September 28, 2025 • 52 mins
Kelsey Deckert & Tom Kalb talk about growing plants in North Dakota.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:22):
Welcome to Dakota Growing.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
I'm Kelsey Deckert, your horticulture agent here in Burley County,
joined in the Radio Access studio by my co host
Tom Cabb, NDSU Extension horticulturist.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
How are you doing today?
Speaker 3 (00:34):
Everything's great.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
We're in fall officially, right. I heard that?
Speaker 3 (00:39):
Okay, I believe that. But it is like the seventies today.
What's that about?
Speaker 1 (00:45):
Like eighties?
Speaker 3 (00:46):
Yeah, it's really gonna be really and there's no there's
no frost common in the future. No, So you know,
do you think this global warming is true? Then you
know that's maybe we're not going to have winter this year.
What do you think about? What would that be great?
Speaker 1 (00:59):
Or what knock on that wood?
Speaker 3 (01:01):
Yeah? Not kind of plastic table. Yeah, everything's yeah, of
course it's great outside it's so beautiful, just nice and
pleasant and just cherishing these days.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
The evening's nice and far outside.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
Just a bummer that the sun is setting a lot
earlier in the day, but that's to be.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
Expected, so.
Speaker 3 (01:26):
Don't worry.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
Don't worry.
Speaker 3 (01:28):
Huh see, I'll give you a history lesson before my time.
You know, in the old days, the days got shorter
and people thought the sun was going away. Oh did
I tell you that? So people they said, all work,
we're gonna die. We're gonna die. The sun's going away.
We need the sun. And then all of a sudden,
(01:50):
one day the days got longer. You know that is
that's like December twenty third. So that became a festival.
The sun is coming back, We're not gonna die, And
that's how Christmas got started. Jeez. They didn't have a
calendar when Jesus was born, right, so they just picked
(02:10):
the festival and that was the one they picked. So
there he goes.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
It's a long haul, I know.
Speaker 3 (02:15):
A lot of treviator here for you. So dad's getting short.
Don't worry. Don't worry, guys. The sun is not moving away.
The sun will come back and spring will be here. Yeah,
life is good.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
We got a lot to talk about.
Speaker 3 (02:30):
It's little, so much to talk about. Yeah, we got
just cram a lot in. Yeah, because the growing growing
season is gonna probably shut down pretty soon.
Speaker 1 (02:43):
You know it is.
Speaker 3 (02:44):
All right? How about you? What you going to talk about?
Speaker 1 (02:47):
I'm gonna start off with trees.
Speaker 3 (02:50):
That sounds important.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
Yeah, we'll talk about some issues that I'm still seeing
around the county.
Speaker 1 (02:56):
Halls on.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
Yeah, how about that. Let's talk about our tree issues
of the growing season. Maybe I should have titled this
end of the growing season, but they've been going on
for a while, so oh yeah, kicking right off. Yeah,
how about these fungal leave spots. I think we've seen
these all year. Once we started getting that rain, they
(03:18):
just came out like crazy. Of course they're caused by
a fun guy mainly. Sometimes they can be bacterial or
other pathogens. We just really had the perfect environment for
fungal issues this year, didn't.
Speaker 3 (03:32):
We Well, yes, but so what so what it being
so negative are you? Are you complaining about the rain?
No rain is good? Who cares? If there's a little
fungus now? And then it's okay? You know, maybe you
should prune your trees more, get more air movement, and
can it be I'm frown the stand.
Speaker 1 (03:52):
I don't have trees, I have babies out there.
Speaker 3 (03:54):
Prairie you're you get the prairie farm with the horses, farmsteads,
little house on the prairie. It's what you got. It's beautiful, Laura.
Speaker 2 (04:07):
Okay, I think key that people said, just like you said,
minor stress.
Speaker 1 (04:12):
We do not need to stress. Out about this.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
We really only get concerned if they've like resulted in
a moderate to complete leaf loss for two to four.
Speaker 3 (04:22):
Years years in a row. Yeah, so my tree can
drop all its leaves full of fungus today and the
tree will survive. Is that what you're trying to tell me?
Miracles do so I should not worry worried about that?
Speaker 1 (04:36):
You bet?
Speaker 2 (04:37):
I think another prominent problem again, fungal disease apple scab.
Speaker 1 (04:42):
Tom. I feel like you talked.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
A lot about this throughout, like our weekly heart updates
that we had across the state. But again, we see
this on the leaves, we see it on the fruit.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
Right again, he is.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
If you have a lot of leaf loss, that's only
gonna weak the tree if it's consecutively several years in
a row. So just because the leaves are falling.
Speaker 3 (05:07):
They're gonna fall anyhow. Yeah, that's what falls about. Relax
literally relax, right, So what are you gonna do about it? Well,
we're gonna talk a little bit. I got two more
I want to talk about. How about our pseudo sircaspia?
Speaker 1 (05:23):
Did I say that right?
Speaker 3 (05:25):
I think so?
Speaker 2 (05:26):
That's a that's a big word, it's a mouthful. I
had to practice and a lie. That's a problem, big
fungal pathogen. Again, lilacs saw that bottom right photo. Doesn't
matter where you're driving right now in the Bismarck Mandan area.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
People think the lilacs are dying. They're dying, they're dead.
What are we gonna do about it?
Speaker 3 (05:50):
And so you're the happy your teacher.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
Yeah, don't worry exactly that he has been a slide itself.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
Just don't work, No need to worry. So a lot
of these fungal issues that we've been seeing too like
they're gonna spread very easily through that splashing of rain
or irrigation. Even the wind carries a lot of these
different spores. We did see some of this already last
year on our lilacs. So again, pretty good environment for
(06:20):
this to be happening and developing, I would say in
the last month. Then I do have one probably it's
probably a ten foot tall conwood that came up. I
have some volunteers in my art, so the rust came.
Speaker 1 (06:37):
Oh did you see the rust?
Speaker 3 (06:38):
Do you?
Speaker 2 (06:39):
Guy?
Speaker 1 (06:39):
In conwoods or.
Speaker 3 (06:40):
Quite glaspin rust can be a problem. It's really that
moisture really gets the rust going.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
Yeah, I even noticed like, honestly, going out to one
of my pastures, the grass had some rust on it too,
very much. So again, if you look at some of
these deciduous trees from a distance and everything like that,
they're gonna appear like, oh, they already suddenly have fall color.
You might see those brown, dried up leaves. Again we
(07:09):
talked about this last year. But you get this nice
close up photo and you can see those little rust
spores on it, and again they're carried right by the
wind and the splashing of water. So you ask the
big question of what do we do. Look at them.
It's kind of hard to see, but those are not
(07:30):
very nice looking leaves. They got lots of spots on them,
so I'm guessing fungal spots. We gotta rake them up.
We got to clean up our landscape from all those
fungal issues this year.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
How about that?
Speaker 3 (07:43):
Get the disease?
Speaker 2 (07:44):
Yeah, we don't want right, right, we don't want those
pathogens over wintering in that area. And then of course
talking about pruning to open up our canopies to allow
more airflow and sunlight and as well, so.
Speaker 3 (08:00):
The removal is the best sanitation is the best way
to handle this if nothing else to at least mow
the leaves to break heaven breakdown faster. But if you
can rake or break up the disease leaves and get
them out of there.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
Yeah, I had somebody else the other day about spraying
a funder side, said, whoa, why would we be spraying
a fundra side right now? Right it's infected, it's not
going to do anything, So that's right.
Speaker 3 (08:28):
Fun insides are allowing preventatives. They don't cure the problem,
so they just prevent future infection of that year. So yeah,
don't waste your money on the funder side now, because
again the tree leaves are they were naturally going to
drop anyhow.
Speaker 1 (08:45):
So put your time into raking.
Speaker 3 (08:47):
That's what it is, maybe a fund And also you said,
like even if this happens again next year, probably the
tree will survive that too severe defoliations. So it's usually
like the third year you start thinking, Okay, maybe I
need to invest in a fun decide to protect and
(09:07):
the spring would be the time to do that. Application
when the leaves are just popping out, Let's see what happens.
Sounds like everything's gonna be okay.
Speaker 2 (09:16):
Well, and I think a lot of times people look
at a handful of leaves and oh yeah, you look
at the tree overall, maybe what two percent two to
five percent actually fall like you're not You're not losing
a major amount of leaf leafty fully.
Speaker 3 (09:32):
Right, So no worries that tree. That tree has been
through this before, they'll be through it again. Don't worry
about it exactly.
Speaker 2 (09:40):
So the last thing I put this after, but another
common issue going on right now fall needle drop again,
biggest thing people need to know. This is a natural,
normal process for our evergreen trees. So you're gonna see,
just like you see in this photo, those older needles
they start to yellow and brown, they're gonna eventually drop off.
(10:05):
And I've been seeing this outside you know bisiness.
Speaker 3 (10:08):
Oh yeah, definitely it's there. It's the inside of the
tree are the older needles, So they naturally drop m M.
So it's just a natural process. Just like like if
you're volunteer cottonwood tree on the prairie drops its leeves,
do you freak out? No, it's just natural for or
(10:30):
if your elm tree drops its leeves in the fall,
you go, oh, you don't say, oh my god, what
I'm gonna do No, it's just falls, drop sleeves and
evergreens drop needles, old needles. Those old needles don't do
much good. They're in the inside of the tree. They
don't make much food for nutrients for the tree, and
the tree just sheds them. No worries. And those pines
(10:51):
that get a picture of a pine there, they can
be very vivid. You know, a pine can lose. Yeah,
they can lose about a third of their needles, like
just like that, right, and that does cause concern. But
but you said, spruces get it, our pravity get it.
Larches get it. Larches drop everything, right, that's really scary.
Speaker 1 (11:13):
Yeah, you know your type of tree. That's that's the
key on that, you know.
Speaker 2 (11:19):
And just speaking about leaf drop too. Even people got
to realize some of your trees again, Like I've had
some calls that, oh, I have like three ash trees together,
one of them's already dropping leaves, tends.
Speaker 1 (11:34):
To do that.
Speaker 2 (11:35):
That can just be the characteristics of that tree. Like again,
you can have three ash trees. It's no different than siblings, right, God,
same parents and everything like that. However, you're all going
to be different and unique and different characteristics. So again,
I don't need to worry. So should we talk about
(11:57):
what our checklist is going into winter for So, I
used one of your recommended sites here, Dave's Garden, right.
Speaker 1 (12:07):
To look at our chance of frost. Now, we did
experience frost.
Speaker 2 (12:13):
What was it mid late August ish late August, early September.
Speaker 1 (12:19):
I'm trying to think.
Speaker 3 (12:21):
Where were you? Well, I was out in my door, Saskatchewan.
Speaker 2 (12:25):
Nope, there must have been early September because we went
out there.
Speaker 3 (12:30):
A few pockets.
Speaker 1 (12:31):
Yes, my place got it.
Speaker 2 (12:35):
The garden was browned up within a day, got hit.
Corn got it around there too. Yeah, So I think
it was there for like early.
Speaker 3 (12:46):
Most of most county didn't get it. Yeah, just you.
Speaker 2 (12:50):
No throughout through definitely like northeast to Bismarck and stuff.
