Dakota Growing Ep. 48 - 2024 Year-In-Review

Kelsey Deckert & Tom Kalb talk about 2024 and what going into 2025 looks like for gardening in North Dakota.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:23):
Welcome to Dakota Growing. I'm Kelsey Deckert, the horticulture agent
here in Burley County, joined in the radio access studio
by my co host Tom called NBSU Extension Horticulturists. How
are you doing today? Everything's great, Well, it wasn't great
to start.

Speaker 2 (00:38):
Yeah, a little bit icy out there.

Speaker 1 (00:40):
Yeah. Here we are December twenty third and freezing rain.

Speaker 2 (00:44):
Well, it could be a lot worse.

Speaker 1 (00:47):
We could be like the southwestern part of the state
in a drought, right, no snow, no moisture.

Speaker 2 (00:53):
That's right. Instead of rain, we could be you know,
the shovel rain. That's the one good thing I like
about rain. So I'm not complaining. And uh but we've
got a lot of stuff to talk about. Run on
the eve of the holidays, that's right. Set up for Christmas.

Speaker 1 (01:09):
Christmas is two days away, can't wait.

Speaker 2 (01:12):
Wow. Yeah, tomorrow's Christmas Eve. That's when. That's when my
kiddos open up the presents and uh yeah, it's gonna
be nice. As always.

Speaker 1 (01:22):
That's when we celebrated too, just me and the kids
and Jaden. So yeah, it'll be good.

Speaker 2 (01:29):
Yeah, it's good. We've got little kids. That's really special.
That's their eyes just burst open when they unwrap those presents,
and it's precious.

Speaker 1 (01:41):
It's very good.

Speaker 2 (01:43):
But it's always good to be with family. Okay, So
what we're gonna talk about. We're gonna talk about the
holidays a little bit, right I am.

Speaker 1 (01:49):
Yeah, I'm gonna talk a little bit about holiday plant
care later today, and what to do with the Christmas
tree A real.

Speaker 2 (01:57):
Lot on real life tree. Wowiday, many of them arend
these days.

Speaker 1 (02:03):
I don't know. I feel like, oh, no, we've talked
about this. No, but I do feel like I know
quite a few people who want that Christmas nostalgia with
a real tree.

Speaker 2 (02:17):
That's right, Okay, we'll talk about that. But we're gonna
get started about talking about twenty twenty.

Speaker 1 (02:22):
Four first, and what a year, well, a year.

Speaker 2 (02:26):
Review and I would call it it's the year of
the boar. That's the big history that happened in twenty
twenty four, and just the big picture here is that
now and you can see how the days are starting
to get longer now.

Speaker 1 (02:45):
Yeah, pass or in winter officially, but.

Speaker 2 (02:48):
I always say the best gardeners that I know are
more likely to be sixty years old, not sixteen. True,
And that's because every year is like a new learning experience.
That's why I think, you know, before we leap into
the new year, I think it's a good idea to
just like step aside for a minute and reflect on,

(03:11):
well we learned this year, And that's what I want
to share with you going through the months and some
important emphasize some important garden points that I learned this year.
So let's get started. January March. You remember about that
last year.

Speaker 1 (03:25):
It was beautiful, beautiful spring.

Speaker 2 (03:33):
Yeah, it's very warm and it was one of the
warmest Februaries, like the fourth warmest February ever across the state.
It's very warm and dry, not much snow, right, we
didn't have to didn't have to shovel. It was really remarkable.
The temperature is especial. But it's a drought map for

(03:55):
late in March. And how were hanging in the spring.
You can see by this this pitch, ye hear that
anything that's colored shows dry soil. So I circled in
grain area Bismarck, Mandan, and you see we were on
a few areas in the state where our soil was Okay,
it wasn't dry, but most of the state was at
least moderately dry. But then came springtime and man, it

(04:19):
got wet, and especially the day that alls got wet,
and especially in May. We had very wet in May,
and that delayed our plantings. I worked with the ballot.
I worked with hundreds of gardeners this year in our
home garden variety trials and we had a three hundred
and sixty five families provide results this year, and many

(04:43):
of the plantings were delayed right, and so the wet weather,
wean't get wet weather and spring, and the other thing
that always happens is we get more diseases in the spring.
And it was a great year for rust disease?

Speaker 1 (04:57):
Was it very much? Yeah, fungus?

Speaker 2 (05:00):
This was among us because the fungi they like humidity
and moisture. And so I curious see a picture of
a red ceedar or juniper and the orange tentacles that
spit out rust and they turned a lot of our
apple leaves rusty in color. And for me, this what
I learned about this is that again it emphasizes the

(05:23):
point that it's important to prune your food trees every year,
and like March is the perfect time and that because
if you prune the tree, you get more air and
sunlight in the canopy, and those trees suffered much less
from rust this year. So again one thing I learned
again emphasized don't get lazy on pruning. It helps the

(05:46):
prune and open up our canopy every springtime. Again, I
worked with lots of garters this year and our results
for the twenty twenty four trials, So if you're interested
in learning about other results of the North Dakota Home
Garden Variety trials like it was, google North Dakota Home
Garden Variety Trials and you can see what results and

(06:09):
the varieties that we recommend for twenty twenty five. And
one thing that we learned this year this is since
it was a wet spring, it's a great year to
test the seedling strength or the emergence, especially of super
sweet corn. And here's a picture of I took this

