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This is conversations Live.

Good evening, I'm Susan Chyczewski.

It's spring, and that means it's a great time to get outside and garden.

Whether you're checking on your trees and shrubs, weeding your garden beds, or thinking about the vegetables and flowers you want to grow this summer, you've come to the right place.

We have two experts to share their insights into the growing season and answer your questions.

Elsa Sánchez is a Penn State professor of horticulture systems management.

She works on the production of vegetable crops with a focus on environmental sustainability, and she assists commercial vegetable growers.

Tom Butzler is a Penn State Extension horticulture educator.

He works with commercial horticulture operators and landscapers in Clinton County.

His areas of expertise include vegetable production and beekeeping.

You too can join tonight's conversation.

Our toll free number is 1-800-543-8242.

Our email address is connect at.

So Elsa and Tom, thank you so much for joining us.

We always enjoy these conversations that we have each year.

And you know what I'm going to say.

Everyone is concerned about the weather and the temperature.

And is it cold.

Is it hot.

What's going to happen.

And so those those huge temperature swings, the hot and cold.

Tom, how can you plan for this spring weather?

Well, I mean, you have the normal weather patterns that should be kind of an average temperature.

But every year is different.

It has a unique fingerprint, I guess.

So you got to pay attention to the weather and kind of look ahead, especially when you're dealing with your garden.

But our trees and shrubs, you know, they're usually pretty hardy.

Now when we talk about the fruit trees, they did take a hit.

But your woody ornamentals trees and shrubs will do fine.

They'll recover.

I'm going to hold you to that.

Elsa, how about the vegetable side of that with vegetables?

There are some vegetables you can plant right now.

Some of our cool season vegetables can go in like your broccoli, lettuce, spinach, those sorts of things.

For some of the summer annuals, like your tomatoes, peppers, I plants those sort of things.

It's tricky this time of year because it's not you want to put them in the ground, but you probably should hold off until we're.

I usually wait until Memorial Day or even the beginning of June before I put in my summer or warm season.

Vegetables.

Do you do you start them inside?

Personally, I buy them more often.

We have some great places where you can buy vegetables in State College, so I usually buy mine.

It's just easier for me.

Yeah, I'll admit me to.

So.

So we've had a frost in some places, and we saw some record breaking cold temperatures in late April and some really warm weather.

So is it extra stress on the plants?

Like how how does this stress your plan?

So I have a Japanese maple at home that looks very confused right.

Well again, you know our our woody plants when we talk about this temperature issue or thing that happened in April, gotten to at least in central Pennsylvania, I think about late 19 or 20 degrees.

And when you look at that temperature in January, that's kind of warm.

I mean, we were down in single digits.

So our trees and shrubs can survive these temperatures.

The problem was they were coming out of dormancy.

And so you had this this tender growth.

And that's not it's not acclimated to these really cold temperatures.

And so that's kind of where we had those this issues.

And so you know, some of our fruit trees, apples, peaches and so forth really took a hit because that new growth was coming out.

Those flower, those blossoms are just kind of starting to merge.

And they weren't ready for 1920 degree weather.

Now that tree was fine with nine degree weather back in January when it's, you know, kind of prepared for it, but not what happened in April.

Yeah, very, very unfortunate for some of our growers to have to deal with that for their, for their business.

So I want to switch a little bit to, to water because I've seen a lot of workshops now on rain barrels and gathering water from the roof.

And I wanted your take on, you know, what kinds of things people can do if they want to take advantage of that water that's coming off their roof, what kinds of containers would they would they use for that?

I know you've done a lot with rain barrels.

You can use anything.

I mean, a lot of people use those big like drums.

I hold like 55 gallons, but you use something smaller.

It's free water.

And we get into those hot summer months, and, I don't know, maybe you're on a well or maybe your your water spigot is pretty far away from the garden, and you can just set something up next to your shed and capture that rainwater.

So yeah, it's something easy to do and and anything that collects water.

Now, the only thing you have to watch out for though, you have the standing water.

And what's the big issue with standing water in the middle of the summer when it's hot?

That's what I was going to ask about those mosquitoes.

Yeah, mosquitoes.

And so, you know, that's something that if you don't use that water on a regular basis, or maybe we run into a rainy period and you don't need the water, the garden, and it sits there for several days.

You know, they'll start laying eggs in that water and then you've just got this breeding ground, and then you'll pay for that another week or two when they start flying around and looking for that blood meal.

So if you're something like that, put a screen over it so that water can get through it, but your insects can't get in there and lay eggs or they can't escape if you if they already laid their eggs.

So just some things to take into consideration.

Yeah, that I hadn't thought about putting a screen on a water barrel.

I mean, I have, I have well water too, so I'm on a well but it is, it's one, it's deep, 400ft deep and it's, it's doesn't put out a lot of water.

So I'll construct the rain barrel just to, just to kind of try to save the.

Well.

So if you're just joining us this is PSU Conversations Live.

Get your garden on.

And we're talking with two gardening experts and we'd like to hear from you.

Our toll free number is 1-800-543-8242.

Or you can email us at connect.

So we've had a lot.

