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♪ (upbeat music) ♪ <Amanda> Well, good evening and welcome to Making It Grow we're so glad that you could join us tonight I'm Amanda McNulty.

I'm a Clemson Extension agent and our program is a cooperative venture between SCETV and Clemson and that is perfectly obvious tonight because everybody has association with Clemson.

I'm going to start with my good friend Jackie Jordan who I missed terribly.

Jackie tell us, you have a pretty wide range of places you cover and you've told me that some new ventures are starting in some of them.

<Jackie Jordan> Yes, I cover Richland, Kershaw, Fairfield.

Not only do I do urban horticulture and Master Gardener Coordinator but I do specialty crops so I work with a couple of small vegetable growers who are growing anywhere from half an acre to three acres up in Fairfield, In lower Richland - I just got a call today from a gentleman who has a olive orchard and in Kershaw a gentleman who has grows hops for brewing beer in Lexington County so neat stuff.

<Amanda> Good gracious, almighty things are - feels like everything's come to a standstill, but certainly not in the world of horticulture <Jackie> No, not at all.

<Amanda> Okay and Chase Smoak and I used to be right next door to each other we could just holler at each other when we had questions.

Chase could answer questions much better than I can.

Chase tell me although you're based primarily in Sumter, you've got some other places that you give a hand to, too, I believe.

<Chase Smoak> Yes ma'am.

So I cover Sumter, Lee and Clarendon Counties.

I have some wonderful clients.

I grew up in Pinewood, South Carolina on the Clarendon County side.

So, helping folks that I knew growing up and getting to meet new folks it's just a blast and a blessing that I was sent back to this area.

<Amanda> I want to say too that in these days, we generally although it's been kind of rainy, but we have a lot of beautiful days in South Carolina.

One place that people can safely come and be outdoors and have a exquisite experience is Swan Lake, Iris Gardens I think you've been spending a lot of time there because you've got a good friend over there.

<Chase> I sure do.

So, well my very dear friend Philip Carnley, we graduated from Clemson together in horticulture.

The city brought him on as the horticulturists out there at Swan Lake and one of the big projects we've been teaming up on, the city has been, I can't even describe how great this city has been in backing this project is raising the arboretum level.

And one of the great things that folks will be able to experience once we're finished this project is they will be able to either go online or hopefully when they go to an app and they can say, "Hey!

I want to come out "and see this plant at Swan Lake."

They can hit it and it'll take it straight to that plant or maybe you just stroll across the plant and you say "That's beautiful!

I'd love that my yard."

There will be a tag on it and they can scan it and it'll tell what type of plant it is and give a small plant profile, telling you where to plant it what it may be susceptible to and everything you need to know If folks haven't been, I highly suggest making the trip over to Sumter and checking out the swans and everything else and all that's going on over there.

<Amanda> It's free to visit.

It's open every day of the year.

It may be closed Christmas but from sun up to sun down, lots of places if you bring a picnic where you can safely sit, enjoy a table and just have a wonderful time.

The one thing we ask you not to do is please don't feed the swans because we found that they were not getting good nutrition from everybody's stale bread, I think.

<Chase> That's correct <Amanda chuckles> And of course Terasa Lott is a major part of the Making it Grow team but she also for Clemson is in charge of keeping the master gardener program kind of organized with all kinds of different people in charge of it and arranging for virtual learning during this time, when we can't do other things.

One thing she does that she started which has just been such a delight is Gardens of the Week and Terasa I bet you got some beautiful examples of things people have been growing around the state to share with us tonight.

<Terasa> I sure do Amanda this Gardens of the Week has become a favorite of mine.

I look forward to each time we film an episode.

So, we're going to start in Leesville with some colorful carrots from the garden of Betty Young.

In Taylors, Robin Tyler says this crocus is a sign that Spring, surely is on the way.

From Kelly Toadvine in Greenville, I think you could call this orchids galore and Kelly gave me the idea that you can never have too many orchids.

Veronica Gallo-Bamberry of Darlington shared her winter gardening and she says it's for indoor gardening, definitely.

Then we're going to finish out with Arlene Lyons Weeks of Summerville and she shared a photo of bright yellow violas and to me, the flowers always looked like smiling faces.

So thanks to everyone who shared.

That's just a random sampling that we were able to show on-air but you can visit our Facebook page to see all the submissions.

<Amanda> Terasa when I was little, mother had a special little container to hold pansies that had kind of like a little grid on the top and she liked the ones with faces.

She would in the morning go by and sprinkle them with water and she said that it was like washing their faces.

I think that she did that because we were such filthy, dirty, outdoor children and she spent a lot of time scrubbing our faces because we loved to be outside.

Thank you so much for sharing this with us.

