January 31, 2026 • 39 mins
What to do with the freezing weather & your tropical plants.
Teresa's Top Five Taking care of your Palms after a freeze.
Teresa's Top Five Taking care of your Palms after a freeze.
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Speaker 1 (00:09):
Good morning from the Summit Responsible Solution Studios. Welcome to
Better Lawns and Gardens. I'm your host, Teresa Watkins. Thank
you for joining us this morning. It is nice and chilly,
but it's uncomfortable right now. Good morning, Lizzie. Wasn't it
comfortable outside?
Speaker 2 (00:26):
I walked outside and I was ready for snowflourries and
I'm like, are you like this would be like a
good beach day weather feeling?
Speaker 1 (00:34):
It would. It's really nice, but it's going to get worse,
and so we are seeing it's going to be historic
week as far as weather goes, and for us weatherwise,
it's not really much we can do about it because
we're going to be getting that cold, and the cold
is moving into tonight and then the lowest temperatures are
(00:56):
going to be on Sunday night and Monday morning, with
Sunday morning being particularly chile. In North Florida, you guys
were praying for you. Low's a going to be in
the teens in Tallahassee, Pensacolta.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
Uh, that's the field and that's not the feels like either.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
No worse right, which is worse? South Orlando, Central Florida.
You're going to see temperatures stuck in the forties on
Sunday accompanied by strong winds, and the winds are going
to be really, really, really tough.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
I think they were supposed to, at least here in
central Florida there I thought I saw yesterday there's a
start around for three a.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
Clock is yeah, So we've got a little bit of
time to work on it. And that's what we're going
to be doing today. I'm going to be talking about
what you can do in your yard, what's going to
get damaged, what's not going to get damaged, and so
we'll help you. We're going to be taking your gardening
questions this first hour and text messages. You've got a
particular plant you're concerned about, just call or let me
(01:54):
know by text. Two three six eight zero one triple
eight four five five two ninety sixty seven. And so
this is going to be in Miami cold. STEP's going
to be the coldest in fifteen years. And so what's
the record low temperatures in Florida. Well, Florida's all time
record low was recorded in Tallahassee on February thirteenth, eighteen
(02:18):
ninety nine. It occurred during the Great Arctic outbreak two
below zero. Oh wow, two below zero in Tallahassee. On
February thirteenth, eighteen ninety nine, and eighteen ninety four, Tallahassee
was fifteen Fort Myers you were twenty eight, and January
(02:39):
nineteen eighty one Tallahassee was eight degrees. Fort Myers was
still twenty eight. January nineteen eighty two Tallahassee was fourteen,
Fort Myers twenty nine, and Tallahassee in nineteen eighty five
was six degrees. Fort Myers was thirty and December nineteen
eighty nine Tallahassee was thirteen degrees and Fort Myers was
(03:01):
twenty seven. So those are really cold temperatures, and no
matter how much we cover up our plants or try
to protect them, we're gonna see some damage. In central Florida.
Orlando set the record it's supposed to get this weekend
twenty five degrees in Orlando, and the record low was
in nineteen thirty six at twenty eight degrees. Melbourne was
(03:22):
twenty four degrees, and they set a record in nineteen
sixty six that breaks the record in nineteen sixty six
of thirty two degrees. Sanford twenty three degrees. This weekend
nineteen sixty five, they were thirty degrees, so they're gonna
break that record. Daytona Beach was twenty three degrees this
weekend nineteen thirty six, gonna be thirty degrees. And Leesburg,
(03:44):
you guys are going to be twenty two degrees approximately.
Right in there. Nineteen seventy nine, it was thirty degrees.
So cold temperature, sure enough, and it's just going to
be a just kind of just relaxes, kind of roll
(04:04):
with it.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
Unfortunately, but we do.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
We don't get these temperatures often. I'm telling you, though,
those growers with peaches and apples and pears and all
kinds of good fruit, even the figs, they're going to
do just fine. And it's really gonna help the citrus industry.
Not going to be too bad for them. This cold
weather does concentrate the sugars and the fruit makes it sweeter,
(04:30):
and I'm just hoping it's not going to be as
bad as what they're predicting. So I think I'm hoping
that it's going to be the case. My clients are
calling me telling me what can I do, and so
we're gonna be talking about this sext time. Fortunately, we're
going to see widespread damage. That's just gonna be it
with tropical plants. So it's amazing to me it's gonna happen.
(04:52):
But you can help your plants survive. Now, what you
can do this morning is to go ahead and turn
your sprinklers on. Go ahead, or water your plants at
the ground with a hose. We don't want these plants
to stay wet that long. We don't want them to freeze,
but they are going to need moisture to help them
(05:13):
get through this, Okay, So if everybody would just go
out and make sure their landscape is watered, that's gonna
be beneficial. And uh, then that'll get them through the
next couple of days.
Speaker 2 (05:24):
So they basically need to make sure they go out
this morning.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
This morning and do it, and do it so it
dries off and the wind, the wind, will you take
care of that? So, uh, it's I've seen it before,
and I posted on our Facebook page, Mike Kluky's in Venice.
He sent me already h the frost on the ground
in Venice, and so I posted that on Facebook. Some
(05:51):
of the record lows and temperatures that we're going to
be seeing that's on Facebook. On Better Lawns dot com
you can see it. And so Lizzie your turkeys, Gerald
got a sweater on.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
Yeah, I think some of our listeners, I think is
it Steve Steve in Union Parks as he's looking forward
to seeing the turkeys and their jackets from the weekend,
and I'm just like, okay.
Speaker 1 (06:13):
So is the jackets? Are they downy lined? Are they feathered.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
Their goose feathers?
Speaker 1 (06:20):
Yes?
Speaker 2 (06:21):
No, I just you know, I did a research to
remind myself to stop being so freakish about this cold
weather and that they are normal by temperature of one
hundred degrees and while you know what, they can handle
up to negative eighteen, which we will not be at.
Speaker 1 (06:36):
There you go, So what do you want to protect
in your landscape? This hour I'm going to be providing
you ways to help you landscape. I'm going to discuss
fruit trees, palm trees, roses, and vegetables. Do you have
a specific plant one triple eight four five five two
ninety sixty seven or text two three six eight zero
If it's Saturday morning from the Summit Responsible Solution Studios.
You're listening to Better Lines and gardens. I'm Teresa Watkins
(06:59):
and this is Floridast and Entertainment Effort. Welcome back to
Better Lawns and Gardens. One. If you have questions about
your plants, specific type of plant, you can call one
(07:23):
triple eight four five five two ninety sixty seven, or
you can text two three six eight zero. If you're
sleeping luxury luxuriously in your bed with lots of warm blankets,
I'm jealous, but we appreciate it. Yeah, we do, we do,
and so we understand. So texts two three six eight
(07:44):
zero with the name of your plant and the city
you live in. That will be helpful. Name name of
the plant, your name, and the city, and I will
be able to help you. So, unfortunately, we're going to
see widespread damage and landscape through the state with tropical plants.
It's going to happen, but it doesn't have to be
so prevalent or so damaging. If you can follow some
(08:09):
some of my tips here, what do you want to
protect in your landscape? So let's generally the hard part
is is last week we were eighty degrees and this
week we're going to be in the teens. That's the
hard part is that we have this fluctuation of fifty
to sixty degree temperature differences and that the plants are
(08:32):
just going to be shocked. They're just not going to
realize what they're going to be doing. So if your
plants are less than three months old, and I'm not
talking about annuals, I'll talk about annuals in a minute.
I'm just talking about if you have a new landscape,
and I have clients that have new landscapes that I
put in in the last months six weeks, and they
(08:52):
there's gonna be some plants that are just not going
to survive. Plants that are not healthy in your landscape,
have disease issues, are going to be more susceptible to freezing.
They're not going to be able to be strong enough
to withstand it and comeback. Plants that are over watered,
have short root systems are going to be affected more.
(09:13):
And this is what I talk about throughout the whole year,
or just in general when we talk about having a
healthy landscape. If you have a healthy landscape, we can
get through, you know, two to three days of freezing
with minimal damage. So if you still got summer annuals
around blue days, salvias, plants, vegetables from summertime. Your tomatoes
(09:39):
and eggplants and peppers, they may be damaged if you
have have them out already, So that's that's going to
be an issue. So you're going to want to protect
those with a frost blanket, put a light underneath it.