(06:30):
picture yesterday some super sweet corn next to some popcorn.
And what I'm trying to emphasize here with that pink
seed is the super sweet and you see how it's
all shrunken up. Super sweet corn seed just doesn't have
a lot of energy. There's not much starch in it,
because it's all emphasized on sugar. And so over the
years we've been doing these trials for like sixteen years

(06:53):
or so, I've noticed that a lot of our super
sweets won't germinate in springs like we had this year.
But there's been a lot of progress in recent years.
And so this recalls the emphasis on this point is
that when I look for a super sweet variety, I
got to read that catalog and it's got to say

(07:14):
it can germinate in cool, moist soils. That's the most
important thing. And your thing is it's not a sin
to put a fungicide protection around your seed. And generally
we I do that for the super sweet corn because
we'll get I'll get much better vigor that way, and
it'll survive the diseases in the soil. So just if

(07:36):
that's you know, just keep in mind that the fund
side can help. I usually I don't like messing around
with fungdicize because they're toxic and I work with a
lot of families, so it's rare that I use it.
But for super sweet corn, that's one really that's a
fairly weak vegetable that really benefits from the fundicide. So
consider that especially if the crop makes a difference for you.

(07:58):
You know, if you're just planting a role maybe it
doesn't matter, but if you're planting like an acre of corn,
it matters. And there are lots of varieties that have recently.
This is American Dream has done great and I like
the extra tender lines they're called. And this year we
found a new variety called Bolt that just bolted out
of the ground, did great in the cool, wet soil

(08:21):
and give us a great early crop. So look for Bolt.
That was a great Friday. And over the next couple
episodes we'll talk more about some of the best varietays
for North Dakota. So another thing we tried this year
was a seedless watermelon. Oh do you like seedless or
do you like to spit out the seeds?

Speaker 1 (08:42):
Oh? I think everybody right like seedless.

Speaker 2 (08:44):
I would hold that right.

Speaker 1 (08:46):
I mean, participate in the past watermelon trials and they delivered.

Speaker 2 (08:52):
You have like a seed spitting contest or anything. As
a kid, no, Oh, we used to do that and
then we'd spit it in the garden and the next
year we'd have seeds come up. Every But what I
learned about the super sweet is that we first year
we ever tried it because the seeds are so expensive.
You know, they're are like seventy cents each seed. It's

(09:14):
really extensive. Yeah, so I'm cheap. But this year I
had I had some research front, so let's do a
seedless trial. But a lot of our gardeners failed. And
that's because it's hard to grow seedless watermelon. The seed's
got to be started indoors and they got to have
at least eighty degrees swell temperature to Germany. So I'm

(09:37):
kind of learning to just I learned this year not
the really treasure growing my own seedless watermelon because it
probably will not work. Okay, A good thing about the
rain was there a few of grasshoppers this year? Do
you know what? Say?

Speaker 1 (09:55):
Yeah? I mean again, it depends on where you were at.
Like I said, I have some friends throughout the state
that again over in that like southwestern corner, they still
notice I'm quite quite a bit.

Speaker 2 (10:07):
But yeah, they get big there. Yeah they get shine grasshoppers,
But generally here like in Bismarck, Manda and we had
much less grasshoppers in the past, and I think that
had to do with the spring weather and because it
was wet and so the seed are the eggs were
kind of drowned out. There's a lot of that, and
also when the eggs were hatching, there could have been

(10:30):
a lot of drowning and diseases there. So that was
the benefit of the rain, was fewer hoppers. But what
I learned from this is that every year is different,
and I've got to monitor my garden. I got to
be on watch for whether whether it's hoppers or flea
beetles or whatever pest it is. I got to get
on that right away. So this was one benefit of

(10:51):
twenty twenty four, fewer hoppers. Okayn, After spring was over,
summer came, and I would say the summer this year
in twenty twenty for it was about as normal as
it gets. There was no extremes. We got rain every
now and then. It's never we never get enough rain
in North Dakota, I feel. But it was pretty much
normal rainfall and normal temperatures. So we had good crops

(11:13):
of cucumbers, and I would encourage people to try snacking cucumbers,
and I would encourage people to try roaming lettuce that
that's our most popular lettuce our trials and there's lots
of great heat resistant roaminge lettuce fridays like fusion and
blue rock, lots of good roamine out there. And tomatoes.

(11:33):
We did a tomato trillers here. People been asked me
to do airloom tomato trials, and so this year we
tried some two of the most popular heirlooms available here
in Bismarck Mandan, and that's Manitoba, which was developed in
Manitoba and Cheyenne, which a ndsu've wriady from about seventy
years ago or so. And what I learned from that

(11:57):
in twenty twenty four is that they will grow and
sometimes give you decent yields. But a lot of our
gardeners who did this trial, they just said, you know,
they would grow like what the early girls or more
modern varieties right next to it, and they would go,
why should we grow these heirlooms. There's like a lot

(12:17):
of the fruits get rotten on the vine, the yields
aren't that great. Blake becomes an issue several times. So
again it just reinforced that to me that heirlooms have
their limitations, and I don't care what the New York Times,
those New Yorker gardeners say they're just they're just lack

(12:41):
of vigor and the reliability of modern varieties. And so
again that's another another thing I learned this year, kind
of a weird thing about North Dakota tomatoes, these old
ones that were developed about seven years ago. I was
I was taught by a guy who really loved and says,
you know, you don't even have to stardom indoors. You
can just plant the seeds in the garden and you'll

(13:03):
get you'll get a crop. And that's because they were
developed in time where there wasn't many greenhouses, and so
the breeders made an emphasis on a seedling vigor and earliness.
And we had quite a few situations this year where
people failed at starting the seedlings and they planted the
seeds in the garden and they did get tomatoes, so

(13:25):
they were that is true, but you know, just not
that many.

