Backyard farmer is a co-production of Nebraska Public Media and Nebraska Extension.

Tonight on Backyard Farmer, we'll check out these mushrooms, and we'll see how container size matters when buying plants.

That's all coming up next right here on Backyard Farmer.

Hello and welcome to another hour of good gardening on Backyard Farmer.

>> I'm Kim Todd, and we are so glad you could join us as we answer all of those gardening questions, our phone volunteers are standing by.

If you'd like to contact us, that phone number is 1-800-676-5446.

We also take your emails and your pictures for a future show.

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And let's get going with our first round of questions.

Regions.

So Kyle, your very first one, you have two pictures on this one, this came to us from Lincoln.

She said she found this large injured beetle on her deck rail.

It was about an inch and a half long with an injured wing.

She's wondering where it could have wintered.

What is its life cycle?

And And what was it?

What is it?

And is it good or bad, it's actually a very good.

So this is fire researcher, caterpillar hunter.

So this is one of our largest ground beetles.

And they, they specialize on, on as a predator of, of caterpillars, especially so.

So they're very beneficial, and they actually they're really interesting.

They can live for several years as an adult.

So the, you know, to go from egg to adult takes roughly a year for this species.

And then they can they can still survive for a few years.

Go go through the winter for a few years.

So one of our longer lived species as well.

>> What where do they live in the winter?

Yeah.

They would just, you know, find a place in, you know, under bark or, you know, soil, some, some protected area where they're, they're able to kind of hunker down.

Very cool.

>> All right, you have two pictures on this next one.

Kelly, I should give this to you because it comes from Columbus.

What is eating my leafy greens and how does he protect his vegetables from them?

>> Yeah.

So you can see some of the, the chrysalis or pupae essentially there.

So this is imported cabbage worms, and they're the, the caterpillar of a smallish white butterfly.

And they can be pretty nasty pests of different cruciferous crops.

So, protect your, your plants, you know, one monitor for, for those butterflies, that's, you know, seeing those around your garden is a good indication that you need to get out and, and, and be scouting for, for the caterpillars, you can potentially try hand-picking, although you can, you know, the numbers can get quite large, they are pretty readily controlled by botanical insecticides as well as bt.

So that's a really good option, you know, making sure you get really good coverage of, of the plants and then otherwise you can use things like row covers to help prevent oviposition.

So that's another thing to consider.

>> All right.

And look for those worms before you boil those collard greens.

Oh for sure.

>> Yeah.

>> Yuck.

>> They can be hard to find.

>> All right.

One more.

This is a Nemaha County viewer, and she saw this on the siding of her house.

>> Yeah, just this is a cranefly.

So we see these, you know, they're really common this time of year and just a really kind of large, interesting fly.

But they're harmless.

They they don't bite or anything, yeah.

Just interesting.

>> Interesting, cool.

And we've had a lot of pictures on these this year.

Yeah, yeah.

All right.

Matt, you have two pictures on this.

First one moved into a house in Lincoln a couple of years ago.

Had established burning bush euonymus right next to the house.

He was worried about problems with the root system.

He's used stump, bone eyed stump and vine killer.

Right after cutting the stumps, he's thinking maybe it had been stored since it was stored in an unheated garage.

It was not as effective as it should have been, because now they've come back with a vengeance.

>> You should treat them again with the stump treatment.

Yeah, yeah, I'd say if you do end up trying to get rid of these, cut them down, cut the stems off and then treat them immediately after.

And generally something with triclopyr or which is usually in some of those stump killers and also even a 5050 roundup or glyphosate, just make sure you don't wait a couple days and then treat them because it's not going to be as effective, try and do it right after you cut them.

And that should get down into the root system, because they have a pretty fibrous root system.

So I don't think they're gonna do much damage on a on their, foundation.

So if you want to keep them and you're not worried about that anymore, then they're still good, right?

>> Just let her be.

Yep.

All right, two pictures on the next one.

Matt this is a Havelock viewer and two pictures of something that comes back every year.

And is flower bed.

He wants to know, is it a weed or an actual flower?

He has used glyphosate on it and it comes back.

>> Okay.

Yeah.

This one is a weed.

It's hoary cress and it's a perennial and it actually spreads by rhizomes.

So that's why you're seeing it kind of spread.

If you dig it up.

The roots can be pretty deep and spread horizontally.

So they're going to just continue to spread and round up alone.

Probably will not kill them unless you do hit them with a decent rate, I would try a phenoxy herbicide or something containing probably 240 or, dicamba, and that works a lot better on those broad leaves, just be careful now, this time of year, everything's blooming, so just be careful what's around the area.

>> All right?

And one picture on this next one, this viewer sent us very early.

A picture weed growing between the peonies.

This is a more recent picture as.

So we can now finally see the foliage on this.

He wonders what is this?

Is this a weed or is this a flower?

And should he get rid of it?

>> I'd say it's a weed.

And these are pretty easy to pull this time of year.

It's prickly lettuce, just be careful.

It can be a little pokey.

As it gets older, it's going to get even pokier.

So if you get them when they're young, they come out pretty easily.

I wouldn't necessarily treat it when it's next to any of your plants.

If there's a few of them, just pull them because they make a lot of seeds.

So you might be seeing these a lot more.

>> All right.

Thanks, Matt, Amy, you have have one picture on this first one.

This is a Seward viewer.

He's saying each year these plants look like this.

They haven't really gotten any bigger.

He's thinking it's the size.

And I gave it to you because of that.

Those lovely spots on the leaves.

>> So I don't really have anything to comment on the size, but the leaf spots themselves.

Cranesbill are really notorious for getting a bacterial leaf spot.

It's Xanthomonas, and this year, for you in particular, you've been getting some of.