And when we're talking about lights or Christmas lights, you
want to use the old fashioned incandescent Christstmas lights. Led
(10:01):
lights are not gonna work. They don't emit heat, so
you want to use your old fashioned Christmas lights. That's
going to add a couple of more degrees on their
of protection. Tropical plants like dressinas, crotons, peace lilies, Hawaiian tis,
hibiscus cordelines, your angel trumpet trees, your jackaranda's, your royal
(10:23):
point siennas are going to see some damage. Now they
should recover, but they may not look good for two
to three months if that okay. So what plants are
going to be fine. Your plants that are mature and
established that they're older than three months. Your deciduous shrubs
(10:45):
and trees, okay, your like your islec shillings, your native
shrubs and trees, your blueberries are going to be just fine.
We're talking Allocasians and colloccasions are tropical, but they come back.
They have a bulb system like root system with rhizomes,
(11:07):
and so they are going to be fine. Now they're
not gonna look good, but they're not gonna die. They're
going to recover your gingers, your cheflera Blue Days even
I just mentioned Blue Days is going to get knocked back,
but it should recover. Lantana, your Dianella's loriapee is going
to be just fine. Your leopard plants. I am really
(11:30):
a big fan of leopard plants. One the texture of them,
the shape of them. They look like John Deere tractor seats,
but they're really, really, really attractive. They have a beautiful
yellow flower. They grow all the way up into South Carolina,
North Carolina Zone seven. They can handle down to a
zero degrees. Those are great plants to have. They look tropical,
(11:53):
but they can handle this cold temperature. Your roses are
going to be just fine. Your roses are going to
be just fine. Your drift roses, your knockouts, your heirloom roses,
they can stand with stand cold to zero degrees too
as well. And it's not going to stay that cold,
(12:14):
that long. If you look at your hourly temperatures, you're
going to see that you're going to be in freezing
below thirty two degrees for about six to eight hours.
So hopefully it's not going to be that long or
be that intense, and we have and we have just
(12:34):
a break. We just need a break, okay. So also
to your junipers, your viburnums, your lugustrums, your camellias, they're
gonna be just fine now you don't even have to
cover them. Hydranges are gonna be okay, they should be
dormant right now, but they'll be okay. Your rubber plants,
your vicuses, they're going to be just fine. They may
(12:56):
get damaged, but the stems and the root system is
going to be fine. Your sand saveria's, your wax myrtles,
your vermeiliads should be just fine. Okay. If you're in
South Florida and you have those shade plants, your gas manias,
they may need to be covered, but you're ones that
(13:19):
take the full sun, they're going to be just fine.
You're going to species in your bromelions that can handle
the temperatures. Your acmeas, your dikias, your vascular areas, your
neo regelias, your poolias, tlanzias, and verizi. Bromeliads are going
to be just fine. They can tolerate brief periods of
(13:39):
temperatures down to sixteen degrees. Most other bromelions will survive
down to thirty two. But there are a few species
that can't tolerate, like I said, below forty degrees. So
some of them will get damaged. Some of them will
be okay, but they'll recover. Your canas you koonte's, your
(14:00):
cardboard palms, they can handle down to fifteen degrees. Now
when I say handle, I mean that they'll recover. They
may see damage at twenty and below, but they will recover.
So what can you do to help protect your plants.
You can water the ground of the plants. Do that
this morning. You don't have to, you know, get it
(14:22):
where it's icing up. Just go ahead and give them
one or two gallons of water per plant. You can
use a hose or a bucket. You don't need to
use your sprinkler systems. Then you want to play a
frost blanket on them, and you want to get that
frost blanket to cover it down to the ground, and
you can put rocks or bricks down at the bottom
(14:44):
so that it keeps the hit the heat wrapped in
around that plant. Okay, if you use sheets and blankets
down to the ground, you've got to be propped up
on sticks like a teepee, or it's where the blanket
or the sheet is not touching the leaf. If the
(15:06):
sheet or material sheets, bedspreads, quilts, blankets, if they touch
the leaves and it freezes, it's not gonna be protection
at all. You're still gonna get as much damage. So
you want to create that warm wrap around. And those
blankets and sheets need to be removed every day. Whereas
your frost blankets they can stay on for the next week.
(15:29):
They'll be just fine.
Speaker 2 (15:30):
Now, just quickly, we had a listener Texas Nora from Ovida.
She says, if the frost cloth is already in place,
should it be removed to water this morning?
Speaker 1 (15:40):
No. No, you could go ahead and water it just
right through it just but water down to the ground.
The leaves do not need water any time of the year,
so go ahead and water it down to the ground.
You do not need to remove the frost blanket. If
you get rain, It'll go right through that frost blanket
just fine. So that's a great question. And let's see, Lisa.
(16:00):
I don't know where you are, Lisa. Okay, thank you,
she says. Will my Christmas tree palms make it through
our freeze here in pont silt and we put a
lot of tropicals in last spring in a border around
our yard, No wake, I can cover it, all of
philodendrum's different varieties of elephant ears, red gingers. Thank you
(16:21):
for being here for all of us panicking gardeners. Me too,
me too, I feel you. So all your plants are
gonna be just fine. Your Christmas tree may see some
frawnd damage, okay, but we're going to talk about that,
you know, in the in the next hour and next
week I'm gonna be talking about this week. Let the
(16:43):
damage happen. Do not cut anything off, do not prune anything.
I'm gonna talk in a few minutes about what to do,
and I'm not going to be here during the week,
So just don't do anything next week till I come
back on. Okay. Just hold your breath, keep your fingers crossed.
Your allocasians, your philodendrons, they should all be fine. They're
(17:04):
going to may see a little damage, a little wilting,
but they're going to recover. So you're going to see,
hopefully you have a little microclimate there and it's not
going to get as cold in ponts Inlet as it's saying.
But they'll be just fine. They'll they will recover, okay,
And you'll see here in Florida they recover pretty quickly. Okay.
(17:27):
So one triple eight four five, five, two nine sixty seven,
or you can text two three six a zero. So well, well,
getting all this bad news, let me give you some
good news. There's still a chance for room on my
Art and bloom Garden Tours trips for the Revolutionary Garden
Tour and for our Chelsea Flowers Show. We have a
(17:50):
few more seats left. They're filling up very quickly, and
so thinking about that this week, think about getting away
to some beautiful gardens and celebrating the two hundred and
fiftieth anniversary of the United States and then going to
London and England to beautiful, beautiful gardens that we will
stroll in and just have a wonderful time. So if
(18:11):
you want to see more about our trips, you can
go to art bloomgardentours dot com. Let's go to Carrie
in Melbourne. Good morning, Carrie, how are you?
Speaker 3 (18:23):
Good morning, Theresa. I want to thank you for all
your wonderful shows and I've been a listener for many
many years. I don't call in that often, but you
helped me one time with my fig trees and I
appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (18:35):
Thank you.
Speaker 3 (18:36):
Now I'm calling in regard to I have a two
year old, maybe a little older, coconut tree that is
doing very well. It's about five feet tall and it
has maybe five froms already fully developed, and I love
it and I want to protect it. What can I do?
Speaker 1 (18:56):
I'm going to tell you, let's see, you're going to
get to twenty four degrees or this weekend. Okay, it's
five foot tall. How wide is it at the base?
Speaker 3 (19:07):
I would say maybe ten inches?
Speaker 1 (19:11):
You know what I'm gonna tell you, Carrie. I'm gonna
tell you to dig it up, put it in a
garbage bag and put it in your garage. Really yeah,
and then you can replant it next week. Okay, Carrie,
hang on, We're gonna be right back with you. Angie.
We're gonna get to you too, I know you guys
at Melbourne are going crazy. If it's Saturday morning, you're
(19:33):
listening to Better Lawns and Gardens. I'm Teresa Watkins and
this is Florida's Talk and Entertainment Network. Welcome back to
(20:03):
Better Lawns and Gardens. I just want to finish talking
to Carrie in Melbourne. You know you can wrap it
with a frost blanket. I don't know if you can
get it. I was getting calls by clients who said,
you know, we can't find frost blanket anywhere. And this
is the problem, Lizzie. Is that what we talked about
in September October. This is the time to get your
frost blanket. Yes, because when you need it, it's not
going to be found. It's going to be sold out.
