war on nutsedge

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
The bassis gas. Can you shrimp?

Speaker 2 (00:03):
You just watch him as.

Speaker 3 (00:05):
The world got gassies and gas? Can you fast?

Speaker 4 (00:11):
Many people takes the soap bottating in the gay.

Speaker 3 (00:14):
Bring the gasses like gas?

Speaker 2 (00:16):
And again you date sabos rubbles back backing's not a
sound and credit the glassies and gas and the sun
beam and down between rising the gasses like gas.

Speaker 1 (00:31):
Maybe can you jack first? Starting and treating the gasses
like gas?

Speaker 5 (00:39):
Became you date?

Speaker 6 (00:41):
Everything here is.

Speaker 3 (00:42):
Something you can see and everything here is Sunday in the.

Speaker 7 (00:49):
Ram.

Speaker 1 (00:52):
Well, well, well, good morning, good Saturday morning, on a
great day for gardening. You're listening in the guardline. I'm
your host, Skip Richter, And yes, I know it's going
to be kind of hot today, but it's always a
great day to get some things done. This morning's a nice,
wonderful temperature. Actually to get out there. I wish I
was not sitting behind a microphone right now, because I

(01:14):
got some things to do in my yard. This is
a time when we want to make sure our lawns
are well taken care of. Summer is blazing hot at times,
but our turf grass can take it if it has
adequate water. However, what we tend to do is overwater
and miss water. What do I mean by overwatering and miswatering? Well, overwatering,

(01:36):
which of course just means too much water. It stays
too soggy wet. A grass does not need soggy soil
if you will give it a good soaking, providing enough
to what the soil at least six inches deep. That
takes about an inch of water, depending on your soil
type of course, and then let it dry out. Let

(01:57):
the water move out of the soil. It'll evaporate, it'll
move down. The plants certainly will take up a lot
and trends bire it out of their grass blades. And
when that happens, oxygen gets into the soil, and oxygen
is important in the plant's root zone. Any plants root zone,
that is important to have that so as a result,
when you do that, your grass makes a deeper rooted,

(02:19):
more resilient turf, which means a chomp here or there
by a grub isn't as big a deal. That means
a little bit of a droughty conditions isn't as big
a deal because the grass has the more extensive root
system to draw from a larger volume of soil and
so a good soaking followed by drying out. I try
to water my areas that need watering not more than

(02:43):
once a week. Now, it's fine to water twice a
week if you want put a half inch on it
each time. I know a lot of people do that.
And if your struggling with root issues like take all
root rod or other things. If the soil is very
sandy and it doesn't hold water, well, I could see
going twice a week. But I'm telling me once a
week's and anough to be honest. I've got areas of
my lawn I think I've watered them once or twice

(03:07):
once this summer. Some areas of my lawn I've watered
once this summer, but with just a good soaking. You know,
we've had a lot of rain, so that's part of
the reason why. But the thing of having your water
come on every other day all the time is just
a waste of Listen, you pay money for that drinking water,
and when you buy drinking water, you get to pay

(03:28):
for your sewer bill too. Yeah, they tie them together
in most places, so why waste it. It doesn't help
your lawn, It promotes a disease. Water with a good
soaking infrequently. That's what I mean when I say miswatering,
I mean watering too frequently, too little, too often. A
good soaking infrequently and you can get the results you need.

(03:49):
That's what we're aiming for, right, That is what we
want is a healthy grass plant. A healthy grass plant.
That's exactly what we're aiming for. So it's a lot
of it's up to us, you know, whether they say
operator error, right, it's not the system that's wrong, it's
the operator of the system. Well, that certainly is true

(04:11):
irrigation systems. Where you're listening to garden Line, if you'd
like to give us a call, we're here to answer
your gardening questions. Seven one three two one two five
eight seven four seven one three two one two fifty
eight seventy four. Speaking of our lawns, if you've not
done your summer lawn fertilization, now's a good time to

(04:32):
go ahead and get that done. Fall fertilizing is coming.
It's not too terribly far away, still a few months out,
but now would be a good time to put on
some of that nitrofoss super turf that is the silver
bag I like. I like the color coded bags. It
makes it so easy. I don't know another silver bag
out there. So the silver bag from Nitrofoss. It is
a nineteen four to ten fertilizer, much of which is

(04:55):
in a slow release form to give you gradual feeding.
Listen to the chemistry of it. Designed for our Southeast
Texas climate and soils. The way it releases the nitrogen
out feeds your long gradually over time, which means you
mow less often. You know, a big dump of nitrogen
and here you go. You got all this top growth
in your momomo and I with super Turf, you gradually

(05:18):
feeds it out over time. You're going to find super
Turf at a lot of different places in Memorial Drive
on Ace Hardware City, They've got it there, Stanton Shopping Center,
down in Alvin's another place, Katie Hardware Ace out on
Pinoak Driving Katie. They've also got the Nitropuss products like Superturf.
This past week, I had been trying to get a

(05:41):
few things done, just basically and clean up and stuff.
I'm still doing a little pruning and snipping here and there.
And I just want to mention that, you know, we
think of late winter as the best pruning season, and
it is for most things. There are some things that
we do not prune in late winter, that things that
bloom only in this spring, for example, we don't want

(06:02):
to prune those past maybe mid early to midsummer. Really,
I'd say early summer would be my preference, and that
would be like once blooming rose, like Lady Banks, beautiful rose,
beautiful rose, once blooming. A lot of climbers are once blooming.
Anything that just blooms in the spring. If you had
a dogwood or a red bud, or a Chinese fringe

(06:23):
or something along those lines, those are all spring blooming trees.
So don't prune them after let's say early maybe midsummer
the latest, because in late summer they're in early fall,
they're going to be setting their fruit buds or fruit buds,
they're bloom buds for next season's bloom. So if you
were to go out right now, and let's say you

(06:44):
had a flowering quince or a Spyria shrub or a
Texas Mountain barrel, or any of the trees I mentioned
before that are spring bloomers. The roses that are spring bloomers,
and you prune them heavily. Now they're not going to
have time to grow new growth and set buds in
order to have a bud of bloom crop for next spring.

(07:08):
We're kind of getting to the end of that line.
You might get lucky with a few blooms, but basically
you're messing up the typical spring blooming. Azaleas are another
example of that same thing, so it's time to hold
off on those. But a little snipping here and there
is fine. If you've got an azalea with this big, old,
gangly branch sticking way out and it just doesn't look right,

(07:30):
it's not shaped like you wanted to have a nice
natural look, you snip that back. That's not a problem.
I've got some crape myrtles that I'm doing some pruning
back on here and there because they just need it.
They need some shaping. Maybe they have suckers coming out
of the bottom. Now'd be a time to do that
particular thing. So a little bit of chores here and

(07:52):
there on an ongoing basis is fine. Listen, you get
out in the morning, it's not that hot. It's enjoyable.
The birds. The birds have showed up up to sing
you a song. When you get out to works. Isn't
that nice of them? I was like that joy listening
to them early early in the morning, So it's a
good time to be out. Take your phone, get your
iHeartMedia app, tune into a garden Line and you can

(08:13):
turn it in your set in your pocket and head
out in the garden and we'll we'll talk as you
get some stuff done. Maybe you can take a picture
of something send it to me. If you got a question,
we can do that too. Well, you're listening to Guarden Line.
We're gonna take a little quick break and I'll be
right back our phone number seven one three two one
two kt RH. We love our feet stores and up

(08:35):
in Tomball, Texas out to the west on twenty nine
to twenty. You've got D and D Feed. Those of
you who live out there already know about it. D
and D Feed's been around a good while, and I'm
telling you they carry everything you need. They If you've
got a product you need to make you're lawn more beautiful,
your garden more bountiful, they've got it. They carry the fertilizers,
they carry the soil products like the age leaf moole

(08:56):
compost for top dressing. Your lawn. You need some rosa
from heirloom fruit and berry and citrus, veggie and herb mixes.
They got all those. They got the pesticides for dealing
with insects or dealing with funguses, or dealing with maybe
with weeds in your in your garden and lawn. They've
got all of that there at D and D feed

(09:17):
If you want to give them a call, it's two
eight one three five, one seventy one forty four and
give them a call there or just stop buy. That's
the best thing. They always got some plants out front too.
That's a nice little collection of things seasonally out in
the front, but inside that's where there is a lot
of really cool stuff. At Erial time feed store, the
kind you used to go to maybe when you're a kid. Well,

(09:38):
they're still around. And D and D fees a prime
example just west of Tumbul twenty nine twenty. I'm going
to head out now to League City and we're going
to talk to Ann.

Speaker 8 (09:49):
Hello, Anne, good morning. How are you. I have managed
I have managed bees and you've talked in the path
about using tarco fear because my area is inundated with
peppervine and When I say peppervine, I mean something that's
similar to it looks like poison ivy, but it's not
poison ivy, and it just grows and grows and grows.

(10:12):
So we'll applying the triclephere to the peppervine affect the
bees because I've seen them landing on the bees, I
mean landing on the Pepperfine, the bees landing on the peppervine.

Speaker 1 (10:26):
Yeah, no, no it won't. And you were in luck
because just this week I put something on my website
and if you do you have a pin or pencil handy,
yes I do. It's gardening with Skip dot Com. Gardening
with Skip dot Com, and it's called Skip's Homemade Weedwiper,

(10:48):
and it tells you how to make a little weed
Wive's really easy to make out of one of those
grabber tools, and if you want to do it, it's
handy to have around because you're always gonna have pepperbine
popping up, You're going to have nut's edge coming up
here and there. You're going to have you know, birds
or planting hackberries in your fence line, or there's all

(11:08):
kinds of things that this is good for. But Basically,
you put the triclop here on the sponges on the
tool and you just wipe it right on the leaves
or along the stem. You can do that too. Pepperbine
has stems that are popping up everywhere, and that's one
of the things that makes it so hard to control.
And the triclopair moves down into the plant. Now you're

(11:30):
going to need to stay with it because you know
it's got a lot of underground storage here there and yonder,
and so you kind of have to. Every time it
sticks its head up, you wipe some on it and
it goes down and kills sections of it, and you
will win that war with tricle peer and the weed wiper,
the homemade weed wiper you can spray it also. But
if you get triclo peer on desirable broad leave plants.

Speaker 8 (11:52):
It will kill them too, okay, And it won't pick
the beest.

Speaker 1 (11:59):
No, you're not putting it. You're not putting it out
like on blue It's not getting in the plant and
going out to the nectar of the bloom and whatnot.

Speaker 8 (12:07):
It doesn't work, then, okay, thank you so much.

Speaker 1 (12:12):
Good luck with it. Let me know how it works.
I just pretty excited. Spent a lot of time putting
several new publications up, and I'm hoping that because we
get this question a lot, so I guess take comfort
in that you are not alone. We all feel your pain,
all right. You take care and I appreciate that very much. Yes, folks,

(12:33):
you can go to the website gardening with Skip dot
com and I've got two things there. And I don't
know if Ann, if you're still listening, I should have
mentioned this to you too, But in addition to the
homemade weed wiper publication, there is a herbicide products to
put in the weed wiper. And the reason that is
there is because you know, Ann is going after pepperbine,

(12:55):
so that's triclopare. Someone may be going after nuts sedge.
You know, that may be product like manage that you
put on it. There are other weeds, poison ivy. You know,
there's a lot of different weeds and different kinds of
Maybe it's wild onions. Have you ever seen the wild
onions or wild garlic sticking up out of your lawn.
You know it is because when you mow it, you

(13:15):
can smell it, or when you break it off, you
can smell it because it is it is an alium.
It's a garlic or onion type plant. Well, how do
you control that? Well, a weed wiper with image on it,
but it's all on that herbicide products to use with
the weed wiper. The thing I like about the weed
wiper is that you're not spraying a lot of chemical

(13:36):
all out over the place. You are applying it to
the leaves or stem in the case of pepperbne also
the leaves or stem of the weed that you're trying
to control. So if you've got a nuts edge coming
up underneath the rose bush, you know what are you
going to spray up under there? Is not going to
hurt your rose? Well, you don't have to worry about that.
You use the wiper. It's really targeted. It's easy to do. Now,

(13:58):
if you've got you know, like a chiap had of
nuts edge through a bed, it's too tedious to use
a wiper. You're going to spray that or dig it
or whatever however you go about it. But the weed
wiper is very effective along with that other tool as well.
If you're looking for a way to turn your landscape around.

(14:18):
Peerscapes Peerscapes. That's a company that has the skills. They've got,
the designers they've got. They have very very well trained
and seasoned employees, people that have been around a while,
not just you know they're in and they've only been
there for a year and now you're hiring them to
do something. These are folks that really have a history

(14:39):
with the company. They are very good about that, holding
on to their folks and having quality folks. They can
come to your yard and do a you know, work
on your irrigation system. Our irrigation systems typically are very
poorly designed or they're out of maybe they've gotten out
of whack over the years, you know, damaged heads, misaligned heads,
other things like that. Piercecapes can fix that for you.

(15:01):
Do you have drainage problems, You should know it after
the rains we had these past few months. They can
fix that. They can make an area drain better so
you can plant things there. Ever, plant almost ever plant
very fewer exceptions. Want a well drained soil. Do you
need perhaps some hardscape done, some landscape lighting done. Do
you want to revamp some beds, or do you just

(15:23):
want a company to come in and do a seasonal,
a quarterly maintenance program where they come in. You know
they're checking the beds, they're weeding them, fertilizing them, checking
the irrigation, doing trimming, and you know, replenishing the mult
maybe doing some color changes. You know, the old summer
plants are giving away to cold weather, so it's time

(15:43):
for winter color and on through the year. That kind
of color change. Piercecapes does that. You can go to
the website, and I encourage you to do that because
what you'll see there is some inspirational photos of the work.
They can do their websites piercescapes dot com. The phone
number two A one three seven zero five zero six

(16:04):
zero two eight one three seven zero fifty sixty Pierce
Caapes dot com. I always like to check out our
garden centers in the area. You know, we here in Houston.
We're fortunate. I don't care which direction you live. We've
got garden centers north, south, east, west and central that

(16:25):
you can go to and they're inspiring. There are places
that their mom and pop. They're independent, they know what
they're talking about. They don't sell stuff that doesn't grow here.
You know, you get these big national chain big boxes
and things. Heaven knows what you're going to see there.
And I could make a long list of examples of
the things that's like, Okay, well this isn't New Jersey,

(16:46):
so high Bush blueberries are not for here. You see
what I'm saying. Well, anyway, in Channi Gardens out in
Richmond Rosenberg area, that's out southwest for those of you
new to the area. In Chane Gardens is an outstand
garden center. I love going there. I love to see
the supplies that they have. I love to see the
wide variety of plants and even things like you know,

(17:09):
you want to make a beautiful container that you can
go buy a container that's already made there. You can
also go there and get inspiration, you know, to look
at what they have. Talk to some of the folks
that work there that are well trained, and say, look,
I want to do something like this. Can you give
me an idea what plants would I put together? Because
I don't know where to start. I mean, you guys
have plants from horizon to horizon around here. What do

(17:32):
I get? They can help you with that. Enchanted Gardens
Richmond dot com. That's the website Enchanted Gardens Richmond dot com.
They're on FM three fifty nine that's on the Katie
Folscher side of Richmond, North of Richmond. They're open money
through Saturday eight to five and Sunday ten am to
four pm. And I guarantee you when you go there,

(17:53):
you will be saying to yourself, I wish I had
brought this family member or this neighbor along with me.
This would have been a fun outing, you know, with
a group do that and chanted gardens out in Richmond.
The you know, those of us who, let's just say
we're we're plant enthusiasts. And I know I know you are.

(18:16):
I mean you're listening to the guard line plant enthusiasts.
I go into garden centers and I'm like a kid
in a candy store. Everything is beautiful, everything looks wonderful.
I need to have one of everything, and any plan
I don't have, I need to have. And those of
us who are plant enthusiasts, that's different than being that's
different than being a design type person. A design type

(18:40):
person starts with, here's my yard, how do I what
kind of bed do I want? What plants would go
well in this bed? And it's all planned out, and
then you go shopping and get those plants. Those of
us who are plant enthusiasts, we just walk around, Look,
I have that one, and we bring it home and
we walk around and try to figure out where to
put it. And I've joked about this before. Our landscapes,

(19:01):
if we're not careful, can tend to look like a
bomb went off in a garden center and every plant
rooted where it hit the ground. That's not a design.
It's your yard, though. If you want to do that,
that's your business. Seen you at the HOA, I guess
I don't know, but what it's just fun to go
to garden centers and see new plants and get exciting ideas.

