- Hi, thanks for joining us for The Family Plot: Gardening in the Mid-South.

I'm Chris Cooper.

Ferns, rhododendrons, crape myrtles and pill bugs.

These are some of the viewer questions we are answering today.

It's the Q&A show next on The Family Plot: Gardening in the Mid-South.

- (female announcer) Production funding for The Family Plot: Gardening in the Mid-South is provided by the WKNO Production Fund, the WKNO Endowment Fund and by viewers like you, thank you.

[upbeat country music] - Welcome to The Family Plot.

I'm Chris Cooper.

The garden is in and growing, but that always seems to bring lots of questions.

We're going to show you viewer questions we answered but did not get a chance to air because of time.

We're going to start with a question about asparagus.

"I planted an asparagus bed 20 years ago.

"I take good care of it.

"It has always gotten big asparagus stems until recently.

"Now I get these spindly plants, what am I doing wrong, and how can I bring them back to life?"

And this is Joe from Collierville, Tennessee.

- Okay.

- He says he weeds.

He puts down ample amount of triple-13 and uses straw to hold in moisture.

So he's doing some good things there.

- That's right.

- But yeah.

- And he's been successful for a number of years.

- Twenty years.

- Twenty years.

So I'd say that his technique hasn't changed.

It's not him failing the plant.

I would say that this asparagus has just run its course.

Typically, you know, if they're taken care of well, which he has been doing a great job of, they can produce anywhere from 15 to 30 years.

But typically their peak producing years are between that 5 and 15 year kind of window.

- So 5 and 15.

- So now, he's at year 20.

I think that this plant is likely that it has just run its course.

And that's one of the signs is just more narrow spindly spears.

Right, so it's still growing, there's still something there.

It's just not vigorous.

So I would suggest that he move his planting area.

We don't wanna come back in in that same spot.

That ground has been serving for a long time.

- Let it rest.

- Yeah, let that spot rest.

Pick a new area, come back in with some new fresh plants.

- Okay.

- And, you know, it's gonna take a few years for those before he can harvest, you know, some stems from that.

We usually want them to grow for about two years before we really start harvesting spears off of that perennial planting.

And my other suggestion would be that he focus on selecting male varieties.

- That's interesting, yeah.

- Because female cultivars are putting energy into producing seed later in the season.

And so they can have shorter lifespans as far as productivity goes.

And you know, most of the cultivars that are on the market that people are familiar with are male varieties.

So Jersey, Jersey Giant, Jersey Knight.

You know, those are male and they're common.

- Do you think those would grow here?

- Yeah, yes, they will.

And so I just wanted to, you know, make sure that we touched on that.

But I think in this case, it's just ran its lifespan.

- Twenty years is a long time Mr.

Joe.

I mean, it's great success.

- Yeah.

- Right.

- I'm glad he got good asparagus that long.

- Yeah, and I like asparagus.

- Me too.

Sometimes, people get overcome with the weeds at a certain point.

And so that's the main struggle with those perennial plantings.

But he's been doing a great job.

[upbeat country music] - "What is eating my collard greens?"

And this is Terri from Richmond, Virginia.

She lives on the fourth floor.

So what do you think might be eating her collard greens, right, on the fourth floor?

- I have a list of things that likes turnip greens.

Like flea beetles, cabbage worms, cabbage loopers, thrips, harlequin bugs, cut worms, weevils, rabbits, deer and me.

So rabbits, deer and me, we're not gonna go up to the fourth floor.

But everything else is mobile enough that it could make it up there.

- I would agree with that.

- Maybe cut worms.

The moth could fly up there and lay the eggs.

So I guess, yeah, so I think everything except rabbits, deer and me.

You know, I'd look at the type of damage.

Flea beetles will make little bitty holes in the leaves.

The worms and the loopers would be their, you know, chewing mouthparts.

And so they would.

Thrips would affect really the small plant more and cause the leaves to curl a little bit.

So you have to look at the type of damage to figure out what your problem is.

I say get you a magnifying glass.

Or if you're on the fourth floor, take your plants to your local Extension Office and have them tell you what insect they think's causing the problem.

And then you treat it accordingly.

- Yeah, accordingly, right.