Speaker 1 (13:27):
So a lot of gardeners this year told me like
it took forever for their tomatoes to ripen.

Speaker 2 (13:36):
Well, that's because people aren't patient usually that you know,
it takes time, but also it for the riping the
reddening to occur there's a window and a window of temperatures,
and it can't get too hot and can't get too cool.
So we want like room temperature in the seventies. That's

(13:57):
when the reddening gets going. If it gets into the
eighties or higher, things, oh it's warm. Everything should be accelerating.
But actually the red pigments kind of shut down. So
if it's too hot, then it's not gonna it's not
gonna ripen. But again, we did not have a remarkable
summer as far as temperatures, so I would say, these

(14:20):
guys just gotta be patient. So okay, One thing that
we did have a lot of this year was powdery
mildew with the moisture. And so what I learned from this, again,
I'm just trying to emphasize things that we learned in
twenty twenty four. And one thing I learned it's very
important to find varieties that naturally resist powdery mildew. And

(14:42):
there's lots of squash, summer squash and pumpkin varieties that
barely get any powdery mildew. So look for that when
you select your varieties. And I noticed this and this picture,
this guy's using drip irrigation So that's good because the
leaves stay dry and don't use overhead irrigation, otherwise the
leaves get wet and humid and powdery. Milda really loves

(15:06):
humid conditions. But look for We've got varieties that resist
this disease, so take advantage of it. Another thing that
I learned in the summer of twenty twenty four was
herbicide injury continues to be for me. It's the most
common question I get. I don't know. I know it's

(15:26):
common for you too, write. Yeah, it's everywhere you see
those curling tomato leaves. So again it kind of just emphasized,
like just the points we always emphasize is that, you know,
try to limit your sprays. Especially in the summertime you
get more impact, more effect sprays in the fall, get
a better kill them, and follow the label instructions carefully.

(15:50):
I know, like like a lot of people, like I'm
kind of like a lot of people, Like when I
skip by something like a model toy or something, I
don't need the the directions. I can do it and
all that, or like I can somebody get a new bicycle,
like I can fix it. I can fix that bisycle
up for it on needles instructions. But it really does

(16:10):
help with herbicides because there's there. It's really getting more complicated.
Now follow the recommended rate. If you're gonna spray your lawn,
only use chemicals that are registered for residential lawns. Don't
use your pasture herbicide on your lawn or it's gonna
it could damage your trees and grass. You know, wait

(16:32):
till the right temperature, like you don't want high temperatures
in the high eighties, Wait for calm conditions. Use a
heavy drop so you have less drift. All this can
help to reduce herbicide injury. You know, one thing that's
new in twenty twenty four is round up. Do you
know that round up? For forty years at the chemical

(16:55):
glyphosate glyphosate right, and that's amazing. That's a revolutionary chemical.
It's changed agriculture and food systems across the world. But
you know, if you go to the garden center in Bismark, Mandann,
you will get round up, the standard round the standard
round up going alone. All those new round ups. They
don't have glyphysate round up anymore. Round up Monsanto just says,

(17:18):
we don't need these lawsuits, so they phased oug glyphasates,
and so they've got a mixture of chemicals now that
they use. It does and you got to read the
label again because it's different. It can't be used near
edible crops now the standard round up and so that's
something that's something new again. And so there's changes going

(17:40):
on there, and I think like the general politics of
the situation is it's getting more anti herbicide I sense,
and just follow the instructions very carefully no matter what
you use, so we have fewer problems. One on one
thing I want to talk about in the flowers, is

(18:00):
you like.

Speaker 1 (18:01):
That huh Yeah, that's a beautiful pop of purple pink
where you go.

Speaker 2 (18:06):
That's a that's a Bennery's Giant that is like the
gold standard of cut flowers. And that's because it's as
sturdy stems and you see how full the flowers are.
It's a double petal type. You can barely see those
yellow anthers where the nectar comes from. And Bennery's Giant

(18:28):
generally has fewer disease prompts, although I see in this
photo I see a touch of powdery mildew on that
on the lower there, But you know what I learned about,
and Benny's giants done great in our North Dakota trials.
But what I learned this year is there's alternatives, and
I think there's a greater interest in growing flowers for
pollinators like bees. Right, and so where that that first

(18:51):
photo that we saw that had the purple? Where am
I going to get the next? That bead is not happy?
You like that, but it's the beautiful.

Speaker 1 (18:59):
It's just beautiful.

Speaker 2 (19:00):
That's because it's you. But if you're a bee, you go,
this thing is worthless. I got no food here, but
look at this ugly zenny a fault, barely any petals.
This is what I'm talking about, and this is what
a pollinator wants and their thing I learned about is
zenia mixes are often I really have done well in

(19:23):
our trials. So you can have like one big splash
of purple, but maybe you can have a different type
and maybe a dramatic impact by having a mix of
colors that complement each other, like this is the like
some warmer red and orange and bright yellow. This is
kind of reminds you of fruity beauty of variety that's
done well in our trials.

Speaker 1 (19:44):
Aren't those like the top colors too, that attract pollinators
right there?