Well, depending on where you're at in Seward, some of you have been getting some rains and some of you haven't, but one question with any of those bacterial diseases is how much water are we providing, how's the sprinkler hitting it?

Different components like that, because the bacterial diseases have to have water on that leaf surface for it to infect.

And then also to move, in general, we don't recommend any treatments for it.

Usually we just remove those spotted leaves.

Now why is it not doing well?

Well you know, I can look at Kelly a little bit.

My first question is going to be is it the right place at the right depth, in the right soil and so really taking the time and seeing where is it place, is it really a place that cranesbill is going to be happy, and for me personally, that's what I usually end up doing.

I put the plant in the wrong place and it's not happy.

And once I put it in its happy place, Holy cow, all of a sudden it's happening.

It's growing.

So maybe really look at your environment.

And is it ideal for cranesbill or not?

>> All right.

Thanks, Amy.

You have one on this next one.

Two.

This is a Lincoln viewer.

We could have had 100 of these this week.

She found this on a log in her flower bed.

She couldn't get underneath it to take a picture of the of the gills or the underside, but she says they look like dollar pancakes.

>> They're very pretty.

I don't have an answer.

Which species this is.

There are so many mushrooms that will come out of wood, so they're good guys.

They're breaking down that dead organic matter, putting it into the nitrogen sources that our plants can use.

Some of these are actually caused heart rots and so, you know, it could have been in that tree for a long time.

And now the mushrooms are producing, but they're really neat to look at.

And with the rain patterns you've had and the potential for more rain patterns, I wouldn't be surprised if you see more of these popping out here in the next week or two.

>> All right.

And two picks on the next one.

This one also comes to us from Columbus.

This appeared in the lawn during rainy April days.

Beautiful lasted until April 23rd.

She sent, two pictures of this one.

>> So this looked like a spent out ink cap, because of the black gills and the black spores on it.

As it gets older, it kind of flares out to allow the spores to be able to spread.

Once again, not harmful.

It's breaking down that thatch layer that's in your in your home lawn and giving you that nitrogen for your turf.

If you don't like them, you can go out and hit them with the mower or just pop them off and they may come back when we get another rain event.

Depending on how much mycelium and how much organic matter we have in that thatch layer of that lawn.

All right.

>> Thanks, Amy.

Kelly, you had the first appearance on the show.

Welcome by the way.

This year you have three pictures on this one.

This is a Lincoln viewer, a nice tree, crabapple, probably showing signs of stress, peeling bark on the south side.

He's wondering if he should cut off all the large branches and add saying that the flowering has gotten really small color on the stressed side of the tree.

>> Okay, yeah.

I mean, we are seeing quite a bit of decline in some of our crabapples and sometimes it's Fireblight disease, this the, the close ups of the exfoliating bark or the peeling bark doesn't really look like fireblight to me, but a couple of the other ones looks like there could be a canker.

That may be the reason why it's declining or even drought.

We can blame it on that, but that can stress it and set it up for fire blight, but looking at it on cutting back those branches, it looks to me like maybe over 50.

It's hard to say in the picture, but there's quite a few branches that aren't leafing out yet, so chances are they won't leaf out.

And if you have to remove 50, you know a third to 50% of a tree, it's not going to look esthetically pretty.

After that.

So you might want to consider replacement and whatever is causing this may continue to progress and you'll lose the rest of it anyway.

Sometimes we'll say wait until about June 1st just to give a plant to leaf out, but if it hasn't by now, it most likely will not.

>> All right.

Thanks, Kelly, you have another flowering crab picture.

Just one here for the last three years, it's only flowered on one side.

And each year it flowers less and less.

Is it dying?

This is a bloom field.

Northeast Nebraska.

It looks like it's reverted.

And it's.

>> It's really looks like an old, really gnarled old crab apple.

So it is probably in decline from just a combination of stresses over the years.

Maybe it's starting to get fire blight as well, but also when I, when you zoom in and look really close, it doesn't look like it had a lot of pruning early on.

And there's a lot of multiple trunks close together.

And as those grow and get larger, you get pressure points.

You could get some cracks, could get moisture in there.

There might be some decay and decay in the tree as well.

So it is declining.

It is declining.

And that's just a reminder.

As we plant younger trees, make sure you prune them.

Correctly over time.

But on this particular tree, I guess it's small enough.

It doesn't look like there's a lot of targets nearby if it fell over or dropped a branch, so it might be okay to enjoy it for a while yet, but keep a close watch on it.

>> All right, Kelly, and one on this next one.

We actually had 2 or 3 viewers send the same thing, this is Azalea this year.

This one's ten years old.

She's in Lincoln this year.

It's only blooming on the bottom.

Upper part.

The leaves are small, the foliage is thin.

She's wondering if it'll still flower.

And should she prune it back?

And what causes the flowering?

Only at the bottom.

>> Okay, well, Azalea.

Azalea mostly bloom primarily on older wood, so, it doesn't look like it was pruned.

I mean, if you pruned it after, say, late June or early July, then that might have removed some of those flower buds.

But more likely what happened is, maybe during that we had really warm weather in February and March and it might have broken some dormancy.

Those flower buds and then subsequent cold killed them, they also so that was most likely what happened.

But it was protected down at the bottom.

So those flower buds didn't die, just even really dry conditions.

We I mean, we had a really dry winter as well in those flower buds on the top that are more exposed can kind of just dry up.

And then they just kind of get brittle and fall apart and you don't even know what's there.

So most likely that's what happened.

I would I would let it be in hope it doesn't happen again next year.

And it blooms.

Okay.

All right.

>> Thanks, Kelly.

Well, conditions have been pretty favorable for hunting morels this spring.

For our first feature tonight, Lauren takes us out to the woods to see if he can help guide us to these wonderful mushrooms.

