working on it right now.
Speaker 5 (13:21):
How long does it actually take to investigate something like this.
Speaker 3 (13:25):
It's pretty cut and dry.
Speaker 5 (13:27):
If you're gonna actually indict, just do it for crying
out what's taking you so long? And then we get
the John Bolton raid last week.
Speaker 3 (13:36):
And I'm no fan of.
Speaker 5 (13:38):
John Bolton for crying out loud, one of the biggest
warmongered neo cons out there. But correct me if I'm wrong.
Donald Trump wanted him to be a Secretary of State
and ran Paul Niche that you know again, you got
anything if you do, let's see it. Watchdog on Wall
Street dot.
Speaker 12 (13:58):
Com, News Radio fifteen eighty one hundred point nine FM
(14:22):
WCCF ten twenty seven just about here at Charlotte County
speaks with a master Gardner's in house.
Speaker 6 (14:27):
If you have a plant related.
Speaker 11 (14:28):
Question, dial us up at nine four one two zero
six fifteen eighty toll free eight eight eight four four
to one, fifteen eighty.
Speaker 6 (14:35):
Ralph Well I wanted to promote some talking about weeds
a little bit. A couple of good resources. One is
Weeds of Southern turf Grass and it was a University
of Florida publication. You could used to be able to
get it on the Iphis Bookstore, which is a website
where you can get a lot of stuff. I couldn't
find it there. We found it at some faraway resource,
(14:58):
but it was still available, and there's various authors. But
it has really good pictures of every weed you may
encounter here, and although it's about turf graphic, they can
show up just as well in bedding areas.
Speaker 11 (15:12):
All right, high collar, you're on the air with the
master gardeners.
Speaker 13 (15:16):
Hello, can you tell have them talk a little bit
about nematodes that's new for me and how to okay,
how do I control them? Like they seem to come
in and my tomatoes are doing great and then all
of a sudden they die.
Speaker 6 (15:29):
Well, okay, I'll give you my spiel on nematodes here.
So they're microscopic worms, and for the majority of nematodes
in the world, they're benign, but there's some that are
plant parasites. In the course, there's animal parasites too, like groundworms,
but the plant parasites are microscopic. And Florida's like the
capital of nematodes, and they will go after the roots
(15:53):
of the plants and cause them to decline, get stunted,
and eventually die. What to do in some situations there's
not much you can do, but we'll say for your
vegetable garden, you can solarize the soil during the summer
and that will cook the soil and kill them off. Often,
we find too, if you incorporate a lot of composts,
(16:15):
often the compost has organisms that suppress or kill nematodes too.
You can try to get nematode tolerant or resistant plants
like tomatoes, but the hotter it gets, the tolerance tends
to wear off. But that's one thing you can try.
Keep in mind that annual vegetables, by the time they
are succumbed, they're succumbing to nematodes. Their productive crop is
(16:41):
about over. Anyways, you may want to again rotate a
little bit or put things in containers in landscape areas.
There are some materials that can be used to suppress
nematodes on lawns and landscape areas, but not in the
particular vegetable garden. Keeping in mind that if you have
(17:03):
a problem with nematodes in one area, you might even
switch over to a plant that's adapted better to resist nematodes.
And there's some plants like tomatoes and okra and others.
You'll see the root knots on it, but things like
figs also getting bad. Barbari, barbadoes, cherry gets it very bad. Beats, beats,
(17:25):
and so carrots. If they go after carrots, it looks
like a fork. They just split off, and so it's
very weird looking there. But there's ways to suppress them.
We're never going to get rid of them, but it's
it's an ongoing battle with them.
Speaker 3 (17:40):
Is it also true that you need to keep that
soil moist but not just fertilized, not just fertile, but
also moisture tends to suppress.
Speaker 6 (17:49):
Things well, they live on a thin film of water,
but they can drown at the same time on how
that happens, and keeping in mind that if the plant
is growing well with nutrients and moisture, it will help
outgrow the damage that the nematodes cause and which is
often gradual.