Speaker 2 (19:49):
Yeah, you know what, that's a whole discussion. Yeah, but
you know what, I don't think they care. I don't know.
I don't think they cure that much. Probably everything except
for green. I think they'll go for it, my guess.
And that's why there's no green flowers. But I want
to talk just for a minute about these dessert mixes zinias,

(20:09):
because this has been really a huge discovery in our
trials the last two years. And these are flowers that
come in a mixture of semi double and doubles, so
they got the semi double even some maybe a few
singles in there too, where the nectar is readily available

(20:30):
and the pilloneers go nuts over this, And like as
I listen here, the dessert mixes like erry Tart has
a mix of red shades, blueberry cheesecake has a mixture
of purple and lavender and white and Fruity Beauty has
like orange and cherry and lemon color. Lemon Meringue has

(20:51):
yellow and lime green shades of zinias, and Peach Cobbler
is another nice one with the mixture of again the
orange and pink and so purple in there, and Strawberry
parfeit has a mixture of bright pink colors. And then
also some that aren't desserts but also done great in

(21:12):
our trials include Blushing Bride, which is pale pinks. People
really like that, even though it's not really intense color,
it's very pleasing and soothing. And then for bold colors,
Lava Lamp and South of the Border. So I'm emphasizing
these because if you're interested in a pollinator garden, you
know it's bentary giants are limited, and also they're expensive.

(21:37):
These dessert mixes, they are forty times cheaper than baneries
giant okay, And so I put these in our trials
and we're getting eighty to ninety percent of people who
grow it recommend them. So even though these seeds are
dirt cheap, they're they're not falling right to diseases, and

(22:01):
they're sturdy. They're get pretty tall, about three four feet
even four feet tall, but they can take the wind
and our gardeners love them. And so if you want
to put a pollinator garden, just don't put in a
few zenias. You can put in a whole bed of
zinias by by by scattering these seeds and plant them,
and you just be delighted. So that's a huge discovery

(22:22):
because usually for me, when I see seeds, they're dirt cheap,
they're worth about they're as good as dirt. They're just
pretty worthless. But these dessert mixes are people are marveling
over them. They're like, like, we have like fifty to
seventy gardeners across the state testing each one of these,
and again we're getting like eighty to ninety percent recommendations.

(22:45):
Almost nobody says they're bad.

Speaker 1 (22:48):
They talk about the amount of pollinators.

Speaker 2 (22:51):
Yes, they go nuts over it. That's what they dessert. Yes,
I don't know, you know, I thought was just because
the name that they called it, like berry tart, you know,
fruity beauty, peach cower, that's a dessert blueberry cheesecake. But yeah,
those pollinators go nuts. They actually they have said I

(23:15):
remember this one person had blueberry cheesecake. She says she's
never seen so many pollinators in her life going after them.
So that's why there's one thing about flowers I got
to talk about. That's really it's really a great discovery.
And so and affordable. You can make a big splash
and a big bed a zenius for almost no charts. Okay,

(23:37):
Now for the we talked about the year of the boar.
So over the summer we came the board. This we
got to talk about this just briefly. So this was
a historic year. The emerald ash board which has devastated,
you know, countless ass trees all throughout the Great Lake
States and into Minnesota, and it's South Dakota. It finally

(23:58):
came was discover detected in North Dakota. It's emerald ash
boards because that emerald green adult color in the summer.
The adults don't cause the problem. It's it's when it's
a caterpillar or larva, so that the green bugs lay
their eggs beneath the bark, and then the eggs hatch,
and then the eggs are the larva hatching and they

(24:19):
make these squiggly patterns, and these squiggly patterns beneath the bark,
they destroy the veins where the water and nutrients flow.
So by destroying the veins, the top of the trees
farthest away from the food in the water, so you
see dying back from the top. So people and how
can I tell again, Emerald dash Bar. One thing is
keep your eyes towards the top of the tree because

(24:41):
that's often where you'll see the first impact. And then
also you'll see a tremendous amount of suckering at the base.
That's not normal for an ash tree. But when a
tree is suffering, it has the responses I'm going to survive,
and so it sends up about a lot of suckers
at the ba. So that's that's how you can tell

(25:02):
this tree had it. And for me, Kelsey, I've seen
a lot of trees with Emerald Ashbourne, Minnesota, and to me,
this is the symbol that I can see as someone
who's not a total tree nut. I see this blonding
we call it. You see how the bark is kind
of scratched, the outer bark is damaged, and you see

(25:22):
the the reddish brown coloration of the bark, and that's
that's caused by woodpeckers. There they find that larva delicious
and when they find it, they start scraping into that
bark and finding it. So again I say, look for
that blonding. That's really a key factor to look for.

Speaker 1 (25:40):
So a lot of times with that blonding do you
see like the actual holes cause.

Speaker 2 (25:44):
From yes, speak of the devil right here, yeah, right here?
You see, that's what you see, the blonding and then
you can see the holes where the larva inside develops
into an adult and then the adult has to crawl
out because it wants to meet and it crawls out
in you know, like late spring, early summer, and so
you see these exit holes where the adults come out,

(26:06):
and so that's another symptom too. But okay, so what
do we do about Bismarck Man Dan I would say nothing,
just calm down, nothing to worry about that. We found
that in Edgeley in Lamore County. I can see this
man period I circled Lamore and that's about one hundred
thirty hundred and forty miles from where we are. And
they say that you don't need to be treating your

(26:28):
trees for Emerald ash boar, for sure, not unless that
the pass has been found within fifteen that's one five miles,
so fifteen miles, so it's not near us. It hasn't
been detected near us yet, So no need to panic,
no need to be spending money on injections. And that's

