(exciting music) Welcome to Backyard Farmer.

We are so glad to be in front of a live audience at Northeast Community College, all of us without face masks, all of us really enjoying being together on this wonderful, beautiful evening, of course.

This is Q and A, so this is exactly what we do on Backyard Farmer.

We answer all those great questions and we have a whole line of people that has questions that we hope we can answer.

So as you step to the mic, tell us what you've got.

Tell us what your question is, and then we will go down the line.

There is a rule, and the rule is if we are not playing fair, I'm gonna say no, no, no, too many questions for the bug person, too many questions for hort, somebody else come forward.

So, perfect.

Okay, I have two samples here.

The first one is I have 12, about a dozen Easy Elegance roses that all of a sudden look like this.

Is this that dreaded rose rosette that I read about?

They were beautiful last year.

Last year I did see a hint of it and I thought hmm, that doesn't look quite right, but this year they all got it.

Tell you the truth.

I wouldn't lean toward rose rosette.

I am leaning toward herbicide drift.

One way we can tell the difference is you see how tight these leaves are curled in?

This is a typical growth regulator.

They curl in because it's affecting that growing point.

And the other big trick is with rose rosette, we'll get lots and lots, like millions of tiny little thorns on the side and it's very thorny.

You almost have to have a pair of gloves on to grab it.

So those are one of the two key things I look for, so I would lean toward growth regulator herbicide injury, drift.

Where it came from, it's hard to say.

There's so much growth regulator herbicide -out in the atmosphere.

-We're on a farm.

-Yep.

-Spray for, so what should I do about it?

Should I trim them down?

Are they goners?

Just hold my breath and see what happens?

Hold your breath and see what's gonna happen.

The plant's trying to compensate.

If all else fails, as you get into later in the season and it's still looking terrible, you could cut that cane down, but otherwise it should be fine, and it still should put pretty flowers on for you.

Well, you've made me a very happy person.

Very good.

Yes, I can deal with that.

And then now I've got a northern red oak.

It's been beautiful, dark green every year.

It's probably been in the ground about six or seven years.

All of a sudden it looks like it's very iron deficient.

Kelly, you want to do this one?

Is there a lot of that this year?

Well, it is chlorotic, and I know that because the veins are dark green and the rest of it's yellow.

Red oak is a native oak, so we typically don't see a lot of chlorosis in our red oaks.

It's not impossible.

I mean, any oak can get chlorosis, but usually we say to plant the red oak because we typically don't see chlorosis in it.

Is anything else in the yard very chlorotic?

Yes, a lot.

Of course I always have trouble with the maple, the red.

We always give them iron, but this has looked so good every year.

Now all of a sudden this year it's lime green.

As long as there isn't some other issue like a related issue or something like that that's restricting that movement of that nutrients, you can try treating it.

That young of a plant, I think I'd do a soil treatment.

You can call your extension on the Nebraska Forest Service has a great publication treating chlorosis in eastern Nebraska.

I would check that and it'll give you the soil treatment for it, -and I would try that.

-Okay.

But it is a little odd for a red oak to be that chlorotic.

-Okay, thank you very much.

-Thank you so much.

Next up.

Uh oh, a grass.

This here is a type of wheat grass.

It's invading our flower bed, and we would like to know what we can do about it, how we can control it.

Terri, the beautiful thing is it's invading a flower bed.

So yep, you are correct.

It is some kind of wheat grass.

What I'm gonna tell you is probably not what you're gonna like to hear, is go get your soil knife and just start digging it out.

-It's invaded the.

-What I would do is I would get it all out as much as you can, and then do you mulch the bed with wood mulch or something?

What else is in the bed?

All over.

But what else, is there flowers or shrubs or annuals, perennials?

-Perennials.

-Perennials?

Get out as much as you possibly can around the perennials, and then if you can't cut it down to the ground, and then I would mulch that bed as much as you can and then just start pulling up the little bit that keeps coming up.

That's what I would do around all those.

That would be the easiest way, because you're not gonna be able to spray it or anything since you have stuff in there that you want to keep.

So it's all gonna be pretty much manual labor, unfortunately.

-Sorry.

-Okay, thank you.

And it also is best management.

We're not really excellent chemical purveyors if we can help it.

We like to do IPM.

Next up.

Okay, tell me if it's a bug, I'm trying to hit all points, if it is winter kill on my maple tree that's about six or seven years old, or if it's frost.

I want to know if I need to take this tree out and start over.

How do I tell?

I can't get up in there and see.

Can you see the picture?

That picture was taken yesterday.

-It's winter kill.

