Fall fertilization preperation

Skip takes your calls!

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Katie r. H Garden line with Skip Rickard's.

Speaker 2 (00:06):
Crazy gas can trim just watch him as well. Many
things to seep baas great gass back again, not a

(00:30):
sun glass gas the sun beamon down a dreams.

Speaker 3 (00:43):
Starting treating.

Speaker 4 (00:47):
Alright, folks, good morning, good Saturday morning. On uh what
let's say a fault. We're gonna call it a fall day.
Where we are the calendar says it's fall, or at
least it's close enough to it to call it that.
I know, you go outside and it's where did these
temperatures come from? Well, welcome to Houston, Texas, Welcome to
Southeast Texas, Welcome to most of the state. In fact,

(01:09):
we have what we call false fall. Get a little
breeze through here, had one the other day. Everybody thinks,
yes at last, and then summer comes back for low wall.
That's just part of the deal. But fall is coming.
And one thing that is important to remember is that
if you want to have a successful fall planting season,
you got to look at the calendar and not the

(01:29):
temperature at the moment and do what you got to
do when it's time to do it. For example, now
is an excellent time to plant things like marigoles for
a beautiful fall season. They'll last all the way up
into the first frost and that'll turn them to toast
and then you pull them out and put in your
cool season plants. That is a strategy and they work really,

(01:50):
really well. I was checking out Jorges Hidden Gardens recently
and oh my gosh, he has got some beautiful, beautiful miracles.
The you know, the deep orange ones, the kind of
in between orange and yellow and the full yellow ones
and marigoles in the summer, or spidermight magnets. But when
we hit fall like this spidermight populations due to the

(02:11):
day length changes and temperatures and things, they're starting to
go down and they sort of disappear and they're not
a big deal in the fall. So your miragles glow,
they will way out glow your mums that you put out,
and we know falls for mums and asters, that's an
awesome time. Don't forget miracles. That's a good quick instant

(02:32):
color in the landscape that, like I said, I'll carry
you all the way to fall. Yeah, or hey, for
those of you haven't been out there. They're on Elizabeth
Street in Alvin, Texas, and just go check it out.
They they're easy to get to, and he's always got
cool things. He's huge trees. I was looking at some
of his magnolias are just giants of the magnolias, so gorgeous,

(02:55):
absolutely beautiful, beautiful. And they have a lot of other
trees that right now, you've just gotten some more peaches,
the peaches that grow down south. So you know, fruit
trees have a certain thing called chilling requirement. And if
you were to take a peach that grows let's say
up in Huntsville, Texas or Dallas or whatever, and try
to plant them down here, they wouldn't get enough winter

(03:16):
winter chill. It's a forty degree hours in that range.
But Ray's got the ones that grow down south, And
so go by there and check it out. Fall is
an excellent time to plant a container grown fruit tree,
like a peach, for example. He's got plenty of those
as well. And while you're by there, check out some

(03:36):
of his other things that. Hey, he's got those tree
stabilizers to hold your tree in place when you plant
any kind of a new tree, and they work so
so well. You hear me talk about those all the
time here on garden line. I was out in my
garden a harvesting okra again yesterday. I think I've told
you before I do okra breeding, okra crossing, and I'm

(03:57):
always I think it's fun. I enjoyed doing a little
bit of plant breeding, because when you create something new,
it's something that didn't exist before that you created. Now,
you can't just cross new things and then take the
seeds out and go here. I'm going to name all
these seeds a different variety name. It takes a while
to develop something worth keeping and that stable. In other words,

(04:19):
when you get somebody seeds, what they plant ends up
producing the kind of flowers or fruit that you were
hoping that they would. But anyway, I was out doing
some of that and just noticing my okra has a
bunch of aphids on it, and they were mostly all
cast skins. You know, aphids shed their skin like a
snake does, and so you see these little dried aphid

(04:41):
skins all over, and I was looking for a living
aphids and there were very very few, and I saw
why I had some surfit fly larva on there. There
was a crypt beetle, a skimness crypt type. It's a
little tiny type of lady beetle. Their larva were on there,
and then there were some regular lady beadle larvae and
they were just munching out. They just cleaning up my

(05:03):
aphed problem for me, and that's always good. You know,
sometimes you're wondering if the cavalry is going to ride
in to rescue the fort before before it goes under,
and boy, they sure did this time for me. Keep
that in mind when you're out there in the gardens,
that it's not just you versus the pests. It's not
just you versus the pests. That is an important lesson

(05:26):
to learn. I love getting out and watching that. Sometimes
I'll see a few pests on a plant and I'm
just kind of well, I'm not going to hurry up
and spray. I just want to watch and see what's
going on. You learn a lot that way. You know,
at some point you got to step in if it's
going to become a big problem, got to take care
of things. But in the meantime, take advantage of that
opportunity to learn. That's all part of you know, organic

(05:47):
gardening and whether you know, if you are not an
organic gardener, maybe you just it doesn't matter you use organic,
you use other things, but you're not just organic. At
least consider the principles of organic gardening because that is
very very important. Those principles. Whether you garden using synthetics

(06:08):
or not, those principles of organic gardening are still things
you should follow. Like I just talked about, why get
out there with a spray and kill the lady beetle larva,
the skimness or cryptbet larvae a type of lady beetle
the what do I else say? Oh, the surfit flies
were on there, and there's also lace wings that will
be on there too. Why kill those when they're doing

(06:30):
work for you? Whether you use an organic like soap
that will kill them or a synthetic, why do that?
Why not work? Learn how nature works, and work with
nature as best you can. That's what microlife fertilizer is
all about. Microlife has, in every way, shape and form,
designed their products to build quality soil loaded with microbes,

(06:51):
microbes that are good ones. You know, not every bacteria
is bad. Many types of bacteria are good. They're good
for the roots, are good for the soil. You know,
there are bacteria that actually produce any biotics that help
protect the plant roots. There really are, absolutely there are,
and it's really cool stuff. So you get something like

(07:11):
micro grow liquid, for example, that comes in a quart,
comes in a gallon jug, kind of a maroon label,
you know. Microlife labels all their stuff by color, and
it's kind of the maroon label one, So naturally I'm
drawn to that one. But seriously though, I mean, it's
not a fungicide. It's not like a fungicide to kill fungus.

(07:32):
What it is it has eight extremely dominating beneficial microbes,
the Streptomyces, the Trachiderma, the Bacillus, all of those good
guys that are out there helping fight against problem disease
microbes but also colonizing those surfaces of the plant. So

(07:52):
it's just a hostile environment for them to try to
move into. It's kind of like being a rabbit and
moving into a penful the coyotes. It's not going to
end well, right, So when of course they're the good
guy and bad guy are kind of turned around, you
get the idea of what I'm talking about. Micro Grow
Liquid a from Microlife. You can go to Microlife Fertilizer
dot com and find out more. Well, it's all every

(08:14):
time for me to take a break. Hey, hang around,
I'm going to be right back at a time. Lard line.
Glad you are joining us today. I'm your host, Skip Richter,
and we are here to answer your gardening questions. The
way I like to put it is, we're here to
help you have a more bountiful garden and a more
beautiful landscape. And gardening is a fun hobby. And if

(08:35):
you're not having fun, let's talk. We got to fix
that because this is not something that we fret about
and comment that we have brown thumbs. You don't have
a brown thumb. If anything, you got an uninformed thumb.
And that's why we're here to inform your thumb. It
just turns greener and greener as you inform it. I
think that's kind of one way to look at it.

Speaker 5 (08:55):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (08:55):
I do enjoy visiting with you. And since this is
a calling show, wouldn't it be helpful if I gave
you a number to call and didn't do that the
first segment? So here we go. Write this down, stick
it on the refrigerator wherever your phone is, or however
you want to go about it. Seven one three two
one two k t R H seven one three two
one two K T R H. You can give us

(09:17):
call from wherever you are. We get calls sometimes from
pretty far away folks that listen to the show, and
we're glad to take the time to help you find
the best way to success. Maybe it's a plant or
a bug or a disease that needs to be identified
and some sort of control suggested. Maybe it is a
plant or disease, excuse me, a plant that you need

(09:40):
suggestions for what to put in area, like do I
what will grow in the shady kind of area on
the north side of the house, you know, and so on.
We'll help you fix that. We'll give you some ideas
to do that kind of thing, you know. Or maybe
it's just other kinds of general advice. What's wrong with
my lawn and what's wrong with my trees? The two

(10:01):
biggest teas of the three t's the third ones tomatoes,
by the way, that make the phone ring here on
Garden Line and at your county Agro Life Extension office too,
in all two hundred and fifty four counties here in Texas.
We I've been doing this for thirty five years, and
I'm telling you, uh, number one, I can pretty much
tell you what calls are going to be during each season,

(10:22):
because I've been a lot of seasons, many I have
been many moons answering gardening questions. But at the same
time there's always new questions. I had some last week.
It's like, Yeah, I had never been asked that before.
That's a good question. And then people are always coming
up with new plants. You know, it seems like we've
discovered every plant there is now. No, no, no, there's a

(10:44):
whole bunch more we have yet to experience. So anyway,
give us calls seven one three two one two fifty
eight seventy four, I wanted to mention plants for all seasons.
Up on Tomball Parkway Highway to forty nine, just north
of Luetta, right there on the side of the road.
That has been a garden center for that general community

(11:06):
since nineteen seventy three. Now they have people that travel
aways to get there because it's that kind of garden center.
You're going to find everything you need right now. It's
fall season, so stock up, find the things you want
to do to make your landscape glow this fall, and
they've got it all of there. They also have excellent advice.
They have excellent service and they can point you to

(11:28):
the product that you need that fixes the problem. It's
not like some of these stores you never hear about
on garden Line that are national chains where they've got
a wall full of stuff and nobody in the store
that knows what they're talking about when it comes to
which product for even knows which pest or weed you're
bringing in. Not Appliants for All Seasons. You get the

(11:50):
service that you need accurately, and they are just experts
at that. Plants for All Seasons dot com is the
website get your green on there at Plants for All Seasons.
I'm going to head out now to Brian and we're
gonna excuse me to Cyprus and talk to Brian. Hello, Brian, Good,
Welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 6 (12:11):
Good morning, thanks for taking my call.

Speaker 7 (12:13):
I have a question.

Speaker 8 (12:14):
Yes, sir, my wife and I have a Bradford pear
tree and it is a beautiful tree. And my long
guy came by yesterday and I know you're not supposed
to cut the trees at a certain time of the year,
and the gentleman had removed some of the branches, the

(12:35):
low line, the low branches and my wife is thinking
that it's going to cause a tree to go in
shock because of the fact that it was not dormant
when the tree limbs were cut, and with that going
to be the case with this.

Speaker 4 (12:52):
Tree shot, I wouldn't know. I wouldn't I wouldn't use
the term shock for it. What will happen is, since
it's still warm, that tree will has buds around that
cut that are going to now push out and start
to grow. That's just what trees do in response to pruning.
And then when a cold comes you may get cold

(13:13):
damage to that succulent new growth coming out. But if
that happens, you just print out the new growth because
you remove that they remove the limbs, so you don't
need little sprouts all over the place in that same
spot in winter. Just remove any sprouts that formed there
around those cuts. It's not that not the right time
to prune. They should they should know better than that.

(13:34):
But it's not the end of the world on the tree.
It's not going to go into any kind of a
shock or anything.

Speaker 9 (13:39):
So it's not going to kill it.

Speaker 8 (13:41):
Since it was like one hundred frees yesterday, Okay, good deal,
It'll be fine.

Speaker 4 (13:46):
People. People Perune, twelve months out of the year.

Speaker 6 (13:49):
Okay, cool, all right, thank you so much.

Speaker 4 (13:52):
All right, Brian, thanks a lot. I appreciate that.

Speaker 10 (13:55):
Thank care.

Speaker 4 (13:56):
You're you bet you're listening to Guardline. I'm your host, Brick.
If you'd like to give us a call and ask
a question about gardening, we happy to handle that. Seven
to one three two one two k t R H
seven to one three two one two kt r H.

Speaker 11 (14:12):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (14:13):
I was out in the backyard this week and it's like, okay,
it's late September, and mosquitoes were out there after me.
It's like, what, uh, what's going on here? I mean,
come on, man, we need a break. Well. I went
to the garage and guess what, I didn't have any
mosquito dunks in my garage. I'm the guy who talks
about mosquito dunks all the time and mosquito granules, the

(14:36):
bits that they use the same Summit Responsible Solutions sells
us both of them, and I didn't have any. So
I gotta go run and get some. Because anytime you
got standing water, and you will have standing water after
a rain, it's going to be somewhere in gutters. It's
going to be in the You know our well, our
bird baths always have standing water underneath the catch basins.
On your pot you got standing water. And then some

(14:58):
people just have areas that don't drain. Well, a little
bar ditch behind the house, and here they come. You
throw a mosquito dunk in there and for it'll cover
one hundred square feet and it'll last about a month,
which takes us into a little bit of a cooler
season here. You always just keep those things in the garage,
keep them handy, you know, storm wherever you want storre
them in the house if you want. But mosquito dunks

(15:19):
are a disease of mosquitos, isn't that cool? It only
affects mosquitos and fungal gnats, both of which fungus gnats,
we don't like either one of those. So a bird
drinks of water, it's okay. The pet drinks the water,
it's okay. A lady bug drinks it's okay. It only
affects mosquitoes. Mosquito dunks and mosquito bits. They really really work,

(15:44):
and it's the simplest way to deal with mosquito. Breeding
areas or rainburrow will be another example. A hole in
a tree. You got a tree, a little hollow spot.
Rain's going in there, and it's standing, and mosquitoes think
that is heaven as a breeding spot, and they they'll
drop their eggs right in there. And here come the
mosquitoes out to spoil your little late day party one evening.

(16:07):
Mosquito dunks is the way we get away with that.
And so here I am the guy saying you got
to get mosquito dunks, and I didn't have any to
go to the store, gets more mosquita dunks. You are
listening to garden Line if you'd like to give us
a call seven one three two one two kt r
H seven one three two one two kt r H.
That makes it really really easy get a hold of us.

Speaker 11 (16:32):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (16:32):
Someone was asking me about azamite, and I, you know,
I sometimes I'll say things online and sometimes I'll get
a call right after I say something and it'll be
the same question I just answered. And that's okay. I'm patient,
I can do that, but I'm it reminds me that
sometimes we don't listen. I've been told I don't listen.

(16:54):
We're going to leave that where it is. But anyway,
I've talked about a lot of times, and the question,
you know, was, is that like fertilizing in the fall. Well,
it's okay, it's putting nutrients down, but I don't think
of it in the sense of fertilizing that most people
when they say fertilizing, they're thinking, I'm going to put

(17:16):
those big three numbers nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium three numbers
on a bag. I'm going to put it out and
it's going to boost my lawn to grow. That's what
the nitrogen especially does. Well, it's not that you put
asmite down and it doesn't like push new growth. It
builds the bank account of the soil with micronutrients needed
in trace amounts, so that when your plant roots need it,

(17:38):
when you're fertilizer, when you're nitrogen pushes growth. There are
all the other things that are necessary to make plant leaves, roots, stems, fruit,
flowers and everything else the plant has, they're the nutrients
necessary to do that in the bank account. And that's
how as might works. So just think of it as
a trace mineral or a micronutrient however you want to

(17:59):
turn for your plants. It also, I think it's good
in a vegetable garden, because when we eat vegetables, we
want a good quality nutrient source there. We want the minerals,
all the minerals that our body needs. And I'll put
it out in the vegetable garden probably, I think generally, well,
in a lawne you're going to use a forty four

(18:20):
pound bag will cover about six to twelve thousand square feet,
and a vegetable garden about ten pounds per thousand is
what I would put out about ten pounds per thousand
in the vegetable garden. But I you know, not that
difficult to do. Just don't put it in the same
hopper as your fertilizer because particle size is different. But
it's far to put your fertilizer out for fault. Portrays

(18:42):
might out for fault. It's a good time to do it.
Hopefully that clarifies a little bit if they're if you're
having a little misunderstanding about it, that will clarify things
a little bit for you. So I mentioned I was
out doing some grow work and harvest and stuff. I've

(19:03):
got a bunch of weird summer vegetables in the garden,
things that most people don't grow, you know, there's vegetables
like molakia. Now, if you're from anywhere from Mideast, across India,
Pakistan through that whole region in there, molechia is very popular,
a very popular vegetable. It's used in a lot of
lamb and rice dishes and other things. But I like

(19:25):
to grow it because it laughs at summer. I've got
malabar another one. It laughs at summer. It's a very
large kind of fleshy leaf plant a little it's mucilaginous,
which thickens, helps thicken soups thick and smoothies too. By
the way, I have what else is in the garden
right now? Oh gosh? Anyway, some emoranth. There's a type

(19:46):
of amorant that has an edible leaf that I grow.
The There's a type of silosha. Actually people call everything
spinach that's not spinach, and they call the silosha that
we Egyptian spinach. I don't know why, but anyway, have
some of that out there and a number of other things,
and I'm out picking mostly. I just picked the leaves

(20:07):
and use them in smoothies and things. Because you're getting
vitamins and nutrients and minerals from all of those things,
and I know it's not time to plant them now.
We're going into cool rather than warm. But when summer comes,
just remember you can grow vegetables twelve months out of
the year here. You know, there's a trade off no
matter where you live and what you can grow. But
down this far south in the country, we have truly

(20:29):
twelve months of growing that we can do. And there
ought to be something you can bring into the kitchen
and put into a healthy diet every month of the year.
Here in this area, we're fortunate in that way. Let's
head out to the woodlands now and we are going
to talk to Mike. Hello, Mike, Welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 12 (20:47):
Hello, good morning.

