August 25, 2024 • 51 mins
Kelsey Deckert & Tom Kalb talk about what's to come in the fall for North Dakota growers.
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Speaker 1 (00:23):
Welcome to Dakota Growing.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
I'm Kelsey Decker, your horticulture agent here in Burley County,
joined in the radio Access studio by my co host
Tom called NDSU Extension Horticultures near not on the end
of August already?
Speaker 3 (00:39):
Yeah, so what so what days are summers over? Huh?
Speaker 1 (00:44):
Wow?
Speaker 3 (00:45):
Not coming? Why?
Speaker 1 (00:46):
But it feels like school starting?
Speaker 3 (00:49):
Yeah, school is starting. It's it's a good thing. It's
a good thing. Sports starting, Gardens, harvests going well, all
the things. Lots of good bountiful gardens. Yeah, good rains.
Gardens are good generally speaking, especially in Bismarck, Mandan. I
think they're doing good. And uh, it's all good. So
(01:14):
we got a lot to talk about today, you know,
so should get going.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
Let's get going. What's what we're getting started.
Speaker 3 (01:19):
With the title? My talk today is called Autumn blast
Bugs and bounty. Autumn blast bugs and bounty.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
There I didn't talk about how to be a bounty hunter,
that's right.
Speaker 3 (01:33):
I guess. How about the blast the smoke? No, this
is this rainstorm here?
Speaker 1 (01:40):
Oh that's a rainstorm.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
I didn't know if it was our Canadian wildfires going on.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
The smoke was bad last.
Speaker 3 (01:47):
Week it was a little bit.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
It's worse, come on, it has, but the air quality
it was like the one morning last week.
Speaker 3 (01:57):
Last week, the problem was the wildfires.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
No, you're right, it was a flooding.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
But the rain weekend, Yeah, we got like over three
inches of rain in some areas.
Speaker 3 (02:07):
Five Yeah, it was like monsoon time.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
I love seeing the videos the pictures that all made
the news. Oh well, like, didn't you think it was
unreal scene like cat scan machine, not a Sandford just
oh yeah, the rain pouring in over it.
Speaker 3 (02:26):
Yeah, that's why my wife works in the hospital, and
she said, like the basement was like the river flowing
in the basement. Wow, that's weird.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
And I got a town before came, so I didn't
have to deal with any like flooded areas and Bismarck
getting home or any of that. But not that I
think I would have. It was more of this like
downtown area, right.
Speaker 3 (02:49):
So it wasn't so bad at the Decker Ranch.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
No, you know, over the two days, I think we
had like two inches two and a half inches, so,
and nothing came down like overly abundant in a short
amount of time.
Speaker 3 (03:04):
I don't know, man, I was coming down pretty here
where I live. And now it's like it was like
it was like a monsoon, just like going back to
the good old days of Taiwan, you know, just like
wease get like ten inch of rain in one day. Yeah,
that kind of rain.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
Get out the kayaks, exactly, the canoes get to work.
Speaker 3 (03:22):
Yeah exactly. They say, well, you know, uh, just so
you know, the damn may birth tonight, so get ready
to make sure you have a suitcase packed so you
can escape. And that wasn't too fun. And of course
the weather reports in Chinese, so what the heck? Yeah,
I have no idea. What guys same, Oh my gosh,
(03:45):
that sounds terrible.
Speaker 2 (03:47):
Well, sometimes way they talk, yeah, sounds like they're screaming,
so you instantly panic, like what.
Speaker 3 (03:55):
Saying, like, okay, so when I go to bed tonight,
should I just keep my foot on the floor so
like when the water starts pouring into my place, I
can get I can scramble out before I die. So
they said, don't worry, we won't leave you. But that
was kind of oh, sort of good old days. Wow. No,
(04:16):
I think that one of the big the big news
recently is that huge trains. Yeah, I agree, Yeah, and
then what happened there was some damas to tomatoes. There
were cracking. Right, You get a sun burst of water
into that vine and it just pops open those tomatoes,
like those cherry tomaos especially. Could you hear the popping?
Speaker 2 (04:36):
You know again, I don't grow the tomatoes. At my point,
YE hate tomato, not a tomato lover.
Speaker 3 (04:43):
That was terrible. Ah, but that's what you can do.
Just just pull off those cherry tomatoes and the next one,
next group will come along. They'll be fine. And here's
a picture in Bismark. I went on to this landscape
about a year ago, and this guy, I think you're
on break that time. You were on break for about
a you're taking a vacation or something.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
Oh yeah, last year I had to do some continuing
education for my teaching license, so I was I was
out on a little I wasn't called VAKA, but I
was still in Bismarck, just learning all about the league.
Speaker 3 (05:17):
Night industry really to do with teaching, you.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
Know, it's just one of those continued ads, especially with education.
Speaker 3 (05:27):
Education. That's interesting. We annyhow I had to do with
some of your job at that time. Until this person
called me, says Tom, I like, all my plants are
dying underway there. Well, but it wasn't you know. This
is this is the day of the after the flooding.
This is the recent picture.
Speaker 1 (05:48):
Like oh last week, Oh you went over in that area.
Speaker 3 (05:51):
This was a year ago. I went out there and
I said, you know what, you don't really realize it,
but all your neighbors are there. You are just draining
into this area where you can't grow anything. So it
doesn't look wet now, but it's I bet there's like
in the winter when when you get the snow milk.
I bet you got to drainage issue. So we got
(06:12):
to pick plants and to that can tolerate flooding. And
he had plants that that that could not tolerate flooding.
They were dying.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
Now what do we got there?
Speaker 2 (06:21):
A deciduous tree looks like it's just raising its hand
like it's drowning.
Speaker 3 (06:26):
Well, yeh, that guy's not happy. Yeah, he's kind of
like drowning. Actually that's a good way to say it,
because but it's like not really drowning, it's just kind
of it's kind of like, uh, my kid in the
five foot area, very uncomfortable, but not going to die because,
(06:48):
like you know, you have to worry about like if
you have extended uh rains, like, but almost every tree
or shrub can tolerate up to a week of flooded conditions.
It's when it's when you get two, three, four weeks
of continuous flooding that some plants can't deal with it anyhow.
(07:10):
So yeah, he showed me that he took a picture
of this after the rainfalls. God time, this is just
so right, It's exactly the way it's going. And so
luckily I did tell them about some plants that do
tolerate flooding, and so just let's just talk about a
few of these, Like here's a red twig dogwood, and
we often see that, like when I drive in the ditches,
(07:31):
you can see these dog woods. Dogwoods can take moist
so they can take three weeks of flooding no problem.
And then among other trees, elms and hackberries are very
tolerant of flooding. Cottonwoods and willows, cottonwoods and wheels are
among the most tolerant the problems. Cottonwoods, those trees get
pretty big, you're like seventy five foot trees and of those,
(07:52):
so that's kind of big to have in a home landscape,
so you got to be careful. People like cottonwood because
they grow fast, but in the long run, those those
trees get pretty cumongous. And willows, I generally don't recommend
a weeping willow in a home landscape, even though they
can take flooding conditions that the wood is weak, and uh,
(08:13):
that willow, you don't want that near your house because
it's just gonna some day you're gonna have bad news.
Speaker 2 (08:19):
We had a willow growing up. It was our good
climbing tree right in front. Yeah, I had a nice
good branch and we'd climb up and hang off of
and then sit up on top.
Speaker 1 (08:32):
No time, no, not how I broke my arm either.
Speaker 2 (08:40):
So but I did hear No tell me if you've
ever heard this, because like I went to a training
this spring, and there was like some foresters there and
they said with like cottonwoods that they actually need like
a almost like a spring flooding to really have that
longevity with them.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
Have you ever heard of that.
Speaker 3 (09:03):
I haven't heard that, but I can see, you know
kind of what they're in the poplar family, and unless
you're in the right situation, they're not going to have
a long life, but right, But yeah, I can see
what they're saying. I would believe the forester when he said.
Speaker 1 (09:22):
That, Yeah, like they were.
Speaker 3 (09:24):
It was it was.
Speaker 2 (09:26):
It was a topic of like all the conon was
down by the river that are dying and they said
that's part of the reason they're dying off is because
they don't get that flooding like they used to years ago.
But in my mind, I was like, okay, well, kind
of comparing it to my place, we have a low
spot that it's not it wasn't a low spot to start,
but it's like where we dug out dirt when we
(09:48):
put our barn in and everything like that, so it's
kind of like a damash area but it doesn't hold water.
But every spring then it gets really full and we've
had again have any trees on our place. But there's
a conwood up the hill from our place. The thing
is full of conwood trees down there now, just crazy.
So some seeds must have gotten down there and they're
(10:10):
just taken off. Yeah, so made me think of that
because I'm like, yeah, every spring when the snow melts,
that's the first area to flood.
Speaker 3 (10:20):
Heard that before, but I believe it. I believe foresters. Yeah. Interesting, Okay,
so some plants will not tolerate flooding. Evergreens, evergreens, that's right,
like junipers, pines, and spruces.
Speaker 1 (10:36):
All those lilacs too.
Speaker 3 (10:38):
Yeah, you see, that's the one that's really kind of
interesting to me because lilacs are so long lived that
they can live one hundred years. But they just can't
take a wet condition. They that's that's their achilles heel.
They just can't take it. And linens are another one
that if you get more than a week of straight flooding,
you got some you could have some issues. But your
(11:00):
evergreens are tough. They're really tough when it comes to footing.
Or say they're not tough, I don't see. They have
a hard time when it comes to flooding.
Speaker 1 (11:08):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (11:09):
Probably. Arborvity is one of the most tolerant for moist soil.
But I'm not crazy about Arborvity because he had wind
damaged so bad.
Speaker 2 (11:18):
Well, and if you remember, I think it was like
two years ago, I talked to you about some lilocks
that the gentleman I actually just told him to contact
you for a second opinion. But he lived out by you, Mary,
and there was like an area that kind of had
like a quick run through and he would near your
gate through there and he's like told me, he's he
(11:39):
can't understand why he can't get lilocks to girl. He's
been doing it for ten years. But he ran his
sprinklers every day, eight hours a day.
Speaker 3 (11:47):
On top of it, oh, just to get him to grow.
Speaker 1 (11:50):
Like just you're gaining his lawn and his plants.
Speaker 3 (11:53):
And I'm like the eight hours a day.
Speaker 1 (11:55):
Eight hours a day lilocks were that's amazing. Drowning.
Speaker 3 (12:00):
I was like, like a Paddy rice Field.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
Home rice seeds.
Speaker 3 (12:07):
Wow, that's crazy. Well I would tell them next time
track dogwoods.
Speaker 1 (12:12):
Yeah, but I just told wa, Yeah, how we just
do water like that.
Speaker 3 (12:17):
That's a good idea. Yeah, lightlacs can't take wet feet,
just keep them. And also a lot of fruit trees
cannot take flooding, right, so stay away from that. Okay,
I'm gonna shift gears. That's I'm done with the blasts,
the autumn blasts. We're done with that. Now here's one
thing I want everybody to get a heads up about
sewing lawn seed because right now, like today's August twentieth,
(12:37):
right now in the window of the best time to
sew lawn seed, and that's that's from now until September fifteenth.
Once it gets past September fifteenth, we worry about the
lawn seed isn't going to get established in time before winter.
But now it's a great time, and that's because soil
is warm, and because it soils warm, the seeds are
going to Germany quickly. Also, there's a less concerned about
(13:00):
weed seeds Germany now because whenever you disturbed the soil,
the weed seeds can be stimulated to Germany, but their
weeds are kind of smart and they won't Germany. They
don't want to Germany in the fall because they know
they're not gonna make it so, but if you disturb
the soil in the spring, they will Germany. So if
we put our launcheted now, we have a less worry
(13:21):
about the weed seeds coming up. And also the attempts
will eventually cool off.