(20:24):
And even Amazon, you know, if you get you know
products there, there's no way they're shipping from all these
snowed areas. You're not going to get it in time.
So this is you know, if you do have frost blanket, Carrie,
you can go ahead and wrap it, wrap it down
to the ground, let the warmare cover it in between,
(20:45):
create that warmare pocket or if anyone has a prized
tropical plant that they want to save, then they can.
If it's small enough, if it's under six foot tall,
I would take it up and put it in my garage,
you know. So that's that's what I would do. Just
put it in a blanket or not a blanket, a
garbage bag around the root base and just leave it
(21:06):
there and it'll be like thirty degrees thirty five degrees
in your garage, and it'll be better than sixteen degrees.
Let's go to Angie in Melbourne. Good morning, Angie. How
can I help you?
Speaker 4 (21:19):
A few months ago you talked about some product for
sand spurs. Okay, would kill the seed. And I have
tried every kind of pre emergent everything, and we have
a mango grove and this stuff gets tracked in, you know,
on the tractor tires, you know, on people's feet, you
(21:41):
know whatever. Yeah, and I got to kill them.
Speaker 1 (21:46):
So so what don't tell me what products you've used,
you know, the chemicals of the products that you've used. No, okay?
So okay, So there are products that have dements frind
that's di m E n th h R I nd
menthren that you can use. Sedge products will work too,
as well, sedge image image will work. Then there's a
(22:08):
product called ikes Sandspur and crabgrass that will work. So
you're looking for products that will take care. Benefit is
going to work too as well. So there's a number
of them. Just when you go to the store, look
for your pre emergence and look at the label and
(22:29):
make sure Sandspur is on there. Okay, and it should work.
Here's the issue is that you want to make sure
that you're putting it down before the growth starts. So
this week you can put it pre emergent down. You
can also put a post emergent down in March and
April when it's growing, and then bag your clippings. Okay,
(22:52):
do not let the seeds go back into the ground.
Bag your clippings and throw them away.
Speaker 4 (22:57):
Yeah, well we can't do that. I mean this is
this is acreage.
Speaker 1 (23:03):
Right, okay, So where are you? You're in Melbourne, okay,
So if you have acreage then okay, so then you
could what I would advise you to do is call
the your Brevard county, right, Melbourne's Bervard County or Vlusha
Vlusia County. Yeah car, yeah, oh you're in Brevard, Okay,
Brevard County Extension Office. Contact them on Monday morning and
(23:28):
they will give you the commercial agent for pasture, grass
and acreage and they'll be able to give you the
product that will work that you can buy just for
because you have such large property. Okay, okay, that would
be my best best Yeah, go right ahead.
Speaker 4 (23:46):
I have another question. It's a turf question in my yard. Okay,
I'm my personal home. I we got new sod I
guess two years ago whatever, but it's gotten. I've forgotten
what because we have a you know, a lawn service
long route or I don't know whatever. It is some
kind of fungus and whatever it is, they cannot deal
(24:09):
with it. And they told me to get a product
called Command right, and I have put out twelve bags
of that okay, and it is not helping this.
Speaker 1 (24:19):
Okay. So I'm confused, okay, because we've been in a
drought for two years and fungus is caused by water.
So how often are you watering Angie.
Speaker 4 (24:31):
Twice a week?
Speaker 1 (24:32):
Even now?
Speaker 4 (24:34):
Well, I mean it's not a timer.
Speaker 1 (24:35):
It just goes right, twice a week watering for how
long are you watering for?
Speaker 4 (24:41):
I don't know?
Speaker 1 (24:42):
Oh see, that's yeah, that you're just you're causing your
own problem. Okay, So your your turf does not need
that much water twice a week. One you're on restrictions,
so you shouldn't be able to water but once a
week right now, Okay with the cold temperatures, your yard
can go seven to ten days without water with these temperatures. Okay,
(25:03):
And so just hold back on the watering. What time
of the day are you watering at?
Speaker 4 (25:10):
Oh? I think it comes on at three in the morning.
Speaker 1 (25:12):
Okay, move it up to five thirty six o'clock in
the morning. Okay. It's not going to stay wet that long.
Speaker 4 (25:19):
Tory out.
Speaker 1 (25:19):
It has time to dry out. If you have it
at three, it's just going to stay wet for longer
than five hours, and that causes the issue. Okay. So
once you're okay, so you're going to cut back to
once a week watering. You're going to change your time
to five thirty six o'clock, and then I would calibrate
(25:42):
your system to make sure you're delivering one inch of
water a week. Okay. Now you may be putting you
you're just turning it on for thirty minutes and you
could be putting two to three inches of water on
your lawn, So I don't know how much you're putting
on your lawn, So calibrate them. Get some tuna fish cans,
set them out in one zone, turn your sprinkler system
(26:03):
on and time how long it takes to put one
inch of water in those cans that can. Okay, that's
gonna tell you how long. You may only need to
be watered for twenty minutes. And some areas may be
getting too much, some may not be getting enough. Okay, okay, So.
Speaker 4 (26:19):
All right, all right, can somebody text me the chemical
that I need to look for in that fands firstuff?
Or should I just call the extensive service if.
Speaker 1 (26:30):
You're doing acreage? So so why I said to call these.
Speaker 4 (26:33):
Probably this section that has the problem is probably only
maybe an acre.
Speaker 1 (26:40):
Writ and the product that you're going to need to
buy for that is going to be extremely expensive, So
you cannot put so the homeowner's products what you can
get off the shelf. You're going to have to buy
so much of that for that acreage. It's just going
to it's gonna cost you one thousand dollars literally, Oh okay, okay,
(27:02):
So that's why I'm saying call the Commercial Extension office
Monday morning and say I have acreage. What product can
I use that you can buy in bulk and concentrate
and it's not going to be as expensive as buying
it off the shelf.
Speaker 4 (27:16):
Thank you so much. We love your show.
Speaker 1 (27:19):
Thank you so much. I appreciate you, Angie for listening
to me. I certainly do. Thank you so much. It's
just that those products to buy it cost one hundred
and fifty dollars and for acreage, that's just going to
be wow. So let's get a good product that you
can buy that's the cheaper, less expensive. If it's Saturday morning,
you're listening to Better Lawns and Gardens, Rob hang on,
(27:41):
I'm going to get to you, and we have text
messages coming in two three, six eight zero. This Saturday morning,
you're listening to Better Lawns and Gardens. I'm Teresa Watkins
and this is Florida's Talk and Entertainment Network. Welcome back up,
(28:07):
Better Lawns and Garden sand Now Terresa's top five. My
top five this morning are recommendations for taking care of
your palms after a freeze. So after a freeze, if
you can get up to the top of your palm tree.
Look at that eighth apicole tip right there at the
(28:28):
top and any new emerging spears gently pull on it.
If it's green and sturdy, it will survive. If it's
brown and mushy, remove it and clean out the hollow.
Number two apply a liquid copper fungicide. Follow label instructions.
You may use it twice at ten day intervals. Number three,
wait a month before pruning your fronds. Okay, the fronds.
(28:51):
If you cut off the fronds, then that's going to
stress the plant out even more. Just wait and then
in three to four weeks you can take off all
the brown fronds. Number four, apply an anti transpiration spray
to the foliage to reduce water loss. Will stop by
Bone Eye is a great product. This is going to
(29:12):
form a transparent film on the plant's foliage, preserving moisture
and it minimizes water loss. Number five, do not fertilize
your plants until you see new growth. So those are
my top five tips after a palm freeze care for
your palm tree. Okay one triple eight, four, five, five,
(29:34):
two nine sixty seven, or you can text two three
six eight zero. Let's go to Rob in Christmas. Good morning, Rob,
how can I help?
Speaker 5 (29:42):
Good morning? I hope you can help. I've got a
very large plamaria that's got to be ten twelve foot
tall and at least set wide, and I know I
can't cover it. What do I do? Just cut a
bunch of the pieces off so I can plant them later.
