A Pub Hangout for Butterflies? In MY Tree?

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to kt r H garden Line with Skip Rictor.

Speaker 2 (00:04):
It's just watching as the spot not a sound.

Speaker 3 (00:33):
Good morning, gardeners, Welcome to garden Line. I'm your host,
Skip Richter, and we're here to help you have a
bountiful garden and a beautiful landscape and more fun in
the process. I don't forget that third part. That's very,
very important. You know, gardening is not a competition, and

(00:55):
in this day time, if we have a crop failure,
we're not going to start to death. Fortunately, it's just
an opportunity to create beauty, to enjoy ourselves, to get healthier.
That's a whole nother discussion right there, but it sure
does hope you get healthier and have fun, really enjoy
ourselves out there in the garden, and grow some good,

(01:16):
healthy things we like to eat. So if you haven't
tried growing vegetables or fruit or something like that, this
year'd be a good year to start. We had fall
vegetable garden season launching out. Actually it officially begins in
July when we start putting out things like some tomatoes
and peppers and things for the fall. Start planning some seeds,

(01:38):
certainly by August that are going to be fruiting in
the fall, things like cucumbers that don't want to really
grow in the heat, and go ahead and get them
started now, and by the time they start producing well,
it's about fifty days later. It depends on the variety
you get. It's going to have cooled off a little
bit and they'll set fruit well. So that typically for me,
I'll do that in about August. It's time to start

(02:00):
seeds for the cool season crops now, like broccoli. I'll
start my seeds typically early into July early August for
things like broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, coal crops, all those blue
lyf vegetables. And after about six or so weeks of
starting a seedling, it can go out in the garden. Now,

(02:23):
some people just wait and plant the seeds out in
the garden later on. Do it either way you want.
It's kind of hard for some of the cool seasoned
vegetables to germinate and put up with the temperatures right
now of the soil and the blasting sun that we're
getting as temperatures now are rising up. But there's a
lot of ways to go about it. The main thing
is just let's do it. How about this, I've got

(02:43):
an idea. If you don't have a garden, that's fine.
You have to go out and plow out the back
forty You can get yourself a raised bed and fill
it with quality mix and drop it on the ground
out there and go right to it. Or you can
get your real big So I was just talking about
things like cool seasoned vegetables. You could start those from

(03:05):
seed in the container they're going to grow in. Just
put a few extra seeds in there come you know,
compared to the number of plants you actually want, and
then if they don't all come up, you're okay. And
if they do all come up, you can just thin
out a few of them. But with a container, you
can put it in a nice bright spot, even if
you got indoor light that over it, just to get
it up and growing. And then once the seeds are

(03:27):
germinated and growing, then you can move it out to
a bright outdoor spot where it can get good sunlight.
So another way to go about it, however you want
to go about it. But the main thing is go
about it. Let's do that. Let's grow some things this
year out in the yard. We are still seeing, you know,
some of the effects of disease and stress on lawns,

(03:51):
and I'll talk about these. I'm gonna go into a
little more depth about this in a minute, because I'm
getting a lot of calls and quite a few emails
from folks so that are looking at their lawn and
saying it's dying. What's wrong, what's happening. I don't know
what I did wrong and what can I do to
fix it? And so we'll talk about that probably as
we come back from a break here a little bit,

(04:13):
But for right now, I want to talk about some
of the bugs that are the bugs of the season.
This season is of course, we're dealing with fire ants
out there in the garden. I mean the yard. Well,
the fire ants are everywhere. Night Fuss has a product
called fire ant Killer, and you put it down as
a granule, water it to wash the product off the

(04:34):
granules that it's on and get it down into that
surface area of the thatch and the top of the
soil and things, and there it does its work, and
it works well. You can put it right over a
mound and drench it down into the mound to get it.
You know, if you're trying to get rid of a
fire ant mound like that. It'll kill other insects as well,

(04:56):
and if it's spread out, but it works. You can
find night Flush Prouce at M and D and Cyprus
on Blueta Road. You're going to find them at D
and Defeed and Tomball. You're going to find them at
M and D in Sagemont and Clear like both M
and D Beamer and M and dy Clare like they
carry night frost products as well. When we come back

(05:16):
from a break in a second, I'm going to go
into this issue with the lawns and some photos I've
been getting and it just seems like there's a whole
lot of them. I'm putting together a little publication on
some of that and we'll be posting that to the
web this week. I'm kind of working my way through it.
There's so much to say that I don't want to
write a book. You don't want to read a book.

(05:39):
I just want to get out something that's concise. But yeah,
covers it covers it pretty well. Speaking of the pests,
like you're talking about firemants out there. Pest Bros. Pest
Brothers is a regional pest company. They serve the Greater
Houston area. And they can deal with any kind of
pest you're dealing with. You know, termites for example. You know,
termites get in your house and they do a lot

(06:00):
of damage and it can be not just expensive to
deal with, but also affect you know, the value of
your home down the road. A lot of different termite
calls come in. You know, there's a famosa in termite,
the subterranean termite. They understand all this. There's even a
drywood termite, and they know how to go after the
particular termites we're dealing with. They have a product they

(06:23):
put down in the soil around your house, but it's
done in a little trench. It's not put up on
the surface. It's down in a trench, a very shallow,
small trench around your house. And that makes a very
safe way to apply it. You know, it's not sitting
up there where pets and kids and whatnot are going
to be subjected to it. And it works for ten years.

(06:44):
It lasts, I mean guaranteed for ten years. That's a
long time. I would have that done and then just
marking your calendar ten years from now to call them
again because it's one and done and you just have
that peace of mind and not dealing with a urmae.
You can call pest Bros To get a quote on
this or any of their other services two eight one

(07:05):
two O six forty six seventy two eight one two
O six four six seven zero, or go to the
website dpestbros dot com dpest b r o s dot com.
They do really good work there. I was out checking
my Moskita buckets again yesterday just seeing how things are going. Uh,

(07:27):
they'll be needing to be redone and about a week now.
They're done once a month. By the way, Pestbros Comes
out about once a month to put new product in
the buckets so it stays fresh and it keeps working.
And it does work for sure. Well, let's take a
little break. If you would like to give me a call.
The number is seven one three two one two fifty

(07:50):
eight seventy four seven one three two one two fifty
eight seventy four are to make it easy to remember,
K T R H. I'll be right back. Welcome back,
Welcome back to garden Line. Good to have you with
us this morning. Hey, if you'd like to give me
a call and ask a gardening question seven one three
two one two kt r H seven one three two

(08:13):
one two fifty eight seventy four. So I was talking
about lawns and lawn issues that I'm seeing. And here
is the most common call email you name it. People
catch me on the street and talk to me about
stuff that I'm getting, and that is you got this lawn,
typically Saint Augustine, because most lawns are Saint Augustine, and

(08:34):
compared to Azuisia and Bermuda grass in our area U
and it's just starting to decline, and it's just flat
areas are just kind of dying in big, irregular areas.
And I say big, it could be as small as
foot and size, but as wide as twenty feet in
size or more. Uh. And you know you're water and

(08:54):
it's not getting better. But it starts off though. It
starts off looking yellow and then it goes to brown.
And when you get down on your hands and knees
and look at it, the runners are dead. Now. Brown patch,
large patch in the cool season makes big brown circles,
but it doesn't kill the runners. It just rots the
leaves off. You get down and look at the runners

(09:16):
and they're alive and it tends to be circular. So
this is a very different look. This is irregular. It's
just like just an area that's just going downhill. It
looks a lot like chinchbugs. But chinchbugs typically start near
a curb, a driveway, or a sidewalk, some kind of
concrete or masonry. Typically they don't have to, but that

(09:40):
more times than not, is where I see chinchbugs begin.
And as they suck the juices out of the grass,
it just starts to lose color and just go to
ten ten brown, and the chinchbugs, of course, then they
got dry grass. They can't feed on that. They move
forward a little bit and they keep going, and so
you have this It's like you lit a match and

(10:01):
put it in a dry lawn and you just have
a fire burning outward from that. That's kind of how
chinchbugs move in general. And so that line in this case,
where the fire is burning, that's where all the chinchbugs are.
That's where the grass is going from green to brown.
That transition zone. You can get down there part the
part the grass blades apart and look down at the surface.

(10:25):
When you part real quick and move it, they go
hide right away. But you can see them, but you
have to go online. Look what a chinchbug looks like.
They're about an eighth of an inch long, something like that.
The adults are black and white the nymphs or kind
of a bronzy red color with a white bar across
their back on the nymphs. But anyway you can see chinchbugs.