I mean the soil has been very very wet.

I was wondering if they're like as we're starting to think about turning over our gardens, are we or are you concerned with soil compaction when you're growing vegetables and how, you know, are you a no till person or.

Right.

Right.

Yeah.

Anytime the soils what especially that can be a time when compaction can happen.

You know, just with traffic from, you know, walking over a space or mowing over space or whatever.

Definitely when the soil is, what is a time you want to be cautious?

I do a combination of no till in my garden, and I do a little bit of tillage in my garden too, and I feel like it's a little bit too hard.

I want my roots to have some nice so all the get going in.

So I do a combination in my garden.

Do you add anything to your soil to, you know, to, to help with drainage?

Sometimes I'll add compost.

Compost is an amazing material for improving soil structure and also adding nutrients.

But if you use too much, you add two much nutrient to the soil and that can be cause an environmental issue, right?

If those nutrients, particularly nitrogen and phosphorus, make their way to bodies of water.

So I'll use compost, but I don't use it every year.

I just use it every now and then.

So that makes me think of especially with our trees that are struggling a little bit, because I saw that one of my trees seems to be budding very late, and I thought, does it need a little help or should I leave it alone?

Coming out of this spring, there's plenty of moisture in the ground.

You might want to put on a layer of mulch, and that's to get it ready for the summer, because one, it controls weeds, but it also preserves moisture.

It slows down the evaporation of that water out of the soil.

So that will help it later on in the summer.

But right now, the trees that are struggling, and I think partially you're referring to that freeze we had in April, you know, some of those buds were destroyed and they have the ability to put out new buds.

They kind of hold them back or in reserve.

And so yeah, they're a little delayed.

But the tree will be fine unless we get into a summer and it's really hot.

Or maybe the spongy moth is bad in your area and that causes some defoliation.

So you're adding stressor on top of stressor on top of stressor.

That could lead to maybe some tree decline or mortality.

So just keep an eye on it.

If it's a well-established tree or shrub shrub they're going to be fine.

They're going to be fine.

I'm going to hold me to that.

Right.

I know, I mean, my bleeding hearts are bleeding.

Well, your perennials, your basis plants.

Now if they were uncovered or not, most properly maybe they got got hit pretty good, but they should still be fine.

So we were having some problems with the phone, but the phones are working now and if you are interested in being part of the conversation, you can reach us at 1-800-543-8242.

Did I say it correctly I hope.

We'd love to hear from you.

So if you have to cover things because I know we're not out of frost season yet, and if you if you did get excited and you put some stuff out, what would you cover it with?

What's your recommendation?

I know that we have different, different ways that people will cover their their gardens temporarily.

Yeah, there are options that folks can use, including Ro covers is probably the most common one.

It's kind of like a almost like a dryer sheet, kind of in the texture and the weight of it.

Oh, this is a great picture.

And you can put that material over your, your plants the way you see there.

There's whoops.

And then that supports the row cover.

Or you can do a floating row cover where you don't use those still hoops and you just put it directly over your plants.

If it's just like I just got to get through the night, you can use a sheet too.

Yeah.

And your garden and I would do that, but I wouldn't put it on for a long period of time.

I definitely remove it like a sheet in the morning.

It's not really made for that purpose.

Like if it gets wet, that's the problem.

Yeah.

Then they get heavy.

Yeah.

I'm using a floating Ro cover right now on my lettuce and lettuce can withstand this temperature, but I got rabbits coming in and I got rodents coming in and destroying my lettuce crop, so I'm not using it for any protection from the elements.

I'm trying to deter wildlife feeding.

So buffet out there.

Is it working?

Yeah, but the problem is, like you said, I have to put it on at night because that's when they're coming in and then get up in the morning.

Got to take it back off.

So at some point I'm going to have to work on a better fence is really what it is.

But I haven't put the fence up yet.

So.

So what kind of fencing do you recommend?

I know my neighbors have.

They have a little electric fence around some of their stuff, because my neighbor has fruit trees and he's not having those deer in his fruit trees.

But, I mean, I have a ton of hostas and the deer don't.

They don't bother mine.

They just go to the neighbors.

Well, I you know, your question on what kind of fence?

I guess it depends on what kind of animal you're trying to determine.

If it's if it is deer.

I mean, offense is going to have to be pretty robust.

I mean, I mean, you go out to the Hawk farm.

How are those fences?

Those are pretty high I want to say like ten, 12ft.

Yeah.

Because if they really want to get in, they can jump.

But you know, if it's something like rabbits or raccoons, a big problem with our sweet corn growers, you know, that's something that you can come down lower.

The sweet corn growers will electrify usually and, you know, to 1 or 2 strands and that takes care of it.

You okay?

It seems like sometimes gardening is harsh.

Yeah, well, I mean, you got to do what you got to do.

That's my corn.

And they got to eat too.

So it's just kind of back and forth in battle.

And sometimes you win.

And right now I'm losing.

I mean, I'm, I, I put out kale like three weeks ago and ate it all.

I got to start new kale seedlings.

Yeah.

Well, these they're they're fast growers.

Yeah they are, they are.

Yeah.

Well, we do have a call.