Can I wrap the bait with newspaper to try to
(30:02):
save the trunk?
Speaker 1 (30:05):
Okay? So so one, you could cut off some of
the branches to save to replant. Okay, that's a that's
a good idea. Two you can can you put Do
you have a ladder that has a that opens up
a double ladder?
Speaker 6 (30:24):
Yes?
Speaker 5 (30:24):
They do.
Speaker 1 (30:24):
Okay. What I would do is I would put it
around your plumbaria or next to your plumbria and put
a blanket or a sheet over it, okay, so that
it covers it. So if you've got an eight to
ten foot plumbaria, then you can put the ladder there,
cover it. Let the ladder take the sheet and hold
it up. Make sure you cover it down to the ground,
(30:45):
and no newspapers needed at the bottom. Nowe that's not
going to help this time, And I just hope for
the best. I think you'll be okay.
Speaker 5 (30:53):
And one other thing I've got to I've got a
big tree that's three years old, it's very short. Is
they gonna survive? Should I just cover that too?
Speaker 1 (31:02):
What kind of tree a fig tree? Yes, ma'am, yeah,
they It hasn't gone dormant yet. They can go dormant.
So is it a brown turkey fig? Yes, it'll be
just fine. All right, Okay, thank you.
Speaker 5 (31:14):
You guys are awesome. I appreciate you.
Speaker 1 (31:16):
Welcome, Rob, thank you so much. One triple eight four
five five two nine sixty seven, or you can text
two three six eight zero. So I had someone email
me about her banana trees, Maria, and she says, what
am I gonna do about my bananas on my palm tree?
And so she sent me three lovely pictures of three
(31:37):
huge bananas with a whole hand. Now, a bunch of
bananas is called a hand. And so these are hanging
down from her tree, and you know what, it's time
to remove them. She can go ahead and cut off
the whole stem and take it inside and let them
ripen indoors. So her banana tree, her bananas will be
just fine. I wouldn't leave them on the tree. So
(31:59):
that's what I to do. So you know, bananas can
be taken off right now if they've been on longer
than seventy five to eighty days after it flowers. So
let's say it started flowering in the end of November,
you know you could or at the beginning of November,
then you could go ahead and take the hand off
(32:19):
and the bananas are far enough along, especially if you
can rub off the brown tips the flower that turns
to brown and it kind of just kind of melts away.
It's it's just like garbage at the end. It's burnt.
It looks like burnt ends. If you can take that
flower off very easily and it just it just rubs off,
(32:40):
then go ahead and cut your bananas down and bring
them inside and let them put them in a cool,
shady spot and let them ripen indoors. Okay, and that
will be helped. Thank you, Maria. That was a great
question also too. Bill in Ormond Beach, he asked me
about whether I should he should put milky spore or
(33:01):
beneficial nematodes for his lover grasshoppers and grubs, Japanese beetles
and weavils. Well, one we don't have Japanese beetles here
in Florida yet, but there's no real documentation of any
kind of population. But I would use the milky spore
(33:22):
if you have any kind of beetles or weavils in
your yard for grubs. But there is no pre chemical.
There's no pesticide for lover grasshoppers in the ground, so
you just you'm going to just have to watch and
catch them when they hatch, and then you can use
an insecticide on them like Captain Jack's Dead Bug brew
(33:47):
on them as they hatch. Okay, know when they become adults.
There's really only two things that can kill a lover grasshopper,
and that is two rocks, two bricks, okay, and you
just got to pound them. You can cut them in half.
That's kind of very gratifying once you see them meeting
your plants. But you get points if you kill your
(34:10):
love grasshoppers in the road. There you go. You can
fill them crunching up. Let's go to Jan and a Kobe.
Good morning, Jan, How can I help you? It's jim
My man. I'm sorry, I'm sorry, Jim, I'm sorry. No,
that's my eyesight. Hey, Jim, good morning. I'm sorry you.
Speaker 6 (34:26):
Guys just called in about Fromira. What works really good
for me is the insulation. You get the black insulation pipes,
the two and they just go on easily and then
you just take them down at the end of the
season and put them in a bag. But that works
really well.
Speaker 1 (34:47):
Jim, that's a great idea. Even those pool noodles, isn't
that pool noodles? Yeah, so I'm hoping he's still listening, Rob.
So that's a really good idea, Jim, and I should
have thought of that. But I'm glad you called in
because taking that insulation piping and covering it with that
will be really good.
Speaker 6 (35:07):
Right. But my question is I have a large leachy tree,
starfruit tree, and also peak lemon tree. All I know
to do is one in Korea, I saw all the
trees were wrapped around the trunks with rope. Right. I
(35:29):
don't know if that really helps or not, but they
all had done it to all the trees.
Speaker 1 (35:33):
What they're doing is they're protecting the graft. Now, light
chi tree and starfruit trees aren't grafted, but they're just
protecting the graft. And I would just say, if you
got frost blanket that you could use that, but you
also want to protect the graft of the lemon tree.
I think your lemon tree is going to be.
Speaker 6 (35:48):
Just fine big for blankets.
Speaker 1 (35:52):
Yeah, no, no, I mean not frost blankets. Yeah, you
can get enough frost blanket to cover your tree. But
if they're that big, I would just protect the graft
at the base and cover that up. So take the
frost blanket and wrap it around the bottom of the tree,
and that's going to help protect the graft and your tree.
Your lemon tree should come back from the graft. Now,
(36:13):
your starfruit, keep water on. No, no, do not do that. Okay,
do not do that. Okay, you water it. You can
water it before, but don't do it during the freeze.
That doesn't help.
Speaker 6 (36:29):
But put stuff for all the grafts around the base.
Speaker 1 (36:31):
Right, Just put the blankets around the base of the
lemon tree. Now, your starfruit and your leichi tree. I
don't know if they're going to make it. They're not
grafted and so they may just you may just see
them decline a little bit, but hopefully they'll come back.
Speaker 6 (36:45):
All right. Well, thank you, you're welcome.
Speaker 1 (36:47):
Jim, thank you for the insallation. Oh You're welcome. Thank
you so much. By bye, you said Happy Valentine's.
Speaker 2 (36:55):
I love that.
Speaker 1 (36:56):
Definitely, that's a great idea. I should have thought of that,
and I have said that in the past that insallation
around your plumarial will work really nice. But you can
also take a couple of them. Yes, definitely, like I said,
So let's see in Melbourne here, good morning. What about
azalea's I'm sorry, exoras, crotons, succulents, oh hio spider wart,
(37:18):
foxtail fern, variegated chefflera. Everything is in the ground for
several years in West Melbourne. Uh so your exoras may
get knocked back a little bit, but they'll recover. Your
crotons they're gonna get knocked back, but they'll recover. Your
circulars will be just fine. Your ohio spider wart's gonna
be just fine. It's an ohio wow.
Speaker 5 (37:39):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (37:40):
And at foxtail fern, you're gonna see a little bit
of damage. Your variegated cheflora a little bit of damage,
but it'll recover too as well, So no worries there
is it necessary to cover ground cover plants like Mexican
heather during the freeze I would Ken. I would, because
they're going to get knocked back a little bit. Now,
(38:01):
it just depends on the size of them. How big
are they. If they're less they are a one gallon size.
If they're less than twelve inches, they're going to get
knocked back pretty severely. But they're less, they're not as
expensive to replace. If you need to replace them. If
they're a little bit like a foot tall, a little
bit taller, nice and dents, I would cover them. And again,
(38:21):
they're going to get knocked back, but they're going to
be okay. They will recover too as well. I'm just
hoping it's not going to be as bad as it is.
We're going to be back with more better Lawns and Gardens.
I'm very excited. We have Kathy Gents coming up and
she is going to be talking to us about the
(38:41):
national holiday today and we're looking forward to talking with Kathy.
Stay tuned. If it's Saturday morning, you're listening to Better
Lawns and Gardens from the Summit Responsible Solution Studios. I'm
Teresa Watkins, and this is Florida's Talk and Entertainment Network.
Speaker 2 (38:55):
If you missed any of the show or you would
like to do a recap of any show. You can
go to better Law dot com. That's better lands dot
com and give us a call around the eight thirty timeframe.