Speaker 4 (20:48):
Oh Mike, Hey Mike, I did it. I did it again.
I get talking and I forget that it's time for
a break. I am going to have to put you
on hold to come right back to my ologies. If
you can hang on.

Speaker 12 (21:03):
Good morning, ship. I have a white fly infestation. That's
uh some my myer limbit, my tea lime and across
the yard of my high business. Uh you know, I'm
watching some videos and I put some bike fendron on
it yesterday and they also suggest like meem oil with

(21:24):
with I guess like some soap in it or what
do you what do you suggest for the white flies.

Speaker 4 (21:31):
So so the white flies that you see flying around,
the adults, that's when everybody knows they have white flies.
That's the obvious stage. It's hard, you know, because they're
flying around. It's hard to do a lot to kill them.
But but there are insecticides you put on the plant
and they land and get exposed to them, and you've
done some of that. They lay eggs and then the
eggs hatch out into larva that are under the leaf

(21:54):
that you don't really see. They're there if you look.
But and then there's larva turned into pupa that kind
of look like miniature fish scales stuck to the leaf,
very tiny, and then they come out as adults. So
in those first three stages, egg, larvae, and pupa, you
can spray upward from underneath the plant with like a

(22:14):
horticultural oil. Insecticidal soap will help against especially the larval stage.
But you have to turn the spray or nozzle up
to spray upward underneath the leaves and get the bottoms
of the leaves and you can shut them down there.
Those are are easier to get to stages than the adults.
But either way you go about it, just keep in

(22:36):
mind the life cycles so that you don't just wait
until you see the adults to try to spray. It's
harder to you know, they fly around, it's harder to
hit them and do as much good as you can
on the first three stages.

Speaker 12 (22:50):
So if I, if I, you know, applied the buck
fin print yesterday, would you do it like again tomorrow
or would you.

Speaker 4 (22:58):
Do that stuff last that lasts a long time? Mike, I,
you know, I haven't looked at a label, but I'm
a little surprised that by friend therene's label for citrus.

Speaker 3 (23:08):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (23:08):
And you always want to be careful with things, you know,
especially when it's on a crop you're gonna eat.

Speaker 13 (23:12):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (23:13):
But it may it may be. I just that I
didn't realize there was a bivenron that you could use
on ceterrius.

Speaker 12 (23:18):
But these are very small. Yeah there there's there's there's
no fruit on these.

Speaker 4 (23:24):
They are only like a year old, so gotcha.

Speaker 12 (23:27):
Yeah, that's OK. But so would you would you just
an em oil and soap thin instead?

Speaker 4 (23:34):
I would? And and on the name there's there's two
types of name. One is the oil and it'll say
that when you look at the ingredient on the label.

Speaker 14 (23:43):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (23:43):
And the other one is ASA directin begins with a
z A that is an extract out of that nem
oil that has the insecticide in it. So the oil
kills like oils killed by smothering pests. The ASA directing
forms kill by putting a natural insecticide on the leaf

(24:04):
that soaks into the tissue so that when things feed
on it, they get that as a direction. So I
would do the oil form. I just think it's a
little bit better for this particular pest.

Speaker 12 (24:16):
Would I'm concerned with the oil and the you know,
the heat that we have. You know, if I did
it early in the morning, like this morning, Uh, it
should be fine for you know, you know it. Should
you do it in addition to the bipendrone.

Speaker 11 (24:31):
Then.

Speaker 4 (24:34):
Well I would, just because you're trying to knock these
things out completely, and there there were those two products
are working in a little different ways. With a bifenthron,
you're poisoning them. With the oil, you're smothering eggs, larvae
and pupa. All three that are all under the leaf. Uh.
And so if you see why I'm saying saying, go

(24:55):
go with the oil to on that mix.

Speaker 12 (24:57):
Yes, okay, perfect, thank you.

Speaker 4 (24:59):
And and they have they have a lot of natural enemies.
And one problem we get into when we start spraying
is we kill some white flies, but we also kill
their natural enemies, and so, uh, you know, there's that
kind of a good news bad news thing there in
the mix. So I always try to avoid killing good
guys as much as possible because that just makes our

(25:20):
job harder.

Speaker 12 (25:22):
Right, I understand that, you know that's it does affect
like bead and stuff like that. And these are these
are expensive uh trees, you know, and they've started to
you know, their leaves are curling and dying, so I
know that they're attacking the plant pretty good.

Speaker 4 (25:40):
Well, you know, Mike, if you're seeing if you're seeing
curling of the leaves, I would also look real carefully
at those curling leaves for trails, serpentine trails going all
the way through the leaf. They'll they'll be like a
little black thread through the trail as well, skinnier than
the width of the trail. There's an insect that eats

(26:02):
through the leaf between the upper and lower surfaces called
the leaf minor and citrus gets us and it causes
the new growth to curl and to get silvery looking.
So you may also have that. Now, if you have that,
then the name the as a directin type of name
would be the one to use because it goes into

(26:24):
the tissue and the thing chomping the inside of the
leaf will be affected by the asidactin.

Speaker 12 (26:31):
I probably should have help. So the others whie flies,
the curling leaves, and then there's there's leaves that have
look like a mold on them, you know, like a
really dark mold on them. So I don't know.

Speaker 4 (26:42):
Okay, that's well, that's connected to the white flies, which
anything sucks juices out of leaves, basically peas out sugar water,
and that's aphid scale, white flies, mealy bugs, all of
those create that sooty mold. But the city mold is
more just if you spray sugar water on your citrus leeves,
you would start to see a build up of sooty molt.

(27:05):
So that that's just a secondary indication in this case
of your white flies. All right, great, all right, good
luck with that.

Speaker 11 (27:16):
Now.

Speaker 4 (27:16):
You know, when we answer gardening questions on guardline. All
I ask is that you bring me half of the produce.
When those centras start to produce, just drop it off
with KTRH Studio and we'll call it.

Speaker 12 (27:25):
Even we'll do it.

Speaker 4 (27:27):
Thank you, Thanks a lot, Mike, appreciate that our phone
number seven one three two one two fifty eight seventy
four seven one three two one two five eight seven four.
When was the last time you're at it in Chana gardens?
I want to tell you what's there now? If you
go out now, what are you going to see out there?
You're going to see all kinds of cool stuff. But
there's one particular thing that you got to get the

(27:49):
kids out there to do. They can they had the
fixens to build your own scarecrow. It's really cool. So
you basically you buy the supplies you're going to get.
You're going to bring your old clothes, you know, some
old clothes that are on their way to goodwill or
whatever or even less less attractive than that. You bring those.

(28:10):
They're going to get you the skeleton of it, which
is basically you know, the stick that goes inside. They're
going to give you the stuffings for it. They got to,
you know, all the stuff you need to put together.
Scarecrow is like a little kid and kids can do
this and it is fun. You know, there's a little
video online if you go to the the Anchinna Gardens.
Some of their social media and whatnot tells you how

(28:31):
to do that, whether it's Instagram or Facebook, and your
kids can build their own scarecrow for decorating for fall
harvest season, both through Halloween, Thanksgiving. All of that. It's
really cool. And they also have a supply. They have everything,
so I never know what to talk about with them,
but they have a supply of things called airplants. Airplants

(28:52):
are things like ball moss. Have you ever seen ball
moss up in trees or southern moss that hangs down. Well,
airplants are like that, but they have all kinds of
exotic types of airplanes. Now, if you can't crun airplant,
I can't help you. You're gonna have to go buy
silk plants or something, because it's so easy. You just
dunk them in water basically. But they've got cool stuff

(29:12):
like that for those For the plat person who has everything,
I bet they don't have talentsius, which are the airplants.
Let's take a little break here by the way, and
Jenny Gardens is on FM three fifty nine. The website
it's on the Katie Fullsher side of Richmond. The website
is Enchanted Gardens Richmond dot com. They are open today
from eight to five Tomorrow from ten to four. Go

(29:33):
check this out. Take the kids with phone number if
you'd like to give me a call seven one three
two one two kt RH seven one three two one
two k t RH. You know, we love feed stores
here on guard Line. And for those of you down
in the Greater League City area. When I say Greater
League City, I mean Santa Fe, Webster, Clare Lake City,
elkam Into Real Sandling on the Mark Baycliff, Dickinson. This

(29:55):
is a hometown feedstore for you guys. It's been around
for forty years down there and it if she that
old time service that you would expect, you know, the
third generation now Thunderberg's run in that feed store and
I love going in there. And when you go in,
by the way, they're open Monday through Saturday from nine
to six and closed on Sunday. So if you need
to get some shopping done, this weekend. Now's the time

(30:17):
to get down there and do it. I like that
six pm because every day after working, just swing buy
and get what you need. Here's a phone number two
eight one three three two sixteen twelve. You're going to
find all the things you need to control pests, weeds
and diseases, premium pet foods that they have there. If
you got backyard chickens, they got you covered on all
the supplies you need for that. And they have every

(30:38):
fertilizer and some of the soil blends that I talk
about here on Guardline. How much more could you want.
It's time for fall fertilization, So swing by League City
Feed and grab the ones you need for the fall,
whether you're gardening organically or synthetic or however you go
about it. League City Feed's got you covered. For example,

(30:58):
they have you know, night fross Ha their three step program. Now,
the Nitropus three step is basically a fertilizer, a weed
control and a fungus a disease control. So fertilizer that
is the Nitropos Fall Special Winter Riser Fall Special Winderizer.
It is. It's got plenty of that potassium that we

(31:19):
need in order to build cold heartiness and to help
that grass come out stronger in the spring. Remember spring growth,
the first earliest spring growth on your grass is based
on stored energy, not what the roots are taking up. Then,
so your fall fertilization is critical for winter hardiness but
also for spring growth. Then it has the barricade which

(31:41):
prevents all the cool season weeds that will be sprouting
in October and November. So you want to get that
stuff down in October. Just follow my schedule online gardening
with skip dot com and you'll find that. And then
the third of the three steps is the Nitrophus eagle
turf fungicide. That's a systemic products into the grass tissues,

(32:02):
so when the disease tries to attack, it has its protectant.
They're already built into the plant. Now, brown patch or
large patch as it's now called, it's going to appear
when we get a little cold front in here, in
some rainy, cool weather. You're going to start to see
the circles. You have to get down ahead of that
in order to have success. Don't wait until the circles appear.

(32:23):
Follow my schedule. Get it on early October is what
I would recommend for that to have success. Now you're
going to find night Foss products at Court Hardware and
Stafford Katie Ace Hardware. You'll find them at Plants Something,
Plants and Things up in Brenham and up in Willis
at the Growers outlet. Also, we're going to go now
to talk to Carl. Hello, Carl, where are you calling from.

Speaker 11 (32:48):
I'm in the west part of Houston, the Gaalleria tangle
Wood area.

Speaker 4 (32:53):
Okay, good, how can we help today?

Speaker 11 (32:56):
Well, I've got three clear Era that are about two
years old and have done well, but recently, over the
last few weeks, they've all started dropping leaves, some more
extensively than others, and it just seems like they're watering
the plants around them. I've got some camellia that are

(33:18):
planted in the same bed along with the holly hedge. Okay,
everything seems to be doing well except those clear Era,
and one of the three is like, it's really more
affected than the other two. But they're all kind of
doing the same thing.

Speaker 4 (33:33):
All right, Well, something's going on in the roots. Claire
is an evergreen, but evergreens do drop their leaves, whether
it's a pine tree or a clare or any other evergreen.
The leaves only live so long and they have cycles
where they drop them. But what you're having happened there
is a little out of sinc It could be dry roots.
It could be damage to the roots, physical damage to

(33:54):
the roots. It could be soggy wet conditions where the
roots can't get oxygen they start to die. Then it
essentially is like dry roots. Because you don't have roots,
you can't take out water. It's gonna be one of
those things going on. It could be a root rot
disease that's around them. It's hard to know for sure.
If you were to have one that was pretty much

(34:15):
gone and you look at us like, this thing is
not coming back, don't wait until it's completely brown. Pull
it up and take a knife and slice down through
the trunk, bark at the base, you know, and just
like you're whittling it down, and look underneath the tissues.
Instead of being creamy white, you'll see some streaking of
brown and gray in there. That's a sign that you

(34:36):
had a root a root disease. Or when you pull
it up you to see all the roots are rotted.
You have green leaves on some green leaves still left
on top That's why I say, don't wait too long.
And then you see rotted roots. Now you know what
you're dealing with, and you could go get a drench
of a fungicide to drench over them. But because those
causes are so different, I hate to send you out
to buy a product when that may not be what

(34:57):
you need.

Speaker 11 (34:59):
Yeah, see what I'm saying. Do you have someone that
you could recommend that could maybe come by and take
a look at them and if they need to be replaced,
would have the knowledge to put something in there that
would thrive in an area? Seems like these beds they
face the north side of the house, and it just
seems like I have trouble gaining other things.

Speaker 4 (35:21):
I just think brow, I understand. Yeah, you know, you
just need to find a good landscape. I don't have
someone that I'd recommend specifically for your area.

Speaker 11 (35:31):
For that.

Speaker 4 (35:31):
I'm sorry about that. Uh. You can send a plant
up to the plant clinic at A and M. You
shake all the soil that can off box it up,
ship it up there and they'll they'll tell you exactly
if it's a disease what it is. But other than that,
you know, it would just be a matter of finding
a good landscape that knows what they're doing. And I

(35:52):
don't have a tis.

Speaker 11 (35:54):
If we find out though, all right, the problem, if
we if you correct the problem and treat it, will
be plants likely survive or are they probably going to
need to be replaced.

Speaker 4 (36:04):
If you catch it early in the process, you can
probably save them. If it's too far along, there's not
much left to save done in those tissues, but it's
worth the dry. Dig down with your hands in the soil,
feel the soil about four inches deep and see does
it feel soggy or does it feel a little dry.
I don't think it'll be dry right now, but it
might be, so just kind of check that if you

(36:26):
just want to be you know, take Since you don't
have a magical cure right here, you could just get
a drench and put it on and drench it down
in there. But go by Southwest Fertilizer. They're pretty close
to you out there in Southwest Houston, and they're going
to have a wide right Tell them what you have.

(36:47):
Tell them. We talked on guardline. You might have a
root right in it. That would be the only other
thing I could suggest.

Speaker 11 (36:52):
Carl, Okay, all right, thank you for your good luck.

Speaker 4 (36:56):
Yes, sir, I wish you. Wish you well with that.
If you need help with a landscape, you know, maybe
you want to redo some plants, maybe you want some
more drought tolerant plants, maybe you just want to beautify
an area. Pierscapes as a company, we recommend you consider.
Peerscapes has been doing this a long time. Go to
their website piercescapes dot com. You're going to see the
work they do. They do drainage work. If you need

(37:19):
an area that's poorly drainfix, they'll do it. They work
on irrigation systems to get them right. They can do
hard scapes, they can do landscape lighting. They can create
patios and outdoor barbecue areas that you just wouldn't believe.
Pierscapes dot com is a website and I encourage you
to take a look. They also do quarterly maintenance wherever
quarter they come in and weed and fertilize and check

(37:41):
your irrigation and change out the color. So you know
we're going into fall now it's time for new color change,
and then for winter we'll have a color change. They'll
do all that. Add mulch to your beds. All from
Pierscapes at peerscapes dot com. We're going to go now
to Manvil and talk to Adolf. Hello Adolf, good morning.

Speaker 15 (38:03):
For simmons.

Speaker 4 (38:04):
Hey, yes, sure, uh yeah, I'm sorry. I'm just going
to let you know. We've got a short time here.
So for simmons, how can we help?

Speaker 15 (38:14):
Yeah, they're those the colored right now and most of
the leaves are gone. It take a long time to.

Speaker 4 (38:28):
Bite them.

Speaker 15 (38:29):
Cut them off. Now.

Speaker 4 (38:31):
Now here's what you do. There's two types of per simmons.
Some are astringent, some are non astringent. The astringent types
pucker your mouth and you got to let them get
pretty soft before they are ready to eat. I would
leave them on the tree as long as you can.
If we haven't had a freeze, bring them in, put
them in the freezer overnight, take them out, let them thaw,

(38:53):
do it again, freezer overnight, come out, let them thowt
If it's a if it's an a stringent type, if
it's a non astringent type, once it turns really nice
deep color orange that you can pick them and eat them.
At that stage, you just have to figure out which
type you have. If you want to hang around through break.
We can continue the discussion, but we got to go
for now.

Speaker 12 (39:13):
All right, thank you.

Speaker 1 (39:15):
Welcome to kt r H Garden Line with Skip rictor.

Speaker 16 (39:27):
Just watch him.

Speaker 4 (39:29):
All right, folks, welcome back to garden Line. We're going
to jump right into it here. We got plenty of
things to talk about.