-It's winter kill?

So is the tree a goner?

Her picture was leaves here, no leaves here, dead branches.

I think Kelly has a handful of those for the show that we'll be taping later.

We had a lot of that sort of injury this year in particular.

I tend, and I think you do the same thing Kelly, I tend to tell people patience, cut out what is clearly dead if it doesn't have any leaves on it by about the first of June, and then see what you have as opposed to starting over again.

But that said, you may have to have some years' worth of remedial pruning, and you still may have to go that three inch pruning height off the ground at some point.

Three inch pruning on a maple tree?

-Off the ground.

-Off the ground.

Gotchya.

I didn't want that to be the answer.

But I'd give it a year and see.

Thank you.

All right, next up.

Hello.

I have a bug I found this morning.

Ah, excellent.

Oh Kait, look at that.

All right, so this is a type of cricket.

They're sometimes called cave crickets or camel crickets, but you can kind of tell, because it's got that like nice little hump kind of like a camel, but they're not a pest, which is always good when we find things in our flower bed, but it's kind of just really unique looking insect.

Yeah, 'cause that's what I thought.

I'm used to the black ones, not a brown one.

Yeah, and they're quite big too for crickets.

I think it's beautiful.

I say that every time, though.

All right, thank you for bringing that.

-Next up.

-Hi, ladies.

I just have a question for you.

I have a big hardy hibiscus and I'm wondering, I get baby hibiscus everywhere.

Is that common or uncommon?

It's fairly common for Althea.

-I assume the hardy hibiscus.

-The hardy hibiscus.

It's not like my Althea was.

It's one of those big, the big hardy hibiscus -that have the big.

-The Fleming?

-The big red.

-Like a plate.

That is not very common.

-Pardon?

-That's not very common.

I know they have little BB seeds.

They look like a BB, and I had a master gardener.

She was visiting with me.

She said well Kathy, that's not very common because, but I wanted your opinion.

You kind of have to break them open she thought more to get them, but I have them everywhere.

And it is coming from the seed?

It wouldn't be suckering or anything.

Oh no, no, no.

But anyway, anybody needs one, just let me know.

They're bright pink.

Oftentimes they'll come back, but they won't bloom the same color.

Well you know, I've transplanted quite a few into different places, and then one that I did transplant did get a little bit lighter, but I've moved them all around and most of the time they are the color of the mother plant, but I do have one that's lighter colored.

But anyway, just was curious.

I think we need some for the Backyard Farmer garden.

Yeah, sure.

There you go.

-Thank you.

-Thank you.

Hello.

I sent a picture in a while back ago about some kind of lime green colored grass in my backyard.

It started as a small area and it continues to grow.

I brought a sample thinking maybe that might help.

Perfect.

What was the answer on the show?

They didn't know for sure.

(group laughing) So she does bring up a good point for all of you who send us pictures of grass from 20 yards out.

Guess what it looks like?

Grass.

Even if you try to send us a good one, that's really hard.

It's not poa trivialis, is it?

Yeah, it's just an annual bluegrass.

It doesn't really like heat, so it'll probably kind of melt out a little bit.

It's gonna be an annual, so it's gonna be... What I would do is I would just start overseeding in the fall, and once you get a good stand of what you want, that should just pretty much go away.

The annual bluegrass shouldn't come back every year, right?

-It'll seed itself.

-Oh okay, 'cause this has been there for 10 years, then it continues to get bigger.

But is it a big deal if I could let it?

I mean, it's a little different color green, but do I care?

That's up to you.

Personally, if you saw my turf, you would not know why I'm sitting in this chair.

But I would just to help it blend, just start overseeding in the fall.

-Okay, thanks.

-You bet.

So the little voice in my head says make sure you speak into the mic.

Okay, thank you.

I have a Jefferson thornless rose that's covered with gorgeous dark pink blossoms right now that's got something eating on it, and I try not to use herbicides and stuff, and I don't know if it's a slug or a bug or what it is, but you can see my picture if you'd like.

Yeah.

Yeah, so I suspect, we've seen a lot of rose slugs, sawfly damage on plants.

-[Guest] What is it?

-Rose slug.

They're called rose slugs, but it's a type of sawfly.

Sawflies are stingless wasps, but they have little larvae that look almost like caterpillars.

So the good news is that they're not going to damage the plant enough to really kill it or cause health concerns to the plant.

It's mostly just cosmetic damage, which I know with roses, we plant them for them to look beautiful, but it's probably a little late to treat it now just because they're nearing the end of their life cycle.

But if you can, I would just let it be, you know?