>> Every spring, a lot of people wander out into our wooded areas to look for morel mushrooms, and these are a species of mushroom that are fairly easy to identify .

And today we're going to go through some of the identifying characteristics.

And we're going to go on a morel mushroom hunt to see if we can find a great basket of morels to take home as a delicacy to put on our tables.

Some of the key things that I look for when I'm hunting morel mushrooms are the tree species that make up that forest composition.

Now we have many different species of morels throughout the US, and we have several even in Nebraska.

Many of these, though, and our most common ones, will find on elms and large cottonwood trees and some on ashes.

Now, there are other tree species that they can grow on, but these are the main ones that I target.

The other part that we look for are trees with injury.

These trees are the host for this fungus, and when that tree is injured many times, that will stimulate the fungus to produce these fruiting structures that we're harvesting, that are the morel mushroom.

So when you're out and about, I tend to target my path just walking towards Elms that are in the forest composition, large cottonwoods looking around the bases of those.

If you're in forest with with many of these trees going towards those that have a broken branch or wind damage, sometimes, even if there's an area where they've done some excavation or they've removed trees, that spring can be a year where we see a large flush of the fruiting structures coming out as a result of that host being removed, and sometimes even in extension, we'll get a call of someone having a tree removed and then having a large flush of morel mushrooms in their front yard.

So these are some of the key things.

Now when we're looking for Morel mushrooms and we're harvesting them, we can use a variety of things to do that.

Some people like mesh bags, some people use baskets.

I like a large bright colored basket so I can set that down.

Usually when I find the first one and then circle around and look closely and examine that area for others that are that are usually associated, you will sometimes only find one, but many times you'll find several that will often be circled around a damaged tree.

If we look at the identifying characteristics for morels when we split them, they're going to be hollow inside.

They look a lot like a sponge on a small stem, but again, they'll be hollow.

Now, in contrast, there are also something called false morels.

Our false morels can can be confused.

They look quite different, as you can see here, but they are solid in the center.

These can get very large.

I've seen false morels as large as 5 pounds.

And so with this, by cutting that stem, we'll know that we've got a false morel compared to a true morale.

And false morels are considered poisonous.

So we want to avoid that in our collection.

Now keep in mind that when you're out collecting any type of wild fungus, we would never recommend eating that unless you're with someone that truly knows what they're doing and out with an experienced individual, because there are species that can make you very ill, that you could harvest and always remember that there are old mushroom hunters and there are bold mushroom hunters, but there are never many old bold mushroom hunters.

Have fun when you're out this summer.

>> It does bear repeating that that we here on Backyard Farmer do not recommend eating any mushrooms you find in the wild, unless you are with an expert or you are an expert and you're 100% certain of what you've harvest harvested.

Hopefully with these tips from Lauren, you might still have time to find some morels.

You will notice he did not tell anybody where he found those.

All right, Kyle, you have one picture on this first one, they've sent several pictures.

This is as good as they get, mini ticks.

She's calling them.

They do know now there's seed ticks.

Lots and lots and lots.

And this is coming to us from Denton.

So they're they're wondering what to do about it.

Are they.

Do they transmit the diseases?

What can they expect on this.

>> Yeah.

So generally, you know, these like first instars, they're they're called larvae and they, they, they don't generally transmit the pathogens .

So that's a little bit later stages as they've fed on other hosts and acquired those pathogens.

You know, if, if you're seeing a lot of them, you know, you can always try using or I always recommend using some, deterrents Deet it's not the most effective for ticks.

Not as much as, you know, would be like for, for mosquitoes, but still better than nothing, really.

It's sort of irritating.

Once they get onto any skin that has that on there.

But the other thing that's really good is permethrin.

So you can treat clothing and shoes especially.

So these really little ticks they generally attach down at the shoes, they're, you know, sort of in grass at the, at the ground level.

And that's where they're getting on.

And so treating your shoes with that will, will really help prevent those from getting onto you, otherwise tick checks are always recommended anytime you're, you know, you're experiencing this commonly or you're going into tick infested areas, make sure that you're checking yourself regularly.

And then the final thing is, if you are finding ticks on you always, you know, save those.

You can save them in the freezer, or in a vial of like 70% ethanol, something like that.

And save it for at least a month so that, you know, if you do start to develop any symptoms , you can, you know, you'll have that those specimens to go back to if any testing or something is needed and do you want them to bring their ticks to you and entomology or extension office for identification.

Yeah.

So you can absolutely bring those in for identification.

We don't do the testing here.

But but identifications.

Yeah.

>> All right.

Thank you.

You have one on this next one, and this is a beautiful, beautiful picture.

This is Council Bluffs.

She found this huge moth on the side of the house.

She wants to know what we can say about him or her.

>> Yeah, well, this is a male.

Yeah, it's a male.

Polyphemus, and so the males have these really large, feathery antennae that the females don't have, which helps them, helps them find mates.

And, yeah, they're just really incredible, showy, showy moths that we have here in the state, so they the caterpillars feed on a variety of hardwoods, but, you know, not a pest of anything.

Just really beautiful moss.

>> All right, two pictures on the next one, this comes to us from Lincoln aphids on Viburnums.

And she says, yes, the viburnums have it again.

We told her what to do.

Prevent treat.

Last year.

She promptly forgot what to do.

Yeah, and she's wondering what to do.

Sure, so there's several species that that can cause a same sort of injury to viburnum.

So I can't actually see any aphids.

I'm not sure which species it may be, but black bean aphids would be one that that commonly causes this.

And they'll use viburnum as a primary host as as well as another species, probably not quite as common here.

So you know, one thing is they often do leave, during the summer.

So once it starts to warm up more, they'll move off onto secondary hosts.