Speaker 11 (39:39):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (39:40):
I was at at Arborgate not too long ago and
just checking out what they have, what's going on out there,
And you know at the arbor gate there is always
always something going on. I mean they stay stocked up
on whatever plant is suitable for the season. So I
don't matter what it is. Vegetables. Do you need vegetables?
I hope you do it. Fall all vegetables the best

(40:01):
season at all of all for growing vegetables, it is.
How about herbs, Fall is the best time to plant
all your perennial herbs and arbrogates. Stocked up on that.
If you're looking for decorations, if you're looking for just
your indoor supplies for holidays, you know, from gourmet things
to gifts to whatnot. We've got Thanksgiving coming up here,
and certainly all the decorations outdoors for you know, everything

(40:25):
from Halloween to harvest season. Arbigate's got that all loaded up.
You just need to go. If you've not been, you
need to go now. I'm a horticulturist. I'm into their
plants and the products that they have, like their one
two three easy system for soil for anything with roots.
It's a fertilizer for anything with roots. It's the compost
for anything with roots, which is everything we grow. But

(40:47):
you ought to see the gift shops. They are gorgeous.
They are gorgeous, and we've got all kinds of holidays
coming up here as we go through the rest of
this year. And I promise you when you get into Arbrogate,
you're going to see things that's like this is the
perfect gift for so and so fill in the blank. Right.
They absolutely are loaded on everything that you can imagine

(41:08):
like that. Plus when you go to Arburgate, you get
excellent advice, advice from people who know what they're talking about.
Beverly and Kennon and the whole team out there at Arburgate.
They are experts. I talk to them all the time.
Sometimes we collaborate on questions that have come up from
a customers, like here's a very unusual questions. They are
up to speed on all that kind of stuff, and

(41:30):
I just to really appreciate working with them because they
are the kind of folks that love plants, they love people,
and you will really love your trip when you go
out to Arburgate there on the west side of Tombull.
For those of you haven't been there before, it's twenty
nine to twenty. That's the farm to market going west
out of Tombull on the left hand side. Arburgate dot com.

(41:51):
Go to that website Arbrogate dot com find out more
about it, but mainly go out there and get ready
for fall. At Arburgate. I'm going to go now to
Jersey Village and if I can get my there, we go.
We're going to talk to George. Hello, George, welcome to garden.

Speaker 7 (42:09):
Good morning, Stiff, Good morning. I got some sweet potatoes
that I've had in the ground since about APO is
up and then the leaves are everywhere, So I just
wondering when do I harvest those boogers.

Speaker 4 (42:21):
Sweet potatoes don't ripen, so you can harvest them whenever
you want. Now, generally you want them to get a
decent size to them, right, and so we leave them
a little bit longer, you want to harvest them before
we have a frieze, because as those roots swell up,
the ground cracks open and the cold air can get
in there and actually damage some of those potato parts

(42:42):
that are up near the surface. But anytime you want
to harvest them, I would get, you know, a little
your fingers and some soil, a little trol or whatever
kind of scrape the sow back and see what kind
of roots you got. Do you need a little longer
or are they good to go? Maybe you harvest one
hill and then harvest another hill. There's not a right
or wrong on that one. Just don't wait until it's frisen.

Speaker 7 (43:05):
And then one other thing. We were in South Padre
Island two weeks ago and hanging out on the beach
and stuff, and there are a bunch of butterflies there.
So my buddy says, you know what they have these
butterflies doing there in South Podia Island. So and I
and I told him your story about they were swimming.
They came flying across the Gulf of Mexico for some
stupid reason. So no, no, we were impressed with that

(43:28):
pretty something.

Speaker 4 (43:30):
Yeah, I don't know what they who knows why they
were there. I'm not a butterfly expert, but the butterflies
are going the other way. They're heading to Mexico here
this fall.

Speaker 3 (43:37):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (43:38):
They're fueling up at our houses right now and heading
that way.

Speaker 11 (43:42):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (43:42):
So, I don't know why they were in Galveston. Maybe
maybe they just had a little vacation time. They wanted
to go to the beach. Yeah, oh South Padre Okay,
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah yeah. That's a big, big wayfair
station for for butterflies and hummingbirds.

Speaker 5 (43:58):
And that's amazing, amazing.

Speaker 4 (44:01):
Yeah, all right, sounds fun. Thanks all right, George. Thanks, appreciate,
appreciate you calling. Our phone number is seven one three
two one two five eight seven four seven one three
two one two fifty eight seventy four. Listen.

Speaker 17 (44:16):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (44:16):
Turf Star. It's a it's a lawn fertilizer, turf Star
from Nelson Plant Food and turf Star has it's a
series of fertilizers. The turf Star you need to be
looking at right now. You can do one of two.
You can do Bruce's Brew, which is any month of
the year. But I'm gonna talk about carbol Load. Carbol
Load is a product that is designed with the higher

(44:39):
potassium content and a little lower nitrogen. That's what we
want to do in the fall. I'll talk a little
bit later why that is. But you put it down now,
it gets into your plant, and just think of it
as this. It's like putting anafreeze into the plant. It
makes it more cold hearty. Potassium plays a huge role
in cold heartiness of any plant. Also, by going into

(45:02):
fall strong, it comes out strong, and carboload is designed
for that. You will benefit from your fall carboload application
in the spring when the grass starts to green up
and grow, because your fall application will be fueling that
early green up and growth of the Saint Augustine grass
or zoizia or bermuda, whatever you are growing. It also

(45:23):
contains a pre emergent herbicide. Now, because of that, you
want to make sure and get that done early. If
you look at my schedule, fall fertilization is all through
the month of October. Well, get it done in early October.
If you're going to do the carboload, get it done now.
You can even do it late September, which is where
we are right now. From now on into the early

(45:44):
part of October, get that down because you want when
the weed seed start to germinate for winter, which is
the hindbitten chickweed and carpet weed, annual bluegrass, all the
different things like that. You want to have that carboload
down with that pre emergent down. Now. Nelson Products has it,
and Nelson products are widely available, easy to find them.

(46:04):
But just remember for your fall fertilization that carbe load
and get it down sooner rather than later. All right,
I hope that makes sense. It's important to make sure
and get that done. I was talking to somebody just
the other day, just in fact, yesterday who had a
tree problem. I do a little consultat consulting here with folks,

(46:26):
and I was out on a site looking at a
tree problem that they had, and I was looking at
the pruning job that had been done, and it was
not a good pruning job. They had some big wounds
that were not healing. They left stubs, they cut some
things too close to the trunk. They didn't know how
to prune. That's why I keep telling you guys, call

(46:47):
Martin spoon Moore at Affloridable Tree Care and listen. Martin
does a good job. That's why he stays busy. And
that's why you don't need to wait until, oh it's February,
winter's almost over. It's too late. I mean the guys,
it's going to stay booked up all the time for
some period of time. If you want to make sure
and get into the best pruning time, that's October through
February here in our area. You need to call Martin

(47:10):
now and get on the schedule. Tell him you heard
about on guarden line. Helps you get up to the
front of his list.

Speaker 10 (47:16):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (47:16):
And but you got to get on the schedule. We'll
fall in winter pruning. He'll prune him, he'll do deep
root feeding. He'll check the overall healthier trees. If you
see any movement at the tree base or roots, in
other words, that that tree is kind of lifted up
from the storms and the wet soils that we had,
you can kind of see that as it kind of
lifts up. You know, it's obvious tree leaning. And in fact,

(47:38):
the site I was on had that kind of condition.
You need to call Martin. Here's here's the number seven
one three, six nine nine twenty six sixty three. That's
seven one three, six ninety nine two six sixty three.
If Martin or Joe don't answer the phone, you've called
the wrong number. Seven one three sixt' nine nine twind
your landscape. You can give me a call it three

(48:00):
two one two fifty eight seventy four. And if you've
listened to garden Line once, you have heard me talk
about the importance of building your soil. That is where
success starts. I know, you go into a garden center.
I go into garden centers and see all the color
and it's just like, I gotta have one of all those.
That's what attracts me. Not a bag of mulch or

(48:21):
soil mix or bed mix off to the side. But
the most important thing in that garden center are the
products that build your soil, and then come the plants
that go into it. Yes, we want those plants to
be beautiful. But if you want success, why not build
a bed with roses and bloomers blend from heirloom soils
or with veggie and herb mix for vegetables and herbs,

(48:42):
and it works good for flower bits too, by the way,
from heirloom soils, or with fruit berry and citrus mix.
Why not fill your containers with cactus and suculent mix
if it's cactire succulents or with the works potting soil.
All of those are from heirloom soils. I want to
tell you something going on this week. This is a
a kind of a short deal. But at the Porter Location,

(49:04):
which is where airloom soil is made up in Porter, Texas,
they have a limited time special. You can either go
up there and pick it up or you can have
them deliver it. And you need to listen carefully. This
airloom soils rosesoil, which is good for any kind of
landscape beds that you have, heirloom soils, rose sooil or
veggie and herb mix in bulk. When you go up there,

(49:25):
you'll receive a free bag of Microlife six to four
the Microlife fertilizer. Now you can go to the web
to Airloomsoils dot com to learn all about it. If
you want to know about that particular location, then go
to rock inmlts dot com. That's rock the letter in
malt dot com. Rockinmltz dot com. That's the Porter location.

(49:48):
There's a soil yard up there, you know where they
do the airlom sols. They have the Rock materials as
well up there, so anything you need to deliver it
or go pick it up, but go ahead and do
it now. It's a short term. Plus you need to
get the beds made quick heirloom. So this is you
get the rose soil by bulk or the veggiean nerb
mix by bulk, pick up her delivery. You receive a

(50:10):
free bag of Microlife six to four, which you'll also
need when you get those products. We're going to go
back to the woodlands now and talk to Mike. Hey, Mike,
we got some more questions on white flies.

Speaker 12 (50:23):
Yeah, it's a follow up question. I spread to buy
syndroyn yesterday. I think it got on my time plant.
Would you throw that away or not eat it for
a while?

Speaker 4 (50:32):
Yeah?

Speaker 12 (50:32):
And then second I would yeah, throw it away.

Speaker 4 (50:37):
Yeah. I don't take a chance on that. I mean it.
I could never tell you to do something that's not
according to the label and then put it in your mouth.
I mean that, that would be malpractice on my part.
So yeah.

Speaker 12 (50:48):
And then secondly, they recommend worm castings to put in
the same plants that have the why the white fly infestation?
Can you tell me what that would be for.

Speaker 4 (50:58):
Worm castings? Are loaded with micro First of all, they're
also high in nutrients. When things go through a worm's gullet,
it's basically taking organic matter, breaking it down, digesting it,
and releasing all the good stuff that's in it. And
so worm castings are just they're like a compost on steroids.

Speaker 12 (51:18):
Okay, I see it can burn roots, so it must
be like a you know, pretty rich.

Speaker 4 (51:24):
You would have to use a lot to burn roots.
I would, I would, but you don't need that much.
That's you know, they're not cheap, and so I would
just put a little bit out, follow the instructions on
the bag there. But you're you got a pretty enriched stuff.
It's not quite the level of like a bag of
fertilizer in terms of concentration, but it's above compost in

(51:45):
terms of concentration. Great, thank you, all right, you bet,
thanks Mike. Hey, Mike, you're up there in the woodlands.
I keep forgetting to mention. Today I'm going to be
at A and A Plans and Produce out there in Montgomery.
I know that's not your back door, but it's not
too far away. I'll be there after the show today.
So if you get a chance, just swing on by,

(52:05):
I'd love to meet you. And if you got any
samples or plants you want to bring by for us
to look at, give us some eye to eye face
to face time to get that done. I just want
to mention that for I turned you loose.

Speaker 12 (52:16):
All right, thank you.

Speaker 4 (52:19):
You bet bye bye. All right, folks, if you were
up in the Tomball West of Tomball twenty nine to twenty,
there's a lot of new neighborhoods that have gone in
out there. D and DE Feed Store is your hometown
feed store out there. You know they've got all the
fertilizers we talk about. They've got soil blends we talk about.
And when I say that, what I mean is like

(52:40):
age leaf, moll compost, I'm heirlooms rose soil. They're fruit
berry and citrus mix and veggie nerve mix. I was
just talking about. You can buy it by the bag
of D and D Feed. Do you want a night
to five fertilizer like sweet Green or super Turf for
the Imperial or the Saint Augustine's Weed and feed things
tree intra barricade for the for the the pest problems

(53:01):
that you have. D and D Feed carries all of that.
Plus they just their feed store. They have quality feeds,
quality feed for your pets too. By the way, they've
expanded the store and it's just a nice place to visit.
It's really convenient and easy swinging out twenty nine to
twenty just out west to Tom Ballaway's and you're gonna
find what you need there. Absolutely, they and good friendly

(53:25):
service too, by the way, is what you would expect
from D and D feed. I was talking about that nitross,
you know, the the nitrofoss one to two three completely
easy system that is called they call it the Texas
three step. You probably heard of the Texas two step, right,
we're talking about the Texas three step, And what is that. Well,

(53:46):
it's a fertilizer. It is a weed control and it
is a disease control. So the fertilizer is their fall fertilizer.
It has got a good boost of the potassium the
third in it. That's what creates winter hardiness and helps
your plant come out stronger in the spring. The second
step is the weed control product that's barricade. You got

(54:11):
to get it down before weeds germinate. They will germinate
in October. I don't know exactly when I'll tell you
two things. Number one, it varies between weed species a
little bit. And number two, it's very dependent on the weather.
Weeds don't have calendars, and they look, oh, it's time
to germinate. When it cools off, get a little rain.
That's when those cool season weeds sprout and begin to grow,

(54:32):
just like our blue bonnets do the same thing. You
got to get the barricade down before them. So do
that early in the month of October. You can go
ahead with the fall fertilizing from night fruss as well,
right now, if you'll do that. And then finally, the
third one is the eagle turf fungicide. Egle turf fungicide
is a product that will get in the grass as

(54:52):
a systemic okay, so it moves into the tissues of
the grass. And when it does that, then when the
brown patch or large patch tries to infect, you've already
got in the system of the plant the protectant against that.

(55:13):
Excuse me, I lost my mic there for just a moment.
But anyway, that eagle turf fungicide is what needs to
be done ahead of time. It's also going to be
helpful for take all root rot which its primary infection
period and control period is going to be in the
fall nitopas three step No where do you get it?
Well Bearings Hardware both on Bessinet and Reck and west
Timer have it. You go to RCW Nursery you're going

(55:35):
to find it. Lake Hardware and Angleton and the one
in Lake Jackson and Alspa Hardware or Ace Hardware up
in the Woodlands is also going to have your nitrofoss texas,
your three step one two three, the fall special winter riser,
the barricade for weeds, and the Eagle Turf fungicide for diseases.
That makes it really really easy. Hey, if you would

(55:56):
like to give us a call, our phone number here
is seven to one three two one two ktrh. That's
seven one three two one two kt r h.

Speaker 11 (56:08):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (56:09):
Green Pro is a company that will take care of
your compost, top dressing and your deep core aeration. Now
what is core aeration. You can rent aerators that sort
of push a hole in the soil and that sort
of squeezes the soil out against the walls of the hole.
Meaning it's not the ideal way to do it. It's

(56:30):
better to have a hollo tyme errator that goes down
and punches into the soil and pops out a core
of soil and leaves it on the surface. It aerates,
it makes roots just very happy by bringing oxygen down
in there. And then you follow that with a compost
top dressing and that falls down to the holes. So
now you've got organic matter decomposing down in there. It's

(56:50):
a way to gradually, over time help your soil just
get better and better and better, and greenpro can do that. Now,
Greenprose serves an area about forty five miles from Magnolia.
Within that range, so we're basically talking northwest Houston. If
you look at Interstate forty five and Interstate ten, that's
basically the area so Spring and Cyprus, the Woodlands, Conroe,

(57:12):
willis down or over to Magnolia and up in Montgomery
off to the west and then down to Katie West
Houston kind of central area and north central Houston that
is basically at the northwest quadrant by Greenboro. Now right
now through fall, they're going to aerate your lawn for
free when you purchase a compost top dressing service. Now

(57:34):
the price is start at five seventy five plus tax.
It's heavy duty or not heavy duty. It's very high
quality equipment that can do this job right and then
haul in the compost around and everything. That is an
expense for them to do. But you have to do
a two yard minimum for this offer. So if you
do a two yard minimum of compost, they will come

(57:56):
out and they will not charge you for the aeration,
but you pay for the just the compost top dressing service.
Two eight one three five one forty seven thirty three.
Let me say that again. Two eight one three five
one forty seven thirty three. Or go to the website
greenpro dot net, greenpro dot net. When was the last

(58:21):
time you were at Nelson Watergardens. I love going on
Nelson Watergarden. You know, it's actually Nelson Nursery and Watergardens.
I think of them because they've always been a nationally
known watergarden place. But they have an outstanding nursery out
there as well. Fall is here and they are loaded
up on everything that you would need. They have one
of a kind plants, they've got pots, the fish, the fountains,

(58:43):
the disappearing fountains, which are my favorite of all the
things out there, of the types of fountains, but they
can get you stocked up. They're at eighty Fort Ben Road,
just north of it Katie Freeway, So you head out
west on it. When you get to Katie Fort Benroad,
turn north and it's just a hop skipping and jump
up the street there. Nelsonwatergardens dot Com. Check out that website,

(59:05):
follow them on social media. This is the kind of
garden center that you want to take friends to. It's
a destination and you just have to get there to
see what I'm talking about. But they're ready to go
for fall. Stocked up. A good place to visit. I'm
going to take a quick break when I come back.
Ronnie and Kim, you'll be our first. Good to have
you with us today. We are talking all kinds of
things gardening. I appreciate you tuning in if you've got

(59:27):
a question. Seven to one three two one two fifty
eight seventy four. When it was the last time you
were at Buchanan's Garden Center in the Heights. That's that
garden center right there on Eleventh Street in the Heights,
and it is just a special place. And those of
you who have been there that you know that, let
me give you. I want to give you their website. First,
they're located on eleven Street, but you need to go

(59:49):
check out the websites Buchanans Plants dot com, Buchanansplants dot
com when you walk in there. They specialize in native plants.
In fact, the proper name I should say is Buchanan's
Native Plants. That is the name of the garden center.
They have way more than native plants. But when it
comes to natives, I don't know anyone that has the

(01:00:10):
diversity of selection and expertise in native plants. They have
natives that are just from the Houston area. They have
natives that are from the region. Whatever you need, they
can set you up. Now. When it comes to dealing
with issues in the garden, they have plenty of products
to help fight anything that you might be dealing with.
And they lean toward the organic side of things. You know,

(01:00:32):
they have a wide variety of stuff organic and non organic,
but they lean toward that direction and I think that
makes it nice for those of you want to garden
more naturally. For example, they have some excellent information on
the website. That's why you need to subscribe to the
newsletter too. Lots of good information. For example, there was
a whole list the other day of native seeds that

(01:00:54):
you can plant now that are favorites of pollinators, that
are wildflower seeds, that are seed for bird lovers that
attract the birds into the landscape. They just know what
they're talking about. They've been doing this a good while
and they're experts in at Beginnis Plants on Eleventh Street
in the Heights, all the products you need for success
in your garden. They know to begin with the soil

(01:01:15):
and then move on to the plants and they can
get you set up with both of those. I'm going
to head now out to the phones and talk to
Ronnie ed Magnolia. Hello, Ronnie, welcome to Garden Line. Lawrence, yep,
I'm good sir. How can we help Hey? A couple
of questions.