That's eight eight eight four Fi five two nine six
seven eight eight eight four Fi five two nine six
seven
Good morning from the Summit Responsible Solution Studios. Welcome to
Better Lawns and Gardens. I'm your host, Teresa Watkins. Thank
you for joining us this morning. It is nice and chilly,
but it's uncomfortable right now. Good morning, Lizzie. Wasn't it
comfortable outside?
Speaker 2 (00:26):
I walked outside and I was ready for snowflourries and
I'm like, are you like this would be like a
good beach day weather feeling?
Speaker 1 (00:34):
It would. It's really nice, but it's going to get worse,
and so we are seeing it's going to be historic
week as far as weather goes, and for us weatherwise,
it's not really much we can do about it because
we're going to be getting that cold, and the cold
is moving into tonight and then the lowest temperatures are
(00:56):
going to be on Sunday night and Monday morning, with
Sunday morning being particularly chile. In North Florida, you guys
were praying for you. Low's a going to be in
the teens in Tallahassee, Pensacolta.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
Uh, that's the field and that's not the feels like either.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
No worse right, which is worse? South Orlando, Central Florida.
You're going to see temperatures stuck in the forties on
Sunday accompanied by strong winds, and the winds are going
to be really, really, really tough.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
I think they were supposed to, at least here in
central Florida there I thought I saw yesterday there's a
start around for three a.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
Clock is yeah, So we've got a little bit of
time to work on it. And that's what we're going
to be doing today. I'm going to be talking about
what you can do in your yard, what's going to
get damaged, what's not going to get damaged, and so
we'll help you. We're going to be taking your gardening
questions this first hour and text messages. You've got a
particular plant you're concerned about, just call or let me
(01:54):
know by text. Two three six eight zero one triple
eight four five five two ninety sixty seven. And so
this is going to be in Miami cold. STEP's going
to be the coldest in fifteen years. And so what's
the record low temperatures in Florida. Well, Florida's all time
record low was recorded in Tallahassee on February thirteenth, eighteen
(02:18):
ninety nine. It occurred during the Great Arctic outbreak two
below zero. Oh wow, two below zero in Tallahassee. On
February thirteenth, eighteen ninety nine, and eighteen ninety four, Tallahassee
was fifteen Fort Myers you were twenty eight, and January
(02:39):
nineteen eighty one Tallahassee was eight degrees. Fort Myers was
still twenty eight. January nineteen eighty two Tallahassee was fourteen,
Fort Myers twenty nine, and Tallahassee in nineteen eighty five
was six degrees. Fort Myers was thirty and December nineteen
eighty nine Tallahassee was thirteen degrees and Fort Myers was
(03:01):
twenty seven. So those are really cold temperatures, and no
matter how much we cover up our plants or try
to protect them, we're gonna see some damage. In central Florida.
Orlando set the record it's supposed to get this weekend
twenty five degrees in Orlando, and the record low was
in nineteen thirty six at twenty eight degrees. Melbourne was
(03:22):
twenty four degrees, and they set a record in nineteen
sixty six that breaks the record in nineteen sixty six
of thirty two degrees. Sanford twenty three degrees. This weekend
nineteen sixty five, they were thirty degrees, so they're gonna
break that record. Daytona Beach was twenty three degrees this
weekend nineteen thirty six, gonna be thirty degrees. And Leesburg,
(03:44):
you guys are going to be twenty two degrees approximately.
Right in there. Nineteen seventy nine, it was thirty degrees.
So cold temperature, sure enough, and it's just going to
be a just kind of just relaxes, kind of roll
(04:04):
with it.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
Unfortunately, but we do.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
We don't get these temperatures often. I'm telling you, though,
those growers with peaches and apples and pears and all
kinds of good fruit, even the figs, they're going to
do just fine. And it's really gonna help the citrus industry.
Not going to be too bad for them. This cold
weather does concentrate the sugars and the fruit makes it sweeter,
(04:30):
and I'm just hoping it's not going to be as
bad as what they're predicting. So I think I'm hoping
that it's going to be the case. My clients are
calling me telling me what can I do, and so
we're gonna be talking about this sext time. Fortunately, we're
going to see widespread damage. That's just gonna be it
with tropical plants. So it's amazing to me it's gonna happen.
(04:52):
But you can help your plants survive. Now, what you
can do this morning is to go ahead and turn
your sprinklers on. Go ahead, or water your plants at
the ground with a hose. We don't want these plants
to stay wet that long. We don't want them to freeze,
but they are going to need moisture to help them
(05:13):
get through this, Okay, So if everybody would just go
out and make sure their landscape is watered, that's gonna
be beneficial. And uh, then that'll get them through the
next couple of days.
Speaker 2 (05:24):
So they basically need to make sure they go out
this morning.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
This morning and do it, and do it so it
dries off and the wind, the wind, will you take
care of that? So, uh, it's I've seen it before,
and I posted on our Facebook page, Mike Kluky's in Venice.
He sent me already h the frost on the ground
in Venice, and so I posted that on Facebook. Some
(05:51):
of the record lows and temperatures that we're going to
be seeing that's on Facebook. On Better Lawns dot com
you can see it. And so Lizzie your turkeys, Gerald
got a sweater on.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
Yeah, I think some of our listeners, I think is
it Steve Steve in Union Parks as he's looking forward
to seeing the turkeys and their jackets from the weekend,
and I'm just like, okay.
Speaker 1 (06:13):
So is the jackets? Are they downy lined? Are they feathered.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
Their goose feathers?
Speaker 1 (06:20):
Yes?
Speaker 2 (06:21):
No, I just you know, I did a research to
remind myself to stop being so freakish about this cold
weather and that they are normal by temperature of one
hundred degrees and while you know what, they can handle
up to negative eighteen, which we will not be at.
Speaker 1 (06:36):
There you go, So what do you want to protect
in your landscape? This hour I'm going to be providing
you ways to help you landscape. I'm going to discuss
fruit trees, palm trees, roses, and vegetables. Do you have
a specific plant one triple eight four five five two
ninety sixty seven or text two three six eight zero
If it's Saturday morning from the Summit Responsible Solution Studios.
You're listening to Better Lines and gardens. I'm Teresa Watkins
(06:59):
and this is Floridast and Entertainment Effort. Welcome back to
Better Lawns and Gardens. One. If you have questions about
your plants, specific type of plant, you can call one
(07:23):
triple eight four five five two ninety sixty seven, or
you can text two three six eight zero. If you're
sleeping luxury luxuriously in your bed with lots of warm blankets,
I'm jealous, but we appreciate it. Yeah, we do, we do,
and so we understand. So texts two three six eight
(07:44):
zero with the name of your plant and the city
you live in. That will be helpful. Name name of
the plant, your name, and the city, and I will
be able to help you. So, unfortunately, we're going to
see widespread damage and landscape through the state with tropical plants.
It's going to happen, but it doesn't have to be
so prevalent or so damaging. If you can follow some
(08:09):
some of my tips here, what do you want to
protect in your landscape? So let's generally the hard part
is is last week we were eighty degrees and this
week we're going to be in the teens. That's the
hard part is that we have this fluctuation of fifty
to sixty degree temperature differences and that the plants are
(08:32):
just going to be shocked. They're just not going to
realize what they're going to be doing. So if your
plants are less than three months old, and I'm not
talking about annuals, I'll talk about annuals in a minute.
I'm just talking about if you have a new landscape,
and I have clients that have new landscapes that I
put in in the last months six weeks, and they
(08:52):
there's gonna be some plants that are just not going
to survive. Plants that are not healthy in your landscape,
have disease issues, are going to be more susceptible to freezing.
They're not going to be able to be strong enough
to withstand it and comeback. Plants that are over watered,
have short root systems are going to be affected more.
(09:13):
And this is what I talk about throughout the whole year,
or just in general when we talk about having a
healthy landscape. If you have a healthy landscape, we can
get through, you know, two to three days of freezing
with minimal damage. So if you still got summer annuals
around blue days, salvias, plants, vegetables from summertime. Your tomatoes
(09:39):
and eggplants and peppers, they may be damaged if you
have have them out already, So that's that's going to
be an issue. So you're going to want to protect
those with a frost blanket, put a light underneath it.