(26:49):
how you're going to end up doing it. That's the
most cost effective way to do it. Or you're not.
Can you swell drenches, Just calm down. We don't know
what's going to happen. You know, this is a hard
map here that I'm showing here, and the bluer areas
of the state are the warmest winters. And you can
see Lamour is a blue county only gets to be

(27:11):
like minus twenty minus twenty five and I saw an
Edgeley last winter was minus twenty two. That was the
coldest temperature, And so it's not surprising that a place
like Lamour would be one of the first places to
get it. But Bismark Mandan we're in the zone. We're
in four A, four A, four B and four A

(27:31):
means it gets to be like around minus thirty every
year and we rely on winter. It's one of the
most important ways that helps control insect activity in north
Court insect survivability. In coding emerald dash boar, it's not
a it's definitely not a fool proof control against emerald
dash bar, but a very cold winter can help to

(27:53):
kill off much of the emerald ashboar larvae that are
inside the tree now trying to survive. So what I
learned from this is I I don't care if I
get minus thirty. I want minus thirty for a week.
And that's what we had last mid January. And when
I get very cold weather, as long as my furnace

(28:14):
is working, I'm going to love it because that's going
to kill so many of the bugs. So a little
bit of cold weather is desired, you know.

Speaker 1 (28:23):
And those that are listening or even watching, we did
have our State forster on earlier this year when I
was detected, so more information in that episode as well
to learn about Emerald Dashbourn and not to panic, that's right.

Speaker 2 (28:38):
So you know all these all these shows are broadcast
and they're downloadable on Dakota Media Access off the internet
and Dakota Growing their show just by the way and
you can find it. You can find those episodes. And
Joe did an excellent job teaching us about Emerald Dashboard.
I just wanted to emphasize that because it was such
a historic thing this year. Right, Okay, just winding up fall,

(29:02):
very warm, like we had the warmest September in the
ever for North Dakota. Very warm. We had a real
late frost and it was dry. You can see these
leaves right dry on the edges. That's where that meant.
We had a long growing season, great for our watermelon crop,
and we had a lot of lost too late in

(29:23):
the year, so it was a warm, dry time. And
so my last sight here for the year is just soeing,
like it's been so dry in this fall that where
are we now as far as drought in Bismarck, Mandan
and I circled that. You see, we're kind of we're
right on the edge of moderately dry. So we're getting
right into trothy kitchen canity missed like in the Southwest,

(29:46):
how red it is, how dry it is, that's really
a big concern. So right now I'm a little bit
concerned that we're going to be heading into spring with
you know, dry soil, and that's you know, I just
have to see what happens. And I'm not complaining really
because I don't I don't know, I snow right now.
I don't mind if we have like neck while we

(30:06):
had this year, like it starts raining in April, that's beautiful.
I'm all for that. But it's a little bit dry
right now, so that's something to be aware of. So
with that, I it was a great twenty twenty fours
after that stupid bore. Oh we didn't need that. Otherwise.
It was a long growing season, a little challenging in spring,
but we got some rain. It was good year, and

(30:28):
I wish everybody of a happy holiday season. There you go.
That's my wrap up. I learned a lot in twenty
twenty four, but I got a lot more still to learn,
that's for sure.

Speaker 1 (30:39):
Well that's great, right, Yeah, that's great. Yeah. I think
you did a good job for viewing those and recapping
some of the major moments. And yeah, it was definitely
an interesting year with that mild winter and yeah and
all the things.

Speaker 2 (30:55):
So every year's a learning experience.

Speaker 1 (30:58):
That's right. Well, for today, I want to talk to
start off about some holiday plant care. Tis the season
you got it? Do you get gifted in the past? Gifted? Yeah?

Speaker 2 (31:11):
I got a point set of this year.

Speaker 1 (31:13):
All right, well color, it's.

Speaker 2 (31:15):
The standard red. It was a it was a very
proval gardener. It was like about uh six inch tall
points set out six leaves, six bracts, I should say,
but it made the point where you go I have
to say, uh, I'm in a Christmas cactus now more
than point set.

Speaker 1 (31:33):
That's your jam.

Speaker 2 (31:34):
Huh, that's my jam because points set is I know
you're gonna tell us how to care for it, but
I know I have points that it's going to go
into garbage in two months, whereas my Christmas cactus it's
gonna last years and years with minimal care. I'm a
Christmas cactus now, I'm a believer.

Speaker 1 (31:52):
Now, Okay, Well, I know in past episodes I've covered
this a little bit. I think it's been a couple
of years and stuff, but I still have to say
I think it is neat that they are to Mexico
and they can grow up to twelve feet and you know,
the internet something to see out there. And I remember
when we talked about this, like I said, it's been

(32:13):
a couple of years ago, and I was like, man,
seeing all these evergreen shrubs just with all the red
on them, they look so great. You're like, I've seen
them in real life and out they're great, and You're like,
they're these straggly looking things and they see this image
and I was like, this is what Tom's been.

Speaker 2 (32:30):
Yeah, because they drop all their lower leaves. That's how
they drop all their leaves and so all he sees
those red bracts on top. So it's a scragglial scrubby
brushy plant that has a flames on top of stems. Yeah,
but you know, but that's how I you know. That's
again it shows about science and they found they developed

(32:51):
varieties that will hold on to their leaves and have
dwarf plants that aren't ten feet tall and so some
modern science.

Speaker 1 (33:01):
Did you know that there is a National point Saturday.

Speaker 2 (33:06):
Well, there's a national everything in a National bonus Day.

Speaker 1 (33:10):
I did not know that this year that was something
new to be Uh what day was Joseph point Z born.