Speaker 2 (18:10):
Yeah, and what Ralph said is, you know, my experience
has been that once you once a plant starts looking
like it's not getting water yank it and there's a
good chance that it's got nematodes and rotating crops has
been helpful. It's it's good to yank them sooner rather
(18:30):
than later. I know it's hard to do. Rotating crops
has been very very helpful. Nematodes the last couple of
years have been less in my garden because I keep
adding composted soil every year.
Speaker 6 (18:42):
That works for me. I mean it had a lot
of oprah SoC with that and it suppresses them.
Speaker 2 (18:48):
But you will if you leave them in long enough.
I mean, if you take it into the summer, then
the nematodes will start getting them.
Speaker 6 (18:55):
All right. Thank you for the call, High Coller.
Speaker 11 (18:57):
You're on with the master gardeners here.
Speaker 9 (19:00):
Good morning. Is it true that some of the products
that we buys in the tour is like I'm altered
that they don't they do not reproduce and the farmers
continue to have the produce selling them to this tour,
like avocados, mangos, pineapples. You buy the ministore and after
(19:22):
a few days time they turn black and brown in
the inside. That means they're altered and so forth.
Speaker 6 (19:28):
And you mean altered as in genetically altered. H you
you said altered as in genetically altered.
Speaker 9 (19:41):
Yeah, because you certain stop you're buying this toy, he says,
organic from the helpful store, and you plant them there
still doesn't does not reproduce, so that means there's alteration
somewhere that that is being done to them.
Speaker 6 (19:56):
Well, I don't think about any of the fruits you mentioned.
I think I think they did do some work with
apples so they wouldn't brown as quickly when they got
exposed to air, you know, simple things like that, but
they will generally, you know, tell you of course if
that's going on. I guess grains have been to some degree.
But most of the things that we eat as far
(20:19):
as vegetables, are bread by standard breeding practices, you know,
parents produce an offspring seed that is better than the
separate parents there, so it's a hybrid. For the few
genetically modified organisms again, often they are going to be
(20:42):
labeled these days too, as far as no GMO as
you would see there, and I wouldn't be too concerned
about it.
Speaker 10 (20:51):
I for.
Speaker 9 (20:53):
Costa Rica, there were yellow and sweets and nice no
if you buy a and after that says coast Arica.
When they are ripe, they are black and brown and
the inside and once one set of them start to
run before they even fully ride, and I can't green
had help foods to a Richard right here and to
(21:15):
a Charlotte some years ago, and they go five seat
tills and blowing stuff and nothing. I took them, pulled
them up, and took them back to the to the
store and shut to them. They gave me back my
money because they did not produce nothing. And I could
not tell the years I ever planned can or many
(21:36):
of the stuffs that you buy in the packages from
the tour, they will not produce anything.
Speaker 6 (21:43):
M hmmm, well it all depends.
Speaker 11 (21:46):
Yeah, I guess it all depends, all right, Thanks for
the call.
Speaker 3 (21:49):
Again. It's an experiment, it is. And I've had I've
looked at so many wonderful looking plants and I've bothered them,
and I've tried to grow them, and I I go,
what was so wonderful about this?
Speaker 2 (22:04):
Yeah, just you know, And sometimes it takes time, like
this year is the first year I've been trying to
grow dragon fruit for probably and then Ian came and
for some reason that pollinated one of my dragon fruit
and I got two dragon fruit this year. I probably
are gonna I'm probably going to get over a dozen.
And yeah, wow, was right.
Speaker 6 (22:24):
That's pretty rare.
Speaker 2 (22:26):
Well, And and I do have a number of plants
that I've been propagating, and same with mangoes. I mean
I have not had mangos and this year. The raccoons
are an issue, but that's a whole nother story. But
I've and they were so good. I mean they were
(22:48):
just very very good, even the small ones that you
know didn't. I saved them all because it was a battle.
The raccoons leave the small ones they want the big ones.
Speaker 11 (22:57):
Go figure, right, But well they were just being nice.