I have no trouble with letting it be, because the flowers are overtaking the cut up leaves.

But if it comes next year, what do I do?

The important thing with sawflies is to scout them early.

So if you can see, I believe the rose slug one is kind of a little ugly color with yellowish green.

[Kim] It's the color of Terri's shirt.

Yeah, and then it's kind of gotten.

Which is actually a good color.

So scout early.

You can hand pick them off.

They fall off really easily.

You can hose them off the plant.

Otherwise you can treat with a pyrethroid insecticide, but with roses you just have to be really careful because obviously they have blooms that pollinators will visit, too.

I'll pick them off, it'll be okay.

-Yeah, yeah.

-Thank you.

Perfect, thank you.

I think you're gonna tell me the same thing you told the man earlier.

I just want to know what this is, and it is in amongst my perennial garden.

I can dig it out, which is what I've been doing.

I'm gonna guess that this is another one of those wheat grasses.

It's just not as big as his.

[Guest] Mine's healthier, huh?

His is, it's taller.

Is it a little bit shaded?

No, it's pretty much sunny.

Full sun, and you said it's in a perennial bed?

Well, I'm gonna tell you, that's basically what you're gonna have to do.

I would dig it out the best you can with a really nice soil knife that'll get you down under the roots.

Pull out as much as you can then put the mulch down, inch and a half, two inches.

You can go ahead then and put a pre-emergent down to help if anything else, seed comes up, but anything that's already sprouted, that pre-emergent is not gonna do any good.

But basically if it's already invaded a landscape bed, then basically it's gonna almost have to be hand done because you can't really spray anything and not get rid of what you want to keep in there.

Okay, thank you.

You can try Grass-B-Gone, but it doesn't usually work.

Well my sample is pretty wilted, 'cause I cut it a couple of hours ago, but that is from my neighbor who has three large, I think they're hackberry trees.

We're just wondering what it is and can they do anything about it?

It looks to me from here that it's what we call oak leaf or hackberry tatters.

I always tell people to go to Iowa State and look for hackberry tatters or oak leaf tatter, because they give a great description.

What happens typically, it looks like it's been chewed up by an insect, but two things can cause this, either when those young leaves are coming out in the spring, if they get hit by cold temperatures.

Usually with trees it's below 30, around 30 or below, before they'll be damaged, or they can get hit by a herbicide.

I don't really see what looks like herbicide injury here.

Anyway, that weakens the tissue, and then we get wind and the wind knocks, tatters them, tears them out because the tissue is weakened.

It's not a good thing to happen year after year after year, but the trees usually survive and continue on and do okay.

Kelly, I'm sending down one.

One of you in the audience sent this 50 miles west of here, and it's oak.

Yeah, this one's oak, and it's the same thing.

I mean, they look almost lacy.

They look like they've been chewed a lot of times.

This one, almost all that's left is the veins.

It's starting to be such a common occurrence.

We've got a name for it.

We call it oak leaf tatter or hackberry leaf tatter, and it's something environmental or chemical injures that leaf and then the winds weakens it and the wind just tatters it up.

Usually they survive, which is the lucky thing.

And we haven't had any wind at all this year.

And really if the leaves are tender enough and it's as windy as it was this year, you can just get wind tatter.

It doesn't even have to be cold temperature or herbicide.

That's from my pear tree.

It bloomed out, and now it's turned to that.

It's gorgeous.

I would put this in an arrangement in a heartbeat.

That's the pathologist out of me.

So this is that typical, we talk about cedar apple.

We got all those cedar blank rust.

That's what we have going on here.

Characteristic of that beautiful orange to reddish spot in the middle.

As it will get older, it'll start sporulating on the back, and then that's gonna go back to the cedar trees.

So the trick is, there's nothing you can do for it at this point in time.

You get to enjoy the beautiful color, 'cause it is giving you lots of color in your landscape, but don't be surprised if your leaves turn yellow and die off prematurely, because that's very common.

If you have a lot of premature death over multiple years, then I could start seeing some winter die back, but otherwise it doesn't cause a lot of damage.

It's more aesthetic.

If you are concerned about it, and this year was actually, the timing was perfect for this part of the state.

The rains, we have to have rains as the leaves are coming out, and that just timed perfectly.

We were dry, dry, dry, dry, and all of a sudden boom, we started getting rains, which was wonderful.

If you want to prevent it, you're gonna start spraying once those leaves are starting to emerge.

You have to look at those fungicides to see how often.

It's either 14, 21, 28 or 30 days, depending on the product that you're using if it's a major concern to you.

It can also infect your fruit.