We have Susan from State College.

Susan, you are on the air.

Thank you for taking the call.

My question is concerning.

Weed barrier on the garden.

Like, I. I really like weed barriers.

I use a landscape fabric in my garden.

I use it because it's really, really effective way of managing the weeds in my garden, but also with a weed barrier like a fabric one.

The rain can get through it, right?

So you get, you get like the benefits of the rain.

Without the weeds.

You can reuse them for a few years.

And like at this time of the year, I am ready to garden, right?

I, I want to be out there all the time, even like on today when I can't be out there.

But by August, the end of August, I'm a little tired of it.

And so it's nice to have that weed barrier.

And you don't have, you know, you're not dealing with the weeds at that point.

So I really like using them in a garden and I recommend them.

What do you do in your garden?

I do a little bit of both.

I do a weed barrier, but then also in the fall I go around and scavenge.

People put out their bags of leaves and I collect those and I store those, and then I use leaves as a, as a mulch, kind of a mulch weed barrier.

So I use both.

I think that's a great idea with organic mulch is like you're talking about.

You don't want to put those on now, you want to put those on after the soils warmed up a little bit because they cool the soil.

And right now we don't want to cool the soil.

We want to warm up the soil, want that sunlight to hit the soil.

So yeah, my leaves are still in the bags, so I'll put them out here in a couple of weeks.

But it is interesting you mentioned about the weed burying in August.

You know, it's just hot and humid.

And if you would walk through a neighborhood in the spring, everyone's out in their gardens.

And then in the summer, once you get to about August, you go through the neighborhoods.

And these gardens are just masses of weeds because it is it is labor intensive and it's hot, it's sticky.

And so that weeding task kind of falls off the radar for a lot of folks.

Oh, yeah, I'm sure, I'm sure that was my job as a kid.

We do have a question from an email question.

So this is from Pat.

Pat writes with fertilizer potentially being in short supply or very expensive, would you know of any fertilizer alternatives?

Compost comes to mind immediately.

I mean, and as I mentioned before, it's a great material.

It's slow release nutrients, but you don't want to over apply.

There's a recommendation, apply an inch at a time.

And that's just way too much.

You only want to apply like at most maybe a quarter of an inch layer.

And again, you don't want to do that every year because it is it does have a lot of nutrients in it, and the nutrients aren't in the same proportion as the plant needs it.

So then you have these excess nutrients.

And again they can leach into bodies of water or move through erosion or runoff.

And that can cause an environmental hazard.

So what about this as an idea.

Could could if you know there is a big concern about fertilizer, people are worried about it.

Maybe this is the year we switch over on what we're planting in our gardens.

Maybe we go with more beans.

Oh, sure.

Yeah.

More Magoon.

So we don't have to apply that nitrogen.

Most.

Mostly it's what I'm talking about.

But they can fix their own nitrogen.

So maybe everyone just goes on a bean diet for the summer and just switches over.

I'm in.

I can I can do some some mean diets.

My family might not appreciate that.

Yeah.

There was a would you recommend.

So I know a lot of people will start a little compost from their kitchen scraps, but they might might not understand how long it takes for those things to mix and become an effective fertilizer.

So what would be your recommendation for someone who is just starting out?

Doesn't, you know, maybe they're just putting their egg shells in a bucket and stuff, and how should they get started and making their own little compost pile?

I think it's pretty simple.

And I think what you talked about is how to get started with, you know, scraps from the kitchen.

And in my case, I have like a little black compost bin.

I just fill up a container, I have a back up, I have a bucket on my kitchen counter, and when it gets full, I just go dump it in there.

I'm kind of a passive composter.

I don't do a lot of mixing, but it still works out.

You know?

It just happens.

I'm with Elsa.

I do more of the passive, but if you really need that compost a little quicker and you want to do it a little more scientifically, I mean, there are certain time periods where you turn it, make sure there's plenty of moisture, and I think Penn State has some pretty good fact sheets on making your own on own compost.

And so, you know, if you want to be a little more detailed about that, you can just easily pull that up.

Yeah, I do like making my own compost.

I have like a big plastic thing and I put it in there and it gathers a lot of heat, gets it, gets quite warm.

But that's more than just your kitchen scraps.

That could be, you know, your your lawn cuttings.

Yeah.

You could be your leaves.

You know, I always make the argument.

Don't let vegetative matter leave your yard or your landscape.

I mean, it's almost throwing away money.

So somehow keep that to to make compost or use it as a mulch or whatever it is.

But don't raise up the leaves or rake up the grass and then send it out to wherever curbside.

Keep it there and utilize that material.

It has value.

It does.

I do have a caveat though.

I don't like to put weeds in my compost because I am so passive about it.

Those weeds.

Good point.

You know sprout, it's a mess, right?

And I don't I don't do that either, because if you do it correctly, that compost pile gets hot and it will kill almost everything, including weed seeds.

So the way kind of else and I do it, it's not reaching that critical temperature.

So yeah, I do keep my weeds out of it to kind of throw them off on the side of the woods or something.

We do have another caller.

We have Jane from Johnstown.

Jane, what is your question for us tonight?