Speaker 2 (23:02):
Yeah, that's.
Speaker 3 (23:04):
I think green bananas, not the over ripened ones.
Speaker 6 (23:08):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (23:10):
So in my bananas, I've had more bananas this year
than I've ever had of my own homegrown. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (23:17):
People asking me to take their bananas all the time
this year, and it seems like everybody's had really good LUCKA.
Speaker 2 (23:24):
Why is that?
Speaker 6 (23:24):
Do you think just cyclic?
Speaker 3 (23:26):
I think Ralph will probably tell you the same thing.
I think this whole hurricane thing tends to mess with cycles.
Speaker 6 (23:33):
Yeah, it does.
Speaker 2 (23:33):
I am convinced of it.
Speaker 3 (23:35):
And and I've seen a lot of different plants act a
lot differently this year than I've seen in a while.
And Ian was three years ago. But we had milk
last year, so they're not getting a breakout here. So
there's things that are not working that normally would, and
then there's other things that you say, oh, well, no,
that's never going to work now because you know we
(23:56):
had these storms and they come out great.
Speaker 6 (23:58):
Well, you know the storms will tend to smash them down. Well,
that means they got to start all over again. But
all those remains you should have been ina is, keep
them in place because they'll recycle back. So it may
have been reinvigoration. But remember when you get those bunches
and they're like seventy five pounds and they're all ripening
at the same time, you need to get.
Speaker 1 (24:19):
No.
Speaker 2 (24:20):
Yeah, and you know, I know I did find out
this year as well. They were splitting. The bananas were
splitting on the tree.
Speaker 6 (24:28):
That could be a moisture.
Speaker 2 (24:30):
Well I was reading about it, and it could be
the moisture thing. But they were saying because that's not
uncommon because they go from starch to sweet. Yeah, and
it's that process. Because I now squeeze the bananas and
they're really really tight, the ones, and you can they're
not bursting this time though, but I'm watering them a
(24:52):
little differently.
Speaker 6 (24:54):
So interesting, Well, I wanted to follow up too with
this last weed thing and then I'll let Bill do
his guardening in a minute there. But this other one
is Weeds of South Florida. It's a really good guy,
good pictures, good information, and it's by doctor George Rogers,
Palm Beach State College Horticulturalists and so and it's online
(25:17):
you can actually just download it, download it nice. So
I just think these are so helpful. And once you
see a weed, you'll begin to know it.
Speaker 11 (25:26):
So yeah, because you know, you just move down here
and there's so much jungle environment you don't know what's
a weed and what's a plant exactly.
Speaker 2 (25:35):
It's like, you know that's a weed. Nope, not a weed.
Speaker 6 (25:40):
Now, Gardening in a minute, Gardening in a minute.
Speaker 2 (25:44):
The uh you know I mentioned before, I'm hooked on
hydroponics sort of like to hook do on phonics. And
that's thanks to master gardener Bob Pryor that I got
hooked on hydropronic gardening. Hydroponic gardening this past winter. He
uses five gallon buckets and plastic bins of various sizes,
and the plastic bins are called the krat Key system.
(26:06):
Even with my late start I was very pleased with
my green beans, lipstick peppers thanks Mike, and to a
lesser degree, basil and cilantro. My zucchini, which started great,
didn't end great. I'm not sure what happened there with
the hydroponics, so I decided to experiment with growing several
crops hydroponically, even though summer is not to put it mildly,
(26:31):
not the best time to grow what I would describe
as traditional vegetables and herbs not the type that Ralph
likes to grow during the summer that are more tropical.
I started with bell peppers. They did okay until the
week got really hot and humidity picked up. I planted herbs,
basil and cilantro. Basil is done okay, Cilantro not so much.