(19:22):
And I'm telling you these places just they are outstanding.
I've been. I've lived in Texas almost my whole life.
I spent three years of Missouri and then came back.
But I can tell you Dallas, Fort Worth, Austin, San Antonio, Houston,
and then a lot of cities, Atlanta and Durham, North Carolina,
all over the country, Arizona, Phoenix, and there's garden centers

(19:46):
there too. Everywhere I've gone, there's nothing like you have
here in Houston. When it comes to the kind of
garden centers, the quality of the garden centers, the extensive
lists of plants that they carry, it's just easy. And
that's why Gardner's around here. They do like a little
localized horticulture tourism. You know, you may live way on

(20:07):
the west side, but there's a place on the east
side you haven't been too yet. And in Houston, you know,
you got a pack of lunch to go east to west.
That's going to take a little bit, but we've got
it here. So it's a lot of fun. Great way
to spend a Saturday too, by the way, So hint, hint,
there's an idea for you. Quality Home Products. I had

(20:28):
a guy on the other day from Quality Home Products
and we were talking about the crazy rush on generators
going on right now, because all you know, you've had
your power out knocked out twice for over a week
and you suddenly realize I need a generator. Well, Quality
Home has Generac. Generac's outstanding, but Quality Home has some

(20:49):
really good deals right now. They've got five hundred off
when you trade in you got an old portable generator.
I don't care the brand or the size some old
portable generator. You trade it in, you get five hundred off.
If you would like to have a whole home generator,
they can do that. They sit down with you, they
figure out the one you need, They help guide you
toward it. They point you in the right direction, and

(21:10):
they service after the sale. And they're busy now, so
be patient. Get a lot of calls. But Quality Home
or excuse me, QUALITYTX dot COM's website seven to one
to three. Quality is the phone number. I'm gonna have
to take a break. I'll be right back, So let's

(21:31):
turn out to Galveston and we are going to talk
to John. Good morning, John, Welcome to Guardline.

Speaker 9 (21:37):
Hey, how are you sir?

Speaker 10 (21:38):
It's nice talk to you again.

Speaker 1 (21:40):
Thank you.

Speaker 10 (21:42):
I have a small front yard and it is bordered
by a walkway or two walkways. And I noticed about
a week ago a a four foot kind of in
diam in a circle of brown just showed up anyway,
So I got an email if they from Solutions pass

(22:02):
Control down League City said well, you gotta watch out
for sod webworms anyway. So I don't know if it's that,
but I don't want to lose that portion of it.
Looks like a giant bulls. I don't want to lose
that portion of the grass. And I've got more chemicals
down here than you can imagine. So I looked on
your website. There is a question coming. I looked on
your website and said, well too, if you have sodwbworms,

(22:26):
you do this crash where you used by fentren and
then you come back in with BT the next day,
and then you all alternate for you know, seven days
or whatever. Do you just figure I got some chinch
bugs there?

Speaker 9 (22:41):
Do you think it's what?

Speaker 10 (22:43):
I would send you a picture? But okay, any idea
what you think it might be?

Speaker 1 (22:50):
Yeah? Sure, John, I don't know what website that was.
That may have been some stuff Randy head up. I
don't know.

Speaker 10 (22:55):
Okay, I think it was.

Speaker 1 (22:57):
That's okay. But here here's the you need to do.
Go out there and get on your hands and knees
and look at the grass up close, and if the
grass blades are chewed up like something.

Speaker 10 (23:09):
Yeah, I did that yesterday and it did not look
like that. I saw that on the website and yeah, yeah,
I got down close and personal.

Speaker 1 (23:18):
Okay, Now what you what you next need to probably
do is get about a tablespoon of just dishwashing dish
wash of soap like ivory liquid, that kind of liquid
for the sink. Not not a dishwasher or washing machine,
just ivy liquid soap, and put it in a gallon
of water and then put it in a watering can

(23:39):
or something where you can sprinkle it out, and put
it over an area of lawn, probably about two by
two square that's in that area. You water it and
wait a little second and water it again. Soap is
really irritating to insects, and if they're chinchbugs, you're gonna
come crawling up out of there and you'll see these
little one eighth of an inch long, black and white,

(24:00):
little long, skinnier bugs or shape more like a school
bus than yeah. And then if it's side webworms, you'll
see the caterpillars coming up too. It's irritating to them.
But if you see those are black and white. The nymphs,
the ones that aren't fully mature, are kind of a
reddish brown with a white hand across their back. But

(24:22):
if you see that, then you got chinchbugs, and then
you need to proceed. If you did the nitrofoss bug
out Max Nitrofoss bug Out Max is very effective against
the chinchbugs. It'll get down in there to the war
the lar if you had webworms to where the larva
are hiding in the thatch. Webworms are nocturnal. They hide
during the day and feed at night primarily, and so

(24:44):
the soapy water flushes them both out of the thatch
and that helps you decide if you need to do anything, and.

Speaker 11 (24:53):
If so, what you need to do.

Speaker 10 (24:57):
So I did notice this by center it does it
does say chinchbugs on it. Would you use the bifensin
if I do identify them as chinchbugs?

Speaker 1 (25:09):
Yeah, for sure. The Bifendra by Fenthren is very effective
and it will get down in there and it'll do
the trick on them. Yeah.

Speaker 10 (25:19):
Well, thank you very much. Enjoy your show.

Speaker 1 (25:21):
Yeah. When I said Nitropuss bug out Max, that is
by Fentthren. It's on gran Ca Eco Granule carrier. I
like it because you just sprinkle it out and then
you water it in and it's I mean, it'll kill
any either of those insects and within twenty four hours
you'd be pretty good shape.

Speaker 10 (25:39):
Oh really, Any any chance is this grass going to
come back or is it just toasts the year.

Speaker 1 (25:45):
If it is completely dead, of course you won't. And
if you leave chinchbugs long enough, it'll be completely dead.
The side webworm is eating the leaves off the runners
and so it produces new leaves. Side webworms typically are
not going to in and of themselves kill the grass
unless there's some other issues going on, but the chinchbugs will.

(26:07):
They just suck the juices out of it until the
patient's gone. Yeah.

Speaker 10 (26:12):
Oh well, I'll go mix up a batch of soapy
water and I can do that early in the moment.
I can do that anytime of the day, but you
prefer in the morning or in the evening.

Speaker 1 (26:24):
Oh, I do it in the morning because it's cooler
to be out there stooping over the ground with the
sun bacon down, you know. So there's a lot of
time and they just know that chinchbugs are feeding all
the time, but they're staying down in the thatch doing
their their feeding. The webworms they have to come out
to chew on the grass blades, so they're coming up

(26:45):
out of the thatch to do that, and they want
to do it at night when their predators aren't out
and when it's cooler to get out there and do that.
All right, Well, thank you so much, good luck a
lot appreciate call. Yes, sir, thanks take you bet you
take care. Well, that's it. Yeah, night Fross bug Out

(27:07):
Max is it's easy to find zeinegranules. So I mean
you no problem at all finding it. I've I've seen
it in a whole lot of places, you know, being
a night Fross product, it's it's so easy to find it.
I mean, for example, the enchanted Gardens uh out there
in Richmond Rosenberg. They have just talking about them a
minute ago. They carry that. The Shades of Texas and
the Woodlands up on fourteen eighty eight. You're going to

(27:30):
find night Fross bug Out Max there as well. So
and the Fisher's hardware that those of you Down's. I
always try to cover the area when I'm making some suggestions.
But Fisher's Hardware. There's one South Houston on Southmore, There's
one Laport on Broadway Street. They carry the bug Out
Max there as well. Well. We're hitting up close here
to a time to take another break. I want to

(27:51):
give you our phone number again if you'd like to
give us a call. Seven one three two one two
fifty eight seventy four seven three two one two five
eight seven four, or if you would like to dial
by letters, it's seven one three two one two kt RH.
In the meantime, we're taking a little break here, go
look at my website Gardening with Skip dot com. I'm

(28:13):
going to talk about some other stuff that are just
put up when we come back Flooding Hardline. Glad you're
with us today. We got a lot to talk about,
all kinds of things to talk about. One thing I
want to mention before we go, I was just bragging
on our Houston area garden centers. I'm talking about the
mom and pops. I'm talking about the ones that are independent,

(28:34):
locally owned, that hire people that know what they're talking about.
Is that ever important?

Speaker 12 (28:40):
Oh?

Speaker 1 (28:41):
Yes? I mean have you ever been in a store
and you you know, you had a question and an
employee walks up and you ask him the question, and
the minute you start asking it, you watch our eyes
glaze over and you don't even want to finish your
sentence with the question because you realize you're wasting your
time because you can tell you're about to get their
best guests or something made up or whatever that didn't

(29:01):
happen at our good garden centers, and a good example
of that would be Nilson Water Garden and Nursery out
there and Katie. Think of it as your West Houston
garden center because I mean it's just out on the
west side of town. Easy to get to. You just
head out I ten and turn north on Katie Fort
Ben Road and crossover tracks. It's right there on the
right hand side, not very far at all. When you
go there, you are going to find all kinds of things.

(29:24):
Number One, it's water gardens and nursery. So water gardens
is what they originally were known for. I mean they're
nationally famous, literally nationally famous. Created that disappearing fountain that
comes out of beautiful glazed pottery. You've seen those. They
got all kinds of water gardens. They do them. They'll
come to your place and you hire them to put
in one. You can talk to them. They'll say the

(29:45):
parts of like a disappearing fountain, and you make it
yourself if you want to do that, if you're that
kind of do it yourself or But they have plants,
a wide variety of plants. Always good deals going on
on plants. I love to go through there and shop
and just see some of the things. I'm always surprised
at the extent of things that they carry at Nelson
Water Garden and Nursery out there in Katie. If you

(30:07):
want to see their website, and I would encourage you
to do that because you can find out what's going
on Nelson Watergardens dot com. Nelson Watergardens dot com. Again
there in Katie, Texas. Turned north on Katie Fort Benroad
and it's just a hop, skipping and jump north of
Ien right there Nelson Watergardens. And by the way, uh,

(30:29):
you got to see the water guarden. Take a friend
with you, because I'll tell you what I enjoy. I
enjoy going there and just sitting and being still and
listening to the water there is. It is like therapy
to hear the sound of water. It just wonderful, brings
birds in, brings me in. I love it. Have a
little fountain in my backyard and I so enjoy getting

(30:50):
out and enjoying that sound you're listening to. Garden Line.
Our phone number, if you would like to give me
a call is seven one three two one two kt
r H seven one three two one two kt r H.
I've talked about Nelson's Plant Food before, and one of
the things that someone is asking me the other day

(31:12):
about what is a refillable jar? What are you talking
about when you say that, Well, Uh, what Nelson's has
done is they will sell you. There's some products, of course,
that come by the bag. You know, you're putting your
lawn fertilizers and things out. But there's others that you
would buy a smaller plastic jar for. Maybe it's maybe
it's a color star you're going to furtilize some flowers with.

(31:33):
Maybe it's a product like the tree and shrub, the
nutri star tree and shrub. That's great for what the ornamentals.
If you've got a tree you planted in the last
within the last five years, you need to still be
fertilizing that regularly to encourage good early growth. Well, when
you run out of one of those products, you can
go Tho's probably almost a dozen different garden centers and

(31:56):
other places here in the Houston area where you go
in and it's like when you go to the grocery
store and you buy peanuts or something, you pull a
little lever down and fill the bag. It's like that,
except it's Nelson Products and you take your old jar
in and so number one, you're not putting more plastic
in the environment. We know we got plenty of that already.
But it's a more economical way because they're not having

(32:19):
to package it up and buy a bottle to a
jar to sell you a jar and so on. So
you just go fill up, and so it's economical, it
makes environmental sense, and it's just easy. Nelson Plant Food,
the nutri Star line, the color Star line, there's several
lines that they have that you can just do the
refillable jars, and I encourage you to do that. Of course,

(32:41):
Nelson's is where we would find things like Slow and
Easy and Bruce's Brew for the lawn as well, two
top quality fertilizers out there, so you want to take advantage.
I think it's pretty cool. I said that I was
going to tell you about a couple more publications. If
you go to my website that is Gardening with Skip
dot Com. Gardening with Skip dot Com, I have I

(33:05):
told you about the homemade weed Wiper publication and the
Herbicides to use with it publication. You just have to
go read those to see what they're about. There's two
more on Nutsedge, and I knew when I started to
write about Nutsedge this is going to be controversial because
one of them is a quick tip. It's tips for

(33:26):
winning the war against Nutsedge. It's one page and it
goes through the different things, and you got to do
more than one thing, and you got to do them
continually for it to work. Nuts Edge is a kind
of creature that if you give it a break, it
will turn one tuber into ten tubers and just a

(33:46):
matter of a month or two. And so that's why
people say, oh, I tried to kill it, and then
next thing, you know, I had more than I started with,
Like your spray or you're digging or whatever made more tubers.
No it, that's the creature. And the analogy I use
for nuts Edge pretty gruesome but makes sense to me.
So I use it is it's like you're trying to

(34:08):
drown nutsedge. You got to hold it under water until
the bubble's quit coming out. You see what I'm saying.
In other words, if you let it up for air,
it takes a deep breath of air and then you
just you went right back to the beginning and you
start it over trying to drown the thing, right, Well,
we're not drowning it. In fact, it loves it when
it's too wet, yellow nuts Edge does. But what we're

(34:30):
doing is we're stopping it from producing new tubers by
consistently staying on it. The publications go into detail on
this and we're getting rid of the tubers that are
there by one or more ways. And there's times of
the year whend sprays are effective depending on the size
of the planet. There's times of the years where it
just burns the top and you do not kill the tuber.

(34:52):
You got to learn about that if you really want
to learn about it. If this is a battle that
looking at comments on our Facebook page, we've got a
lot of people that have battled this for a long
long time. But there's a publication called Nutsedge An in
Depth Look, and it's about three pages, but it goes
into a lot of detail, a little bit of humor

(35:13):
in there. We need, hey, we need to laugh a
little bit, because this isn't a laughing matter, but it
goes into the details of how it works. There's a
difference between yellow and purple nut set, and you need
to be able to know which one you have and
I tell you exactly how to know real quick which
one you have. And then there's some products that work
better on purple than on yellow, for example, and there's

(35:36):
some characteristics of each of those that are different. And
so when you know what you're going after, and then
you understand the fact that you can't let it have
more than five leaves before you do something, or it's
making new tubers, it helps guide you toward that answer.
There's no one solution, and if you do anything one

(35:57):
time or two times or maybe three times, isn't it's
probably not going to be enough. You have to stay
on it. But you can win the war on nuts
edge nuts edd tips for winning the wars the fast
sheet and nuts edge, and end up look is the
slower sheet. It goes into the different products that are
labeled for its juice, and I realized there's vegetable gardens
and flower beds and lawns, and you can't use one

(36:17):
product just anywhere you want. But the bottom line is
you need to read that and you need to think
about it because there's a lot of principles in there.
And I see a lot of comments from people that say, well,
such and such didn't work well, it doesn't work if
you give it a chance to regroup. You know, a
spray that makes it look like you killed it all

(36:39):
because the plants were larger. It didn't kill the nut,
so you killed it all, and then they all came
back again. Maybe more so the spray didn't work. The
spray didn't work because you didn't do it right. Your
timing was off on it. And it actually it helped
because you weakened the plant by killing the top. But
that in and of itself isn't going to get rid

(36:59):
of nuts. So I don't know. Take a look at
that gardening with skip dot com. They're both there. You
need to look at them. You need to really read
them and think about them, because this isn't your typical
little weed, you know. I mean, if it was just
a chickweed growing up in a flower bed or something.
I mean, you can throw mulch on it, it dies,
you can hoe it and it's gone. You can know

(37:22):
this is something different and understanding how it's working in
differences help you have success. Well, that was a lot
of words about nutsets, but I'm telling you this is
an infernal weed. If you were to go around the
world and say what are the top five weeds worldwide
that are just a aim for farmers or gardeners or whatnot.

(37:45):
That sedge is on that list. It's one of those
just I don't know the words, don't describe them. I
can describe them better if I use words I can't say.

Speaker 13 (37:56):
On the air.

Speaker 1 (37:56):
But I think you've probably used those words on nutsets
if you haven't. Seriously, it's infernal, it is evil, it
is wicked, it is malevolent. How's that? We can come
up with some more, but it can be beat. I've
taken a lot of time to put these together. I
hope they will be helpful to you. Uh, and I

(38:17):
just keep pointing to that website gardening. Let skip dot com.
We're gonna take a break seven one three two one
two k t r H. Call Chris, get on the
boards and we'll talk to you when we come back.

Speaker 3 (38:30):
Christopher kat r H.

Speaker 4 (38:32):
Garden Line with Skimp Richard.

Speaker 12 (38:34):
It's just watch him as.

Speaker 2 (38:49):
So many black basic eay.

Speaker 1 (39:02):
Hey, welcome back to garden Line. Welcome back. I'm your host,
Skip Richter, and we're here to help you have a
more bountiful garden and a more beautiful landscape when you
look at the I was before break. I was talking
about the new publications, two of them on nuts Edge
that I put on my website, Gardening with Skip dot com.

(39:24):
And if you're looking at it and you're saying, well, okay,
I'd like to try one of those sprays. But and
let me just I have to interject here because sometimes
folks listen to part of what you say, but not everything.
And that's true universally, especially those of you have kids.
Know what we're talking about. Our spouses know what we're
talking about. Seriously, though a joking his side, people are

(39:48):
not listening to everything I'm saying about nuts Edge, and
I need you to hear the whole thing. It's no
one solution. It's not put this spray on and that's
a miracle. It'll kill it. There are some really good
sprea are some worthless sprays, but that won't do it.
It's not we'll just dig it all up. Yes, you'll

(40:08):
get most of it, and that's a great idea in
terms of a non spray organic if you will way
to go about it. But you're not going to get
it all You don't have to dig it again, dig
it again, stay on it. The thing with nuts edge
is don't stop. Just look at the things I've put
on my publications. There's several options on there, and none

(40:30):
of them is a miracle cure. But if you grab
two or three of those and you stay on it
and understand that once it's hit five leaves, now you
got to do something or you have worse problem than
when you begin. That is what's important. So if you're
looking for a quality spray product as part of the arsenal,

(40:52):
part of the arsenal that you will repeatedly apply to
when this war, you can go to ACE Hardware and
they've got it. I talk about sedgehammer on there. By
the way, Sedgehammer plus already has a surfacting in it,
so I would get that one that was a good one.