You could see that the corn being affected majorly. So
again I don't remember the date. I think that was
early September, that second week in September and stuff. But
this is just kind of a good resource when you
want to look at, you know, where's your chance of
(13:12):
frost kind of the percentage of those dates and when
we see a hard frost. So consider that hard frost
around that twenty eight degrees. You know, you're looking at
October third as a fifty percent for that. So coming
around the corner, I guess you could say, right.
Speaker 3 (13:31):
Well, if it's average year, you're right, this is about
the time we get our first frost.
Speaker 2 (13:38):
But you're going to talk about the endless summer we're
in right now, right, We're not going to get a
frost this year.
Speaker 3 (13:42):
I told you the winter is not going to happen.
Speaker 1 (13:45):
Oh, just a brown one. That's great. Okay.
Speaker 2 (13:49):
So people always do ask though about planting trees this
time of year and stuff. So key thing to know
is that your roots need adequate time to get established
before going into winter. Yes, and so when is that.
This is a great map that's provided you see Burley
County there. We would want to get our trees planted
(14:11):
before October one, So again we're coming upon that date.
Speaker 1 (14:17):
So just know that.
Speaker 2 (14:20):
How and stuff. We want to make sure. Biggest mistake
people make is planting that tree too deeply. So make
sure that that root collar is slightly above the soil line.
Right there gives you a good picture of that. So
I always tell people think of like a bell bottom
pant leg. Right, you want that flare.
Speaker 1 (14:40):
To see it cool?
Speaker 3 (14:42):
Yeah, I never heard that before.
Speaker 1 (14:43):
Oh, just to wear the bell bottoms back of the day,
I Tom cool.
Speaker 3 (14:53):
My family, we are a big family, and we all
wore the same clothes. We all wear jeans and a
white T shirt. That was my life as a kid.
Speaker 1 (15:02):
So no bell bottom pads.
Speaker 3 (15:04):
No fancy bell bottom paints. Hope.
Speaker 1 (15:08):
Well, that's okay, all right.
Speaker 2 (15:11):
And then we want to make sure that when we
do plant these trees, we're giving them adequate water. So
kind of a general rule ten gallons per inch of
diameter that you have. And then as far as staking
and everything, of course, staking is going to be great,
you know for those first couple of years to add
stability and again get those roots established.
Speaker 1 (15:34):
And then Tom, I'll let you talk about the rules
of three for maulching, right.
Speaker 3 (15:39):
Okay, yeah, Well, first of all, the type of multi
makes a difference. You want shredded bark mulching, that's what
you want. You want to no rocks. You don't want
to use rocks. Rocks do nothing good for a plant
that plants hate growing in rocks. Shredded bark maulting will
insulate the soil, keeping it a little bit cooler in
(15:59):
the summer and a little bit warmer in the winter
and another night. Thing. It conserves moisture and sure that
bark MAULTI will help to it will eventually break down
and nourish the tree, and it will help keep the
weeds and the weed whacker and law more away. So
maults is very important. So you mentioned the lesson of
three three three. If possible, we want the malts to be.
(16:22):
If you plant a tree, let's say at least three
feet wide in diameter, the malt at least three feet
more the better, and it should be three inches thick,
and it should be you should have no mult within
three inches of the trunk, so no mults near the trunk.
Otherwise the metal mice can nest in it. So three
(16:44):
inches wide, three inches thick, and no malts three inches
near the trunk. That's the lesson.
Speaker 2 (16:50):
Easy enough, Yep, anybody can do that perfect. Okay, just
some other things to consider moving into.
Speaker 3 (16:58):
Let's talk about that planting date. You know, that's the
that's the idea. Yeah, well I have to do that.
Let's do that all right, so we can get so yeah,
October one, So that's that's uh, that's our Joe's Elasnik
(17:19):
developed this map, and that's they'll give us forty days
of forty degrees soil temperatures to let their roots get established.
So that's kind of like the ideal planting deadline. Okay,
it doesn't mean you can't plant in October. It's just
we're past the ideal time, and so especially I think
(17:41):
with my experience with leafy trees, you can get away
a little bit later. Evergreens are a little bit more
risky because those needles hang on the tree all winter.
Speaker 4 (17:52):
But but you know, this is the ideal, Like, it
doesn't mean this is a hard stop at October one, okay,
because you can still successfully plant trees at least into early.
Speaker 3 (18:06):
October, especially the leafy trees. But I remember I just
listened to one of our local nursery people and they
talked about there a little bit, especially concerned about the
way pines tolerate planting and fall. So maybe with pines
you may want to be more hesitant with that. But yeah,
just keep that in mind. This is the ideal. Try
try to get done as soon as you can. That's
(18:27):
really the key if you're going to do it, and
it doesn't hurt to wait till spring, you know.
Speaker 1 (18:32):
Right, easy enough?
Speaker 3 (18:34):
Yeah, Okayuse there are a lot of people who procrastinate
a lot, you know, until they may. Yeah, so maybe
like just because that doesn't mean I have to plant today. Okay,
try to get it done as soon as possible if
you can.
Speaker 2 (18:46):
Okay, let's talk about a few other things to consider
for our trees going into winter.
Speaker 1 (18:52):
Watering.
Speaker 2 (18:53):
You know, this is a question I feel like I
always get and stuff. So we want to water up
until freeze up. Conifers especially are going to be less
likely to have winter injury if they go into the winter.
Speaker 1 (19:07):
With high hydrated needles. So you can see this picture
of this lovely.
Speaker 2 (19:13):
Uh like shaped here evergreen that got some good winter injury.
Speaker 3 (19:19):
On it's that's the plant was butchered. I don't know
what you don't like. It's so that plants so unhappy.
Why did they do that to me? Why don't they
just let me be unatural?
Speaker 1 (19:33):
Natural?
Speaker 3 (19:34):
Yeah, it's just like so torturous. I hate to see that. Yeah, yes,
they don't love that tree. They're trying to dominate that tree,
control that tree. That tree is not happy at all,
And now no wonder it's suffering corner he probably wants
to die just looking at the way it was shaped.
Speaker 1 (19:56):
Yeah, there you go, terrible.
Speaker 3 (19:58):
Don't do that.
Speaker 1 (20:00):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (20:00):
We also want to make sure that we're wrapping our
trees again. We want to protect that young tender bark
from uh frost cracks or the sun skalds. So again,
let's select those white plastic wraps as that's going to
deflect the heat where blacks absorb it.
Speaker 1 (20:17):
So I know we've talked about that.
Speaker 3 (20:19):
Do you want to No, I just think the thing
about wrapping trees. We wrap trees not to keep them warm.
We wrap trees to keep them cool. We don't want
that bark, the tissue beneath the bark to wake up
on a sunny day in March. Yeah, and that's literally
what it does, goes ah snap, break crack. So that's
(20:42):
why you know a lot of maples in town have
a crack on the southwest side of their tree because
that's they got. They woke up in the March right
there on the southwest side on a sunny day, and
they're not You're not supposed to wake up in March
when you're a tree. So so keep it cool. White.
There's a way to go and that keeps the critters
(21:04):
away to it doesn't hurt against critters, you know, you
bet keep those rabbits out.
Speaker 2 (21:09):
Okay, and then pruning okay, not now, we don't need
to be doing this now, but during our dormance season.
And you know, first and foremost, why would we prune.
Number one thing.
Speaker 1 (21:21):
Is like safety.
Speaker 2 (21:22):
So if we look at trees that maybe have some
broken branches, dead branches within there, that can be some
different risks, we want to prune those and make our
trees safe first and foremost. And then also pruning is
gonna help you produce a strong, healthy, and esthetically attractive
tree as well. So when do we do that, Like
(21:44):
I said, during the dormant season, late winter, early spring
March is generally the best time to do it. It's
gonna minimize that excessive sap flow in the springtime like that,
so we got time. Just know that again when we
talked about those fungal issues earlier this year, pruning again
(22:06):
allows more airflow sunlight in keep those leaves drier or
help them dry out faster when we do have periods
of rain. So with that, since we are moving into fall,
just say, let's enjoy the colors that we are seeing.
Speaker 1 (22:23):
Yeah, there you go. You talked about your larch. I
include a.
Speaker 3 (22:26):
Beautiful yellow every yeah, that's spectacular. Yeah, it's like two
weeks of beauty and then the whole winter looks dead.
That has no needles at all. What a cool tree.
Speaker 2 (22:38):
How about some red yet some Ohio buckeye. Got some
winter are you to look at? Get some different colors
within the landscape.
Speaker 3 (22:49):
Okay, so what's the most popular red tree? Every likes red.
Speaker 1 (22:56):
It's gonna be a maple.
Speaker 3 (22:57):
Yeah. See, you gotta be careful with me with most maples, right,
because they want an acidic soil and we have alkaline soils.
Speaker 1 (23:07):
Yeah, so it's going to be disappointed.
Speaker 3 (23:09):
That autumn blaze. Freeman maple, it's marginally hardy, and if
you don't and if you have a very alkaline soil,
it's going to really suffer. So if you have a
Freeman maple, for me, that's one especially important. Put mulching around.
That's very important. And and it's got thin bark. We
(23:31):
got to really protect it from weed whackers and lawnmowers.
Speaker 1 (23:35):
But just choose something different.
Speaker 3 (23:38):
Yeah, you know, this is where it's good to know
your your landscape. You know, like, what kind of so
do I have? Do I have a very alkaline soil?
If it's very alkine, you should not plant a Freeman
maple or a silver maple. You shouldn't. Yeah, I'll just
leave it at that, because there are a few maples
that like to cherry and maple, you know Janala maple. There,
(24:03):
they're more tolerant. But gotta be really careful about that.
If you've got a very all client strug, the page
is seventy five or higher. So that's why it's not
a bad investment to get a soil test done, especially
if you've got a new property. Find out what kind
of soil you got, and that can help you make
smart decisions planting tree, See what works, see what doesn't work.
Speaker 1 (24:25):
Now, that was a great time to do it too.
Speaker 3 (24:27):
That was a good time to as sew test because
you've got almost nothing else to do. Right, but not
after my call coming up here, because I'm going to
tell you lots of things you gotta get going on. Okay, Okay,
there's my talk. Today is gonna I call it endless
summer because except for Kelsey's property, the rest of us
(24:48):
has had low frost and at the temperatures in the
seventies and the long range forecast right the next ten days,
it's going to be like in the seventies.
Speaker 1 (24:57):
Yeah, I think Sunday said eighty five. This short season
is still among us.
Speaker 3 (25:05):
Yeah, there it goes. The summers keeping going, and the
harvest has been great, man, with the rains we had.
Speaker 1 (25:13):
And those are your carrots.
Speaker 3 (25:15):
No, that's a photo at the farmers markets.
Speaker 1 (25:18):
Okay, beautiful though.
Speaker 3 (25:21):
Oh that's why I included it as a picture. So,
but frost will come, Okay, So you know it's just
a matter of time before it comes. It always does.
Trust me. You know that we live in North Dakota.
We know frost will be here before you know it.
So just I will briefly what what is frost about?
(25:42):
How does that harm the plant? And that's and here's
some tomatoes that I'm sure you would love to eat, Kelsey,
since you love tomatoes so much. But you see, the
way frost harms a plant is water. When it free
it expands, Like if you put a can of soda
(26:04):
or sparking water in your freezer and you'll let us
sit there, the water expand and will explode in the
freezer and the same thing happens with frost is that
the water in the plant cells expand and break the
cell walls. They just explode and when the cell walls
are exploded, everything collapses and that leads to mushy, mushy fruit.