Yes.

Thank you for taking my call.

I'm there.

My husband and I are very much concerned about our roses.

We have established roses in our rose garden, but we also have roses growing over a trellis.

And because of the freeze in April, I'm not seeing any buds yet on the roses.

Will it be a permanent problem for the roses?

What should we do?

We live in a higher elevation.

We live in Westmont, which is considerably higher than, the valley of Johnstown.

And it gets very cold up here, and because of the temperature.

And I'm just worried about.

So I'm not sure the the April temperature killed this.

I do wonder if the temperatures we had in January and February killed the roses.

If they if Hiro's are dead, you know, plants are trees and shrubs have what we call these these hardiness zones where they can survive in certain winter temperatures and make it out into the spring.

And so, for example, crape myrtle is a great plant down south, right?

It's just great bark characteristics, nice flowers.

But we can't plant them up here in Pennsylvania.

They might live a year or two, but invariably we'll get that cold, cold winter and they die off.

And so I just I just wonder what the rose is if if these were something that was could be growing in our in Pennsylvania climate, especially these high elevations that that the caller had mentioned.

So that could be one thing is that they died off from the cold winter we had.

I just don't I'm just if if they were acclimated to our climate and grow fine in our cold winters, I just don't think that that winter or that April cold snap that we had could possibly kill it.

But wait and see.

Yeah, I mean, it's been kind of a relatively cold spring and we should see a flush of growth on everything.

We have.

Hope for you, Jane.

Yeah, that that is frustrating.

Roses are not always the easiest plant to grow.

So we have another person from Johnstown.

We have Dick from Johnstown.

What is your question?

Yes.

I had two beautiful bald cypress trees, perhaps 20ft tall.

I noticed in the in the fall of the year, the one that was more visible from my house looked a little weak, but I just dismissed it.

However, this year both of them are completely dead.

That was wondering what your thoughts are on that.

Thank you.

So you still online?

Can you you still there?

Wanted to ask some questions.

So did he say that he noticed that last year that the plants won the fall, the fall one.

So, you know, it sounds like it was under some sort of stress going into the winter.

And so what was that?

And he said they were 20ft tall.

So it was something that was established for a couple of years.

But I, you know, where those soils maybe high clay content and we just, you know, some of these summers have been getting really hot.

And so maybe it was just stressed out due to lack of moisture.

Yeah.

I wish you would have stayed on and ask some questions there.

But it sounded like going into the fall there was already some problems.

Yeah, Cypress need quite a lot of moisture.

Yeah.

I mean I've seen them planted in areas where, you know, they're they're not near water or submerged or anything.

But you know, some, some of our souls, like I said, are, you know, either very Sandy so they don't hold water or they could be clay and they just really tight and.

Yeah.

Yeah, well, I want to I kind of want to talk to Matos like, that's that's my favorite thing to grow.

Let's talk tomatoes.

Let's do it.

So I know that you, you you developed a class growing tomatoes.

And what what do you cover in your class?

Who would you think is your perspective?

Students for that class?

I'm gonna let you take it because you were one of the people who really know it was a total team effort.

It was.

There was myself and Elson.

We had three other Penn State educators, and so it's a couple hours that shows just how to go from from the start if you're going to even start from seed.

So we talked about buying a transplants, but for some they want to start from seed.

And so we go from basically start to finish, you know, how to harvest correctly how to preserve the tomatoes and so forth and then everything in between.

So lots of videos, lots of pictures.

You know, some reading of course.

So it's I think it's about three hours.

Yeah.

And it's, it's for anybody really.

It's training, fertilizing, soil testing, you know, just all of the topics that you would need to get your tomatoes growing.

Good.

Because just like you tomatoes are, you know, some of our favorite vegetables too.

I mean, they taste so much better when they come out of your garden.

They taste better.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And I like the different varieties.

So I was always curious to what is.

An heirloom tomato.

What's the difference between an heirloom tomato and a regular tomato?

Sure.

Heirloom tomatoes are or any heirlooms and vegetables are they're varieties that have been passed down generation to generation.

And so like the I guess kind of the opposite would be our, our hybrids.

And those ones have been developed more recently with through breathing efforts, primarily in vegetables.

But with our hybrids, they have some really good characteristics, right, because they've been passed down all those times.

But there can also be, in some cases, more finicky to grow, like more disease issues, for example, for the heirlooms.

For the heirlooms.

Yes.

I'm sorry, I'm sorry.

Yes, yes.

And so in that case, you know, maybe some of the hybrids have an advantage, but why pick, right?

Maybe you grow a little bit of both.

Yeah.

And actually now we have some hybrids that were bred to be like heirlooms.

So they kind of have the same look as heirlooms, but with more disease resistance.

So there's a lot of ways to get the best of both worlds.

So that's one of the when we talk about starting seed or buying tomato transplants, one of the benefits are the things the bandages of starting from seed is that you can almost open up a catalog, and you have hundreds of choices.

When you go to a garden center, your choices are a little more limited.

They might have three types of cherries, a couple Romas and 5 or 6 beefsteak.