(10:45):
It's a different look though, like that, So you can
tell it from the problem that I'm getting now so
much and that I've assessed is take all root rot.
Take all root rot is a fungus that is ubiquitous
in our lawns. You have take all root rot in
your lawn, most likely of a plant pathologists. A state

(11:08):
plant pathologist who specializes in turf said one time he goes,
it is hard to find a lawn that doesn't have
take all root rot in it. Meaning they were doing
a study and they wanted to get some grass samples
so they could start to inoculate them with take all
and figure out stuff about how to control it. And
it's like all these samples that take all already in them,

(11:29):
but the lawn's not dying. So you look at a big,
beautiful lawn. It looks great, but there's take All in there.
So why isn't it dying? Because take All is an opportunist.
I know this is getting long, but just bear with me.
It's an opportunist. And so when the patient gets weak,
take All moves in and gets the upper hand and
kills it. That's how it works. So what makes a

(11:51):
patient weak, Well, it's stress on the lawn. It's compaction,
a lot of foot traffic and compaction. It is shade
can do that if you put out broad leaf herbicide.
You remember how I say, over and over, don't use
these things to kill broad leaf weeds as a post
emergent when the temperatures and the nineties. Actually, if you
read the label, it says above the upper eighties. Because

(12:14):
that stress is a lawn and it may look okay,
it may survive, but it's weakened now. And take All
moves in. And there are other things that are stress.
Is drought is a stress. So if you get a
little dry spot and it goes into a stress for
a while, you can start watering again later, but during
that weekend time, take All can move in and then
you see the problems. It's primarily attacking in the fall,
in the spring as far as doing its infections, but

(12:40):
in the summertime when the demands are going up, by
the way, take all kills roots on the grass, and
the grass is losing roots. It's you just see where
that's going. That's why we see all these browning things
in the heat of summer, because we've got a grass
that's less and less and less efficient, and the temperature

(13:01):
is going higher and higher and higher, increasing the demand,
and the two come together and you're seeing it around
lawns right now. Doesn't mean every lawn that brown has
take off re right, it's just the one that's most
prevalent that I've seen right now. So what do you
do about it? Well, I'm going to put a publication
online for what to do about takeoff patch. Basically there
is culturally, you avoid stress, you alleviate stress. You do

(13:26):
not let all the things that I mentioned that stress grass,
don't do that. Don't mow too low. That's another one.
Mowing way too low for the species of grass that
you're mowing. And then in the spring and fall there's
a time when you can do the treatments. And by
the way, it's on my schedule. Gardening with skip dot
Com my website, Gardening with Skip dot com. Find the

(13:48):
pest disease and weed management schedule for lawns and you
can look on there in the disease column and you
see one to treat for takeoff patch and what to
use for take off patch. By the way, the schedule
is been updated. I've made some changes to it, but anyway,
that's the approach. Now, there are some other things people
have tried. There's been several research trials that have shown

(14:10):
that Spagnum pete moss pressed those compressed bales of it.
It looks like a brick, but it's three point eight
cubic feet. It's pretty large, but like almost size of
a hay bale. Really, those cover one thousand square feet
when you break them up and spread them very thinly
about a third of an inch deep. Only it's just

(14:31):
a very thin layer. You water it in and that
gives a pretty quick response. There's some other things I'm
not gonna I could use the whole show talking about this.
I'm not going to go any further, but just know
that be watching for that publication coming up because I'm
putting it on the front burner. I'm also going to
do a little video that we put on our social media.
If you don't follow a garden line on Facebook and

(14:52):
on Instagram. On Facebook it's called garden line and on
Instagram it's called garden line with skiprick draw believe is
how that's put anyway. So there that was a lot
of information. All right, Let's talk about something better, something nicer.
How about Neilson Water Garden and Nursery outing Katie, Texas.

(15:13):
You head at to Katie turned north on Katie Fort
Ben Road and it's just down the street on the right.
This is a one of a kind place. It is
amazing the kind of stuff that they have it right now.
I'm just so impressed with the uh with the indoor
plant collection that they put together. It's just it's like
a jungle in the building. You just walk in. It's

(15:36):
just beautiful. Of course outside you got the calming sound
of water when you go there. This is a disclaimer
on morning you you're gonna go out there and hear
the sound of water and see the beauty of their
water features, whether it's a discipline fountain out of an urn,
or whether it is a little waterfall and you're gonna
want one for your home. You really are because that

(15:56):
is very very cool stuff. They do have all kinds
of plants. Though it is a nursery, it's not just
water gardens. It's everything and when you go out there,
you will enjoy it. Trust me, take a friend when
you go Nelsonwatergardens dot com. Nelsonwatergardens dot com. That's how
you find out more about them, and you just got

(16:16):
to go to experience it. Definitely a destination place to go.
So I was talking yesterday about sprouting on vitexs and
crape myrtles. If you've ever had a vitex and you
try to train it, it is a frustrating thing because
you cut a branch, it's like it didn't know what

(16:38):
it wants to be. When it grows up, you know
it's sort of a bush, but it kind of goes
let it angles and goes left and right and up
and down and everything. It's just a difficult plant to train.
And then every time you cut off a branch, it
sprouts two or three sprouts out of there. So you
didn't want a branch there, now it's giving you three
more to deal with. But there's a product called soccer

(16:59):
Stock upper sucker stopper. Those are suckers. There are probably
other brands on the market. That's just the one I
see all the time. But basically it's a plant hormone
that tells the plant, yeah, don't sprout that we don't
want to do that now, And so when you put
it on a fresh cut, it stops the sprouting. And
if you've ever had a crpe myrtle and you get

(17:21):
all those shoots coming out of the bottom, or you
drive around town you see a nice crape myrtle with
a trunk or three trunks or whatever, and at the
base are all these sprouts coming out, Well, cut them off,
but treat them a sucker stopper, or they're just going
to re sprout and re sprout and re sprout and
it works. Well. So where do you get something like that? Well,
the first place when I think about any kind of
products South with s fertilizer, and Bob has it. He's

(17:42):
got the sucker stopper type products there. And you just
go in and say I need something to stop sprouting
from the base. We're a prune, and he'll put it
in your hands. You know, if it's a pest of
weed or disease, you're trying to deal with the answer
is south with a fertilizer. If it is organic products
and the best selection in the region, the answers are

(18:04):
Southwest fertilizer. If it's quality tools, you know brands like
Corona for example, very very high quality tools in those Uh,
maybe Felco there's another great quality tool. The answer where
do you get it? Southwest fertilizer. You's got it all?
Corner Bissinet and Runwick in Southwest Houston. Seven to one
three six six six one seven four to four seven

(18:28):
one three six, six six one seven four to four.
Went a quiet morning on the phones this morning. If
you'd like to give me a call seven to one
three two one two fifty eight seventy four. If not,
I'll just keep talking about stuff because I got a
lot of things to talk about and I'm happy, happy

(18:48):
to do it. I noticed in some of getting out
and about yesterday, Uh, we had a rose bush and
there's there's these little holes in the leaf and they're
not little. In fact, they're maybe a size of your
little fingernail, depending on how big your fingernails are, smaller
than a marble, but round like a marble, and they're

(19:10):
caught out of the sides of the leaf, and it's
like what it's like you took a giant hole punch
and just punched a hole in the side on the
edge of the edge of a leaf. That is a
bee that does that, And it's a bee that's cutting.
It's called a leaf cutter bee where they got creative
name in that one. And it cuts this little round
circle of leaf out. I see it a lot on roses.

(19:36):
I see it a lot on red buds, but a
lot of other plants are affected. I'll tell you a
little bit more about it when we come back from break. Hey,
welcome back to the garden line. Good to have you
with us this morning. I was talking before we went
to break about the sprouting and the sucker sprouting and
things like that, and you can get where you get
the products and stuff to control it. It is important

(19:59):
to do it when you do the cut. If you
want to do that, I think it's good to have
some of that on hand. You know, if you own
a crape, if you own a Vtex and you're trying
to train it, that would certainly be the case. I'm
trying to turn bind my Vitex into a single trunk
tree and I just that's the form I want. So

(20:19):
I'm not announcing yet that you can do it. I'm
just telling you I'm trying, and boy, that sucker stopper.
It'll change your life in terms of the frustration of
trying to train a vtex, that's for sure. You know,
folks at Microlife, they have long been a leader in
production of organic fertilizer products, and not just fertilizers, but

(20:39):
products that stimulate plant growth that help protect against some
of the things that mess with your plants, that attack
your plants. For example, like they have a product called
micro Grow liquid AF liquid AF. It comes in a gallon.
It comes in a quart, and it has eight different
beneficial microbes in it that live in the soil or

(21:01):
on the leaf to protect your plants. You can use
it as a preventative or to solve a problem. It
is not a fungicide, but it does work. We know
nature does things this way. You know, there's products like
Bacillus thuryingensis BT. That's the one that we use to
control caterpillars, right, I'm using that as just an example

(21:23):
of one of those kind of things. Well, there are
other basillis. There's one called subtlest basilla subtlest. It is
a very good disease fighter and it's present in nature
and their products that contain that. There's trichodermas in the
soil that really help, and other basillis and other strupto mice.
It's in this product. So you mix it up really good.
You do as a fold your application. You drench it

(21:44):
in the soil because different microbes work in different places,
and you can get it from Microlife. It is kind
of a maroon label, Burgundy maroon label, and it works
really well. And that's just an example of the mini
products that Microlife has that are part of working with
nature to accomplish our goals in gardening. Microlife Fertilizer dot

(22:05):
com is where you find out more and where to
find them, and I can tell you and can find
them just about everywhere, very widely available, which is nice.
You're listening to garden Line. I'm your host, Skip Richter,
and my number here is seven to one three two
one two KTRH seven one three two one two fifty
eight seventy four. Give us a call. We'll visit with

(22:27):
you about the things that interest you. I have been
working on getting rid of some nuts edge in a
bed that I had, and I last year I had
it all the way down to just maybe three nuts
edge plants by the time I got the end of
this season that I had not eradicated. Well, this year,

(22:48):
guess what, I didn't jump back on it again. You
know that thing about do as I say, not as
I do, Well, I didn't, and those plants started proliferating.
And nuts edge doesn't just double every so often. It
what is the word for eight octagon? It octo octobules.

(23:09):
I don't know what, but one nuts edge becomes eight
nuts edge in no time. One year, I had a
nuts edge plant and one plant, and I decided in
May to dig it up and see what was there.
And there were eight viable tubers coming off that one
mama plant by May. So what as I tell you, Well,

(23:30):
those eight viable tubers are going to have babies themselves.
And guess what, you have a nuts edge chia pet
for a garden bed. So anyway, I jump back on it.
The other day I knocked it down. I know what
will happen. I got almost all them. Probably there's probably
gonna be on maybe six or so that come out
of that. I'll hit those and if there's one left,

(23:51):
I'll get it and then it'll all be over. Nuts
Edge doesn't go away easy. But I have a publication
online at my website, Gardening with Skip that is a
it's called a nutsedge and end Depth look, and if
you'll take a look at it, it will walk you
through it understanding how nutsedge is working. And therefore it's

(24:11):
not just for nerdy knowledge. It's oh, I see, so
here's what I have to do. And you know, to
give you an example, it's when a nutsedge plant comes
up and has three to five leaves. You have to
do something about it then, because if you let it
go past that five leaves especially, you're going to start
having nutsedge side tubers coming up and you geometrically the

(24:36):
explosion of that population. You don't want that. All right,
let's head out to Conro. We're going to talk to
Dave this morning. Hello Dave, welcome to garden Line. Hey,
thanks a lot.