And so they're not causing really a lot of a lot of damage necessarily.

But they're feeding on those leaves as they're developing.

And that's what's causing sort of that distortion, those really young tender leaves.

And so you want to check, you know, watch for that.

As those leaves are starting to develop, that's when you would want to go out.

You can knock aphids off with just a forceful jet of water, but otherwise insecticidal soaps are really effective for aphids.

And just make sure that you're getting really thorough coverage.

The underside of leaves and that that should help control those.

All right.

>> Thank you.

Kyle, let's see, you have three for this first one, Matt.

All right.

This is a viewer here in Lincoln seated in the lawn about six weeks ago with certified seed mix.

Covered it with straw.

The turf has come up nicely, but so has this.

So they're wondering what this weed is.

And can they treat the new lawn with something that will kill the weeds but not hurt the new grass?

>> Yeah, I think what this weed is, is it's a type of smart weed.

It might be Pennsylvania smart weed just by the identification on the leaf with that purple line.

And also just kind of its growth habit and those are generally in areas where the soil is disturbed.

So if you just seated it there might have caused a new flush of growth, I'm leaning towards that one.

And if the lawn is, let's say been mowed 2 or 3 times, then it is safe to use some, broadleaf herbicides on it, usually on the label it says after 2 or 3 moments or so many weeks, four weeks after seeding.

So you could go out with a broadleaf herbicide to control this.

>> All right, two pictures on the next one.

This is a Firth viewer, and they're saying a neighbor treated their new buffalo grass with something that has turned the weeds white.

What was it?

Will it hurt the buffalo grass and then the second question here is, does it look like there is actually enough buffalo grass in there to fill in, or should they reseed?

>> Yeah, I tried to look in there and see how much was actually in there.

If it was just say it was plugged or it was seeded, I think it was plugged in the fall, as I recall.

So it would be pretty slow in the fall.

So you're going to give it time this spring to green up and actually start sending out stolons and spreading.

But the herbicide that was applied was mesotrione.

It's called tenacity.

And that one bleaches it.

It basically inhibits the chlorophyl from forming and causes the weeds to turn white, some of these older weeds, it might not kill generally it takes two applications, or sometimes even three at a lower rate to kill them.

But it is safe on Buffalo, and it's one that we recommend at seeding.

And also at sprigging, for weed control, because buffalo grass is usually seeded in the summer and it can be difficult to control the weeds.

>> All right.

One picture on the next one.

Matt, she's in Nemaha County.

What is this?

And why do we have so much of it in our turf this spring, so this one, I don't know, it was kind of confusing because it looks like it might be in a bluegrass lawn, and then the grass that's in it, might be orchard grass.

And that's kind of that lime green color.

And if you see, you took a good picture so you can zoom way in and the leaf tips are actually frayed.

So if you have even sharp, sharp tips, it's kind of an indicator that that grass is, a little bit tougher than the others.

And it's going to fray the tops.

This is a perennial grass as well, so it'll keep spreading, it's more of a clump type.

So really, there's no good selective way to take it out.

But if it grows really fast and grows above the existing turf, you could wipe on an application of glyphosate.

And that would kill those patches, depending on how many you have.

>> All right.

Thank you Matt.

Two picks on this.

First one for you Amy.

This is an Omaha viewer .

Yeah.

This is a two year old elderberry.

And this one is actually lemon lace.

Probably starts out fine then suddenly does this.

She prunes that off.

Then other stems get it again.

It's already doing this this year.

What's going wrong?

So >> So you said it was an Omaha viewer.

So most likely since you're in that Omaha area and you're seeing this yellowing, most likely we're looking at verticillium wilt.

And so that's a fungus that's in the soil.

And then it goes into the root systems and up into the stems.

And it pretty much plugs the vascular system.

And so we're not getting the nutrients in the water movement through there.

And this is a major problem in that Omaha metro area.

We have a lot of verticillium this variety also appears to be a little more susceptible to it.

Some other species or varieties may not be as susceptible to Verticillium wilt.

So what do we do in the long run?

Potentially look at a new variety and replace it, longevity wise, this plant probably isn't going to be real productive for you with how much it's yellowing and the fact that we're seeing it so early in the season.

So you're either going to need to change varieties or pick a different plant.

>> All right.

Thanks, Amy.

Two pictures on the next one.

This is the Waverly viewer a privet hedge.

Random sections have turned brown and died.

They leaf out in earnest and then some of the new growth is showing this strange damage.

They they did cut out a lot of the old stems that way.

It looked.

That's why it looked so thin to begin with.

Right.

The problem existed before they pruned it back.

Looks uneven.

Do we have any idea on this?

And I know we've had the same issue in Lincoln.

>> So you know we talked off off camera about it.

And you know, Kim just pointed out there's been a major issue here in the Lincoln metro area.

Also So, this might be one that might be a good one for a sample.

It makes sense that you're cutting it out, there is some leaning that it's a root rot of some sort, whether it's a Phytophthora or a Pythium, it's really unknown.

And Kyle would be the one who could really answer that question, but he would need to see the root system.

And so if you could dig that up and bring a sample in, Kyle will be able to get to that answer a lot faster.

We're just making an assumption that it's a root rot.

There typically isn't a lot of leaf foliar issues with these type of plant species.

So that would be kind of the root that we're going to.

>> All right.

Thanks, Amy.

Okay Kelly you have two pictures on this one, 40ft long and a 50 year old.

Oh, no.

This is a shroom one from Amy.

Forgot.

I forgot we had one more shroom for Amy.

Any idea on this one?

This was in the lawn, and it looks like this.

>> I have absolutely no idea, you can see it's an immature mushroom because we don't have those gills on the bottom yet.