Whereas in a catalog, I mean, there's just pages and pages of these different tomatoes that you could start.

So that opens up a little more possibilities for your garden.

So we have Dick from Johnstown back.

Oh okay.

So that we can ask them questions.

So.

Yes, you had some questions for me.

And I just want to say these trees were absolutely magnificent.

It was very hurtful to see them not make it back this year.

But go ahead with your questions.

So you had mentioned in the initial call that the trees were looking kind of ragged going into the fall already, the one that is more visible from the house.

I didn't check the other one.

Of course, they're rush colored in the in the fall.

Sure, and quite beautiful.

But I noticed near the top they weren't quite as full as they had been, and I dismissed it, thinking they'll be better next year.

But this year they're both completely gone.

Yeah.

So when you mentioned that 20 years old and just magnificent, they were planted in amongst some white pine.

If that gives you any more of an indication, I don't think it was clay soil, but you can ask any questions you may have.

Well, one of the things you mentioned there, when you're describing what this tree looked like, was that the top didn't seem as full.

And so it sounds like there may have been some dieback in that upper canopy.

And typically what that what's going on with that is, is you have something going on in the lower part of the trunk or the root system.

So, you know, it'd be kind of neat to see some pictures of that possibly, maybe something you could get to me at a later time.

But you have you see this on Penn State's campus oftentimes when maybe there's some construction or something in there.

Soil compaction, which Elsa was talking about earlier today in the garden, that there's something going on around the roots, such as soil compaction, and it stresses the tree out.

And one of the first things you'll see is this dieback in the upper part of the canopy, not the lower part of the canopy.

Seems kind of odd, but it's the upper canopy that suffers first.

So something was going on around the base of that tree.

Just the limited knowledge we have here right now.

You know, whether, you know, maybe as that tree grew, the root system got much more extensive and it had a rocky layer.

And then once you had this upper canopy that was extracting water and you didn't have the root system fully developing underneath to extract water under times of stress, such as drought, that may have been an issue.

Maybe there was some insect boring activity, although usually those those are pretty insect free.

So I don't know, maybe try to take some pictures this spring and maybe if you could send them to me, you can Google me and get my email address.

And maybe we can kind of discern what possibly happened last fall that caused them not to survive into this spring.

Thank you so much.

Yep.

If you're just joining us, I'm Susan, and this is why conversations Live get your garden on.

We're talking with two gardening experts and we'd like to hear from you.

Our toll free number is 1-800-543-8242.

Or email us at connect at.

And we have another call.

We have Hal from Reidsville.

Hello.

Hi, Hal.

What is your question?

Well, I've got two questions.

Excellent.

First of all, let's talk about mower blades.

I have probably an acre and a half, maybe close to two acres to mow.

I have a three blade mower.

When I sharpen my blades, I sharpen them to a sharp point and then run a file just across the sharp edge to leave just a very tiny flat spot, as recommended by the manufacturer.

Is that the correct way to do it, and if so, how often should I sharpen the blades during the year?

Well, if you're like, if you want a really, well, manicure dawn, like you see at the the ball fields, you would want to sharpen those blades a couple of times a season, a mowing season.

But for most homeowners, I mean once or twice during the year be fine.

Unless unless, you know, you've got a yard where you've got a lot of twigs, things that could dull that blade a little bit.

Yeah.

I can't tell you whether that's the correct way to do it or not, because here's what I do.

I take my blade off and I take it to the local hardware store, and I let them do it.

So it sounds like you're a little more expertise on on how to do that.

But that is a that is a practice most homeowners do not do.

And it shows when, when they mow their lawn because as that blade dolls and I mean it's grass is soft, but it does dull the blade over time.

That cut is it becomes very ragged and then it browns out.

And so when you look out over that lawn and seeing that nice green carpet, you can see this brown like haze or a layer.

And that is an indication that you have a dull blade.

So kudos on getting your blade sharpened at least every year.

Most homeowners aren't doing that.

Okay, my second question has to do with chickweed, and I have some infestations.

And one day I stopped at the Turf farm over at Penn State, and I was told to spray in the fall for weeds to be the most effective, and then to put a preimage on for something like chickweed.

When should I put that on?

So this isn't a lawn or a garden in the lawn.

Right.

So chickweed is a winter annual.

And so, you know, once we get into the warmer temperatures here, they'll pretty much die off.

So they're setting their seed now.

Oh go ahead.

Sorry.

That.

Yeah.

So so as soon as it, it dies out I should put some preimage down.

So I'm going to be honest with you.

I mean I know the life cycle of annual chickweed, but I'm not sure on the proper timing for lawn care treatment.

And that's something I'd have to just pull up the reference material.

But it is a it is a winter annual.

So it's not a perennial.

So yeah, you know it's actively growing right now.

It's going to set it seed.

And then that seed is going to just remain dormant here during the hot growing season.

You know we don't have chickweed out there.

Oh okay.

Yeah we don't have chickweed in.

So it wants cooler weather and moisture.

Yeah.

Exactly.

So but yeah it's not a perennial.

It's an annual.

But as for lawn care on putting down the premium on that I'm not exactly sure.

Good question.

And something if you're interested.