Speaker 12 (41:09):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (41:10):
There is image, there is Uh. People use a lot
of different things. The artisen will sit here and name
all the products. You can go read about that on
my publications. But whatever you use, you have to stand it.
ACE Hardware store is going to have all those kinds
of things. And when you get them and take them
home from Ace, read the label. Read the label. Image

(41:30):
is an effective control against some types of some type
of nuts edge. But every label has warnings. If you
wait and it's blazing hot and you nuke your yard
with image, especially applied over the label, you're going to
cause damage to your yard. That's the case. Read the labels.

(41:51):
It's I know we don't like to read instructions. Guys
are notorious for not wanting to read instructions or stop
and ask for directions.

Speaker 12 (41:59):
Right.

Speaker 1 (42:00):
Well, if you don't, then you get to pay grow.
When my kid's grown up, I used to call it
the stupid tax. You get to pay the stupid tax.
When you're stupid, you get to pay a tax. Believe me,
I have done stupid things in my life and gotten
to pay the tax. Well, that's what I call it,
stupid tax. I got a great product that works. I

(42:20):
didn't read the label. I applied it. I damaged my lawn.
It didn't work on the product I was on the plan.
I was springing it on because I didn't read the label.
That's the stupid tax. So don't pay the stupid tax.
ACE Hardware Store can put the right product in your hand,
though I'm kind of wandering off here. By the way,
while you're at ACE, grab you some fire ant bait.
They are back this rain has brought a bunch of

(42:42):
the surface. Baits are the best way to go about
it for the long term. The long haul, the less
environmentally damaging way, the least amount of pesticide you put
in your environment is with a bait as opposed to
an individual mound treatment.

Speaker 14 (42:58):
Do that.

Speaker 1 (42:58):
It's mosquitoes. Have everything you need for mosquitos at Ace Harbard.
Ace is the place. So I mean, I can sit
here naming things, but the bottom line is if you
need it for your lawn and garden, if you want
to have more bountiful garden, a more beautiful landscape, Ace
is the place. Acehardware dot Com is their website. Go there,
find the store locator. It's easy to find and you
can find that Ace Hardware is near you. It is

(43:21):
as simple as that. Well, I wanted to I did
want to kind of reiterate a little bit on that
the nuts Edge, and I'm I posted to Facebook something
about it, a photo that some find humorous I did
of nut said, and there's a lot of comments on it.
And as I read the comments, it's like you didn't

(43:41):
read the publication. You're just telling me it didn't something
didn't work, or this or that I can take exactly
why it didn't work read the publication, but I understand.
I'm I have a what is it selective hearing myself sometimes,
So I just want to tell you that I don't
don't care what you're going after. I don't care if

(44:01):
you're using an organic product or synthetic product. Read the label.
Everything has drawbacks, and if you get enough of anything,
it can be a poison. They say the dose makes
a poison. Table salt and aspirin or poisons you take enough.
There is a number I can't remember what exactly, but
milligrams per kilograma body weight of table salt that will

(44:24):
kill you, of aspirin that will kill you. Everything is
a poison and everything has side effects. One of the safest, simplest,
easiest to recommend products on the market for insect control,
soft bidied insect control is insecticidal soap. It kills aphids,
it kills spider mites, It works wonderfully. It is not

(44:45):
a toxin that we have to worry about. But lady
be larvae or small soft bodied insects, lace wing larva
or small soft bided insects, aphids with wasps growing end
them when you kill the that what's left of that aphid.
You can kill the wasp with soap. Even soap as

(45:06):
its drawbacks doesn't mean it's not a good product. It
just means we got to quit thinking about this is
great good, this is bad. You know, Yes, there's degrees
of toxicity and stuff, but I don't care what you're doing.
If you especially if you're an organic gardener, don't just
assume because it's natural that you can use it indiscriminately.

(45:28):
That is not the case. And so whatever you're using that,
read the label. Please read the label. All right. Well,
I guess that was a little bit of a soapbox
forgive me for that. But I listen, I've been doing
this thirty five years and I cannot tell you how
many times I've heard stories about products that destroyed something.

(45:54):
And it's as simple as applicator error, failure to read
and follow label instructions. Ana Plants and Produce is one
of those garden centers I was telling you. We got
them all over Houston that are just you gotta go.
And Ana Plants and Produce is up there in the
Montgomery area, so all of you up in Lake Conroe area,

(46:14):
all those neighborhoods out there, April Sound, Belt, water and
all that. That is your backyard garden center. And I
know people that drive a distance to get up to
Ana because they love going there. They carry all the
products I talk about on garden Line, Nitroposs, Nelson's Microlife, Airloom, Souls,
Nature's Way, They're all there. They have a team that
goes out and does some landscape work even if you

(46:36):
want that. A and A Plants and Produce are on
the east side of Montgomery, east side of Montgomery, right
there on Highway one oh five. Their plant selection is outstanding.
They have wonderful bling for the landscape. Right now, they
got a sale I believe still going on on metal
art for the landscape. That is really cool stuff. Ana

(46:57):
Plants and Produce. I'm gonna take a little break here.
I'll be right back. Hey, here's the number if you'd
like to get on the board. We're talking about exciting
things that I like. Nutsedge. I guess we ought to
put fire ants next on the list when it comes
to infernal things. By the way, in the nuts Edge publication,
the in depth one that I just put online on
my website, I mentioned the fact that did you know

(47:19):
that this is a fun fact for nutsedge? And there's
not much fun about nuts edge, but nuts edge. The
scientific name nerd alert nerd alert is Cyparis esculentus. When
you see esculentis in a scientific name, it means you
can eat it. That's basically what it means. That's my
version of the Latin translation. You can eat it. Do

(47:41):
you know you can eat the nuts the tubers of
yellow nuts edge? Well you can, and you will learn
quickly that there's a difference between the word edible and
the word palatable. You're not the same thing. I've actually
tried it. They call them earth almonds, and it's like

(48:01):
it has an almond ish, almony almonish taste. You chow
it a while, it's kind of yeah, it's a little
on the sweet side. It's a little almony, and then
you kind of are going, so what do I do
with this sawdust left in my mouth? Spit it out?
But actually, there is a kind of it that is
popular in some parts of the of the world, especially
you get over in some areas of like North Africa

(48:25):
at least, where they have one called they call it
chufa chufa chiffa nuts or earth almonds or tiger nuts,
that's another name for it, and they're a little plumper.
The tubers are plumper and they're set kind of close
to the base of the plant so that it's you
can get a harvest out of it. And they make

(48:46):
In Spain they make a version of horchata, which it's
horchata de chufa, which means that you can make horchata,
which is a milky drink that's made from something like that. Well,
you can make it out of nut yellow. By the way,
yellow nuts ittge not purple. Purple is bitter hoteta chif
But here's the fun fact. They've dug into the Pyramids

(49:09):
of Egypt, the pay Rose burial places and found they
were buried with chiff and nuts. Now, how many of
you out there want to go to your grave with
nuts edge that's like throwing his zeplock of fire ants. Please, Seriously,
they thought so much of them they're snack food that

(49:30):
they were buried with their chiff and nuts. So, I
don't know. You can't make this stuff up, and I'm
not making it up. It is the truth. It's in
the publication. One of the few fun facts among the
other things that's out there. Hey, if you're trying to
do your law and fertilization, you haven't done it in
a while. You need to get some boost out there
in that turf. Sweet green from Nitrofoss can do just that.

(49:52):
Sweet green is an eleven percent nitrogen which is high
for a natural organic type product. Eleven percent nitrogen content.
It's made from a molasses base. Molasses stimulates microbial activity
the good guys, the beneficial bacteria, for example, in the soil.
Molasses is a stimulant for that because it's a carbon

(50:13):
source for them. And sweet grain is that kind of product.
Now we are in the middle of summer, and as
a result, I would suggest you take that sweet grain.
Normally you'd put ten pounds per thousand square feet. I
would suggest you split it in half. Go ahead and
do five pounds now, and then about six to eight
weeks from now, do it again with the other five

(50:35):
pounds that you would have put on at once. That'll
give you a more even growth over a period of
time and carry you on up to when it's time
to do fall fertilizations. Sweet grain from nitrofoss. If you
have ever gone shopping for night fross products before you know.
They're easy to find, widespread, easy, easy to find here.

(50:55):
You can get it at the ace out at Sincle Ranch.
They carry nit fross out there a task, a seat
to ace up in a test casito on timber forests.
They've got it up there. Go down to the lake
hardware include on Dixie Drive. You're gonna find it there
in Jim's Hardware down up in Montgomery on FM fourteen
ninety seven also has nitropos type products. Let's go ahead

(51:15):
and head out to the phones now and we're going
to go to Pearland and talk to Kay. Well. Okay,
welcome back to garden Line.

Speaker 7 (51:22):
Good morning, Skips, good to talk with you again. Thank
you for taking my call.

Speaker 13 (51:27):
I have a quick question.

Speaker 7 (51:28):
Is bug out Max safe for pets if the granule.

Speaker 1 (51:33):
Well any yeah, in the granular you're gonna put it
on the granular and then you water it in, so
I wouldn't have the pets out there when you're putting
it out. I would water it in really good and
once it dries that I believe the labeled words it
that way. Once it dries, it's it's you know, safe
to go out. Okay, and do now you know, any

(51:54):
any pasticide in and of itself is not safe, right
because it is a poisoner for some thing. But in general,
when you apply it right like this, they're not they're
not going to be exposed to the the in the
way or in the quantity that would be a concern
for you.

Speaker 15 (52:10):
Okay, okay, alrighty, thank you so much, and have a
blessed day.

Speaker 9 (52:15):
Bye bye.

Speaker 1 (52:16):
Well that was fast and easy, kay, all right, you
have fun out there in Paarland. Appreciate your call there
you go, all right, if you'd like to give us
a call here on garden line the phone number seven
one three two one two k t r H. Seven
one three two one two k t r H. Well,

(52:37):
the storms that we had come through, we had the
one that wasn't a hurricane and the one that was
Hurricane Berrel. Both of them just hammered our trees so much.
It's a wonder there's a living tree in Houston still
standing at with all the damage that was caused by those.

Speaker 16 (52:53):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (52:53):
And that just reminds us that we need our trees
to be properly trained and pruned when a storm come.
Now you can have the most perfect tree in the world,
and the right kind of storms gonna knock it down.
Just like you can have the strongest built house in
the world and you get an earthquake followed by a
Category five tornado and so on. You see what I'm saying.
But why not do everything you can to make that

(53:16):
tree as strong and as resilient as possible. And that's
what Martin spoon Moore specializes in. Martin spoon Moore, his
company is Affordable Tree Service. You hear about me talk
about them all the time here on Guardline. They're are
go to treecare person here on Guardline. Affordable Tree Service
the website. Write this down Afftree Service dot com. Afftree

(53:38):
Service dot Com. You don't know when you're gonna need them,
but I can tell you this. It's always a good
time to have Martin come out to assess things, to
look at the trees. You know, if it needs something,
he'll tell you. If it doesn't, he'll tell you. But
do you need to do some proper treecare coming into
this storm season. I can't impress enough on you the
importance of proper tree care and proper pruning, selective pruning

(54:02):
to make them safer. In heavy winds to set them
up for storm readiness, to do what's in your power.
But what else are you doing around those trees?

Speaker 16 (54:11):
You know?

Speaker 1 (54:11):
Tree roots go out two and a half times a
height in all directions of the tree. Yes, that's a
long way. So your tree has roots in your two
houses down in their yard. That that's just how they grow.
So what happens when you'd run a trench across a
root system ten feet from the trunk. You cut a
lot of important roots. And Martin can advise you on

(54:33):
when you need to do work, what should you do
ahead of time, or how should you go about it?
So anything related to your trees, Martin's going to be
able to help you with. I suggest you give them
a call. Here's a number seven to one three six
nine nine twenty six sixty three seven one three six
nine nine two six six three Affordable Tree Service Martin Spodmore.

(54:57):
Let's go up to the woodlands now and I'm going
to talk to Mike next. Huh, Mike.

Speaker 17 (55:02):
Mon Ski, welcome to garden.

Speaker 1 (55:04):
Yeah, welcome to Guardline.

Speaker 18 (55:06):
Thank you.

Speaker 19 (55:07):
Uh.

Speaker 17 (55:07):
We were gifted a thorny key lime tree this week,
and I'm wondering how you would plant it. We really
want to put it in the pot so we can
bring it in and out. It's in a ten inch
pot right now, and it's about three foot tall.

Speaker 1 (55:21):
Okay, you wanting to plant it in the ground. Is
that what you're saying?

Speaker 17 (55:29):
In a container?

Speaker 12 (55:29):
Yes?

Speaker 1 (55:31):
Good, good, Well, that's that's wise, especially up in the woodlands.
So I would if I would probably move it to
the next pot size up. So if it's ten inch,
you know, you can go something about a foot across,
or or you can go wider than that.

Speaker 7 (55:47):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (55:47):
The the idea is the more root system you give
that tree, the more resilient it is. So in other words,
on a hot summer day, a larger volume of soil
means it doesn't try out as fast because it can
draw in more moisture. In a confined space, there's less
room for moisture and the soil, and so the bigger

(56:08):
you move it into, the more resilient it is. So
you'll have to decide that. Of course. You know, there's
a lot of beautiful containers out there that you can use,
but the trees don't care what they're growing in. It
could be the ugliest bucket on earth, and it's just
got the soil volume, quality soil, and good nutrition, and
it's going to be happy. But for our purposes, a

(56:28):
beautiful container is nice. Just remember you're going to need
to move it, and that's going to take moving it
with a dolly and a strap so that when we
do have cold weather which will come, you can protect
because it has very little cold tolerance at all.

Speaker 17 (56:44):
Right, I was I was going to put it in
a much larger pod just for just for those reasons.
And yes, I I have a dolly and I have
probably fifty posts out there, so I know the drill thing. Yeah.
Other thing is I read that it needs the fertilizer

(57:04):
quite a dead So what are your thoughts. I was
going to get some Nelson's at ACE today.

Speaker 1 (57:12):
That's a winning combo Nelson and Ice. I would get
their citrus type fertilizer. If for some reason they don't
have the citrus type fertilizer, but you can get their
tree and shrub fertilizer. Use that one. And if you
can't get that, just a citrus is is not so
particular that you have to have exactly the right fertilizer

(57:33):
or the plant's not going to grow. So just just
get one that's good, follow the label on how much
to put out. You know, if you were gonna depending
on the size of the pot, you're going to put
a different amount out on the surface of the soil
and watered in really good. Uh, and it'll it'll start
supporting that growth. Mike, I would hold off after when

(57:54):
we get through August. Let's say, I probably wouldn't do
a lot of fertilization. Certainly not when we're like out
late September and October, because fertilizer does promote flushes of
late season growth, and that tender succulent stuff that hadn't
turned woody yet. The first cool weather is going to
really damage it more than it would the rest of
the p even so don't push it into a lot

(58:16):
of late late season growth.

Speaker 17 (58:19):
Perfect, Okay, thank you so much.

Speaker 1 (58:22):
Now you've heard. If you listen to Guardline, you know
that I always ask people to bring me half their
produce if my advice is successful. But in your case,
I think I'm going to go for something else. When
those lines are ready, call me and I'll come over
and we'll have Margarita's.

Speaker 17 (58:36):
How about that Margarita's and key lime pie?

Speaker 20 (58:40):
How about that?

Speaker 1 (58:41):
They're oh gosh, I forgot about that. That may be
above a margarita. Thanks a lot, man, appreciate your call,
take care, Thank you, Bye bye. All right, folks, time
for another break seven one three two one two KTRH.
I'll be right back.

Speaker 12 (59:00):
Houston's News.

Speaker 3 (59:01):
Why there are traffic plus breaking news twenty four to seventh.

Speaker 4 (59:04):
This is News Radio seven forty KTRH five everywhere bore
more of what's happening now from the John Morris Services studios.

Speaker 16 (59:15):
Drawing a big crowd for another rally. I'm Jared Lewis
sitt seven thirty on News Radio seven forty khr.

Speaker 1 (59:20):
Eh. Time for a look at traffic and whether together.

Speaker 21 (59:22):
We have Gary Mack, the roadwork between Barrett and Sheldon
that's ballooned up to a twenty minute Do you lay
now out on highway night that you spent after the
Stcenter River approaching twenty one hundred. We remain accident free
all around the speak cut, so we have that going
for us. Good morning, great to see you again. We'll
dive into some drive times, not that we need it yet.
On the way Gary Mack and the Generator Supercenter dot

(59:45):
Com Traffic.

Speaker 18 (59:45):
Center Speck sunshat on the Saturday, with the high ninety
eight the heat index between one hundred and one oh five,
though adding into humidity let then clear. Alderbike will look
down of seventy nine. I'm meteorialogist Jeff mar from the
Weather Channel eighty this morning.