(26:56):
I also tried larsanato ko that did not work out
very well. I am also growing pineapples, which are doing
well hydroponically. They seemed to develop a root system very quickly,
so I'm leaning towards starting all my pineapple tops hydroponically
to develop a solid root system then transplant into the soil. However,
(27:17):
I do plan to grow a couple of pineapples hydroponically
to see how they do, mainly because I told Holly
I would. I discovered several things so far that should
help me grow hydroponically in the future. In the winter
and well into the summer, I had very little rain. However,
once it rained, I got a lot of rain that
totally messed up my water pH and was literally killing
(27:40):
plants within days. The reason I found out plants can
absorb nutrients from water if the pH is out of balance.
I also read where cooling the water helps. Bob couldn't
stop laughing when I told him that Ralph just shakes
his head. So I put frozen bottles of water into
the water into the buckets that seem to help. I
(28:06):
also started getting algae in the water in several containers,
which also prohibits the plant from absorbing nutrients. So now
I add a half to one teaspoon of hydrogen peroxide
to the water. The jury is out on how that
will work, although all my literature reading says that it will.
I grow hydroponically because I do live on a small lot,
(28:28):
so my garden is small. I like the idea of
using five gallon buckets and plastic bins of different sizes,
so that it can expand the variety of vegetables and
herbs I grow successfully. And I also like to be
able to move them around from the shade into the
sun into the shade where they don't get as much rain.
Just the ability to do that seems to be helpful.
(28:51):
But growing hydroponically takes some effort, at least initially, I
should check my pH. Should check my pH, I said,
should check my every seven to ten days, or every
time it rains significantly. I initially use rain water in
my hydroponics, which is more acidic than city water. Thank you, Ralph.
(29:11):
Now I am using city water, which seems to stabilize
my pH. It is not always easy to correct the pH.
If it is acidic, you need to add baking soda.
If it is alkaline, you add vinegar. I discovered a
little baking soda will shoot up the alkalinity from pH
three to ten or more. However, you need a lot
of vinegar to lower the pH. Like a cup barely
(29:34):
moves the needle. Certain vegetables grow better from me hydroponically.
Green Beans are an example. In dirt mine get diseased
very easily easily growing from seedaling to harvest is also quicker.
I've noticed pests are less of a problem, but that
could be because of spacing between the plants. Putting the
frozen bottles of water. It seems to help when temperatures
(29:56):
get warmer. I will continue to fine tune my hydroponic
gardening over the next growing season. I would like to
grow more let us, kale and herbs.
Speaker 3 (30:03):
This way.
Speaker 2 (30:04):
That's gardening in a minute, my four and.
Speaker 6 (30:06):
A half minutes.
Speaker 2 (30:08):
For more information, call night about gardening. You can count
count contact your county extension nine four one seven six
four four three four Oh visit ass iphis from the
New University of Florida website.
Speaker 10 (30:21):
All right, high collar, you're on the air, yes, and
now you're talking about growing season. My tomatoes in July
just got leggy and doll died win tomatoes and Florida.
Speaker 6 (30:34):
September you can put them. You can well, you can
put them in starting now, even if you can get
almost September. It's almost uptember.
Speaker 3 (30:43):
It's almost September.
Speaker 6 (30:44):
Because it will it will allow enough growing time to
get the fruits developed. Now you have to watch December, January,
February that you may get a freezer frost. But generally
everything's ready to go by that time, So get them in.
Speaker 13 (30:57):
Now, oh, right now, right now for a winter.
Speaker 6 (31:01):
For this, I call it the fall early winter garden.
Speaker 3 (31:06):
Thank you. And I would typically say about that also
that if you don't have your season already, you need
to get them in this week.
Speaker 2 (31:15):
Can you get two seasons out of tomatoes?
Speaker 3 (31:18):
Yes, old Doc Watson. Could I've done it. I've done
it multiple Yeah, and then I'll talk about this later. No, what, Okay,
I have a amazing garden this year. Peppers that just
(31:38):
kept coming, kept common, kept coming. We finally took them
out of three weeks ago.
Speaker 11 (31:43):
And Ralph always brings me stuff.