(26:30):
So that's what happened here. That's what frost does. It
explodes the plant cells and everything turns to mush. So
here's an exploded to make Yeah, just got frost. That's
what it is. And we did talk a little about
frost eates. I have another the frost eate. They're pretty
much the same. There are different sources. This is from
the Midwestern Regional Climate Center and they say this is
(26:54):
for Burley County. Burley County, Okay. So those listeners in Fargo,
you're different. Those of you up and up in bot
and oh you're different. This is for Burley Counting. And
we usually get our light frost at thirty two degrees
around September twenty sixth and we get our first hard
killing frost when it's about twenty eight degrees around October fifth.
(27:18):
But you can see like ten percent of the years
will get our frost, like I'm Kelsey's property, Like September
eleventh or September end, then a hard frost on September
twenty one, and they didn't go to the ninety December.
Nine out of ten years will definitely have been receiving
a frost by October tenth and a hard frost by
(27:38):
October twenty second. So this year appears to be one
of those late frost This is gonna be a late
frost year for most of us. And so what does
that mean? So I can we're in late September, that
means we've got about two weeks before we're probably gonna
get our It looks like it's gonna be about ten
to fifteen days probably until we get our first light
frost for most of us. Now, so that's still what
(28:01):
we sudden grow stuff. And if you want to protect
your plants from frost, you get one of the best
ways is put up use a blanket. Now, this is
a fancy frost blanket, and some frost blanket. Usually a
blanket will give you about two degrees of protection two degrees,
but there are frost blankets that are really thick that
are made to protect plants that can give you eight
(28:21):
degrees of protection. So, but for those of us are
just normal who don't want to invest on a lot
of money in frost blankets. You know, just a croth
blanket will give you a couple of degrees of protection
more than plastic. Okay, plastic, just think about that.
Speaker 1 (28:39):
Just say it doesn't sound warm at all?
Speaker 3 (28:40):
Yeah, just pretend you were a tomato plant outside, you
had no clothes on. Outside, you're freezing cold. Did you
want to wrap yourself in plastic or a long blanket?
Speaker 2 (28:51):
Yeah, I'm going to try to get the denim, you know,
the denot'll blankets.
Speaker 3 (28:56):
Extra flare bottoms.
Speaker 1 (28:58):
Really, and I'm blanket that everybody can of their truck
of their car.
Speaker 3 (29:02):
Oh really, never heard of that? Oh I don't have
a dnim planket.
Speaker 1 (29:05):
Didn't grow up. You must not have had that grandma.
Speaker 3 (29:07):
That was a Sewern blanket.
Speaker 1 (29:10):
Oh yeah, they're very heavy duty. That's what I would
grab the one.
Speaker 3 (29:14):
Guys yet one of those? Yeah, I don't know. Why
Why are you keeping the trunk of your car in
case you drive off the ditch or something.
Speaker 1 (29:23):
Well, you always gotta have like your emergency kit blankets.
Speaker 3 (29:27):
I don't I really should do that, I really should
do that. Yeah, But I just stay on the highway
if I can, just so. I don't like driving in
the winter that much anyhow, well only if it's necessary,
yeah at night, not necessary though, Yeah, I just don't
like that anymore. I don't like driving at night. Getting old.
(29:47):
Here we go. So some plants can tolerate no frost,
and so if you like beans and cucumbers and tomatoes
and your zucchini, that you treasure so if you want to.
So they got no tolerance. So they if you want
to keep them, they're the ones you gotta put the
your denim blanket on if it's a Some can tolerate
(30:10):
a light frost, like carrots and lettuce and spinach and
winter squash. And so they're there. You got a little tolerance.
And then lastly got those tough ones broccoli, cabbage, kale
just goes, Oh, you can't kill me. I'm tough, you know,
kill snowfall. I'm gonna still be strong, Cole, Robbie. These
(30:31):
guys are tough. They can tug the hard frost. So
they're the least important ones in most cases. But most people,
besides Kelsey, again Kelsey is a very special person. We're
learning most people treasure tomatoes the most and so let's
talk about how you can ripen your tomatoes. Again. Tomatoes
cannot take any frost. But if you got a light frost,
(30:51):
you know, like a couple of degrees, you can put
out your denim blanket that your grandma made for you
and they'll give you two degrees of protection. But if
it gets like hard frost like twenty eight, grandma's blanket
is not going to get the job. No, sorry, So
you gotta harvest what you can. And what we focus
on when you harvest is we want to have tomatoes
that at least have a blush. They're more likely to
(31:14):
ripen indoors. If it's a solid drain, that's gonna be hard,
that's gonna take a long time, and it will likely rot.
So I don't bother petting a green tomatoes. That's the
way it goes. Okay, So you want blushing for tomatoes
and those that are track free. And then you want
to tomatoes and they ripe and they give off an
(31:36):
ethylene gas. Okay, so we want to trap that gas
so it enhances ripening. So yeah, put the fruits in
a single layer, don't play them on top of each other,
and put them like maybe in a cardboard box or
at least on something a piece of cardboard or a newspaper,
(31:57):
and then you put some paper on top of the
tomatoes to trap that gas. And some people wrap every
tomato frot with like newspaper that that's like too much
work for me. But just like maybe up a sheet
of cardboard or newspapers on top of the tomato, the
layer of tomatoes, and then keep it away from direct
sum Some people like put it on their window sill,
(32:17):
but that doesn't work because that will just ripen the skin.
We don't want that. We want to ripe in the
whole tomato. And room temperatures. Don't get it too hot,
you know, that can encourage rotting or too cold because
it'll just take forever. So room temperatures are best.
Speaker 1 (32:32):
So you could do several layers in a box.
Speaker 3 (32:34):
Though you know is that I don't like that. I
just know I want I want just a single layer,
that's all I want. You know, see I don't have
more than one box the tomatoes. You know, all you
have to do is like it's a good excuse to
you know, an Amazon box that work great, So it's
just good excuse so you can order someone from Amazon
(32:55):
just for a tomato box. How about that. You can
tell your your husband, we need another tomato box.
Speaker 1 (33:00):
So for the tomatoes we don't grow.
Speaker 3 (33:03):
Yes, well Jaden grows, that's true. But does he like tomatoes?
Speaker 1 (33:10):
Not really?
Speaker 3 (33:11):
No, so you're compatible. There you go. That's great.
Speaker 1 (33:14):
No tomatoes. Ulse it's ketchup in our house.
Speaker 3 (33:16):
Ketch See it makes no sense.
Speaker 1 (33:18):
I know.
Speaker 3 (33:18):
I bet you like pizza too. See you guys just
make no weird weird ones. You just don't like a
real tomato, but you're like processed. Its fascinating. I don't know.
It must be that must be like a disorder of
some type of tomato phobia or.
Speaker 1 (33:33):
I feel like there's a lot of people out there
like this though.
Speaker 3 (33:37):
Yeah there are. Yeah. Yeah. It's because it's kind of acidic,
I think. And maybe it's a natural reaction because like
tomato vines, don't they don't taste good? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (33:50):
You sugar in there for the ketchup?
Speaker 3 (33:53):
Sure? No, oh that's right, that's gotta add sugar.
Speaker 1 (33:56):
Yeah, okay, little vinegar or whatever.
Speaker 3 (34:00):
Okay. I think I like every I mean, I don't
really love any vegetable, but I don't like despise any vegetable.
I would eat any vegetables for beans. Despies beans, well
that as you can them. Wants canned beans, that's disgusting.
Frozs and beans are delicious. Fresh beans. I love fresh beans.
(34:24):
That's that's how you got started in horniculture. Yeah, I
grew beans as a kid. I told you that story, right,
And that was my job. We each had every one
of my brothers and sisters had out and they gave
me the easiest one because I was, you know, stupidest,
and so said, here, Tommy, you do the beans. You
can't you can't ruin that. And I was successful every
(34:48):
year and pick the beans. My mom just gives me
a big pot, tom go pick some beans. And I
picked some beans for mom and she kissed me on
the forehead as soon as they gave her the beans.
So there's positive reinforcement. So I said, this horticulture is
a good thing. I think, you know, I think this
could be a career for me bean grower. There you go.
(35:12):
That's a long story. Another one a crop that you
can probably be successful at Kelsey is winter squash. Yeah
there you go, Almost as easy as beans, right, Yeah,
So for me, winter squash now they can take a
light frost, but they can't take a hard frost, just
like tomatoes. So I pretty much just leave me a
winter squash on the vine until a hard frost is expected,
(35:34):
and then right before that frost, I go out there
and harvest everything. But to tell if a winter squash
is ripe, you look at that at the bottom of
the fruit. It can have a white spot. When the
white spots turn gold, and that's a good sign. The
stem end should be dry, that's a good clue, and
also the rine should be hard and glossy. But for me,
(35:57):
I just wait for the hard frost and then we
just take it from there. Then we get out the
wheelbarrow and go nuts. So when you harvest winter squash,
you want to clip the fruits off the stem. You
want to keep about an inch of the stem there,
and then brush off the soil. If there is any
soil on it, don't wash it. That can encourage diseases.
There's brush off the soil, and then we want to
(36:18):
harden the rhne. We call it curing, so like a
week under warm temps, like put them out in the
driveway for a week. They can't take a hard frost.
They'll keep that in mind and that will cure them.
That will help them in storage. And then store your
winter squash at about fifty to sixty degrees like an
unheated basement works good for me. And I put them
(36:40):
on a pallette to get them off the ground. That helps.
And then I think about winter squash. Is there's different
types of winter squash. Can you can enhance the flavor
in storage? The starches will convert into sugars, but some don't.
Some this doesn't work with some. Just there are what
they are, like acorn squash, the delicata, the spaghetti, and
(37:02):
the little small miniature squashes. You can just eat them
right away. But if you have a buttercup or a
full sized kobocha, these are usually a grayish or dark
greenish in color. They will do have dill taste better
if you store them for a month. And butternut even
at least a month. In two months, the butternut will
(37:23):
have its peak flavor. So just keep that in mind.
You can store your squash and have better flavor. Okay, now,
so that's how I used to frost as far as
determined when to harvest my winter squash. And the thing
goes with the apples in that I don't follow the
frost like some people. Like some people say I'm gonna
(37:44):
wait till my apples get frosted, a light frost and
then they'll be taste better. That is wrong. An apple
has its peak flavor when it's ripe, and then once
it makes once it's ripe, the flavor gets worse. So
harvest your apples when it's ripe and don't wait for
a frost. And when is a red apple ripe When
(38:06):
that background color and see here on the side, when
that background color turns from greenish to gold or has
a yellowish tinge, that's a sign that the apple is ripe.
And then the other thing is when you harvest an
apple it's ripe, you can do an upward twisting motion.
We talked about this the last episode. I think that
(38:27):
an upper twisting motion, and it should come right off.
If it doesn't come off, it's not ripe. And don't
yink down on it.
Speaker 1 (38:35):
Oh, don't rip the branches off.
Speaker 3 (38:36):
Yeah. I was just out at Cherrington and of their
orchard and they were picking and they're ripping off the
fruit and going, oh stop, stop, stop, because you see
there like you can see right near that happened that
yellow ring that that is the flower bud for next year.
That's next year's crop. Don't be ripping down apples otherwise
you're ripping off the flowers and the fruits for next year.