And those are really the key defining purpose.

Breaking down to an organic matter, not hurting anything unless it's in a ring.

If it's in a ring, it could be fairy ring.

But look for those dark green patches in your lawn.

And then we would need to look at managing fairy ring from that.

>> All right.

Thanks, Amy.

Now Kelly, your turn.

So a 40 foot long, 50 year old privet hedge.

This one's also Omaha.

This is a pruning question.

Trims it to 6 to 7ft.

Some of it's starting to thin a little.

He wonders if he should trim it down to four feet early next year to revive it and get it to, you know, Bush out a little bit more at the bottom.

>> Okay.

Well, if you go down to four feet, it's going to Bush out at four feet and then it's going to be pretty dense and it might shade continue to cause some shading in there or shading towards the bottom.

So this is I mean it's a lot of work.

But we always tell people, you know, you have to thin shrubs as well as cutting them back.

You have those heading back cuts or kind of shearing cuts that make them shorter, but it's really important with shrubs to go in there and doing thinning cuts.

And I know on a 40 foot long hedge that would be a lot of work and a lot of time.

So if you really it's getting a little bare on the bottom, not very bad.

I mean, I've seen a lot worse, but I think rather than going back to four foot, you might want to consider going back even closer when it's dormant.

And then you'll get a lot of good growth from that bottom.

But as it grows, don't forget to go in there and do a little thinning, especially if some of the larger diameter stems.

Great.

>> Perfect.

All right.

One picture on this next one.

This is a ceresco viewer.

She wants to prune this viburnum okay.

And wondering do they cut out all the dead now and then trim the rest down later in the year?

Or can can she just cut it all the way down now?

Okay >> She can do either one, so it is a viburnum.

It's blooming now.

So it's one that blooms on old wood or last year's wood when those flowers.

So after, you know, when it comes to pruning, any time you have dead wood it's a good idea to get rid of that dead wood just for esthetics.

But if you're planning to cut it all the way back, renovate it, renovate it, and go down to the ground, for example, once it finishes blooming, then go ahead and do that.

>> All right.

And two picks on the next one.

This is a ten year old lilac hedge and this one very few flowers.

It's one of the dwarf Koreans or one of those plenty of afternoon sun doesn't seem to matter.

North south, east, west sides all look the same.

They he waits until after it flowers to trim it so he doesn't think that's the issue, right, yeah.

I hard to say for sure why it's not blooming.

I will say on the it's good that you wait till after it finished blooming to prune it, but make sure you don't wait too long so they start developing their flower buds in.

You know, by early summer they're developing those flower buds.

So you really with spring blooming shrubs, you want to prune them as close to when they finish blooming as possible.

If you wait till the end of June or into July, or even a little bit later, you're still pruning off some of those flower buds.

Because they're already developed by early summer, in many cases.

So that I'll just mention that, it, you know, it could be make sure you're not over fertilizing it with nitrogen.

Sometimes nitrogen will force plants to be and have vegetative growth rather than that reproductive growth of flowers, just some suggestions.

>> All right.

Thank you.

Kelly.

Well, we are really happy with the addition of a weather outlook for the coming week to our show.

So let's hear from Gannon Rush of Unl's High Plains Regional Climate Center about what to expect.

And we hope it's good news.

>> Thanks, Kim.

Highs this week will be pretty seasonable for early May.

Friday could be a little cooler, but after that much of the state should be in the 70s on Monday and Tuesday, some places could reach the 80s.

It'll be fairly dry this week, with much of the state expected to see receive less than a half an inch of rain after being so soggy these past few weeks, it's a welcome change of pace.

Storms will be scattered this week, but the best chances of precipitation are in the eastern part of the state.

On Sunday into Monday.

Soil temperatures haven't changed that much since last week, with many places still in the 50s.

Seasonable temperatures should help warm things up and bring more places into the 60s.

And that's your weekly weather forecast.

Back to you, Kim.

>> Thanks, Gannon.

You know, we need to take a short break now, but we hope you'll stay with us.

Coming up, we've got the lightning round and the plants of the week.

There's much more backyard farmer coming up right after these messages.

[Up-lifting Music] [Up-lifting Music] [Up-lifting Music] [Up-lifting Music] [Up-lifting Music] Welcome back to Backyard Farmer.

Coming up later in the show, we'll hear about why size matters when it comes to buying plants and containers.

You can still phone in those questions to one (800) 676-5446.

Send us those pictures and emails to beef@unl.edu.

And of course right now it is time for the lightning round Kelly.

>> Ready?

I'm ready.

>> We have a viewer who wonders whether horse manure should and can or cannot be used in gardens, just in case horses have been fed hay with herbicides in it.

>> Okay, I don't yes, it can be used.

Make sure it's well rotted and apply it in the fall instead of the spring.

>> All right.

We have an Omaha viewer who has an old silver maple wondering why there are no helicopters or whirlybirds from his silver maple this year.

>> They probably the flower buds, probably swelled when it was warm in February March, and then they were killed by cold temperatures.

>> Okay, we have a tulip tree about three inches in diameter in wind blown Burt County leaf north from the south winds.

Should it be staked, I guess it depends on how large it is.

And if it's still pretty young, maybe stake it for not very tightly low on the trunk for about one year.

That movement of the trunk helps it develop strength.

>> All right.

We have a Norfork viewer who wonders whether volunteer cucumbers coming up in her garden will produce cukes.

>> They might, but they might produce something else too, if they crossed with something else.

So better to start with.

New.

>> All right.

We have an Oak, Nebraska viewer who wonders how to control plum thicket spread.

Good luck.

Exactly.

All right, Amy, you ready?

Yes.

Okay.

Our very first one here comes actually from 2 or 3 viewers, but.