That will definitely help.

Yep, for sure.

- Or you could go with some of the safer soap or something like that, that might, you might accidentally repel the insect that's causing you a problem or damage it.

You might want to try using something like that.

That's kind of broad spectrum.

A broad spectrum insecticidal soap or something like that.

- Read and follow the label on that of course.

There's gonna be contact activity.

So you would need this, you know, those pests would need to be present, you know, for the most part.

- That's right.

Again, follow the label, make sure you pay attention to the harvest restrictions.

Pre-harvest restrictions on anything and wash 'em good.

[upbeat country music] - "My bushes tend to lean towards the sun.

Why are they doing this?"

And this is Eric.

He wants to know do I need to straighten them?

So why are they leaning towards the sun?

- Well, probably because they're not getting enough sun.

And so they may be stretching to search for that sun, right?

So to answer his question, he said do I need to straighten them?

First of all, I'd say no.

I'd say don't straighten 'em.

But it's important for us to understand why they are leaning.

Like why are they searching for that sun.

So are there other more mature or taller plants around them that are causing more shade now than the plants used to have?

That's when I see, you know, plants leaning and kind of stretching to reach towards the sun the most.

When they're trying to compete for that sunlight, they're trying to search it out and find it around other plants.

So what can we do to rectify that?

If that's the case, we could prune the plant that's causing this massive amount of shade.

We can make access to that light more easy.

And then the other thing that I thought they might wanna consider is maybe it's not light, maybe it's wind.

- It could be.

- Maybe did they have some straight line winds?

Is there no protection from prevailing winds?

And maybe it's pushing those plants over.

And so it just seems like it's reaching for light.

So, you know, just a couple other things to consider.

What about splitting?

- Yeah, I mean that's what I thought, of course.

You know, if it's splitting, then I would be concerned.

Or if it's not anchored properly in the ground, you know is something else.

- Right, so if it was a new install, we don't know how long these plants have been there.

So if they just put it in the ground and the plant hasn't had time to fully root in, I could see, again, but in that situation, it's probably not light.

It's probably from lack of support.

And so we could look, in that case, we might look at straightening the plant back up and anchoring the root ball.

But if it is indeed due to lack of light, I'd say I wouldn't try to like-- - Try to straighten it up or anything.

- Yeah, because that's just the plant's physiology.

It's just reaching for light.

- Right, phototrophism, it just came to me.

- It's just moving towards it.

- Moving towards the light.

[upbeat country music] "After spring-blooming perennials die back for the summer, do they need to be watered?"

And this is Monique from Indianapolis, Indiana.

What do you think about that?

It's an interesting question.

- It is, it is.

Well, a lot of our perennial plants do have their particular period of growth and bloom.

And those spring blooming perennials often go somewhat dormant after they bloom in the spring and look beautiful.

And then they go quiet and dormant for the summer.

They're not growing a lot at that point.

And they should not need a lot of supplemental water in my opinion.

- I agree with that.

- I would just rely on the regular rainfall.

Potentially, if it's extra hot and there's a drought and you're watering other plants, they could be watered.

But if they're dormant, they're not going to, they're not going to need much water.

And in fact, there's a chance of overwatering them.

- That would be my fear.

So I would rely on Mother Nature 'cause I don't want to overwater because root rot.

- Right.

- You know, could be an issue at that point.

I agree with you.

- Yeah.

I would just let 'em be and let nature work its magic that way.

- I would do it, I would do the same thing.

[upbeat country music] "What happened to our rhododendron?

"Usually it flowers every spring.

Is it saveable?"

And this is Greg from Carnegie, Pennsylvania.

We appreciate that picture too.

So what happened to it you think?

- Yeah, I was stumped on this one for a minute and then had to go around and pick up some context clues from the question.

And I'm leaning towards winter damage.

Are you?

- Yeah, so that's what I thought.

You know, I'm looking at the area that it's in, right?

And they're prone to a lot of winter injury, you know, in that area.

So yeah, I thought winter.

- Yeah.

And so, you know, I'm not super concerned about it.

It looked like a pretty well established plant.

- It's a pretty good size.

- Had some, you know, good size on it.