Speaker 1 (13:27):
They did though a couple of weeks ago.
Speaker 4 (13:29):
Our western back to normal now, but it's going to
cool off and there's less eat moisture stress on our
young long then.
Speaker 3 (13:41):
So if you want to soil, long seat, and now
it's a really good time to get going on it.
Make sure your seed is from a northern source. Also,
just don't plant one type of grass. You want a
blend of different grasses. And also within the grasses, you
want a blend of varieties. Like let's say I want
Kentucky bluegrass and find and fascue, but also I want
(14:02):
to have a couple of varieties of Kentucky bluegrass and
a couple of varieties of fine fascue, just in case.
Some varieties are more tolerant of disease than others, some
are more hardy than others. So don't put all your
eggs in one basket. They get a blend of varieties.
And so this this reminds you of we talked about
this situation earlier this spring. This was a pur This
(14:26):
is uh shown Here is a field where it was
a garden last year and they want to trend to turf,
and so they sold grassy there and they said, my god,
this is the greatest lawn ever last summer. But then
it all died over winter, and they wondered it was
a disease. But no, when they when I asked them
what type of seed did they plant. And they got
(14:48):
a type of seed from Kentucky and it was marginally hardy,
and they only had one variety, one type of a
Kentucky tall rescue, and so they put all their eggs
in one basket and then they drop the basket and
it just everything ded. So don't do that. Get your
seats from a northern source and get a blend of grasses.
(15:10):
So most most of us have a sunny and shady areas,
and so I like to have a blend of Kentucky
bluegrass starting with that's that's the dominant seed for lawns
in North Dakota. It thrives in the sun, and it's cold, hardy,
and it's we're tolerant, it's tough, and it's also it's
(15:30):
a high quality, beautiful lawn that's easy to walk on
and a pleasure to play on and find fascues.
Speaker 2 (15:38):
You know.
Speaker 3 (15:38):
The one drawback about a bluegrass is it can't take
shade and it can't take salt. So that's one thing
that a fine fascue, a finely fascue can do. And
that's like the creeping red chewings, red and hard fescus.
They tolerate shade and salt. So like if you've got
a home lawn it has some shady areas, like near
the house. The blend you'll find is that the you
(16:00):
put in that blend, the bluegrass will do great in
the sun. But you'll notice that the underneath the trees
near the house you'll see is very skinny leaf grasses.
Those are the fine fascues that are taking off there.
Fine fascus are also low maintenance, so they don't have
to be modus often. And the last type of grass
seed that I like to see in a mix is
perennial rye grass. Perennial rye grass, and that's because it
(16:24):
germinates so quickly, Because I bluegrass can take three weeks
to germinate, and so that's a long time to keep
your soil exposed. So the nice thing about rye grass,
it'll just pop out of the ground within three to
five days, and so it stabilizes the ground and it'll
nurse the bluegrass along. But the rye grass is weak
and not hearty, so it will die off over a
(16:47):
few years and then but then the bluegrass is established
and it can take off. So I like a blend
of Kentucky bluegrass, a type of fine fascue and a
little bit of perennial rye grass in the mix. For that,
look for a blend of grass types. And there's a
couple other unusual alternative grass types, a turf type tall fascue,
(17:10):
and cress and wheat grass. These type of grasses are
more drought tolerant. They're bunch grasses, but they get you know,
so if you if let's say you got like two
acres of plants and you don't say, like, no way,
am I ever going to irrigate it, then maybe like
a turf type tall fescu, you make sure it's a
turf type. Or I've got like crested wheat grass on
(17:31):
my property, so they're they're very drought tolerant, but the
promise are coarse and like my kids would never want
to play on that crested wheat grass. But if you're
just gonna look at it, that's something to think about.
And the other type of grass that's an alternative is
buffalo grass. Buffalo grass is a low growing grass and
it's it's a warm season grass, so it's the you'll
(17:55):
have the best looking lawn in the summer. The problem
is it only grows well in the warm temperatures, so
you'll have the ugliest looking lawn for eight other months
of the year. But it's low meanness. So those are
different types of grasses. There you go, So now the
time to do it. Do it? Okay, Now when we
talk about some bugs that are active right now, and
(18:17):
this is a field of canola, is that that's one
of the coolest sights as a as a false North
Dakota and I'm not a real North Dakota and I
never when I saw canola fields, I go, wow, that's
like amazing. That yellow is so bright and pure.
Speaker 1 (18:37):
Except they stink.
Speaker 3 (18:39):
Well, I'm just driving, I'm not smelling.
Speaker 1 (18:41):
I'm not actually they like they stink.
Speaker 2 (18:44):
It reminds me if you've ever been like, yeah, if
you've ever been to like a pig barn or a
pig farm.
Speaker 3 (18:50):
Oh yeah, of course, man, they.
Speaker 2 (18:51):
Stinky, but the beauty is there.
Speaker 3 (18:55):
Wow. Comes, that's like the tobacco field when I lived
in Virginia. You drive through those tobacco towns when they're
smoking the tobacco.
Speaker 1 (19:06):
Kind of nice, kind of nice.
Speaker 3 (19:08):
Not canola, I guess smells. Do you know what this
surrounds you? This picture with the sky and the blue
and the yellow. This is the Ukraine flag. That's how
they that's what the Ukraine flag is, you know. But
it's not smelly canola. It's wheat. That's what when you
see a Ukraine flag. It's the sky on the top
and the wheat on the bottom. I'm here to fun fat.
(19:34):
Do you like flags?
Speaker 1 (19:36):
Yeah? I mean I have an American flag up at
our place.
Speaker 3 (19:39):
How about the North Kota flag.
Speaker 1 (19:41):
I haven't had that yet, but.
Speaker 3 (19:43):
Yeah, I don't really like the North Dkota flag. As
an outsider, have to say, it's kind of.
Speaker 2 (19:48):
How about since your Minnesota, what's your thoughts that the
new Minnesota flag?
Speaker 3 (19:52):
You know, Minnesota used to have a flag a lot
like the North Dakota flag. It's like the boring coat
of arms arms. Yeah, and so uh, I don't like
that style because it's too hard to see from a distance.
All I know is the coat of arms. I don't
even know what's on that coat of arms, and it's
just like a probably a farmer or maybe a Native American.
Speaker 1 (20:14):
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (20:14):
I don't even know what's on it. Maybe there's a
prairie dog. I don't know what the heck's on that flag,
you know, But I like a more symbolic like I
like to like, let's see the Alaska flag that has
to the north star. You know, a kid designed that.
A grade school had had a contest, and a grade
school kid designed their state flag. He just liked the
(20:35):
north star, and so we had that. You know, what
do you call it? Big dipper?
Speaker 4 (20:39):
Ye?
Speaker 3 (20:39):
And so now to me, that's it. I like that
kind of flag, a symbolic one and simple and also simple.
So Minnesota's got a new flag, and you know, I
pay attention to the Minneso a little bit because that's
my home state. It's kind of weird they hit they
had a bunch. They hit a contest. Yeah, and they
had like six finalists, and I guess that the persons
(21:02):
who made the decisions they said we're not going to
accept any of them, and they just went and just
did their own.
Speaker 1 (21:08):
I know.
Speaker 3 (21:09):
That's kind of weird.
Speaker 1 (21:09):
It's kind of controversial.
Speaker 3 (21:11):
Yeah, it didn't make no sense, like they have a
real contest, and then they picked the finalist and then
they just throw out all sorry, none you good? None,
are you good? We don't want to go there. I'm
never going back there. Let's just say that we're learning
all about Minifornia right now. I have nothing to do
(21:34):
with that place. Oh man, I just lost half audience. Anyhow, whatever,
I tell the truth. But I like the I like
the idea that they made. They had a simple flag,
and so I would I would support North d Quota
have a contest and and have like, you know, like
a you know, maybe like a prairie and sky and buffalo. Yeah,
(21:59):
why don't mean it's got a buffalo on theirs. But
so we have to be different, but maybe a buffalo, Yeah,
maybe some type of buffalo. Got to keep it simple
and just a few colors. Sometime sometimes people all cross
and age. Oh yeah, that's that's why I like that,
you know, maybe green or something.
Speaker 2 (22:19):
So I think we're gonna just say, why do a contest.
There's nothing wrong with the flag.
Speaker 3 (22:25):
I just told you I don't like her flag, alright,
I'm just telling you it's a boring flag, That's what
I'm saying. Okay, it's just me. Forget about me anyhow.
What happens when a stinky canola is is harvested, The
flea beatles get hung They're still hungry, so they come
(22:46):
in black swarms. I would not put flea beatles on
our state flag, by the way, I would not do that.
But it's amazing black storms can come in just in hundreds.
It's our most devastating past of the fall.
Speaker 1 (23:00):
Isn't that what in like Winnie the Pooh, rabbits always.
Speaker 3 (23:03):
Battling fleet beetles.
Speaker 2 (23:05):
They flea beetles. They come in swarms and they eat
up all his garden.
Speaker 3 (23:09):
Oh it's probably.
Speaker 1 (23:11):
Yes, beatles, the carrots.
Speaker 3 (23:13):
Shirts, I guess could be.
Speaker 1 (23:16):
I'm gonna look more into that now. Is that just
made me think of that?
Speaker 3 (23:19):
There you go. Well, if I was rabbit and I
had flea beetles, well you know it's a shothold damage
and flea beetles are they can kill a plant when
it's young, but now the plants are established, they just
ravage it. But there's lots that insecticides that Rabbit and
Winny of the pool can use to kill flea beetles,
like pyreethoids and that that's like a garden Tech seven
(23:43):
or bone Eyed eight. And if you're want organic, I
think Spino said is a good one to use for
flea beetles. So so just be on the lookout for them,
those flea beetles. They can be ravaging. Or you can
use floating roll covers if you're another organic option. Here's
a picture of a Virginia creeper vine that someone shared
(24:04):
with me last week, and it's like full these little
white dots in it. And that's if you look close,
that's where insects are puncturing or piercing the LEAs and
sucking the green sap out of the green corefield. So
this is like, this is a Virginia creeper leaf hopper
which is active right now on a Virginia creeper and
grape vines. There. You go, look how much leaves. It
(24:27):
just devastated it. They were just and finding the north
and there's white bugs and that's what the leaf hoppers
looked like. They're just puncturing and sucking. So what are
you gonna do with this?
Speaker 2 (24:37):
Guy?
Speaker 3 (24:38):
Still got life in that plant? You didn't It didn't die.
You got healthy leaves in the top and the bottom.
So I think what I do here since it's so
weak in the middle, I try to just trend this
whole plant down to the near the ground level. Do
that in the winter, like March or April, and since
it's got a full root system, it should rebound nicely
and just rejuvening itself. But being a lookout for rose
(25:02):
leaf hoppers. And the reason one of the reason I'm
talking about is just a highlight. Virginia creeper vine beautiful. Yeah,
it's got rich burgundy fall catt and it's got that palmate.
The leaves are like a palm, like like it's got
like seven fingers sticking out of a palm. It's probably
the most common vine in North Dakota. And it's for kids.
(25:24):
If you got kids, got a leaf project, leaf collecting project,
Virginia creepers, definitely got to add that to the collection.
That's what I always used. Virginia creeper.
Speaker 1 (25:34):
I was gonna say, I got the nice bright berries on.
Speaker 3 (25:36):
Them, yeah blue, but don't eat them. No, they're tock.
They can be mildy toxic. So they're like ox salic
oxalic acid. So you don't want that. So so don't
never eat any fruit unless your shirt's safe. So Virginia
creeper is mildy toxic berries, stay out of that. Okay,
that's the end of the bug talk. Now I'm gonna
(25:57):
talk about the bounty. Wrap it up here. Now is
the time to harvest a lot of vestments. Most vegetables
are pretty easy to figure out when the harvest, but
a lot of people are never know about when to
harvest onions, for sure. So harvest onions when half of
the tops have fallen over. And here's a picture of
a plant, and you see on the left all those
(26:17):
onion things have flopped over. All the plants have flopped over.