Speaker 18 (01:01:33):
Yip talking a lot to I hear you this morning
on pre emergence. I've got a partical garden and need
to get an idea of when I should put the
pre emergent down and what you recommend.

Speaker 4 (01:01:47):
You know, Ronnie, I just don't recommend pre emergence for
a vegetable garden. And now there are probably a product
or two out there that's labeled for use in vegetables.
But what I find is we're doing so much soil
disturbing all the time as we pull out one set
of plants and plant another one and whatnot, that they're
just not a good practical, you know, way to go

(01:02:07):
about that. I recommend multing, multing, multing, you know, just
always keep the sole surface covered with mult except when
you pull the multi back to plant seeds or transplants.
I think that's the best way to go about it
as opposed to the pre emergent route.

Speaker 18 (01:02:24):
I think I'm probably shot myself in the foot. Last
couple of years, I put down treth land and try
to keep the broad leaf plants away from it. But
I didn't get a real good response out of that.

Speaker 4 (01:02:38):
Well, and that's just another thing about pre emergence and
a vegetable garden. If you're planning seed, the pre emergent
works to not let seed grow and develop and make
a plant. And so that's another issue that, yeah, you
can run into. I would stay away from it.

Speaker 18 (01:02:54):
How it works pretty good?

Speaker 4 (01:02:56):
Huh, well who does? But a hoe is my punishment,
you know what I call I have a term I
use that used to tell my kids grown up, Uh,
it's called stupid tax and that's what you pay when
you do something stupid. And if I'm sticking right, you
don't mulch my soil. My stupid taxes, I get to
grab a hoe and go chop weeds, so I try

(01:03:20):
to avoid that. But I just.

Speaker 18 (01:03:23):
I thought, everybody go ahead from West Texas. Every falling
boy in West Texas was raised with a whole handle
in his hand.

Speaker 4 (01:03:30):
Uh yeah, I have. I can tell you right where
the blisters for him too on that.

Speaker 7 (01:03:37):
Uh.

Speaker 18 (01:03:38):
Also, uh, I like what you was talking about the
heirloom souls over and uh may I've been putting in
a rose soil mixed with compost in the years, you know,
top off my end ground and above ground gardens. So
I might try some of that over at h at
heirlooms all that vegetable meetings.

Speaker 4 (01:03:55):
Yeah, I think, well, now, if you're gonna do it,
now's the time you get a free bag of the
micro life you throw in there that even though we
think of it as a lawn fertilizer, it is excellent
for vegetable gardens. That's their green bag.

Speaker 18 (01:04:07):
Second question, that's be my first year to really have
my greenhouse up and running now it's like a seven,
but twelve walking in when should I start planning my
sablings and they get them up and as you I
can transplant them into the garden.

Speaker 4 (01:04:25):
Now, hurry up, get it done. It's a little you know,
even with things like the cool the broccoli and bluey vegetables,
it's even a little bit late to get going on those.
But you can still do it. You can still do it.
And then lettuce and spinach and things, if you can
get them in a spot that's a little cooler. It's
hard to do that in a greenhouse, but if you
can do that, that's better. But that would be yes

(01:04:47):
spring garden, Oh for spring. I generally start planting beginning
of January. The way I like to tell people is
when you have family over for the holidays and they
don't leave, it's a good excuse to get out of
a house. Go get that done.

Speaker 18 (01:05:02):
Okay, okay, January, all vegetables in would be good to go.

Speaker 4 (01:05:07):
With, well all of it, like your your cool seasons,
but your tomatoes and peppers and eggplant in the area
where you live in I have will plant in January,
and then basically I may have a little bit older
transplant it's a little bigger, stronger before it goes out.
But that's just fine. Hey man, I got to run.
I got a phone board full of phones here, but

(01:05:28):
I appreciate it, and good luck with that out there.
Appreciate Thank you for the call. Yes, sir, you take care.
The folks at Medina have been you know, they've been
Gardenline sponsored since the nineteen fifty since before it was
even called garden Line. They were around doing that. And
those of you who know Medina products, you're very familiar
with Medina the hash to grow. Well, do you know

(01:05:50):
about Medina plus Medina plus basically think about Medina Plus
as Medina soil activator plus. We're talking about trace eneroals.
We're talking about things like side of cainan, which is
a natural hormone that occurs people typically. That's one reason
we used seweed extract on it, Magnesium, iron, zinc, just

(01:06:12):
on and on and on. It's loaded Medina plus. So
if you want to put a plant in the ground
and water it in really good and get it going,
use Medina plus one ounce per gallon, it's all it takes,
and just pour it right over the plant leaves and
all drench that root system and help it get started
falls planting time, whether it's a vegetable garden, an herb garden,
a flower bed, trees and shrubs. Get some Medina plus.

(01:06:36):
Have it always on hand. Anytime you need a plant.
You can use it as a folier. It's not going
to burn your plants. Just fine Medina Plus from the
folks at Medina. We're going to now go to Kim
in Alvin. Hello, Kim, welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 6 (01:06:53):
Actually is Ken Kenneth.

Speaker 4 (01:06:55):
Oh, Ken, Ken, Welcome to Guardline. Sorry about that.

Speaker 6 (01:06:59):
I can't lower my or raise my voice at high anyways.
Uh hey, I got a large live bulk that's in distress.

Speaker 12 (01:07:07):
I know you.

Speaker 6 (01:07:08):
I don't know if you're familiar with trees. I'm trying
to find an arborist or something, but I've got a
lot of branches that are starting to do their bear
the tip, you know, and I don't want to lose it.
It's it's a beautiful, beautiful tree and it's uh right now.

Speaker 4 (01:07:23):
Don't mess around, Yeah, don't mess around with trees that
you got to take care of. Affordable tree is the guy.
The man's name is Martin Spoon Moore and I'm going
to give you a phone number. Do you got a penhandy?
I'm ready, huh seven to one three six nine two
six six three. If you want the website, it's eight

(01:07:44):
f F Tree Service dot com a F F Tree
Service dot com and he can get you fixed up.
You need to call him soon, though, because you need
to get on the schedule. Telling me you heard about
it on Guardenline and you heard that you can get up,
move up in the list a little bit being a
guardline caller, and make sure that you get that done,

(01:08:05):
because yes, take care of that tree. Hey, I'm hitting
a hard break. If you need to hang on afterward,
that's fine. If that's it. I do appreciate the calls
right to have to go so quickly. Here we're back
back again. If you are in the area of Magnolia,
Spring Creek Feed Center is your hometown feed center. It's
on twenty nine seventy eight FM twenty nine to seventy eight,

(01:08:28):
just a few minutes away from Grand Parkway Highway two
forty nine. You're going to find there the full line
of fertilizers, you know, the turf Star, the Microlife, the
Nitroposs and whatnot. They've got it all there anything you
need for your lawn and your garden, whether it's controlling weeds, pests,
or diseases. When you walk in, one thing is one
of the things I really like about Sprint Creek Feed
is they're so friendly. Number One, you walk in and

(01:08:49):
the first thing you do is your jaw drops open
because it's such a cool, beautiful place inside with all
kinds of stuff. You know, this isn't just an old
feed store. This is like a really special place purchasing
gifts and everything you can imagine. But they have a
garden center that has everything you need for success and
friendly folks to greet you. If you're FFA or four

(01:09:10):
h They've got discounts for those kiddos raising livestock, animals, military,
senior citizens, also discounts for you as well. They can
special order again. They're on twenty nine seventy eight in
the Magnolia area Spring Creek Feed. We're going to go
now to David up in the Woodlands. Hello David, Welcome
to garden Line.

Speaker 19 (01:09:32):
Good morning, and thanks for taking my call the skip.
I had a quick question about a Foxdale farm. We
planted one originally all six weeks ago. All of a sudden,
about all three weeks ago, it started turning brown, and
I initially thought it was from my yard guy killing

(01:09:54):
Wieds with roundup. It continued and finally pulled it out,
bought a second one that's fairly large Foxdale. Bought a
second one, replanted it in the same position. Within about
eight days, the second one is starting to have the

(01:10:16):
same symptoms of the leaves turning light color, then panned,
then basically dying. So I pulled it out yesterday, put
it in a pot, and this morning it's multiplied two
fold in dying from dying. Can this be compomination in

(01:10:40):
that particular part of the ground.

Speaker 4 (01:10:44):
Well, there are some products that you know they One
of them is called like it's a ground clear, meaning
you put it down and it kills anything that's grown there.
It's gonna grow there, And so if they misused a
product like that, it could be that kind of contamination.
If it was you said round up, right, is your

(01:11:04):
guest was your guests?

Speaker 19 (01:11:07):
I do not know what great however, he would have
done the entire front bed and.

Speaker 4 (01:11:15):
Issue. Yeah, sure, well the roundup would not be persistent
like that, killing the next plant you plant. So it's not.
It's not that if it were rounded to what to dry,
some sort of root rot. I don't know what to
tell you on that one. That's a pretty tough plan.

Speaker 6 (01:11:31):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (01:11:32):
And so we don't really worry about pampering it a lot.
But if something's wrong underground, Yeah, something's wrong underground too wet,
too dry, or a root rot. And I can't I
don't have a crystal ball to know what, but to
dig down. If you dig down four inches and feel
the soil and it's kind of soggy, then it's too wet,

(01:11:52):
if it could be too dry. But they're pretty resilient
on drought. And but if if it were drought that
killed it, it would probably die back and then come
back because it's got underground storage tubers that can fuel
my growth.

Speaker 19 (01:12:06):
And it was loaded with tubers. Just talking about yeah,
look like a peanut plant.

Speaker 4 (01:12:13):
Yeah, Well, cut back all the dead, kind of watch
the watering, and hopefully it'll come back. That's about as
far as we can go on, you know, just based
on not being there and picking up the plant and
looking around at it and stuff. But hopefully it'll bounce
back for you.

Speaker 11 (01:12:28):
All right.

Speaker 19 (01:12:29):
They are they are unbelievably resilient normally yes, and that's
why I was so surprised this thing. I went, you
don't have to worry about.

Speaker 4 (01:12:41):
You bet, I understand. Hey, I'm gonna have to run,
But thank you for the call and I hope that
hope you can get that turned around. Thanks a lot
for that call. Appreciate that, David. Uh three sixty tree
stabilizer is something you've heard me talk about. And fall
is four planting. This is the season when if you're
going to put a t and do it in the
fall October November or just the ideal for fall planting,

(01:13:07):
do in December January too if you want. But get
your three sixty tree stabilizer. It grabs a hold of
the tree trunk loosely to allow movement, which is very important.
You can put a post in, you can put hammer
a t post in if you want, and it'll attach
to those You're going to find them at Jorgeshaden Gardens
don in Alvin Up at Arborgate in the Tomball area.

(01:13:28):
Buchanus Native Plants in the Heights RCW Nursery where two
forty nine comes into belt wag eight plants for all
seasons on two forty nine Southwest Fertilizer down Southwest Houston.
These are all places that carry the three sixty tree stabilizer.
I would not plant a tree in the fall without
getting one. They are their new invention in the last

(01:13:49):
few years and they just really really work and they
take care of your tree. They hold it right, but
they also allow movement so you don't have stuff cutting
into those branches. Stea tree stabilizers. If you're going to
plant a tree, you need to get one of those
two and they last. You can use it over and
over again. We're gonna go now to Mike in the Woodlands. Hey, Mike,

(01:14:10):
welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 20 (01:14:12):
Good morning, Skipp. Yeah, I've actually moved to tom Also, Hey,
I just moved into a brand new home. And anyway,
it has a hybrid.

Speaker 6 (01:14:26):
Bermute that.

Speaker 20 (01:14:29):
I'm wondering if you're familiar with that.

Speaker 4 (01:14:31):
It's tough. It has hybrid. What I didn't catch that.

Speaker 21 (01:14:36):
It's it's.

Speaker 20 (01:14:38):
And the name of it is called it's called tiff
tough t I you.

Speaker 4 (01:14:42):
Know, okay, okay, Mike, you're cutting out a lot, But
I know what you're asking about. What is the specific
question about that.

Speaker 20 (01:14:48):
Bermuda well, well, it's been been dorm well it's been
the house was I noticed that, so it.

Speaker 11 (01:14:59):
Got very little care.

Speaker 20 (01:15:00):
I have a lot of thatch and a half and
I'm just wondering if this winter if I put.

Speaker 6 (01:15:09):
An narration over that.

Speaker 4 (01:15:13):
Mike, I'm sorry, I'm gonna I'm gonna do my best
to answer, but you're cutting out so much. I'm just
getting bits and pieces. If you're gonna do corrooration, that's
a good thing. Follow it with a compost top dressing,
break it down in there really good. And all you
need to do going into winter is a fall fertilization
with a product designed for fall fertilization, and that would

(01:15:35):
be your best bet in getting off to a really
good start. Okay, I'm sorry, I'm just not able to
hear any more on it, Chris, If you will go on,
if he wants an email to email his question or
some photos, we can take it from there, Mike. But sorry,
just the audio just just wasn't working on that. When

(01:15:56):
was the last time you went down to in Channet
Forest down in the Richmond Rosenberg. You know, Enchanted Forest
is one of my favorite garden centers in the whole area,
and The reason is it just always has a stock
of the best plants in the world. I mean just
everything you need. Like right now, you're not thinking maybe
about house plants, but here comes one or right a

(01:16:17):
good time to stock up on houseplants. And oh my gosh,
they have some gorgeous plants, absolutely beautiful ones. Do you
need little starts for the potatoes, for shallots, for yellow
onions and garlic and white onions and red onion. They've
got all of that ready to go, and now's the
time to get them in the ground. So take care
of those things. Make sure you do that. Are you

(01:16:38):
into desert roses? Boy, they are the hot items. It
seems like everybody's talking about desert rose. If you don't
know what they are, go buy and chanted forest and say,
let me see these desert roses. Skip what was talking about.
They're beautiful, They're very tough, succulent, they don't require a
lot of pampering for them to do well, and they
just bloom beauty. They're not a true rose, it's a

(01:17:01):
different kind of plant. I'm more of a succulent type
of plant. Do you want fall color with crotons and
many many other things. They've got that. Do you want
to plant a tree, Hey, consider a Chinese fringe tree.
They've got plenty of those that been shenting for us.
And it blooms in the spring with a honey like fragrant,
little shaggy white ballooms so beautiful, so beautiful. By the way,

(01:17:25):
the first pumpkins are there too, along with mums and asters.
And in fact, you better take your pickup and have
a friend brother pickup because there's so many things you're
going to want to haul home from engended for us,
including these fertilizers that I've been talking about and the
products for fall. They got them all. Well, you are
listening to Garden Line. We're gonna take a little break

(01:17:47):
here for the news and we will be back. I
hope you will join us again. I just want to
remind you that on October fifth, Saturday, Oba Organic Horticulture
Benefits Alliance is putting on so you want to grow
your own good food program. They're gonna have doctor Bob Randall,
who is an expert who's author of UH Year Round Gardening,
which is a book you need to have if you're

(01:18:08):
going to vegetable garden too. But it's gonna be on
October fifth, from eight to three.

Speaker 2 (01:18:18):
Trim just watch him as many spot.

Speaker 5 (01:18:36):
Not a sign.