And if that burn is just on, you know, that most tender foliage, I think that that plant's gonna be fine and any new growth that it puts on for this season is likely to camouflage that.

Or if they wanted to do maybe some pruning on it to just go ahead and take those parts out.

Rhododendrons can push new growth from dormant wood.

You know, like woody older growth.

I think that plant's gonna be fine.

- I think it's gonna be fine, if you could look at the bottom, I mean you can see some pretty good growth there.

So you mentioned about pruning.

So when would you prune?

- Okay, so traditionally for rhododendron, I would suggest that people prune them right after they flower.

So they're spring flowering shrubs typically.

I couldn't tell from the picture if the flower buds, if it had started to make buds yet.

So there's a chance that this year's flowers were injured whenever that cold, you know, period happened that caused the dieback on the leaves as well.

So it might not flower this year.

But regardless whether it does or doesn't, I would shoot for, you know, late spring would be the time to prune that.

So that it has plenty of time to put on current year's growth because the growth it puts on this year will bear the blooms for next spring.

So you don't wanna wait too long.

Like don't wait until the middle of summer to prune that back if they are wanting to prune that off.

- And this is something that I always like to mention too, Celeste, I actually don't encourage people to fertilize when a plant is already stressed.

- I love that.

So just let the plant, you know, just kind of, you know, build up the energy that it needs and then the next year just a little bit.

- Yeah, and it's confusing to people 'cause they think, well the fertilizer is gonna help 'em.

Well actually, fertilizing a plant puts it under a certain amount of stress and the plant is already stressed.

And so sometimes it's best to just let things take their course and see how it can push through.

[upbeat country music] - "What kind of soil should I use "to up-pot my anthurium plant?

Should I fertilize?"

And this is Peter from Broken Arrow, Oklahoma.

So Mr.

D, what do you think?

- I had to contact some of my former coworkers at Oklahoma State University and check out some of their literature to figure out what an anthurium was.

And also while doing that, I figured out how to up-pot one.

- Ah, there you go.

- Peter needs to use a chunky, well-drained mix.

And this is what you put in that chunky, well-drained mix.

One third of it, good potting soil.

Any good potting soil.

One third pearlite or pumice.

Pearlite or pumice.

And then the last 1/3, I had to do some research on this.

Either orchid bark or coco chips.

And you probably know what orchid bark and coco chips are.

I didn't, orchid bark is simply pine bark or fir bark and coco chips are chipped up coconuts.

- Just large chunks.

- Just like it sounds I guess.

So I was thinking the sweet cocoa.

- You're thinking about that, right?

- Chocolate chip, that's chocolate chip.

But if you do that, you ought to be in good shape with your anthurium in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma.

- Right.

So when I'm thinking about the mix, right?

So it goes to this point, they like air around their roots.

- Yeah, they do.

- So that actually makes sense.

So how do you fertilize?

So what about fertilizer?

- I don't know.

- Okay.

- It's an interior plant so it doesn't need a lot of fertilizer, but it does need some.

So I would just put a very weak fertilizer, you know, liquid fertilizer, and water it like maybe every week or two, you know, with the fertilizer and then just water the rest of the time.

In the winter, you're going to hold off on that.

And when it starts being spring, I would put more on it so that it'll bloom a little bit more with the higher light intensity that will be in the spring.

- I assumed since Peter is up-potting his anthurium that he knew how to fertilize it.

- He's been growing it.

It's out growing its pot.

- He's up-potting it, yeah.

- Yeah, they love high humidity also.

So I'm sure he's figured that part out already.

- Right, so yeah, very similar to orchids.

[upbeat country music] "What is the best fern for a sunny window?"

And this is Bob from Arlington, Tennessee.

So Mr.

Bob, we're just gonna give Jill this.

We're just gonna get outta the way.

Have at it Jill.

- Okay, well it's an interesting question 'cause ferns generally need indirect light, need low light, bright, indirect light lovers.

So for a sunny window, there are a couple options.

The Kimberly Queen fern can take nearly full sun.

So that's a great option for you.

The asparagus fern can take pretty full sun also.

So that's also a good option.

There are a couple different forms of that.