Speaker 16 (59:57):
At the Key Cherries Generator Supercenter twenty four Weather Center,
k t H News Time seven thirty one. Our top
story a big rally in the Big Sky state of
Montana for former President Donald Trump. He helped campaign for
Tim Sheehe, the man running for the us N seat
currently held by Democrat John Tester. Trump's running mate j. D.
Vance meanwhile, expected to be in Texas this weekend, starting

(01:00:20):
Sunday a fundraiser in Laredo. Then on Monday, Vance will
appear at a few events in San Antonio and here
in Houston. The Trump Train rallies are hitting Texas this
weekend too. They'll be local officials in Sabata, one of
the biggest rallies in the area's history. A man is
dead after being shot at a gas station in northwest
Houston Friday evening near the Spring Branch area, and another

(01:00:43):
man is dead from a fire in Baytown Friday afternoon. Also,
Houston Police say a swat team has made an arrest
of a twenty six year old for the death of
a woman who was killed at an apartment in downtown Houston.
Our next update comes at eight. I'm Jared Lewis, News
Radio seven forty KRH.

Speaker 3 (01:01:03):
That Wow's friends.

Speaker 1 (01:01:04):
How about Katie.

Speaker 3 (01:01:04):
I'm Anita and.

Speaker 4 (01:01:05):
I'm Peter from Nelson Nursery and Water Gardens.

Speaker 1 (01:01:08):
Have you glad to have you with us today? Here's
a number if you'd like to give us a call
here to answer your gardening question. Seven one three two
one two kt r H. My goal is for you.
I have several goals that when we do garden line
that I hope we achieve, and the number one is
feed have more fun gardening, to enjoy getting out and gardening.

(01:01:30):
It's a great hobby. It's got mental benefits, physical benefits,
health in general benefits when you grow good, fresh quality
produce from your own garden, uh and just the aesthetics
and so on. It does all of that, and we
want you to have fun doing it. And it's the
kind of hobby where I like to tell people, don't
worry about failing. You can't fail unless you give up.

(01:01:53):
That's failing giving up just because a plant dies, or
you're struggling with something, or it's just a matter of
we need to help you understand the things to do
to have success with it. We can do that. That
is the goal here.

Speaker 11 (01:02:05):
To do that.

Speaker 1 (01:02:06):
Number one, have fun. Number two to have success. I
want you to have a bountiful garden. I want you
to have a beautiful landscape. I want you to be
proud of them, and I want them to be a
source of ongoing joy in your life. That is what
garden I think is all about. All right, well, just
give us a call seven one three two one two

(01:02:26):
K t R H and we'll see if we can
help you along with that. One of my favorite garden
centers here in the Greater Houston area is RCW Nurseries.
RCW is there where two forty nine, which is Tombo
Parkway comes into Beltway eight Sam Houston Tollway. RCW is
easy to get to right there. It's a great kind

(01:02:48):
of central almost location for folks. The website, if you'd
like to check them out, is RCW Nurseries dot com.
RCW nurseries dot com. They've got some great deals right
now on trees really outstanding, and by the way fall
season is coming on, it's not very far away. You
can plan now. But if you're gonna wait and do

(01:03:09):
the fall season, go ahead and get your tree, get
it ready to go, and get things prepared for it,
because now's the time or soon is the time where
we're going to be looking at the best planning season
of the year for fall, and it's always better to
get things ready before you do that. Rcw's got a
deal on select roses. They've got that Cajun hibiscus. I've

(01:03:31):
got one of those as my favorite hibiscus of all
the Cajun series outstanding. They've got those on sale too again.
The Tambai Park wet Belt wag eight RCW Nurseries RCW
Nurseries dot Com. Go buy there and check them out.
I call them to get it. Got It Nursery because
if they don't have it, they can probably get it

(01:03:52):
for you, and they have an outstanding ability to bring
in all kinds of different plants that they don't have to.
If they don't have it, they will do their belts
to find it for you. At r c W. I
want to head out now to Magnolia and we're going
to talk to Lee. Hello, Lee, Hi, how are you doing.

(01:04:13):
I'm good, sir, Welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 14 (01:04:16):
Thank you.

Speaker 9 (01:04:17):
My question is I've got some four h pigs at
the house and I missed my.

Speaker 13 (01:04:25):
My aunt tiller broadcasts and now I'm afraid to put
it out because we have the pigs running around in
the yard at times when we work them.

Speaker 9 (01:04:34):
Is there a product that is that's safe for that
or what do I need to do?

Speaker 22 (01:04:41):
Uh?

Speaker 1 (01:04:42):
So the you got, you got fire ants and areas
where pigs are rooting around. That's the bottom line here.

Speaker 9 (01:04:50):
Yes, ultimately that's what what it is.

Speaker 1 (01:04:54):
Yeah, okay, Well, fire at bait is put out of
this super low rate something like andro a pound of
bait will cover a whole acre. So that we're talking
about like dump dumped on a mound where they root
and they I don't well, pigs root in fire ance.
I wouldn't think they would. But anyway, we're not talking

(01:05:15):
about a whole bunch of it. We're talking about a
granule here, a granule there, And the best time to
put it out is go ahead.

Speaker 20 (01:05:23):
I'm not so much worried about them rooting in the
in the mound as much as I am.

Speaker 9 (01:05:28):
When they root and eating the soil, Okay.

Speaker 1 (01:05:33):
Well, they're gonna be down there looking for they're looking for,
you know, rhizomes and other things they can grub up,
you know, in the soil. But you got two options.
You could use an individual mound treatment and drench it,
and the pigs will not like that. Some things like
ortheens stink to high heaven and so they're not going
to like that. There are organic products like a ctrus

(01:05:55):
oil based individual mound treatment that they're not going to
look be around that either, and so you could do that.
But the problem with mound treatments is you're playing whack
a mole with fire ants. For example, my yard, before
it was raining recently, I didn't have a single fireant
mound in the yard. It rained, and all of a sudden,
these mounds I didn't know were underground forming came to

(01:06:16):
the surface. Now got these little mounds of dirt where
the fireants had built up. And so the mound treatments,
you're sort of always a little bit behind trying to
kill the mounds. The baits will kill those mounds that
were invisible to me. Had I put a bait out
before I saw mounds they were there. The workers would
have gotten the bait and it would have killed the mounds.

(01:06:38):
So baits are a more efficient way and more effective
way to put it out. You can go either way,
but that would be There is an organic bait that
contains spindosaid that's called come and Get It, Come and
get it, and you could also use that if you
wanted to take one more level of you know, getting

(01:07:01):
away from some of more of a synthetic type product,
you could do that. But general, when you put up
bait at the right rate, it's not gonna be a problem.
You only want to bait though, when the ants are
foraging to get so that the goal is you want
that fresh bait to get out there, and you want
to mount an ant to grab it and and not
have to sit around for days in the sun and weather.

(01:07:22):
And so what I would suggest is gets you something
that's oily, like a potato chip, and throw a few
out there here and there, just a few on the ground,
and go back in fifteen minutes and look at them.
And if they're fire iNTS on those chips, that means
they're out foraging. If there's not just right, and once
you see that they're out, that's the time of day.

(01:07:44):
Typically it's the cooler times of day in summer, during
the blazing hot middle of the day, not generally the
best time. But if you do that, then they find
those they bring them back. It does its job and
you're not worried about your pigs.

Speaker 17 (01:07:59):
Okay, good deal, Thank you.

Speaker 1 (01:08:02):
Sound like a plan. All right, yes, sir, good luck.
All right, take thank you. And one thing I enjoyed doing.
I've been doing gardening questions for over thirty five years now.
People emailing me, people calling me, people coming by. I go,
you know, into places where someone had something they want
me to look at, and it never fails. There's something new.

(01:08:24):
That's my first call on how do I kill fiance
without hurting pigs? Never had that one before, So congratulations, Lee,
you got me a new one that time. I thought
I'd heard all of them, but hey, that's part of gardening.
I understand that. One of my favorite new fertilizers, and
really it's pretty cool stuff is Medina has to grow

(01:08:47):
supergrow Plus. Medina has to grow supergrow Plus as a
product that you hook up to a garden hose. It's
a one court bottle. It covers about four thousand or
excuse me, sixteen thousand square for a gallon, four thousand
for the quart. So if you just get a quart,
hook it up the garden hose four thousand square feet.

(01:09:08):
It covers in case about ten minutes to do it.
It's a sixteen zero two fertilizer. It's a good blend
for established lawns that have been doing fine. You're just
wanting to keep giving them a boost. It's got seaweed
in it, it's got seaweed extract rather in it. It's
got a humic acid, it's got molasses in it, and
it has a form of iron that doesn't tie up

(01:09:32):
in the soil. Real quick, I'm going to be doing
I'm doing a post here I'll probably get done for
the end of the show on iron chlorosis and what
causes that. An a keylated form of iron is resistant
to being tied up in the soil, so the plant
can get it and that's super grow. Plus, it's easy
to find. Medina products are widely available. If you want

(01:09:53):
to see a boost in your lawn. Maybe you got
an area that's struggling, dude, it's some take holl root
rod or something else. Give it a little boost, give
it some folier feed. With that super grow plus, it'll
also go down in the soil and help it there.
Easy to do, easy to find, and it works. Time
for me to take a break. Seven one three two
one two k t RH. If you'd like to get
on the board, we will take your call when we

(01:10:16):
come back.

Speaker 3 (01:10:18):
My Heartradio.

Speaker 1 (01:10:18):
Thank you for listening in. It's always good to be
able to visit with you. I know there's a lot
of folks listening that don't call in, but we do
invite you to call in if you got any kinds
of questions. We want to help you have success. And
I'll tell you this, there is someone else that has
the same questions that you do, so don't be afraid.
I like to say there's no stupid questions, just stupid answers,

(01:10:39):
and the point being that let the pressure be on me.
I have those stupid answer into the deal. Uh. You
ask your questions and we'll we'll respect them and give
you a good answer to help you have success because
some other people are too shy to call to. If
you want to have success with your garden, you know
here on Garden Line, our mantra is brown stuff before
green stuff. And what that means is you get the

(01:11:01):
soil right and then you put in a good plant
and you end up with success. If you take a
plant and PLoP it into an unprepared plot, you are
likely to run into some problems. Maybe drainage is not's good,
maybe the organic matter content's not sufficient, maybe the nutrient
content's not sufficient. Landscaper's Pride is a company that produces

(01:11:24):
organic soil amendments and mulches so that you can have success.
Their Gardener's Magic is a pine based blend. It contains
humous screen, pine composted rice holes, and even a chicken
pellet fertilizer to give you three months of feeding. They're
mushroom compost. Gardeners know about mushroom compost. It is chalk
full of all kinds of nutrients based on an aged

(01:11:46):
pine base, and it really helps the plants to be successful.
A healthy soil compost is made with one hundred percent
recycled composted plant material, neutral pH adds and the nutrients
as it decomposes in the soil. It's replenishing the soil
with the nutrients that are in that organic matter and
then the black humans dark rich organic mix compost to

(01:12:09):
pine bark and loamy top soil. Great for putting in
a new bed or even just beefing up one that
you've already got. Well Landscaperspride dot com. That is the website.
You can find out more about it, you can find
out where to get it, and it is widely available.
We're going to head out now to Magnolia and talk
to Sarah this morning. Good morning, Sarah, and good morning.

(01:12:31):
How can I help?

Speaker 11 (01:12:33):
I have an issue that I discovered last week, unfortunately,
being stung by in ground be excuse me bees. They're
very small, they're only half an inch. It's still painful
this week. But they are nesting in my pot potty plants,
and I'd like to know how to be to remove them.

Speaker 1 (01:12:55):
That's a good question. Uh I would do is I
would go out at night when they're back in there,
not hive, but when they're back in their nest, if
you will, And I would probably in this case, I
think I would use something like a seven dust or

(01:13:16):
an orthene type product, and I would sort of like
dust it onto those pots wherever they're having to come out,
just get it all around there. So that they have
to crawl through it. When they crawl through that dust,
they pick it up and it kills them. And it's
not systemic. It's not going to get in your plants. Well,

(01:13:36):
our orthene is, the seven dust is not. But the
bottom line is just get them so that when they
go in and out they pick that up and it
will kill them. That's the best way. I've known people
that go to links of using a little red lens
over a flashlight. Somehow with these wasps and bees they
seem to not be able to see that as well

(01:13:56):
or something. I'm not an entomologist, but I would just
go out at night, get a little light and just
so you can see enough to toss some of that
dust or whatever up against and around and in wherever
these are coming in and out, and that'll take care
of them.

Speaker 11 (01:14:10):
Okay, great, So obviously the spray would not work on
the seven dust. Is that correct?

Speaker 1 (01:14:17):
Well? The spray seven spray could? I just I've never
tried to see it. And then when a bee crawls
through soil that's had seven spray on it, will it
pick up enough of the pesticide to killch I don't
know the answer to that.

Speaker 11 (01:14:33):
Okay, very good. Okay, I'll get that a try. I
appreciate your information.

Speaker 1 (01:14:39):
Sure, thanks, Sarah. I appreciate your call very much. Let's
now go to Beaumont and talk to Dan. Hello.

Speaker 12 (01:14:45):
Dan, Hey, good answered here, we'll good morning.

Speaker 17 (01:14:50):
I've got one real quick question for you. A while
back of cold to asked you about.

Speaker 9 (01:14:55):
Seeding some tomatoes or harvesting the seeds from the tomatoes.

Speaker 23 (01:15:00):
I can use them for the following year.

Speaker 9 (01:15:02):
And yes, you told me to put it in some
water and let it kind of.

Speaker 1 (01:15:07):
Rotten down or deteriorate down.

Speaker 12 (01:15:09):
And I have done that.

Speaker 17 (01:15:10):
I put it in the jar, in a jar and.

Speaker 20 (01:15:13):
Let it uh interior eight year old early will.

Speaker 9 (01:15:18):
Yeah, And I was curious what to do now?

Speaker 14 (01:15:22):
Kind of open those jars up.

Speaker 9 (01:15:24):
They are gonna stink, and I want to get rid
of as fast as I can.

Speaker 17 (01:15:28):
But yeah, what do I do?

Speaker 1 (01:15:31):
Take it out? Yeah, take it outside and just pour
off a lot of the water on top and with
that the floating seed and the debris and goo and
follow them or whatever's up there. Pour that off, fill
it with fresh water, let the seed settle back down,
and pour it off again. Do that about three times,
and then you can bring them in and you know,

(01:15:52):
you put a little on the jar, shake it real
hard to get more of the kind of the organic
debris that's around those seeds off, and you're just basically
cleaning those seeds and getting the stinky stuff out of there.
Then bring them out and I would I would take
the seeds, you know, try to get the moisture out,
maybe a paper towel or something like that, press them
a little bit, and then let them dry and once

(01:16:13):
they're dry, put them in whatever kind of packet you're
going to store them in. And when I say once
they're dry, I mean i'd give them a week or
two to fully dry in a dry spot, and then
you can store them in a packet. They should be
fine if you're going to use them next year. If
you want a little longer storage, you could store them
in an air tight something in the in the refrigerator.

Speaker 12 (01:16:35):
Right.

Speaker 9 (01:16:37):
Okay, that was my uh ways that hope to help
somebody else there.

Speaker 1 (01:16:43):
You Yeah, I'm sure it will. I'm sure it will.
And it'll help me when you bring me half of
the tomatoes you grow next year and drop them off
at the radio.

Speaker 24 (01:16:50):
Oh yeah, that's the type set good good.

Speaker 1 (01:16:56):
Well. Hey, thanks, you sound like you're having some fun
with that. That most people I don't go to that measure,
but it is kind of fun to do. Thanks Dan,
Thanks take care. All right, there you have it. Uh.
You know, I like birds. I talk about the birds
all the time. In fact, yesterday I was using my
Merlin app. There's a map or an app on the

(01:17:17):
phone called Merlin E R L I N like the Magician.
It's done by Cornell University. And boy is it cool?
Uh it for identifying bird. I heard a bird singing
outside and I couldn't what was that. I didn't know
that song, and so I just said listen, and the
app listened and told me that was a wren, a
specific kind of wren. Later I heard a different bird

(01:17:39):
song did the same thing. It was the same wren.
You know, birds have more inland song. See I'm kind
of new to birds, but they do. And if you're
interested in birds or would like to be wha Birds
Unlimited WBU dot com Forward slash Houston WBU dot Com
Forward slash Houston. That's the website you're going to go in.

Speaker 8 (01:17:59):
There.

Speaker 1 (01:18:00):
By the way, you need to get some seed cylinders.
Now that's packed cylinders of seed. You go on a vacation,
just set that out there. Takes a bird a while
to work them out of the seeds out of those cylinders,
and it'll it'll take care of your birds. Nobody's gonna
be there to fill the feeder. The cylinder will take
care of it till you get back from vacation. Wabirds
has so many quality blends, without the waste, without the seed,

(01:18:22):
birds don't want to eat. It's you buy a pound
of walldbird seed, you get a pound of bird feed,
and it's quality stuff. They have quality feeders, they have
quality bird houses, they have all kinds of things. WBU
dot Com, Forward Slash Houston. You can find the six
wallbird stores here in the Greater Houston area. Well, it

(01:18:45):
looks like let's see here. We are just up against
an end of the hour break. So Kim and Memorial
you will be our first when we come back. If
the rest of you would like to get online, just
I mean get on the air with me. Give chrisicol
seven one three two one two k t r H.
And when we come back, we'll talk to you about
the things that are of interest to you. I want

(01:19:06):
to remind you that on my website Gardening with Skip
dot com. Gardening with Skip dot Com. There is the
new publication on Nutsench. There's two of them. One is
more in depth. I highly recommend you read it. I
know a lot of people just want to look at

(01:19:26):
the one page one, which is fine, but the in
depth one gives you a lot of information that when
I say, why didn't once you try on nuts edge
that didn't work and you answer that question, the in
depth publication will tell you why it didn't work, because
there's a lot of things that work, but nothing's that
penda seea They're on there on the website. Please go

(01:19:47):
check those out. We'll be right back here. A short serience.