Reedville.

I don't know what Connie that is in, but there should be active Master Gardener group in most of the central PA counties, and they could get pull that reference material for you and give you that answer the label too.

Yeah.

And the label might, might help to work.

You know, we do have, I guess, a good time to put a plug in for.

We do have a system set up here at Penn State called Tilda.

And so it's a it's like a, it's like a Google search engine.

And so it pulls all of you ask the question and it pulls all the Penn State resources and articles and all that stuff, and it will give you an answer.

And so that might be a good place to start also.

And that's called what now t I l VA tilde okay.

There's a v in there.

Like as in Robbie okay.

Yep.

I, I thank you very much.

Sure thing.

It's always nice to have something that you're searching that you know has been vetted.

Yes that's correct.

You know that it's not any random person just selling whatever they're selling.

The nice thing, too, is if it is these situations where there's pesticides or, you know, animals could be harmed or anything like that, it will direct you to someone, a person, a living person who can help you, which is kind of nice about that.

It's a nice setup, but it's something that was started about two months ago or three months ago.

Okay.

So yeah.

Oh, trying to get the word out there on it.

We'll have to we'll have to help out with that.

We have another call.

Robert from Bellefonte.

Robert, what is your question?

Oh, it looks like we we might have lost Robert.

All right.

That's all right.

He was intimidated because Hal sharpened his blades.

I am very impressed that he does that because, yeah, we we definitely don't do that as much as we should.

I was just thinking about that.

So we talked a lot about planting vegetables and when to do it.

And.

But if you're going to plant trees and shrubs are the different cultivars for different times of the year, or is there like a general time?

This is when you want to put your trees in.

Yeah.

I mean there are two times you could put your trees in, you can put them on the shoulders of the summer.

So in the spring or the fall and the fall being really the best time because, you know, you don't have to worry about those hot summer months.

So if you're planting now, you know there is plenty of moisture, whether it's somewhat cooler.

But we're going to be running into hot weather here shortly.

So yeah, it's a good time to plant.

That's when the nurseries have everything available, right.

And people are itching to get out and so forth.

So that's when most of the the plant material is readily available, and it's not as readily available in the fall because they want to get rid of their stuff.

So if you do plant in the spring, which is not a bad time, just make sure that you're paying attention to it in June, July and August, when we might run into four weeks of no rain and no cloud cover and it's just sun just beating down on those newly planted trees and shrubs.

Yeah.

And yeah, for sure, we do have an email.

So Aaron writes.

I'm just curious if the allopathic effects from walnut tree leaves will affect garden plants if they are mixed into compost.

Oh, if they're mixed into compost is are they.

Do you know if they're water soluble.

Like would they leach out.

I can answer the question if the tree is living I'm not so sure if it's in compost.

Yeah, I, I'm not sure I haven't read the research on it, but I'd still be a little concerned about that.

I think that that unless it's an actively turned compost pile, I still think you'd have those chemicals around for for a little bit.

And so what she's referring to is that walnuts secrete a substance, a chemical, and it's a way to try to eliminate competition nearby.

And so it kills off a lot of different plant species, one of them being tomato tomatoes.

Oh, gosh.

Oh you don't want to do that.

That is a good thing to know.

They're really sensitive.

Yeah sensitive to it.

So a lot of times you'll go out to a garden or even some growers.

I've noticed that they'll put tomatoes next to the fence row and they'll have some of their plants dying.

And you look and there's a walnut tree right next.

So I have a lot of them.

It's really interesting to the plants that are close.

Like you'll see a gradient.

The plants closer is more dead and less dead.

As you get further away from the tree.

Oh.

So yeah.

Good question.

That's something that we'd have to kind of dig a little deeper into on how that chemical is affected in an active compost pile.

Yeah.

So we have another caller.

It's a good night for calls this year.

Andy from Bradford.

Andy, what is your question?

I have a pink dogwood and it's been in about three years.

And I just wanted to know when it's bloom.

Well, a couple of things.

I mean, some species take a couple of years to bloom.

Just just the way it's still in, like a juvenile phase.

Juvenile phase.

So that might be one thing.

The other thing is, where did that dogwood originate from?

So I I'm not sure.

I bought it at a nursery, but I don't know where it came from.

Right.

And so oftentimes with some of these flowering trees, like dogwoods, a lot of them are grown down in Tennessee.

And so that's a different.

Yeah.

That's a that's a different probably the origin of these trees matters.

Origins of these trees matters.

And so for some of these trees, flowering trees you want to try to buy more local.

When I say local it doesn't necessarily mean Pennsylvania.

But like Pennsylvania, New York where these trees kind of originated from.

So they've kind of evolved over time to, to be acclimated to certain climates.

And so that's one thing.

The other thing I'd be wondering if one is in the juvenile phase and then two, is it a tree that was grown in a southern climate.

And so maybe it's just not situated in the northern climate.

It says zone four and it's it's doing great.

It's about ten feet tall.

And I got it.

It was about five.

Yeah.

So it's doing fine.

The leaves and everything doesn't have any disease.

So we just got to wait.

I think we're just going to have to wait.