And when we're talking about lights or Christmas lights, you
want to use the old fashioned incandescent Christstmas lights. Led
(10:01):
lights are not gonna work. They don't emit heat, so
you want to use your old fashioned Christmas lights. That's
going to add a couple of more degrees on their
of protection. Tropical plants like dressinas, crotons, peace lilies, Hawaiian tis,
hibiscus cordelines, your angel trumpet trees, your jackaranda's, your royal
(10:23):
point siennas are going to see some damage. Now they
should recover, but they may not look good for two
to three months if that okay. So what plants are
going to be fine. Your plants that are mature and
established that they're older than three months. Your deciduous shrubs
(10:45):
and trees, okay, your like your islec shillings, your native
shrubs and trees, your blueberries are going to be just fine.
We're talking Allocasians and colloccasions are tropical, but they come back.
They have a bulb system like root system with rhizomes,
(11:07):
and so they are going to be fine. Now they're
not gonna look good, but they're not gonna die. They're
going to recover your gingers, your cheflera Blue Days even
I just mentioned Blue Days is going to get knocked back,
but it should recover. Lantana, your Dianella's loriapee is going
to be just fine. Your leopard plants. I am really
(11:30):
a big fan of leopard plants. One the texture of them,
the shape of them. They look like John Deere tractor seats,
but they're really, really, really attractive. They have a beautiful
yellow flower. They grow all the way up into South Carolina,
North Carolina Zone seven. They can handle down to a
zero degrees. Those are great plants to have. They look tropical,
(11:53):
but they can handle this cold temperature. Your roses are
going to be just fine. Your roses are going to
be just fine. Your drift roses, your knockouts, your heirloom roses,
they can stand with stand cold to zero degrees too
as well. And it's not going to stay that cold,
(12:14):
that long. If you look at your hourly temperatures, you're
going to see that you're going to be in freezing
below thirty two degrees for about six to eight hours.
So hopefully it's not going to be that long or
be that intense, and we have and we have just
(12:34):
a break. We just need a break, okay. So also
to your junipers, your viburnums, your lugustrums, your camellias, they're
gonna be just fine now you don't even have to
cover them. Hydranges are gonna be okay, they should be
dormant right now, but they'll be okay. Your rubber plants,
your vicuses, they're going to be just fine. They may
(12:56):
get damaged, but the stems and the root system is
going to be fine. Your sand saveria's, your wax myrtles,
your vermeiliads should be just fine. Okay. If you're in
South Florida and you have those shade plants, your gas manias,
they may need to be covered, but you're ones that
(13:19):
take the full sun, they're going to be just fine.
You're going to species in your bromelions that can handle
the temperatures. Your acmeas, your dikias, your vascular areas, your
neo regelias, your poolias, tlanzias, and verizi. Bromeliads are going
to be just fine. They can tolerate brief periods of
(13:39):
temperatures down to sixteen degrees. Most other bromelions will survive
down to thirty two. But there are a few species
that can't tolerate, like I said, below forty degrees. So
some of them will get damaged. Some of them will
be okay, but they'll recover. Your canas you koonte's, your
(14:00):
cardboard palms, they can handle down to fifteen degrees. Now
when I say handle, I mean that they'll recover. They
may see damage at twenty and below, but they will recover.
So what can you do to help protect your plants.
You can water the ground of the plants. Do that
this morning. You don't have to, you know, get it
(14:22):
where it's icing up. Just go ahead and give them
one or two gallons of water per plant. You can
use a hose or a bucket. You don't need to
use your sprinkler systems. Then you want to play a
frost blanket on them, and you want to get that
frost blanket to cover it down to the ground, and
you can put rocks or bricks down at the bottom
(14:44):
so that it keeps the hit the heat wrapped in
around that plant. Okay, if you use sheets and blankets
down to the ground, you've got to be propped up
on sticks like a teepee, or it's where the blanket
or the sheet is not touching the leaf. If the
(15:06):
sheet or material sheets, bedspreads, quilts, blankets, if they touch
the leaves and it freezes, it's not gonna be protection
at all. You're still gonna get as much damage. So
you want to create that warm wrap around. And those
blankets and sheets need to be removed every day. Whereas
your frost blankets they can stay on for the next week.
(15:29):
They'll be just fine.
Speaker 2 (15:30):
Now, just quickly, we had a listener Texas Nora from Ovida.
She says, if the frost cloth is already in place,
should it be removed to water this morning?
Speaker 1 (15:40):
No. No, you could go ahead and water it just
right through it just but water down to the ground.
The leaves do not need water any time of the year,
so go ahead and water it down to the ground.
You do not need to remove the frost blanket. If
you get rain, It'll go right through that frost blanket
just fine. So that's a great question. And let's see, Lisa.
(16:00):
I don't know where you are, Lisa. Okay, thank you,
she says. Will my Christmas tree palms make it through
our freeze here in pont silt and we put a
lot of tropicals in last spring in a border around
our yard, No wake, I can cover it, all of
philodendrum's different varieties of elephant ears, red gingers. Thank you
(16:21):
for being here for all of us panicking gardeners. Me too,
me too, I feel you. So all your plants are
gonna be just fine. Your Christmas tree may see some
frawnd damage, okay, but we're going to talk about that,
you know, in the in the next hour and next
week I'm gonna be talking about this week. Let the
(16:43):
damage happen. Do not cut anything off, do not prune anything.
I'm gonna talk in a few minutes about what to do,
and I'm not going to be here during the week,
So just don't do anything next week till I come
back on. Okay. Just hold your breath, keep your fingers crossed.
Your allocasians, your philodendrons, they should all be fine. They're
(17:04):
going to may see a little damage, a little wilting,
but they're going to recover. So you're going to see,
hopefully you have a little microclimate there and it's not
going to get as cold in ponts Inlet as it's saying.
But they'll be just fine. They'll they will recover, okay,
And you'll see here in Florida they recover pretty quickly. Okay.
(17:27):
So one triple eight four five, five, two nine sixty seven,
or you can text two three six a zero. So well, well,
getting all this bad news, let me give you some
good news. There's still a chance for room on my
Art and bloom Garden Tours trips for the Revolutionary Garden
Tour and for our Chelsea Flowers Show. We have a
(17:50):
few more seats left. They're filling up very quickly, and
so thinking about that this week, think about getting away
to some beautiful gardens and celebrating the two hundred and
fiftieth anniversary of the United States and then going to
London and England to beautiful, beautiful gardens that we will
stroll in and just have a wonderful time. So if
(18:11):
you want to see more about our trips, you can
go to art bloomgardentours dot com. Let's go to Carrie
in Melbourne. Good morning, Carrie, how are you?
Speaker 3 (18:23):
Good morning, Theresa. I want to thank you for all
your wonderful shows and I've been a listener for many
many years. I don't call in that often, but you
helped me one time with my fig trees and I
appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (18:35):
Thank you.
Speaker 3 (18:36):
Now I'm calling in regard to I have a two
year old, maybe a little older, coconut tree that is
doing very well. It's about five feet tall and it
has maybe five froms already fully developed, and I love
it and I want to protect it. What can I do?
Speaker 1 (18:56):
I'm going to tell you, let's see, you're going to
get to twenty four degrees or this weekend. Okay, it's
five foot tall. How wide is it at the base?
Speaker 3 (19:07):
I would say maybe ten inches?
Speaker 1 (19:11):
You know what I'm gonna tell you, Carrie. I'm gonna
tell you to dig it up, put it in a
garbage bag and put it in your garage. Really yeah,
and then you can replant it next week. Okay, Carrie,
hang on, We're gonna be right back with you. Angie.
We're gonna get to you too, I know you guys
at Melbourne are going crazy. If it's Saturday morning, you're
(19:33):
listening to Better Lawns and Gardens. I'm Teresa Watkins and
this is Florida's Talk and Entertainment Network. Welcome back to
(20:03):
Better Lawns and Gardens. I just want to finish talking
to Carrie in Melbourne. You know you can wrap it
with a frost blanket. I don't know if you can
get it. I was getting calls by clients who said,
you know, we can't find frost blanket anywhere. And this
is the problem, Lizzie. Is that what we talked about
in September October. This is the time to get your
frost blanket. Yes, because when you need it, it's not
going to be found. It's going to be sold out.