Speaker 4 (24:47):
Yeah, yeah, we just got my wife. Now, we just
got a house on a corner lot and rod close
to the boat launch over there. But I got they
put a like it looks like a little a penel
for you. It's like if you kind of touch your
finger to your thumb. It's about that big a round,
but it's leaning uh one way, and I think I

(25:09):
should take the things out and uh straps and then
pull it just a little more straight up.

Speaker 3 (25:17):
Uh like how much is it leaning? Is it for
like a forty five degree angle? Or is it more
or less than not? It's getting it don't look too
good this Let me put it like that. Okay, how
big is the trump? A little bit? That's what I'm saying.
How about the trump?

Speaker 4 (25:36):
You you put your thumb to your finger, depending on
how big your finger your hand is.

Speaker 3 (25:42):
And that's about it.

Speaker 5 (25:43):
That's all it is.

Speaker 3 (25:44):
Oh, I see, I see. I thought you were describing
the leaves when you said that. All right, so yeah,
that's a small tree tree. Yeah, pull it, pull it,
Pull it up right. If you feel like it's leaning
too much, pull it up right, pull a little passed
where you want it.

Speaker 4 (26:02):
Pardon gently And I don't want it to go into
the house, you know, but I mean, yeah.

Speaker 3 (26:10):
Yeah, get it gently, pull it up a little bit.
Well you could, you could do that. I would personally,
and I have I use these. There's a thing called
the three sixty tree. Stabilizer. It's a little plastic, very
strong plastic bar that has two straps. One one hooks
to a post, one hooks to the tree. But there's

(26:32):
soft it's a soft rubber strap on the tree. And
if you'll pull that a little further than you want
it to be. In other words, if you pull it
to straight up, when you finally unhook it, it's going
to go back a little bit. Uh So pull it
a little pass straight up, not much, just a little,
and that strap allows the tree to move. And you
don't want to honker it like put a steak in

(26:53):
and tie it to a steak. You need that tree
to move because that creates strength as it develops and
it I have a tree right now that I'm trying
to bring more upright, and I go out every time
I walk by it, I just grabbed the trunk and
kind of wiggle and pull on it and move it around.
It's kind of like what wind would do. And that's

(27:14):
what makes a tree trunk rigid and strong. So that's
what I would do. But the three sixty tree stabilizers
work really well.

Speaker 4 (27:21):
For where do you find that at three sixty tree stabilizer.

Speaker 3 (27:26):
Let's see me hang on, just where is the you
want doing that?

Speaker 4 (27:31):
I got another question about my grat my yard and
everything I want to I'm thinking about putting some sand
in there because there's some pit holes here and there,
and then I got kind of like to kind of
get it better than it is. And it does have
Saint Augustine grass.

Speaker 6 (27:47):
So.

Speaker 3 (27:50):
Okay, so I'm sorry, I'm sitting here looking at the
three sixties. Mention that again for me, please. Yeah, the
grass in.

Speaker 4 (28:01):
My yard, you know, like when you're walking around, I
think I need to put some sandy in it that
kind of stabilize it out because it's like it's kind
of and I've got Saint Augustin grass, but you know,
you're walking around and all of a sudden there's some
like little pit holes in there and stuff like that.

Speaker 3 (28:19):
So shut up. Oh you're trying to level it out there?

Speaker 4 (28:22):
Level them out?

Speaker 3 (28:23):
Yeah. Yeah, you could use sand. If your soil is
fairly sandy, you could use sand. If your sail is
a clay type soil, I would use more of a
loan top soiled kind of mix, uh to level those holes. Okay.
The three sixty tree stabilizer, I don't know in your
area who carries them. You might try A and A
plants or call them out by Montgomery. But I know

(28:43):
as you come in toward town, you're gonna find them
at RCW Nursery. You're gonna find them at the arbor gate,
and you're gonna find them at plants fall seasons. Uh
in kind of northwest Suston. Hey, I got a run.
I'm up against you the heartbreak Dave Man. Yeah, I
appreciate you.

Speaker 5 (28:59):
Man.

Speaker 4 (28:59):
Hey, I'll listen all the time and I'll learn a lot.

Speaker 3 (29:02):
Thank you. Thanks, all right, I appreciate that. Thank you,
Thank you, sir, I appreciate it. Time for break, folks
will be right back. All right, we're back. Welcome back
to Guardline. Glad to have you with us. You know,
you drive around in summertime and landscapes are sea of green.
It is green grass, green shrubs, green groundcovers, green trees,

(29:23):
and nothing wrong with the color green. But there's more
colors out there. There's no reason why your landscape cannot
be beautiful and full of color, even in the summertime.
And a good company knows how to do that. And
Pierscapes is a prime example of what I'm talking about.
In fact, I know of no one that I've just
been so impressed with the work they do is Pierscapes.

(29:44):
It is beautiful and if you will go to their
website trying to talk into checking it out, because when
you see it, it's like, oh I get it. I
oh wow, Okay, I get it. Piercescapes dot com. Whatever
you need done, and I'm talking about a wide vari
irrigation needs some work. I want to put in a
concrete patio or walk or rock walkway. I'm not concrete,

(30:07):
you know, a beautiful stone patio or a walkway, maybe
landscape lighting, you know, just on and on. And they
do offer a quarterly maintenance service too, or once a
quarter they come out. They spruce up the beds, they
check the irrigation, They change out the flowers if needed,
if the season is changing and they need you need
a different kind of plant in there for the next season.

(30:29):
They do it all Piercescapes dot Com. Two eight one
three seven oh five zero six zero two eight one
two seven oh fifty sixty head out to Alvin. Now
we're going to talk to Helen this morning. Hey Helen,
welcome to garden.

Speaker 7 (30:43):
My dear, I noticed a problem. Yesterday when I was
eating breakfast near my window and on the ledge, there
were ants coming up of electric wire. So I was wandering,
do not want a powder but a liquid or a

(31:05):
spray that one can you know, put to alleviate them
or kill them. And then the next thing is a fertilizer.
There are supposedly homemade fertilizers for indoor plants. And I
had a neighbor say she would, you know, take care

(31:26):
of my plants, but she forgot to water one, so
I'm trying to revive it, and I really okay, yeah,
we'd like a homemade If you've heard of some homemade fertilizers.

Speaker 3 (31:38):
Well, let me okay, let me see if i can
move those pretty quick. I'm gonna I've got a short segment,
so I'm going to try to do them real quick.

Speaker 1 (31:46):
For you.

Speaker 3 (31:46):
The ants, if they're outside, you can get a spray product.
If it contains by fen threne, it will and spray
on the wires they're on, on the side of the
house or wherever you're seeing them, and then it'll shut
them down. If they're ants, then you need to use
a fire ant bait ideally, and that way, wherever their
mounds are that they'll get that bait and it works.

Speaker 7 (32:08):
There's a lot of fun on my ledge inside inside.

Speaker 3 (32:13):
Yes, okay, there are there's ants to eat protein, there's
ants that eat like sugar. There's in and depending on
what kind of ants you have, what you would use
to treat them or different. But there are little ant
bait stations, little flat things that you can set on
your counter. The ants will go in them to get
the bait. But it's got to be a bait that

(32:34):
attracts the kind of answer going after. So I there's
so many kinds of ants. I can't tell you which
one you have, but a bait station is the safest,
least toxic thing. As far as homemade fertilizers, I don't
recommend that. Just gets you a good quality fertilizer. The
folks that know some plant food have some wonderful little
jars of fertilizer for specific kinds of plants. There's one

(32:56):
for houseplants, there's one called color Star for outdoor blooming plants.
But look for a good Nelson fertilizer for that. And
hell and I'm sorry to have to keep moving, but
I'm I'm going to run out of time here, and
I've got other folks that are on whole. So let
me leave you with that, all right. You bet you
take care, You take care. Arctic Insulation Solutions is who

(33:18):
you need to call if you're tired of paying high
bills trying to keep your house cool, or if you
can't keep your house cool. You know it runs all
day and it doesn't get as cool as you want it.
They do everything that's necessary to help keep that home
of yours as cool as it can for the most
economical way. Arctic Insulation Solutions, whether it's full barrier in

(33:38):
the in the attic, whether it's insulation in the attic,
whether it's solar attic fans, or sealing up openings where
the air moves from the attic to your house, they
can do it. Aarc tic Houston dot com aarc tic
Houston dot com eight three, two five, eight six twenty

(33:59):
eight eat three. We're gonna go now out to northwest
Houston and talk to Myron. Hey, Myron, welcome.

Speaker 8 (34:07):
Togard morning, good morning, Thank you for taking my call.
We have some we live up in Montgomery. We're moving
up to Montgomery, and we have some live oaks that
have they're probably about six inch caliber live oaks. They're
not really young, but not real old. They have a gray,
fuzzy growth on many of the branches in the trunks

(34:27):
it's about and the growth is probably about an inch.

Speaker 6 (34:32):
Yes, I know.