(38:58):
So on upward twisting motion. But again, like most of
our apple varieties are right now, okay, if you start
seeing the apples falling down, because that's a sign that
probably that they they're ripe to go to you know, so,
so don't if your apples are dropping, don't say I'm
gonna wait till they get a frost. No, they're ripe
(39:19):
so picked. If you got a lad riping apple, they
can take a light frost for sure, and they won't
even start to have any frost damage until twenty eighth
degrees okay, And in my experience it's more closer to
twenty six degrees when it really gets I really start
worrying about the apples having frost significant frost damage. If
(39:43):
the temps are just dancing near twenty eight, they're okay.
But if the apple does freeze, then you should wait
till it thaws out and then harvest it at that time.
And a frozen apple will not store well, So that's
gonna be the apples that you gotta gotta eat first. Again,
so apples have some sugar. They're not gonna freeze at
(40:04):
twenty at thirty two. They don't even gonna begin to
freeze till it hits about twenty eight. So we got
a little bit of leeway there, okay. And we talked
about like, if apples are on the ground, it's really
important that you for good sanitation, that you pick up
any fallen apples. But when you pick them up, you
gotta worry about those wasp because those wasp. Until the
(40:25):
frost comes, the wasp populations are continuing to rise. So
I just want to talk briefly about wasp control because
we've got like two more weeks of wasp action going on.
So something usually just leave the wasp nest alone. Just
let them live their life, You live your life. They're
gonna die in two weeks, that's okay. But if they're
(40:50):
then the hazardous location and they're all buzzing around, you
should take action and destroy them. Because the wasp they're
they're they live in a and they're very protective of
the queen and themselves. So to kill wasp only in
the high traffic areas where they're all real risk you
(41:10):
and then the wash. They all come home at night
and they're less active when it's a cold night, when
the attempts from the fifties, So that's when they're vulnerable.
You want to get them at night when they're all
there and on a cool night they can barely move.
Show respect to your enemy. These guys, they can't attack you,
and they can sting stings, sting like a bee stings.
(41:33):
Once it gets it loses its stinger and it dies.
Was are different. They're not. They're not like bees. Wash
can sting you several times. They can be very aggressive
this time here, So we're armor the protective clothing like
a hat in case you got a lot of hair
like me. You don't want the wasp gets stuck in
your hair. It could be a major problem. And long
(41:54):
sleeve shirts are good. You don't want them to get
in your clothes because that's really bad news. They'll sting
you for sure. Long trousers and tuck your socks over
the trousers, even if they're bell bottom flares. You gotta
talk them in others. I'll go undernose they'll bell, bounce
and zero will nail you. That's a bad problem. I've
had that happened like again under my jacket or something.
(42:15):
Oh if I had news, that's they're gonna get them.
So these there's above ground nasty. You see, they all
have an entrance hole. That's our target. So we're gonna
scout the enemy just like a war. I'm gonna kill
this army of WASP. I got my armor on, I
know where they're vulnerable, I know where the hole is,
and then I'm gonna go out there with a knock
(42:36):
down wasp killing spray target the entrance hole, and I'm
gonna soak that nest and get the heck out of there.
I'm not gonna just, you know, do a dance or
anything saying well I got you, I got you, because
they don't do a happy dance. Get the heck out
of there, run out, and then check the next day
or two and see how you did if they're still active.
(42:58):
Because wasp they have to go in and out. They
don't store food in there, so they got to keep harvesting.
Speaker 1 (43:06):
So so they'll take a bat hit the nest.
Speaker 3 (43:09):
Don't do that, Oh russy asking for trouble or don't
a flame thrower, don't do that. Just the wasp killing
sprays to kill on contact.
Speaker 1 (43:20):
That's your web.
Speaker 3 (43:21):
That's what I want long range, you know, twenty feet
there you go. Some nests are below ground though, yeah,
so you can still use the wasp those kind of sprays.
But actually a dust works best because when they go out,
the dust will be on the on the entrance to
the nests itself, so when they fly out, they'll get
exposed to that dust like seven dust here, and you
(43:43):
can sprinkle or dust maybe I would just probably may
if I had some wasp killing spray in the garage,
I'd try that first, just soaking and see how it goes.
But if they're still active, I got used dust the
next time.
Speaker 1 (43:54):
Yep.
Speaker 3 (43:55):
Okay, don't steal the hole because they'll just make a
new entrance, a new entry prints while just dust and
run and check. So that's a blow ground nest. Those
are like German yellow jackets have that, okay. And the
other thing about nasts is nasts are never reused again. Okay,
so what happens. I've talked about this before, how it's
(44:17):
a love story. It's a beautiful love story. About hornet.
It is hornets. They are a loving critter, even more
than horses. Do you know that. I know you're a
horse person. Maybe I support hornets more, yeah, because I
really respect them. You know. First of all, they will
fight to defend their colony. They will fight. And the
(44:40):
other thing about a hornet like that mother, she's been there, Yeah,
since May. She was she was impregnated in the previous fall.
She survived the North Dakota winter all by herself. She
didn't have a barn or anything like a horse does.
She was a widow all by herself, and she started
her colony in May from nothing, just a spit of mud,
(45:06):
and she just and her daughters they built that nest together.
And nowadays, what she's doing right now is she's getting
ready for the next generation. So she's creating queens and
their mates right now, and they're gonna fly away do
their thing, and they're gonna start the colony next lives.
(45:27):
But the mother and her daughters, they're gonna stand in
the nest all the way until that frost comes and
they're gonna freeze. They're just gonna hold hands and freeze together.
The loving story. That's life. Yeah, But she passed the
baton to the next generation. That's what children's all about.
(45:47):
How about that for philosophy? Shall we talk about some
more killing? There you go. I got this picture of it.
This guy says, I want to kill this vine. Can
you tell me how to kill it? So this is
a Virginia creeper actually.
Speaker 1 (46:01):
Was going to say, growing up on a tree.
Speaker 3 (46:03):
Yeah, I know, like a pretty thick Yeah. I don't
know what. I don't know what it's covering. It could
be covering a shrub, it could be covering his child.
I don't know what's covering grandchild. He just wanted to
kill it. That's what her. I want to kill this
sucker time I don't to kill it. And and there's
a Virginia creeper. This is the most common vine in
(46:25):
North Dakota.
Speaker 1 (46:26):
It's beautiful, yes, this time of year.
Speaker 3 (46:28):
Beautiful fall collar and got fruits. Don't eat the fruits.
But how you tell Virginia creeper. It's got like these
five leaflets, five to seven leaf flets, all like a palm.
I would say, fingers. That's one leaf. This is if
you have kids and you have to do a leaf
project in the fall. This is the one. Yeah, you're
gonna get a eight plus for the Virginia creeper. They're everywhere.
(46:50):
So how do you kill that sucker? I'll tell you
how to kill any woody plant this time. Now it's
a great time to do it. So you prune the
vine right down at the base, get your lapping shears
right down the base, and then I'm going to soak
that fresh wound with a brush killing herbicide. And that's
going to have a triclope here or light life facade
in it. And now's the time to do it because
(47:13):
the plants, now we've talked about this before. The plants
now are preparing for winter. They're sending all their nutrients
down into the roots. How do we kill his vine?
We've got to get that herbicide down into the roots,
and so the plant. If you soak the wound right now,
the plant will naturally channel the herbicide along with its
(47:35):
nutrients down into its roots. And even if you don't
want to cut it at the base, you could you
can soak the leaves if you want. But then I
worry about it. You might get some of the desirable
plants because that they could harm them. And then you'll
really set this vine back severely. It may re sprawl
(47:56):
because it has a it could have an aggressive root system.
But have to do is like hit it again, you
know fresh woman, soak the sprout. That's how you kill
a woody plant.
Speaker 1 (48:08):
Okay, it works on saplings, right and the other.
Speaker 3 (48:10):
Art does if you're really yep, that's right, that's it,
And now is the time to do it because the
plant will send the herbicide down into the roots. And
the saying those last thing to talk about is with
our is with our herbaceous or our green plants, like
feel bind weed. Now now is the best time because
the buying weed is sending the herbicide down into its roots.
(48:34):
So if you got bind weed in your lawn, which
can be a problem, you know, you want to use
a chemical that will kill the buying weed but won't
kill the lawn. And those are broad leaf weed jailers
and so like like round up. There's lots of round ups.
You got to read the label carefully. This is the
run up for lawns. It won't kill the lawn, but
(48:55):
it will kill the weeds. And there's other products to
lawn crab grass killer. For me, when I select one.
I like finding something that has die camba in it.
Most of these products have two four D two four
D like dog but two four D. They'll kill the
(49:16):
easy ones like daniline, but it won't kill the tough
ones like buying weeds. So I look for someone that
has di camma. That's pretty tough. And now I see
more of the products are adding quinchlorac that also kills
a little crabgrass when it's supplied in the springtime. But
now is the time to do it. You got while
the plants are still actively growing, and you spray them
(49:37):
and it will sock the chemical down into those roots.
But if binding's in your garden, I don't want to
use di caamma because that can persist for several months.
So you got to use something that has a very
short life. And so I would use something like glyphasate. Okay, glyphasate,
and this is a vegetation killer. It will kill almost
(49:58):
every vegetation, kill bind weeds. But this is what I
would use in a garden because it's it lasts in
the garden for just a few days actually, but I
like to spray. It gives it a couple of weeks
to start the bind week to death, and then you
can ready to plant next spring. So that's my thing.
If you wanted to start a new garden next year,
glycas would be great to spray right now, late Soetember,
(50:23):
and that would kill the grass, chill the weeds, and
then you can maybe even chill up the land before
it freezes this fall, and then you're ready to rock
and roll.
Speaker 1 (50:33):
So that great.
Speaker 3 (50:34):
That's a lot of stuff that we talked about today.
Speaker 1 (50:37):
In our endless summer.
Speaker 3 (50:39):
Our endless summer. Yeah, but it probably will end in
a couple of weeks. But it's a long it's a
long summer. Yeah, it's good.
Speaker 1 (50:46):
It is good.
Speaker 2 (50:47):
I think everybody's enjoying these last warm days and I
am being able to be outside late.
Speaker 3 (50:54):
That is right in the good time to take take
take a nice walk, and yeah, you bet lots of
things to do. What else? What else should we be
doing now this time here? Any other things I talk about?
Speaker 1 (51:09):
I don't think. So maybe go to the pumpkin.
Speaker 3 (51:11):
Patch, yeh, have some fun. That's good. If I think
if you're going to fertilize your lawn, I would do
it yesterday if you can. Yeah, don't wait any longer.
If you really try to get that. We want to
make sure that the lawn has a chance to harden
off before winter. So if don't wait any longer for that,
(51:33):
I said, we want to plant the trees soon if
you can. And yeah, I think you'll harvest, harvest your apples,
have harvest your fruits when they're ripe. Yeah. I think
that's a lot of stuff going on.
Speaker 1 (51:44):
I think so too. Those are your last pieces of advice.
Speaker 3 (51:48):
I think all I got today.
Speaker 1 (51:50):
That's all I got.
Speaker 3 (51:51):
Oh.
Speaker 2 (51:53):
We just want to say thank you for joining us
on today's episode of Dakota Growing, and as always, we
hope that you'll join up in our future episodes. 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
(52:16):
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.