Speaker 2 (33:18):
It's probably December December first.

Speaker 1 (33:22):
Close, Nocember twelfth, Okay, there we go. Yeah, and I
guess Californias are top producing state for points at us.
And the one thing that.

Speaker 2 (33:31):
I feel like or plant perfect, plant perfect.

Speaker 1 (33:36):
Yes, yes, you can just walk through right, lots of colors.

Speaker 2 (33:43):
That's amazing.

Speaker 1 (33:44):
The one thing I want to mention though, is you
know a lot of people have the misbelief that they
are toxic. Worry about that they're not. I'm not toxic. Yeah,
some slight ear.

Speaker 2 (33:57):
Yeah, don't be eating app don't put them on your salad.

Speaker 1 (34:02):
But even they say, like they worry about them. With
cats and children, you really shouldn't have to worry. I
can't imagine a cat. I'm not an indoor cat person,
but I can't imagine a cat wanting to go and
chew on this.

Speaker 2 (34:15):
But yeah, what's the loss anyhow? Anyhow, as far as
kids go, no kids ever died from point set uh toxicity. Right,
and we talked about that's how the myth got started, right,
Hawaiian girl who died mysteriously. But don't worry about that.
But don't eat them. You just look at them, so
if you take care of them.

Speaker 1 (34:36):
If you had to pick, what would be your favorite color?
Are you red? I mean it's like nice people choose
the traditional red.

Speaker 2 (34:45):
I got like, you kind of got to picture those
those red primarily red with kind of some white spark
white patches in it, you like, you like radiant pink? Huh?

Speaker 1 (34:56):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (34:56):
Okay, So I.

Speaker 1 (34:58):
Actually was up in planting color couple of weeks ago,
and yeah, they had some pink ones. I was just like,
I'm used to seeing these white and red and then
you see the ones that have been sprayed with glitter.

Speaker 2 (35:10):
Yeah, all apps not natural.

Speaker 1 (35:13):
Was very very bold, very beautiful.

Speaker 2 (35:16):
Yeah, okay, hot pink.

Speaker 1 (35:19):
So since you got one, how have you been caring
for yours? Well?

Speaker 2 (35:23):
I pretty much ignored it, and since it was a
small one came in a small pot. But yesterday when
I woke up, I looked at it and it was
like I was doing a drought study on my point
set up. It was quite set and wilted, but I
knew what to do. And then is give a good
thorough drink of milk, warm water, you know, full take

(35:46):
off the foil.

Speaker 1 (35:48):
Yeah, that's a big key, because you don't.

Speaker 2 (35:49):
Want the plant to sit in water because it's going
to get rot. Took out the foil, give it a
good throat drink, and one hour later I was just
smiling back at me, thank you for we die. Thanks sir.
I don't know if it will kind of smirk it says,
what was that about? You know, don't do that again time,
you know, don't push it times. When I'm a scientist,

(36:10):
I like the torture plants. You know, let's see how
much suffering they can handle.

Speaker 1 (36:14):
And where do you have your points set off? Bring
all the bases here.

Speaker 2 (36:18):
It's it's got to have a sunny place. So I
got a I got a sunny kitchen, and uh it's
right there on the island there for all this to
marvel at. It's six inch beauty.

Speaker 1 (36:31):
Yeah, so you want it in a sunny place. That's
usually a south or like an east window. Sure, how
that like you said, don't torture it. Try but that's
not very to dry out. But not get to the
point of will.

Speaker 2 (36:47):
No, don't do that. That's never going to happen again.
I just got caught up in Christmas stuff, you know,
I got busy, I got what to do. You know,
I got a job, you know. But but okay, I
learned my lesson. That's another lesson I learned about year
twenty twenty four.

Speaker 1 (37:03):
There you go. Okay, so let's jump over to a
holiday cac di What do you like?

Speaker 2 (37:09):
You know that's really bright pink and I've got I've
got a red one and this year I got a
light one because my wife likes white. And I'll tell
you just quick story. I went to North Walmart. Well,
I went around looking for Christmas cactus and it was
it was uh, we can say that, okay, But I

(37:32):
just thought we got to have something that was before
we got the points Attus. So we had no, no,
nothing really going on. And our red cactus must be
Thanksgiving cactus because it's gone, it's done. I got a
white one and I went to a store that was
it was like as operated by drench. It was you

(37:53):
know why, because they had their points Attus and Christmas cactus. No,
they're there. It's like in I won't say, I won't
say it's it wasn't. It was a department big box
store and they had that.

Speaker 1 (38:10):
No, I didn't see a plan perfect oh did I?

Speaker 3 (38:17):
Oh that was to get some groceries, okay, But but
I did go to another store and man, they have
a they have a garden center outside, you know, big
garden center, and they just kept the garden center door
wide open.

Speaker 2 (38:33):
It's like ten degrees and these plants are like freezing
to death. Man. I was just so I could.

Speaker 1 (38:42):
Feel that pain on the shoulder. Hey, buddy, I'm.

Speaker 2 (38:45):
Not I'm not gonna. I'm just not. I'm not trouble maker.
I'm just kind of just But I did you like,
like they have like pet rescues, dog rescues, and so
I did a Christmas cactus rescue. I did a rescue
that was a good price, and uh lorter with white
buds and that thing that looks so special now and again,

(39:06):
the nice thing about a Christmas cactus it's it's there.
It's gonna be there for years, as long as they
don't you know, trash it or you know, ruin it.
But if I give it halfway decent care, I'm gonna
add that for years, it's gonna beautiful. It's not a
big Christmas cactus guy. Now.