The typical asparagus fern and then there's the foxtail version, the Meyer's Eye.

And that's more upright, kind of has a different texture to it.

So the foxtail fern, it's just another version of the asparagus fern.

Also, I would recommend the blue star fern.

I wouldn't wanna put that in blazing hot afternoon sun.

But it can take a great deal more light than a lot of other ferns can.

So the blue star fern, Phlebodium, would be something to look into as well.

- Okay.

So that's one I didn't know about we talked about earlier, so I actually wrote that one down.

My mother has an asparagus fern, so I know that definitely does work.

So what about watering real quick?

So consistent watering?

- Consistent.

Yes, just consistent watering.

I like to recommend a once a week thorough watering for houseplants.

If it's in that sunny window, possibly you may need to water more often.

Depends on the plant, how big your pot is, just how fast it's drying out.

So get to know that.

Keep an eye on your sunny ferns.

You may need to stick a finger in there to see if there's still moisture in the soil.

You may need to water 'em a little more often.

- Okay, yeah, since you're saying that, also thinking about should you rotate?

- Well yeah, if it's in a sunny window, naturally sun-loving plants are gonna go towards the window.

So you could every week when you water it, give it a quarter turn or a half a turn and just do that each week to keep full even growth.

That's a good idea.

[upbeat country music] - "How do I get rid of pill bugs?"

And this is Bryant in northwest Indiana.

So the old rolly pollies is what we call those as kids, right?

Do you need to get rid of 'em?

- Well, that's what I was gonna say.

Pill bugs typically aren't seen as garden pest insects.

They're primarily, you know, beneficial garden decomposers if you will.

So most of the time, they're doing really good things for us in the garden, helping us cycle that organic matter and breaking things down and returning 'em back to the soil.

But they can be a pest to vegetable and ornamental plants in some cases.

Especially like young tender transplants, you know, really succulent stems.

I could see that that might be an issue if you have a high population of pill bugs with these young plants, but for the most part, they're beneficial.

And so I would suggest considering maybe, you know, not instituting any kind of control measures.

But if we're, you know, in this garden situation and he's struggling with them.

- And he wants to get rid of them.

- That's right.

There are some things that we can do.

Let's maybe consider putting diatomaceous earth down in that area.

So that's gonna be effective for those.

Also spinosad is a product that he could use that would be effective against those as well.

Traps, similar to those that we use for like slugs and snails.

Those could be effective for the pill bugs also.

So there are some things that we can do but, and then just culturally, you know, they like moist like shady areas.

So if you have a lot of leaf litter or thick layers of old mulch or something like that, that could be contributing to their like high density populations.

So if you kind of clear that out and allowed some more light in there and some drying out and things like that, we might be able to just through adjusting those environmental conditions, make pill bugs not wanna be there as much.

Does that make sense?

- It makes sense to me 'cause you did mention to me they like to feed on decaying organic material and you will find that decaying organic material in those conditions that you just talked about.

- That's right.

- So it makes sense to me.

- But for the most part, they're good.

[upbeat country music] - 'What are the fuzzy looking bugs on my crape myrtle?

How do I get rid of them?"

And this is Karen.

So Lisa, what could be those fuzzy looking bugs on those crape myrtles?

- Well it's one of two things.

It's either crape myrtle bark scale or mealy bugs.

- I would agree.

So if it's the crape myrtle bark scale, how would she go about controlling?

- Well it's definitely good to use a systemic insecticide for those, but we wanna be careful and do that, you know, not when they're flowering.

You're gonna see the black sooty mold.

If it is the crape myrtle bark scale, you're gonna see that.

So that would be another sign that it was that.

But I do recommend a systemic insecticide.

- Right.

And there are a couple out there that you can definitely use or you can go with the oils, you know, horticultural oil.

- It depends on how tall the tree is though.

If they're way up in the tree tops, you're not gonna get to those insects.

- Right, right.

But I would, you know, I would try to see if I can target, you know, a little lower with some maybe hiding in those cracks and crevices.

- Yes, true.

- For sure I would definitely do that.

But yeah, neem oil, horticultural oil.

So what about the mealy bugs?

What would you use to control those?

- Same thing.

- Same thing.