Speaker 1 (52:26):
Dakota Growing airs on Radio Access
Speaker 2 (52:28):
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 (00:24):
I'm Kelsey Deckert, your horticulture agent here in Burley County,
joined in the Radio Access studio by my co host
Tom Cabb, NDSU Extension horticulturist.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
How are you doing today?
Speaker 3 (00:34):
Everything's great.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
We're in fall officially, right. I heard that?
Speaker 3 (00:39):
Okay, I believe that. But it is like the seventies today.
What's that about?
Speaker 1 (00:45):
Like eighties?
Speaker 3 (00:46):
Yeah, it's really gonna be really and there's no there's
no frost common in the future. No, So you know,
do you think this global warming is true? Then you
know that's maybe we're not going to have winter this year.
What do you think about? What would that be great?
Speaker 1 (00:59):
Or what knock on that wood?
Speaker 3 (01:01):
Yeah? Not kind of plastic table. Yeah, everything's yeah, of
course it's great outside it's so beautiful, just nice and
pleasant and just cherishing these days.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
The evening's nice and far outside.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
Just a bummer that the sun is setting a lot
earlier in the day, but that's to be.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
Expected, so.
Speaker 3 (01:26):
Don't worry.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
Don't worry.
Speaker 3 (01:28):
Huh see, I'll give you a history lesson before my time.
You know, in the old days, the days got shorter
and people thought the sun was going away. Oh did
I tell you that? So people they said, all work,
we're gonna die. We're gonna die. The sun's going away.
We need the sun. And then all of a sudden,
(01:50):
one day the days got longer. You know that is
that's like December twenty third. So that became a festival.
The sun is coming back, We're not gonna die, And
that's how Christmas got started. Jeez. They didn't have a
calendar when Jesus was born, right, so they just picked
(02:10):
the festival and that was the one they picked. So
there he goes.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
It's a long haul, I know.
Speaker 3 (02:15):
A lot of treviator here for you. So dad's getting short.
Don't worry. Don't worry, guys. The sun is not moving away.
The sun will come back and spring will be here. Yeah,
life is good.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
We got a lot to talk about.
Speaker 3 (02:30):
It's little, so much to talk about. Yeah, we got
just cram a lot in. Yeah, because the growing growing
season is gonna probably shut down pretty soon.
Speaker 1 (02:43):
You know it is.
Speaker 3 (02:44):
All right? How about you? What you going to talk about?
Speaker 1 (02:47):
I'm gonna start off with trees.
Speaker 3 (02:50):
That sounds important.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
Yeah, we'll talk about some issues that I'm still seeing
around the county.
Speaker 1 (02:56):
Halls on.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
Yeah, how about that. Let's talk about our tree issues
of the growing season. Maybe I should have titled this
end of the growing season, but they've been going on
for a while, so oh yeah, kicking right off. Yeah,
how about these fungal leave spots. I think we've seen
these all year. Once we started getting that rain, they
(03:18):
just came out like crazy. Of course they're caused by
a fun guy mainly. Sometimes they can be bacterial or
other pathogens. We just really had the perfect environment for
fungal issues this year, didn't.
Speaker 3 (03:32):
We Well, yes, but so what so what it being
so negative are you? Are you complaining about the rain?
No rain is good? Who cares? If there's a little
fungus now? And then it's okay? You know, maybe you
should prune your trees more, get more air movement, and
can it be I'm frown the stand.
Speaker 1 (03:52):
I don't have trees, I have babies out there.
Speaker 3 (03:54):
Prairie you're you get the prairie farm with the horses, farmsteads,
little house on the prairie. It's what you got. It's beautiful, Laura.
Speaker 2 (04:07):
Okay, I think key that people said, just like you said,
minor stress.
Speaker 1 (04:12):
We do not need to stress. Out about this.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
We really only get concerned if they've like resulted in
a moderate to complete leaf loss for two to four.
Speaker 3 (04:22):
Years years in a row. Yeah, so my tree can
drop all its leaves full of fungus today and the
tree will survive. Is that what you're trying to tell me?
Miracles do so I should not worry worried about that?
Speaker 1 (04:36):
You bet?
Speaker 2 (04:37):
I think another prominent problem again, fungal disease apple scab.
Speaker 1 (04:42):
Tom. I feel like you talked.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
A lot about this throughout, like our weekly heart updates
that we had across the state. But again, we see
this on the leaves, we see it on the fruit.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
Right again, he is.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
If you have a lot of leaf loss, that's only
gonna weak the tree if it's consecutively several years in
a row. So just because the leaves are falling.
Speaker 3 (05:07):
They're gonna fall anyhow. Yeah, that's what falls about. Relax
literally relax, right, So what are you gonna do about it? Well,
we're gonna talk a little bit. I got two more
I want to talk about. How about our pseudo sircaspia?
Speaker 1 (05:23):
Did I say that right?
Speaker 3 (05:25):
I think so?
Speaker 2 (05:26):
That's a that's a big word, it's a mouthful. I
had to practice and a lie. That's a problem, big
fungal pathogen. Again, lilacs saw that bottom right photo. Doesn't
matter where you're driving right now in the Bismarck Mandan area.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
People think the lilacs are dying. They're dying, they're dead.
What are we gonna do about it?
Speaker 3 (05:50):
And so you're the happy your teacher.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
Yeah, don't worry exactly that he has been a slide itself.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
Just don't work, No need to worry. So a lot
of these fungal issues that we've been seeing too like
they're gonna spread very easily through that splashing of rain
or irrigation. Even the wind carries a lot of these
different spores. We did see some of this already last
year on our lilacs. So again, pretty good environment for
(06:20):
this to be happening and developing, I would say in
the last month. Then I do have one probably it's
probably a ten foot tall conwood that came up. I
have some volunteers in my art, so the rust came.
Speaker 1 (06:37):
Oh did you see the rust?
Speaker 3 (06:38):
Do you?
Speaker 2 (06:39):
Guy?
Speaker 1 (06:39):
In conwoods or.
Speaker 3 (06:40):
Quite glaspin rust can be a problem. It's really that
moisture really gets the rust going.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
Yeah, I even noticed like, honestly, going out to one
of my pastures, the grass had some rust on it too,
very much. So again, if you look at some of
these deciduous trees from a distance and everything like that,
they're gonna appear like, oh, they already suddenly have fall color.
You might see those brown, dried up leaves. Again we
(07:09):
talked about this last year. But you get this nice
close up photo and you can see those little rust
spores on it, and again they're carried right by the
wind and the splashing of water. So you ask the
big question of what do we do. Look at them.
It's kind of hard to see, but those are not
(07:30):
very nice looking leaves. They got lots of spots on them,
so I'm guessing fungal spots. We gotta rake them up.
We got to clean up our landscape from all those
fungal issues this year.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
How about that?
Speaker 3 (07:43):
Get the disease?
Speaker 2 (07:44):
Yeah, we don't want right, right, we don't want those
pathogens over wintering in that area. And then of course
talking about pruning to open up our canopies to allow
more airflow and sunlight and as well, so.
Speaker 3 (08:00):
The removal is the best sanitation is the best way
to handle this if nothing else to at least mow
the leaves to break heaven breakdown faster. But if you
can rake or break up the disease leaves and get
them out of there.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
Yeah, I had somebody else the other day about spraying
a funder side, said, whoa, why would we be spraying
a fundra side right now? Right it's infected, it's not
going to do anything, So that's right.
Speaker 3 (08:28):
Fun insides are allowing preventatives. They don't cure the problem,
so they just prevent future infection of that year. So yeah,
don't waste your money on the funder side now, because
again the tree leaves are they were naturally going to
drop anyhow.
Speaker 1 (08:45):
So put your time into raking.
Speaker 3 (08:47):
That's what it is, maybe a fund And also you said,
like even if this happens again next year, probably the
tree will survive that too severe defoliations. So it's usually
like the third year you start thinking, Okay, maybe I
need to invest in a fun decide to protect and
(09:07):
the spring would be the time to do that. Application
when the leaves are just popping out, Let's see what happens.
Sounds like everything's gonna be okay.
Speaker 2 (09:16):
Well, and I think a lot of times people look
at a handful of leaves and oh yeah, you look
at the tree overall, maybe what two percent two to
five percent actually fall like you're not You're not losing
a major amount of leaf leafty fully.
Speaker 3 (09:32):
Right, So no worries that tree. That tree has been
through this before, they'll be through it again. Don't worry
about it exactly.
Speaker 2 (09:40):
So the last thing I put this after, but another
common issue going on right now fall needle drop again,
biggest thing people need to know. This is a natural,
normal process for our evergreen trees. So you're gonna see,
just like you see in this photo, those older needles
they start to yellow and brown, they're gonna eventually drop off.
(10:05):
And I've been seeing this outside you know bisiness.
Speaker 3 (10:08):
Oh yeah, definitely it's there. It's the inside of the
tree are the older needles, So they naturally drop m M.
So it's just a natural process. Just like like if
you're volunteer cottonwood tree on the prairie drops its leeves,
do you freak out? No, it's just natural for or
(10:30):
if your elm tree drops its leeves in the fall,
you go, oh, you don't say, oh my god, what
I'm gonna do No, it's just falls, drop sleeves and
evergreens drop needles, old needles. Those old needles don't do
much good. They're in the inside of the tree. They
don't make much food for nutrients for the tree, and
the tree just sheds them. No worries. And those pines
(10:51):
that get a picture of a pine there, they can
be very vivid. You know, a pine can lose. Yeah,
they can lose about a third of their needles, like
just like that, right, and that does cause concern. But
but you said, spruces get it, our pravity get it.
Larches get it. Larches drop everything, right, that's really scary.
Speaker 1 (11:13):
Yeah, you know your type of tree. That's that's the
key on that, you know.
Speaker 2 (11:19):
And just speaking about leaf drop too. Even people got
to realize some of your trees again, Like I've had
some calls that, oh, I have like three ash trees together,
one of them's already dropping leaves, tends.
Speaker 1 (11:34):
To do that.
Speaker 2 (11:35):
That can just be the characteristics of that tree. Like again,
you can have three ash trees. It's no different than siblings, right, God,
same parents and everything like that. However, you're all going
to be different and unique and different characteristics. So again,
I don't need to worry. So should we talk about
(11:57):
what our checklist is going into winter for So, I
used one of your recommended sites here, Dave's Garden, right.
Speaker 1 (12:07):
To look at our chance of frost. Now, we did
experience frost.
Speaker 2 (12:13):
What was it mid late August ish late August, early September.
Speaker 1 (12:19):
I'm trying to think.
Speaker 3 (12:21):
Where were you? Well, I was out in my door, Saskatchewan.
Speaker 2 (12:25):
Nope, there must have been early September because we went
out there.
Speaker 3 (12:30):
A few pockets.
Speaker 1 (12:31):
Yes, my place got it.
Speaker 2 (12:35):
The garden was browned up within a day, got hit.
Corn got it around there too. Yeah, So I think
it was there for like early.
Speaker 3 (12:46):
Most of most county didn't get it. Yeah, just you.
Speaker 2 (12:50):
No throughout through definitely like northeast to Bismarck and stuff.
You could see that the corn being affected majorly. So
again I don't remember the date. I think that was
early September, that second week in September and stuff. But
this is just kind of a good resource when you
want to look at, you know, where's your chance of
(13:12):
frost kind of the percentage of those dates and when
we see a hard frost. So consider that hard frost
around that twenty eight degrees. You know, you're looking at
October third as a fifty percent for that. So coming
around the corner, I guess you could say, right.