Speaker 4 (01:18:41):
Hey, welcome back, welcome back to the guard Line. Good
to have you with us today. We were rolling here
into our next the eight o'clock hour. Here we got
a couple of a couple more hours, this one and
the next one to go after that. Don't forget. I'm
gonna be up at A and A Plant and Produce today.
I will be there from twelve Noon've got time twelve

(01:19:04):
noon to two pm. I'm going to be given away
samples from the folks at Nelson Fertilizer and the folks
at excuse me, pardon me, unprofessional to cough on the
radio Medina. Folks at Medina, and the folks at Nelson Fertilizer.
We've got some really cool stuff. Nelson's got some of

(01:19:24):
their drag canisters, the granules of Drive fertilizer becoming a
little one pound canisters. Got a few of them there.
And also the folks at Medina are providing some of
their liquid products, those in type products that they have,
so come by you might win one of those. We'll
have some other things to provide for you as well
to take home consolation prizes. Bring me samples of plants

(01:19:46):
to identify, to diagnose, put them in a ziplock bag,
so suck then and crawl away. Bring things on your phone.
Let's talk about it. Listen. If you're in the Montgomery
County area in general, anywhere up there, I hope you'll
swing by. If you want to come from a little
further than that, sure, good to have you as well.
You know, Lake Conroy area has a lot of beautiful

(01:20:08):
gardener homes that just I always like visiting up in there.
Swing by, let's talk about some of the things going
on on your area. I hope you will always like
to meet folks that listen to Garden Line. While you're
up there, you can stop in because you know, A
and A Plants and Produce is always going to have
your nitrofoss products like the three step program. I was

(01:20:32):
talking about this earlier. But the three steps are a fertilizer,
a weed control, and a disease control one two, three,
and it's all done in the fall. The fertilizer is
Nitroposs Fall Special. It's a winter riser. What does that mean.
It means it's got higher potassium in it and that
helps strengthen the plant going into the cold weather. It
also means they've got the weed control, which is barricade

(01:20:54):
to prevent the weeds. It's much easier to prevent weeds
from ever sprouting and establishing then to wait until spring
when they're blooming, choking out, the grass, shading out, the
grass taking over, and you're trying to use a post
emergent on them. It's better to do it in the
fall with barricade. Also in the falls, when the big
brown circles appear, brown patch and when take all root

(01:21:15):
rot has one of its main infection periods of the
year in the fall, and that's why we have nitroposs
eagle turf fungicide systemic. Now ahead of time. You got
to do these things ahead of time. Don't wait until
the brown circles appear. Do it before they appear. That's
early October. Get that done, barricade. Don't wait until the

(01:21:37):
weeds sprout. Do it before they sprout. That's early October.
Get that done that way, when they sprout through the
rest of October and November. They can sprout even later,
but you have that barricade down that's doing the work
for you. And then the fall fertilizer. You want to
get it down before the grass just it gets cold,
and the grass didn't taken much of anything up. Get
that done, one, two, three, you're going to find it

(01:22:00):
a hardware stores all over the place to jen Ace
Hardware City up on Memorial Drive, Gym's Hardware, Montgomery, Stanton
Shopping Center in Alvin, and also Done and enchanted for us.
I was talking about them a minute ago. Done in Richmond.
They carry the nitrofost products. Let's head out the phones now,
and looks like we're going to go to Montgomery and
talk to Justin. Hey Justin, welcome to guardenline.

Speaker 11 (01:22:25):
Hey, Skip, thanks.

Speaker 7 (01:22:25):
For con hear me great, Yes, sir, so I have
I've got some Saint Augustine.

Speaker 22 (01:22:35):
That's that's hurting pretty bad.

Speaker 4 (01:22:36):
I sent you.

Speaker 6 (01:22:37):
I sent you a few pictures via the email.

Speaker 22 (01:22:41):
Yes, and okay, so it looks pretty good up until
I would say, probably about a month and a half ago,
I was I was pretty proud of how great it was.
And then yes, suddenly a few brown spots kind of
kind of started popping up here and there, kind of
circular type type or maybe an oddly shaped circle.

Speaker 6 (01:23:05):
And then they just kind of spread, and now it
just doesn't look good at all.

Speaker 22 (01:23:09):
So I'm trying to, yeah, what I can do maybe
going into the ball.

Speaker 6 (01:23:14):
Yeah, and I'll just mention I did lay.

Speaker 22 (01:23:18):
Down in the in the spring some of the the
nitropoths and kind of per the schedule, and and I
think I laid down the preventter and then the natural
pos So yeah, yeah, that's all I got.

Speaker 4 (01:23:32):
Well, all right, so the this is a this is
a fast one.

Speaker 11 (01:23:36):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (01:23:36):
The bottom line is there may be chinchbugs involved, but
there's definitely take all root rot involved in this grass,
and both of them kill grass. Some of those areas
that are fully brown, I don't think there's a living
runner in those areas. Some that are yellow, there's a
runner that's soon gonna die even if you try to

(01:23:57):
stop it. But then you do have some areas where
you can it'll prevent the progression by getting down a
product to control it. I mentioned the nitrofoss eagle funge
a side. I would do that. I would just go
ahead and do it right now. Let's see you are
yeah Montgomery, Yeah, I would go ahead and do that
right now. Get that eagle to a funge a side down.

(01:24:19):
You may need to. In fact, I would repeat Eagle
again in late October or early November, just because we
got to shut this down as best we can. I
would grab a product that contains micros in a sprayable form,
and you just have to you know, you are up

(01:24:39):
in the Montgomery area, by the way, Come by and
see me today at A and A Plants and Produce
and bring me a sample of that. I want a
sample of sick grass, so I want it to be
yellow but still alive. Well, four by four plugs slick goodness,
Slip it into a quarter gallons uplock and bring it by.
Let me look and one hundred percent here, I'm about

(01:25:01):
ninety five, but let me be one hundred percent. Heure,
I'll take a look at the sample there. But a
micro sprayable I know Ferdlom has one. I don't know
the name they put on it, but it says micronutrients
on it, and that is basically like an IV for
grass that's lost its root system. To get the nutrient

(01:25:22):
right into the grass. Put it on a hose, end sprayer,
get it sprayed, and be ready to do it again
this fall and again. What we're trying to do is
stop something that is very far pro grassed right now
to save whatever grass we can, and you're gonna need
to plug. Be ready to plug some in next next spring, okay,
I will.

Speaker 11 (01:25:40):
Hey, skiff, thank you.

Speaker 4 (01:25:41):
I really appreciate it. You bet. We're late enough now
to where chinchbugs should be declining. But you might get
on your hands and knees and look in some of
the areas that are still green and see if you
see some. If you do, let me know if you're
able to come out today and we'll talk about those
out there. Thanks, thank you for that all, folks. I
got to go to a break. I'll be right back.

(01:26:02):
ACE Hardware Store, you know, is the place to go
for the fertilizers that I'm talking about. It is the
place to go for some of the soil blends that
we talk about here on Guardline. If I talk about
control pests or diseases or weeds. ACE is going to
carry those products because they make sure that when you
walk into an ACE, whether you need stuff were inside

(01:26:23):
the house, you know, paint and plumbing and lighting and
all those kinds of things you would expect from a
hardware store, you can also walk outside the house and
get everything you need to and that would include the
fall fertilizer that's needed to be put down now. Your
local Ace Hardware stores got them in stock. The fall
fertilizers I recommend on garden Line are there at the

(01:26:44):
forty Ace Hardware stores here in the Greater Houston area.
Go to Ace Hardware dot com, find the store locator
and find the store near you. I've griped about mosquitos
earlier at my house, Well they've got the mosquito dunks
there and they've got other kinds of foggers and things.
If you want to have a little out are gathering
and the mosquito are still around, you can take care
of that. Fall is the time to control fire ants.

(01:27:06):
You knock them out in fall with a bait. That's
very important to get that done soon because then coming
out in spring you will have significantly reduced, if not eliminated,
the fire ants on your property. So whatever you need
for the outdoors to make them enjoyable, Ace Hardware's got
you covered, including I love to talk about the barbecue
pits because they have so many cool ones and I

(01:27:28):
love doing outdoor grilling, especially in the fall months. At
ACE Hardware you're listening to Guardenline, and we're going to
head out now to Robert and Conroe. Hello, Robert, welcome
to garden Line.

Speaker 12 (01:27:40):
Are you skipped?

Speaker 13 (01:27:41):
Can you hear me?

Speaker 4 (01:27:43):
Yes?

Speaker 14 (01:27:43):
Sir?

Speaker 4 (01:27:44):
Hello, Yes, I'm here. Can you hear me.

Speaker 14 (01:27:49):
Yes?

Speaker 13 (01:27:49):
I have construction built in May and uh, you know
it's all fresh sawd But I pulled out the live
oak and I gave it back to the builder, and
I put in a red bud forest PNC okay, and
beautiful red bud purple burgundy leaves around my stade.

Speaker 14 (01:28:14):
Right.

Speaker 13 (01:28:15):
And but to keep to keep that sod alive, I've
been watering like crazy and uh and I think I'm
over water in my forest pans.

Speaker 4 (01:28:27):
All right, here's what you need to do to keep
sod alive. You just have the water a little bit.
You don't need to create deep drenching of the soil.
You're just trying to keep those upper a few inches moist, okay.
And so when you water, if you're water in every day,
you're not putting an inch and a half on every day.
You're just putting a little bit on each day to

(01:28:48):
keep that side. And as the temperatures cool off, you
can way back off that. But the demands right now,
we're just trying to get a root system from the
sod into the ground, and all that takes is enough
moisture to have available moisture for those roots. More is
not needed.

Speaker 13 (01:29:04):
Well, I'm more concerned about my forest pansy because the
leaves are turning yellow and they're dropping off and it's
not even you know, the first day of ball yet.

Speaker 4 (01:29:15):
Well, transplanting could have been part of the reason for that.
There's always a little bit of a transplant shock when
you do a plant. Let's hope that's what it is.
There's nothing to do right now for it, other than
to make sure the root ball has moisture. But it's
not soggy, and you're gonna have to go out and
the best way to find out is just dig down

(01:29:36):
beside the rootball where the old root ball was, where
it was just put in the ground, and feel the
soil and if it's moisture good, you're good. But all
you need is water that root ball for right now,
you're just trying to keep it alive until it gets
roots in the ground and then as soon as you
can back off the lawn watering. You know, in a
couple of weeks, you can be already backing off that

(01:29:57):
lawn watering. So I can't tell you if it's too
wet or not wet enough, but I can tell you
the root ball in this ninety degree temperature is pumping
water fast. And even though the soil is moist around it,
that root ball, the only roots that tree has, or
that cylinder that went into the ground, that's only they
haven't moved into the soil yet. So you got to
keep water in that cylinder spot that went in the ground.

(01:30:20):
That that's my best advice for you, Robert.

Speaker 13 (01:30:23):
And then I've found a little looking spider with white
dot on the tree.

Speaker 4 (01:30:30):
No concern and no concern. Spider's not a concern, No,
not at all, not at all. Well, it's it's okay.
I mean, if the whole tree loses its leaves, that's
a concern for the reasons that I you know, I'd
already mentioned. But all that's in your power right now
is to make sure the root ball stays moist but

(01:30:50):
not soggy wet, and and and and I think I
advised you on the my best suggestion for how to
do that, I've got to run show for some of
the calls. I wish you well. I hope you can
save that to you. That is a beautiful, beautiful type
of red bud. I think you've picked a good one.
Thanks for that call very much. You know, the storms

(01:31:11):
you had this summer scared folks a lot because we
went for a long time without power twice this summer.
And everybody's interested in the generator, and for good reason.
It's good to have a generator, a whole house generator,
especially in quality home products. That is what they do,
that is what they specialize in. You can get a
quality generat generator. They got some trade in specials. Just

(01:31:32):
when you call them, ask them about that. It's seven
one three quality. The reason I talk about quality home products.
You can buy generators from a lot of places. Quality
home products put you in the generator you need. They
do all the work to get it done for you.
They have their own contractors in house. They don't hire
people like a lot of places do to come in

(01:31:53):
and do electricity or do this or do that. They
take care of that and they take care of the customers.
After the sale. They continue. You can have them come
out and make sure that thing gets maintained. And taken
care of. That's why they have over fourteen thousand and
five star reviews and they've won the Better Business Bureau's
Top Customer Service Award eight times. Quality Home Products go

(01:32:17):
to qualitytx dot com or doll seven to one three quality.
I'm going to run now out to sugar Land and
we're going to talk to Debbie. Hello, Debbie, good morning.

Speaker 5 (01:32:29):
Hi. I'll try and make this quick. I am I'm
having issues with my yard. And I was totally convinced
it was grubworms because when I reached over to pull
up the dead grass, it came up a lot of it,
you know, all the runners, and so now I'm kind
of questioning it. After listening to you, I'm like, do
I have root rod or fungus or grubs? Is there

(01:32:51):
any way to tell?

Speaker 4 (01:32:55):
Well, if you take a square foot of sod and
slide little shovel underneath it, just like you're going to
lift it up, and you look right there in the soil,
it would take five to seven grubs per square foot
for that to be the problem. Root rots are very
uncommon on your on your turf. I would think it's

(01:33:15):
not a root rot. Okay, Well, I did.

Speaker 5 (01:33:21):
Well it was fung aside grubs root rot. But let
me tell you this. I did the shovel in between
the good grass and the bad grass. Somebody suggested that
put it on the edge of you know, and I
did that in three different spots, and I really didn't
see any grubs. But does the grass do the same
thing if it was fung aside? Would it pull up

(01:33:41):
in big sections when you reached your hand down to
grab it, because there's all the roots.

Speaker 4 (01:33:46):
Are When you say pull up, are you talking about
all the grass blades come off of the runners or
are you talking about the runners themselves all come up?

Speaker 5 (01:33:55):
All the runners come up? Huge spot, go ahead?

Speaker 4 (01:34:03):
Yeah, well, it could be grubs, but again it's going
to take five to seven to do enough damage per
square foot in order for grubs to be the cause
and warrant treatment. We are really late to be treating
for grubs. In fact, I would say too late at
this point to be getting anything out of a grub treatment.
It could be taken root rot could be a number

(01:34:23):
of things. Let's see, you're located in where, oh you're
done with sugarland?

Speaker 5 (01:34:31):
What's your belt going to take us out?

Speaker 4 (01:34:33):
Looking? Well, I tell you I just don't think it's grubs.
If it pulls up real easily, I think it may
be take all root rot or it could be a
combination of both. One doesn't eliminate the other, but I
think it's take all root rot. You may want to
take a little section of it in the six zone
and and put it in a zipli gallons up lock

(01:34:53):
and take it over to Southwest Fertilizer and have them
take a look at it there and see what they see.
Uh my guess is take all and they either way
it is, they're gonna have the product, the right product
for it. That'd be my best, quick guest. Unless you
want to jump in a car and go on a
little vacation today and come up to A and A
Plants and Produce in Montgomery, bring me your sample. I'll

(01:35:13):
be happy to look at it for free.

Speaker 5 (01:35:15):
I wish I could.

Speaker 4 (01:35:16):
Oh my gosh, Okay, all right, well thanks just so much. Yeah, yeah, sure,
I tell you what see you were in. Let's see, sugar,
I'm going to be in Wharton, Texas next weekend, which
is down in your area. Well still a drive, but
it's at least southwest, So anyway, at the Wharton feed

(01:35:37):
ace hardware. So if you want to wait and do it,
then all.

Speaker 5 (01:35:40):
Right, Okay, thank you.

Speaker 4 (01:35:42):
That's that's talking to you. Bet. Thank you. Debbie. Appreciate
the call. I appreciate that very much. H RCW nurseres
is the garden center up there where Beltway eight and
two forty nine come together. Now you know RCW. They've
been there a long time. They're the place to get
fruit trees. They're the place to get roses, selection aroses
longer than any I've ever seen, the place to get

(01:36:04):
color plants and house plants even. I mean, they have
it all right Now, I want to talk about their
trees because they grow their own trees up in Plantersville.
They've got fifteen percent off trees at our CW Nursery.
That is an outstanding sale. They have a large variety
of trees too, every kind of tree that needs to
get planted here, they've got them. Okay, seven gallons all

(01:36:26):
the way up to two hundred gallons. And by the way, yes,
you don't have to pick up a two in our
gallon tree. They'll complant that. They'll come plant trees for
you as well. They got Mexican white oaks. There are
some gorgeous other magnolias. Just swing by there and check
them out. But do it now for two reasons. Fifteen
percent off and there is not a better time to
plant these trees than fall. It gives them the most

(01:36:48):
time possible. We were just talking about that red bud
that Robert had planted up in Conroe. You know, when
you get a plant planted in the fall, it has
until next summer to get that root system ready to
go for summer so it can survive and you're not
watering just the cylinder like we were talking about, by
the time it gets hot again. RCW Nurseries, Tomball Parkery

(01:37:12):
go to RCW nurseries dot com. RCW nurseries dot com.
We're gonna head up to Magnolia now and talk to Mike. Hey, Mike, Hey,
Skip Hey, how can we help?

Speaker 18 (01:37:27):
Got about a one year old peppermint peachtree I got
at the arbor gate and I'm looking for some advice
on what to fertilize with and frequency.