All right, this is an Underwood, Iowa viewer who wonders whether curly top in tomatoes travels on the wind.

No All right.

The same viewer is wondering if it doesn't travel on the wind, if they got their seed from a reliable source, was it in the seed?

>> It definitely could have been in the seed, you know, the question would be, did you guys buy your seed all from the same place, or did you buy all your plants from the same nursery?

And it could have been transmitted by touch.

>> All right, we have a Hastings viewer who wonders whether moldy straw from old bales can go into the compost pile without damaging plants.

>> It can go in there with no problems.

As long as your compost is going to the right temperature.

>> All right, a Columbus viewer is hail damage a cause of needle cast or tip blight in pines?

Yes.

>> Diplodia is notorious after a major hail event.

>> All right.

Is there a disease that would brown only the tips of iris foliage and only one variety of iris familiar with anything like that?

>> Nothing off the top of my head.

But since it's a varietal, there definitely could be an environmental component I would probably look at.

>> All right, thank you very much.

Okay, Matt.

Ready?

Yep.

This is a Sioux City viewer.

A wonders whether an old lawn should be top dressed with something before seeding, an old lawn should probably have enough compost into it.

Some of the old dead grass in there to keep it going.

But a starter fertilizer would probably be all right.

>> All right, we have a North Platte viewer.

This is kind of yours.

Kind of Kyle's, but you get it.

Granular grub control for flowerbeds and lawns is there one, yes, I'm assuming there is.

>> For lawns.

>> For lawns?

Yeah.

And for the landscape.

Yeah, I would say so.

>> That's a yes.

>> That's what I meant.

>> I'd say so, yes.

>> We have a viewer who has curly dock in the park across from them.

It's already gone to seed.

Is this an annual.

And will it spread to their yard, the seed can definitely spread to your yard, and it'll come up year after year.

>> All right, Grand Island viewer has poha in the turf.

Is there a way to get rid of it selectively, poha is tough to control, but there are some selective herbicides that are for probably not very easily to use for a homeowner.

I guess I should say that it'd be more for the professional side.

All right.

>> Okay, Kyle, last and definitely not least.

Ready?

I'm ready.

Okay.

This is a Blair viewer who wonders whether they can just tuck pollinator plants into any sort of a landscape without having to prepare it first, yes.

>> Yes.

>> We have an Omaha viewer who wonders, is there a local bee nursery where they can purchase mason bees and leafcutter bees?

>> No, no, no, we have a viewer not sure where this one's from.

>> They're wondering if those mosquito dunk things are dangerous to use in birdbath or dog drinking bowls.

>> I don't know.

I'll pass.

Okay there is an Omaha viewer who wants to know when to spray for Bagworms, usually it would be in June.

Some things are a little early, but not this early.

All right, we have another viewer who found an ant spray for in the house, and it smells like citrus.

>> And it supposedly is something that is not harmful.

And the ants do not like citrus.

Is there?

Question I'm not aware of that, so that that would be something new to me, but I'd have to look into it.

>> All right.

>> So that'd be a fun one to figure out.

Right.

Nice job.

All.

Well, you know, we've had some pretty significant rain here in Lincoln.

That's just another step in the process of us getting our garden planted.

Here's Terry out at the backyard farmer garden to tell us more.

>> This week in the backyard farmer garden again, a little bit of rain.

>> So kind of slow on getting things in the garden and going.

We will be moving our plants out here within the next few days.

So So if you are here on campus and you're stopping by, you'll maybe be able to see our plants out in the garden hardening off.

We'll then start to try to get them planted just after Mother's Day, which is when most of the time we tell people to plant our warm season crops.

So our tomatoes, peppers, those kinds of things.

So looking forward to getting all that done.

But in the meantime, we're just kind of admiring our garden.

We're looking at all the plants coming out.

We're looking at the false indigo that's just about ready to start blooming.

So it's going to have these beautiful flowers on it.

Everything's really kind of turning out really nice and green.

A little bit of cutting back on some of the woody plants that kind of struggled over the winter.

So we're doing a little bit of trimming just to kind of clean up some of our woody plants.

But in the backyard farmer garden, it is starting to really look like spring.

We're really excited to get moving forward.

So stop by the backyard farmer garden and check it out.

>> Those cover crops are really starting to touch the sky.

Won't be long now, however, before planting starts.

And of course now it's time to hear from Kelly on those lovely plants of the week which did come out of the backyard farmer garden.

>> They look beautiful and the tall spike here is blooms of heuchera or alumroot is another name for it.

This is a very hardy one.

Full sun to part shade, dry to normal conditions and the beautiful won a lot of different colors for Heucheras.

The red one, the pinkish red one is Jupiter's beard.

You may have heard of it as red valerian, but Jupiter's beard flowers for quite a long period of time.

This one is drought tolerant.

It can self-seed and but it's a beautiful combination.

>> Excellent.

So come visit.

All right.

One, 234 pictures on this one.

Kyle, we've had this question from this viewer before but sent us just the log and its borders in spruce from Sioux City, Iowa.

His his question now he's got all these other cedar spruce in the windbreak.

Do we see anything here that in insect wise he should be concerned about short of maybe there's bagworms.

>> Yeah.

I don't see anything here that I find terribly concerning, if I recall the previous images, it looked like there were some pretty large holes, you know, so that makes me think of, like, larger, like Longhorn beetles.

And usually those are associated with, you know, limbs or branches that are already, already unhealthy or declining.

And so I would guess that it's probably a more isolated incident or situation where, you know that that portion of the tree is just not healthy and not necessarily something you have to be concerned about just spreading to everything.

I think just focus on trying to trying to keep those healthy.

You know, I don't know if it's irrigated.

The grass look pretty good around those, but if not, you know, maybe trying to get some water to those trees if possible.