Speaker 3 (13:31):
Well, if it's average year, you're right, this is about
the time we get our first frost.
Speaker 2 (13:38):
But you're going to talk about the endless summer we're
in right now, right, We're not going to get a
frost this year.
Speaker 3 (13:42):
I told you the winter is not going to happen.
Speaker 1 (13:45):
Oh, just a brown one. That's great. Okay.
Speaker 2 (13:49):
So people always do ask though about planting trees this
time of year and stuff. So key thing to know
is that your roots need adequate time to get established
before going into winter. Yes, and so when is that.
This is a great map that's provided you see Burley
County there. We would want to get our trees planted
(14:11):
before October one, So again we're coming upon that date.
Speaker 1 (14:17):
So just know that.
Speaker 2 (14:20):
How and stuff. We want to make sure. Biggest mistake
people make is planting that tree too deeply. So make
sure that that root collar is slightly above the soil line.
Right there gives you a good picture of that. So
I always tell people think of like a bell bottom
pant leg. Right, you want that flare.
Speaker 1 (14:40):
To see it cool?
Speaker 3 (14:42):
Yeah, I never heard that before.
Speaker 1 (14:43):
Oh, just to wear the bell bottoms back of the day,
I Tom cool.
Speaker 3 (14:53):
My family, we are a big family, and we all
wore the same clothes. We all wear jeans and a
white T shirt. That was my life as a kid.
Speaker 1 (15:02):
So no bell bottom pads.
Speaker 3 (15:04):
No fancy bell bottom paints. Hope.
Speaker 1 (15:08):
Well, that's okay, all right.
Speaker 2 (15:11):
And then we want to make sure that when we
do plant these trees, we're giving them adequate water. So
kind of a general rule ten gallons per inch of
diameter that you have. And then as far as staking
and everything, of course, staking is going to be great,
you know for those first couple of years to add
stability and again get those roots established.
Speaker 1 (15:34):
And then Tom, I'll let you talk about the rules
of three for maulching, right.
Speaker 3 (15:39):
Okay, yeah, Well, first of all, the type of multi
makes a difference. You want shredded bark mulching, that's what
you want. You want to no rocks. You don't want
to use rocks. Rocks do nothing good for a plant
that plants hate growing in rocks. Shredded bark maulting will
insulate the soil, keeping it a little bit cooler in
(15:59):
the summer and a little bit warmer in the winter
and another night. Thing. It conserves moisture and sure that
bark MAULTI will help to it will eventually break down
and nourish the tree, and it will help keep the
weeds and the weed whacker and law more away. So
maults is very important. So you mentioned the lesson of
three three three. If possible, we want the malts to be.
(16:22):
If you plant a tree, let's say at least three
feet wide in diameter, the malt at least three feet
more the better, and it should be three inches thick,
and it should be you should have no mult within
three inches of the trunk, so no mults near the trunk.
Otherwise the metal mice can nest in it. So three
(16:44):
inches wide, three inches thick, and no malts three inches
near the trunk. That's the lesson.
Speaker 2 (16:50):
Easy enough, Yep, anybody can do that perfect. Okay, just
some other things to consider moving into.
Speaker 3 (16:58):
Let's talk about that planting date. You know, that's the
that's the idea. Yeah, well I have to do that.
Let's do that all right, so we can get so yeah,
October one, So that's that's uh, that's our Joe's Elasnik
(17:19):
developed this map, and that's they'll give us forty days
of forty degrees soil temperatures to let their roots get established.
So that's kind of like the ideal planting deadline. Okay,
it doesn't mean you can't plant in October. It's just
we're past the ideal time, and so especially I think
(17:41):
with my experience with leafy trees, you can get away
a little bit later. Evergreens are a little bit more
risky because those needles hang on the tree all winter.
Speaker 4 (17:52):
But but you know, this is the ideal, Like, it
doesn't mean this is a hard stop at October one, okay,
because you can still successfully plant trees at least into early.
Speaker 3 (18:06):
October, especially the leafy trees. But I remember I just
listened to one of our local nursery people and they
talked about there a little bit, especially concerned about the
way pines tolerate planting and fall. So maybe with pines
you may want to be more hesitant with that. But yeah,
just keep that in mind. This is the ideal. Try
try to get done as soon as you can. That's
(18:27):
really the key if you're going to do it, and
it doesn't hurt to wait till spring, you know.
Speaker 1 (18:32):
Right, easy enough?
Speaker 3 (18:34):
Yeah, Okayuse there are a lot of people who procrastinate
a lot, you know, until they may. Yeah, so maybe
like just because that doesn't mean I have to plant today. Okay,
try to get it done as soon as possible if
you can.
Speaker 2 (18:46):
Okay, let's talk about a few other things to consider
for our trees going into winter.
Speaker 1 (18:52):
Watering.
Speaker 2 (18:53):
You know, this is a question I feel like I
always get and stuff. So we want to water up
until freeze up. Conifers especially are going to be less
likely to have winter injury if they go into the winter.
Speaker 1 (19:07):
With high hydrated needles. So you can see this picture
of this lovely.
Speaker 2 (19:13):
Uh like shaped here evergreen that got some good winter injury.
Speaker 3 (19:19):
On it's that's the plant was butchered. I don't know
what you don't like. It's so that plants so unhappy.
Why did they do that to me? Why don't they
just let me be unatural?
Speaker 1 (19:33):
Natural?
Speaker 3 (19:34):
Yeah, it's just like so torturous. I hate to see that. Yeah, yes,
they don't love that tree. They're trying to dominate that tree,
control that tree. That tree is not happy at all,
And now no wonder it's suffering corner he probably wants
to die just looking at the way it was shaped.
Speaker 1 (19:56):
Yeah, there you go, terrible.
Speaker 3 (19:58):
Don't do that.
Speaker 1 (20:00):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (20:00):
We also want to make sure that we're wrapping our
trees again. We want to protect that young tender bark
from uh frost cracks or the sun skalds. So again,
let's select those white plastic wraps as that's going to
deflect the heat where blacks absorb it.
Speaker 1 (20:17):
So I know we've talked about that.
Speaker 3 (20:19):
Do you want to No, I just think the thing
about wrapping trees. We wrap trees not to keep them warm.
We wrap trees to keep them cool. We don't want
that bark, the tissue beneath the bark to wake up
on a sunny day in March. Yeah, and that's literally
what it does, goes ah snap, break crack. So that's
(20:42):
why you know a lot of maples in town have
a crack on the southwest side of their tree because
that's they got. They woke up in the March right
there on the southwest side on a sunny day, and
they're not You're not supposed to wake up in March
when you're a tree. So so keep it cool. White.
There's a way to go and that keeps the critters
(21:04):
away to it doesn't hurt against critters, you know, you
bet keep those rabbits out.
Speaker 2 (21:09):
Okay, and then pruning okay, not now, we don't need
to be doing this now, but during our dormance season.
And you know, first and foremost, why would we prune.
Number one thing.
Speaker 1 (21:21):
Is like safety.
Speaker 2 (21:22):
So if we look at trees that maybe have some
broken branches, dead branches within there, that can be some
different risks, we want to prune those and make our
trees safe first and foremost. And then also pruning is
gonna help you produce a strong, healthy, and esthetically attractive
tree as well. So when do we do that, Like
(21:44):
I said, during the dormant season, late winter, early spring
March is generally the best time to do it. It's
gonna minimize that excessive sap flow in the springtime like that,
so we got time. Just know that again when we
talked about those fungal issues earlier this year, pruning again
(22:06):
allows more airflow sunlight in keep those leaves drier or
help them dry out faster when we do have periods
of rain. So with that, since we are moving into fall,
just say, let's enjoy the colors that we are seeing.
Speaker 1 (22:23):
Yeah, there you go. You talked about your larch. I
include a.
Speaker 3 (22:26):
Beautiful yellow every yeah, that's spectacular. Yeah, it's like two
weeks of beauty and then the whole winter looks dead.
That has no needles at all. What a cool tree.
Speaker 2 (22:38):
How about some red yet some Ohio buckeye. Got some
winter are you to look at? Get some different colors
within the landscape.
Speaker 3 (22:49):
Okay, so what's the most popular red tree? Every likes red.
Speaker 1 (22:56):
It's gonna be a maple.
Speaker 3 (22:57):
Yeah. See, you gotta be careful with me with most maples, right,
because they want an acidic soil and we have alkaline soils.
Speaker 1 (23:07):
Yeah, so it's going to be disappointed.
Speaker 3 (23:09):
That autumn blaze. Freeman maple, it's marginally hardy, and if
you don't and if you have a very alkaline soil,
it's going to really suffer. So if you have a
Freeman maple, for me, that's one especially important. Put mulching around.
That's very important. And and it's got thin bark. We
(23:31):
got to really protect it from weed whackers and lawnmowers.
Speaker 1 (23:35):
But just choose something different.
Speaker 3 (23:38):
Yeah, you know, this is where it's good to know
your your landscape. You know, like, what kind of so
do I have? Do I have a very alkaline soil?
If it's very alkine, you should not plant a Freeman
maple or a silver maple. You shouldn't. Yeah, I'll just
leave it at that, because there are a few maples
that like to cherry and maple, you know Janala maple. There,
(24:03):
they're more tolerant. But gotta be really careful about that.
If you've got a very all client strug, the page
is seventy five or higher. So that's why it's not
a bad investment to get a soil test done, especially
if you've got a new property. Find out what kind
of soil you got, and that can help you make
smart decisions planting tree, See what works, see what doesn't work.
Speaker 1 (24:25):
Now, that was a great time to do it too.
Speaker 3 (24:27):
That was a good time to as sew test because
you've got almost nothing else to do. Right, but not
after my call coming up here, because I'm going to
tell you lots of things you gotta get going on. Okay, Okay,
there's my talk. Today is gonna I call it endless
summer because except for Kelsey's property, the rest of us
(24:48):
has had low frost and at the temperatures in the
seventies and the long range forecast right the next ten days,
it's going to be like in the seventies.
Speaker 1 (24:57):
Yeah, I think Sunday said eighty five. This short season
is still among us.
Speaker 3 (25:05):
Yeah, there it goes. The summers keeping going, and the
harvest has been great, man, with the rains we had.
Speaker 1 (25:13):
And those are your carrots.
Speaker 3 (25:15):
No, that's a photo at the farmers markets.
Speaker 1 (25:18):
Okay, beautiful though.
Speaker 3 (25:21):
Oh that's why I included it as a picture. So,
but frost will come, Okay, So you know it's just
a matter of time before it comes. It always does.
Trust me. You know that we live in North Dakota.
We know frost will be here before you know it.
So just I will briefly what what is frost about?
(25:42):
How does that harm the plant? And that's and here's
some tomatoes that I'm sure you would love to eat, Kelsey,
since you love tomatoes so much. But you see, the
way frost harms a plant is water. When it free
it expands, Like if you put a can of soda
(26:04):
or sparking water in your freezer and you'll let us
sit there, the water expand and will explode in the
freezer and the same thing happens with frost is that
the water in the plant cells expand and break the
cell walls. They just explode and when the cell walls
are exploded, everything collapses and that leads to mushy, mushy fruit.