Speaker 4 (01:37:36):
Okay, I would treat that tree like it was a lawn.
The main thing you're going to want to do is
when spring comes and new growth is beginning, you want
to fertilize it, and I would use just a turf
type fertilizer. Arborgate has one there they've got as part
of their one two three system. You can grab that,
you put it out there on it. I would put

(01:37:58):
about two cups per inch of trunk diameter of the
Arborgate fertilizer. Okay, sprinkle it in a circle a little
bit wider than the branch spread of the tree. Okay.
So if you got one that's the size of a
broom handle, we're gonna say that's about an inch thick,
So we get two cups. If you got one, when

(01:38:18):
that tree is the size of a coke can, it's
going to get about six cups a fertilizer because it's
about three inches in diameter. Just use your thumb and
use the trunk of the tree to tell you for
every thumb with but two cups of Arborgate fertilizer on
that tree. Be with us our phone number here if
you'd like to give me a call seven one three

(01:38:38):
two one two fifty eight seventy four, or if you
like to dial by letters. Make it easy seven to
one three two one two kt r H. That makes
it easy, easy to do. We're happy to visit with
you about whatever kinds of things we can do to
help you have success. I was telling you earlier about
Nelson plant Food. They have the car carbo Load, which

(01:39:01):
is their fall fertilizer. And the reason they call it
carbo load is infall, your grass hopefully is producing carbohydrates
which helps it be winter hardy and helps it have
the energy to take off in the spring. That's why
they call it carbo load, because it helps your grass
to do just that. Now all, they also have a

(01:39:21):
product that I want to I want to tell you it.
It's called Nelson Nutristar Genesis. Genesis is a transplant product.
It comes in a plastic jar with a screw top load.
If you will use it anytime you're transplanting a plant
to mix in to the soil of what you're putting
the plant into. So, for example, I used to I've

(01:39:41):
told you this, I've used it before for tomatoes. You
buy a little six pack of tomatoes, you bring them home,
and you're going to grow them out a little further,
maybe put them in four inch pots or something bigger.
You just mix this genesis into that potting mix and
then transplant them into it and they will do very well.
You can do that with a a container of plants,
a patio container. Anytime you're going to plant a patio

(01:40:05):
container of plants, puts some Genesis nutri Star genesis from
Nelson's into that mix. If you're gonna put a rosebush
in the ground, same thing, mix it up in the
Normally I will tell you don't put fertilizer in the
planting hole. This is an exception. This is a natural
type fertilizer. It's loaded with microhizo backteria other fungi. It's
not going to burn your roots. And you're not just

(01:40:25):
dumping it and then setting the plant on it. You're
mixing it into the soil around that plant and then
putting the plant in the ground and you will have success.
Just another quality product from Nelson Plant Food and they
have a good stock of those Nelson products also up
there at Ana Plants and Produce, which is on the
east side of Montgomery on Highway one oh five, where

(01:40:47):
I'll be today from twelve to two. Twelve to two,
So come on out, let's head to the phones now
and we're going to go to Friendswood and talk to
Costas Hello, Costas, Welcome to garden line morning.

Speaker 14 (01:41:00):
It's a great day to day here.

Speaker 4 (01:41:03):
How you bet fine?

Speaker 14 (01:41:05):
I have a question. I have some citrus trees, which well,
they died in twenty twenty one or so I thought.
Once the oranges and the tangerines were gone, the rootstock
started coming up, and I was thinking of grafting it
with some other citrus variants. Its September October, bed time

(01:41:28):
to think about grafting, or should I wait until February March.

Speaker 4 (01:41:35):
I I'd wait a little bit. In the spring, you
can do a tea bud to graft them. It's budding them,
same idea, but during the cool season while they're not
growing very much and starting to grow a little bit
in the spring where it's not cold anymore it's warming up.
Then you could do also a cleft graft. That's a

(01:41:58):
different kind of graph. Citrus tea buds and cleft graphs
are both good ways to go. Depends on how big
I think stock is.

Speaker 14 (01:42:10):
It's actually it's it's about four years old and it
has grown about five feet four feet and uh, I
was thinking of using the cleft versus the t but
and I have a little piece of equipment that can

(01:42:33):
clip actually the scion from the tree and then clip
the the the negative if you will at the uh, yes,
little stock and then join them.

Speaker 4 (01:42:47):
Yes, and so left. But I know what you're talking about.

Speaker 14 (01:42:53):
So that means I can do cleft now or wait
until spring?

Speaker 4 (01:42:57):
Yeah, you could uh it it actually are the are
these and containers are in the ground. I didn't catch
ground in the ground. Yeah, I think I would wait
until spring. You could try one now if you want to,
and then if it didn't work, just go down a
little lower and try it again on the spring.

Speaker 14 (01:43:17):
Best part I could do that.

Speaker 4 (01:43:18):
Thanks, all right, thanks scus appreciate. I appreciate here, Yes, sir,
you bet that's good.

Speaker 14 (01:43:27):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (01:43:28):
I talk about all these products all the time, and
and people often say where do you get it? Where
do you get it? And who has that? And sometimes
these products are kind of specialty that I'm talking about.
You know something that's just not for sale everywhere. Well,
if you go to Southwest Fertilizer, it's for sale there.
I mean, if it's a product that works, it's on
the market. Bob's going to have it, because, as I

(01:43:49):
like to say, if he don't have it, you don't
need it because he has everything every kind of product
you need. Do you grow organically or do you just
grow however, organic or synthetic. Either way, Bob's got that
all the lines of fertilizers that we promote, and then
some he has herbicides, fungicides, insecticides. You need a tool.

(01:44:10):
Do you need mulches and composts and soil amendments like
the asmight I talked about, or Nature's Way or airlim soils.
They've got all that kind of thing. Even has some
plants out front seasonally, the kind of plants that are
appropriate for the season. We're coming to the end of
mower season. Why you go by there, just drop off
your more blades, have them sharpen them in the back.

(01:44:30):
Have they have a little repair shop for all kinds
of you know, lawn care equipments. Yeah, you go to
Southwest Fertilizer, give them a call first, ask them the
questions you need to ask seven to one to three
six six six seventeen forty four seven one three six
sixty six seventeen forty four Southwest Fertilizer dot Com. Head

(01:44:54):
now to Cleveland and we're going to talk to Cynthia Hello, Cynthia,
good morning.

Speaker 9 (01:44:59):
How you doing.

Speaker 4 (01:45:01):
I'm well, thank you.

Speaker 9 (01:45:03):
I just want to thank you. I learned so much
from your set, your Saturday show.

Speaker 5 (01:45:08):
I love being outside.

Speaker 9 (01:45:09):
I love messing with my plants.

Speaker 23 (01:45:12):
But the issue I'm having right now is I have
althea's and rows of sharing and week before last they
were just beautiful, blooming like crazy. Their leaves really looked good.
And now I've got several of them that leaves all
just kind of turned yellow. The flowers just kind of wilted,

(01:45:35):
and it's they look like they're gonna die.

Speaker 5 (01:45:37):
I don't know what to do with them.

Speaker 4 (01:45:40):
Very strange. I would check the soil, see if it's
soggy wet down there. Do you just dig down a
few inches, a little bit out from the bush, not
too far. How long have these been in the ground.

Speaker 23 (01:45:53):
I just planted in the last spring, so they're still
there's still small there, may be about maybe about two
foot tall.

Speaker 4 (01:46:02):
Okay, well they you know, I have noticed a lot
of plants are starting to do that, especially when they
get a bit on the dry side. And we're still
having really high demands with ninety degree temperatures on these plants. Right,
I think that's probably all it is, just a little
bit of an early leaf drop. I've got some crape
myrtles that are doing the same thing because I'm kind
of chinchy with the water, and so I think that

(01:46:26):
they're probably going to be okay based on what I've
heard from you. There's no other info or situation going
on there. They're probably gonna be okay.

Speaker 24 (01:46:36):
Okay, good good.

Speaker 23 (01:46:38):
I didn't know if I just needed to just stop
watering them all together, because I'm like you, it's been
so hot that you go out there and they're kind
of wilted a little bit, so you give them water
and then it's like, okay, I don't want to kill them.

Speaker 4 (01:46:52):
Well, right, do the little ghettle trial dig down four
to six inches, feel the soil, and that'll be your
answer right there.

Speaker 5 (01:47:00):
Okay, okay, all right, thank you.

Speaker 4 (01:47:02):
So good luck with that, Cynthia, thank you for the call.
It's time for me to run to a break and
I will be back for our last segment of this
hour in just a moment. And when I come back,
Freda and Chuck you, hey, welcome back to Garden Line.
I appreciate you listening in today. We have plenty of
more things to talk about, So hang with us here.
We got ways to go yet. If you need your

(01:47:25):
lawn air raided, I'm talking about the core aeration where
you pull the plug out of the ground and drop
it on the surface of the swell. That's the proper
way to air air a lawn. And then accompost top dressing.
B and B turf Pros is somebody you need to
know about now. They serve the south and southwest part

(01:47:47):
of the listening area, so they go all the way
from over around Pasadena, all the way over toward Sugarland direction,
and all down through that area. If you've kind of
follow Highway six down through there, that's prime time for them.

Speaker 13 (01:47:59):
B E.

Speaker 4 (01:48:00):
Turfpros dot Com is their website, and I give you
that because you need to go see the work that
they do. Bbturfpros dot Com seven to one, three two
three four fifty five ninety eight. They only use products
and companies that I trust here on Guardenline. So for example,
the quality top dress material compost top dress material is
coming from cenamultch That tells you right there that it

(01:48:22):
is a high quality product and they focus on that.
They don't cut corners on that they are all about
customer service. It is very important to them that they
go above and beyond and not just come out to
your house and do it and run off. They want
to make a personal connection with the clients and they
want to make sure you are satisfied with the work
they do. That's why I'm very enthusiastic about having them

(01:48:44):
as a sponsor here on Gardenline. Bnbturfpros dot com or
excuse me, BnB turf Pros is the name of the company.
The website doesn't have the end. It's bb turf pros
dot com. And the phone seven one three two three
four fifty five ninety eight. We're going to go now
to Frida in Pasadena. Hello Frida, welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 21 (01:49:07):
And thank you. I had a sister in law who
she's much more of a gardener than I am, but
she gave me what she called a butterfly plant. And
I was out watering the grass and I noticed a
little what I thought was a little butterfly, a little
tiny butterfly, and I told her I was so excited

(01:49:27):
because the blue of the plant and I thought I
had a butterfly. She said, no, that's a I think
she called it a sode worm that she said it'll
kill they'll kill your grass and nothing fast.

Speaker 4 (01:49:38):
So okay, how big was it?

Speaker 21 (01:49:40):
What?

Speaker 4 (01:49:41):
Yeah? How big was it? What color?

Speaker 8 (01:49:44):
It was?

Speaker 24 (01:49:44):
White?

Speaker 21 (01:49:45):
And it was that's the size of it. Maybe maybe
a quarter, not quite as big as a quarter.

Speaker 4 (01:49:52):
Okay, Well, that wasn't a side web worm. There are
a lot of different moths that are out there in
the landscape. Side web worms are going to be dark,
almost a town brown kind of color, and they're going
to be small. They're the size of your you know,
your little fingernail, just about I mean, they're not very big.
And yeah, so yeah, I don't I don't think that
was it. Now, if you walk through your lawn and

(01:50:13):
there's all these little moths like I described that are
just taking off and they fly a little bit and
they settle back in the lawn as you're walking, that
may be side web worms, but they're they're not white,
and they're not that big.

Speaker 21 (01:50:27):
Oh I had a little bone Offut I don't know
a little math.

Speaker 4 (01:50:33):
There's a hundred billion types of moths out there, So yeah, yeah,
I just don't think it was side web worm. Based
on what you said, But but do what I said,
walk through the lawn and if you see what I'm describing,
then maybe side web worms.

Speaker 21 (01:50:45):
Yeah. Well, she told me the same thing, and I
went out, walked through the lawn and I didn't see anything.

Speaker 9 (01:50:50):
She told me the same thing.

Speaker 21 (01:50:52):
Then you just gave me the wrong color, I guess,
not the thing, I guess.

Speaker 13 (01:50:56):
Yeah.

Speaker 21 (01:50:58):
I had a hibiscus, you know, and I talk to
you about this, and it did have meal mealy worms
or meta bugs, And like you said, I just went
in and pulled all of my good a even took
the plants out with the roots and picked off meala
bugs and then I used okay, the alcohol on you know,
some cotton on it, and I even sprayed with it.

(01:51:20):
She what she gave me. But uh, and it's looking
pretty good. But it's getting some yellow leaves every now
and then. So that's that's what I was concerned about,
is the yellow leaves.

Speaker 4 (01:51:32):
Okay, Uh, Well that if it's the older leaves, the
oldest ones as you go down the branch toward the bottom.
Uh though that's not unusual on those, they go through
fluctuations and so moisture and the older leaves will turn
yellow plus we're hitting we're on the doorstep of fall.
Some of those leaves are pretty old and and they're
they're going to come off. If you're just losing a

(01:51:52):
few leaves, I wouldn't worry about it. Just make sure
the so moisture stays out of quickly moist Okay.

Speaker 21 (01:51:58):
Okay, Well there's too some of the little ones flecked
out there? Was it because I didn't have water in
that or something?

Speaker 4 (01:52:06):
Yeah, I'll tell you what. I'm going to put you
on hold and our my producer will give you an email.
Send me some pictures of those in good sharp focus,
and if I see anything, I'll let you know. Thank
you very much, Fred. I appreciate your call, and I
know you're enjoying that, uh, that plant very much. That's
a beautiful plant, all right, folks.

Speaker 11 (01:52:24):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (01:52:25):
Our phone number is seven one three two one two
k t RH. For those of you out in the
Kingwood area. Oh my gosh, you got Warren Southern Gardens
and Kingwood Gardens. They got new citrus in incredible selection.
They got new fig trees in including some varieties you
may not have heard of before. Fall vegetables around, new
shipment of cactus and some really rare things like the

(01:52:47):
variegated chin cactus. Yeah, I know you haven't heard of
that one, and ghost cactus have arrived there. If you've
got a planner, they've got all the plants you need
to create a beautiful fall planting. Or how about this,
drop your planter off and let them do it for you.
They can do that as well. Five dollars off Microlife,
five dollars off Microlife brown Patch and also sweet Green

(01:53:09):
from Nitrofoss and asamite through the end of this month,
so time's running short on that one. Pick one of
those up, you know you need those anyway, five bucks
off a bag. And then there's just a plain little
sale on Bugginator and Nitrofoss, superturf and other things. And
a great thirty percent tree sale for limited time on
any of the trees they carry, and they have some

(01:53:30):
beautiful trees. And also while you're there, grab you a
tree hugger to hold on to those trees and help
them stand firm enough to get well well established. We're
going to head out now to Spring and talk to Chuck. Hello, Chuck,
welcome to garden Line. Good morning, sir, how are you

(01:53:51):
and well? And I got your pictures. You know, you
want to know what that is. Yeah, that's spurge, prostrate spurge, spurge.
If you look at the picture you sent me, every
little bump on there is either a flower or a
seed pod. And that's why spurge is such a problem.
It produces a bazillion seeds and they come up, and

(01:54:14):
so the only thing you can do for it is
pull it up. And if it's in the bricks, you
can do what they call flame weeding, those little devices
that hook up to approping little propane canister, and you
can do that, or put a pre emergent down a
barricade from nitrophoss. Spurge is listed. Prostrate spurge is listed

(01:54:34):
on the label of barricade. Spurge likes warm weather to germinate.
So you don't go ahead.

Speaker 25 (01:54:41):
Oh, I was just gonna say, I haven't. I've got
my barricade, so we're already there.

Speaker 4 (01:54:48):
Yeah. Well, you can put barricade down for fall, for
your cool season weeds, but for spurge next spring in
early March, put the barricade down and then I would
apply it again about sixty days later, maybe little maybe ninety,
but somewhere in there sixty to ninety days, depending on
how much you use the first time. Put barricade down again,

(01:55:10):
and that helps prevent that spurge from getting started. So
coverage first, it's good, and even.

Speaker 25 (01:55:17):
Because this is the first time I've had to deal
with it since we lived here, which has been decades now,
and I realize everybody's going through it. Is there a
liquid Oh yeah, they can help me.

Speaker 4 (01:55:30):
Well, there's a liquid form of that, but I don't
know where you would get it. Even the granules. Fine,
you put the granule out, you water it in, and
the product comes off the granule and goes into the
soil surface. So just get the regular barricade. That's all
you need, you bet.

Speaker 25 (01:55:46):
Thank you for putting a fresh fu.

Speaker 4 (01:55:47):
All right, mine, Thanks appreciate that check. Good luck with
getting that under control. That can be a challenge. Hey, folks,
I want to mentioned earlier the OBA program so you
want to grow food is October fifth, from eight to
three thirty. What I didn't tell you is if you
want more information and to register, go to obaonline dot org,

(01:56:09):
h b A online dot org. Today from twelve to
two I'll be at Ana Plants and produce in mongomery.
All of you up northn part of the listening area,
come out and see me. Let's talk. Let's help you
have a bountiful garden and a beautiful landscape.

Speaker 1 (01:56:26):
Our H Garden Line does not necessarily endorse any of
the products or services advertised on this program. Welcome to
kt r H Garden Line with Scip Richter's.

Speaker 16 (01:56:45):
Just watch him as All.

Speaker 4 (01:56:59):
Right, folks, we're back in the saddle again. Listen, we
got one hour left today and we are going to
hit the ground running here this hour to answer your
gardening questions. I was outside enjoying my feeders. By the way,
the hummingbirds just keep bringing their friends to my feeder.
I started off with one hummingbird, and then later there
were two and they just sitting here looking around yesterday

(01:57:23):
and out in front taking care of some lantanas I have,
and they're there. They're on a vitex that I have
out there. I've got a turk's cap, which is a
native plant with big red flowers. You know, hummingbirds love that.
It's like a neon sign for them. And then of
course at the feeders, if you want to attract hummingbirds,
go buy Wallbirds Unlimited and get there. They have a

(01:57:44):
number of beautiful hummingbird feeders now work, but I have
the High Perch. It's my favorite one. I actually have
a couple of different models from them and they work well.
You can go to WBU dot com, which stands for
Walldbirds Unlimited WB dot com Forward Slash Houston Forward South
Houston tells you the six Wallbirds stores here and it

(01:58:05):
is bird time. I mean there are the orioles have
been coming through. We of course got the hummingbirds feeling
up to cross the Gulf of Mexico. There's always things
to be done there at Wabirds Unlimited. I was down
at the One and Clear lag the other day and
a couple of people were in their shopping. What kind
of feed we'll keep the squirrels out?

Speaker 14 (01:58:21):
Well?