And just keep them healthy and they should be okay.

>> All right.

Thank you very much, this viewer is wondering if the red worms and nightcrawlers he introduced to this box will leave it in the winter?

Or will there be enough decaying material in there to keep the heat, to encourage them to remain?

Yeah.

>> So I really don't know much about yeah, it is about worms.

But Jody chipped in and so she, you know, she recommended trying to make sure that, you know, it's think about ways to insulate it, keep it covered.

So that it doesn't freeze.

So that's kind of a big concern, but, you know, beyond that I don't have any recommendations.

I'm not sure what they'll do.

>> Yeah, it'd be fun to have a follow up.

Yeah.

On from him on that one.

All right.

Matt two pictures on this one.

This comes to us from Halsey.

They've had problems with this grass in the past over the winter it totally took over.

Do they start over or is there something she can kill it with without killing the daylilies that are also in the bed?

>> Okay, yeah, this one looks if it keeps spreading and it looks to me to be smooth brome, and that one can really spread underground with rhizomes and take over any patch that you have.

So if you are controlling it in specific lilies, there is a couple products that would work.

One of them is, grass byegone made by ortho, and it actually comes in a ready to use , mixture that you can spray on the grass.

And it should not kill the lilies.

I'd read the label and make sure, but it's a grass herbicide.

And so it only works on that.

And it's called I think it's flu as a fop is the active ingredient.

And that one works on grasses only.

So it'll kill grass around there too if you spray it on there.

But it should be safe on a lot of the ornamental plants that are not grasses.

>> All right, two picks on the next one.

This is a viewer who last year had her yard reseeded brought in this.

She lives in York.

What is this one?

>> Okay, this is a good one, too.

>> It's a summer annual or winter annual, I should say, downy brome.

And it is pretty prolific at spreading seed.

So one way to control this in a new lawn is just to mow it and constantly mow it, to keep it from seeding.

And eventually when we get into the summer time, this plant just dies out.

And then hopefully you can get the lawn growing and thick enough so that it won't be a problem next year.

>> All right, Amy, two pictures on this.

>> First one, this is an Omaha viewer.

Rose leaves are doing this.

It's a living easy shrub.

Rose.

She does use a systemic rose food on it.

Southwest corner of the house in full sun.

>> To me this is looking like rose mosaic virus, how it transmitted in.

It's there's a lot of different ways it could have done it.

Now it will reduce the longevity of your rose, some people will live with it, but it won't produce as many flowers.

It's not going to be as thrifty.

So if you really want a thrifty rose, you may want to look at replacement, and you should be good.

Just make sure you clean your tools when you buy that new rose and replace it with it all right, three pictures on the next one.

>> This is actually the same viewer.

I did ask her if these were in the same spot and soil test.

West Omaha Jackmanii clematis does this.

She's used Epsom salts, Tenton fertilizer.

She can't get rid of the yellow leaves and you said they've done a soil analysis, right?

She said she had one done.

She couldn't quite interpret what it said.

Okay >> So maybe take your soil analysis in there from Omaha into the into the local extension office and they can help you interpret that.

A little bit more.

I would lean to our nutrient deficiency.

Probably one of those microbes is almost, if not, then we're looking at some type of viral a virus in your clematis, I don't have one in particular off the top of my head, but take that soil analysis into the extension office and have them help you interpret those results.

>> All right, Kelly, two pictures on the first one.

This comes to us from Bennington.

This is a baby blue spruce, two trunks, one very big one, one little one there.

They're wondering should they go ahead and cut one of them out.

>> Well, I don't like either situation, and just a reminder that double leaders need to be dealt with.

The first year or two after planting.

Those trunks are pretty large.

Now And on an evergreen, if you remove the one it's shaded, you're going to have a big bare spot.

Now at eight feet tall.

Eventually they might fail.

In my other concern is the larger trunk is leaning, and then when you cut that, it's going to be a fairly large wound.

That's not probably not going to coat it or seal.

And you might get some decay in there.

So neither situation is a great situation.

And I guess I'm going to let the homeowner select the lesser of two evils.

>> All right.

One picture on the next one.

This is an Omaha viewer Japanese maple planted in a she says, a relatively good location, but no foliage on the top.

Should she prune that top out weight or replace it, yeah.

I mean, Japanese maple maples can be pretty touchy.

And with our weird winter that we had, that could have been what caused it to die back or just the drought.

It is kind of in a hot next to a sidewalk.

They like they like a protected location, so if yeah, if it's not leafing out, that top part is not leafing out by June 1st.

Go ahead and cut it back.

And you can either grow it as a shrub, or you can try to train one of the side ones up into another trunk.

>> Great.

And two pictures on this next one.

This comes to us from Aurora, this ginkgo got caught in a frost when it was, leafing out, and now it's not.

And it's about 14 years old.

She's wondering, will it leaf out or is she done for it?

>> Chances are it will leaf out.

Ginkgos are really, really tough trees.

Temperate zone trees.

When they lose their get a frost and they lose those early leaves, they have the ability to develop secondary buds.

So give it some time and I'm hopeful that it will go ahead and leaf out.

>> All right.

>> Thanks, Kelly.

Well if you're headed to the garden center to pick up some plants this weekend, pay careful attention to what you're buying.

The size of the pot can greatly affect the root system of the plant, so let's take a minute to see why that matters.

>> If you want those shoots on your landscape plants, you've got to have those roots and soil volume in the container.

Is going to make a huge difference.

With a lot of plants, maybe not so much with annuals and perennials, although you will see as we pull them out of the pots, that little shallow ones compared to the deeper ones that does make a difference.

>> Pots are actually sized now by soil volume, so you'll see, number one, three, five, seven, 15.