(26:30):
So that's what happened here. That's what frost does. It
explodes the plant cells and everything turns to mush. So
here's an exploded to make Yeah, just got frost. That's
what it is. And we did talk a little about
frost eates. I have another the frost eate. They're pretty
much the same. There are different sources. This is from
the Midwestern Regional Climate Center and they say this is
(26:54):
for Burley County. Burley County, Okay. So those listeners in Fargo,
you're different. Those of you up and up in bot
and oh you're different. This is for Burley Counting. And
we usually get our light frost at thirty two degrees
around September twenty sixth and we get our first hard
killing frost when it's about twenty eight degrees around October fifth.
(27:18):
But you can see like ten percent of the years
will get our frost, like I'm Kelsey's property, Like September
eleventh or September end, then a hard frost on September
twenty one, and they didn't go to the ninety December.
Nine out of ten years will definitely have been receiving
a frost by October tenth and a hard frost by
(27:38):
October twenty second. So this year appears to be one
of those late frost This is gonna be a late
frost year for most of us. And so what does
that mean? So I can we're in late September, that
means we've got about two weeks before we're probably gonna
get our It looks like it's gonna be about ten
to fifteen days probably until we get our first light
frost for most of us. Now, so that's still what
(28:01):
we sudden grow stuff. And if you want to protect
your plants from frost, you get one of the best
ways is put up use a blanket. Now, this is
a fancy frost blanket, and some frost blanket. Usually a
blanket will give you about two degrees of protection two degrees,
but there are frost blankets that are really thick that
are made to protect plants that can give you eight
(28:21):
degrees of protection. So, but for those of us are
just normal who don't want to invest on a lot
of money in frost blankets. You know, just a croth
blanket will give you a couple of degrees of protection
more than plastic. Okay, plastic, just think about that.
Speaker 1 (28:39):
Just say it doesn't sound warm at all?
Speaker 3 (28:40):
Yeah, just pretend you were a tomato plant outside, you
had no clothes on. Outside, you're freezing cold. Did you
want to wrap yourself in plastic or a long blanket?
Speaker 2 (28:51):
Yeah, I'm going to try to get the denim, you know,
the denot'll blankets.
Speaker 3 (28:56):
Extra flare bottoms.
Speaker 1 (28:58):
Really, and I'm blanket that everybody can of their truck
of their car.
Speaker 3 (29:02):
Oh really, never heard of that? Oh I don't have
a dnim planket.
Speaker 1 (29:05):
Didn't grow up. You must not have had that grandma.
Speaker 3 (29:07):
That was a Sewern blanket.
Speaker 1 (29:10):
Oh yeah, they're very heavy duty. That's what I would
grab the one.
Speaker 3 (29:14):
Guys yet one of those? Yeah, I don't know. Why
Why are you keeping the trunk of your car in
case you drive off the ditch or something.
Speaker 1 (29:23):
Well, you always gotta have like your emergency kit blankets.
Speaker 3 (29:27):
I don't I really should do that, I really should
do that. Yeah, But I just stay on the highway
if I can, just so. I don't like driving in
the winter that much anyhow, well only if it's necessary,
yeah at night, not necessary though, Yeah, I just don't
like that anymore. I don't like driving at night. Getting old.
(29:47):
Here we go. So some plants can tolerate no frost,
and so if you like beans and cucumbers and tomatoes
and your zucchini, that you treasure so if you want to.
So they got no tolerance. So they if you want
to keep them, they're the ones you gotta put the
your denim blanket on if it's a Some can tolerate
(30:10):
a light frost, like carrots and lettuce and spinach and
winter squash. And so they're there. You got a little tolerance.
And then lastly got those tough ones broccoli, cabbage, kale
just goes, Oh, you can't kill me. I'm tough, you know,
kill snowfall. I'm gonna still be strong, Cole, Robbie. These
(30:31):
guys are tough. They can tug the hard frost. So
they're the least important ones in most cases. But most people,
besides Kelsey, again Kelsey is a very special person. We're
learning most people treasure tomatoes the most and so let's
talk about how you can ripen your tomatoes. Again. Tomatoes
cannot take any frost. But if you got a light frost,
(30:51):
you know, like a couple of degrees, you can put
out your denim blanket that your grandma made for you
and they'll give you two degrees of protection. But if
it gets like hard frost like twenty eight, grandma's blanket
is not going to get the job. No, sorry, So
you gotta harvest what you can. And what we focus
on when you harvest is we want to have tomatoes
that at least have a blush. They're more likely to
(31:14):
ripen indoors. If it's a solid drain, that's gonna be hard,
that's gonna take a long time, and it will likely rot.
So I don't bother petting a green tomatoes. That's the
way it goes. Okay, So you want blushing for tomatoes
and those that are track free. And then you want
to tomatoes and they ripe and they give off an
(31:36):
ethylene gas. Okay, so we want to trap that gas
so it enhances ripening. So yeah, put the fruits in
a single layer, don't play them on top of each other,
and put them like maybe in a cardboard box or
at least on something a piece of cardboard or a newspaper,
(31:57):
and then you put some paper on top of the
tomatoes to trap that gas. And some people wrap every
tomato frot with like newspaper that that's like too much
work for me. But just like maybe up a sheet
of cardboard or newspapers on top of the tomato, the
layer of tomatoes, and then keep it away from direct
sum Some people like put it on their window sill,
(32:17):
but that doesn't work because that will just ripen the skin.
We don't want that. We want to ripe in the
whole tomato. And room temperatures. Don't get it too hot,
you know, that can encourage rotting or too cold because
it'll just take forever. So room temperatures are best.
Speaker 1 (32:32):
So you could do several layers in a box.
Speaker 3 (32:34):
Though you know is that I don't like that. I
just know I want I want just a single layer,
that's all I want. You know, see I don't have
more than one box the tomatoes. You know, all you
have to do is like it's a good excuse to
you know, an Amazon box that work great, So it's
just good excuse so you can order someone from Amazon
(32:55):
just for a tomato box. How about that. You can
tell your your husband, we need another tomato box.
Speaker 1 (33:00):
So for the tomatoes we don't grow.
Speaker 3 (33:03):
Yes, well Jaden grows, that's true. But does he like tomatoes?
Speaker 1 (33:10):
Not really?
Speaker 3 (33:11):
No, so you're compatible. There you go. That's great.
Speaker 1 (33:14):
No tomatoes. Ulse it's ketchup in our house.
Speaker 3 (33:16):
Ketch See it makes no sense.
Speaker 1 (33:18):
I know.
Speaker 3 (33:18):
I bet you like pizza too. See you guys just
make no weird weird ones. You just don't like a
real tomato, but you're like processed. Its fascinating. I don't know.
It must be that must be like a disorder of
some type of tomato phobia or.
Speaker 1 (33:33):
I feel like there's a lot of people out there
like this though.
Speaker 3 (33:37):
Yeah there are. Yeah. Yeah. It's because it's kind of acidic,
I think. And maybe it's a natural reaction because like
tomato vines, don't they don't taste good? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (33:50):
You sugar in there for the ketchup?
Speaker 3 (33:53):
Sure? No, oh that's right, that's gotta add sugar.
Speaker 1 (33:56):
Yeah, okay, little vinegar or whatever.
Speaker 3 (34:00):
Okay. I think I like every I mean, I don't
really love any vegetable, but I don't like despise any vegetable.
I would eat any vegetables for beans. Despies beans, well
that as you can them. Wants canned beans, that's disgusting.
Frozs and beans are delicious. Fresh beans. I love fresh beans.
(34:24):
That's that's how you got started in horniculture. Yeah, I
grew beans as a kid. I told you that story, right,
And that was my job. We each had every one
of my brothers and sisters had out and they gave
me the easiest one because I was, you know, stupidest,
and so said, here, Tommy, you do the beans. You
can't you can't ruin that. And I was successful every
(34:48):
year and pick the beans. My mom just gives me
a big pot, tom go pick some beans. And I
picked some beans for mom and she kissed me on
the forehead as soon as they gave her the beans.
So there's positive reinforcement. So I said, this horticulture is
a good thing. I think, you know, I think this
could be a career for me bean grower. There you go.
(35:12):
That's a long story. Another one a crop that you
can probably be successful at Kelsey is winter squash. Yeah
there you go, Almost as easy as beans, right, Yeah,
So for me, winter squash now they can take a
light frost, but they can't take a hard frost, just
like tomatoes. So I pretty much just leave me a
winter squash on the vine until a hard frost is expected,
(35:34):
and then right before that frost, I go out there
and harvest everything. But to tell if a winter squash
is ripe, you look at that at the bottom of
the fruit. It can have a white spot. When the
white spots turn gold, and that's a good sign. The
stem end should be dry, that's a good clue, and
also the rine should be hard and glossy. But for me,
(35:57):
I just wait for the hard frost and then we
just take it from there. Then we get out the
wheelbarrow and go nuts. So when you harvest winter squash,
you want to clip the fruits off the stem. You
want to keep about an inch of the stem there,
and then brush off the soil. If there is any
soil on it, don't wash it. That can encourage diseases.
There's brush off the soil, and then we want to
(36:18):
harden the rhne. We call it curing, so like a
week under warm temps, like put them out in the
driveway for a week. They can't take a hard frost.
They'll keep that in mind and that will cure them.
That will help them in storage. And then store your
winter squash at about fifty to sixty degrees like an
unheated basement works good for me. And I put them
(36:40):
on a pallette to get them off the ground. That helps.
And then I think about winter squash. Is there's different
types of winter squash. Can you can enhance the flavor
in storage? The starches will convert into sugars, but some don't.
Some this doesn't work with some. Just there are what
they are, like acorn squash, the delicata, the spaghetti, and
(37:02):
the little small miniature squashes. You can just eat them
right away. But if you have a buttercup or a
full sized kobocha, these are usually a grayish or dark
greenish in color. They will do have dill taste better
if you store them for a month. And butternut even
at least a month. In two months, the butternut will
(37:23):
have its peak flavor. So just keep that in mind.
You can store your squash and have better flavor. Okay, now,
so that's how I used to frost as far as
determined when to harvest my winter squash. And the thing
goes with the apples in that I don't follow the
frost like some people. Like some people say I'm gonna
(37:44):
wait till my apples get frosted, a light frost and
then they'll be taste better. That is wrong. An apple
has its peak flavor when it's ripe, and then once
it makes once it's ripe, the flavor gets worse. So
harvest your apples when it's ripe and don't wait for
a frost. And when is a red apple ripe When
(38:06):
that background color and see here on the side, when
that background color turns from greenish to gold or has
a yellowish tinge, that's a sign that the apple is ripe.
And then the other thing is when you harvest an
apple it's ripe, you can do an upward twisting motion.
We talked about this the last episode. I think that
(38:27):
an upper twisting motion, and it should come right off.
If it doesn't come off, it's not ripe. And don't
yink down on it.
Speaker 1 (38:35):
Oh, don't rip the branches off.
Speaker 3 (38:36):
Yeah. I was just out at Cherrington and of their
orchard and they were picking and they're ripping off the
fruit and going, oh stop, stop, stop, because you see
there like you can see right near that happened that
yellow ring that that is the flower bud for next year.
That's next year's crop. Don't be ripping down apples otherwise
you're ripping off the flowers and the fruits for next year.