Speaker 2 (01:19:58):
Just as.

Speaker 1 (01:20:19):
Welcome back to guarden Line. Glad to have you with
us today, Thanks for listening in our goal here. My
goal here is to have a show that allows you
to get your questions answered, to have a more bountiful garden,
a more beautiful landscape, to enjoy gardening. Gardening is fun. Listen,

(01:20:40):
this is the best hobby that there is, and we
want to help you feel even more that way and
have more fun out of it. To beautify your landscape,
to plant trees, and shrubs and design things that creates
beauty but also increases the value of your landscape. You know,
when you're putting up a house for sale. One of
my one of my daughters is in the process of

(01:21:02):
purchasing a home, and you know, going around looking at
all these homes, it just can't help. But the fact
that when you walk up and you see beauty, you
see beautiful shade trees because they were well chosen in
the past, they were well planted, and they were well
pruned in the past. That adds value, but it also
makes it a more soluble landscape. You're going to move
it now, maybe you're not planning on selling, maybe you

(01:21:24):
want to stay there. How do we have how do
we have more fun? How do we have more success?
That's what we're about here on Guardline. So it's as
simple as that. We're going to head straight out to
Memorial right now and talk to Kim.

Speaker 23 (01:21:35):
Hello, Kim, Hey Skip, Actually it's Ken, but that's great. Ken,
Okay Norris, thanks for taking my call.

Speaker 12 (01:21:44):
Listen.

Speaker 23 (01:21:44):
We built a house in the Bunco Hill area here.
Memorial moved in about two years ago, so the side
is about that time frame, old and it's developed just
really some massy bald spots all around and the whole yard,
the front yard, the backyard, and we have had trouble

(01:22:05):
getting those to fill in. And one thing I've noticed
is that when we went out and did some recent work,
it appears that there's some very orange colored sand, a
filler sand, right underneath the side. And did some research
and it looks like that's something called bank sand.

Speaker 25 (01:22:24):
And what I'm caurious about before I go ahead and
replace all the sod and do a lot of work here,
is is there a cure for getting this stuff filled in?
Or do I need to, you know, replace the whole
thing and get some top soil between that bank sand

(01:22:44):
in the sod. And now'll be quiet and just listen
for a little bit here.

Speaker 1 (01:22:49):
How deep do you think that sand is? How thick
of a layer is.

Speaker 23 (01:22:52):
That it's quite thick, So that bank sand is probably
goes down you know, at least nine inches maybe a foot,
And then the sod was placed right on top of that.

Speaker 1 (01:23:07):
Okay, And did it look good for a while and
just recently has gone downhill? Or has it been a
gradual process over time from the beginning.

Speaker 23 (01:23:16):
Yeah, when they when they when they first put it
in there, of course it looked really nice. And then uh,
you know last summer was was very hot that you know,
it started getting bad then, and then you know, this
year it's just it's it's just been really bad. So
you know, gradually over time and then you can see
where it starts to that Saint Augustine, So it starts

(01:23:37):
to grow back in some of those places, but more
very you know, kind of a string grows along, and
you know, I just can't tell if it's going to
fill in those spots or not. But you know, and
everybody else's yard looks absolutely pristine.

Speaker 9 (01:23:52):
You know, I get a lot of hassle.

Speaker 1 (01:23:54):
So all right, well tell you what, ken it could
be due to several things. I don't think the sand
is the problem, if it truly is is a bank sand.
What I'd like you to do is take a picture
or two of the lawn from different angles so I
can kind of see the overall effect. Then get up
close and take some I mean down as close and

(01:24:16):
zoomed in as you can to the grass, plants and
runners and stuff in there. Let me see a picture
of that. Let me take a look at them. And
because This could be you know, dying out in patches,
can be chinchbugs. It could be taken root rod, It
could be drought. It could be a number of different things.
And so I think there's going to be a solution

(01:24:39):
a lot simpler than replacing the soil or the sand
in that area. So let me take a look see
if I can figure out what may be going on,
so we don't waste your time and money applying or
doing the wrong thing.

Speaker 23 (01:24:52):
Wonderful scipe, I sure appreciate it, just out of curiosity.
Gess my first son falling in So where do I
send those pictures too?

Speaker 1 (01:25:01):
Okay, I'm gonna put you on hold and Chris will
pick up the phone and give you an email address
to send them to me. Okay, thank you, sir, have
a great day, all right, you bet take care all right? Yeah,
Sometimes you know symptoms like plants are dying. You know,
I can I can give my best guess, or I

(01:25:23):
can give you a better answer by taking a good
look at a picture. Sometimes that's required. Sometimes it's not.
Some questions, I just already know what it is and
we don't have to go through all that. You've heard
me talk about plants for all season before as a
super super high quality nursery've been around since nineteen seventy three.
They're right there just north of Bluewetta on Highway to

(01:25:44):
forty nine Tambo Parkway, FM two forty nine. They've been
around and they have quality, quality employees there. You know,
from the flowery family members that are that work there
to the to the employees that they are. We're talking
about trained people that know what they're talking about. You
go in with a problem, They give you a right answer.
They point you to a product that works, they tell

(01:26:06):
you how to use it. You bring a picture a
sample of a plant in Hey, something's wrong with this
is zela or whatever it is? What can I do?
They'll look, they'll tell you and they know what they're
talking about. And when you purchase from them, you know
you're going to get plants that want to grow here.
They garden here themselves. This family lives here, they've gardened
here for a long time. They know what works, they

(01:26:26):
know what doesn't work. The website Plants for All Seasons
dot com. The phone number two eight one three seven
six one six four six two eight one three seven
six one six four six Plants for All Seasons dot Com.
Today be a good day to swing by there and
stop in again. They're just north of Luetta off Highway

(01:26:48):
two forty nine. I'm going to head out to La Fayette,
Louisiana and talk to Bob. Hello, Bob, Welcome to guard Line.

Speaker 26 (01:26:55):
Hey, Skip, he got a landscape. Are put in pentas
p E N T A S and they're supposed to
flower all summer.

Speaker 9 (01:27:09):
Take the heat.

Speaker 26 (01:27:10):
The problem is what I read about them is that
they don't like a lot of water, so the leaves
are kind of yellow. But we have an irrigation system
and everything else around and needs water. Is there a fertilizer?
It talks about a liquid fertilizer. Is there something I
can put on them to green them?

Speaker 1 (01:27:28):
When you say the leaves are yellowing, is if you
really study an individual plant, is it the whole plant yellowing?
Is it the new growth that's yellowing? Is it the
old leaves that are yellowing?

Speaker 20 (01:27:40):
To have you.

Speaker 1 (01:27:42):
That it's a mixy, I'll bet you I get to
send in you a picture, but let me yeah, let
me let me give you what is probably going on.
If the soil is sagy wet and the roots are submerged,
they can't get oxygen that degree of wet. Then that
could be causing the yellowing and the decline. And you

(01:28:04):
just need it need I don't know, eat, don't water
as much, or have a do something to improve the
drainage in that area or standing water whatever that would
be the solution. Pentas aren't prone to iron chlorosis. They
can get it, but it's not like they're notorious for it,
like an azella might be in a higher pH spot.

(01:28:26):
So I would I would think you're probably looking at
something wrong in the root system. But if it were
going to be a nutrient, you could get something that
has iron, like a keylated form of iron and try that.
I tell you what. There's a product and it's by Medina,
and it's called super Grow Plus. It's a quart bottle

(01:28:49):
that hooks up to a garden hose. It's got some
kilated iron, and it's got some nitrogen, and it's got
some other good things. It's made for the lawn. But
I know people that use it on their tomato plant,
for example, because it works. You're not you know, a
court bottle will cover four thousand square feet, so I
don't think you have four thousand square feet of pentus.
But just use it on the pentus and use it

(01:29:10):
on some other stuff. Boy, you got it, and just
see if that improves it. And that would be the simplest,
easiest way. Because it's a good product. You can use
it on a lot of other things. If you've got
some areas of your lawn that need little boost, you
could do it that way too. But I think super
Grow plus from Medina. It's again a court bottle that
hooks up to your garden hose. Thank you very much.

(01:29:32):
Enjoy the show, you bet, you bet, Thank you appreciate
you appreciate your call very much. Well's time for me
take a quick break here. I've gone a little long,
so I'll be right back and Drew from Hockley. You today,
we got plenty to talk about, and we're going to
just run straight out to the phones here and head
to Hockeley, Texas and talk to Drew. Hello, Drew, Welcome

(01:29:52):
to garden Line.

Speaker 17 (01:29:53):
Hey, hey Skip, I'm new to the show. I actually
started living thing in January.

Speaker 14 (01:29:59):
We just moved from all my taxes to here in hockey.

Speaker 27 (01:30:02):
But I've got a situation in my and I love
your show.

Speaker 15 (01:30:05):
By the way.

Speaker 17 (01:30:07):
I've got I've got a situation.

Speaker 12 (01:30:11):
I'm in a new subdivision and I'm.

Speaker 23 (01:30:13):
On the corner lot.

Speaker 7 (01:30:15):
But I followed all your.

Speaker 27 (01:30:17):
Uh like fertilizers doing throughout the course in the summer,
and everything looks beautiful if it's.

Speaker 28 (01:30:25):
All green and everything, but just one area.

Speaker 27 (01:30:28):
Now my house faces the west, which this is where
that spot is where it gets sun in the evening time.

Speaker 17 (01:30:37):
And I have a one of those, and I'm on
the corner lot, so I have one of those sewer
around things that you.

Speaker 27 (01:30:44):
They can get down in there and to get sewer
or whatever around that area. It's like dying Is it
from that or is there something I can put around that?

Speaker 1 (01:30:56):
How long ago did thee How long ago did the
dying start?

Speaker 17 (01:31:00):
It started about right after.

Speaker 1 (01:31:05):
Hurricane Okay, well Bay, you know, grass dying could be
a number of different things, but let me suggest one
thing you might try. First, take get a watering can,
a sprinkler can, and put a tablespoon of dish soap

(01:31:26):
like ivory liquid dish soap in a liquid soap in it,
fill it with a gallon of water, add a gallon
of water, and then around that area, not in just
the dead grass. But in the grass it's green around
the dead water that and let it soak them in
it and water it again, and just watch it and
see if you see little black and white bugs or
a little kind of orange brown with a white band

(01:31:49):
on them bugs, either of that coming up onto the grass.
That would be chinchbugs. And chinchbugs will often start next
to pardon you had chins bug? Chinch Yeah, chinch but
it's a it's a turf. They love Saint Augustine. This
is Augustine. Oh yeah, yeah. Let's let's just see if

(01:32:13):
we have those or not if we If we don't,
then we would look at other causes for it. It
could be, you know, for whatever reason, something under the
soil buried on there and the and the grass can't
get a good deep root system and it's more prone
to to drying out or something. It could be a
disease like uh a take all root rot that's affecting them.

(01:32:34):
So there's a lot of possibilities, but I'd like to
start with seeing do a self assessment like I described,
and see if you've got chinch bugs and that. If
you don't, then uh, let's let's let's have you send
me a picture of what you see of the picture
of the area. I'm going to put you on hold, Chris,

(01:32:55):
give you an email. If you need to send pictures,
you can send them to this email and just reference
our call on the air today. That's what we use
the email for, is his photos for me to talk
to people about questions on the year.

Speaker 11 (01:33:08):
Okay, all right, all right, thank.

Speaker 1 (01:33:10):
You, yes sir, all right, very good, yes, Sari. Hey,
Southwest Fertilizer is in Southwest Houston. Well there's a revelation.
They're on the corner of Bisonett and Renwick. And you
hear me talk about them all the time. Because Bob
has got everything you could need. My favorite thing to
say about it is if Southwest doesn't have it, you

(01:33:31):
don't need it. And that's true because everything that's gonna
work that's going to help on any kind of problem
in your yard or any way to stimulate your plants,
like fertilizer, Bob's got it. He has everything I talk
about on guardline and then some. For example, he's got
a mite. As might is the product we put down
for micro nutrients on our lawn. You need to do

(01:33:51):
as Mite, by the way, about once a year that's
generally enough. Now do a soil test. You may find
you need more or less, but that is a good
gauge for what to do. You can do it anytime
of the year. You can do azemite right now. It's
not going to make your grass grow. It's going to
provide micro nutrients into the bank account so as that
grass grows and things that stimulate grass growth or warm temperatures,

(01:34:15):
adequate moisture, good sunlight. As that grass grows, it's going
to have those nutrients that are essential to support that growth.
That's what azemite does. You can go to asimite Texas
dot com if you want to learn more about it.
But that's what it does. But that's just an example
of the kind of products we get at Southwest Fertilizer
Organic Synthetic. They got them all eighty foot wall of tools,

(01:34:36):
a little repair shop in the back too, which is
kind of handy, by the way. Southwest Fertilizer dot Com
corner of Businet and Runwick. Anything you need is going
to be there for sure. Let's see, We're going to
go now to sugar Land and talk to Alan. Hello Allen,
Welcome to Gardenline.

Speaker 20 (01:34:56):
Hello Skip this is Moses Hall Allen.

Speaker 14 (01:34:58):
Good to hear from.

Speaker 29 (01:34:59):
You do a great job on your show.

Speaker 1 (01:35:01):
Roses Hall Alan. I did your last name begin with
an H?

Speaker 29 (01:35:06):
Yes it does.

Speaker 1 (01:35:08):
I think I know your was in that same dorm
with us.

Speaker 9 (01:35:13):
Yes, I do.

Speaker 27 (01:35:16):
Very well.

Speaker 10 (01:35:18):
Hey, I guess so I'm sorry.

Speaker 1 (01:35:23):
I'm liable to reminisce and end up telling us. I'm sorry, Gallan,
go ahead, I'll shut up.

Speaker 29 (01:35:29):
It's all right.

Speaker 20 (01:35:30):
I've got some stories as well, So I have some
knockout roses that have developed. It's a blight. I've seen
it around town. It's very dark, reddish brown dying with
tons of thorns on the plants. I've looked online and
one of the things I read said, bag it, dig

(01:35:53):
it up, and throw it away as fast as you can.

Speaker 1 (01:35:57):
That is correct. Do you think you described is almost
certainly something called rosette? Rose rosette. You get a bronzy
reddish lots of bronzy reddish new growth and a ton
of thorns, and the new growth often is a little malformed.
It didn't look right, you know, the leaves don't look right.

(01:36:18):
That is rose rosette. It's a virus, so there's no
curing a virus there's no virus side spray on any
plant that you can put out there to kill the virus.
The problem. The reason we bag it and get it
out of there is because there's a little mite that
has a little threadlike web thing it creates that allows
it to float on the air, and it will float

(01:36:39):
some distance to another rose bush and infect it. Because
it is a death sentence for the rose. You want
to get that rose out of there. If there's any
roses right next to it, they probably already have it.
You could wait and watch, but the first sign you
see of it, get those out of there too. And
I tell people to put a garbisack over the top

(01:37:01):
of the rose and go all the way to the ground.
I like the draw string types because you can just
pull that now string and so now you basically have
turned your rose into a wrapped lollipop. You know, you
got the bag all around it tied to the base,
and then when you dig it, you know you're going
to shake the plant trying to pull it up out
of the ground, and you're not shaking mites loose to
float all over the place and increase your problems.

Speaker 20 (01:37:25):
Yeah, sad to hear now. I also understand if I
were to ever trim those roses, the shears that I
use need to be cleaned. What do I clean those with?
So I don't take it from rose to rose?

Speaker 1 (01:37:39):
Well, A number of things will do that. I generally
recommend people use rubbing alcohol. Bleach water tends to rust
metal and so your pruners. If you use a bleach
water solution, you can sterilize them that way, but you
need to immediately wash them off and then dry them
off and then oil them. And it's better to just

(01:38:01):
use just a good strong alcohol solution of isopropyl type alcohol.

Speaker 27 (01:38:08):
You I won't do it.

Speaker 20 (01:38:11):
So I to give hydrogen proxi, I won't do it.

Speaker 29 (01:38:14):
No, I was using that now.

Speaker 1 (01:38:16):
But what I if you go to it, you know,
typical pharmacy place, you can buy a little bottle pint
bottle of alcohol for like a dollar, and I just
cut the top off and now carried it around. I
dipped my prunters in it, and dip my prunters in it.
Some people will use what's the spray Life salt? They'll

(01:38:36):
take a Life salt and spray the prunters between cuts
because it also is a disinfectant.

Speaker 20 (01:38:43):
Okay, got it. Hey, thanks so much. I appreciate it.

Speaker 1 (01:38:47):
All right, good to hear from you.

Speaker 20 (01:38:50):
Have a great day.