Speaker 3 (34:33):
What you're talking about. I do. That's called lichen with
liking it l I C h E N. Well, you
can do nothing because lichens do not kill trees. They
they're a sign of two things. One, the tree could
not be growing fast, and therefore as a sunlight comes

(34:53):
through more, the lichens tend to proliferate a little more.
They're also a sign of moist you know, hot, humid, rainy,
just that moist environment. They sometimes some types of lichens
love that. Most people just ignore them. You can physically
kind of rub some of the outer parts off. There

(35:14):
is a spray called moss max that will help control lichens,
but they'll just come back. It's not and you put
it on and lichens don't get on there anymore. Lichens
will grow on a rock, they'll grow on a dead
fence post. They that's just the nature of it. They're
not a parasite. So I would ignore them, and I
would try to do things that get that tree more vigorous,

(35:36):
and that would be my approach to it. But if
you want to try to spray something, you can use
moss Max.

Speaker 5 (35:43):
Thank you.

Speaker 3 (35:44):
Okay, Yeah, that was simple. I appreciate that. Thank you
very much. Hope that. I hope that helps. We're coming
up here on a little break, so I'm not gonna
be able to take another call. If you'd like to
get on the words with me so that when we
come back, you can be one of the first up.
Seven one three two one two five eight seven four

(36:09):
say that again. Seven one three two one two fifty
eight seventy four. Hey, wild Birds Unlimited. That is the
place you need to go if you need bird seed,
if you need bird houses, if you need a birding advice.
Wild Birds Unlimited six stores in the Greater Houston area.
Go to w EU dot com forwards last Houston and

(36:34):
find the six stores near you. I mean they're they're
in Kingwood and clear Lake, in Paarland, in West Houston
and Southwest Houston and up in Cyprus. There's lots of
stores around to find wild Birds Unlimited. It's my favorite
store and I'm just telling you they're bird seed quality.
Nobody matches it. Nobody matches it. You buy a pound
of bird seed and the birds get to eat a

(36:54):
pound of food rather than kicking it on the ground
or all that other kind of stuff. Wild birds on limited.
All right, folks, music means I got to quit talking.
I'll be right back with your questions. Oh, grab me
a cup of coffee here, Hey, welcome back to the

(37:21):
garden Line. I'm your host skip director. We're here to
help you have a bountiful garden, a beautiful landscape, and
more fun in the process. Gardening is a wonderful hobby.
I highly recommend it. And I know we have folks
listening that just like to listen and they don't really
garden much. Believe it or not. That's the case, and

(37:43):
my goal is to talk you into trying trying it out,
trying gardening. I was talking earlier about you know, getting
a big container and planting in it and stuff like
that for vegetables or for flowers. We could do it
that way. Maybe, I don't know, Maybe try If you
already a gardener, what are you going to try new?
How about this fall? It falls a perfect time for

(38:05):
planting woody ornamentals and shrubs and trees. You can plant
twelve months out of the year in our climate here,
it's more of a challenge in summer because the demands
are high. As you put the plant on the ground,
you got to be TLC over the top taking care
of those plants, making sure they do well. But fall
is ideal. So what do you want to plant? Do

(38:25):
you have a flowering tree in your landscape? Where would
one look good? How about this? It is summer, it
is hot that patio. Eh, maybe early morning, maybe late day,
but not in the middle of the day. All right,
Let's put an arbor over it, in a vine. Wouldn't
that be beautiful? A blooming vine, or if you like
to eat things, a great vine you could do that.

(38:47):
See what I'm saying. What do you want to try new?
There's beautiful fall flowers and things you could plant. So
let's make plans. Let's do that. Try something new, always
something new. Listen, there are so many plants. What do
we say, so many plants a little time. Yeah, you're
never going to get the end of them, so it's
time to get started. Let's work on it. I love that.

(39:09):
It's one of things I like about gardening. And you
know what, let this getting philosophical, but I want to
officially give you permission to fail at gardening. Yes, that's
what I said. I'm an officially giving you permission to fail.
Here's what that means. Try something. If it doesn't work,
you can try something else. You know, I plant things

(39:31):
every year that I've never grown before, and I'm just thinking,
I don't know if that'll grow here. Well, I'm gonna
find out and if it does, good, If it doesn't,
all right, I mean, you know there's such a thing
as a garden hoe and a rototiller. I mean, there's
nothing wrong with starting over again. Just but try something
new and different and don't be afraid to fail. Maybe

(39:51):
you fail because you forgot to water it. Okay, Well
we're going to get an automatic timer system for the
hose end or whatever, and we're going to fix that
for next year. Don't be afraid to fail there. You
only officially fail at gardening when you quit and give up. Okay,
And you're not going to quit and give up. Just
enjoy doing it. It doesn't have to be perfect. It

(40:13):
just has to make you happy. And if you live
where there's an hoa, well I guess they're going to
weigh in on that too, but you get the idea
of what I'm saying. Nitrofuce has a product called sweet
Green that is primarily sold as a long fertilizer. You
could use it anywhere you want to give a nitrogen
boost to your plants. But sweet Green is a very

(40:34):
It's made from a sugary type base, a molasses type base,
and it about eleven percent nitrogen, which is a very
high nitrogen for an organic type fertilizer. You put it down,
you water it, it dissolves away and goes into the soil,
and those high carbon molecule particles of sweet Green really

(40:56):
stimulate beneficial bacteria microbe growth. They love that. They need
carbon source and that's why gardeners use molosses, one of
the reasons they use molasses on their plants of soil.
Sweet Green is available like night Fross products. You can
find night Frost products in places like Fisher's Hardware, Pasadena, Laport,
Mount Bellevue, and there's one in Baytown too. You can

(41:18):
find them in place like Hiding and Feed if you're
looking up Scubern airline direction or maybe in Channi Gardens.
Go way on out there to Richmond Rosenberg and those
of you in Richmond Rosenberg and Victoria are saying, what
do you mean? Way on out there, it's the other
way for me in Chanted Gardens as night Foss products
as well Sweet Green give it a try. We will

(41:42):
now go to Netdland and talk to Randy. Hey, Randy,
Welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 1 (41:49):
Good morning, Skip. I've got a question about a bis
Camp air tree. I've been trying to locate some more
of these trees and can't do it. I've got several
people would like to have a tree, and so I
thought maybe I would try to take a cutting and
get it rooted off the tree. If if this is
if this is a hybrid, is that the proper way

(42:12):
to do it.

Speaker 3 (42:16):
Yes, if it's a named variety, you have to do
it from a cutting. Okay. I have never heard of
bis Camp that I would say that's not a commercial pair,
because I've kind of heard about all of them. I think,
how do you spell bis.

Speaker 1 (42:36):
Camp, biscamp bis Camp. I bought it probably six or
seven years ago from a local nursery people who were
who the only place I ever heard of that had them,
and in the in the Beaumont area. And since then
the people died and the nursery had to shut down.

(43:00):
But anyway, it makes a wonderful pair. It's an eating pair,
a soft pear, you know, a very sweet pear, and
you know everybody that eats it loves it. And I
thought I'd try to, you know, produce a few more trees.

Speaker 3 (43:17):
All right, Well, sure enough, I'm looking now, and it
is a commercial pair. Never grown one of those before?
Where do you get one? Uh? Well, Arbigate carries a
lot of fruit trees year round, and uh I would say,
I would give Arbigate a call. I know that's not
a short drive for you, but I would just find

(43:39):
out if they got it out there, that that is
is one possibility.

Speaker 1 (43:46):
Well, if if I wanted to, you know, to root
my own, you know, I guess my question would be,
is what's the proper way to do that? Where do
I get the cutting from exactly on the tree? And
what medium do I use to try to root this thing?

Speaker 3 (44:05):
Yeah, So what you're going to do is, first of all,
rooting a fruit tree variety is very difficult because fruit trees,
the parts of the tree that grow fruit are mature,
and they're very difficult to get the wood to root,
and I would say it's almost impossible to do it.

(44:26):
You might be able to pull it off, but I
would give I would give consideration to instead doing a
tea bud or a graft onto another pair. Get you
another kind of pair, and get some cuttings off this
tree and try grafting them in the middle of the

(44:46):
cool season, when temperatures are just starting to come out
in the spring, but before the bark all starts slipping.
You can take a cutting and do something called a
whip graft that's a very easy, high percentage graft to
make on them, or you can do something called a
cleft graft in the middle of the dormant season. Two
and I would do several of them on a tree.

(45:08):
Even if you bought another pear tree and grafted onto
the branches of it the best character. Uh, you could
do several of them, and if even one of them lived,
then you'd be in business to start a new tree
if you want. If you want more information on that,
I think I believe the Aggi Horticulture site still has

(45:29):
information on grafting. It used to.

Speaker 1 (45:34):
Yes, yes it does.

Speaker 2 (45:37):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (45:37):
Yeah. So you go to the fruit and nut section
and just follow those guides. I don't know that they
have whip graft on there, but I like whip grafting
myself for things like that. And you're using wood that's
about the size of a pencil when you're doing whip drafting,
or a little bit larger, but not much larger.

Speaker 1 (45:59):
Can I can remember when I got this tree. I
can remember when I got this tree. It was in
a pot and it was just a stick sticking straight up,
so you know, I thought that they had you know,
I thought that they had rooted it in the pot.
How do you get a mis camp fare if you know,
if if they're not rooting off of a cutting or something,

(46:21):
how do you get how do you get one?