[upbeat country music] "How do you get rid of gophers?"

This is Lito.

So what do you think about that, gophers?

- My goodness.

Fortunately, we don't have a lot of those in our vicinity.

But I did access a publication that I used a lot in my career.

- Oh wow.

- It's the "Prevention and Control of Wildlife Damage" publication.

Came out in 1994 and they have a section on pocket gophers, which is probably what you have.

They are hard to get rid of.

They are.

Trapping is probably the best method.

There are some poisons out there, there's some fumigants that I'm not sure that they work very well.

Fumigants, when you put those in the tunnels, many times they will disperse before they get to the gopher.

But there are some trapping and there are some YouTube videos that folks demonstrate how to set the traps.

- So what kind of traps are we talking about?

- There's are traps that are specific to gophers.

And they are in this publication.

There's a lot of 'em.

There's quite a few.

But to set these traps, it's not like we set mole traps around on top of the ground.

You have to actually dig into the tunnel and you will set the traps.

Sometimes you'll set two traps, one in one direction and one in another direction.

And then you have to cover it back up and you wear gloves because you don't want any human scent there.

It's kind of like the old guys that were trapping for beaver, you know?

You know, they had to really be very, very careful when they make their set.

Of course these traps will kill the gopher.

They will choke 'em, choke 'em out but that is one way.

There is another way that I'm gonna read it to you.

That is apparently very effective.

And I guess it's legal.

But it's using your car and I'm not talking about running over the gopher.

- Exhaust.

- Yeah.

This is one of those cases where a 12-year-old with a 20 gauge, you know, that was thing something I was hopeful for, but shooting is not very effective because most of the time the gophers are underground.

I know out West, folks will hunt them and they'll shoot 'em from a distance.

But they're the prairie dogs.

Those aren't gophers, prairie dog town.

I get prairie dogs and gophers confused.

But let me read this.

Not gonna take me long.

Carbon monoxide from automobile exhaust is more effective than other fumigants because of its greater volume and pressure.

Connect a piece of hose or pipe to the engine exhaust.

Place it in a tunnel near a fresh soil mound, pack soil around the hose or pipe and allow the engine to run for just a few minutes.

Method is usually 90% effective.

- And that's a research publication?

- That is a research publication.

That is not my opinion.

I've had absolutely no experience doing this.

- Wow.

- That I guess that's what I suggest that Lito does.

I'm not sure where Lito is.

But I know he's not from around here.

He's out West, I assume.

But you know, try it, give that a try.

And see if that'll work because I know they can really be a problem.

You know, they can cause problems if you have horses and cattle, you know, they know that for leg injuries and things like that.

And they can disrupt your ornamentals.

The good thing, they have one thing in common with moles.

You may not have a lot of them if you take one of them out, one or two, you may have taken care of your problem.

Now sometimes if you have a series of tunnels, you have habitat for 'em, other gophers will come back and move into that area and reuse some of those tunnels.

But whatever you do, trapping or this automobile exhaust method is probably gonna be the most effective.

- Most effective.

- You got any other suggestions?

- I do not.

- I would suggest-- - A lot of work for those traps.

- Yeah, I would suggest you go online.

And get this publication, you'll learn a little bit about the biology.

They only have one or two litters per year and sometimes they can, you know, three to eight per litter or you know.

You know, you learn a lot about their biology when you get them, because this thing, it really told me there's more information in here than I really wanted to know about pocket gophers.

- That's why research is important.

And we'll definitely have that link on the website.

- It is.

- It's the way to go.

Remember, we love to hear from you.

Send us an email or letter.

The email address is questions@familyplotgarden.com and the mailing address is Family Plot, 7151 Cherry Farms Road, Cordova, Tennessee, 38016.

Or you can go online to familyplotgarden.com.

That's all we have time for today.

Thanks for the questions.

Keep them coming.

To get more information on any of them, go to familyplotgarden.com.

If you want to watch past segments, visit our YouTube channel, @FamilyPlotGarden.

Thanks for watching.

I'm Chris Cooper.

Be sure to join us next week for The Family Plot: Gardening in the Mid-South.

Be safe.

[upbeat country music] [acoustic guitar chords]