But down the right, those aren't ready because those plants
are still erect. They're still turgid and up, so they're
not ready to harvest yet. Okay, there's one that's flopped
over and one that hasn't. So the plants will naturally
tell you when they're ready when the next starts to
dry and flop over, and then when they're ready to harvest,
(26:41):
and when you harvest them up with your spade fork,
then you can Usually it's hot this time year, and
usually it's dry, so if the weather's going to be
eighties and dry, you can just let them out in
the field for a week and when i'm cure. But
if RAN's expected, you know you want to harvest in
and put them in a dry place. Like in the
garage and keep it warm if you can, like in
the eighties, is best. And then they're ready to store.
(27:04):
And I like the storm in a mesh bag when
the next are dry and the outer skin starts to rustle,
and onions like a cool, dry situation. So that's a
deal with onions. So the onions look to see him
flop something else. Sometimes onions bloom, and that's because an
onion plant's kind of weird. An onion plant actually lives
(27:24):
for two years. Okay, the first year it just forms
a bulb. It doesn't form a seed stock. But the
second year, after it gets a little winter temperature, the
second year you'll send up a seed stalk and then
the whole The reason why a plant develops the bulb
is to provide food for the seed stock. So that's
(27:47):
why an onion has a bulb to make a seed stock. Now,
if you plant onion sets, those plants are already like
a year old, and so then when you plant them
there they will they can bloom the secon that you're
in the garden. So if you see an onion plant
that's blooming, that's the first one you should harvest. Because
when plants start to bloom. The bulbs are done growing.
(28:10):
Now the bulb energy is going up into the seedstock,
and also the bulb starts to decompose because it's draining
itself out. So anything that when you see an onion
onion bloom, you should that's it. You should harvest those guys,
got it joke? Onions I do better than canoes, So
for sure, there you go. How about cannl ope? You
(28:33):
like candle?
Speaker 1 (28:34):
I do like candle me too?
Speaker 3 (28:37):
Yep? How can you tell in a can hop shripe?
Most cannibal varieties, the normal ones are so easy to tell,
and the fruit will get a little bit of a
gold tint. But all I gotta do is tug at
that stem end. And this is what we call the
half slip stage, and that when you tug it up,
(28:58):
half of it will rip off, but the other half
it will naturally come off. The rest you have to
rip off. And so that's what a commercial grower will use,
the half slip stage. It just you just gently tugget
about half of the stem comes off and then they
yanked the rest off, and that melon will ripen off
(29:18):
the vine. But for a garden, I like the full
slip stage where you just naturally tug it a little
bit and it just all comes off. That means it's
fully ripe and has its maximum flavor ready for eating. Huh,
you got it. I remember for my master's I was
a plant breeding expert Burpie Seed company. Oh and my
(29:42):
trial was on cannilopes. So I developed cannle price we
made to cover our program made to cover a burpie seed.
Speaker 1 (29:48):
Kettlegy you develop.
Speaker 3 (29:50):
Well, it's a very famous one. It lasted about three
years before it was pulled. It's called honey bush. It
was a cannop that grew in a short vine.
Speaker 4 (30:00):
Ok.
Speaker 3 (30:00):
So it's like people wanted to grow on a patio. Yeah,
it was a stupid idea. So the problem it had
like all the leaves of a normal viole, but they
would just squish them all together. But it was like
just a giant bush that had no air, and so
it's so susceptible to disease. And then I went about business.
(30:21):
I had some great hybrids that I developed for Berbie.
They were great, but they wanted to go with the cheap,
open pollinated variety and it was okay. Yeah, but as
I say, it made the cover but then it was
like it was like, what do you call us? A
one hit wonder? After three years it was all out
(30:43):
of the catalog and it's never come back. I agree
that rady they picked was terrible, but and who wants
to grow canup on a short If I want to
grow can up on a patio anyhow, it's with a
stupid concept. But I got my degree out of it,
so that's all that matter.
Speaker 1 (31:01):
A win win.
Speaker 3 (31:02):
But the reason why I get minded, it's my lord.
I ate a thousand CANDWHP that summer. I tested over
one hundred. I made a hundred different varieties, and I
would just I had a test taste every one of them.
Today I had like a million candle No. I literally
ate a thousand can of w opes that summer. So
(31:22):
that was like that was a lot.
Speaker 1 (31:25):
Do you eat it today?
Speaker 3 (31:26):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (31:26):
Sure, oh you do.
Speaker 3 (31:28):
I'm old. I was like, heck, that was like thirty
forty years ago. I can barely remember that, but it
was it didn't scar my life to scarred. I didn't
want to can up for five years, but after that
I was over bad because I like candle op It
was a good trial. I mean, if I could do
a trial on candle ope or a trial in Okra
or Swiss chart. I would take candle op like, would
(31:48):
you do a trial on tomatoes?
Speaker 1 (31:50):
What I know?
Speaker 3 (31:50):
Yeah, exactly, So I got lucky can Oope is a
good a good one Okra. I don't want to do
that trial. I don't want to eat a thousand fridays
of oprah. I mean, but everybody's got their own thing, okay, watermelons.
Watermelons are tricky to tell, and so one thing I
look for, like you can't dump everyone like thumb dumb thumb,
(32:11):
thumb dumb thumb.
Speaker 2 (32:12):
You know, just there's nothing worse than going to the
store and getting a mad watermelon.
Speaker 3 (32:17):
Yeah, so what you do Kelsey, Well, that's.
Speaker 1 (32:21):
It's a whole different topic.
Speaker 3 (32:22):
I know. Well, I look for the yellow on the
under side. That's a good sign that it's at least
half that's pretty right, not white. You want yellow or
gold on the under side. You can do that and
then you can try to dump them. But as a
grower in the garden, you look for these uh tendrils,
these like squirrely squiggly things pig tails next to the melon.
(32:43):
When that tendril is dry, brown and dry, that's a
sign that the melon's right. It's that's what growers. Do
you think growers are spending out there dumping a whole more.
They look at the tendril. There you go. Okay, now
here's I got this. This is a picture of a watermelon,
and I got this yesterday. Actually, prisons their watermelons never
(33:04):
get more than an inch big. So I said that, Well,
that's the promise. The flowers aren't being pollinated. That's the problem.
It's like a female watermelon flower has has a has a,
has a little fruit on it. And so if this
they're not being pollinated by beefs and the flowers only
(33:24):
good for a day, then it's just gonna wither away.
So that's what this guy had. Okay, I'm talking too
long today, Sorry about that.
Speaker 2 (33:31):
No good, good conversation, good topics.
Speaker 3 (33:35):
Okay, this watermelon is made. It it got pollinated. But
now is it gonna make for frost? And so that's
now we got our countdown a frost. So you should
get our frost the last week of September or first
week of October. So we got about forty days left.
So this melon, we say it takes forty to fifty
days from bloom to harvest, so I don't know if
that melon's gonna make it. But and same with peppers
(33:58):
and tomatoes, they're forty about fifty days about. But when
it comes to like winter squash and pumpkins, they take
two months from flower to harvest or longer. So if
you've got a baby pumpkin, it's not gonna make it.
So you can even you can even put pick it
off the vine if you want, so it doesn't take
energy off the vine. The winter squash and pumpkins aren't
(34:19):
gonna make it now. But the last thing is radishes
will make it. And so now this week is a
good time to plant rareises. Okay, that was a lot,
so I'm gonna ship here. I won't give you enough time.
Oh too much today, that's all good stories.
Speaker 1 (34:36):
We had fun facts there you go.
Speaker 3 (34:38):
I like Ukraine flag. Yeah, nothing to do with party room.
Too much flag talk.
Speaker 1 (34:43):
You know you kind of.
Speaker 2 (34:44):
I just had to start my presentation for today off
and again just before we get into like what's out
there that's depressing, just talking about I know.
Speaker 1 (34:56):
What ended with you today?
Speaker 3 (34:57):
What's depressing?
Speaker 2 (34:58):
Well, there's a lot of things, but first of I'm
just gonna say, Zinna's beautiful right now?
Speaker 1 (35:03):
Which loves zidas?
Speaker 3 (35:04):
Yeah, they grow, they're easy to grow.
Speaker 1 (35:06):
Fun pops of color. Gotta love good. Yeah, I haven't
noticed any, have you.
Speaker 3 (35:17):
Yeah, it should be a bad year for powder, but
there's the modern varieties now are showing resistance. The hybrids
in general resistant the best. The best hybrids have natural
resistance now to powder. Miller, that's so, But just don't
water from overhead, honestly, then they're gonna get that great powder.
Speaker 2 (35:35):
That's what I gotta say. What's been great about the rain?
I haven't had to like water my flower bit at
all at all. Let it be it's been great.
Speaker 4 (35:45):
All right.
Speaker 2 (35:46):
Well, first I'm gonna start off with a fun thing
that people always have questions about, lei chens lichens. Yeah,
that's what people always say, a lei chin once that
when you said them information spell it like it.
Speaker 1 (36:03):
So really what is it?
Speaker 2 (36:05):
This is just something that you're gonna see on trunks,
very popular and the bark. Also you can find it
on stones, especially if you're like by you know, like
lakes or anything like that. But it actually is a
fungus that's either got like an algae or bacteria with it.
But literally, this is nothing to worry about. It's non harmful.
(36:26):
I think it adds a little finesse to your trunk, right,
It's it a little characteristic because it comes in such
a variety of white greens, gray.
Speaker 1 (36:36):
Yeah, just it's characteristic. I think. Nothing, nothing to worry about.
Speaker 3 (36:42):
And it doesn't penetrate the bark.
Speaker 1 (36:44):
No, no, just let it be.
Speaker 2 (36:46):
So I had to this morning as I just like
we talked about the rain from last week, and literally
in the last couple of days, I just noticed this
not only at my place with a couple of cottonwoods
that I have, but the rust is back. We've seen
it last year and everything. So what do people usually
talk about. They talk about seeing that fall color, like, oh,
(37:09):
my tree is already turning color, you know, the brown,
dried up leaves, fallen leaves on the ground. Again, if
you're seeing it early enough and everything like that, you're
gonna notice that orange powder on the leaves. So this
is a picture of actually my dad's cottonwood tree, and
last night I happened to be over there and same
thing as last year's starting to brown up. Get up close,
(37:31):
you can see that rust on it. And like I said,
I have a cottonwood right right when you come in
my driveway and notice that on I think it was
Sunday or Saturday, I noticed that the rust was back in.
So I just tell people it's just relax, right, I like,
I like your quote.
Speaker 1 (37:51):
What is today's date.
Speaker 2 (37:53):
We're at the end of August, man, fall color's coming, right,
not spending time on that energy you have dress. I
got this one though, in the last couple of weeks too,
brown rot on plums, And I'll be honest, as a
(38:14):
horticulture agent, I was like, this is really neat because
kind of similar to that conwood rust is it had
all these powdery gray spores on the fruit and so
kind of looking more into brown rots.
Speaker 3 (38:28):
Is.
Speaker 2 (38:29):
It's not something I would say I get a lot
of questions on or anything.
Speaker 1 (38:32):
Like that throughout the year.
Speaker 2 (38:33):
But usually this like symptoms actually will start in the spring,
as like your brown spots on the blossoms, and so
a lot of times those blossoms that are gonna completely
turn brown and shrivel up. But you can also see
and I'll show you in the next picture a little
bit better of that, but you'll have this discolored bark
and it'll have drops of like that sticky oozing gum
(38:56):
that's gonna be between the disease and healthy. But then
two what happens is kind of like plumb pockets, those
fruit become mummified.