Speaker 3 (46:27):
My I don't know. I just don't know of a
nursery where I've gone and oh there's a miscampire there.
That was my initial comments. But I think well, fruit enthusiasts,
fruit enthusiasts generally will know, oh Joe's Joe's got a

(46:48):
tree of that, and you can you can go get it.
I would I would call the Galveston County Extension Office
and I would tell them that do you have a
list of any fruit folks local? Don't I want to
say people's names on the air because I just don't.
But called the Galveston County Extension. Obviously they have some
fruit enthusiasts that are part of their master gardener group

(47:09):
down there, and others that they might refer you to.
They give you the best chance of finding a tree
you could get some cuttings from. I've gone over my
time here, Randy. I'm gonna have to go, but good
luck with getting that. Thank you for your call, folks
will be right back, all right, welcome back to the
garden Line. Good to have you with us this morning.
As always, love visiting with gardeners about gardening. That's how

(47:32):
we do it here. Seven one three two one two
fifty eight seventy four seven one three two one two
kt r H. If you are looking for some of
the tools that you hear me talk about all the time,
like the garden kneeling seat. A kneeling seat, what is that?
What's it? Folds up? First of all, so its stores
really easy. But when you unfold it, if you turn

(47:52):
it one way, it's a seat with a cushion. You
flip it upside down and now it is a kneeling
bench with a handle. That was the legs. So when
you need to get on your knees and then get
back up that handle, Oh my gosh, does that ever help?
Oh it's huge, especially when you're gardening all day getting up. Now,
Southwrest Fertilizer carries them, of course they do carry everything.

(48:14):
The kneeling seats that I all talk about all the
time are there. Also. I have a little on my
website gardening with skip dot com. I've got how to
build a weed wiper. And the weed wiper is a
cool little tool, very easy to build. But you start
with a little grabber tool with suction cups on the end.
Bob's got those at Southwest Fertilizer. Go to my website.
You see pictures of it, you see how to make it.

(48:36):
It is super easy. I don't care if you're not
to do it yourself or you can make this thing.
It is just simple and it works. I use it
all the time. Grabbed it the other Day's got some
weeds in the yard and I didn't want to get
herbicide on my grass, so I'll put it on the
sponge on the wiper and went through the yard. Just
these weeds sticking up above the grass. And just wiped
it on them, took care of it. Very very little

(48:57):
pesticide use that way, very little. Love it Southwest Fertilizer
corner of Bissinette and Runwick. Whatever you're looking for, you're
going to find it there. We're going to go now
out to Seabrook and talk to Lisa this morning. Hey, Lisa,
welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 5 (49:11):
Good morning.

Speaker 9 (49:14):
I have a question. Can you grow a banana tree,
a dwarf banana tree in a pot and will they produce.

Speaker 3 (49:21):
From it in a pot? Yes, if it's a if
it's a dwarf and it's a large enough pot, you
need to get as big a pot as you can.
And if you have a little dolly, a little hand dolly,
you can slip the lip of the dolly under the pot,
put a strap around the pot, and it's really easy

(49:42):
then to just pull on the top of the dolly
and roll it right into the garage. When we're going
to have the kind of temperatures that would kill the
banana outright. Anything in a pot, the base of the
plant and the roots are exposed to much colder temperatures
than something that we're planted in the ground. Bananas here
planted in the ground can dive back to the ground

(50:03):
and then come back out of the ground again in
a pot. I think I would I would protect that
when we're getting into a really cold spell. But yes,
you could certainly do that.

Speaker 1 (50:15):
Any special fertilizer.

Speaker 3 (50:16):
For that, uh, you know, any kind of a tropical
plant food. You're primarily looking for some nitrogen to taboost growth.
So it's not going to be you know, a lot
of times, Lisa, I it's just you and me talking.
Nobody's listening. So I'm going to tell you this. I
use lawn fertilizer on almost everything that I grow. I

(50:40):
mean I do. And I know there's reasons to have
more phosphorus, and I've got some of those kind of
products too, But when with the banana, it's going to
be pretty happy if you fertilize it. And that's about
all you gotta you gotta know.

Speaker 9 (50:53):
Thank you, all.

Speaker 3 (50:55):
Right, thank you very much. Appreciate the call. Now, you know,
on garden Line, I don't charge for advice, but I
do expect to get half of the bananas you produced.
Just deliver them the station. We'll call it even Thank you,
all right, Thank you, BABYE Take care. Oh boy. Uh.

(51:16):
The Plants for All Seasons is the garden center there
on Tambaill Parkway two forty nine. I was, I was
checking out their website and they got a brand new
websites really good. You need to go check it out.
It's called Plants for All Seasons dot com Plants for
All Seasons. Really nice new website. But I talk about
all the things they do, and you know there's service
and knowledge the plants and everything. They have something I

(51:39):
don't think I've mentioned lately, but they have. It's called
pot to Trot and its custom container gardens, and they
make it easy for you. You can go there and
buy a container from them. I've got a container from
that place, beautiful. Or you can bring one from home
up there and they will help you pick out plants
to make a combination color for whatever area you have.

(52:02):
Maybe you got a front porch area, an entrance way
that's very dark. You know it's not enough sunlight for things. Well,
they can find plants that will grow in that condition,
even plants that provide a little bit of color that
do really well. Maybe it's a sunny patio. Just call
them up, go buy there, ask them about this. You
can go get there what they call a pot to
trot form, get started on your custom flower pot. They'll

(52:26):
make it for you. Or you can go by there
and pick up an already put together container that they've
already planted plants for all seasons two eight, one, three, seven, six,
sixteen forty six. Let's go now out to Tumbull and
we're going to talk to Wayne. Hello, Wayne, Hello.

Speaker 10 (52:43):
There, how are you good morning? I'd call it last
fall about knockout roses and you know, stuff like that.
And you know, I told you they had kind of
drown you know, they had kind of you know, they
had this like drown in little and the flowers all
shriveled up, and the leaves it kind of turned you know,

(53:05):
yellow orange ish red, you know, trilling up.

Speaker 6 (53:09):
Well.

Speaker 10 (53:09):
Anyway, so I went to one of the nurses all advertised, oh,
I don't know, several months ago, and they gave they
told me to spraying with this, and that really didn't work.
So uh it came back again. I cut the rose
all the way back, you know, and they flushed out
gorgeous and they bloom gorgeous. And then I got like

(53:33):
maybe five or six or seven. Now these are like
knockout rose trees and knockout and drift trees, you know,
the other ones to make trees out of. And anyway,
so so I got this again where the roses you
just scribbled up. And but the funny thing about it

(53:53):
is I may have one right next to it that's
just gorgeous. I'm talking about just gorgeous.

Speaker 3 (53:59):
Well, hey, I was out there. Huh sir, well Wayne,
I know where how this call ends. Uh, You're gonna
need to send me some pictures up close on good
sharp focus. You can show me the whole bush in
a picture. But then I want when you said there's
one that's good next to one that's bad, take a
picture of that and the closer you get, but always

(54:21):
check them for you send them. Make sure they're in
sharp focus because I'm gonna have to zoom in and
look at some things. But my brain is going in
like four direct go ahead all the time. Okay.

Speaker 10 (54:32):
So I found this little nursery out in Kingwood. So
I took a cutting and I went in there and
they told me, Donald, have you ever heard of this?
They told me that they thought it was Witch's broom.
Have you ever heard of that?

Speaker 3 (54:47):
Which is broom is. A witch's broom is a physical
condition where sprouts just proliferate and what should be one
little shoot becomes a dozen or more shoots. It can
be caused by virus. It can be caused by micro plasma,
which is another microbe we don't really talk about much

(55:09):
because they're not as common, but they they're there that
that typically causes witches broom. But I need to see
a picture. And when I see a picture, then we
can actually get get somewhere. I'll spend them. I'll spend them.

Speaker 10 (55:20):
We can get some.

Speaker 3 (55:23):
Uh probably not, depending on what caused it. But let's
let's see the picture. I'm gonna put you on hold
and my producer will pick up and give you an
email that you can send me some good, close sharp
focused pictures and I will take it from there. Thank
you so much. I appreciate appreciate your call a lot.

(55:44):
This morning. The other day, I was rejuvenating a houseplant
that I had and it was, uh, it was neglected. Okay.

Speaker 8 (55:54):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (55:54):
It'd been sitting out in just a pile of house
plants and in a kind of an area outside sort
of protected from the sun. And I was planning on
getting these repotted and cleaned up and doing some things
because you know, like the gardeners, I have too many plants. Okay,
we'll talk about that, but that's a whole other issue.
But anyway, I was using some Medina on it and

(56:16):
Medina Plus. Medina Plus is a product that has the
Medina soil activator that was one of the original products.
They still have Medina Soil Activator, by the way. It's
good product, but with Medina Plus they fortified it with
micro nutrients. They put some seaweed extract in there as well.
You can use it as a fold of your feed.
Just follow the label. It's not a salt based fertilizer.

(56:38):
You're not going to burn your plants with it. Just
spray it on the foliage. I always drench a little
bit in the pot as well. It's very good for
reducing transplant shock and stuff works. It's called Medina Plus
from the folks at Medina, and you're gonna find Medina
products all over town. Feed stores, garden centers, ace hardware stores,

(56:59):
South fertilized, all kinds of places carrying Medina products. And
this Medina Plus is just one of many products that works,
works well and I may I need to post some pictures.
My plan is starting to come back already from it,
and just it's amazing the effects that it had. You
were listening to Gardenline phone number seven one three two

(57:21):
to one two k t r H seven to one
three two one two k t r H. If you
haven't done your summer fertilizing, just a reminder you can
still get that done.

Speaker 5 (57:31):
Now.

Speaker 3 (57:31):
We've got a fall fertilizing coming up. And my new
updated fertilizer schedule is online at gardening with Skip dot com.
You can download it.

Speaker 8 (57:41):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (57:41):
It it's uh. I don't know how to describe the
difference in appearance, but anyway, it's got a little bit
of additional information. I made a couple of tweaks to
make it more understandable, and then there was a place
or two on my schedules where modern research has taught
us some new things, and so I made some adjustments
to make it a little more accurate as a result

(58:04):
of that. So check out the new lawn care schedule
and the lawn pest disease and we'd management schedules online
Gardening with Skip dot com. They're both updated, uh and
you need to get your copy. If you're using an
old one, your plans aren't going to die. It's okay,
it's just a little bit more updated. You might want

(58:24):
to get it. We'll be right back all righty, welcome
back to garden Line. Good to have you with us today. Hey,
if you want to call seven one three two one
two k t r H. We're going to go straight
out to the phones and talk to Frida this morning
in Pasadena. Hey, Frida, welcome to guard Line.