(38:58):
So on upward twisting motion. But again, like most of
our apple varieties are right now, okay, if you start
seeing the apples falling down, because that's a sign that
probably that they they're ripe to go to you know, so,
so don't if your apples are dropping, don't say I'm
gonna wait till they get a frost. No, they're ripe
(39:19):
so picked. If you got a lad riping apple, they
can take a light frost for sure, and they won't
even start to have any frost damage until twenty eighth
degrees okay, And in my experience it's more closer to
twenty six degrees when it really gets I really start
worrying about the apples having frost significant frost damage. If
(39:43):
the temps are just dancing near twenty eight, they're okay.
But if the apple does freeze, then you should wait
till it thaws out and then harvest it at that time.
And a frozen apple will not store well, So that's
gonna be the apples that you gotta gotta eat first. Again,
so apples have some sugar. They're not gonna freeze at
(40:04):
twenty at thirty two. They don't even gonna begin to
freeze till it hits about twenty eight. So we got
a little bit of leeway there, okay. And we talked
about like, if apples are on the ground, it's really
important that you for good sanitation, that you pick up
any fallen apples. But when you pick them up, you
gotta worry about those wasp because those wasp. Until the
(40:25):
frost comes, the wasp populations are continuing to rise. So
I just want to talk briefly about wasp control because
we've got like two more weeks of wasp action going on.
So something usually just leave the wasp nest alone. Just
let them live their life, You live your life. They're
gonna die in two weeks, that's okay. But if they're
(40:50):
then the hazardous location and they're all buzzing around, you
should take action and destroy them. Because the wasp they're
they're they live in a and they're very protective of
the queen and themselves. So to kill wasp only in
the high traffic areas where they're all real risk you
(41:10):
and then the wash. They all come home at night
and they're less active when it's a cold night, when
the attempts from the fifties, So that's when they're vulnerable.
You want to get them at night when they're all
there and on a cool night they can barely move.
Show respect to your enemy. These guys, they can't attack you,
and they can sting stings, sting like a bee stings.
(41:33):
Once it gets it loses its stinger and it dies.
Was are different. They're not. They're not like bees. Wash
can sting you several times. They can be very aggressive
this time here, So we're armor the protective clothing like
a hat in case you got a lot of hair
like me. You don't want the wasp gets stuck in
your hair. It could be a major problem. And long
(41:54):
sleeve shirts are good. You don't want them to get
in your clothes because that's really bad news. They'll sting
you for sure. Long trousers and tuck your socks over
the trousers, even if they're bell bottom flares. You gotta
talk them in others. I'll go undernose they'll bell, bounce
and zero will nail you. That's a bad problem. I've
had that happened like again under my jacket or something.
(42:15):
Oh if I had news, that's they're gonna get them.
So these there's above ground nasty. You see, they all
have an entrance hole. That's our target. So we're gonna
scout the enemy just like a war. I'm gonna kill
this army of WASP. I got my armor on, I
know where they're vulnerable, I know where the hole is,
and then I'm gonna go out there with a knock
(42:36):
down wasp killing spray target the entrance hole, and I'm
gonna soak that nest and get the heck out of there.
I'm not gonna just, you know, do a dance or
anything saying well I got you, I got you, because
they don't do a happy dance. Get the heck out
of there, run out, and then check the next day
or two and see how you did if they're still active.
(42:58):
Because wasp they have to go in and out. They
don't store food in there, so they got to keep harvesting.
Speaker 1 (43:06):
So so they'll take a bat hit the nest.
Speaker 3 (43:09):
Don't do that, Oh russy asking for trouble or don't
a flame thrower, don't do that. Just the wasp killing
sprays to kill on contact.
Speaker 1 (43:20):
That's your web.
Speaker 3 (43:21):
That's what I want long range, you know, twenty feet
there you go. Some nests are below ground though, yeah,
so you can still use the wasp those kind of sprays.
But actually a dust works best because when they go out,
the dust will be on the on the entrance to
the nests itself, so when they fly out, they'll get
exposed to that dust like seven dust here, and you
(43:43):
can sprinkle or dust maybe I would just probably may
if I had some wasp killing spray in the garage,
I'd try that first, just soaking and see how it goes.
But if they're still active, I got used dust the
next time.
Speaker 1 (43:54):
Yep.
Speaker 3 (43:55):
Okay, don't steal the hole because they'll just make a
new entrance, a new entry prints while just dust and
run and check. So that's a blow ground nest. Those
are like German yellow jackets have that, okay. And the
other thing about nasts is nasts are never reused again. Okay,
so what happens. I've talked about this before, how it's
(44:17):
a love story. It's a beautiful love story. About hornet.
It is hornets. They are a loving critter, even more
than horses. Do you know that. I know you're a
horse person. Maybe I support hornets more, yeah, because I
really respect them. You know. First of all, they will
fight to defend their colony. They will fight. And the
(44:40):
other thing about a hornet like that mother, she's been there, Yeah,
since May. She was she was impregnated in the previous fall.
She survived the North Dakota winter all by herself. She
didn't have a barn or anything like a horse does.
She was a widow all by herself, and she started
her colony in May from nothing, just a spit of mud,
(45:06):
and she just and her daughters they built that nest together.
And nowadays, what she's doing right now is she's getting
ready for the next generation. So she's creating queens and
their mates right now, and they're gonna fly away do
their thing, and they're gonna start the colony next lives.
(45:27):
But the mother and her daughters, they're gonna stand in
the nest all the way until that frost comes and
they're gonna freeze. They're just gonna hold hands and freeze together.
The loving story. That's life. Yeah, But she passed the
baton to the next generation. That's what children's all about.
(45:47):
How about that for philosophy? Shall we talk about some
more killing? There you go. I got this picture of it.
This guy says, I want to kill this vine. Can
you tell me how to kill it? So this is
a Virginia creeper actually.
Speaker 1 (46:01):
Was going to say, growing up on a tree.
Speaker 3 (46:03):
Yeah, I know, like a pretty thick Yeah. I don't
know what. I don't know what it's covering. It could
be covering a shrub, it could be covering his child.
I don't know what's covering grandchild. He just wanted to
kill it. That's what her. I want to kill this
sucker time I don't to kill it. And and there's
a Virginia creeper. This is the most common vine in
(46:25):
North Dakota.
Speaker 1 (46:26):
It's beautiful, yes, this time of year.
Speaker 3 (46:28):
Beautiful fall collar and got fruits. Don't eat the fruits.
But how you tell Virginia creeper. It's got like these
five leaflets, five to seven leaf flets, all like a palm.
I would say, fingers. That's one leaf. This is if
you have kids and you have to do a leaf
project in the fall. This is the one. Yeah, you're
gonna get a eight plus for the Virginia creeper. They're everywhere.
(46:50):
So how do you kill that sucker? I'll tell you
how to kill any woody plant this time. Now it's
a great time to do it. So you prune the
vine right down at the base, get your lapping shears
right down the base, and then I'm going to soak
that fresh wound with a brush killing herbicide. And that's
going to have a triclope here or light life facade
in it. And now's the time to do it because
(47:13):
the plants, now we've talked about this before. The plants
now are preparing for winter. They're sending all their nutrients
down into the roots. How do we kill his vine?
We've got to get that herbicide down into the roots,
and so the plant. If you soak the wound right now,
the plant will naturally channel the herbicide along with its
(47:35):
nutrients down into its roots. And even if you don't
want to cut it at the base, you could you
can soak the leaves if you want. But then I
worry about it. You might get some of the desirable
plants because that they could harm them. And then you'll
really set this vine back severely. It may re sprawl
(47:56):
because it has a it could have an aggressive root system.
But have to do is like hit it again, you
know fresh woman, soak the sprout. That's how you kill
a woody plant.
Speaker 1 (48:08):
Okay, it works on saplings, right and the other.
Speaker 3 (48:10):
Art does if you're really yep, that's right, that's it,
And now is the time to do it because the
plant will send the herbicide down into the roots. And
the saying those last thing to talk about is with
our is with our herbaceous or our green plants, like
feel bind weed. Now now is the best time because
the buying weed is sending the herbicide down into its roots.
(48:34):
So if you got bind weed in your lawn, which
can be a problem, you know, you want to use
a chemical that will kill the buying weed but won't
kill the lawn. And those are broad leaf weed jailers
and so like like round up. There's lots of round ups.
You got to read the label carefully. This is the
run up for lawns. It won't kill the lawn, but
(48:55):
it will kill the weeds. And there's other products to
lawn crab grass killer. For me, when I select one.
I like finding something that has die camba in it.
Most of these products have two four D two four
D like dog but two four D. They'll kill the
(49:16):
easy ones like daniline, but it won't kill the tough
ones like buying weeds. So I look for someone that
has di camma. That's pretty tough. And now I see
more of the products are adding quinchlorac that also kills
a little crabgrass when it's supplied in the springtime. But
now is the time to do it. You got while
the plants are still actively growing, and you spray them
(49:37):
and it will sock the chemical down into those roots.
But if binding's in your garden, I don't want to
use di caamma because that can persist for several months.
So you got to use something that has a very
short life. And so I would use something like glyphasate. Okay, glyphasate,
and this is a vegetation killer. It will kill almost
(49:58):
every vegetation, kill bind weeds. But this is what I
would use in a garden because it's it lasts in
the garden for just a few days actually, but I
like to spray. It gives it a couple of weeks
to start the bind week to death, and then you
can ready to plant next spring. So that's my thing.
If you wanted to start a new garden next year,
glycas would be great to spray right now, late Soetember,
(50:23):
and that would kill the grass, chill the weeds, and
then you can maybe even chill up the land before
it freezes this fall, and then you're ready to rock
and roll.
Speaker 1 (50:33):
So that great.
Speaker 3 (50:34):
That's a lot of stuff that we talked about today.
Speaker 1 (50:37):
In our endless summer.
Speaker 3 (50:39):
Our endless summer. Yeah, but it probably will end in
a couple of weeks. But it's a long it's a
long summer. Yeah, it's good.
Speaker 1 (50:46):
It is good.
Speaker 2 (50:47):
I think everybody's enjoying these last warm days and I
am being able to be outside late.
Speaker 3 (50:54):
That is right in the good time to take take
take a nice walk, and yeah, you bet lots of
things to do. What else? What else should we be
doing now this time here? Any other things I talk about?
Speaker 1 (51:09):
I don't think. So maybe go to the pumpkin.
Speaker 3 (51:11):
Patch, yeh, have some fun. That's good. If I think
if you're going to fertilize your lawn, I would do
it yesterday if you can. Yeah, don't wait any longer.
If you really try to get that. We want to
make sure that the lawn has a chance to harden
off before winter. So if don't wait any longer for that,
(51:33):
I said, we want to plant the trees soon if
you can. And yeah, I think you'll harvest, harvest your apples,
have harvest your fruits when they're ripe. Yeah. I think
that's a lot of stuff going on.
Speaker 1 (51:44):
I think so too. Those are your last pieces of advice.
Speaker 3 (51:48):
I think all I got today.
Speaker 1 (51:50):
That's all I got.
Speaker 3 (51:51):
Oh.
Speaker 2 (51:53):
We just want to say thank you for joining us
on today's episode of Dakota Growing, and as always, we
hope that you'll join up in our future episodes. 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
(52:16):
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.
Speaker 1 (52:26):
Dakota Growing airs on Radio Access
Speaker 2 (52:28):
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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