Speaker 1 (39:05):
So I don't know.
Speaker 2 (39:06):
To me, I was like, look at this, you got these,
You got this one that's starting to kind of shrivel up, right,
and then this nice plum plum no.
Speaker 1 (39:14):
Pun intendant there.
Speaker 2 (39:17):
So rate in this picture is if you look at
the bottom there, you can really see that oozing right
by the two plums that have the gray spores on them.
Speaker 1 (39:27):
So it's pretty easily spread.
Speaker 2 (39:29):
Can be spread by just the airborne spores can even
come from wild plum trees. But also your insects can
spread this, and so could pruners if you're not disinfecting.
So what do you think about, I'm only going to
prune in the dormant season.
Speaker 3 (39:47):
Yeah, not now you're not going to be spreading this.
Yeah it's unfortunate, but yeah it's a fungus. So that
means pun your plants in the winter get better air movement,
you know, less, you know less humidity that will reduce this.
Speaker 1 (40:03):
So kind of what to do about it.
Speaker 2 (40:04):
I would kind of compare it to almost like the
way you're gonna treat obviously fire blight, and this is
a destructive disease on your plums. Brun out those cankers.
There are fungra sizes available, but again most of the
time it's not gonna warrant the fungicide. You just want
to go ahead and like you said, amputates right.
Speaker 3 (40:25):
Amputated out, you know, pick off the fruits that are
infected and get the mommies out. That's a source for
the disease in the future. And so no mummies allowed.
Speaker 1 (40:39):
Yeah, no doubt. It's a good idea.
Speaker 2 (40:42):
I want to highlight one bug today and stuff, and
so that's bean leaf beetles.
Speaker 1 (40:49):
You've been getting any of these?
Speaker 3 (40:51):
I had a couple earlier this year.
Speaker 2 (40:54):
Yeah, I got this one recently. So you see getting
kind of the shotholes on on the leaves of the
green beans and then the beans themselves. Again, maybe that
bottom right picture isn't the best to see, but you
the one bean that they had in there, like you
can see it was eight a hole and then you
can see the sea just hanging out right there and stuff.
(41:15):
So what do we do about these guys, Well, you
got a scalp for that beetle. The best time that
they're gonna be active in that garden is gonna be
between noon and four. Also, just like any other insects,
we just got to tolerate them, right, So if you're
gonna maybe if you're gonna have more than twenty five
(41:36):
percent defoliation, then I would consider a pesticide. They're kind
of interesting because, I mean, from a distance, you might
confuse them with like a lady bug or something like that.
They're more orange and they're not going to have as
many dots.
Speaker 1 (41:50):
But you can look at that.
Speaker 3 (41:52):
Some lady bugs have no dots. Yeah, some have like
seventeen these. Some are black, some are red. There's like
so many different ladybugs. I thought you could count like
how old lady bug is by how many dots at all?
But that's not true.
Speaker 1 (42:09):
What did the dots signify.
Speaker 3 (42:10):
It's just a different species, just the way it is.
Some people have a lot of freckles, some people. You know,
it's like it's just the way it is. I mean,
but it's a species thing. Yeah, So I just thought
lady bugs are kind of I never knew there was
black lady bugs.
Speaker 1 (42:26):
And I didn't look.
Speaker 2 (42:27):
Far enough into this, but I'm pretty sure the bean
leaf beetles just have the four dots. I didn't see
any sep Okay.
Speaker 3 (42:35):
That's just what you mentioned ladybugs. But you know the
thing why I know it's not a ladybug. Ladybugs don't
eat the leaf. So what I see is I say,
oh my gosh, we'kay, what's going holy holy bean batman?
You know what's going on here? And that's like you
see it's holes and then you But I think the
weird thing is like when you check them out, they
(42:57):
like the afternoon. Yeah, they're like they just like give
me that. They like to get the little sunshine. And
so you go look for him in the afternoon. That's
kind of weird for a bug. And so but then
you see him on the other side and there you go, Okay, buddy,
now I see it. Now I know my enemy. So
then like you say, what, you can tolerate some leaf feeding,
(43:20):
but if it's more than twenty five percent to foliation,
you can say you've had enough, friend, And so I'm
going to kill you.
Speaker 2 (43:27):
Now what time of year? Like I mean, I kind
of thought obviously this person's seen it later. But what
time of year you think they first get in the gardens.
Speaker 3 (43:34):
Well, I think it's about a month ago. They were
caught there eating the lease. That's when he noticed they
go after the tender. And yeah, the most problem is
when the plants are young. Yeah, that's when the bean
seedlings are most you know, sensitive to defoliation, so that
they've been around for over a month.
Speaker 2 (43:51):
Yeah, yeah, so again getting towards the end of their
eating fast. Okay, last thing I'm gonna highlight, just to
keep our episode rolling here today.
Speaker 1 (44:05):
Grassy weeds. So I always get this question.
Speaker 2 (44:10):
I don't know how often people always wanting to know, well,
what is this?
Speaker 1 (44:14):
I don't like this clump. I don't know what it is.
Speaker 2 (44:16):
I don't like this type of wide blade or thin
blade grass in in my lawn. So really, you know,
there's a few things I have to tell people, is like, really,
to identify these you need that seed head.
Speaker 1 (44:31):
Grass is just very difficult.
Speaker 2 (44:33):
You got to look for that seed head that's going
to be more distinguish one of the distinguishing characteristics. You
also got to look at different parts of that grass,
the ocules, the leg yules, all the fun things, right.
Speaker 1 (44:47):
Yeah, pretty much.
Speaker 3 (44:54):
Get the oracles.
Speaker 1 (44:55):
What what's that?
Speaker 3 (44:57):
What's an oracle?
Speaker 1 (44:59):
That's an organ.
Speaker 3 (45:02):
It's really hard to identify. But the seedhead really makes
it much easier for us. Yeah, it's more distinctive.
Speaker 2 (45:09):
Right, And so I always tell people, like, I've had
people bring in well I picked us a couple of
days ago.
Speaker 1 (45:14):
What is it?
Speaker 2 (45:14):
Well, it's dried out now, it's really shriveled up. You
can't see anything. Let's get a fresh sample or the
other thing. Looking at number three, I get people bring
in seed heads and not the rest of the blade.
That's not easy either.
Speaker 3 (45:28):
Bring the whole plan if you can.
Speaker 2 (45:30):
Yeah, So I think ultimately, ultimately what people want to
know is control.
Speaker 1 (45:35):
Right, what do I do?
Speaker 3 (45:37):
I don't like kill it? I don't like it. I
want to kill it.
Speaker 1 (45:40):
I want this beautiful, perfect lawn.
Speaker 2 (45:44):
So you know, I always like to tell people there's
really nothing except one option unless you're dealing with crab grass.
Speaker 1 (45:51):
Right, you're trying to kill a grass within a grass.
Speaker 3 (45:55):
Is it a perennial grass or an annual grass?
Speaker 2 (45:59):
Right?
Speaker 1 (45:59):
Does it ease pull out?
Speaker 3 (46:01):
Yeah? Like that's one way. How do I know? Well,
just how about pulled out. If it just pulls out,
then it's probably it probably Germany this year. Yeah, it's
probably an annual grass like crab grass. But if it
don pull out, like a big clump that don't pull out,
that's probably been around here for a while. So it's
a perennial grass, right, like quack grass.
Speaker 1 (46:25):
Or like that tall rescue. I see a lot of
people talk about in the clumps of the tall rescue.
Speaker 3 (46:30):
Yeah, tall rescue. Yeah, this time, your foxtail and barnyard
grass are annual grass. I can see those grasses. Oaks
got little like a foxtail, they say, like just a
little spurt of flower on top. That's an annual grass.
It's calm this time, yere. And when you say annual,
(46:52):
that means it lives for one year. That's it. So
frost it's got like forty days to live.
Speaker 2 (47:00):
Well, that's what you hear from people. I don't want
it to go to seed, right, Yeah.
Speaker 3 (47:03):
I don't want any annual grass, the crab grass or foxtail.
Just don't let it go to seed if you don't
like it. But but but it will die, the plant
will die. And then if if you're really if you
really got to have a one hundred percent you know,
blue grass lawn. There are crabgrass preventatives, you know fox
(47:25):
it's the same annual grass preventatives that you can apply
next spring early in spring pre emergence. It's like if
it's a perennial grass like quack grass, that's a different ballgame, right, Yeah,
whatever you do.
Speaker 1 (47:36):
You told me you only got one option out there.
Speaker 3 (47:40):
Yeah, pretty much.
Speaker 2 (47:41):
Yeah, Glyfa sates and so you hit any other grass
that grass is done for too.
Speaker 3 (47:48):
Yeah, you got to use a vegetation killer, like you said,
Glifo sate and the standard round up, you old fashioned
round up, and that's a that will kill every grass
down to the roots and all you have to do
a hand trigger job and just just get it on
the leaves, paint brush whatever, you know. So yeah, it's yeah, different,
(48:09):
But most of a lot of the grass questions just
tell me their annual grasses because they really start they've
kind of like just haven't really stood out, but now
they're going to seed, and so they're really starting to
stand out. Foxtail, barnyard grass, and of course crab grass.
It's a problem, but they'll be dead in a few ways.
They're on death roll. I say, they're just in there
(48:30):
on their lawn, ready to die. Got forty days to live,
just counting off the days.
Speaker 1 (48:36):
I say, just let it be right.
Speaker 3 (48:38):
Yeah, don't don't want to go to seed. Don't let
it go to seed. That's the that's the key. Yeah.
So yeah, well yeah, just don't want to go to seed.
If you can. I mean, if it's in your garden,
let's you know, let's hold it out. Yeah, let's do it,
do what we can. But it's not as troublesome as
like quack grass and those tall fescues and perennial grass.
(48:59):
They're big. That's that gets a little bit more dicey.
Speaker 1 (49:03):
Right, That's all I got for today.
Speaker 3 (49:06):
Yeah, it's good.
Speaker 2 (49:08):
No last minute pieces of wisdom for our audience.
Speaker 3 (49:13):
Well again, I would say, you know, things are phasing
out and are just be careful about watering, keep the
leaves dry. Yeah, the diseases are going nuts now. Harvest
on a regular basis.
Speaker 1 (49:25):
Not a lot of humidity in the mornings too.
Speaker 3 (49:27):
Yeah, right, and so you know, look out for that rust.
You know, like you said, I'm not in just kind
of what's being on lawns now. We're gonna start coming.
But proper watering is very important now and uh regular
harvesting and just enjoy you know, you know our barn
our grass has forty days before frost and we have
four days until frost, so enjoy these fall days before
(49:51):
the bitter cold winter sets in.
Speaker 1 (49:53):
That's right, I agree.
Speaker 3 (49:55):
And think about would be a good flag for North to.
Speaker 2 (49:58):
Courts start its own contest.
Speaker 1 (50:01):
Forget the variety trials. Next year we do a flag
flag contest.
Speaker 3 (50:09):
Just throw it out there.
Speaker 1 (50:10):
There you go.
Speaker 3 (50:11):
That's all I got.
Speaker 2 (50:12):
All right, Well, we just want to thank you, of
course for joining us today on our episode of Dakota Growing,
and as always, we hope you will join us in
our future episodes.
Speaker 1 (50:23):
Dakota Growing is a gardening show brought to you by
Dakota Media Access and NDSU Extension. We discuss a variety
of timely topics pertaining to your landscape, along with giving
you tips and advice for your lawn, garden and trees.
If you have questions, call seven oh one two two
one six eight sixty five or email NDSU dot Burley
(50:44):
dot Extension at NDSU dot com.