Speaker 1 (39:25):
So I went up to the Baldwin Greenhouse.

Speaker 2 (39:28):
That's a great one too.

Speaker 1 (39:30):
Christmas cactus. And I'll be honest, I'm used to the
traditional pink that's in this photo and stuff, but like purple,
oh yeah, salmon.

Speaker 2 (39:39):
Oh yeah, I got salmon.

Speaker 1 (39:40):
Oh my gosh.

Speaker 2 (39:41):
I was like, okay, whatever you had differences, beautiful.

Speaker 1 (39:48):
I love it. I love it. So that was that, well,
maybe you're being green.

Speaker 2 (39:57):
I'm sorry. Yeah, bumbug, bumbug.

Speaker 1 (40:01):
I say, care for pretty easy.

Speaker 2 (40:04):
Because Holly, did you see.

Speaker 1 (40:06):
Huh how how easy?

Speaker 2 (40:09):
Oh how is he? How easier they carry Christmas cactus?

Speaker 1 (40:12):
Oh?

Speaker 2 (40:13):
Just just uh. The thing is it's so easy that
you just give it a sunny place and it's it's
native to the rainforest, so it's kind of different that
it wants some water and it's it's not a normal
type of desert cactus, so don't let it dry out
too much. I think it doesn't need any special care.
And it just I put it by a sunny window

(40:34):
in the fall and it gets the shorter nights and
it triggers the bloom and a little cool temps. It's easy.
You know, even my children will have this cactus. It's
so easy. That's how easy is to grow. Well, my
kids can grow.

Speaker 1 (40:49):
They do suggest fertilizing monthly from June to August. They're
supposed to help with that, give it some energy. Yep.
And so it does take about six weeks for it
of short days to rebloom. So it needs to, like
you said, for Christmas, temperatures probably down to more like
the fifties and then in twelve to fourteen hours of data.

Speaker 2 (41:12):
Well, heck, that's my an answer. Does that for North
Dakota pretty much worry about it, right, we got short
days here.

Speaker 1 (41:19):
Okay, here's the other one. I feel like this is
one of your time favorites, right, The AMMI so easy
to grow, fun gift, great gift to give to people
and stuff that picture right very So the one thing
that I've learned over the years from you is with
an Ammarillis, size does matter. You want a big jumble ball, right,

(41:42):
because then it's going to give you a nice big
bloom on that and not just smaller shorter.

Speaker 2 (41:48):
Yeah. Multiple stocks, yes, and it's more likely to bloom
and following years too.

Speaker 1 (41:54):
Yeah, you can keep that going. So the big thing
is is you do want to make sure to plant
them in like a heavier pot. You want to keep
about a third of that bab above the soil line.
I know over again over the years the articles you've
in and everything talk about jump starting that bob. So
just simply placing it like in a warm spot right

(42:14):
under like a seed starter matt or even an area
that like a radiator area, that will help it get going.
And then once it is blooming, you just want to
make sure to place that in a sunny window. You
will have to rotate that every few days because it'll
start to lean towards the sun, which I know I've

(42:35):
talked about in the past two So my succulents do
that in my office that I have to keep them rotating.
So as far as the post bloom care then is
you want to trim that stock down to a couple
inches from the base. You're going to water and fertilize
that regularly all summer. The foliage will begin to turn
yellow in the fall, indicating that that bulb is recharge

(42:58):
And so you can simply clip off the lead and
place that bulb in a dark spot for about eight
weeks and you'll get to read bloom success with that. No, no, okay.

Speaker 2 (43:09):
I'm very I just don't have much patience. I just
say forget it. Yeah, just the next plants that it
goes away quickly, but emphasize trem the stock, don't trim
the leave, okay, just trim the flower stock after it's bloom. No,
you got it perfect. But I just want to make

(43:30):
emphasize that, like, because because the plant needs those leaves
that bulb. After it blooms, the bulb's empty and it's
got to refill itself and that's what the leaves do.
So put up by a sunny window to get it recharged.
And I think it yelled it perfectly there. It can
work if you get a big bulb in the beginning.

Speaker 1 (43:51):
Okay, so last I want to talk about is oh
Christmas tree.

Speaker 2 (43:56):
So that's right.

Speaker 1 (43:58):
You know we've talked about in the past. I know
you're cheap. You like it, artificial tree that you don't
have to take care of. You've been with me for
what do you say, twenty years? Yep, twenty years. One
thing that I did find interesting is according to the
Arbor Day Foundation here, there's twenty five to thirty million

(44:20):
live Christmas trees that are sold in the US.

Speaker 2 (44:23):
So I heard I heard this. I read an oracle
this year that the trees are getting skinnier. Oh, because
the house is getting smaller.

Speaker 1 (44:32):
The house is getting smaller.

Speaker 2 (44:34):
Yeah, there's less room in the house. So there's maybe
they're triminum hard or they get skinnier, skinnier Christmas trees. Kenny,
I just saw the head.

Speaker 1 (44:43):
You're artificial, A big fat one.

Speaker 2 (44:45):
No, it's a you know, it's after about twenty five years.
It kind of loses some needles every year, even though
it's plastic. And like I said, I never took it
down this last winter, so it's been there in the
living home all year and just brushed it off, got
the dust off, put some ornaments on. Ready to rock

(45:05):
and roll. So uh, but it's Cas Graggley. It's kind
of me, it's kind of time to It's not the
most handsome best it's had. Its best days are definitely
behind it. But it's a family member, so it's been
with me a long time. So I'm not gonna I'll

(45:26):
trash that point set, but I'm not going to trash
my Christmas tree.