Speaker 4 (01:58:22):
There, I feed with pepper in it, both the cylinders,
the little hard cylinders that the birds peck the seeds
out of, and loose bird seed to keep the squirrels
out of your bird feed I've got a squirrel excluding
feeder from Wild Birds. It is my favorite bird feeder
that I own because it really works, and I think
I get as much enjoyment watching the squirrels not be

(01:58:42):
able to get into it as I do watch the
birds getting into it. But all of that's from wildbirds.
That's the place you need to go. You will be inspired,
I promise you. In fact, I might out our will
warn you. It can be addictive. It really can. It's
a lot of fun bringing music into your landscape. We're
going to go to northwest Houston now and talk to Debbie. Hello, Debbie,

(01:59:03):
welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 9 (01:59:05):
Hi, good morning, Thank you for taking my call. I
have two quick questions I believe I have. It looks
like birds of paradise. It's a very tall succulent in
it plants, and it has a white, fragrant flower and
it's beautiful.

Speaker 8 (01:59:21):
Right now, When can.

Speaker 9 (01:59:22):
I cut that back? Because it's kind of out of control.

Speaker 4 (01:59:26):
You say it's a bird of paradise.

Speaker 9 (01:59:28):
I think it is. It's almost looks like a gladiola,
but it's white, and it is a beautiful flagrant flower.
It's succulent. How I mean, I don't know when I
should cut it back.

Speaker 4 (01:59:40):
Okay, I'm just not for sure that we're talking about
the same plant. But in general, if you've had it
more than a year, did it die to the ground
in the winter or did it.

Speaker 9 (01:59:51):
Stay above and then it came right back.

Speaker 4 (01:59:53):
Yes, okay, I would wait until it dies down, and
then I would cut it back. Cut the dead out
sometime after it dies down, if you can stand to
look at it all winter with the dead stuff. Sometime
that dead material helps protect the base of the plant
a little bit. Or if you want to, just cut
it out so it looks better and then throw a
little bit of a little bit of multa over the
base just to kind of insulate it a little bit.

(02:00:15):
That way, whichever plant we're talking about, we've were covered.
We've got our basis.

Speaker 24 (02:00:19):
Great. Okay.

Speaker 9 (02:00:20):
Second question, I have a beautiful laurel oak and I
can't find another one anywhere. I guess they don't grow
them anymore here. What would be comparable to a laurel oak?

Speaker 21 (02:00:30):
Would it be a willow oak?

Speaker 9 (02:00:32):
Something with little bitty leaves like this one? Unless you know.

Speaker 4 (02:00:35):
Where I can get Well, have you tried, RCW?

Speaker 9 (02:00:40):
I have, and they don't have it.

Speaker 4 (02:00:42):
Yes, they didn't have it. Okay, Uh, let's see laurel oak.
I say, what, Yeah, well, yeah, it will. Maybe they
may have run into some issues. I don't know, but

(02:01:04):
I would call them and ask him about it and
ask them what they would suggest as a replacement that
fits that description or and they would be I'm sure
they'd be happy to point you to somewhere else that
might have it. If they don't, I would go back
to them because they are more up to date on
who carries what and what they carry and everything than
I am. But that you went to the right place
to begin with, because rcwas to go for those.

Speaker 9 (02:01:26):
Okay, thank you so much. I appreciate it, all right, thank.

Speaker 4 (02:01:29):
You, all right, Debbie, thank you appreciate that. Uh. You
know I I talk about the Nitropos three step program.
It's a it's a fertilizer that is a fall fertilizer.
It's called Nitrofoss Fall Special. The mix and nutrients in
it is perfect for giving your grass winter heartiness and
supporting initial growth in the spring. Second step is weeds

(02:01:52):
Nitrofoss barricade. You have to get it down before the
fall weeds germinate, which would then become your big time
weed problems in the If last spring you had weeds
that were just taken over the lawn, those would have
been prevented by an October fertilization. Excuse me, October barricade
application because that's the germination window. So do that. Number

(02:02:14):
three fungicide eagle turf fungicide. It's systemic. Again, you got
to do it ahead of time. Listen. We control and
disease control is like playing baseball. I bet you're wondering,
where's he going with us? Here's how it's like that.
If you're batting and you wait until the pitcher has
the ball in his mitt, it's too late to swing.

(02:02:37):
Is that that makes sense? Right? You gotta swing before
the ball gets to you in order to hit it right,
because here comes the bat and here comes the ball
and they meet and go over the fence. Nitrophiz barricade
and nitrophas eagle or that way you want to hit
the home run. You got to get them down. So
when the problem shows up, when the weed is starting
to germinate, barricade is saying no, no, no no no. When

(02:02:59):
brown pat or large patch or take off patches trying
to infect eagle is a eagle, turfundicide is saying no, no, no,
no no. That's how that works. Nitrofis Texas three step
widely available. You're going to find it added in Chennet Gardens.
You're going to find it a shade of Texas up
there in the woodlands, plants for all season. Talmball Parkway
is going to have it. A and A plants and

(02:03:20):
produce another place you can get nitrofoss product products like
the three step you know. I'm going to be at
A and A today, by the way, from twelve to two.
Please come out and see me if you live in
that area, if you got plant samples, bring me. You're tired,
you're weary, you're suffering, masses yearning to be diagnosed. I
will help that and provide you something to remedy the

(02:03:42):
problem that you might have. Because A and A's got
all the Nightfis products, all the Nelson products, all the
micro life products, all the airloom soils, Nature's Way, leaf
mold compost fine, and they have the whole thing. They
got to clean up. A crew that'll come in and
fix up your landscape for you up there in the
If you were in the Conroe area, just come out
to an A. Let's talk, let's f forget what's wrong,

(02:04:04):
Let's suggest some plants for you. Let's have a good time.
And while you're there, grab your night Foss three step program.
Let's head out now to Rose Sharon and we're going
to talk to Susie. Hello, Susie, welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 24 (02:04:16):
Hell are you?

Speaker 4 (02:04:19):
I'm doing what I'm doing well? Hey Susie, I'm I'm
coming up on a hard break. I keep doing this.
I get so excited taking calls and then the producer says,
you need to shut up. Skip, We got to go
to break. Can you hold just for a little bit
and I'll come right back to you.

Speaker 15 (02:04:34):
Sure you love me?

Speaker 4 (02:04:40):
Funny song. Hey, You're back with garden Line and I'm back.
We're going We're going to talk about all kinds of
things in the last segments we got today, I got
a lot more information I'm trying to get to here.
First of all, I want to remind you that if
you are looking for a quality mix for uh growing
roses and shrubs, that would be rose mix from Landscapers Pride.

(02:05:02):
You know Landscapers Pride their regional local organization here that
transforms what used to be living organic materials into magic
for the soil. Rose mix is an example. They have
their premium potting mix. It comes loaded with a nutrient
source in it. That's just a really good combination. Premium

(02:05:23):
potting mix. Indoor plants. Outdoor plants use the same thing topsoil.
You got some lower areas in your lawn, maybe you
lost some areas along you're gonna have to reside. Now's
the time. Get some landscapers Pride topsoil. Put it out
there in the lower areas, fill it up, get it
all leveled out so when you're running the mower after
you get your new lawn in, you don't hit bumps
and gouge out the grass and everything. It makes it

(02:05:45):
smooth and easy. And then finally, of course black velvet
mult it's always a good mult is not just for
hot weather. Mult is for twelve months out of the year.
And black velvet is beautiful. It is not dyed, it
is naturally black velvety color and it works really really well.
Another product from Landscaper's Pride. And you're gonna find these
products all over the place. You know they're widely available.

(02:06:06):
You can go to Landscaperspride dot com find out more
about it, or I tell you what how about rundown
to Ciena Maltch. Ciena Maltz carries Landscaper's Pride black velvet.
You can get it right there. You know, Sienna is
a place for quality materials. They you need bulk deliveries
and things. Do you need any of the fertilizers that
I talk about on guardline. Basically as I say, brown

(02:06:27):
stuff before green stuff, Ciena Malt is the brown stuff place.
They're down near Roach Sharon, just north of Roach Sharon
on FM five twenty one. I would suggest you right
down there their website address because that's the fastest way
to find out how to find them, how to call them,
and a lot more information Sienna Mulch dot com. Sienna

(02:06:49):
Mulch dot com. You can pick up those fall fertilizers
that I've been talking about while you're down there at
Ciena Maultch. Friendly Folks is just an easy, easy place
to shop and they take care of you and you
know when you leave with the product from there, it's
going to be a good product that does what it's
supposed to do in your garden and in your landscape.

(02:07:11):
Let's see, I'm going to go now to if I
can find the right mouse. Susie, thanks for patiently waiting.
I'm still doing I'm still too excited to pay attention
to the clock. So it's your turn. Now, how can
we help you?

Speaker 26 (02:07:28):
So I have two questions. They have some two year
old orange trees in the ground. Last year they froze back,
came up from the root. They're about two feet fall now.
Now I'm not going to protect them this winter.

Speaker 4 (02:07:47):
They they froze down how far?

Speaker 26 (02:07:51):
All the way down and they came out.

Speaker 4 (02:07:54):
And tell me the plant again that you had.

Speaker 24 (02:07:59):
Orange orange trees.

Speaker 4 (02:08:02):
I'm sorry, I asked that wrong. What type of orange,
what varieties or anything? Do you know.

Speaker 24 (02:08:09):
Valencia?

Speaker 4 (02:08:10):
I believe Okay, that was probably grafted, and so when
it comes back from the roots, it may be very
very thorny, indicating you lost the valencia and now you
have the rootstock. Is it really thorny or is it not?

Speaker 24 (02:08:28):
You know, I haven't really noticed.

Speaker 4 (02:08:31):
Okay, well go check that because before we get protecting stuff,
we want to make sure you still got your valencia.
But you may have some shoots and some have thorns
and some don't, and the ones with thorns will be
coming from lower toward the ground on the stump. If
you have a valencia, then you're gonna need to be
able to cover it up and put heat underneath it.

(02:08:52):
And if you will go to my website Gardening with
Skip dot com Gardening with Skip you when you get there,
you're going to find a publication and yet to scroll
down a little bit. It's there if you say view
all publications on the website. It talks about just the

(02:09:13):
season to be freezing, that's what the name of it is.
And it talks about hair protect plants against the cold,
and it gives you all the detailed instructions.

Speaker 24 (02:09:23):
So there are thorns in it, but it looks like.

Speaker 26 (02:09:28):
The leaves came out of a main artery and it
got more.

Speaker 4 (02:09:37):
Okay, let me ask you this. So, Susie, when you
look at the leaves, are they single leaves or are
they in sets of three?

Speaker 24 (02:09:53):
There's single leaves mostly.

Speaker 4 (02:09:58):
Okay, Well, let's assume it's of Valencia Worth protecting the
jury and judge Jury still out a little bit on
that one with me. But go to the website find
my freeze publication. It's on there. It's free and it
goes through all the details of how to cover them,
how to protect them, how to add heat underneath the cover,
anything you might need to do when it's going to

(02:10:20):
get cold enough to kill that tree again.

Speaker 26 (02:10:23):
Right, And then my next question is I have a
black diamond grape myrtle which is about two years in
the ground.

Speaker 24 (02:10:33):
I cut it back.

Speaker 26 (02:10:34):
Then the leaves that come out they look normal, and
then by now they're all by.

Speaker 4 (02:10:45):
Yeah, there's an insect that's sucking juices out of the
plant and basically excreting a sugary substance that's falling on
the foliage and then the black soot grows on there.
So the soot isn't the problem. It's you got to
find the end sec. It could be scale. That's the
most likely one is creat myrtle bark scale.

Speaker 11 (02:11:05):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (02:11:06):
And that would require a systemic insecticide put down to
be taken up so that when the bug sucks juices
out of the plant, it's getting poisoned juice from inside
the plant, Okay, And that that would be the approach
to that. Now the aphids would be the same solution.
Could be white flies, mealy bugs, lots of things. Can

(02:11:27):
it can create sooty mold. I think you're probably dealing
with creat myrtle bark scale and a systemic would be
the solution for that. Now, if you can find an
ace hardware stowing nearby. Uh, and there's one over oh gosh,
one over in Alvin I know area. Oh great, well
then then you're you're good to go. All you need

(02:11:48):
to do if if you're already you know in that
area is go over on West Willis Street and Patco
Hardware and Lumber is going to have a product. And
the ingredient is in meadow cloprid. But instead of trying
to write that whole word down, just it's I am,
I d O I mid dough and that is the ingredient.

(02:12:10):
That means it's a systemic that you drench into the ground.
The crank myrtle takes it up and it will it
will kill the scale.

Speaker 24 (02:12:17):
So is it too late to plant mandibles in the ground?

Speaker 4 (02:12:22):
Uh? Mendavella's is what you job? Yeah, you know you're
pretty far south, but uh it's a little bit risky.
That's not a very cold hearty plant at all.

Speaker 24 (02:12:34):
So I think if.

Speaker 4 (02:12:37):
You can, yeah, in a pot, you can roll it
into the garage when it's going to be cold, you know,
and protect it that way. Just need one of those
little dollies they call them. Okay, good, all right, Well,
sounds like you're set up to go. Hey, thanks for
thanks for the call, Susie, appreciate that.

Speaker 24 (02:12:56):
Thank you.

Speaker 4 (02:12:57):
You take care you bet psolutely. Yeah, we're talking about
ACE Hardware, the one down there Patco, Ace Hardware and
West Willis Street. You know Ace Hardware. There's forty of them.
So it makes it easy when someone calls and they
need a product, I don't care where they are. I
just send them to an ACE Hardware because I know
at ACE you're going to find every fertilizer I recommend

(02:13:17):
on Guardline, you're going to find all the things you
need to control past weeds and diseases out in your
landscape to make a beautiful lawn, a beautiful, bountiful garden.
Ace Hardware is the place, they say, that's the motto,
ACE is the helpful place. Well, it's the place for
your lawn and your landscape and your vegetable garden as well.

(02:13:37):
Acehardware dot Com find the store locator. It's as simple
as that. Find the one near you, mark it on
the map because you're going to want to shop there.
We're going to head now out to Bob in Friendswood. Hello, Bob,
welcome to garden Line. Hello, thank you. I have two
small trees that have problems.

Speaker 10 (02:13:58):
One's a Cleveland pair and it got a web on it,
which I looked on Google and it said it was
some kind of caterpillar. So I got the web off
and sprayed it with a super soap which seemed to
I don't see anything on it, but all of the
leaves in conjunction with the web that was created. All

(02:14:20):
of the leaves are black around the edges and slightly curled.
And this was about two months ago and they it
hasn't really improved.

Speaker 4 (02:14:31):
Okay, so I'm hearing two things. Maybe I'm not hearing correctly,
but tell me if I'm not. The webbing is going
to be due to an insect, and it's probably going
to be a fall web worm. They can do that.
Tent caterpillars do it in the earlier in the season.
It could be a fall web worm. If you're seeing

(02:14:53):
black and leaves, then that's due not to the insect,
and it should be a different cause than the web
That should be due to a disease called fire blight
that kills entire shoots. And the leaves don't initially fall off,
they just hang their chocolate black brown colored.

Speaker 10 (02:15:13):
Yeah, it's just all around the edges that the leaves
themselves are green, but they're still slightly spurled.

Speaker 4 (02:15:21):
Okay, well, then we're going to go to one more thing.
When you see the edges and margins, the tip and
margins of the leaf start to brown, that's due to
something is wrong in the plumbing of the plant. It
can occur due to different causes. For example, if you
had borers that were in the trunk that were preventing

(02:15:42):
water from the roots to reach the top, it could
cause that. If you over applied a salt based fertilizer
and burned roots, you could cause that. If you had
drought conditions it could cause that. And if you had
soggy conditions so that roots lacked oxen and dyed, you
might see a symptom like that. Also, I can't tell

(02:16:05):
you which of those is doing it on your tree,
but pears are very prone to that. And in many
cases with pears it's not a big deal. It's not
meaning you're about to lose the tree. They can show
that symptom, but something is stressing that tree. The other
thing I would I would just check and watch for
is make sure there's not a root at the base

(02:16:25):
of the trunk that is strangling the trunk. That happens
sometimes a root grows in a circle around the pot
they were growing the tree in, and then they keep
moving it to bigger pots, and the trunk gets bigger
and the root gets bigger, and suddenly the roots starts
squeezing and embedding itself into the trunk. And that also
is a problem that's common with ornamental pears like the Cleveland.

Speaker 10 (02:16:48):
Okay, how do I actually check for that without digging around?

Speaker 4 (02:16:52):
Go to the base. Yeah, I go to the base,
take a little hand trowel, maybe get you one of
those squirt pistols on the end of the water hose,
and just blast soil out of the way. You're only
going to need to dig down about three inches. Looking
around the tree, you'll see it. If it's in there.
The trunk will have swollen out, and they'll be right
below that swelling something that's squeezing in. So it's like

(02:17:13):
it goes out and then it comes back in, and
that's a sign of an embedded route.

Speaker 10 (02:17:17):
Okay, Okay, Well, it sits in the very moist area
of the yard, so it may be part of its
problem too.

Speaker 4 (02:17:26):
It's unlikely, but if it's wet enough, that can be
a problem. Yeah, it's pretty wet.

Speaker 10 (02:17:34):
Second problem tree is a small peach tree that we planted.
I guess this is its second year. It produced fruit
right off of that. Okay, but now it's looking limp
and the leaves have turned yellow, and it.