Hopefully it's just a juvenile issue.

And we see this in a lot of different plants where it just takes a couple of years for just to kind of get out of its young kids stage and be kind of an adolescent, more mature adult.

It's a teenager, right?

Yeah.

There you go.

Well, I know that because I have a rose of Sharon, and it was in four years and it wasn't blooming.

And all of a sudden last year it went crazy.

So.

Well, get ready to weed.

Get ready to weed.

That will start throwing out a lot of seeds.

Well good luck.

Good luck.

We have another Robert from Bellefonte.

Robert, are you there?

Robert with us.

Robert, do you have a question?

Looks like maybe we don't have Robert.

Go call in again.

Yeah.

So I'm still thinking about tomatoes.

Sorry.

A lot of gardeners want to know about tomatoes.

So that's why we focused on tomatoes, actually.

Well, I was thinking of the one thing that I know a lot of people do, and they don't know why it happens is when you have these young plants and they get leggy.

So what what do you when when that happens, what are the things that people should be checking for to keep their plants nice and firm?

So I'm I'm thinking it's probably when they're in their containers when you before you set them out.

And Tom and I had this issue like massively a few years ago.

We were planting tomatoes for an experiment.

And I want to say they were like, oh, this.

It was like they were tangled into each other.

It was crazy.

You can still use the plants.

What you want to do is plant them deeper.

Usually that's like a terrible recommendation for almost anything else but tomatoes, peppers.

You can do that too.

You can plant them deeper and they will develop roots along the stem.

And research has shown they'll get bigger root systems.

And you can get a more vigorous plant.

So just plant them deeper.

Oh, just bury it and just bury it.

Well you also want to think about why did they get so late.

I mean, a lot of different situations.

But sometimes people start their tomato plants on a window sill and, and window sills.

You think that that windows bring in a lot of light, but it's not.

And so these plants are going to stretch there reaching for the light.

And so they get really kind of leggy.

And so if you're starting a plants at home you really need to have a light system.

And you need to have that light system right above the plants, not 2 or 3ft above, but 2 to 3in above the plants.

And that gives you a little more compact plant.

And and I've done this with my tomato plants is I started them too early in the problem.

If you start to early then you're trying to hold them and they just want to grow and grow.

And then you get into this leggy situation, which can be solved partially, as Elsa mentioned, by burying deeper and because they can root anywhere on the stem, so that that's not a problem.

In our case, it was a combination of planting too early and we fertilized them a little.

Yeah, that's right, we babied those plants a little too much.

You can starve tomato plants a little bit early on.

That holds them back.

Make them work.

Yeah.

Teenagers.

That's right.

Too many Doritos.

Well, we do have an email question.

Connie writes how can I manage Speedwell, Ivy and Creeping Charlie in my lawn?

Good luck.

It sounds like a grand ivy.

It is.

It's a kind of a, like a viney creeping weed.

And it is hard to control.

I mean, it's almost difficult to control manually because you've got to pull it up and it roots at the nodes.

And so I don't know how you would get every little piece, because it just grows from that piece that's left in the ground.

And then the herbicides.

I mean, there's some good herbicides that you can use on, on lawns to kill broadleaf think dandelions.

I mean, dandelions are relatively easy to control with, with an herbicide.

But this creeping Charlie, the herbicides that we have access to, most homeowners have access to are not effective in controlling it.

And so, you know, once Grand Ivy gets established, I mean, it's tough when you read the literature, one of the best ways to control it.

There's a product, an active ingredient called dicamba, and that if you use the dicamba, if you can find a label that carries it for lawn care, is that you would want to apply it right around a frost event.

And I don't know exactly why.

It's probably somewhere in the literature of the research that it it can.

It interferes with some production going on in that weed and it can kill it.

But other than that, it's a it's a tough weed.

What do you think about like putting a tarp or, you know, an old carpet or something over that with that?

Well, you know, that could work in the sense that basically, if it's really well established, just kind of give up on that area in the sense of trying to control that specific.

We kill everything and then go ahead and reseed in the fall.

Yeah.

So a carpet or something, you know, black maybe.

Yeah.

Bubble wrap.

Well, bubble wrap, you need something that's a light lights not coming through.

So that that might just serve as a greenhouse and supercharge.

Well yeah.

So yeah that might be that might be the best method is just to kill that section of the lawn where that Creeping Charlie or Grand Ivy is growing and then just start over.

Yep.

Well, we have a phone call.

We have Doris from Huntington.

Doris, what is your question?

Oh, hi.

Hi.

The frost killed all the leaves on my little Japanese maple.

And also.

And my ironwood.

How long will it be before the, leaves are to come back on?

Or will that be the end of it?

So, yeah, as we were talking about earlier, I think the majority of our woody ornamentals will be fine.

They do have kind of like a secondary mechanism, these these secondary buds or these buds they hold in reserve just in case, like something has happened.

So you should see a flush or a flush of new growth here very shortly.

My red buds got hit really good.

And with this freeze that we had in April because they kind of leaf out early and they put out another flush of growth.

So yeah you can see my red buds my tulip poplar I got hit pretty good.

And so yeah they just they just usually put on a second flush of growth.