You'll see occasionally plants that actually containers that actually have holes in the container, which actually those are root maker, root trapper, those really produce a good root system.

The long and the short of it is though, if you have a larger soil volume in those containers, you are highly likely to have a better root system, again, you don't want that plant in there too long because you're going to get circling roots.

Potentially you'll have roots that actually will not take up the water or the nutrients.

Those may not end up being healthy plants.

So you will also see on occasion in a garden center or or a box store, you'll see plants that look like they're in a gallon, which is technically a number one.

You pull it out and you'll find out that all you have is a little bitty plant in there that was maybe out of the cell pack.

That really means that plant has not been in there long enough.

So you really have to pay attention to what you've got in that container, as opposed to just looking at what's on top.

So do take a few minutes.

I gently pull that plant out, check out the roots.

If somebody yells at you, go somewhere else.

A lot of times that really does determine your chances of a successful planting when you get it home.

So let's go right into questions because we have some really interesting ones tonight.

Still, two pictures for you, Kyle on this first one, this is a Fremont viewer.

They found this gardening for 15 years.

They've never seen it before.

They they think it's on a little.

It's a volunteer.

Oak, so what is it?

>> Yeah.

If it's on an oak, then it's probably oak.

Bullet goal.

So definitely a bullet goal, which is caused by these little snippets of gall wasps.

So they they have already emerged.

They would have been from last year because you can see the holes there.

>> Should they pick those off for that little guy, there's they'll probably fall off on their own, but they don't hurt anything.

There's no reason to.

>> All right, two pictures on the next one.

This is in Crofton.

She's wondering what this is on the branch of a walnut.

She thinks it's some type of cocoon, but she says it's Jurassic Park.

Large Yeah.

And what will emerge?

>> Yep, it is a cocoon.

And it's the cocoon for Cecropia moth, which is our probably our largest moth.

Yeah, and a beautiful one.

>> Yes.

All right, two pictures for you on this one.

Matt, this is a Lincoln viewer wondering whether this yard needs to be detached.

And is it too late in the season for this process?

He did air raid a few weeks ago, and he's going to fertilize.

But does he need to detach to get the fertilizer into the soil, you don't need to detach to get the fertilizer in the soil.

Usually rain will carry it down to that soil level and if you verified you're ready to step ahead, you're going to have good soil, water, moisture.

Get it in there, it looks like a tall fescue lawn.

So it almost looks like it's more just like dead grass from the last season.

And it should still green up.

It's still a little early, if you don't actually have, like, a mat layer, I mean, if it's just that brown grass on top, there's no need to detach.

If it's a bluegrass lawn and it's overwatered and over fertilized, then you might need to detach it.

But I'd say fertilize and go from there and you should have a green lawn all right, you have a Sioux City viewer, and they, she's she's given us these pictures of Milorganite.

She wonders, is this something you would recommend using as a fertilizer on lawn, yeah, you can use it as a fertilizer on lawn, it's more of an organic herb, fertilizer that has probably more of that decaying matter in it.

That's going to help build the soil, it doesn't have high nitrogen, but it does have iron in it, too.

So it'll green it up and it can be used.

>> All right.

Excellent.

Amy, you have three picks on this.

First one, they live in Ord.

It's a vanderwolf pine planted last spring.

Just starting to candle.

She's really wondering about these little hands full of brown needles.

Is it environmental?

Is it disease based?

What?

What do you think here?

>> I was having a hard time seeing if there was any dark bands on there, if you're not seeing dark bands, I would lean toward environmental.

If you are seeing dark bands, that would be an indication of dothistroma needle blight.

And if you do have that and it's just starting to kindle, you would want to do a copper treatment right now to protect those new candles.

>> All right, two pictures on the next one.

This comes to us from North Bend.

This is our lovely Arborvitae again.

They don't know if it's sick or cold or blight or what.

And what do you think?

Environmental pretty quick and easy.

That's what most of our injuries on Arbor Vitae are.

Salt, cold, wind, desiccation, iron.

All right, print it out as best as you can.

And that's it.

See what happens?

>> All right, Kelli, you've got about a minute.

So it's a good thing your questions are quick.

This is a Columbus viewer.

This tree was struck by a lightning during the storm.

Will it survive?

>> Well, only time will tell.

It's hard to know if that lightning, if it came down the outside of the trunk, if it was wet and dispersed it, or if that lightning, if that was conducted through the tree and into the roots, it can create intense heat.

So only time will tell.

Remove the loose stuff there.

Don't treat the trunk or cover the trunk with anything and wait and see.

>> All right.

And then your next your last one here is an Omaha viewer.

This is a plane tree or a sycamore.

Excuse me.

Planted five years ago.

The roots are doing this.

Is this normal and what is the prognosis?

>> It is not normal.

Unfortunately, it's more normal because of the plants growing in a container and starting to circle.

But that is a girdling root and it's pretty severe.

You already have that constriction of the trunk at the base.

You can cut it away, but I think there's too much damage.

I think I would consider replacement before the tree gets much, much larger.

And as that risk of windthrow in a storm or something such as that.

>> And I must admit, I have never seen one go snake like like that all the way back around.

>> It was pretty severe and it's already constricted at the base.

That's not good.

>> All right.

Well, unfortunately that is all the time we have for tonight's backyard farmer.

Thank you so much for watching and submitting those wonderful pictures.

And those questions, helping us on the phones tonight we had Carol Rustad, Linda Helton and Nebraska extension educator Terry James.

Next time on Backyard Farmer, we'll hear from Jodi about identifying those wiggling worms in your soil.

Some are beneficial, some are not, and Jodi will help us tell them apart.

So good night.

On that wormy note, good gardening and we'll see you all next week right here on Backyard Farmer