Speaker 4 (02:17:52):
Just all right. Yeah, I'm going to run to a break.
When we come back, let's tackle the peach tree. When.
Look forward to helping you with that, folks. I'll be
right back. Good to have you with us today. We
enjoy talking to you about the things that are of
interest to you. I want to mention that, you know,

(02:18:12):
talk about brown stuff. And for those of you that
live up in the northern part of the area, Nature's
Way Resources is right in your backyard. And Nature's Way
is the birthplace of things like rose soil and leith
more compost for example, and many other types of quality products.
John Ferguson started that many years ago and now his

(02:18:34):
son Ian running the place, and the quality just continues
with the products that they have. They have got their
fungal compost sales still going on. It's called Fungal Friday.
Every Friday, you can say twenty percent off of their
fungal compost. So that is a very good deal. And
remember we talk about leap mool compost as a compost

(02:18:56):
top dressing. Fungal compost is also suitable to use accomplosht
top dressing if you don't do that. Also, one more thing.
I'm going to be there on the tenth of October
Nature's Way Resources. That's Interstate forty five north almost to Conro,
right where the road from Well fourteen eighty eight comes

(02:19:16):
in from the left hand side from Magnolia, you turn
right and go to Nature's Way. It's called the Fall Festival.
They're going to have Latin food, local vendors, certainly plant sales,
live music, children's activities. It's going to be a shindig.
That is officially a shindig. Go look that word up.
I'll be there doing a Q and A from eleven
thirty to one thirty and there'll just be a lot

(02:19:38):
of fun stuff going on. So the whole deal itself
goes from nine thirty to two at Nature's Way Resources.
Here's the phone number nine three six two seven three
twelve hundred. Nine three six two seven three twelve one
hundred gets stocked up this fall Fall is for building
the soil, because fall is for planting twenty percent off

(02:19:59):
fungal compost only on Fridays, but every Friday Fungal Friday
sale at Nature's Way Resources. We're going to head back
now to I think we were talking to Elizabeth. Is
that correct? I go back to the right call. Yes,
Hello Elizabeth, Welcome to garden.

Speaker 24 (02:20:18):
Good morning.

Speaker 3 (02:20:19):
I have a question. Okay, I have some very big
oak trees in my front yard. I live in Sugarland,
well it seems, and I've tried all the things like
putting compost and putting mulch and all that sort of
thing at air rating. But I have an area around
that tree that my grass just doesn't want to grow.

(02:20:40):
So I've tried everything, and I'm wondering if I put
gypsum mixed in with some compost, willout break up that
sort because it's like concrete. I you know, I dig
it up. I put the air raidar and all of that,
and it still reverts back to this hardness.

Speaker 4 (02:20:57):
I got you, Okay, Gypsum only helps a clay if
the clay is high in sodium, and in your area,
I don't think you have really high sodium water when
you wash your hands at the sink. Is it like
you can't get the soap to come off and they
just stay slick even though yeah, yeah, yeah, okay, so

(02:21:19):
I no, don't don't worry about that. You know, the
aeration is helpful, but I would always keep decomposing organic
matter on the surface of the soil. Always have composts, decomposing,
mulch decomposing, And that's the best thing you can do
for those oak trees.

Speaker 3 (02:21:35):
Yes, very enormous. I mean I've lived in this house
twenty years and they were reasonable when I moved in,
and now they're giants.

Speaker 4 (02:21:43):
All right, Well, just just make them think they live
in a forest. That's what oaks want. Any tree wants
to have its the whole ground under the tree covered
with rotting leaves and bark and anything else organic.

Speaker 3 (02:21:57):
I just don't ever, you know, yes, I just don't
take it away when you know, rake it up and
throw it away. I keep it on there, you know,
all those leaves and whatnot that fall down. Yeah, okay, well,
thanks very much, I will do that.

Speaker 4 (02:22:10):
Well, you're doing the right thing, obviously. You moved in
and they keep getting bigger. They must like you.

Speaker 3 (02:22:15):
Elizabe they're huge.

Speaker 27 (02:22:16):
They're huge.

Speaker 3 (02:22:16):
They're huge.

Speaker 4 (02:22:17):
Okay, thank you so much, thank you very much. Yeah,
appreciate that a lot. Yeah, it is. It is true.
Nature knows how to take care of soil. You know,
I tell you what. Let me well, I'm gonna come back.
I want to talk a little bit about soil and
organics and stuff like that. Right for right now, I'm

(02:22:37):
just gonna I want to keep moving.

Speaker 10 (02:22:39):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (02:22:40):
Microlife fertiliser products. They have a product called Soil and
Plant Energy. Soil and Plant Energy is a combination of
humic acid and molasses. In other words, microbe food. Microbes
love carbon, and when you get humid and fuvic acid
combined with molasses, you got some good stuff for the
microbe in the soil. It is an excellent product. It's

(02:23:03):
got over sixty three different minerals in it. Very safe.
You're not going to burn with it. It's a microlife product.
It's natural. It doesn't take much, just two to four
ounces per gallon. You can spray the foliage. You can
do it as a folier. You can also put it
down on the soil, drench it into the soil. Either
way is good. It's just another one of those liquid
products from Microlife. This one happens to be the hot

(02:23:25):
pink label. You know, I was kind of going by color.
I love doing that because it makes it easy you
have to memorize a name. Look for the hot pink label.
Microlife Soil and Plant Energy go to Microlifefertilizer dot com
and you can find out about all their products. And
I can tell you this, they are widely available when
you are out shopping for places, at places I talk

(02:23:45):
about on garden Line, there is a very high likelihood
that they're going to carry the Microlife line of products.
We're going to now go to sugar Land and talk
to Don. Hello, Don, Welcome to garden Line. Do we
have a Don? All right, I'm gonna put Don back
on hold. There we'll come back to you Don. We're

(02:24:08):
going to go to Parland and talk to Kay. Hello.

Speaker 5 (02:24:10):
Okay, Hi you, good morning, Skip, good to talk morning again.
Thank you for taking my call. I have I bought
a rosemary plant, a small one, and it has grown exponentially,
and a friend of mine wanted to get a cutting,
and she took a cutting and it's starting to go south.
And I just wondered if how do you propagate a cutting.

Speaker 4 (02:24:36):
All right, So here's what you do. By the way, well,
go ahead. Rosemary is very easy, easy to propagate. You
want to get new growth out toward the end. Don't
get old, chunky hardwood, but it can be a little witty,
but out toward the end. You want to take cuttings
that are about I would say three inches long, and
take the leaves off the bottom half the cutting. Dip

(02:24:58):
that cutting in a rooting hormone. Can buy rooting hormone
power powder. I have it any kind of a garden
center place. Dip it into the powder and then make
a little hole. Take I take a pencil and make
a hole in the rooting mix and put it in
there so that when you push the cutting in you're
not wiping all the powder off, and then just gently
push the mix up against it. I will take pearl

(02:25:22):
light and mix it with a potting soil type material,
about two or three parts of pearl light to one
part of the potting soil. Because you want optimum drainage,
not mucky soggy. Needs good oxygen down around that cutting.
Put a clear cover over it and put it in
a bright area, but not direct sunlight. It needs lots

(02:25:42):
of light, but the sun will cook it inside that
clear cover. So if you do all that, rosemary will root.
It is a very easy to root plant given that process.

Speaker 5 (02:25:53):
Okay, well I started out. I took one down close
to the base because there were three or four ranches
off of that, you know, and I thought, oh, that
looks a good one.

Speaker 4 (02:26:04):
Guess all right, well, good well, good luck, good luck
with it this next try. And thank you very very
much for that call. I'm gonna run. Let's see what
time is that I've been doing this wrong? Old Yeah,
I better hold off Don and Ralph. You'll be our
first two up when we come back from break here
in just a tiny second or two. Stick with us.
I got a few more things I want to talk about.

(02:26:25):
I'm gonna make a little room today to address a
couple of issues that I think will be very helpful
for you. So hang around for tuning in. We got
plenty of things to talk about. We're gonna run straight
out to talk to Don in Sugarland. Hello Don, and
welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 17 (02:26:41):
Good morning, Skip. I got two questions. One went over
south was fertilizer. I got some celsius and because I've
got all of this is your weeds that come up,
and especially the Behao grass, and I think it will
cut kill the Behayo grass. Uh you suggested man that
they didn't have that. But anyway, I said, it's okay

(02:27:03):
to spray as long as you don't and it's not
going to absorb into my citrus trees as long as
it's passed the drip line.

Speaker 11 (02:27:10):
Do you agree with that?

Speaker 4 (02:27:12):
Yes. In fact, if just don't get it on the
foliage of the citrus and don't apply so much that
you're drenching the soil, that would be a waste of
celsius anyway. And it's not cheap.

Speaker 17 (02:27:23):
No, it's too expensive for that.

Speaker 4 (02:27:25):
Yeah. Yeah, well all you got to do is barely
with the foliage.

Speaker 17 (02:27:29):
Yeah, okay, But I got all these different weeds that
have just I don't know, it's dollar weed and all
this other kind of stuff that comes up. Also, there's
a little green weed and it has a little yellow insert.
I don't know what they called it. I showed them
all that stuff. But hopefully that'll kill that. But I

(02:27:50):
have these probably one hundred foot Italian cypress, and I
mean they're brown all the way to the top. So
I guess it's just they're dead. Just have to cut
down they're dead.

Speaker 4 (02:28:02):
Italian cypress, like junipers and pine trees and other things
like that, when the needles are in the case of
Italian cypress, a little scaly leaves die. It cannot re
sprout from that spot on the branch. You have to
have green foliage. So in other words, if you took
out Italian cypress and you cut all the branches on
one side off, it would always be a dead side

(02:28:25):
the no new growth can come out there. Yeah, so brown,
that's one reason why I don't like it.

Speaker 17 (02:28:32):
Tight go ahead and so the whole tree is dead
even though you like cut all the branches off, it
would never come back out, correct.

Speaker 4 (02:28:43):
Yeah, any other tree, you know, if you took any
tree and you took a chainsaw on turned it into
a hat rack, it would just re sprout out everywhere
you cut. If you take a cedar, a juniper, an
Italian cypress, a pine tree, and you do that, it's
going to be a hat rack. It is not able
to re sprout like other trees.

Speaker 11 (02:29:00):
Well, thank you?

Speaker 17 (02:29:02):
Uh did it in when that drought?

Speaker 6 (02:29:05):
Not in?

Speaker 17 (02:29:05):
Water? Is the thing enough in it?

Speaker 5 (02:29:08):
All?

Speaker 11 (02:29:08):
Right?

Speaker 4 (02:29:09):
Well?

Speaker 17 (02:29:09):
I'll cut it down, all right, all right.

Speaker 4 (02:29:12):
Well, good luck with it. Thank you, yes, sir, thank you.
I appreciate the call very much, Thank you very much
for that. I just wanted to make some comments about organics.
A lot of times people will talk to me about
our like, I want to be an organic gardener, and
so I'm going to use organic pesticides, and that's fine,

(02:29:34):
that's part of organic gardening. But organic gardening is in
the soil. It's about the soil. That's where the movement
began and that's where the heart of it still is.
It's not just changing the bullets in the gun, like
I'm going to quit buying synthetic pesticides and buy organic pesticides. Again,
that's part of the deal with organics, But it's the soil.

(02:29:54):
If you don't get the soil right, you're not You're
going to be struggling. Your plants are going to be
struggling to survive, and then you do have more disease problems,
you do have more insect problems. Begins with the soil.
The brown stuff composts in the soil, organic matter, good drainage, quality,
nutrient ingredients, and the soil bank account that helped provide it.

(02:30:17):
After that, when you run into problems, Yes, if you
want to use inseexticidal soap or some other organic pesticide,
that's fine. But don't just start with how to kill
the bug, how to kill the disease, how to kill
the weed. Start with the soil. That is what organics
is all about. I'm gonna run northwest Houston now and
talk to Ralph. Hello, Ralph, welcome reguard line.

Speaker 27 (02:30:40):
Good morning again. I found my front yard. You told me,
I guess gonna have to get somebody to soil is
so hard in there, and I tried different things and
I cannot beat it. I need to get the saint
all good thing to grow. And I'm on my bike.
You are fine with the front yard, Okay, got to okay.

Speaker 4 (02:31:03):
Bottom line, Ralph, get get a good core aeration done.
Open up some holes into that hard ground. It needs
to be moist when they do it, so the the
the air raidor can get down in and do it.
And then put a little fine dressing, a compost, real
fine compost over the whole thing. Let it work its
way in. And that is the single best and first

(02:31:24):
thing you can do to get that lawn going again,
that's where I would start. Certainly fertilizers important, Certainly water
is important, but let's start to work on that hard
soil you're talking about, well near the aor yeah, yeah,
you can. Sometimes the ones you rent aren't the best ones.

(02:31:44):
You can hire somebody to come in and do it.
But if you want to do it yourself, you can
find a place to rent one and do it. But
it's a lot of hard work to do it. So
I would I would recommend hiring somebody.

Speaker 27 (02:31:58):
I'm fighting this. It's done good and everything else, all right,
give me.

Speaker 4 (02:32:05):
All right, here's what okay, got a penhandy, Yes, got
a penhandy two eight one two eight one three five
one three five one forty seven thirty three. And I'll
give you that again two eight one three five one
four seven three three. And the companies called green Pro

(02:32:26):
they do an excellent job and they serve your area.
I hope that helps. I'm gonna have to run to
another call here, pretty qreat.

Speaker 7 (02:32:34):
I appreciate it.

Speaker 27 (02:32:34):
You're good, Joe, Thank you, Bye.

Speaker 4 (02:32:37):
Thank you. I appreciate I appreciate that a lot. We're
gonna go to Tomball and talk to Marianne today. Hello, Marianne.
Welcome to garden.

Speaker 28 (02:32:44):
Line, and hello, I'm calling to find out if you
can help recommend a product to control Virginia button weed.

Speaker 5 (02:32:53):
It's we're really having a.

Speaker 28 (02:32:54):
Problem with it in our Saint Augustine grass and we
can't get control of that.

Speaker 4 (02:33:01):
Okay. The product I would say will give you the
best results is called Celsius, like the temperature Celsius. It
comes in small packets. It's not cheap, but a small
packet makes a gallon, and a gallon goes a long
way because you're not applying it to everywhere in the
lawn your spot treating the Virginia button weed. Now we're

(02:33:25):
going into fall. You could try doing it now, but
the most important thing is next spring when you start
seeing the Virginia button weed, spray it with celsius and
be ready to repeat that spray about I would say
three or four weeks later. You may have to do
a repeat of it. It's not an easy weed to control,

(02:33:48):
but Celsius in research trials has done better than anything
else at controlling Virginia button weed.

Speaker 28 (02:33:55):
Do you recommend somewhere to buy that or do they
sell it online?

Speaker 24 (02:34:00):
Where should I I would go?

Speaker 4 (02:34:02):
If you're in tombul Arbor Gate. I'm ninety percent sure
carries celsius.

Speaker 24 (02:34:07):
Okay, that's close.

Speaker 4 (02:34:10):
Yeah, I think I think you're going to find it
out there. I find it at d and de Feed
as well. But I would start there and and just remember,
look at how much you need, because you may not
need to use the whole packet. So you could do
a half gallon and use half the packet and then
you'd have half left to do it again.

Speaker 14 (02:34:31):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (02:34:32):
You know, if you've got a five acre lawn and
it's solid rudinia button weed, well then you need a
lot more than that. But most people, you know, yeah,
go ahead.

Speaker 28 (02:34:42):
We do live in a rural area where it's it's
about an acre and a quarter. But but it's just
it just takes over like carpet. And first we thought, oh,
well this is pretty and we can rip it up.
But then it comes back with the vengeance and we
tried the uh we'd be gone, the work that we'd
be gone and it and it killed the grass and
then the button we was just coming back. Will the

(02:35:03):
celsius kill the grass as well? Should we panic if
we see it die? Or will it kill the grass
or no?

Speaker 4 (02:35:11):
It will not. It will not. Okay, No, it kills.
It kills a weed, not the grass.

Speaker 28 (02:35:15):
All right, Okay, thank you appreciate it.

Speaker 4 (02:35:18):
You bet, you bet, Marian, thank you very much for
the call. I want to take a moment for you
right out of time here and just talk about something
about fall fertilizing. I talk about it all the time.
I say it's important. Here is what you need to know.
Through the year, we are pushing our lines with nitrogen.
That's what they need the most of spring and summer
for good growth and health. When we come to fall,

(02:35:40):
we want them to slow down, and so we are
fall fertilizers. The nitrogen is lower, the potassium is higher.
That's the third number on the back. First number goes down,
third number goes up. That is a fall fertilizer. It
creates inter freeze in the grass plant. It creates carbohydrates,
and when you do that, your grass is more cold, hardy.

(02:36:00):
But even more important is in spring when the new
growth starts out. It's stored energy that's doing that, and
that is where the fall fertilization kicks in strong with
that new spring growth. Again in the spring, then we
begin the nitrogen fertilizers again as things warm up and
the grass is growing. But fall fertilization is the most

(02:36:22):
important fertilization of the year. And that's why. All right, folks,
you've been listening to Garden Line. I'm about to jump
in a car and guess where I'm going to Ana
Plants and Produce in Montgomery, Texas on the east side
on one oh five. I hope everybody listening up north,
certainly northwest. Heck, I don't care where you're coming. If

(02:36:42):
you're coming from Galaston, come on to save me at
Ana Plants and Produce in Montgomery. Bring samples. This is
your chance to get an eye to eye with me. Diagnostics,
recommending products, bring me pictures of that landscape area that
aren't doing well. Let's talk. I'm going to be giving
away the fertilizer product from and the canisters from Neilson
Plat Food, and also some really cool stuff from Medina Products,

(02:37:06):
some of their liquid hose en products. So you come
win some stuff there and also pick up the supplies
you need today and a while you're there, twelve to
two today, be there a B square see you. Thanks
for listening to the Guardline. We'll be back tomorrow morning,