And you should see that here within the next week or two as the temperatures warm up.

Yeah.

If the temperatures warm up.

Yep.

Okay.

Thank you so very much.

Yep.

That's reassuring to me too.

Yeah.

I love that little tree.

So it's speaking of because it's sometimes very considered that one invasive to write what the Japanese maples were.

They're not.

No, no, they're not on anyone's radar yet for being invasive.

Oh, good.

That's good.

I don't want to make sure I'm not playing the rules correctly.

So but we've been talking about or Pennsylvania has been helping people replace invasive trees with native ones.

And so what what do you consider the harm or what is the harm if you have a butterfly bush or a burning bush or a pear tree that looks nice?

Should you be concerned?

What are your recommendations?

I know there's I know there's people have different opinions.

Yeah.

I mean, we could really get into the weeds on this one, but I, you know, mention three and I'm going to I'm going to talk about one Japanese barberry.

And it's a great ornamental plant.

I mean it comes.

The leaves come in different colors.

And you know, you can prune them into hedges or odd shapes.

I mean, there's some great attributes to it.

And one of them is it also produces a lot of berries, which can be kind of cool in the landscape.

But birds love them.

And then they take these berries and just scatter them all over.

And so I like to go out into the woods hiking and so forth, and you can just see these massive growth areas of Japanese bar berries, and they have spines on them.

Nothing can get through them, nothing eats them.

And so what are they contributing to our our natural ecosystem?

Nothing.

Nothing.

And so once they escape our landscapes, which, you know, they do look nice into, and even the ones you mentioned, they get out into these unmanaged areas and just kind of running amok.

So yeah, you know, you know, a lot of our insects and our animals have evolved over time to form a relationship with our native plants.

And so without that relationship, what are they going to be foraging on, visiting, nesting in or whatever?

Yeah.

Yeah for sure.

What.

We have one email here Jim writes how can I stop tomato blight tomatoes from killing my plants?

We just had a project with late well, there's late blight.

There's early blight.

Our project was focused on late blight, and we were looking at cultivars that have resistance to late blight.

And there's also cultivars with resistance to early blight.

Yep, yep.

That is probably the easiest way to manage those lights on tomatoes is finding a cultivar that has resistance to them.

Oh, excellent.

Yeah.

And there's a lot of great ones out there.

You just got to go through the catalogs.

And we sometimes on the tags in the garden center, they'll say that information to mean a couple other things you could do is a lot of our garden diseases, they need moisture on the leaf.

And so sometimes people like to pack all their things tightly together.

And it creates this microclimate.

So just maybe spacing some plants out a little better.

So you get some air circulation and dries those leaves out quicker.

Late blights usually not a problem every year in Pennsylvania.

But Elsa mentioned early blight and that is one is almost every year thing.

So yeah I'd go with the resistant cultivars starting out that way.

I think that's a great advice.

So we're we're running close to end of time.

And we've talked about tomatoes.

We've talked about water.

We've talked about grass and sharpening blades.

I'm just wondering what are your what are your thoughts as this conversation has evolved.

Like what what do you what does that leave you thinking about that people might be interested in in knowing and, you know, I think it all comes back to the weather for me is I think we just all have to have patience, at least for a vegetable gardens a little bit longer.

And before planting a lot of the warm season kind of plants, that's what I'm doing anyway.

I think be careful being lulled into complacency.

We're getting a lot of moisture, you know, on regular intervals.

That probably is not going to continue.

Who knows, maybe it will.

But be prepared so, you know, maybe build your rain barrels, make sure that you have mulch a mulch layer down so that you're preventing weeds, but also trying to keep that moisture trapped in the soil instead of evaporating out.

So get prepared for the possibility of a dry summer.

A hot, dry summer.

What kind of mulch do you recommend?

We always fight about that in my house.

Well, we talked about that a little bit earlier on.

What you like to use?

I like landscape fabric, but if you use an organic mulch like straw or mark chips or anything.

The key is to get it deep enough so that light doesn't make it to the soil so that the weeds don't germinate.

So you want it to be about 4 to 6in deep in order to really to press the weeds.

Yeah.

And then by the end of the season it's usually, you know, really compressed to.

And so you might have to have be ready to do a little bit of hand weeding in the late season anyway, but still won't be as bad as if you just don't do anything.

I mean, you get.

Yeah, I liked your answer though because there that those mulches, it sets you up so that in August, like we were talking about when you're like, I'm a little bit tired of this garden, you know, you know, it's the moisture, it's the weeding.

You know, it just helps you at the end.

That is great advice.

I, I usually over mulch, but.

Well, if your plants are growing maybe you're not really over mulching.

If they're growing, you're getting stuff out of the garden.

You're good to go.

Yep.

So our guest tonight have been from Penn State extension educators Elsa Sanchez and Tom Butler.

I am Susan Chesky.

And thank you for joining us on Sue's.

Get your garden on and stay tuned.

After this, you'll see some of our gardening shorts that we have on YouTube, which are also available on passport if you have that.

So.

Watch this in previous episodes of Conversations Live and more of your favorite programs on the PBS app.