Speaker 3 (31:46):
You have pictures word for it, Yes, exactly. We reached
a point that where we don't give anything away. We
process it and keep it and I I have many, many,
too many freezers at this point. But beyond that, my
real point here is that I just want to tell
(32:08):
people that there is a seed out there that if
you can find it, and I know it's pretty ready
readily available these days. It's called in Everglades tomato. I
have them in my yard twenty four seven, three sixty five.
They grow, They grow for about two three months put
on tremendous amount of small, current sized tomatoes, very tasty,
(32:33):
thin skinned, lots of flavor, not to acidic, and they
are great in salag You don't even have to cut them.
It's not like a cherry tomato that goes flying across
the table. So I recommend if you can find them
everglade tomatoes. Once you have one in your garden, you
will have them forever thanks to the birds.
Speaker 2 (32:53):
Are they determinate or indeterminate?
Speaker 3 (32:56):
They are sprawling indeterminate plants, I say, but they do
only get to a certain size. They may be a determinant.
Speaker 6 (33:04):
I grew them and they were very interesting in all.
But the problem is my sausage sized fingers. Every time
I tried to pick a right one, they pop. You're broken.
We got to take another break.
Speaker 11 (33:17):
We'll be right back on news radio fifteen eighty.
Speaker 6 (33:19):
No doubts about it.
Speaker 2 (33:20):
You have become a great show man.
Speaker 8 (33:23):
Can love Joyce Kevin right back with more. Charlotte County
Speaks on news radio fifteen eighty WCCF.
Speaker 4 (33:31):
I bought a box of animal crackers. It said do
not eat if seal is broken.
Speaker 6 (33:36):
I open it up.
Speaker 4 (33:46):
Sure enough, the giraffe was fine. Now what I don't
(34:08):
get are these people instead of buying like a four
pack or an eight pack of toilet paper, they buy
the single individual role.
Speaker 2 (34:18):
Are you trying to quit?
Speaker 11 (34:26):
News Radio fifteen eighty one hundred point nine FM WCCF
ten fifty three just about here on a Tuesday at
Charlie County speaks with the master gardeners in the house
and the phone lines open at nine four one two
zero six, fifteen eighty.
Speaker 6 (34:41):
So Mike's going to talk about salvia.
Speaker 3 (34:43):
Ooh, salvia? Is this REWI known as sage?
Speaker 6 (34:48):
Sage?
Speaker 3 (34:48):
Okay? Uh? This information that I'm about to share with
everyone came from a website called uh Swedish hill dot com.
But it's not Swedish like Sweden. It's Swedish like sweets. Okay,
s W E E T I s H H I
(35:11):
l L dot com. Very interesting. Website goes into a
lot of detail about many different plants, but I found
this information about sage or salvia pretty interesting. The culinary
sage plant typically used as salvia. You can correct on
this when it's necessary of of ficinalis of ficinalis. It's
(35:34):
the most common type of sage that's used for cooking.
You can use it as tea. Uh, there's several uses
for stuffing. Yeah, stuffing is absolutely necessary and stuffing, but
you could use it in soups, stews, any kind of
dish like that. Is it's great in there. The question
starts to become about some of the ornamentals salvia and
(35:59):
whether or not they're at and the question the answer
to that question is basically not a good idea.
Speaker 11 (36:06):
Yes, that's the kind of sage that you burn to
get rid of the bad spirits.
Speaker 3 (36:10):
Dead ago, Yeah, or to create more what would that be,
charcoal in your in your soil, Yeah, just to get
rid of them anyway.
Speaker 10 (36:20):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (36:21):
Are they poisonous? Well, there's a there's a chemical called
fou jon or thu jone. It can be poisonous if
you get enough of it. Now, when you cook it,
it cooks it out. In other words, it's flammable, I
guess you would say.
Speaker 6 (36:38):
So.