Speaker 2 (50:47):
Dakota Growing airs on Radio Access one O two point
five FM Community Access Channel twelve or six twelve HD,
or online at free tv dot org
Welcome to Dakota Growing.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
I'm Kelsey Decker, your horticulture agent here in Burley County,
joined in the radio Access studio by my co host
Tom called NDSU Extension Horticultures near not on the end
of August already?
Speaker 3 (00:39):
Yeah, so what so what days are summers over? Huh?
Speaker 1 (00:44):
Wow?
Speaker 3 (00:45):
Not coming? Why?
Speaker 1 (00:46):
But it feels like school starting?
Speaker 3 (00:49):
Yeah, school is starting. It's it's a good thing. It's
a good thing. Sports starting, Gardens, harvests going well, all
the things. Lots of good bountiful gardens. Yeah, good rains.
Gardens are good generally speaking, especially in Bismarck, Mandan. I
think they're doing good. And uh, it's all good. So
(01:14):
we got a lot to talk about today, you know,
so should get going.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
Let's get going. What's what we're getting started.
Speaker 3 (01:19):
With the title? My talk today is called Autumn blast
Bugs and bounty. Autumn blast bugs and bounty.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
There I didn't talk about how to be a bounty hunter,
that's right.
Speaker 3 (01:33):
I guess. How about the blast the smoke? No, this
is this rainstorm here?
Speaker 1 (01:40):
Oh that's a rainstorm.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
I didn't know if it was our Canadian wildfires going on.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
The smoke was bad last.
Speaker 3 (01:47):
Week it was a little bit.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
It's worse, come on, it has, but the air quality
it was like the one morning last week.
Speaker 3 (01:57):
Last week, the problem was the wildfires.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
No, you're right, it was a flooding.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
But the rain weekend, Yeah, we got like over three
inches of rain in some areas.
Speaker 3 (02:07):
Five Yeah, it was like monsoon time.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
I love seeing the videos the pictures that all made
the news. Oh well, like, didn't you think it was
unreal scene like cat scan machine, not a Sandford just
oh yeah, the rain pouring in over it.
Speaker 3 (02:26):
Yeah, that's why my wife works in the hospital, and
she said, like the basement was like the river flowing
in the basement. Wow, that's weird.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
And I got a town before came, so I didn't
have to deal with any like flooded areas and Bismarck
getting home or any of that. But not that I
think I would have. It was more of this like
downtown area, right.
Speaker 3 (02:49):
So it wasn't so bad at the Decker Ranch.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
No, you know, over the two days, I think we
had like two inches two and a half inches, so,
and nothing came down like overly abundant in a short
amount of time.
Speaker 3 (03:04):
I don't know, man, I was coming down pretty here
where I live. And now it's like it was like
it was like a monsoon, just like going back to
the good old days of Taiwan, you know, just like
wease get like ten inch of rain in one day. Yeah,
that kind of rain.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
Get out the kayaks, exactly, the canoes get to work.
Speaker 3 (03:22):
Yeah exactly. They say, well, you know, uh, just so
you know, the damn may birth tonight, so get ready
to make sure you have a suitcase packed so you
can escape. And that wasn't too fun. And of course
the weather reports in Chinese, so what the heck? Yeah,
I have no idea. What guys same, Oh my gosh,
(03:45):
that sounds terrible.
Speaker 2 (03:47):
Well, sometimes way they talk, yeah, sounds like they're screaming,
so you instantly panic, like what.
Speaker 3 (03:55):
Saying, like, okay, so when I go to bed tonight,
should I just keep my foot on the floor so
like when the water starts pouring into my place, I
can get I can scramble out before I die. So
they said, don't worry, we won't leave you. But that
was kind of oh, sort of good old days. Wow. No,
(04:16):
I think that one of the big the big news
recently is that huge trains. Yeah, I agree, Yeah, and
then what happened there was some damas to tomatoes. There
were cracking. Right, You get a sun burst of water
into that vine and it just pops open those tomatoes,
like those cherry tomaos especially. Could you hear the popping?
Speaker 2 (04:36):
You know again, I don't grow the tomatoes. At my point,
YE hate tomato, not a tomato lover.
Speaker 3 (04:43):
That was terrible. Ah, but that's what you can do.
Just just pull off those cherry tomatoes and the next one,
next group will come along. They'll be fine. And here's
a picture in Bismark. I went on to this landscape
about a year ago, and this guy, I think you're
on break that time. You were on break for about
a you're taking a vacation or something.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
Oh yeah, last year I had to do some continuing
education for my teaching license, so I was I was
out on a little I wasn't called VAKA, but I
was still in Bismarck, just learning all about the league.
Speaker 3 (05:17):
Night industry really to do with teaching, you.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
Know, it's just one of those continued ads, especially with education.
Speaker 3 (05:27):
Education. That's interesting. We annyhow I had to do with
some of your job at that time. Until this person
called me, says Tom, I like, all my plants are
dying underway there. Well, but it wasn't you know. This
is this is the day of the after the flooding.
This is the recent picture.
Speaker 1 (05:48):
Like oh last week, Oh you went over in that area.
Speaker 3 (05:51):
This was a year ago. I went out there and
I said, you know what, you don't really realize it,
but all your neighbors are there. You are just draining
into this area where you can't grow anything. So it
doesn't look wet now, but it's I bet there's like
in the winter when when you get the snow milk.
I bet you got to drainage issue. So we got
(06:12):
to pick plants and to that can tolerate flooding. And
he had plants that that that could not tolerate flooding.
They were dying.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
Now what do we got there?
Speaker 2 (06:21):
A deciduous tree looks like it's just raising its hand
like it's drowning.
Speaker 3 (06:26):
Well, yeh, that guy's not happy. Yeah, he's kind of
like drowning. Actually that's a good way to say it,
because but it's like not really drowning, it's just kind
of it's kind of like, uh, my kid in the
five foot area, very uncomfortable, but not going to die because,
(06:48):
like you know, you have to worry about like if
you have extended uh rains, like, but almost every tree
or shrub can tolerate up to a week of flooded conditions.
It's when it's when you get two, three, four weeks
of continuous flooding that some plants can't deal with it anyhow.
(07:10):
So yeah, he showed me that he took a picture
of this after the rainfalls. God time, this is just
so right, It's exactly the way it's going. And so
luckily I did tell them about some plants that do
tolerate flooding, and so just let's just talk about a
few of these, Like here's a red twig dogwood, and
we often see that, like when I drive in the ditches,
(07:31):
you can see these dog woods. Dogwoods can take moist
so they can take three weeks of flooding no problem.
And then among other trees, elms and hackberries are very
tolerant of flooding. Cottonwoods and willows, cottonwoods and wheels are
among the most tolerant the problems. Cottonwoods, those trees get
pretty big, you're like seventy five foot trees and of those,
(07:52):
so that's kind of big to have in a home landscape,
so you got to be careful. People like cottonwood because
they grow fast, but in the long run, those those
trees get pretty cumongous. And willows, I generally don't recommend
a weeping willow in a home landscape, even though they
can take flooding conditions that the wood is weak, and uh,
(08:13):
that willow, you don't want that near your house because
it's just gonna some day you're gonna have bad news.
Speaker 2 (08:19):
We had a willow growing up. It was our good
climbing tree right in front. Yeah, I had a nice
good branch and we'd climb up and hang off of
and then sit up on top.
Speaker 1 (08:32):
No time, no, not how I broke my arm either.
Speaker 2 (08:40):
So but I did hear No tell me if you've
ever heard this, because like I went to a training
this spring, and there was like some foresters there and
they said with like cottonwoods that they actually need like
a almost like a spring flooding to really have that
longevity with them.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
Have you ever heard of that.
Speaker 3 (09:03):
I haven't heard that, but I can see, you know
kind of what they're in the poplar family, and unless
you're in the right situation, they're not going to have
a long life, but right, But yeah, I can see
what they're saying. I would believe the forester when he said.
Speaker 1 (09:22):
That, Yeah, like they were.
Speaker 3 (09:24):
It was it was.
Speaker 2 (09:26):
It was a topic of like all the conon was
down by the river that are dying and they said
that's part of the reason they're dying off is because
they don't get that flooding like they used to years ago.
But in my mind, I was like, okay, well, kind
of comparing it to my place, we have a low
spot that it's not it wasn't a low spot to start,
but it's like where we dug out dirt when we
(09:48):
put our barn in and everything like that, so it's
kind of like a damash area but it doesn't hold water.
But every spring then it gets really full and we've
had again have any trees on our place. But there's
a conwood up the hill from our place. The thing
is full of conwood trees down there now, just crazy.
So some seeds must have gotten down there and they're
(10:10):
just taken off. Yeah, so made me think of that
because I'm like, yeah, every spring when the snow melts,
that's the first area to flood.
Speaker 3 (10:20):
Heard that before, but I believe it. I believe foresters. Yeah. Interesting, Okay,
so some plants will not tolerate flooding. Evergreens, evergreens, that's right,
like junipers, pines, and spruces.
Speaker 1 (10:36):
All those lilacs too.
Speaker 3 (10:38):
Yeah, you see, that's the one that's really kind of
interesting to me because lilacs are so long lived that
they can live one hundred years. But they just can't
take a wet condition. They that's that's their achilles heel.
They just can't take it. And linens are another one
that if you get more than a week of straight flooding,
you got some you could have some issues. But your
(11:00):
evergreens are tough. They're really tough when it comes to footing.
Or say they're not tough, I don't see. They have
a hard time when it comes to flooding.
Speaker 1 (11:08):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (11:09):
Probably. Arborvity is one of the most tolerant for moist soil.
But I'm not crazy about Arborvity because he had wind
damaged so bad.
Speaker 2 (11:18):
Well, and if you remember, I think it was like
two years ago, I talked to you about some lilocks
that the gentleman I actually just told him to contact
you for a second opinion. But he lived out by you, Mary,
and there was like an area that kind of had
like a quick run through and he would near your
gate through there and he's like told me, he's he
(11:39):
can't understand why he can't get lilocks to girl. He's
been doing it for ten years. But he ran his
sprinklers every day, eight hours a day.
Speaker 3 (11:47):
On top of it, oh, just to get him to grow.
Speaker 1 (11:50):
Like just you're gaining his lawn and his plants.
Speaker 3 (11:53):
And I'm like the eight hours a day.
Speaker 1 (11:55):
Eight hours a day lilocks were that's amazing. Drowning.
Speaker 3 (12:00):
I was like, like a Paddy rice Field.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
Home rice seeds.
Speaker 3 (12:07):
Wow, that's crazy. Well I would tell them next time
track dogwoods.
Speaker 1 (12:12):
Yeah, but I just told wa, Yeah, how we just
do water like that.
Speaker 3 (12:17):
That's a good idea. Yeah, lightlacs can't take wet feet,
just keep them. And also a lot of fruit trees
cannot take flooding, right, so stay away from that. Okay,
I'm gonna shift gears. That's I'm done with the blasts,
the autumn blasts. We're done with that. Now here's one
thing I want everybody to get a heads up about
sewing lawn seed because right now, like today's August twentieth,
(12:37):
right now in the window of the best time to
sew lawn seed, and that's that's from now until September fifteenth.
Once it gets past September fifteenth, we worry about the
lawn seed isn't going to get established in time before winter.
But now it's a great time, and that's because soil
is warm, and because it soils warm, the seeds are
going to Germany quickly. Also, there's a less concerned about
(13:00):
weed seeds Germany now because whenever you disturbed the soil,
the weed seeds can be stimulated to Germany, but their
weeds are kind of smart and they won't Germany. They
don't want to Germany in the fall because they know
they're not gonna make it so, but if you disturb
the soil in the spring, they will Germany. So if
we put our launcheted now, we have a less worry
(13:21):
about the weed seeds coming up. And also the attempts
will eventually cool off.