Speaker 11 (58:43):
Thank you, Rick. I uh with having problems with I
had a big brown spot about a foot in diameter,
and I went and got to un side and I
have a Scott swirl and spreader, and evidently I had
it said on the wrong sitting and it dumped out

(59:03):
just too much fund to side. So now I have
brown spots all over my word a cause I think
by the too much fund side and the original brown
spot has really grown. It's got a little lot bigger,
likely at least a couple of feets. You know, So
what are you recommend I do?

Speaker 5 (59:22):
Well?

Speaker 3 (59:22):
First of all, I don't think you caused those brown spots? Uh,
do you know which one you used? Was it Eagle
or or do you know which eagle. Yeah, I don't.
I don't think you caused the brown brown spots from that,
but you probably don't. It's not brown patch that is
attacking your lawn, and it could be a disease called

(59:44):
take all. Right, if are you able to take a
photo of it and send it by email to me?

Speaker 11 (59:54):
Yes?

Speaker 3 (59:55):
Uh huh okay uh, I'm gonna put you on hold
here in a second, and have you have my producer
give you my email, and if you'll take a picture
of your whole yard and then go to some spots
and get kind of close to them and take a picture.
Make sure your pictures are focused well before you send them,
send them to me. Let me look at it. I

(01:00:15):
think it's take our route rot, but I don't want
to send you through the whole rigorm maa on that
until I'm sure. Okay uh, But that's that way we
get you. We don't waste your time and money aiming
at the wrong target. We want to make sure we
have a diagnosed before we Okay, I'll be happy to
do that. And the sooner you get to me, the
sooner I can get you an answer back.

Speaker 11 (01:00:37):
Okay, So I just email you for the email. It
to you, and you're gonna email me.

Speaker 3 (01:00:44):
Back or what, Yes, I'll email. I'll email you back.
Uh huh, I sure will, yeah, I will. Okay, thanks,
I just yeah, thank you? Uh yeah. Folks. So basically
on guard line, you know how many people live in
the greater Houston area ten million or something like that.
I can't just put it out there that everybody emails
all week and I just sit on the computer entrant.

(01:01:06):
I can't do that. I just have too many other
obligations that I have to take care of. So what
I ask is that the emails be connected to phone calls.
And that's simple. We can do that. If you are
sending something, just let me know in there you're planning
on following up with a phone call on guarden Line.
Otherwise I'll send you a reply going yeah, sorry, call

(01:01:28):
me on Guardline and we'll talk about this. But you know,
I want to help, but that's the best I can
do in terms of trying to serve the many folks
that are wanting assistance. Let me remind you something else too.
There are Houston area has more extension horticulturests than any
part of the state. There's one Michael Potter up there

(01:01:51):
in Montgomery County. You go and up to Brass County
and there's Stephen Brugerhoff. You go out to Orange and
there's David Oates. You go down to Brassooria County, I
mean every Galveston County for ben County. All these counties
have horticulturists. I know I'm not naming all the people,
but I'm sorry guys, my former co workers. Anyway, those

(01:02:14):
counties all have to and they have master guarding programs
that help answer questions and things. And that's where you
can bring a live sample in and show the agent,
show the master gardeners, let them look at it and
get really good answers. Now, I'm not saying don't call
garden Line or don't email me things. I'm happy to
do that, but I just want you to remember you
have this service and it is excellent, and it's folks

(01:02:35):
in your county that are set up to help you
in your county from Texas A and m Agrolfe Extension Service.
So take advantage of that. Keep listening to gard Line,
call as you wish, but take advantage of that opportunity.
Appreciate that I'm going to have someone from Houston Powder
Coders on the radio before long here, and I'm going

(01:02:57):
to pick their brain about powder coating, because you know,
you hear the term powder coating, that sounds like, well
you just dust it off, it's powder, right, Well, no,
it's it. It's sort of like painting, but way, way
way better than painting. Very uniform, no runs and streaks
and all that kind and very tough, very hard, thick

(01:03:17):
or dense coating. Over one hundred different colors are available
from the folks at Houston Powder Coders. Now. You can
go to the website Houston Powdercoders dot com see pictures
learn more about it. You can email them pictures. They'll
email you a quote back. If you're in the greater
Houston area, they they'll come pick it up and they'll

(01:03:38):
deliver it for you if you want to go that route.
Here's the phone number two eight one six seven six
thirty eight eighty eight. I just want to pick their brain.
I want I want you to hear about the processes
that they do and how this works. And some of
you are listening to me down in Gallison or other
places where you got salt spray and issues like that
that are really hard on outdoor metal. Well they can

(01:04:01):
deal with that, and you're going to hear more about
that when I have them on whether it's cast iron,
wrought iron, or aluminum patio furniture, whatever you've got, they'll
make it new again. Let's see looking here, they've got
a call about to come in, but not quite in
just yet, so to hold off on that. Oh, I
want to remind you Oba Organic Horticulture Benefits Alliance OBA.

(01:04:26):
Oh HbA is having OBA Palooza. Does that sound like fun?
Well it is. OBA Palooza is going to be on Saturday,
August second. That's this coming Saturday, Saturday August second, at
the United Way of Greater Houston. You can go to
OBA online dot org, slash register OBA online dot org

(01:04:49):
slash register. Joe Lample, Joe the Gardener, Joe Gardner rather
is going to be their talking. He's giving two talks.
And if you've never heard Joe, he is wonderful. He
has a TV show, he's got a syndicated program podcast
that goes out everywhere you need to hear Joe. I'm
going to be there given a talk in the afternoon
on beneficial insects, a key ingredient to sustainable landscapes. I'm

(01:05:13):
going to introduce you to some key beneficials to recognize
in their various life stages. Everybody knows what a lady
beat looks like, right, Can you tell me what a
lady beat to larvae or a ladyb leg looks like.
You will if you come to this talk, and I'll
giving you tips on attracting and keeping them to the landscape.
The way I like to put it is kind of
like the baseball show Field of Dreams. If you build it,

(01:05:35):
they will come. If you build it, they will come.
There'll be lots of other talks, talks on going organic
for a healthy uu healthier planet, composting in small spaces,
agriculture and horticulture in Japan, a historic spiritual relationship in Japan.
Very interesting talk there. Pretty is the easiest thing we do.
Creating a healthy backyard bird habitat by Rich Edie who

(01:05:58):
is a manager of the wild Birds on Minuted up
in Cyprus. That guy is as he knows more about
birds than birds do. Abundant landscapes, permaculture, strategies for sustainable design,
the how and why of homesteading, growing a greener world.
Stories that inspire and motivate and ecological gardening for beauty
and biodiverse. Is that cool? I mean this is a

(01:06:18):
full load. They got lunch and everything involved. Yeah, there's
a ticket fee to get there. Just go to OBA
OHBA online dot org slash register and come see me
next Saturday. After I get through it the show, I'll
grab lunch and I'll be out there. Let's have some
fun and we'll take a quick break and we'll be
right back with your calls in just a moment. Welcome

(01:06:41):
back to the garden Line. I'm glad to have you
with us. ACE Hardware stores are all over the listening
area and if you go to ACE Hardware Texas dot
com you can find the stores near you. It makes
a little nice map makes it really easy to find
the local Ace Hardware stores near you. It's called ACE
heart Work Texas dot com. And when you go to ACE,

(01:07:03):
you're gonna find everything you need to have a beautiful lawn,
bountiful garden, beautiful landscape. Uh, they've got it all. You know,
products that manage past, products that control weeds, brought, products
that helped fertilize and stimulate your lawn and growth. They've
got everything. A range of organic and synthetic products. It's

(01:07:23):
a place you can pretty pretty much depend on to
have what you are looking for. And you chase hardware
stores independently owned but a product like for example, by
the way, ACE Hardware Texas dot Com is where you
want to go. But go to an ACE Hardware store
for example, like Jnr's up in Porter, that's northeast on southeast.
Let's go to League City ACE on West League City

(01:07:44):
Parkway on West Houston Hardware City on Memorial Drive. I
was there for an appearance this year down in Rockport
ACE on State Highway ninety five. And in Lake Conrad.
We just going to southeast west Lake Conroe AS on
Highway one oh five West, and you'll find stuff like
the nitrofive superturf, the silver bag. I talk about it
all the time. You gotta put that down. It works

(01:08:05):
for four months. It's designed for our soil. It's designed
for our climate. It's designed for our southern turf grasses,
Saint Augustine Bermuda and Soisio grass. Cut down on mowing
because it releases slowly. You don't get all that nitrogen
at one time. It'll feed you all, feed your lawn
all the way up until it's time to do your

(01:08:26):
fall fertilization Nitrifiz Super Turf nineteen four to ten, available
at Ace Hardware stores all over the place like Langham
Creek ACE on FM five twenty nine or Katie Hardware
ACE on Pinoak Road, and on and on and on.
Let's go out to the phones now, and we are
going to talk to Jen if I can find the

(01:08:47):
right button, Jen, just hang on. I'm eventually going to
get there. There we go, Hey, Jen and Lake Jackson,
Welcome to Guardline.

Speaker 12 (01:08:54):
Thank you. I sent two pictures to you of an
avocado tree that I'm trying to save. It nearly died
and it came back. I put some Nelson fertilizer on.
It came back from the bottom. It may be rootstop.
I don't know if you can tell by looking at
the picture. But I've got that large branch that is

(01:09:16):
dead that I want to know if I can program
that without killing the whole.

Speaker 3 (01:09:24):
I'm trying to find your email and I don't see it.
That would it have come in a different name in
the email?