I don't think it's gonna set any on this year.

And usually it's just on the axil end.

It isn't real severe most cases.

People just don't like the looks of it, but you can eat it and it doesn't hurt you one bit.

It's cedar blank, cedar pear rust, cedar quince, exact same thing.

Thank you, or not.

Eye of the beholder Kim, -eye of the beholder.

-Rhubarb, oh.

We have a rhubarb question already, when it can be transplanted also.

It's a five year old plant.

It's had those spots basically every year, and finally this is the opportunity to figure out what's going on.

It isn't nearly as hardy as the plant that's right next to it.

The plant that's next to it doesn't have that issue, all those red spots all over it.

There's a little bit of bug damage I see, but the red spots, that's what I'm curious about.

This is actually leaf spot.

All of a sudden it's leaving my mind on exactly which leaf spot it is, if it's septoria or anthracnose.

All that matters is it's a fungal leaf spot.

So the big thing with it is we've had cool temperatures, wet conditions or the sprinkler hits it.

We'll splash those spores and cause reinfection.

So best management for you is making sure you clean it up in the fall, because the spores are gonna over winter in this dead tissue, so that's one way to do it.

Making sure we're mulching fairly well just in case there's some spores that are surviving in the soil profile.

So when the soil splashes up, it doesn't move it over.

Fall cleanup, mulch is your best remedy for this.

Otherwise, it doesn't hurt your rhubarb.

It might make it, as you said, not as thrifty, just because it is pulling some nutrients from that plant.

[Guest] Still tastes delicious.

-That's all that matters.

-Absolutely.

-Thank you for the help.

-Don't eat the leaves.

That's also in the eye of the beholder.

You don't like rhubarb?

-No.

-Man.

Thank you.

Hello.

Thank you for coming to northeast Nebraska.

This is awesome.

This is from a burr oak tree, and I think my question has been answered about oak leaf tatter.

I don't know if you want this or not.

And this is a sample from my daughter here in Norfolk from her serviceberry that was planted just last October, made it through the winter, looked great, bloomed, and just the other day she noticed the leaves are turning a fall color, so wondering if that is a concern or if anything needs to be done.

This is oak leaf tatters.

Thank you.

Amy, that doesn't really look like rust.

It doesn't look quite right.

Oh, there's a little bit.

-There it is.

-A little bit of it?

Right there on the fruit.

So this is rust again, and as you can see it on that berry, if anybody can see it, can you see those little white things poking up out of there?

That's the fruiting structure where it's gonna go back to the cedar tree.

So just like on that pear, it's cedar quince, it's a cedar rust.

So once again, we're gonna do a fungicide as those leaves are starting to emerge.

Nothing you can do at this point in time for it, but that one shows a nice, like I said, really nice sporulation going on there.

So one of the wonderful things about Backyard Farmer that we love to see is the generations, and we have a generation or two at the microphone.

This is granddaughter Kate.

She lives here in Norfolk and likes Backyard Farmer.

Or will after this, right?

So Kate, I have to ask you a question.

Have you seen those orange mummy jelly things that come off of cedar trees every now and then?

When you come to grandma's house, -I will show you.

-When you come to grandma's, you'll have to go check them out.

They look pretty gnarly.

You want to know a trick?

You can throw them at people and they stick on their backs.

But don't tell anybody you heard that from Backyard Farmer.

Cousin camp is coming up, perfect.

-Thank you.

-Thank you.

-Thanks for being here.

-Oh, thank you.

That's a red oak tree we planted about three years ago.

About a third of the leaves on it now look like that.

It probably started a week ago.

No idea what we did.

-You want to answer?

-How hot has it been here?

-[Guest] Not.

-Not recently.

It looks like what we call leaf scorch, because it follows the vein.

It either follows the veins or the edges.

But we did have 90 degree temperatures about a week and a half ago.

We were cold and all of a sudden, boom, it got 90 degrees.

Is it next to a parking lot or a sidewalk or something?

Up against a south building or anything like that?

-Windy?

-Yeah, windy of course.

I mean, what happens is the leaves lose moisture faster than the roots can replace it, so it can just be environmental conditions.

Sometimes it can be a sign that there might be a root-related problem, which you can't do much about without overwatering, 'cause overwatering is just as bad as underwatering.

Like a girdled root or something like that, but it may just be the high winds we have and it'd be cool and then we get a 94 degree day.

That's tough on trees.

Good, thank you.

I have about 10 year old buttercup magnolia, and on the top of the branches, the bark's peeling off.

Is that normal?

No.

I have a picture.

It's a mystery.