Speaker 1 (13:27):
They did though a couple of weeks ago.
Speaker 4 (13:29):
Our western back to normal now, but it's going to
cool off and there's less eat moisture stress on our
young long then.
Speaker 3 (13:41):
So if you want to soil, long seat, and now
it's a really good time to get going on it.
Make sure your seed is from a northern source. Also,
just don't plant one type of grass. You want a
blend of different grasses. And also within the grasses, you
want a blend of varieties. Like let's say I want
Kentucky bluegrass and find and fascue, but also I want
(14:02):
to have a couple of varieties of Kentucky bluegrass and
a couple of varieties of fine fascue, just in case.
Some varieties are more tolerant of disease than others, some
are more hardy than others. So don't put all your
eggs in one basket. They get a blend of varieties.
And so this this reminds you of we talked about
this situation earlier this spring. This was a pur This
(14:26):
is uh shown Here is a field where it was
a garden last year and they want to trend to turf,
and so they sold grassy there and they said, my god,
this is the greatest lawn ever last summer. But then
it all died over winter, and they wondered it was
a disease. But no, when they when I asked them
what type of seed did they plant. And they got
(14:48):
a type of seed from Kentucky and it was marginally hardy,
and they only had one variety, one type of a
Kentucky tall rescue, and so they put all their eggs
in one basket and then they drop the basket and
it just everything ded. So don't do that. Get your
seats from a northern source and get a blend of grasses.
(15:10):
So most most of us have a sunny and shady areas,
and so I like to have a blend of Kentucky
bluegrass starting with that's that's the dominant seed for lawns
in North Dakota. It thrives in the sun, and it's cold, hardy,
and it's we're tolerant, it's tough, and it's also it's
(15:30):
a high quality, beautiful lawn that's easy to walk on
and a pleasure to play on and find fascues.
Speaker 2 (15:38):
You know.
Speaker 3 (15:38):
The one drawback about a bluegrass is it can't take
shade and it can't take salt. So that's one thing
that a fine fascue, a finely fascue can do. And
that's like the creeping red chewings, red and hard fescus.
They tolerate shade and salt. So like if you've got
a home lawn it has some shady areas, like near
the house. The blend you'll find is that the you
(16:00):
put in that blend, the bluegrass will do great in
the sun. But you'll notice that the underneath the trees
near the house you'll see is very skinny leaf grasses.
Those are the fine fascues that are taking off there.
Fine fascus are also low maintenance, so they don't have
to be modus often. And the last type of grass
seed that I like to see in a mix is
perennial rye grass. Perennial rye grass, and that's because it
(16:24):
germinates so quickly, Because I bluegrass can take three weeks
to germinate, and so that's a long time to keep
your soil exposed. So the nice thing about rye grass,
it'll just pop out of the ground within three to
five days, and so it stabilizes the ground and it'll
nurse the bluegrass along. But the rye grass is weak
and not hearty, so it will die off over a
(16:47):
few years and then but then the bluegrass is established
and it can take off. So I like a blend
of Kentucky bluegrass, a type of fine fascue and a
little bit of perennial rye grass in the mix. For that,
look for a blend of grass types. And there's a
couple other unusual alternative grass types, a turf type tall fascue,
(17:10):
and cress and wheat grass. These type of grasses are
more drought tolerant. They're bunch grasses, but they get you know,
so if you if let's say you got like two
acres of plants and you don't say, like, no way,
am I ever going to irrigate it, then maybe like
a turf type tall fescu, you make sure it's a
turf type. Or I've got like crested wheat grass on
(17:31):
my property, so they're they're very drought tolerant, but the
promise are coarse and like my kids would never want
to play on that crested wheat grass. But if you're
just gonna look at it, that's something to think about.
And the other type of grass that's an alternative is
buffalo grass. Buffalo grass is a low growing grass and
it's it's a warm season grass, so it's the you'll
(17:55):
have the best looking lawn in the summer. The problem
is it only grows well in the warm temperatures, so
you'll have the ugliest looking lawn for eight other months
of the year. But it's low meanness. So those are
different types of grasses. There you go, So now the
time to do it. Do it? Okay, Now when we
talk about some bugs that are active right now, and
(18:17):
this is a field of canola, is that that's one
of the coolest sights as a as a false North
Dakota and I'm not a real North Dakota and I
never when I saw canola fields, I go, wow, that's
like amazing. That yellow is so bright and pure.
Speaker 1 (18:37):
Except they stink.
Speaker 3 (18:39):
Well, I'm just driving, I'm not smelling.
Speaker 1 (18:41):
I'm not actually they like they stink.
Speaker 2 (18:44):
It reminds me if you've ever been like, yeah, if
you've ever been to like a pig barn or a
pig farm.
Speaker 3 (18:50):
Oh yeah, of course, man, they.
Speaker 2 (18:51):
Stinky, but the beauty is there.
Speaker 3 (18:55):
Wow. Comes, that's like the tobacco field when I lived
in Virginia. You drive through those tobacco towns when they're
smoking the tobacco.
Speaker 1 (19:06):
Kind of nice, kind of nice.
Speaker 3 (19:08):
Not canola, I guess smells. Do you know what this
surrounds you? This picture with the sky and the blue
and the yellow. This is the Ukraine flag. That's how
they that's what the Ukraine flag is, you know. But
it's not smelly canola. It's wheat. That's what when you
see a Ukraine flag. It's the sky on the top
and the wheat on the bottom. I'm here to fun fat.
(19:34):
Do you like flags?
Speaker 1 (19:36):
Yeah? I mean I have an American flag up at
our place.
Speaker 3 (19:39):
How about the North Kota flag.
Speaker 1 (19:41):
I haven't had that yet, but.
Speaker 3 (19:43):
Yeah, I don't really like the North Dkota flag. As
an outsider, have to say, it's kind of.
Speaker 2 (19:48):
How about since your Minnesota, what's your thoughts that the
new Minnesota flag?
Speaker 3 (19:52):
You know, Minnesota used to have a flag a lot
like the North Dakota flag. It's like the boring coat
of arms arms. Yeah, and so uh, I don't like
that style because it's too hard to see from a distance.
All I know is the coat of arms. I don't
even know what's on that coat of arms, and it's
just like a probably a farmer or maybe a Native American.
Speaker 1 (20:14):
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (20:14):
I don't even know what's on it. Maybe there's a
prairie dog. I don't know what the heck's on that flag,
you know, But I like a more symbolic like I
like to like, let's see the Alaska flag that has
to the north star. You know, a kid designed that.
A grade school had had a contest, and a grade
school kid designed their state flag. He just liked the
(20:35):
north star, and so we had that. You know, what
do you call it? Big dipper?
Speaker 4 (20:39):
Ye?
Speaker 3 (20:39):
And so now to me, that's it. I like that
kind of flag, a symbolic one and simple and also simple.
So Minnesota's got a new flag, and you know, I
pay attention to the Minneso a little bit because that's
my home state. It's kind of weird they hit they
had a bunch. They hit a contest. Yeah, and they
had like six finalists, and I guess that the persons
(21:02):
who made the decisions they said we're not going to
accept any of them, and they just went and just
did their own.
Speaker 1 (21:08):
I know.
Speaker 3 (21:09):
That's kind of weird.
Speaker 1 (21:09):
It's kind of controversial.
Speaker 3 (21:11):
Yeah, it didn't make no sense, like they have a
real contest, and then they picked the finalist and then
they just throw out all sorry, none you good? None,
are you good? We don't want to go there. I'm
never going back there. Let's just say that we're learning
all about Minifornia right now. I have nothing to do
(21:34):
with that place. Oh man, I just lost half audience. Anyhow, whatever,
I tell the truth. But I like the I like
the idea that they made. They had a simple flag,
and so I would I would support North d Quota
have a contest and and have like, you know, like
a you know, maybe like a prairie and sky and buffalo. Yeah,
(21:59):
why don't mean it's got a buffalo on theirs. But
so we have to be different, but maybe a buffalo, Yeah,
maybe some type of buffalo. Got to keep it simple
and just a few colors. Sometime sometimes people all cross
and age. Oh yeah, that's that's why I like that,
you know, maybe green or something.
Speaker 2 (22:19):
So I think we're gonna just say, why do a contest.
There's nothing wrong with the flag.
Speaker 3 (22:25):
I just told you I don't like her flag, alright,
I'm just telling you it's a boring flag, That's what
I'm saying. Okay, it's just me. Forget about me anyhow.
What happens when a stinky canola is is harvested, The
flea beatles get hung They're still hungry, so they come
(22:46):
in black swarms. I would not put flea beatles on
our state flag, by the way, I would not do that.
But it's amazing black storms can come in just in hundreds.
It's our most devastating past of the fall.
Speaker 1 (23:00):
Isn't that what in like Winnie the Pooh, rabbits always.
Speaker 3 (23:03):
Battling fleet beetles.
Speaker 2 (23:05):
They flea beetles. They come in swarms and they eat
up all his garden.
Speaker 3 (23:09):
Oh it's probably.
Speaker 1 (23:11):
Yes, beatles, the carrots.
Speaker 3 (23:13):
Shirts, I guess could be.
Speaker 1 (23:16):
I'm gonna look more into that now. Is that just
made me think of that?
Speaker 3 (23:19):
There you go. Well, if I was rabbit and I
had flea beetles, well you know it's a shothold damage
and flea beetles are they can kill a plant when
it's young, but now the plants are established, they just
ravage it. But there's lots that insecticides that Rabbit and
Winny of the pool can use to kill flea beetles,
like pyreethoids and that that's like a garden Tech seven
(23:43):
or bone Eyed eight. And if you're want organic, I
think Spino said is a good one to use for
flea beetles. So so just be on the lookout for them,
those flea beetles. They can be ravaging. Or you can
use floating roll covers if you're another organic option. Here's
a picture of a Virginia creeper vine that someone shared
(24:04):
with me last week, and it's like full these little
white dots in it. And that's if you look close,
that's where insects are puncturing or piercing the LEAs and
sucking the green sap out of the green corefield. So
this is like, this is a Virginia creeper leaf hopper
which is active right now on a Virginia creeper and
grape vines. There. You go, look how much leaves. It
(24:27):
just devastated it. They were just and finding the north
and there's white bugs and that's what the leaf hoppers
looked like. They're just puncturing and sucking. So what are
you gonna do with this?
Speaker 2 (24:37):
Guy?
Speaker 3 (24:38):
Still got life in that plant? You didn't It didn't die.
You got healthy leaves in the top and the bottom.
So I think what I do here since it's so
weak in the middle, I try to just trend this
whole plant down to the near the ground level. Do
that in the winter, like March or April, and since
it's got a full root system, it should rebound nicely
and just rejuvening itself. But being a lookout for rose
(25:02):
leaf hoppers. And the reason one of the reason I'm
talking about is just a highlight. Virginia creeper vine beautiful. Yeah,
it's got rich burgundy fall catt and it's got that palmate.
The leaves are like a palm, like like it's got
like seven fingers sticking out of a palm. It's probably
the most common vine in North Dakota. And it's for kids.
(25:24):
If you got kids, got a leaf project, leaf collecting project,
Virginia creepers, definitely got to add that to the collection.
That's what I always used. Virginia creeper.
Speaker 1 (25:34):
I was gonna say, I got the nice bright berries on.
Speaker 3 (25:36):
Them, yeah blue, but don't eat them. No, they're tock.
They can be mildy toxic. So they're like ox salic
oxalic acid. So you don't want that. So so don't
never eat any fruit unless your shirt's safe. So Virginia
creeper is mildy toxic berries, stay out of that. Okay,
that's the end of the bug talk. Now I'm gonna
(25:57):
talk about the bounty. Wrap it up here. Now is
the time to harvest a lot of vestments. Most vegetables
are pretty easy to figure out when the harvest, but
a lot of people are never know about when to
harvest onions, for sure. So harvest onions when half of
the tops have fallen over. And here's a picture of
a plant, and you see on the left all those
(26:17):
onion things have flopped over. All the plants have flopped over.