Speaker 1 (45:31):
Oh very good.

Speaker 2 (45:31):
There you go, very good.

Speaker 1 (45:33):
All right. I just want to include a couple of
fun facts too, fair like it. Yeah, so this was
interesting to me that Christmas trees have been sold commercially
in the US since nineteen fifty nineteen twenty three. It
was President Coolidge that started the national Christmas Tree lighting,
so that's pretty cool. And then for people to know

(45:53):
it takes about sixty eight years for Christmas tree to mature,
and Christmas trees are actually grown in all fifty states.
And I can't remember it did and include this fact,
but I want to say, for like every tree that
is harvested, they plant so many in its place.

Speaker 2 (46:10):
Yeah. You know a lot of people think that a
natural Christmas tree is not pro green or it's not
pro environment, but actually natural Christmas trees are very favorable
for the environment because, like what you say, for every
tree they harvest, they plant more to replace it. It's
usually grown on ground that is not suited for egg production,

(46:32):
and so it's it provides wildlife habitat. So we're using
the land and we're providing wildlife habitat, we're conserving the soil, things.

Speaker 1 (46:43):
Less carbon e missions than our artificial.

Speaker 2 (46:47):
Yeah, actually a lot of oils used, even a shipping
them from China to America. So there's nothing wrong with
a natural Christmas tree. And you can always reuse and recycle.

Speaker 1 (47:00):
Can't tell yeah, what do you do with these after
you're done with the Christmas tree? So to start, I'm
going to talk about like some funner ideas that you
can do before we get into the recycle. But some
of our extension websites out there actually suggest turning it
into a bird feeder. So taking it outside, anchoring it
to the ground maybe with some steel posts, and then

(47:23):
here you're home with the kids over the holidays, decorate
it with some strings of popcorn, cranberries, even make I
know last year I talked about, you know, making pine
cone feeders yourself, or even just using some simple bird
feeder bags one way you can track some birds in
there and create that habitat. If you're a gardener, there's

(47:43):
some options there. You can obviously compost it. You could
mulch it or even cover the soil, so suggesting like
cutting branches off to cover the soil, or even some
of your perennials for a little bit of winter care.
And again for those who are very big into the
minimal till, this is probably a great option protecting our soil.

(48:06):
Another thing, with the kids being home over the holiday,
you could take some projects. So take some of those needles,
dry them out, make some potpourri, add some things in
you can cut to make some coasters. If you got
some kids that are super into plant science, you could
cut those, cut the trunk in half and look at

(48:27):
what they would call tree cookies and study that to
learn I think the right word is is it dendro churnology. Yeah,
you could count the rings and study a little bit
of the history. That's a whole other lesson. But again
maybe some of your older kids that would be something
that interests them as well. And then lastly, of course

(48:49):
you can recycle. Though there's a lot of cities and
stuff are going to have like a day that's dedicated
for you to set your trees out, and then they
take them and they will take them over to the
landfill and they will mulch them and use them for
wood chips and stuff. But you know, one thing that
I've learned too from them, especially like the pine trees,

(49:13):
is again somebody who's got some sheep and goats, they
actually are like used as a little bit as a
natural warmer. And a few years ago my sister had
one that I it was definitely a pine. I don't
know specific variety, but oh my gosh, after she was
done me through that in the corral and our our
sheep went nuts over it. They just cleaned that completely off.

Speaker 2 (49:34):
They eat and it's a worm.

Speaker 1 (49:39):
It's like a natural de warmer.

Speaker 2 (49:41):
Yeah, wow, yeah, don't you guys feed that sheep?

Speaker 1 (49:45):
We do, but I just wanted a lot actually eat
it with hat. Oh yeah, they get hay and grain
and they still liked it.

Speaker 2 (49:52):
You think I'd treat my points wrong.

Speaker 1 (49:57):
Well, that's no, they weren't.

Speaker 2 (50:00):
Stars must have been a white pine with those soft needles.

Speaker 1 (50:03):
I don't know, but they've actually, like I've read over
the years articles of people talking about reusing them that
are recycling. Never heard that one thing also that I
was reading up on with recycling them, I don't think
like here probably, but they talk about just putting them
in like a pond and stuff and creating like habitat

(50:23):
for fish and and everything, like safe underground habitat. So
I don't think I would just go throw a tree
to pond person it.

Speaker 2 (50:37):
What this mean is pally taking. They'll chip up and
then you can go there to landfill and scoop up
the wood tips.

Speaker 1 (50:45):
When you're planting trees.

Speaker 2 (50:46):
You got perfect.

Speaker 1 (50:50):
Well with that, That's all I got, So anything else
before we.

Speaker 2 (50:57):
Christmas? A great year.

Speaker 1 (51:00):
Yeah, here's to a great year for next year for gardening.

Speaker 2 (51:03):
I have a great year.

Speaker 1 (51:04):
That's right, Okay, Well, we just want to thank everybody
for joining us on this holiday edition and year in review,
and we hope to see you next year in twenty
twenty five. Dakota Growing is a gardening show brought to
you by Dakota Media Access and NDSU Extension. We discuss

(51:26):
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 dot Extension at NDSU dot com. Dakota Growing
airs on radio Access one O two point five FM,

(51:47):
Community Access Channel twelve or six twelve HD, or online
at free tv dot org