Speaker 1 (01:38:53):
Alrighty there there we go.

Speaker 24 (01:38:56):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (01:38:56):
Siena Maltz is down south of the Greater Houston area.
Cinemal is a place where you get quality. Those folks
make sure they produce and sell quality soil products, brown
stuff before green stuff. Remember Ciena Multch is the brown
stuff place. There is not a fertilizer. I recommend this
not at Cinamulch Compost mixes, vegetable mixes from heirloom soils, mulches,

(01:39:22):
rock products. It's all there Ciena Maultch Highway near Highway
six and two eighty eight south of Houston, just north
of Road Sharing. They're on FM five twenty one. But
here's what you need, Sienna Mulch dot com. That's the
website tells you everything you need to know, how to
get there, how to call them, everything like that. Siena
Mulch dot com. It is a one stop glad you're

(01:39:44):
listening in today. We got plenty of things to talk
about on plants, you know. That's the thing. I don't
care what month of the year is, what hour of
the day it is, there's always an appropriate plant question
for the time. Something is going on out there, something
needs fertilizing, something's dying. I want to plant a new
what's a good type of tomato? I mean, we can
go on and on and on. One of the things

(01:40:05):
that I find myself doing a lot more in the
summer is starting to pay attention to my houseplants. You know,
you're inside. I get out and work early in the day,
sometimes late in the day a little bit, but during
the middle, hottest part of the day, try to stay
in more because I don't know, just it's hot out there. Well,
that's a good time to be taking care of houseplants

(01:40:26):
and noticing houseplants. I'm kind of interested in houseplants that
I have color. There's a lot of green houseplants, and
green is a color too, nothing wrong with that, but
I love the kind that have some beautiful splashes of color.
I just propagated an aglionema. I'm going to put that.
I need to put that to a Facebook post to
let you see what we did there. That's kind of fun.
It has some color in the leaves, some reddish with

(01:40:47):
the green. I've got another one that's got pinkish colors,
a coral pink color in the green. There's morana, which
is a prayer plant that can have color in the foliage,
and many others. And by the way, if you're looking
for that, you're going to be hard pressed to find
a better place than Buchanan's Native Plants in the Heights.
They're on Eleventh Street in the Heights and they are

(01:41:09):
stocked up in their houseplant greenhouse. Right now, I'm just
seeing some photos of some beautiful morantas and other things
that they have, and they just have a lot of them.
They're set up. Of course, Buchanans is known for their
native plants. They are like you'd have to drive a
very long way out of this region to find more
native plants in buchanan Has. I don't even know where

(01:41:30):
that would be. They specialize even in Houston area natives
as well. Like if you say, I want something that
grew in Harris County before we got here people got here,
well they can fix up they've got that. Buchanan's Native
Plants in the Heights is an outstanding place to do that.
By the way, Public Service announcement today ad Buchanans beginning

(01:41:52):
at ten o'clock going to eleven, So right after this
show you make a bee line over there. Starting a
cut flower garden class. Starting a cutflower garden class in
Buchanan's next Saturday, the seventeenth, same time, ten to eleven,
Tomato one oh one class. Do you know it's time
to plant tomatoes? Yes, it is for your fall planting.
You can still do that up and get it done,

(01:42:14):
but you can do that at Buchanan's Native Plants. I'm
going to head out now, We're going to go to Friendswood,
Texas and talk to John. Hello, John, Welcome to garden.

Speaker 14 (01:42:25):
Thanks, good morning, listen. I've got a question about horticultural molasses.

Speaker 22 (01:42:33):
In the fall.

Speaker 14 (01:42:34):
The last several years, I've gotten a lot of fungus
because the neighbor's plants are shading. I mean their trees
are shading the side of my yard.

Speaker 9 (01:42:46):
More as they've gotten bigger.

Speaker 14 (01:42:48):
And I usually put molasses on the yard, but I
didn't know if that was high in nitrogen, and that
was going to cause me problems with the fungus brown
patch coming up in the fall if I put that on.

Speaker 9 (01:43:05):
Now, what do you think.

Speaker 1 (01:43:09):
I don't know of any way that molasses would be
connected to brown patch. I'm just I've never heard that,
so I would say probably, don't worry about it. Molasses
is basically carbon. It's sugar, which is a whole chain
of carbon molecules tied together. Many of the beneficial microbes
need that carbon. That's a food source for them. That's

(01:43:31):
why they go after our dead organic matter, the brown stuff,
you know, the composts and things that are on the ground.
So I would I would say, that's fine. Is there
a problem you're trying to fix with the molasses or
is it just trying to stimulate your lawn.

Speaker 14 (01:43:49):
Yeah, I've used it to stimulate the lawn. My question,
I had read that you don't want to use fertilizer
with high nitrogen, you know, at that time of the
at this time of the year, maybe because that nitrogen
is going to stimulate the brown patch and the long

(01:44:11):
funguses and that's and I didn't know if my lapses.

Speaker 30 (01:44:17):
Was a.

Speaker 14 (01:44:18):
Contain nitrogen that would be that type of problem. But
apparently not not.

Speaker 1 (01:44:23):
To worry, Yeah, not to worry about. But let me
that's a good question. I'm going to clarify what you've
heard on that. If a fertilizer is a three one
two ratio like a six two four or a fifteen
five ten or twenty one seven fourteen. You know what
I'm saying. That ratio, or if it's a four one

(01:44:44):
two ratio, it's got a lot more nitrogen than anything.
But that's the ratio that grass takes it up. So
if you were to cut your grass clippings and send
them to a lab and say give me the nutrient content,
it's going to be a three or four one two ratio.
So the ratio isn't the problem. It's the amount of
it that you put out. So if you put out

(01:45:05):
too much of that nitrogen product, then you get a
flush of growth, you get increased susceptibility to things like
large patrick brown patch in the fall of gray leaf spot.
We've had some of that this summer. But it's the
quantity you're putting out, not the ratio. So three one

(01:45:25):
two four one two is good anytime of the year. Well,
we change it in the fall a little bit, but
it's good now to use that. Just don't overapply it.
I would say about a half pound to a pound
of nitrogen at the most when you apply it per
thousand square feet.

Speaker 17 (01:45:43):
All right, well that makes sense.

Speaker 11 (01:45:45):
Listen.

Speaker 14 (01:45:46):
One fast question. I've always wondered about this. When you
spray herbicides to kill kill weeds, particularly kalinda, I always
think about this. Does the herbicide also kill.

Speaker 9 (01:45:59):
The sea pods on that plant?

Speaker 14 (01:46:03):
Or are the seed seeds still active even though the
plant has been has been killed by the herbicide.

Speaker 1 (01:46:12):
Usually by the time you put a herbicide down those
if there's seed seeds on it, they've already formed and
that herbicide is probably not going to be there to
help you with those seeds. Also, those kind of herbicides
when plants become reproductive, meaning they're blooming and setting seed,
the products aren't even as effective. So if you see

(01:46:34):
flowers and seed setting on your plant, that product is
not even going to be as effective, not only the
plant that's there, but also with the seed that it's setting.
So you need to get in ahead of that reproductive
stage of growth.

Speaker 14 (01:46:48):
Yeah, that's kylinga though, the kylinga boy, I think it
pops up with seeds already.

Speaker 12 (01:46:54):
I mean, that's that stuff is.

Speaker 14 (01:46:57):
It's really hard to get ahead up. But but yeah, okay,
I didn't think the seed pods were going to be
killed by that stuff.

Speaker 29 (01:47:05):
So that was my answer.

Speaker 14 (01:47:07):
I needed thanks a lot.

Speaker 9 (01:47:10):
Good week.

Speaker 1 (01:47:11):
You bet, thanks a lot. I hope you do as well.
Uh let's see here. We're gonna go to Marv in Richmond. Marv,
I've got about one minute, but let's see if we
can help you in that time.

Speaker 22 (01:47:24):
Okay, right before the break at eight thirty, at a
car I talked about some problem with a rose tree
and he said that you could cover with a bag
and tie it and burn it. I've got a cedar
tree that was I planted about thirty years ago.

Speaker 12 (01:47:38):
It's about four foot tall. Now it's only about eight.
That thing is toasted brown, dry, and it's covered like
somebody dust it with brown flour. That's not what you
were talking about it And it's dead.

Speaker 1 (01:47:51):
No, no, that's something totally different. But when a cedar
turns brown, it is dead. It's one of the trees
that cannot reach sprout if it doesn't have living needles.

Speaker 12 (01:48:00):
So, and what do you think it is? Looks like
it's totally covered with a brown light brown dust.

Speaker 1 (01:48:07):
Well, I mean it could be a number of different
they could it could be seen or pollen. But it
also I don't know. It could just be there's not
a disease that should cause that dust. So I think
if I'm picturing what you're seeing, I think it probably
died of drought rather than you know, some other, some
other issue. Last year's drought really hammered a bunch of trees,

(01:48:32):
and we've seen a lot of loss on those seedars
as a result of that. Anyway, Yeah, I don't have
to worry. Well, if you'd like to send me a picture,
you send me a picture up close of the dust.
Maybe put some on your finger and take a picture
of your finger with the dust on it. Let me
take a look at it. Maybe I'll see something on there.
I'm gonna put you on hold. Crystalill pick it up.

(01:48:53):
If you want to stick around and send me a picture,
He'll pick it up and give you my email address. Folks,
I got to run. We're into a break right now.
I'll be right back seven one three two one two
kt RH. Beverly and Carolyn, you'll be the first two
up today. We are looking forward to visiting with you
about the things that are of interest to you. Leake

(01:49:15):
City Feed is down in Leakee City, Texas, and you
know we love feed stores here on guard Line. Leake
City Feed specifically where it is. It's a a few
blocks south of ninety six on Highway three to south
of Highway ninety six on Leake City. So all of
you out there in that area, all the communities like
Laycliffe and Webster in League City, Santa Fe, Dickinson, San
leonol Comuni Real, Claar, Lake City, all those communities, this

(01:49:37):
is your hometown feed store. They carry every fertilizer I
talk about on Guardline. They carry the products you need
to control insects or diseases or weeds in your landscape.
They give you that old time service. This store has
been around for what over forty years now, and the
family has been running it. Right now, you will be

(01:49:59):
able to go out there and see the second generation
now that's running League City Feed.

Speaker 14 (01:50:04):
That.

Speaker 1 (01:50:04):
The thing I like about going into League City is
the kind of service that they give you too. They
carry the bags out for you. It's that old time
service what you would expect. I love going into old
time feed stores. They have premium pet foods, everything you
need for your backyard, chickens, you name it. But from
a horticultural standpoint, they've got the supplies you need to
have a beautiful and bountiful garden and landscape there at

(01:50:27):
the League City Feed. We're going to head out to
Pasadena now and talk to Beverly.

Speaker 3 (01:50:31):
Hello, Beverly, good morning. My problem is.

Speaker 7 (01:50:38):
The soil in my pots for my pot at.

Speaker 20 (01:50:43):
Out of it.

Speaker 29 (01:50:44):
Is there any way to slow that down?

Speaker 1 (01:50:46):
Or sleachy, Beverly, you are cutting out? Are you saying
bleaching or leeching?

Speaker 7 (01:50:56):
Leach with an l?

Speaker 1 (01:50:59):
Okay? What is what is coming out? Are you just
seeing that the plant is not growing that like the
fertilizer is not there anymore?

Speaker 2 (01:51:08):
Or what?

Speaker 1 (01:51:09):
What do you what makes you say it's.

Speaker 3 (01:51:10):
Leeching and the pot keeps dropping.

Speaker 12 (01:51:17):
Level?

Speaker 1 (01:51:20):
Okay, Beverly, I'm gonna I'm gonna get my best shot
at it. I'm getting about one third of the words
you're saying that are not being cut out. So let
me let me just say, if the issue is loss
of anything from the soil, like nutrients or whatever, then
that would just be a matter of excessive amounts of
moisture being flushed through it. If if the problem is

(01:51:43):
that the soil is getting too dry the water's moving out,
then you may want to repot with something with a
little bit of a finer texture to hold a little
bit of the moisture longer. Uh, if you're seeing just
the you know, the brown material coming out that is
just decomposing or gain matter releasing things like the humic
acid or other things that are brown coming out of

(01:52:06):
the bottom of the pot. I don't know if any
of those hit on it directly. If you need to
give us a call back, I feel free to do that.
I'd suggest right off the top of the hour on this,
but I'm sorry, that's that's his best that I can
hear what you're saying. Let's go now to bel Air
and we're going to talk to Carolyn.

Speaker 15 (01:52:22):
Hello, Carolyn, Hi, I had some pe countries trend a
couple of days ago. I have four pecan trees in
my backyard and they're fairly old, I guess at least
sixty years old, and I had a whole lot of
suckers that I had trimmed out. Is there any way

(01:52:44):
to prevent those from coming back?

Speaker 3 (01:52:50):
What causes that?

Speaker 1 (01:52:53):
So it's a pecan that is sending up shoots from
the base of the trunk, Is that correct?

Speaker 10 (01:52:57):
No?

Speaker 15 (01:52:58):
No, they're just all these really, they're not would they
just make real brushy looking of foliage around. Some of
them are closer to the ground, but a lot of
them were up in the tree itself. But okay, I

(01:53:19):
want to know if there's anything I can do to
prevent those from coming back.

Speaker 1 (01:53:24):
Okay, my best guess based on your description is that
you're seeing something called witches broom where you have a
pecan that normally has a lot of slender branches with
what you would think of as a normal pecan look,
and then you get branches that it's almost like a
little bush growing up on a lem in the tree.
Is that you see that's accurate of describing it. That's

(01:53:46):
called witches broom, and it's caused by a little organism
called a mycoplasm. It's not a bacteria, it's not a virus.
It's a different kind of creature, uh, And it just
causes that proliferation of growth and you can prim them out,
but there's not a spray to control. That's that's kind
of normal. And the only other thing that you might

(01:54:06):
be seeing that would be like a oh, gosh, what's
it called mistletoe kind of thing? But I don't. I
think you're seeing a witch's broom effect from a microplasm
and again, no spray for it. Just print it out.
If you're going to do something, print it out.

Speaker 16 (01:54:20):
Yeah.

Speaker 15 (01:54:22):
I have another short question. My yard man is the
one who is trimming the trees, not Lewis Flory, which
I would really prefer. But a couple of years ago
he was doing a big prune and he actually topped
the tree so that they're just a bunch of I

(01:54:44):
guess probably at least six or eight inches in diameter
up at the very top of the tree that he
just locked off. Could that have affected any of.

Speaker 1 (01:54:54):
This, well, you'd see you see a bunch of sprouts
out where he turned everything into the end of a
telephone pole. Look, that guy needs to never be allowed
to prune your trees again. That's why I always talk
about Martin Spoon more. You need somebody that knows what
they're talking about, how to do it, and it will

(01:55:17):
eventually could be brought back with some proper pruning to
deal with those bad cuts that were made. But I
don't think that's the cause of the witchess prum. Okay,
I'm running out of time, so I'm gonna have to run,
But thank you for the call. I appreciate. I appreciate you,
you bet, I appreciate that very much. Folks, you hear

(01:55:37):
me talk about ACE Hardware Stores all the time and
how they have everything that you need, and they do.
ACE is a place for your lawn fertilizers, for your
pest control, disease control, weed control, everything you need. You
just go to Acehardware dot com and you find the
store locator and find one of the forty stores, one
or more of the forty stores near you. And when

(01:55:57):
you get to ACE, you're going to find the things
you need to make your garden more bountiful or more beautiful.
It's as simple as that. They have fire ants controls,
they have things for dealing with mosquitoes. For example, they
got the mosquito dunks. Mosquito dunks is that products a
little donnut. You throw it out there in a pond
about a ten by ten area, and it releases a

(01:56:19):
disease only of mosquitoes. Doesn't hurt birds, doesn't hurt bees,
and good insects, doesn't hurt the family pet. It's only
mosquita disease. That's mosquito dunks. You can break them up
into little crumbles. Or you can buy the crumbles form
of it and you can toss it up into a
sagging gutter where they're standing water. In mosquitos breed, you
can put them in a in a bird bath, you

(01:56:39):
can put them underneath and the catch basins under your plant.
That's another place mosquitoes can breed. Mosquito dunks are very
effective in ace hardware. Definitely a place that you're gonna
be able to get it well. I hear the music
that means we're going to hit the top of the
hour here. When we come back, Jay and Angletrom John
in League City, you will be our first two callers up.

(01:57:00):
Thanks for hanging with us. I tell you, I'm always surprised.
I'll fast. The end of an hour comes. Just another
reminder if you're tuning in a little bit later on
my website here, I have been talking about to our
two publications. One is a more in depth mosquito mosquito
nuts Edge publication called nuts Edge and end up. Look.

(01:57:22):
It tells you everything you need to know. You need
to read it carefully because every time someone tells me
they have nutsedge and they can't control it, and I
ask them for the story, there's something in this publication
to explain why it didn't work what they need to do.
There's another one tips for winning the war against nuts edge.
It's a quick one pager. Both are at gardeningwith skip

(01:57:43):
dot com.

Speaker 4 (01:57:44):
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 Skip rict.

Speaker 14 (01:58:03):
Just watch him.

Speaker 24 (01:58:04):
As the world.

Speaker 13 (01:58:10):
Many again not a sign.