(20:24):
And even Amazon, you know, if you get you know
products there, there's no way they're shipping from all these
snowed areas. You're not going to get it in time.
So this is you know, if you do have frost blanket, Carrie,
you can go ahead and wrap it, wrap it down
to the ground, let the warmare cover it in between,
(20:45):
create that warmare pocket or if anyone has a prized
tropical plant that they want to save, then they can.
If it's small enough, if it's under six foot tall,
I would take it up and put it in my garage,
you know. So that's that's what I would do. Just
put it in a blanket or not a blanket, a
garbage bag around the root base and just leave it
(21:06):
there and it'll be like thirty degrees thirty five degrees
in your garage, and it'll be better than sixteen degrees.
Let's go to Angie in Melbourne. Good morning, Angie. How
can I help you?
Speaker 4 (21:19):
A few months ago you talked about some product for
sand spurs. Okay, would kill the seed. And I have
tried every kind of pre emergent everything, and we have
a mango grove and this stuff gets tracked in, you know,
on the tractor tires, you know, on people's feet, you
(21:41):
know whatever. Yeah, and I got to kill them.
Speaker 1 (21:46):
So so what don't tell me what products you've used,
you know, the chemicals of the products that you've used. No, okay?
So okay, So there are products that have dements frind
that's di m E n th h R I nd
menthren that you can use. Sedge products will work too,
as well, sedge image image will work. Then there's a
(22:08):
product called ikes Sandspur and crabgrass that will work. So
you're looking for products that will take care. Benefit is
going to work too as well. So there's a number
of them. Just when you go to the store, look
for your pre emergence and look at the label and
(22:29):
make sure Sandspur is on there. Okay, and it should work.
Here's the issue is that you want to make sure
that you're putting it down before the growth starts. So
this week you can put it pre emergent down. You
can also put a post emergent down in March and
April when it's growing, and then bag your clippings. Okay,
(22:52):
do not let the seeds go back into the ground.
Bag your clippings and throw them away.
Speaker 4 (22:57):
Yeah, well we can't do that. I mean this is
this is acreage.
Speaker 1 (23:03):
Right, okay, So where are you? You're in Melbourne, okay,
So if you have acreage then okay, so then you
could what I would advise you to do is call
the your Brevard county, right, Melbourne's Bervard County or Vlusha
Vlusia County. Yeah car, yeah, oh you're in Brevard, Okay,
Brevard County Extension Office. Contact them on Monday morning and
(23:28):
they will give you the commercial agent for pasture, grass
and acreage and they'll be able to give you the
product that will work that you can buy just for
because you have such large property. Okay, okay, that would
be my best best Yeah, go right ahead.
Speaker 4 (23:46):
I have another question. It's a turf question in my yard. Okay,
I'm my personal home. I we got new sod I
guess two years ago whatever, but it's gotten. I've forgotten
what because we have a you know, a lawn service
long route or I don't know whatever. It is some
kind of fungus and whatever it is, they cannot deal
(24:09):
with it. And they told me to get a product
called Command right, and I have put out twelve bags
of that okay, and it is not helping this.
Speaker 1 (24:19):
Okay. So I'm confused, okay, because we've been in a
drought for two years and fungus is caused by water.
So how often are you watering Angie.
Speaker 4 (24:31):
Twice a week?
Speaker 1 (24:32):
Even now?
Speaker 4 (24:34):
Well, I mean it's not a timer.
Speaker 1 (24:35):
It just goes right, twice a week watering for how
long are you watering for?
Speaker 4 (24:41):
I don't know?
Speaker 1 (24:42):
Oh see, that's yeah, that you're just you're causing your
own problem. Okay, So your your turf does not need
that much water twice a week. One you're on restrictions,
so you shouldn't be able to water but once a
week right now, Okay with the cold temperatures, your yard
can go seven to ten days without water with these temperatures. Okay,
(25:03):
And so just hold back on the watering. What time
of the day are you watering at?
Speaker 4 (25:10):
Oh? I think it comes on at three in the morning.
Speaker 1 (25:12):
Okay, move it up to five thirty six o'clock in
the morning. Okay. It's not going to stay wet that long.
Speaker 4 (25:19):
Tory out.
Speaker 1 (25:19):
It has time to dry out. If you have it
at three, it's just going to stay wet for longer
than five hours, and that causes the issue. Okay. So
once you're okay, so you're going to cut back to
once a week watering. You're going to change your time
to five thirty six o'clock, and then I would calibrate
(25:42):
your system to make sure you're delivering one inch of
water a week. Okay. Now you may be putting you
you're just turning it on for thirty minutes and you
could be putting two to three inches of water on
your lawn, So I don't know how much you're putting
on your lawn, So calibrate them. Get some tuna fish cans,
set them out in one zone, turn your sprinkler system
(26:03):
on and time how long it takes to put one
inch of water in those cans that can. Okay, that's
gonna tell you how long. You may only need to
be watered for twenty minutes. And some areas may be
getting too much, some may not be getting enough. Okay, okay, So.
Speaker 4 (26:19):
All right, all right, can somebody text me the chemical
that I need to look for in that fands firstuff?
Or should I just call the extensive service if.
Speaker 1 (26:30):
You're doing acreage? So so why I said to call these.
Speaker 4 (26:33):
Probably this section that has the problem is probably only
maybe an acre.
Speaker 1 (26:40):
Writ and the product that you're going to need to
buy for that is going to be extremely expensive, So
you cannot put so the homeowner's products what you can
get off the shelf. You're going to have to buy
so much of that for that acreage. It's just going
to it's gonna cost you one thousand dollars literally, Oh okay, okay,
(27:02):
So that's why I'm saying call the Commercial Extension office
Monday morning and say I have acreage. What product can
I use that you can buy in bulk and concentrate
and it's not going to be as expensive as buying
it off the shelf.
Speaker 4 (27:16):
Thank you so much. We love your show.
Speaker 1 (27:19):
Thank you so much. I appreciate you, Angie for listening
to me. I certainly do. Thank you so much. It's
just that those products to buy it cost one hundred
and fifty dollars and for acreage, that's just going to
be wow. So let's get a good product that you
can buy that's the cheaper, less expensive. If it's Saturday morning,
you're listening to Better Lawns and Gardens, Rob hang on,
(27:41):
I'm going to get to you, and we have text
messages coming in two three, six eight zero. This Saturday morning,
you're listening to Better Lawns and Gardens. I'm Teresa Watkins
and this is Florida's Talk and Entertainment Network. Welcome back up,
(28:07):
Better Lawns and Garden sand Now Terresa's top five. My
top five this morning are recommendations for taking care of
your palms after a freeze. So after a freeze, if
you can get up to the top of your palm tree.
Look at that eighth apicole tip right there at the
(28:28):
top and any new emerging spears gently pull on it.
If it's green and sturdy, it will survive. If it's
brown and mushy, remove it and clean out the hollow.
Number two apply a liquid copper fungicide. Follow label instructions.
You may use it twice at ten day intervals. Number three,
wait a month before pruning your fronds. Okay, the fronds.
(28:51):
If you cut off the fronds, then that's going to
stress the plant out even more. Just wait and then
in three to four weeks you can take off all
the brown fronds. Number four, apply an anti transpiration spray
to the foliage to reduce water loss. Will stop by
Bone Eye is a great product. This is going to
(29:12):
form a transparent film on the plant's foliage, preserving moisture
and it minimizes water loss. Number five, do not fertilize
your plants until you see new growth. So those are
my top five tips after a palm freeze care for
your palm tree. Okay one triple eight, four, five, five,
(29:34):
two nine sixty seven, or you can text two three
six eight zero. Let's go to Rob in Christmas. Good morning, Rob,
how can I help?
Speaker 5 (29:42):
Good morning? I hope you can help. I've got a
very large plamaria that's got to be ten twelve foot
tall and at least set wide, and I know I
can't cover it. What do I do? Just cut a
bunch of the pieces off so I can plant them later.
Can I wrap the bait with newspaper to try to
(30:02):
save the trunk?