Speaker 12 (01:09:30):
No, it has just sent it now, I just sent
it about it hasn't for six minutes ago.

Speaker 3 (01:09:36):
Oh I should have it by now. It hasn't arrived,
but okay's all right, Yeah, sorry, it hasn't. But I
can tell you this. If you've got a dead limb
branch trunk coming off of an avocado, cut it back
right up against the trunk that's alive, and that's okay,
and you don't need to treat the wound or anything
like that. I just go ahead and pum that back

(01:09:57):
out and get it off from there, and then give
you give your avocado a little bit of a little
bit of fertilizer. Uh, for the I'm going to say
for the last time this year, avocados are a coal
tender and we don't want to push them with fertilizer.
You know, when we get into further into August or September.
You know, we don't want to encourage succulent new growth

(01:10:20):
when we're about to go into cold weather. So do
your last fertilization on that avocado, watered and really good
and you should be good to go. Okay, Well, right
then within the next week. You know, I'm just saying
it just a moderate fertilization, but yeah, okay, that's it.
And you know, on garden line. No charge for my advice.

(01:10:40):
But if you'll bring half of the avocados you produced
to the station, that that will work. Okay, okay, that works, thanks,
thank you, all right by bye, alrighty. There you have it, folks. Wow,
that uh that good information there. Yeah, I just mentioned
uh to about the avocado and the the thing about

(01:11:03):
when to first stop fertilizing. When you have plants that
are cold tender, and avocado for sure, Citrus, a lot
of centris, you know it's going to be cold tender
thuma our area, and further north you go, even things
like satsumas can become a little cold tender if you
get up you're listening up in Huntsville or further north
than that. But you don't want to push him into

(01:11:27):
late season growth because it just it's just going to
get cold, cold kilt. It's succulent growth is much easier
damaged than what we call hardened off growth. It's grown,
it's kind of stopped growing, and now you know the
little shoots are turning from green to brown as they
become more woody, and you want to hit that stage

(01:11:49):
before we get into the really cold weather. That could
be applied also to some of our semi hardy plants.
If you go down south, Pride of Barbados se Sulpinia
is a great plant, and it typically dies to the ground,
but there's far enough south you may have some of
the above ground growth live from a year to year.

(01:12:10):
Let's see yellowbells esperanza. That's another one that may die
to the ground or may not, depending on the winter
and where you live. All of those things, there's no
sense in pushing late season growth. I mean that the
plant is absolutely starving and struggling and has to have nutrients. Okay,
that's different, but especially the nitrogen. Watch out for that.
As we get I used to always say, eh, first

(01:12:32):
of August is a good cutoff point. That's a fuzzy,
fuzzy line because north south is going to vary. But
in general, just stay away from that fall push of
growth on things that are not dependably hardy in our area,
and I think you'll be a lot better off in
general about that. Quality home products of Texas is where

(01:12:55):
you would get a quality generator brand like Genera Automatic
standby generator super product. But it's where you get the service.
It's where you get the twenty four seven three sixty
five help when they walk away from setting it up.
That's just the beginning of your relationship with Quality. Their
standout organization when it comes to reliability and integrity and

(01:13:20):
really with every client, honesty and transparency is what they
that's their priority from helping you find the right generator
to fit your needs. By the way, for those of
you who didn't hear me talk to someone from Quality
Home the other day when I was doing my you
know how I was have guests on in the summertime,

(01:13:41):
then you need to go back and listen to a
past show. It is a lot of people love this show.
Past show where we visited with Joey Davis. By the way,
that was on July twentieth, that's a Sunday at eight o'clock.
And you can't believe how much good information he provided
on how yesha for generator, what you look for. You know,

(01:14:01):
it wasn't just about come to Quality Home. It was
here's what you need to know, here's about the industry
here in Texas and so on. Very good. But that's
Quality Home. You can go to QUALITYTX dot org, Urse
dot com, QUALITYTX dot com are seven one three Quality
seven to one three quality. It takes a while to

(01:14:21):
get a generator, the process and everything they have to
go through. Uh, it takes a while. So do it now.
We're already in storm season. Don't put it off. At
least talk to them and makes it make your decisions. Uh,
because if you wait until the hurricanes in the Gulf, yeah,
it's not going to work. All right, Well, what do

(01:14:42):
we say? The music means I got to quit talking
here pretty quick, So I'm going to do that. Uh.
Next hour, we're going to have Zach Buchanan from Buchanans
Native Plants on and we are going to talk about
native plants and if you've got any questions about natives,
we'll do the all kinds of natives. You can't live

(01:15:02):
without some of the best natives. Maybe you're a non
native person, never been into natives, We're going to tell
you the natives you can't live without. Alrighty, folks, welcome
back to guard Line. Been good to have you with us. Boy,
Thanks Zach, you can and for coming on. That was
very helpful. There's a lot of interest in native plants
these days, and especially when you find ones that I

(01:15:25):
just think have a better chance of making it in
the mainstream. You know, everybody has opinions from the clothes
they pick out to the plants they put in the garden,
and everybody has their own tastes and preferences. But there's
some really good natives we see entering the mainstream and
that's a good thing. And we just heard about quite

(01:15:45):
a few of them right there. So appreciate that time.
If you got a question, any kind of question about
gardening that we can help with. Now, we're going to
take this last half hour of the show and just
dive in to get your questions answered. We're going to
start by going to Galveston and talking to John. Hello, John,
Welcome to Garden.

Speaker 1 (01:16:05):
Line and Skip.

Speaker 13 (01:16:09):
I sent you an email yesterday a picture of a
weed that's starting to enrace my front yard.

Speaker 6 (01:16:15):
Do you know what that is?

Speaker 13 (01:16:16):
And how I can.

Speaker 3 (01:16:18):
I'm looking for an email from a John and I
don't see any how else might this have come in?

Speaker 6 (01:16:28):
John?

Speaker 13 (01:16:29):
John John at currat gmail dot com. I got a reply.

Speaker 3 (01:16:36):
Back, Oh you did, yeah?

Speaker 1 (01:16:40):
Well or from the show.

Speaker 3 (01:16:44):
Yeah yeah, Hang on just a second, let me look,
uh flower bed No, that's not you seventy, that's a John.
I'm sorry, I am not ed gammit, I'm not seeing it.
Hang on, let me tell me more about it, and
I'm gonna go look in sense here we'll find it.

Speaker 6 (01:17:03):
It's a uh.

Speaker 13 (01:17:07):
I think it looks like I believe there's a tree
called the jakarunda that grows in Mexico. I think that's
the name of it. It kind of looks like a small.

Speaker 1 (01:17:15):
Version of that.

Speaker 3 (01:17:21):
You know what you're talking I know, I know what
you're talking about. Yes, yes, okay, we got it. I
found it. That's called chamber Better. And chamber Better does
look like a little mimosa tree or something like. Yeah.
If you will pick one of those, pick a big,
one of the bigger ones, and turn it over, and
all along that leaf axle, you're gonna see little balls,

(01:17:41):
little fuzzy chartruse colored spears on there. That's the blooms,
and then the seeds that form along there. And this
is not an easy weed to get rid of because
even when it's like two or three inches high, it's
already producing those suckers. It tends to sprout late, so

(01:18:03):
in future years. There's a product called gallery, like a
painting gallery g A L leo hy and you can
start it. Typically comes out in late summer that we
renoice it. So if you can put something down maybe
between oh, I don't know, late April or early May,

(01:18:27):
even June, even early June, maybe you can get ahead
of it and prevent it. Now, when it comes to
post emergence, there's just not a real great product that
I've run across that controls it. And maybe that some
of them that are out there do. I just don't
know of one that I would just say, go buy
this and it'll control it. So I'd rather leave leave

(01:18:49):
it at that, just because you know, I just don't
have that.

Speaker 13 (01:18:54):
Yeah, any any idea how I got so lucky to
have a prosperous a lawn full of this stuff, not
to get.

Speaker 3 (01:19:04):
It, but the picture well it who knows, who knows
where the seeds came from. But now that you have it,
you will have a whole lot more next year. So
that pre emergent, because it's a late sprout, you know,
my pre emergent, you know, me telling you put out
barricade in February for all.

Speaker 1 (01:19:25):
Your voice, which I didnestly I know.

Speaker 3 (01:19:29):
Yeah, well this is a late bloomer. Now, I don't know.
Barricade might work on this one. I've not tried it
on this particular weed before, but that would require you
then putting a second barricade application about sixty days after
the first march, Yeah, about sixty days after the first.
I do know the gallery which just works on broadleaf weeds.
Barricade works on grass and broad leaf. I know the

(01:19:52):
gallery controls it. And if you did a second barricade,
you might you might get it with that. I just
can't say authoritatively whether that well now would stop now
would stop additional sprouts from coming up. But your your
turf and the photo I see looks a little stressed.

(01:20:14):
You know, there's some browning areas in between the green
and the colors a little light, So I want to
be real careful, you know, with with that. And I
think you might try the gallery now on it watered
and real good, but post emergent. Wise, the only other
thing to do would be to try something called celsius
I have. I cannot tell you that that will work,

(01:20:36):
but it is one you can use in the hot temperatures,
but you have to do it early in the day
to have the coolest some.

Speaker 1 (01:20:45):
Of that around here.

Speaker 3 (01:20:46):
You could you could try it, and I would appreciate it.
I would. I don't have time to spray every weed
there is, so if you try something and it works
for you, I would appreciate you letting me know because
that would be very helpful. There are just ten billion
weeds and only a million different herbicides, and so it
would be helped to have a listener response on how

(01:21:07):
that worked. If you try it, Is it.

Speaker 13 (01:21:09):
Going to help in any way to get on my
hands and knees and try to pull pull it?