But down the right, those aren't ready because those plants
are still erect. They're still turgid and up, so they're
not ready to harvest yet. Okay, there's one that's flopped
over and one that hasn't. So the plants will naturally
tell you when they're ready when the next starts to
dry and flop over, and then when they're ready to harvest,
(26:41):
and when you harvest them up with your spade fork,
then you can Usually it's hot this time year, and
usually it's dry, so if the weather's going to be
eighties and dry, you can just let them out in
the field for a week and when i'm cure. But
if RAN's expected, you know you want to harvest in
and put them in a dry place. Like in the
garage and keep it warm if you can, like in
the eighties, is best. And then they're ready to store.
(27:04):
And I like the storm in a mesh bag when
the next are dry and the outer skin starts to rustle,
and onions like a cool, dry situation. So that's a
deal with onions. So the onions look to see him
flop something else. Sometimes onions bloom, and that's because an
onion plant's kind of weird. An onion plant actually lives
(27:24):
for two years. Okay, the first year it just forms
a bulb. It doesn't form a seed stock. But the
second year, after it gets a little winter temperature, the
second year you'll send up a seed stalk and then
the whole The reason why a plant develops the bulb
is to provide food for the seed stock. So that's
(27:47):
why an onion has a bulb to make a seed stock. Now,
if you plant onion sets, those plants are already like
a year old, and so then when you plant them
there they will they can bloom the secon that you're
in the garden. So if you see an onion plant
that's blooming, that's the first one you should harvest. Because
when plants start to bloom. The bulbs are done growing.
(28:10):
Now the bulb energy is going up into the seedstock,
and also the bulb starts to decompose because it's draining
itself out. So anything that when you see an onion
onion bloom, you should that's it. You should harvest those guys,
got it joke? Onions I do better than canoes, So
for sure, there you go. How about cannl ope? You
(28:33):
like candle?
Speaker 1 (28:34):
I do like candle me too?
Speaker 3 (28:37):
Yep? How can you tell in a can hop shripe?
Most cannibal varieties, the normal ones are so easy to tell,
and the fruit will get a little bit of a
gold tint. But all I gotta do is tug at
that stem end. And this is what we call the
half slip stage, and that when you tug it up,
(28:58):
half of it will rip off, but the other half
it will naturally come off. The rest you have to
rip off. And so that's what a commercial grower will use,
the half slip stage. It just you just gently tugget
about half of the stem comes off and then they
yanked the rest off, and that melon will ripen off
(29:18):
the vine. But for a garden, I like the full
slip stage where you just naturally tug it a little
bit and it just all comes off. That means it's
fully ripe and has its maximum flavor ready for eating. Huh,
you got it. I remember for my master's I was
a plant breeding expert Burpie Seed company. Oh and my
(29:42):
trial was on cannilopes. So I developed cannle price we
made to cover our program made to cover a burpie seed.
Speaker 1 (29:48):
Kettlegy you develop.
Speaker 3 (29:50):
Well, it's a very famous one. It lasted about three
years before it was pulled. It's called honey bush. It
was a cannop that grew in a short vine.
Speaker 4 (30:00):
Ok.
Speaker 3 (30:00):
So it's like people wanted to grow on a patio. Yeah,
it was a stupid idea. So the problem it had
like all the leaves of a normal viole, but they
would just squish them all together. But it was like
just a giant bush that had no air, and so
it's so susceptible to disease. And then I went about business.
(30:21):
I had some great hybrids that I developed for Berbie.
They were great, but they wanted to go with the cheap,
open pollinated variety and it was okay. Yeah, but as
I say, it made the cover but then it was
like it was like, what do you call us? A
one hit wonder? After three years it was all out
(30:43):
of the catalog and it's never come back. I agree
that rady they picked was terrible, but and who wants
to grow canup on a short If I want to
grow can up on a patio anyhow, it's with a
stupid concept. But I got my degree out of it,
so that's all that matter.
Speaker 1 (31:01):
A win win.
Speaker 3 (31:02):
But the reason why I get minded, it's my lord.
I ate a thousand CANDWHP that summer. I tested over
one hundred. I made a hundred different varieties, and I
would just I had a test taste every one of them.
Today I had like a million candle No. I literally
ate a thousand can of w opes that summer. So
(31:22):
that was like that was a lot.
Speaker 1 (31:25):
Do you eat it today?
Speaker 3 (31:26):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (31:26):
Sure, oh you do.
Speaker 3 (31:28):
I'm old. I was like, heck, that was like thirty
forty years ago. I can barely remember that, but it
was it didn't scar my life to scarred. I didn't
want to can up for five years, but after that
I was over bad because I like candle op It
was a good trial. I mean, if I could do
a trial on candle ope or a trial in Okra
or Swiss chart. I would take candle op like, would
(31:48):
you do a trial on tomatoes?
Speaker 1 (31:50):
What I know?
Speaker 3 (31:50):
Yeah, exactly, So I got lucky can Oope is a
good a good one Okra. I don't want to do
that trial. I don't want to eat a thousand fridays
of oprah. I mean, but everybody's got their own thing, okay, watermelons.
Watermelons are tricky to tell, and so one thing I
look for, like you can't dump everyone like thumb dumb thumb,
(32:11):
thumb dumb thumb.
Speaker 2 (32:12):
You know, just there's nothing worse than going to the
store and getting a mad watermelon.
Speaker 3 (32:17):
Yeah, so what you do Kelsey, Well, that's.
Speaker 1 (32:21):
It's a whole different topic.
Speaker 3 (32:22):
I know. Well, I look for the yellow on the
under side. That's a good sign that it's at least
half that's pretty right, not white. You want yellow or
gold on the under side. You can do that and
then you can try to dump them. But as a
grower in the garden, you look for these uh tendrils,
these like squirrely squiggly things pig tails next to the melon.
(32:43):
When that tendril is dry, brown and dry, that's a
sign that the melon's right. It's that's what growers. Do
you think growers are spending out there dumping a whole more.
They look at the tendril. There you go. Okay, now
here's I got this. This is a picture of a watermelon,
and I got this yesterday. Actually, prisons their watermelons never
(33:04):
get more than an inch big. So I said that, Well,
that's the promise. The flowers aren't being pollinated. That's the problem.
It's like a female watermelon flower has has a has a,
has a little fruit on it. And so if this
they're not being pollinated by beefs and the flowers only
(33:24):
good for a day, then it's just gonna wither away.
So that's what this guy had. Okay, I'm talking too
long today, Sorry about that.
Speaker 2 (33:31):
No good, good conversation, good topics.
Speaker 3 (33:35):
Okay, this watermelon is made. It it got pollinated. But
now is it gonna make for frost? And so that's
now we got our countdown a frost. So you should
get our frost the last week of September or first
week of October. So we got about forty days left.
So this melon, we say it takes forty to fifty
days from bloom to harvest, so I don't know if
that melon's gonna make it. But and same with peppers
(33:58):
and tomatoes, they're forty about fifty days about. But when
it comes to like winter squash and pumpkins, they take
two months from flower to harvest or longer. So if
you've got a baby pumpkin, it's not gonna make it.
So you can even you can even put pick it
off the vine if you want, so it doesn't take
energy off the vine. The winter squash and pumpkins aren't
(34:19):
gonna make it now. But the last thing is radishes
will make it. And so now this week is a
good time to plant rareises. Okay, that was a lot,
so I'm gonna ship here. I won't give you enough time.
Oh too much today, that's all good stories.
Speaker 1 (34:36):
We had fun facts there you go.
Speaker 3 (34:38):
I like Ukraine flag. Yeah, nothing to do with party room.
Too much flag talk.
Speaker 1 (34:43):
You know you kind of.
Speaker 2 (34:44):
I just had to start my presentation for today off
and again just before we get into like what's out
there that's depressing, just talking about I know.
Speaker 1 (34:56):
What ended with you today?
Speaker 3 (34:57):
What's depressing?
Speaker 2 (34:58):
Well, there's a lot of things, but first of I'm
just gonna say, Zinna's beautiful right now?
Speaker 1 (35:03):
Which loves zidas?
Speaker 3 (35:04):
Yeah, they grow, they're easy to grow.
Speaker 1 (35:06):
Fun pops of color. Gotta love good. Yeah, I haven't
noticed any, have you.
Speaker 3 (35:17):
Yeah, it should be a bad year for powder, but
there's the modern varieties now are showing resistance. The hybrids
in general resistant the best. The best hybrids have natural
resistance now to powder. Miller, that's so, But just don't
water from overhead, honestly, then they're gonna get that great powder.
Speaker 2 (35:35):
That's what I gotta say. What's been great about the rain?
I haven't had to like water my flower bit at
all at all. Let it be it's been great.
Speaker 4 (35:45):
All right.
Speaker 2 (35:46):
Well, first I'm gonna start off with a fun thing
that people always have questions about, lei chens lichens. Yeah,
that's what people always say, a lei chin once that
when you said them information spell it like it.
Speaker 1 (36:03):
So really what is it?
Speaker 2 (36:05):
This is just something that you're gonna see on trunks,
very popular and the bark. Also you can find it
on stones, especially if you're like by you know, like
lakes or anything like that. But it actually is a
fungus that's either got like an algae or bacteria with it.
But literally, this is nothing to worry about. It's non harmful.
(36:26):
I think it adds a little finesse to your trunk, right,
It's it a little characteristic because it comes in such
a variety of white greens, gray.
Speaker 1 (36:36):
Yeah, just it's characteristic. I think. Nothing, nothing to worry about.
Speaker 3 (36:42):
And it doesn't penetrate the bark.
Speaker 1 (36:44):
No, no, just let it be.
Speaker 2 (36:46):
So I had to this morning as I just like
we talked about the rain from last week, and literally
in the last couple of days, I just noticed this
not only at my place with a couple of cottonwoods
that I have, but the rust is back. We've seen
it last year and everything. So what do people usually
talk about. They talk about seeing that fall color, like, oh,
(37:09):
my tree is already turning color, you know, the brown,
dried up leaves, fallen leaves on the ground. Again, if
you're seeing it early enough and everything like that, you're
gonna notice that orange powder on the leaves. So this
is a picture of actually my dad's cottonwood tree, and
last night I happened to be over there and same
thing as last year's starting to brown up. Get up close,
(37:31):
you can see that rust on it. And like I said,
I have a cottonwood right right when you come in
my driveway and notice that on I think it was
Sunday or Saturday, I noticed that the rust was back in.
So I just tell people it's just relax, right, I like,
I like your quote.
Speaker 1 (37:51):
What is today's date.
Speaker 2 (37:53):
We're at the end of August, man, fall color's coming, right,
not spending time on that energy you have dress. I
got this one though, in the last couple of weeks too,
brown rot on plums, And I'll be honest, as a
(38:14):
horticulture agent, I was like, this is really neat because
kind of similar to that conwood rust is it had
all these powdery gray spores on the fruit and so
kind of looking more into brown rots.
Speaker 3 (38:28):
Is.
Speaker 2 (38:29):
It's not something I would say I get a lot
of questions on or anything.
Speaker 1 (38:32):
Like that throughout the year.
Speaker 2 (38:33):
But usually this like symptoms actually will start in the spring,
as like your brown spots on the blossoms, and so
a lot of times those blossoms that are gonna completely
turn brown and shrivel up. But you can also see
and I'll show you in the next picture a little
bit better of that, but you'll have this discolored bark
and it'll have drops of like that sticky oozing gum
(38:56):
that's gonna be between the disease and healthy. But then
two what happens is kind of like plumb pockets, those
fruit become mummified.