Speaker 3 (36:38):
It tends to it tends to cook it out of it,
So it's not a dangerous thing. However, if you if
you try this, you tried doing the same thing with
ornamental type, then you're going to find out that there's
a serious amount of it in there. And thus we
don't use it for cooking. But taking it in high
dose as the compound contained in garden sage, may cause convulsions. Yeah,
(37:03):
kind of serious stuff. But again, if you're cooking it,
you're cooking out like ninety nine percent of this, so
it's not that big a deal. You're really after the
aroma and the kind of the taste in there. Now
let's go to the ornamental side of it. Ornamentally, these
plants are awesome. You put them in your yard, you
pretty much forget them. I believe they come in an
(37:24):
annual and a perennial type. You could even get them
as a vine, not necessarily a vine, but more of
a sprawling look or just a standing plant, which typically
is between one and maybe three feet. They have a
beautiful flower. They come in red, blue, white, and several
(37:46):
others in between. But take a look find the salvia.
It's really easy to maintain, not really pretty high resistance
to any kind of pass so you're not going to
be having a lot of issues with that kind of
a plant in your garden. The one thing I will
say is that they will start to spread, so watch
out for that. But you can keep them contained fairly easily.
(38:09):
They're not any kind of an invasive of any sort.
So great plant to have in your garden. Highly recommended.
And I think there's tropical what do we got We
have annuals, there's tropical stage and then there's red, white, purple,
and apricot in the annual type, perennial types coming in
(38:30):
blue and whites, and then there's Mexican sage. So there's
lots of different varieties here to look at and check
your garden centers. But remember, if you want the edible type,
it is I'm looking for that. I'm looking for that
Salvia olficinalis.
Speaker 2 (38:51):
So that's the only edible type because when you're talking
that if something's edible or not an edible and it's
the same.
Speaker 6 (38:59):
Well, if you an herb, it's used as an herb. Yes,
that's mainly what that's for.
Speaker 3 (39:03):
Yeah, that's the that's the herb type that people typically find.
Are you finding the store that's already caught up?
Speaker 2 (39:10):
Someone goes to the store that doesn't They just want
to cook and they go, oh, this is salvi.
Speaker 6 (39:14):
Up get this?
Speaker 10 (39:16):
Yeah?
Speaker 6 (39:20):
Ornamental?
Speaker 3 (39:20):
Yes, okay, yeah, there you go.
Speaker 6 (39:22):
And I think some of the sage is even h
some there's one pineapple I think there there's some other
flavors that are available.
Speaker 3 (39:31):
To There's a lot to learn about the plant, and
I was just amazed. And this website does a really
really good job this. There's pages and pages of information here,
so if you want to take it, look at it.
It is Swedish Hill dot com.
Speaker 6 (39:48):
I've got one last thing here too. Uh. This is
cassia or netl plum. Again. This is planted at our office.
Beautiful white flowers that smell like jasmine. It is very prickly.
Sometimes it's used as out of a protective thing, so
there's so many spines, and it does produce an edible fruit.
This is not fully right, but it generally needs to
(40:10):
be cooked and you can make a cranberry substitute type
relish or sauce out of it too.
Speaker 2 (40:17):
Nice.
Speaker 6 (40:18):
There's also which is interesting too, that there's groundcover type cassia.
There's variegated, and there's spiny, but there's also spineless, so
be careful what you buy when you're using cassia.
Speaker 3 (40:33):
I'll just add to that as well. I have one
of those in my yard and it takes the frost
very well. It's got a deep dark green, very dark foliage,
very dark green, beautiful plant, very easy to control. I
like the thorny types for underneath your windows. All right,
(40:54):
and that's great, A great thing to have as well.
Speaker 11 (40:57):
So thanks guys.
Speaker 6 (40:59):
All right, next month by you get.
Speaker 11 (41:03):
Any more jokes, any funny, Nope, nope, all right, see
you folks.
Speaker 7 (41:08):
If you are not sad, easily, you're close. If you're
not the then you are the crew. Please leave, we
are close. Make your way to the door.
Speaker 9 (41:22):
Please.
Speaker 3 (41:23):
We're in news radio fifteen eighty AM w CCF Punda
Gorda and FM one hundred point nine W two sixty
five EA, Punda Gorda
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