Speaker 3 (01:21:13):
Yes, every time I pull you've removed. Yes, every time
you pull one up, you've removed about a dozen seed
pods from the lawn. So yes, it helps. Especially you
know you got one plan over here and one over there.
The picture you sent me was a whole clump of them,
But that one plan over there is going to create

(01:21:34):
a whole bunch of plants. Now that's going to become
a crowded area of it. So try to narrow it
down and more and more as you as you get
out there, get your kneeling bench out there, and if
you wet the soil well at this stage of the plant,
you can grab it near the ground. It'll pull straight
up out of the ground pretty easily if the soil
is moist.

Speaker 6 (01:21:53):
Okay, thank you very much.

Speaker 3 (01:21:57):
All right, now you have something to do.

Speaker 6 (01:22:00):
Like I didn't.

Speaker 3 (01:22:02):
Yeah, I'm sorry about that, John, all right, take care.
Let's go to Paul and Bellville. Hey, Paul, welcome to
garden Line.

Speaker 5 (01:22:09):
Hey, good morning, Skip, good to talk to you. Yes, sir, Yeah, so,
so I sent you an email yesterday along with a
link to some photos that I took of my cedar elms.

Speaker 3 (01:22:22):
O y.

Speaker 5 (01:22:25):
Yeah, our property, along with our neighbors, back up to
kind of a slew that the city has turned into
part of the stormwater drainage system. So it's low back there,
and we all have these huge cedar elms back in
the back of our properties. I noticed about six weeks
ago that these trees were starting to not be as

(01:22:47):
bright green as they used to be. Started they started bronzing.
I wasn't too concerned about it, but now now these
trees are dropping their leaves, and so I'm a little worried.

Speaker 3 (01:23:00):
Here's what that is. This is another one. Gosh, I'm
promising to put all these things on the web. I
need to post this one too. What you've got you
mentioned it might be Avid's I saw what looked like
a couple of aphids on some of them, but the
primary culprit on this is something called lace bugs. If
you'll grab a green leaf that's got some of those
areas on it, and folks that are listening, and you

(01:23:22):
know it's radio so you can't see pictures, but imagine
a green elm leaf, and then the color is draining
out of portions of it, little speckles where it starts
to turn sharp truse color, then yellow color, and then
tan color. And then you flip the leaf over and
you'll see these little bugs that look like they have
flat solar panels on their back, and it's like a

(01:23:45):
little clear plastic or black wing sticking up above it.
That's a lace bug, and they suck juices out of
the plant, and by this time of summer they proliferate
so much that, as in your case, the entire elm
tree starts dropping leaves and losing color everywhere. At the
stage you're in, I'm not sure you can do a

(01:24:05):
lot by spraying. Yeah, you'll kill the bugs that are there,
but you know the conditions continuing here and you're still
gonna lose a lot of leaves. You could try that.
It's a little late to get a systemic on the
ground to go all the way up in that tree
in any time to really save them. But those are
things that would work if it were earlier. But next year,

(01:24:27):
keep a close eye on them because typically they build
up and by the time we hit this year we
see that. This is also folks. If you've got a
sycamore tree and you have that bronzing browning between the
veins of the sycamore leaf, turn them over and you're
going to see these lace bugs on them, and that's
what's doing it. Now. Trees are resilient and they can

(01:24:48):
bounce back and it's not going to kill your trees.
It doesn't do them any good to lose all their
carbohydrate factories and have to grow new ones from stored carbohydrates.
But it's not gonna kill them. And as we it
further in the fall, this isn't as much of a problem.

Speaker 5 (01:25:02):
Yeah, okay, okay, good, that was my main concern. All right,
thank you earlier, Okay, thank you. Skip.

Speaker 3 (01:25:09):
Yeah, I understand your concern, and I'm glad. I'm glad
you call because, believe me, a lot of listeners have
this and I just we just talked about elms and sycamore.
They can occur on other plants as well. All right,
thank you sir, appreciate that. Uh oh gosh, I gotta
take a little break here. I'm running out of time.
We're going to take a break and we'll come back
and I'm going to try to get to Jim and
Meadows Place and Kevin in Houston if i can with

(01:25:31):
this last segment. Hey, welcome back to Guarden Line. Good
to have you with us today. Listen, we were talking
earlier with Zach about some ornamental grasses. If you've got
ornamental grasses, Nelson plant Foods, palm and ornamental grass granular
fertilizer works very well. You apply it about every three
months spring, summer and early fall. So if you do
it now, it's going to have a slower release nitrogen.

(01:25:53):
It's very low in salt base to not burn your plants.
And then repeat it again as we get into early
both your palms and your ornamental grasses. And now some
products like palm nutri Star palm and ornamental grasses are
going to be available in many, many places around town
where you find good quality lawn and garden products. We're

(01:26:14):
going to go straight to the phones now and head
out to meadows place to talk to Jim. Hey Jim,
welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 6 (01:26:21):
Good morning, Skip, thanks for taking my call. Quick question.
I've got six plants, two jalapena pepper, four cherry tomatoes.
They're in ten gallon containers on my back patio. My
question is the cherry tomatoes have quit producing fruit. They're

(01:26:41):
still still green, green tops, got blooms on them, but
they don't turn into fruit. The okayppers the same way.
They've got blooms. They're producing peppers fertilized with veggie and
garden fertilizers. I've used some triple thirteen. I've used some

(01:27:03):
Okay baking soda epps and salt coffee ground mixture, and
the plants are growing. You're still good and green, but
they I can't get any tomatoes.

Speaker 3 (01:27:13):
Okay, Well, I would stick to just the fertilizers. Don't
do ups in salt, baking soda. You can do ups
some salt if you have a magnesium deficiency, but otherwise
you don't need it. Baking soda and I can't remember
what the other one was, but no need to do those.
Just continue to fertilize the main thing. Ten gallons is
a good sized pot, but you got to keep it wet.

(01:27:34):
If it dries out once the tomatoes will abort blooms
and you starting over with the next batch. It's still
pretty hot for them to set fruit, even though cherries
are better at setting in the heat. But keep those
plants around because when fall comes, you're going to get
another good crop on those.

Speaker 6 (01:27:51):
Okay, Well, I've been watering with soil activator too, so
instead of just longer, is.

Speaker 3 (01:27:57):
That no, that's fine. You're not gonna hurt anything with
Nina salt activator. Now, that's fine. You can use that,
you don't have to use it every time water.

Speaker 6 (01:28:06):
But last question is I've gotten limited sun. I only
get about three hours in the morning and maybe two
three hours in the afternoon. Is that part of my problem?

Speaker 3 (01:28:17):
Yeah, part of the problem. Yeah, because sun makes carbohydrates
and the plant has to have carbohydrates to set blooms
and definitely to develop fruit. So as you go from
at least six hours of sun down lower, you're going
to get fewer fruit and they're not going to be
as i'll say, tasty. You know, they're not gonna have

(01:28:37):
the carbohydrates needed to make a good luscious tomato. But
if that's what the spots you got for them, then
you kind of work with what you have. But hang
on to those. And if they're very diseased, you can
take the end of one of those and let's say
spider mites and diseases have had them, take some ends
of those shoots and cut them off at about a

(01:28:57):
foot from the tip, pull the leaves off the bottom half,
take them inside and slosh them vigorously in water. That's
for the spider mites, it might be on there. And
then stick them in a glass of water in a
good sunny spot and they'll grow roots, and then plant
them right back out in the ground and you can
start you some new fresh plants and get rid of

(01:29:18):
the old disease and infested plant and start over with
a new one. Because that's just one tip that I'll
give you. I'm gonna have to move on at one
more call, and I want to be able to.

Speaker 6 (01:29:31):
Okay, well, I'll be checking them. I don't have any
I don't have any insect infestation indicating.

Speaker 3 (01:29:37):
Then don't worry. Don't worry about that at all. Everything
else we said, though, just stop short of the cutting
the ends off. Thank you, Jim, appreciate that call very much.
All Right, I have to run. Kevin in Houston, Welcome
to garden Line. Good morning.

Speaker 9 (01:29:49):
Thank you for staking my call. I have a question
about what appears to be looking online slime flux on
a twenty year old oak tree. And it's kind of,
you know, as white, foamy, smells like beer.

Speaker 3 (01:30:05):
Yeah, you know. Do you have butterflies and wasps showing
up there?

Speaker 9 (01:30:10):
No, but one time it was covered with some sort
of bug. I don't know what kind of bug it was,
but it wasn't a Maybe it was butterflies.

Speaker 3 (01:30:19):
No, it's a lot of very good Yeah, it's a
it's a beer joint for butterflies and wasp they hang
out there.

Speaker 9 (01:30:27):
Huh, go ahead, Is there any Is there anything I
can do about it? And I'm wondering if it's detrimental
to the tree.

Speaker 3 (01:30:35):
Okay, So what happens is the tree develops a crack,
and it could be a stress cracked, it could be
a movement crack or something. The bacteria gets in it
starts to ferment the sugars in the sap, and that
pushes the bubbly fermentation out. That's why you see that froth.
There's no surgery to be done. Avoiding stresses to the plant.

(01:30:57):
Those things tend to stick around. In time, the plant
can wall that off and begin to heal back or
close back over that wound. But there's not nothing to
spray on it. Don't try to cut it out, or
sometime you'll read somewhere someone says, stick a little pipe
up in there to let it drain it. And now,
don't don't do any of that. Is that adds insult

(01:31:19):
to injury. Just keep the tree as healthy as you
can and realize that it's going to last a while.
You'll probably have some next summer. Again that it's not
threatening the life of your tree.

Speaker 9 (01:31:31):
Oh great, that's got talked to an arbius who seemed
familiar with it, and he's interested in injecting something into
the tree.

Speaker 6 (01:31:38):
And I just didn't.

Speaker 3 (01:31:39):
Don't do that. Don't do that. Hey, folks, we're gone.
We'll see you next weekend.