Speaker 1 (30:05):
Okay? So so one, you could cut off some of
the branches to save to replant. Okay, that's a that's
a good idea. Two you can can you put Do
you have a ladder that has a that opens up
a double ladder?
Speaker 6 (30:24):
Yes?
Speaker 5 (30:24):
They do.
Speaker 1 (30:24):
Okay. What I would do is I would put it
around your plumbaria or next to your plumbria and put
a blanket or a sheet over it, okay, so that
it covers it. So if you've got an eight to
ten foot plumbaria, then you can put the ladder there,
cover it. Let the ladder take the sheet and hold
it up. Make sure you cover it down to the ground,
(30:45):
and no newspapers needed at the bottom. Nowe that's not
going to help this time, And I just hope for
the best. I think you'll be okay.
Speaker 5 (30:53):
And one other thing I've got to I've got a
big tree that's three years old, it's very short. Is
they gonna survive? Should I just cover that too?
Speaker 1 (31:02):
What kind of tree a fig tree? Yes, ma'am, yeah,
they It hasn't gone dormant yet. They can go dormant.
So is it a brown turkey fig? Yes, it'll be
just fine. All right, Okay, thank you.
Speaker 5 (31:14):
You guys are awesome. I appreciate you.
Speaker 1 (31:16):
Welcome, Rob, thank you so much. One triple eight four
five five two nine sixty seven, or you can text
two three six eight zero. So I had someone email
me about her banana trees, Maria, and she says, what
am I gonna do about my bananas on my palm tree?
And so she sent me three lovely pictures of three
(31:37):
huge bananas with a whole hand. Now, a bunch of
bananas is called a hand. And so these are hanging
down from her tree, and you know what, it's time
to remove them. She can go ahead and cut off
the whole stem and take it inside and let them
ripen indoors. So her banana tree, her bananas will be
just fine. I wouldn't leave them on the tree. So
(31:59):
that's what I to do. So you know, bananas can
be taken off right now if they've been on longer
than seventy five to eighty days after it flowers. So
let's say it started flowering in the end of November,
you know you could or at the beginning of November,
then you could go ahead and take the hand off
(32:19):
and the bananas are far enough along, especially if you
can rub off the brown tips the flower that turns
to brown and it kind of just kind of melts away.
It's it's just like garbage at the end. It's burnt.
It looks like burnt ends. If you can take that
flower off very easily and it just it just rubs off,
(32:40):
then go ahead and cut your bananas down and bring
them inside and let them put them in a cool,
shady spot and let them ripen indoors. Okay, and that
will be helped. Thank you, Maria. That was a great
question also too. Bill in Ormond Beach, he asked me
about whether I should he should put milky spore or
(33:01):
beneficial nematodes for his lover grasshoppers and grubs, Japanese beetles
and weavils. Well, one we don't have Japanese beetles here
in Florida yet, but there's no real documentation of any
kind of population. But I would use the milky spore
(33:22):
if you have any kind of beetles or weavils in
your yard for grubs. But there is no pre chemical.
There's no pesticide for lover grasshoppers in the ground, so
you just you'm going to just have to watch and
catch them when they hatch, and then you can use
an insecticide on them like Captain Jack's Dead Bug brew
(33:47):
on them as they hatch. Okay, know when they become adults.
There's really only two things that can kill a lover grasshopper,
and that is two rocks, two bricks, okay, and you
just got to pound them. You can cut them in half.
That's kind of very gratifying once you see them meeting
your plants. But you get points if you kill your
(34:10):
love grasshoppers in the road. There you go. You can
fill them crunching up. Let's go to Jan and a Kobe.
Good morning, Jan, How can I help you? It's jim
My man. I'm sorry, I'm sorry, Jim, I'm sorry. No,
that's my eyesight. Hey, Jim, good morning. I'm sorry you.
Speaker 6 (34:26):
Guys just called in about Fromira. What works really good
for me is the insulation. You get the black insulation pipes,
the two and they just go on easily and then
you just take them down at the end of the
season and put them in a bag. But that works
really well.
Speaker 1 (34:47):
Jim, that's a great idea. Even those pool noodles, isn't
that pool noodles? Yeah, so I'm hoping he's still listening, Rob.
So that's a really good idea, Jim, and I should
have thought of that. But I'm glad you called in
because taking that insulation piping and covering it with that
will be really good.
Speaker 6 (35:07):
Right. But my question is I have a large leachy tree,
starfruit tree, and also peak lemon tree. All I know
to do is one in Korea, I saw all the
trees were wrapped around the trunks with rope. Right. I
(35:29):
don't know if that really helps or not, but they
all had done it to all the trees.
Speaker 1 (35:33):
What they're doing is they're protecting the graft. Now, light
chi tree and starfruit trees aren't grafted, but they're just
protecting the graft. And I would just say, if you
got frost blanket that you could use that, but you
also want to protect the graft of the lemon tree.
I think your lemon tree is going to be.
Speaker 6 (35:48):
Just fine big for blankets.
Speaker 1 (35:52):
Yeah, no, no, I mean not frost blankets. Yeah, you
can get enough frost blanket to cover your tree. But
if they're that big, I would just protect the graft
at the base and cover that up. So take the
frost blanket and wrap it around the bottom of the tree,
and that's going to help protect the graft and your tree.
Your lemon tree should come back from the graft. Now,
(36:13):
your starfruit, keep water on. No, no, do not do that. Okay,
do not do that. Okay, you water it. You can
water it before, but don't do it during the freeze.
That doesn't help.
Speaker 6 (36:29):
But put stuff for all the grafts around the base.
Speaker 1 (36:31):
Right, Just put the blankets around the base of the
lemon tree. Now, your starfruit and your leichi tree. I
don't know if they're going to make it. They're not
grafted and so they may just you may just see
them decline a little bit, but hopefully they'll come back.
Speaker 6 (36:45):
All right. Well, thank you, you're welcome.
Speaker 1 (36:47):
Jim, thank you for the insallation. Oh You're welcome. Thank
you so much. By bye, you said Happy Valentine's.
Speaker 2 (36:55):
I love that.
Speaker 1 (36:56):
Definitely, that's a great idea. I should have thought of that,
and I have said that in the past that insallation
around your plumarial will work really nice. But you can
also take a couple of them. Yes, definitely, like I said,
So let's see in Melbourne here, good morning. What about
azalea's I'm sorry, exoras, crotons, succulents, oh hio spider wart,
(37:18):
foxtail fern, variegated chefflera. Everything is in the ground for
several years in West Melbourne. Uh so your exoras may
get knocked back a little bit, but they'll recover. Your
crotons they're gonna get knocked back, but they'll recover. Your
circulars will be just fine. Your ohio spider wart's gonna
be just fine. It's an ohio wow.
Speaker 5 (37:39):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (37:40):
And at foxtail fern, you're gonna see a little bit
of damage. Your variegated cheflora a little bit of damage,
but it'll recover too as well, So no worries there
is it necessary to cover ground cover plants like Mexican
heather during the freeze I would Ken. I would, because
they're going to get knocked back a little bit. Now,
(38:01):
it just depends on the size of them. How big
are they. If they're less they are a one gallon size.
If they're less than twelve inches, they're going to get
knocked back pretty severely. But they're less, they're not as
expensive to replace. If you need to replace them. If
they're a little bit like a foot tall, a little
bit taller, nice and dents, I would cover them. And again,
(38:21):
they're going to get knocked back, but they're going to
be okay. They will recover too as well. I'm just
hoping it's not going to be as bad as it is.
We're going to be back with more better Lawns and Gardens.
I'm very excited. We have Kathy Gents coming up and
she is going to be talking to us about the
(38:41):
national holiday today and we're looking forward to talking with Kathy.
Stay tuned. If it's Saturday morning, you're listening to Better
Lawns and Gardens from the Summit Responsible Solution Studios. I'm
Teresa Watkins, and this is Florida's Talk and Entertainment Network.
Speaker 2 (38:55):
If you missed any of the show or you would
like to do a recap of any show. You can
go to better Law dot com. That's better lands dot
com and give us a call around the eight thirty timeframe.
That's eight eight eight four Fi five two nine six
seven eight eight eight four Fi five two nine six
seven
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