Speaker 1 (39:05):
So I don't know.
Speaker 2 (39:06):
To me, I was like, look at this, you got these,
You got this one that's starting to kind of shrivel up, right,
and then this nice plum plum no.
Speaker 1 (39:14):
Pun intendant there.
Speaker 2 (39:17):
So rate in this picture is if you look at
the bottom there, you can really see that oozing right
by the two plums that have the gray spores on them.
Speaker 1 (39:27):
So it's pretty easily spread.
Speaker 2 (39:29):
Can be spread by just the airborne spores can even
come from wild plum trees. But also your insects can
spread this, and so could pruners if you're not disinfecting.
So what do you think about, I'm only going to
prune in the dormant season.
Speaker 3 (39:47):
Yeah, not now you're not going to be spreading this.
Yeah it's unfortunate, but yeah it's a fungus. So that
means pun your plants in the winter get better air movement,
you know, less, you know less humidity that will reduce this.
Speaker 1 (40:03):
So kind of what to do about it.
Speaker 2 (40:04):
I would kind of compare it to almost like the
way you're gonna treat obviously fire blight, and this is
a destructive disease on your plums. Brun out those cankers.
There are fungra sizes available, but again most of the
time it's not gonna warrant the fungicide. You just want
to go ahead and like you said, amputates right.
Speaker 3 (40:25):
Amputated out, you know, pick off the fruits that are
infected and get the mommies out. That's a source for
the disease in the future. And so no mummies allowed.
Speaker 1 (40:39):
Yeah, no doubt. It's a good idea.
Speaker 2 (40:42):
I want to highlight one bug today and stuff, and
so that's bean leaf beetles.
Speaker 1 (40:49):
You've been getting any of these?
Speaker 3 (40:51):
I had a couple earlier this year.
Speaker 2 (40:54):
Yeah, I got this one recently. So you see getting
kind of the shotholes on on the leaves of the
green beans and then the beans themselves. Again, maybe that
bottom right picture isn't the best to see, but you
the one bean that they had in there, like you
can see it was eight a hole and then you
can see the sea just hanging out right there and stuff.
(41:15):
So what do we do about these guys, Well, you
got a scalp for that beetle. The best time that
they're gonna be active in that garden is gonna be
between noon and four. Also, just like any other insects,
we just got to tolerate them, right, So if you're
gonna maybe if you're gonna have more than twenty five
(41:36):
percent defoliation, then I would consider a pesticide. They're kind
of interesting because, I mean, from a distance, you might
confuse them with like a lady bug or something like that.
They're more orange and they're not going to have as
many dots.
Speaker 1 (41:50):
But you can look at that.
Speaker 3 (41:52):
Some lady bugs have no dots. Yeah, some have like
seventeen these. Some are black, some are red. There's like
so many different ladybugs. I thought you could count like
how old lady bug is by how many dots at all?
But that's not true.
Speaker 1 (42:09):
What did the dots signify.
Speaker 3 (42:10):
It's just a different species, just the way it is.
Some people have a lot of freckles, some people. You know,
it's like it's just the way it is. I mean,
but it's a species thing. Yeah, So I just thought
lady bugs are kind of I never knew there was
black lady bugs.
Speaker 1 (42:26):
And I didn't look.
Speaker 2 (42:27):
Far enough into this, but I'm pretty sure the bean
leaf beetles just have the four dots. I didn't see
any sep Okay.
Speaker 3 (42:35):
That's just what you mentioned ladybugs. But you know the
thing why I know it's not a ladybug. Ladybugs don't
eat the leaf. So what I see is I say,
oh my gosh, we'kay, what's going holy holy bean batman?
You know what's going on here? And that's like you
see it's holes and then you But I think the
weird thing is like when you check them out, they
(42:57):
like the afternoon. Yeah, they're like they just like give
me that. They like to get the little sunshine. And
so you go look for him in the afternoon. That's
kind of weird for a bug. And so but then
you see him on the other side and there you go, Okay, buddy,
now I see it. Now I know my enemy. So
then like you say, what, you can tolerate some leaf feeding,
(43:20):
but if it's more than twenty five percent to foliation,
you can say you've had enough, friend, And so I'm
going to kill you.
Speaker 2 (43:27):
Now what time of year? Like I mean, I kind
of thought obviously this person's seen it later. But what
time of year you think they first get in the gardens.
Speaker 3 (43:34):
Well, I think it's about a month ago. They were
caught there eating the lease. That's when he noticed they
go after the tender. And yeah, the most problem is
when the plants are young. Yeah, that's when the bean
seedlings are most you know, sensitive to defoliation, so that
they've been around for over a month.
Speaker 2 (43:51):
Yeah, yeah, so again getting towards the end of their
eating fast. Okay, last thing I'm gonna highlight, just to
keep our episode rolling here today.
Speaker 1 (44:05):
Grassy weeds. So I always get this question.
Speaker 2 (44:10):
I don't know how often people always wanting to know, well,
what is this?
Speaker 1 (44:14):
I don't like this clump. I don't know what it is.
Speaker 2 (44:16):
I don't like this type of wide blade or thin
blade grass in in my lawn. So really, you know,
there's a few things I have to tell people, is like, really,
to identify these you need that seed head.
Speaker 1 (44:31):
Grass is just very difficult.
Speaker 2 (44:33):
You got to look for that seed head that's going
to be more distinguish one of the distinguishing characteristics. You
also got to look at different parts of that grass,
the ocules, the leg yules, all the fun things, right.
Speaker 1 (44:47):
Yeah, pretty much.
Speaker 3 (44:54):
Get the oracles.
Speaker 1 (44:55):
What what's that?
Speaker 3 (44:57):
What's an oracle?
Speaker 1 (44:59):
That's an organ.
Speaker 3 (45:02):
It's really hard to identify. But the seedhead really makes
it much easier for us. Yeah, it's more distinctive.
Speaker 2 (45:09):
Right, And so I always tell people, like, I've had
people bring in well I picked us a couple of
days ago.
Speaker 1 (45:14):
What is it?
Speaker 2 (45:14):
Well, it's dried out now, it's really shriveled up. You
can't see anything. Let's get a fresh sample or the
other thing. Looking at number three, I get people bring
in seed heads and not the rest of the blade.
That's not easy either.
Speaker 3 (45:28):
Bring the whole plan if you can.
Speaker 2 (45:30):
Yeah, So I think ultimately, ultimately what people want to
know is control.
Speaker 1 (45:35):
Right, what do I do?
Speaker 3 (45:37):
I don't like kill it? I don't like it. I
want to kill it.
Speaker 1 (45:40):
I want this beautiful, perfect lawn.
Speaker 2 (45:44):
So you know, I always like to tell people there's
really nothing except one option unless you're dealing with crab grass.
Speaker 1 (45:51):
Right, you're trying to kill a grass within a grass.
Speaker 3 (45:55):
Is it a perennial grass or an annual grass?
Speaker 2 (45:59):
Right?
Speaker 1 (45:59):
Does it ease pull out?
Speaker 3 (46:01):
Yeah? Like that's one way. How do I know? Well,
just how about pulled out. If it just pulls out,
then it's probably it probably Germany this year. Yeah, it's
probably an annual grass like crab grass. But if it
don pull out, like a big clump that don't pull out,
that's probably been around here for a while. So it's
a perennial grass, right, like quack grass.
Speaker 1 (46:25):
Or like that tall rescue. I see a lot of
people talk about in the clumps of the tall rescue.
Speaker 3 (46:30):
Yeah, tall rescue. Yeah, this time, your foxtail and barnyard
grass are annual grass. I can see those grasses. Oaks
got little like a foxtail, they say, like just a
little spurt of flower on top. That's an annual grass.
It's calm this time, yere. And when you say annual,
(46:52):
that means it lives for one year. That's it. So
frost it's got like forty days to live.
Speaker 2 (47:00):
Well, that's what you hear from people. I don't want
it to go to seed, right, Yeah.
Speaker 3 (47:03):
I don't want any annual grass, the crab grass or foxtail.
Just don't let it go to seed if you don't
like it. But but but it will die, the plant
will die. And then if if you're really if you
really got to have a one hundred percent you know,
blue grass lawn. There are crabgrass preventatives, you know fox
(47:25):
it's the same annual grass preventatives that you can apply
next spring early in spring pre emergence. It's like if
it's a perennial grass like quack grass, that's a different ballgame, right, Yeah,
whatever you do.
Speaker 1 (47:36):
You told me you only got one option out there.
Speaker 3 (47:40):
Yeah, pretty much.
Speaker 2 (47:41):
Yeah, Glyfa sates and so you hit any other grass
that grass is done for too.
Speaker 3 (47:48):
Yeah, you got to use a vegetation killer, like you said,
Glifo sate and the standard round up, you old fashioned
round up, and that's a that will kill every grass
down to the roots and all you have to do
a hand trigger job and just just get it on
the leaves, paint brush whatever, you know. So yeah, it's yeah, different,
(48:09):
But most of a lot of the grass questions just
tell me their annual grasses because they really start they've
kind of like just haven't really stood out, but now
they're going to seed, and so they're really starting to
stand out. Foxtail, barnyard grass, and of course crab grass.
It's a problem, but they'll be dead in a few ways.
They're on death roll. I say, they're just in there
(48:30):
on their lawn, ready to die. Got forty days to live,
just counting off the days.
Speaker 1 (48:36):
I say, just let it be right.
Speaker 3 (48:38):
Yeah, don't don't want to go to seed. Don't let
it go to seed. That's the that's the key. Yeah.
So yeah, well yeah, just don't want to go to seed.
If you can. I mean, if it's in your garden,
let's you know, let's hold it out. Yeah, let's do it,
do what we can. But it's not as troublesome as
like quack grass and those tall fescues and perennial grass.
(48:59):
They're big. That's that gets a little bit more dicey.
Speaker 1 (49:03):
Right, That's all I got for today.
Speaker 3 (49:06):
Yeah, it's good.
Speaker 2 (49:08):
No last minute pieces of wisdom for our audience.
Speaker 3 (49:13):
Well again, I would say, you know, things are phasing
out and are just be careful about watering, keep the
leaves dry. Yeah, the diseases are going nuts now. Harvest
on a regular basis.
Speaker 1 (49:25):
Not a lot of humidity in the mornings too.
Speaker 3 (49:27):
Yeah, right, and so you know, look out for that rust.
You know, like you said, I'm not in just kind
of what's being on lawns now. We're gonna start coming.
But proper watering is very important now and uh regular
harvesting and just enjoy you know, you know our barn
our grass has forty days before frost and we have
four days until frost, so enjoy these fall days before
(49:51):
the bitter cold winter sets in.
Speaker 1 (49:53):
That's right, I agree.
Speaker 3 (49:55):
And think about would be a good flag for North to.
Speaker 2 (49:58):
Courts start its own contest.
Speaker 1 (50:01):
Forget the variety trials. Next year we do a flag
flag contest.
Speaker 3 (50:09):
Just throw it out there.
Speaker 1 (50:10):
There you go.
Speaker 3 (50:11):
That's all I got.
Speaker 2 (50:12):
All right, Well, we just want to thank you, of
course for joining us today on our episode of Dakota Growing,
and as always, we hope you will join us in
our future episodes.
Speaker 1 (50:23):
Dakota Growing is a gardening show brought to you by
Dakota Media Access and NDSU Extension. We discuss a variety
of timely topics pertaining to your landscape, along with giving
you tips and advice for your lawn, garden and trees.
If you have questions, call seven oh one two two
one six eight sixty five or email NDSU dot Burley
(50:44):
dot Extension at NDSU dot com.
Speaker 2 (50:47):
Dakota Growing airs on Radio Access one O two point
five FM Community Access Channel twelve or six twelve HD,
or online at free tv dot org
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