Speaker 1 (01:58:22):
And welcome to garden Line. Welcome back to garden Line.
We are glad you are listening in today and we're
talking about all kinds of things gardening. That's one of
the fun things about doing this show is you never
know when the phone rings what the next question is
going to be. I know, trees, turf, and tomatoes. I

(01:58:42):
call them the three t's. That is what most of
the calls come in about in terms of in the
vegetable garden. It's always about tomatoes. No one calls me
about their co Robbie for some reason. But trees and
turf they are big topics. But all kinds of other things.
And I think you've heard a few, a few maybe
rather obscure things today because we've had some of those.

(01:59:04):
But if it's your question. It's important and someone else
will have it too. Let's head out now to Angleton
and we're going to talk to Jay. Hello Jay, and
welcome to Guardline.

Speaker 13 (01:59:15):
It's Jerry. Can you hear me?

Speaker 1 (01:59:18):
Jerry? Yes, I can go ahead?

Speaker 9 (01:59:21):
Good?

Speaker 24 (01:59:22):
Good?

Speaker 12 (01:59:22):
How are you?

Speaker 1 (01:59:24):
I'm good? I'm good? Jerry? Are you today?

Speaker 13 (01:59:27):
Good?

Speaker 21 (01:59:27):
I got uh?

Speaker 13 (01:59:30):
I had a pecan tree blowdown in my front yard
uh in the hurricane, and got another one that's barely
hanging on.

Speaker 17 (01:59:36):
So I'm gonna go ahead and cut it down.

Speaker 12 (01:59:39):
But in it I got.

Speaker 13 (01:59:41):
My question is kind of twofold. In the process of
getting that tree cleared out during decompensation, that killed all
my grass, I have Saint Augustine, so I.

Speaker 1 (01:59:52):
Bought a lot.

Speaker 13 (01:59:53):
I bought several palletts of grass uh and and resolted.

Speaker 9 (02:00:00):
Question is should I fertilize that? And if I should win?

Speaker 13 (02:00:05):
And the second one is.

Speaker 9 (02:00:08):
I want to replant some trees.

Speaker 13 (02:00:11):
My wife likes fall foliage, so I would like to
try to get something that actually changes color a bit
in the fall, but grows quickly and is hardy down
on the Gulf coast.

Speaker 9 (02:00:24):
What's your recommendation of both of those?

Speaker 21 (02:00:26):
All right?

Speaker 1 (02:00:27):
All right, So on the first question, are you do
you prefer organic or synthetic types of fertilizer? Does it
matter to you?

Speaker 13 (02:00:35):
It does not matter.

Speaker 22 (02:00:36):
You're the guru.

Speaker 17 (02:00:37):
So that's why I'm asking you.

Speaker 1 (02:00:40):
Well, we got a lot of good product. We have
a lot of good product options. If I talk about
a fertilizer on here, it's one I've used and no works,
so we more one way to go. I'll suggest maybe
you consider the micro life products. There's a six two four,
it's a green bag that's an organic product. It's a
six two four and if you put it out now,

(02:01:00):
it's gonna it basically microbes decompose it and release it
to your grass. H new SID generally comes in with
an adequate supply of nutrients to get it going. So
with the microlife you're going to get a little bit
of a delay in the release as it as it
releases out, not a long term delay, but a little while.

(02:01:21):
And so I would go with it. Do not a
super heavy application, but a moderate sized application. And then
your next fertilization is going to come in October in
your area for where we put on our fall fertilization,
and that that is on my schedule. I don't know.
Have you been to the website and seen the schedules
by any chance.

Speaker 17 (02:01:41):
Yes, sir, I have.

Speaker 13 (02:01:42):
I have so, and I've been trying to follow that schedule.

Speaker 9 (02:01:46):
I just wanted to know if I should, you.

Speaker 13 (02:01:48):
Know, fertilize the sod that I just put down and ran.

Speaker 9 (02:01:53):
So now the six two four would be okay to put.

Speaker 13 (02:01:57):
It down at a moderate level.

Speaker 1 (02:02:00):
Put it on a moderate level now normally with a
new side. You know, it's not like you have to fertilizer.
It's not going to make it. It has some nutrient
in it, but I'd give it that little boost and
then just leave it until we get to October and
then do the fall fertilization. From my schedules, there's there's
options on there for several different kinds of good fertilizer. Okay,
per perfect, all right, sir, thanks for waiting, and appreciate that.

Speaker 21 (02:02:24):
The trees, the trees, oh, the.

Speaker 1 (02:02:29):
Fall foliage, oh man, I'm hoping I could avoid that question. Well. Sycamore,
the only the only color in the sycamore is kind
of the bronzing as it turns to brown. Here's the
deal on trees. The things that have the best fall
color in our area. You don't want to plant, and

(02:02:49):
that would include Chinese tallow trees, that would include Bradford
pear trees. Don't plant those sweet gums. If the soil
is right, they have good color if it's an acidic soil.
But a lot of there are other reasons people aren't
real fond of sweet gums. But that would be a
decent fall color tree if you end up with a decent, crispy,

(02:03:11):
cool fall. Even a red oat can give you a
little bit of fall color, but it's really hard to
come by. Crape myrtles have decent fall color, and I
know that's not a big shade tree, but I'm just
saying that that would be a decent tree that has
good fall color. But in general, the crepe cedar elm
have kind of a dirty gold yellow gold fall color

(02:03:34):
that is decent. That would be one. I don't know.
Those are a few that you might want to consider.
They're in that area. You're just so far south that
there's a reason why people don't drive from all over
the country to come here for fall color because we
don't we don't have any great options for it.

Speaker 9 (02:03:52):
I agree, all right, Okay, but does the red oat
grow quickly?

Speaker 1 (02:03:59):
Red oat? Christ, Well, if you no, it's a decent grower.
If your soil is at all soggy, I would get
a nuttall n ut t a l red oak. If
you've got a nice, deep, deep alluvial soil, then a
schumard red oak would also be Okay, okay, all right,

(02:04:25):
you bet, I'm all run to another caller here. We
got them kind of backing up a little bit, so
we're gonna go to John in League City. Hey, John,
thanks for waiting. How can we help? Good morning?

Speaker 31 (02:04:35):
Yeah, I have a oak tree in my front yard
about fifteen years old, and I've got a couple of
roots coming up that headed toward the house and I'd
like to cut them. My question is, you know, do
I cut them at the same time? Do I need
to spread that out? And also do I wait until

(02:04:56):
it cools off? Or can I go ahead and do
that right now?

Speaker 1 (02:05:00):
How big around are these roots?

Speaker 31 (02:05:02):
I'd estimate if one is roughly two three inches maybe
maybe a little bit.

Speaker 1 (02:05:09):
Okay, Uh, if you will wait until fall like October
November and cut them, then that you can kick them
both out and that'll be okay.

Speaker 15 (02:05:20):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (02:05:21):
That gives the tree time, you know, to kind of
re establish before the hot summer arrives next year, and
that that should be fine if you If they feel
like they need cutting, that you can do that. Okay, okay,
great and real quick.

Speaker 31 (02:05:34):
One question too, Where would you recommend getting some mature
fruit trees? I mean something that's you know, already producing.

Speaker 1 (02:05:44):
League City. Uh, you're not too far away from Jorges
Hidden Gardens and Alvin. It's on Elizabeth Street and Alvin.
They're open on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Uh, And so
that would be that would probably be a good place
where you could drive over and get those. I know
they have some larger trees that are close to being

(02:06:07):
ready for freeing time most of the time of the year.
They I know they have them a lot in the
late winter, but they probably have some still around there. Okay.

Speaker 31 (02:06:15):
Any concern in planting those here in August when it's
so hot, you think I would?

Speaker 1 (02:06:22):
I would? You could do it, you can, Yeah, you
can do it, but pampering them along is more more work.
I would wait and do it in the fall. I'd
get them down in the fall when things start to
cool off. Okay, all right, thank you very much. Okay
with us today? Hey, have you been out to Arbrogate lately?
You know Arbrogate, that's the nursery to the west of Tombull.

(02:06:43):
You head out twenty nine to twenty just to I
don't want less than a half mile outside of Tomball
right there on the left hand side there it is
by the way. If you haven't been to Arbrogate in
a while, you need to know. They've got a new
parking lot behind the store. It's on Trishal Road t
R E I C H E L Trischel. You can

(02:07:04):
Trishel is a loop behind Arburgate, so you can turn
down Trashel before you get to Arbigate or after you
pass Arburgate. Coming from either way, you go around the back.
Awesome all weather, wonderful easy access parking lot, safe access
back there. You got to go check that out while
you're at Arbigate. You know, those of you who've been

(02:07:25):
there and those of you who don't, you need to
get over there. I don't know what kind of rock
you've been hide under, because this is this place has
been a destination for a long time in the Houston area.
Awesome plans, awesome advice, knowledgeable people. It's just the combination
for success that you're going to have to have, and
Arburgate can do that. For example, they always have something
different and new. Right now, they've got something called the

(02:07:47):
Grace and Grit roses. It's a line of roses from Monrovia.
It's called Grace and Gret because they have upright stems
so you can do some cutting. So it's not like
your hybrid t rose. It's a bush, but it is
a rose you can use for cutting. That's cool. And
the grit part well disease resistant self cleaning. They thrive
in our climate. That would be the grit part. But

(02:08:09):
that's just one example of the many things you're going
to find at Arbrogate. I can promise you two things
when you go to Arbrogate. One, you're going to have
knowledgeable staff and quality plants. You are going to have that.
That is, you know you're going to get those two
things right there at Arburgate. Number two, you're going to
get easy access, friendly service, and the whole experience will

(02:08:33):
be a pleasant one for you. I know we're in
the middle of summer, but it's still time to be
planning things. There's no reason why you can't get these
things in the ground and have success with them, and
that starts by going to arbrogate where you get those
kinds of plants and where you get that kind of
advice to have success. Cannot cannot overstress the importance of that.

(02:08:54):
We're going to go now to Missouri City and talk
to Paul.

Speaker 29 (02:08:57):
Hello, Paul, skip listen. I have an area in the
front of the house where the Saint Augustine grass is
dead due to a pile of branches that I had
piled there. You know, from the storm. They since removed
the branches and the Saint Augustine is dead. But the
wild bermuda, the little patch of wild bermuda in there,

(02:09:20):
I didn't want it, so I sprayed it with round up.

Speaker 12 (02:09:24):
And my question is how long?

Speaker 29 (02:09:26):
How long do I have to wait before I start
to till filled process? And just one of the point
what I what I intend to do is to kill it.
I'm going to mix in some a farm dirt from
from a compost and mixing some sand just to loosen
up the soil a little bit.

Speaker 1 (02:09:48):
Okay, well, I would as far as how long you
wait it takes, you should give it about maybe four
or five days to move into the weeds you sprayed
before you start chopping it up and tilling and things
like that. That's so that you don't just propagate the

(02:10:08):
weed more. But I have found that if you're not
in a hurry to get grass right back in that spot,
you might want to wait do the tilling and watch
it for just a minute because meaning a week or so,
because oftentimes you don't get all the bermuda and you
may need to respray and so that you haven't put
on grass, and now bermuda's coming right back in, So

(02:10:31):
a second spray wouldn't be a bad idea. As far
as mixing in, you know, a good quality mix in
that area, that's fine. There are a number of good
quality materials out there. I would say a high quality
top soil mixed in, maybe an enriched soil that had
a little bit of compost in it would be a
good idea for that as well. But yep, you're on

(02:10:53):
your road to getting that put back together.

Speaker 29 (02:10:55):
Good, Okay, very good, Thank you so much.

Speaker 1 (02:11:00):
All right, thanks for the call. Appreciate that a lot,
Thank you a lot. Let's see, we are going to
now go to Joel in magnolia.

Speaker 5 (02:11:08):
Hello Joel, Hello skip one time listener to the garden line.
Appreciate all you've done. Appreciate it very much.

Speaker 1 (02:11:15):
Thank you.

Speaker 17 (02:11:16):
Got a question for you regarding I've got two about.

Speaker 5 (02:11:20):
Sixteen seventy year old Chinese fringe trees in my front yard.
They are beautiful plants in the springtime when they bloom,
start to drop leafs and there's a brown spots on
the leafs.

Speaker 12 (02:11:29):
Is there.

Speaker 17 (02:11:32):
Is this fatal?

Speaker 5 (02:11:33):
Is this all over whether we've had Is this a
temporary thing? How would you treat it those kinds of things.

Speaker 1 (02:11:41):
That's a good question. I do not know a significant
foldage disease of Chinese fringe tree. If there's one out there,
I've never encountered it, and so I'm not going to
get alarmed about spots on the leaves. Sometimes when the
leaves are going to fall off of something, you will
see disease spots appear before that happens, because the leaves

(02:12:02):
are less able to resist and defend themselves. I guess
if you will right you know, without seeing it. If
I saw a picture of the leaves and spots, I
may go, oh, oh that's such and such, But I
right now I can't picture what would be doing that.

Speaker 5 (02:12:19):
Maybe when you're done, you can put me back to
the footboard, because I don't I couldn't find the female
address to send the pictures in.

Speaker 1 (02:12:26):
Yeah, uh, okay, what don't we do? Show me the tree? Pardon,
show me the tree as a hole in a photo,
and then show me some leaf close up the top
of the leaf and the bottom of the leaf showing
the symptoms. And uh, and we'll get to the bottom.

Speaker 5 (02:12:46):
My first reaction was to use a fungus I spray.
One of the trees had it first. My first response
was to use the same kind of fungus. How to
use them on lugustums when they when they go through
their diseases that seem to stay things. My first response,
I don't know whether good response, the right response or not,
but I'll send you the pictures and go from there.

Speaker 1 (02:13:04):
What what was your what do you remember what funder
side you used on the lagustrum? Oh, it's a P.

Speaker 9 (02:13:10):
There's a c P.

Speaker 1 (02:13:11):
I can't remember what it was.

Speaker 5 (02:13:13):
It's a Randy had recommended it when I when I
picture about my.

Speaker 1 (02:13:18):
Okay, I was just curious because yeah, I'm just curious,
all right. Well, I'm gonna put you on hold, Josh,
or excuse me, Josh, Chris, We'll pick up the phone
and give you my email so you can send me
those photos.

Speaker 9 (02:13:32):
All right, Okay, thank you very much, appreciate it.

Speaker 1 (02:13:35):
Thank you you bet Joel, appreciate appreciate your call very much.

Speaker 9 (02:13:39):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (02:13:41):
You hear me talk on garden line about the importance
of building the soil for success, and it's just true.

Speaker 11 (02:13:47):
I know.

Speaker 1 (02:13:47):
Listen, I understand. You go to a garden center, there's
some plant with flowers go lower all over the planet.
You gotta have that plant. It would look good in
your yard. That's fine, that's fine.

Speaker 22 (02:13:58):
Do that.

Speaker 1 (02:13:59):
If it's a good garden center and they've got good
plants and good advice, get that one. But before you
put it in the ground, get the soil right. Brown
stuff we call it. That means nutrients. That would be
a fertilizer mix. That means organic matter that would be
compost or a betting mix. Nature's way resources, Nature's Way resources.

(02:14:20):
They're up there toward conro off forty five. That where
fourteen eighty eight comes in.

Speaker 16 (02:14:25):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (02:14:25):
They have long been producing quality materials for this area.
They're products that are now sold all over the place
that had their start there, like roset soil, like the leaf,
the leaf moll composts. We use this compost top dressing,
among other things Nature's Way resources. Here's a phone number
nine three six three two one sixty nine ninety. If

(02:14:49):
you please listen to this, this is important. Save you
some money here. If you will tell them that you
heard about their products on garden Line. Whether it's a compost,
whether it's a soil blend, to mault, any of those
kinds of products, they're going to give you a discount,
a significant discount on those products. But you got to
tell them you heard about it on guardline. So if

(02:15:10):
you swing by there to pick up bags, if you
swing by there to pick up bulk, if you call
them to say hey, I need a delivery, tell them
you heard about it on garden Line. And now is
a perfect time. Fall planting season is just around the corner.
Get your soil right now. Don't wait until fall. It
may be rainy and you may not be able to
work the soil. Get it done. What do they say,

(02:15:33):
make hay well the sunshines. Prepare your beds while the sunshines,
because rain will come again. When we get to the fall,
if not before, now's the time to do that. And
Nature's Way Resources is the product or the product. It
is the place where you're going to get the products
to have success with it. They're on Sherbrooke Circle up

(02:15:53):
in Conro, Texas. Here's the website Nature's Way Resources plural
dot com. Going to go to Ken. Hello Ken, and
where are you calling from? Brazaria, Brazoria? Okay, how can
we help?

Speaker 28 (02:16:12):
We purchase an avocado tree. It's I believe the name
of it is Fantastic. It's about five foot tall, still
in the pot, and I think it's about four years old,
and we're considering where to plant it. We've got kind
of a low lying area in our yard that.

Speaker 7 (02:16:31):
We would like to put it.

Speaker 28 (02:16:33):
That area retains a little bit of water when it rains,
and I'm not sure if that would be good or
bad for this avocado tree.