Kim is not giving you a good look from this side.

It's not normal.

Do you have squirrels in the vicinity?

-Yes.

-Okay, that's probably what's going on there.

If Dennis were sitting in one of these chairs, oh wait, he's not a woman.

He would tell you that sort of squirrel graffiti is what's going on.

The rest of the tree, if it's healthy, I wouldn't worry about it.

Don't cut that limb off because they'll just go to another one.

Oh, just leave that playground.

Leave the playground, exactly.

Thank you.

Welcome to northeast Nebraska.

Thank you.

These are weeds that grow in my asparagus bed.

Weeds in the asparagus bed.

The one in the blue, I think they're the same, just one is bigger than the other, more mature than the other.

And while Terri is pulling those out of the bag, I'm gonna send this down to Kelly.

Okay.

Which came from someone in our audience who has bishop's goutweed that is on steroids and not looking like what you planted, which is all over Lincoln doing exactly the same thing.

Okay, so Kim, I cheated.

Kim gave me the answer already.

She referred to it as a reversion, especially because the foliage is supposed to be variegated, and up here it's non-variegated.

So when a plant reverts or there's a reversion going on, it's reverting back usually to something less desirable that you don't want, or you can keep it if you want to.

But if you don't, in Loren's words, "rogue it out" and go back, replant the original one that you want or cultivar a variety that you wanted to plant.

But yeah, it's variegated down here and then this is non-variegated, plus it's very prolific and kind of overgrowing itself.

Anything else to add?

I think the unfortunate thing about something like this that reverts is the one that wants to take over the earth is not the one that you planted.

It's gonna be more vigorous.

So all right Terri, do you have any ideas?

This is field pennycress.

It's the stuff that when they mow the ditches and stuff, it stinks.

It's just easy to pull out, not a big deal.

Just don't let it go to flower.

I think this is a verbena maybe.

I don't know, it's kind of smushed.

I'm not for sure, but that's what I would guess it is.

That would be a perennial, so try to keep it from going to seed and then treat it.

You can dig it out or you can treat it with a three-way broadleaf weed killer in the fall.

-Thank you.

-You're welcome.

And mulch that asparagus, that will help.

That will help.

Sorry, I forgot where you had it at.

I'm wondering if there's any hope of me ever seeing my lilac bloom.

It did bloom.

What we have done 10 years ago, we brought us part of a bush lilac from Keya Paha County to Stanton County, an old, old, old cultivar or whatever you'd call this, an old lilac bush that had come to Keya Paha County probably in 1884.

I didn't expect it to bloom right away, and it did bloom three years ago, and it's now probably 12 feet high.

So you must not be pruning if it's 12 feet tall.

-Pardon me?

-You must not be pruning if it's 12 feet tall.

Pruning?

No, I've not done any pruning on it.

Those early spring bloomers, if you prune it in the spring, you're gonna prune off the flower buds.

I had another thought, it bloomed once?

Yes, it had a good dozen blossoms on it, and it's white, it's a white lilac.

-So I especially want to try.

-How many years -has it been there?

-Pardon me?

How many years since you transplanted it?

10 years, it was 10 years this summer.

So we can't blame frost.

Usually if a plant won't, and I don't know if planted too deep, do you think I've never heard that with lilac, but what I tell people is if you've planted it, stress the heck out of it.

Sometimes stressing will trigger blooming, and if it doesn't, then it's time to replace it.

We brought just short sprouts off from the root or off from the plant, and now there are sprouts coming up around this big bush and I'd like to share it with my family.

Some of my kids would like some of their great, great, great grandmother's lilac bush, but is there any hope for it?

-There's always hope.

-Thank you.

I don't know how much.

Dig and share and cross your fingers.

It just doesn't like living in Stanton County.

It wants to be in Keya Paha.

-Okay.

-But on that note, we are gonna come close to wrapping up, but I have to give a shout out.

You have been watching us since day one.

-Almost.

-70 Years.

When you started 70 years ago, I lived in Keya Paha County and we didn't have TV yet then, but I moved to Washington County in 1957.

That's pretty darn close, so all that intergenerational, that is just fabulous.

Hope springs eternal, share it anyway.

Could I just ask this?

This lilac, does it need full sun?

Maybe I have it in the shade too much.

-Full sun.

-Okay, that might be the problem.

And unfortunately that is all the time we have for what we are telling you is Digging Deeper, and we dug a lot and we got through almost all your questions.

We will get through more of them after the show, or perhaps you'll send us those emails.

We really appreciate being here at Northeast Community College, and you are a fabulous audience.

(audience applauding)