Speaker 1 (02:16:42):
If the drainage is not good, Yeah, if it's not
good drainage, I wouldn't plant it there. Do one or
two things put in a have somebody put in, you know,
like an underground French drain thing that takes the water
off to a lower area or build up the soil
into more of a raised mound area where you can
get that thing's up out of the sagi. Wet avocados

(02:17:03):
need sunlight. That's the number one thing that in terms
of picking a planning spot, along with decent old drainage.
The only other thing would be if it's an area
that's a little easier to protect it when we do
have the doozy coal that tends to arrive, that would
be another reason for that. Ken, I'm gonna have to
take a break here. If you want to hang on,

(02:17:25):
I will continue this after break. But if that answered
your question, I do appreciate the call. All right, folks,
I do have to take a break. Our phone number
seven one three two one two ktr H. I'll be
right back.

Speaker 20 (02:17:38):
Than you are.

Speaker 3 (02:17:39):
Houston's News why they're traffic plus pre.

Speaker 1 (02:17:42):
Two one two five eight seven four or ktr H
if you like to dial it that way. We're going
to head back out here to let's see. We're gonna
go to friends would and talk to Charlie.

Speaker 9 (02:17:53):
Hello Charlie, good morning, Skip, Glad you're there for us.
Thank you got a so maybe how well.

Speaker 1 (02:18:03):
We have about it?

Speaker 9 (02:18:04):
Unused a little over an unused acre behind our backyard.
We see the babels of hay occasionally, and my wife says,
let's let's raise babels of hay and sell them. It's
a friends of the areas we've got clay soil. Is
that even a practical idea? And if so, could you
give us a little.

Speaker 12 (02:18:23):
Guidance on that?

Speaker 1 (02:18:26):
Well, how big is the area?

Speaker 9 (02:18:28):
You said, probably just a little over an acre.

Speaker 1 (02:18:34):
Probably probably not worth it. There are people that will
come bail hey on your property. I'm not an agriculture agent.
I'm a hortic I was a horticulture agent, so I
don't deal in those groups of people, meaning I couldn't
name people that would come to it in your area.
But in general, for them to bring the equipment and

(02:18:54):
holiday in and for it to be worth it to
them and to you, they need to make a little
more hay and you're going to make on one acre,
so I don't think that would be efficient. But if
you call your county agro Life Extension office and ask
for the horticulture agent, they can probably advise you, advise
you specifically on that. Let's see, are you in are

(02:19:17):
you in Harris County? Are you in.

Speaker 7 (02:19:22):
One class.

Speaker 9 (02:19:25):
Sometimes.

Speaker 1 (02:19:27):
Yeah, well they their office is down in some odd
is it called something park carbid carbyde carbyde Park Thank you. Uh,
I'm trying to think of the lady's name. Phoenix. Phoenix
Rogers is your agriculture agent in Galveston County. Call Phoenix
and just say, you know, I think she's going to

(02:19:48):
tell you what I said and that's just not enough
land to make it worthwhile.

Speaker 9 (02:19:53):
Okay, because we're also curious, but what time to plant?
And that would be a question, but I I think
you're absolutely right.

Speaker 1 (02:20:01):
So yeah, well it's worth it's worth asking. Yeah, it's
worth asking someone with more expertise on that than I have,
So I would I would definitely call your eg agent
and just be sure. They may have six suggestions for you. Okay,
thank you so much, Thank you appreciate your call very much.

(02:20:22):
By the way, folks, in Texas, we have two hundred
and fifty four counties. Every county is served by an
extension office. For those of you who don't know, Extension
is the Texas A and m Agro Life Extension Service.
Every county is served by one. In our part of
the state, every county has their own office. You get

(02:20:44):
out in way West timbuck I where maybe there's more
jack raborts than people. You may have a county that's
served an office that serves two counties, but in general
here every county has an office. Brazoria, Harris, Montgomery for
Bed and on and on and on, Brasos, and I
mean we just keep going on. Waller County, everyone has

(02:21:05):
an office and all of them have an ag agent.
They usually have a Family and Community health agent and
often have a four age agent there. And if it's
a big county, you have a horticulture agent. In our
listening area, there are horticulture agents in Harris County, Orange County,
Galveston County, Fort ben County, Montgomery County, Brass County. I'm

(02:21:27):
probably leaving somebody out. I'll hear about it if I
do that, But anyway, they all have horticulture agents, and
so it's advice that's available. It's your connection to the
university the way we used to say it is the
place to go when you need to know. It is
essentially taken the university of the people. So you have
access to good research based information, take advantage of it.

(02:21:49):
That's where our four H programs are held. That's where
our Master Gardner programs come from, is the county Agrolife
Extension office. So take advantage of those. They are available,
and it's good advice. Every state in the country has
a lean grant college LSU Oklahoma State, Cornell, Texas A

(02:22:10):
and m New Mexico State, University of Florida. Everybody's got
one Auburn University. So in each of those areas there
is a lagrant college and an extension service. So yeah,
friends that live in Kansas, well, Kansas State University has
an extension service and they have county extension offices and
they can get the same help you do here there

(02:22:31):
at their level. Most people are not aware of that.
They should be. It's important. You know who did that.
Abraham Lincoln signed that into law that way back when.
All right, enough of me, given the history of extension,
We're going to go to Terry in Montgomery. Hey, Terry,
how can we help today?

Speaker 7 (02:22:48):
Hey, good morning, thanks for I call. I have three
roses out in my backyard that are planted in rose
soil and inside oak barrels, and they've been there for
a couple of years now, and I was out here
the other day to water them. And I saw a

(02:23:09):
on all three on top of the soil, a fuzzy
white mold growing and it looks like they're spores because
there's a little green dot in the middle of them.
And I've very gently scraped all of them off, and
I'm just kind of wondering what it is, if it's harmful.

Speaker 12 (02:23:28):
And what do I do.

Speaker 1 (02:23:31):
Are they cup shaped, each of the little white things
with a dot in the middle. Are they shaped kind
of like a bowl or a cup?

Speaker 7 (02:23:39):
Yes, they're kind of shaped like a bowl or cup. Yes, okay,
but they're kind of they're kind of altogether, you know,
like a blanket.

Speaker 1 (02:23:47):
Yeah, yeah, I got it. That is a fungus. There
are ten bazillion kinds of fungi out in the world,
and most of them their job is to turn organic
matter back into soil. That's why nature creates such rich
soil on the forest floor and in the meadows and
other places like that. That particular fungus is not a
disease of plants, but it can. It's called an artillery fungus.

(02:24:12):
And this is so cool, Bracer. It is so cool
because what happens is they literally shoot this little dot
that you see through the air, and it is sticky
and it sticks to plants, it sticks to the sighting
on your house and other things. And people don't like that,
you know. I mean it's a little fungus dots sticking

(02:24:33):
all of the nice white painted house. Well, that's the
only problem with it. It's not a disease of plants though.
It's called artillery fungus, one of the many cool fungal
things out there in nature.

Speaker 7 (02:24:48):
So I'm just going to leave it alone.

Speaker 1 (02:24:49):
Then you can't. You can take a hoe and scrape
it off, get it, eit of there if you want,
you covered up with some other throo mulch on top
of it.

Speaker 7 (02:25:00):
Okay, Well that's really good news because I thought for
sure it was gonna kill my roses and they're not
doing too well in this heat. So I'm going to
cover them up with a wide awning and see if
that helps, because they're just dying on the vine.

Speaker 9 (02:25:13):
So we'll speak.

Speaker 1 (02:25:15):
Well, just make sure they have adequate moisture but not
soggy soil and they'll be Okay that uh, fall is coming,
and that's a that's roses second happy season of the year.
Spring and fall is Yes, it's.

Speaker 7 (02:25:27):
In my second happy season two.

Speaker 1 (02:25:30):
There you go, Terry, Hey, thanks for calling.

Speaker 7 (02:25:33):
Thank you appreciating my callie. You have a great day,
you bet.

Speaker 1 (02:25:38):
It gives me an opportunity to give another fun fact
about nature. We'll be right back our phone number seven
one three two one two k t r HS is
our last segment of today. If you got phone calls,
now's the time to get them done.

Speaker 24 (02:25:52):
iHeartRadio Olympics updates. US track and field will compete for
several medals today. Yesterday, the US capture of the gold
medal in the women's four by one hundred sprinder Gabby
Thomas said it was a special moment for their four
woman team.

Speaker 1 (02:26:05):
I'm so impressed with the boys, metalogyies women and they're
alongside of them and are an Olympic gold medal is amazing.

Speaker 24 (02:26:11):
Some of the events the Americans will go for medals
today include the one hundred meter women's urdles.

Speaker 4 (02:26:17):
For NBC's live coverage from Paris, search Olympics on the
free iHeartRadio app. Friends are nice to have my friends
friend my friend, But do your friends give you instant
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Speaker 7 (02:26:32):
But about to call you by radio friend and follow us.

Speaker 4 (02:26:35):
Click on our social media links at KTRH dot com.

Speaker 3 (02:26:39):
List is ever nine four. Hey, it's Elmer.

Speaker 30 (02:26:42):
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Speaker 3 (02:26:53):
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Speaker 6 (02:26:53):
Let me guess she was told by some other company
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Uh huh. And you suspect it's the old Sorry, ma'am,
you need a whole new system trick.

Speaker 13 (02:27:05):
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Speaker 30 (02:27:05):
But she asked for our free second opinion, So we're
gonna give her AC an Elmer diagnostic and then tell
her the whole truth.

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People love that too well, because it means I can
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Speaker 1 (02:28:08):
The Trusted Lab dot com. Good to have you with
us today. Let's see, we had had a call a
little bit earlier from I believe it was Joel and
Magnolia about a Chinese fringe tree. I believe that was
the question. And uh, let me see here, I'm trying

(02:28:28):
to find the Yeah, there we go, Chinese fringe tree.
Let's see. I believe we've got Joel on the line here,
So let me go to that. Joel, are you there
all right here? And you sent me the pictures. You
sent me the pictures of the fringe tree.

Speaker 17 (02:28:41):
Right, that's correct.

Speaker 1 (02:28:44):
Okay, So what is on those leaves is not It
does not look fungal. It looks like some sort of
a moisture flow problem. It could be it could be bacterial,
or it could just be we've had so much rain
this year. I don't think it's drought. But some of

(02:29:05):
the spots look bacterial in that they're angular the way
they form on the leaves. So I think as a
result of all the rain we got a little bit
of a blight going on in there. There are a
few spots that look somewhat fungal, but in general I
wouldn't worry about it. Now I know that it's it's
occurring more low on the plant than it is up high.

(02:29:27):
And so it could be that if you have a
sprinkler system and a mist is rising up from the
sprinkler system for your lawn, that that mist could be
adding to the leaf wetness, which increases the disease problems
on a tree. Okay, so I would I would have
Do you have irrigation systems sprinkling out there.

Speaker 5 (02:29:49):
And the trees are right in the front yard next
to the bar, it's sure you don't wear the water? Yeah,
I get a lot of moist.

Speaker 1 (02:29:55):
Well, next time you turn on the sprinklers. Next time
it comes on, take a look, get it. And because
if the pressure is too high, instead of sending out
just course drops the water, you also get this mist
that rises up and that just every time you wet foliage,
it makes leaf spots very happy, including bacterial ones. And

(02:30:15):
so I think if you could take the pressure level
down or do something there, your irrigation people could do that.
I think that in and of itself would probably be enough.
Go ahead and break those leaves up when they fall,
get them out of there so you don't have that
inoculum as we call it, to reinfect. But I think
this can be cured by fixing the irrigation situation.

Speaker 17 (02:30:35):
All right, okay, then just don't do anything.

Speaker 5 (02:30:38):
I can't spray it during like they just do anything,
it's gonna lose us leaves and just next year it
should come back right recover.

Speaker 1 (02:30:44):
Yeah, yeah, there's no need to. There's no need to
spray that. That would just gay unnecessary. I hate to
see people with sprays when we don't have to, and
that's a definitely case we don't.

Speaker 20 (02:30:54):
Have to reaction.

Speaker 1 (02:30:56):
All right, man, there you go. Will you make a call.
Thanks for the photos. Picture's worth a thousand words. Yep,
that is the way, just folks. You know, I can
sit here and sometimes I know the answer. Sometimes I
think I know the answer. I used to tell. When
we I was managing master gardner groups in different counties

(02:31:16):
here in Texas, I used to say, you know, your
brand new trainee, you just got all this knowledge. When
the phone rings and you answer a question, the best
answer is I don't know, but I'm going to find
out and get back to you. The second best answer
is you shooting from the hip and thinking, well, I
think it's probably because oftentimes that's not correct. Even when

(02:31:37):
I answer questions, that is not correct. So we always
want to be sure. And the photos do help with
some kinds of questions, especially like that have you been
to Chenned Forest out in Richmond Rosenberg area before? And
Chenna Forest is if you were. Let's say you're in
Richmond heading towards Sugarland up fifty nine, it's off to
the right and jennif Forest is on FM twenty seven

(02:32:01):
TWE fifty nine and there's always stuff going on out there.
And Enchanted Forest their selection right now of roses is outstanding, outstanding,
their selection of herbs and vegetables, of plants that eat insects.
My daughter called me yesterday about she got a new

(02:32:21):
venus fly trap plant. She want to know how to
take care of it well. They got those, they got sundews,
they got pitcher plants, all kinds of things out there
at Enchanted Forest, beautiful selection of pogonias. The bottom line
is they got you fill in the blank. They have
so many kinds of plants that do well. It's time
to get those fall tomatoes in, so go by there

(02:32:42):
and get that. Do you want things for butterflies? Oh,
my gosh, they have a selection and things for butterflies
at Enchanted Forest. It's just always something going on, and
it's always a good thing. They often have food trucks
out there. When we get back into fall, they're going
to be having a lot of educational programs going on
out there. Right now. They got some cool planters that
look like boots and pots, and they have things like

(02:33:04):
an atm and a Texas longhorn on them. Now, I
don't know why you'd want to buy the Texas longhorn anyway,
the cool stuff. I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I can't, I
can't resist. I tried, it didn't work. And Jenny Forest
lots of fun stuff, lots of good people, great plants,
good knowledge, success, and it's a fun place to visit.

(02:33:26):
FM twenty seven to fifty nine of Richmond. Here's the website.
They have an excellent website. Go to this enchanted Forest Richmond,
TX dot com intended Forest, Richmond, TX dot com. Well,
you are listening to Guardenline and we are getting close
to the end of the show here, probably too close

(02:33:47):
to be able to do another call. So I'm gonna
tell you about one other thing. I'll talk about this
more tomorrow again. But take another thing that is on
the website, and the website is gardening with Skip dot com.
That's where all my educational materials go, which are all free,
by the way, can't talk me down on that price.

(02:34:09):
There's a homemade weed wiper. It's called Skips homemade weed wiper,
and I tell you how to make it, and there
is a list of products that are for putting on
the weed wiper. The weed wiper is sponges on a stick.
You just have to go see it. Instructions on how
to build it are there. It's very inexpensive to build
you one. When you need to put herbicide on a weed,

(02:34:30):
but you don't spray it all out there in the environment.
You don't want to get it on things that it'll hurt.
That are your friends, your plans. I think the picture
in that weed wiper is a picture of lanana with
nutsed drop beside it. You know, and some people spray
glyph essate on their nuts edge. First of all, that
doesn't work well, but it sure we kill that lanana
well with a weed wiper. You just squeeze the sponges

(02:34:52):
onto the weed and wipe it right on there. I've
used it on things like nutsedge coming up out of
my turf. I've used it on grass weeds. It's stick
up above the turf. Have you ever fought with torpedo grass,
for example? Oh my gosh, that is it's impossible to
kill it in turf unless you get my weed wiper
and you wipe a grass killer on it. But don't

(02:35:13):
get that grass killer on your lawn because a torpedo
grass is up higher. It is good for poison ivy,
reaching in and squeezing the poison ivy. Someone called earlier
with pepper vine. Oh boy, is that one ever? Invasive
triclo pair kills it? But triclop hurts. You're Saint Augustine.
Tric triclope pure kills every broadly plant. You would get

(02:35:34):
it on just about. But with a weed wiper you
can apply it right to that peppervine and not get
it on the good stuff. And two publications The Homemade
weed Wiper tells you how to build it. The herbicide
products to use with the Skips weed wiper tool is
another article on the website, and it is a little chart.
And I don't care what haven't I mentioned to? Okay,

(02:35:57):
wild onion and garlic, those come up in your life
and they're very difficult to control. But with a weed wiper,
using image in this case, on the weed wiper, you're
not getting it on your lawn. You're getting it on
the weed only. It works pretty good, and so just
keep that in mind. By the way, with every herbicide product,
there are ways to use it properly and ways to

(02:36:19):
use it m properly. And for image, for example, it
does control some tylpes of notes such pretty well. But
and it's hot like it is now and you sprade
all over your Saint Augustine and cause damage to it.
So even though it's label for lawn use, if you
read the label would see that you've got to be

(02:36:41):
careful with that kind of thing. You don't want to
do that now. So another is not weed wipers so
cool because you're not getting it on your grass anyway.
I think you get the idea. For those of you
who haven't been listening to this show today and have
nuts edge issues to publications on there for free tips
for against nut seedge, that's a quick one pager and

(02:37:03):
Nutsedge an end depth look. That's three pages of more
than you even know there was to know about nutsedge.
Remember this, I'm gonna make nuts edge really simple. You've
got to stay on it, and you gotta be regular,
and you don't want to let it grow pass three
to five leaves before you do something