Terasa, one of the things that you and several other agents Vicki and others, people post questions on Making It Grow's Facebook page and y'all are so kind and diligent in answering them and so I was going to ask if there were some that have come up that you thought might be timely for us to talk about now.

Some people are thinking about maybe doing some pruning or other things.

Is there something that we might get either Jackie or Chase to help us with that you run across?

<Terasa> Oh, yes.

Always lots of questions.

So we'll start off with this.

A viewer said, "I planted majestic beauty Indian Hawthorne because I was told it was resistant to Entomosporium leaf spot.

But now I'm seeing red spots on the leaves.

What is going on?

<Amanda> Whoa...I think that Jackie, there's hardly an office complex you go by with that plan hasn't been used and half the time they don't even have any leaves on them.

So explain what the problems are with that plant and how we should address it to perhaps have fewer.

It sounds like this person tried to get one that was resistant but they're still having some trouble.

<Jackie> Yeah, definitely so resistance doesn't mean immune so it is one thing to keep in mind that a plant that does have resistance can get the disease.

It may not suffer as badly.

So the ones that show resistance will not drop as many leaves and look as sad as ones that have no resistance.

Some things you can do to manage it, those leaf spots survive on the leaves.

so when you get that turnover from those evergreens, rake them up, get rid of them, put down some fresh mulch.

You really don't want - You want to prune very early because of that new growth is so susceptible.

So, either prune very early, late winter or come back later but that new growth is going to be susceptible and it's really hard to control with fungicides, especially on Indian Hawthorns that don't have any resistance.

So if you got Indian Hawthorn that looks really sad, there are so many great native plants and other things that could be put in its place.

I would look for something different if your plants look very sad.

<Amanda> I found a dwarf variety of Yaupon Ilex Glabra that I think would be a nice place to use.

It's going to get to be about three by three.

Even if it's male or female both flowers because hollies have male plants and female plants.

Both flowers are attractive to pollinators.

Another thing.

Don't you think Jackie, especially at commercial establishments, people want to go in and get instant landscaping and they plant everything real close and then when the plants grow they don't get any air flow.

I believe that light and air flow can be wonderful sanitizers.

Can that help prevent some of these diseases or make them less dramatic?

<Jackie> It does help.

You want to definitely space out plans accordingly.

But I think with Indian Hawthorne, they're just so over planted, it'd be nice to see some different selections, some native stuff that isn't prone to it.

<Amanda> Okay, well.

Thank you so much for that advice So, really spraying you would have to be spraying all the time and so if you've got an impossible situation, maybe just replace them.

If it's not too bad just learn to live with a little bit of discoloration.

<Jackie> Some have pretty good resistance you're going to see some spots but it's not terrible.

<Amanda> Thank you so very much.

Well, Terasa, again, I know you see what people are wondering and worrying about.

Is there something that pops up that you think our two experts might give us some advice about?

<Terasa> There is and this one I believe I've experienced myself.

A viewer is noticing a weed in his lawn.

Says it's low growing and it has fern like looking leaves.

He says it's not sticky or prickly right now but he feels like he saw it last year and the kid didn't want to go outside barefoot which is so much fun to do for the kid.

I've had my dogs suffer the consequences as well.

So, who might I address the identity and control of this weed?

<Amanda> Okay, well I think Jackie does a lot of work on turf and Chase has two small children who like to run around barefooted.

So Chase why don't you start us off Then, you and Jackie can just give us some advice back and forth because I think I've heard that your children don't like to put their shoes on if they don't have to.

<Chase> My son, Tripp who is five, I always joke with him.

I say Tripp if you ever want to see how high you can jump, run across the yard when there's lawn burweed out there.

<Amanda> Oh!

Lawn burweed!

<Chase> If you want to learn how to dunk a basketball that's a good way train for it.

So lawn burweed, we typically see it occur in areas that are compacted that have some soil issues going on.

Jackie and I were discussing this earlier.

They're not a lot of pre-emergents that have proven to be overall effective at controlling it.

So then that moves us to assuming you've already gone through the soil mitigation process of aeration and doing your soil tests and all you're left with at this point is a - <Amanda> Chase, let me interrupt you for a minute.

Describe aeration and decide, is that something you do in the middle of the winter, the fall or the spring when new growth is coming.

Tell us a little bit about that process, what it does and the best time to do it please.

<Chases> I usually - I'll get Jackie to back me up on this because she's the expert really when it comes to turf grass.

I think March is probably a good time frame.

And you're looking at a process called core aeration.

You have a solid time or you have a hollow time that you can use and the difference between the two is with the hollow time or the core aeration is actually pulling out plugs to kind of help break up that soil compaction.

Otherwise, what you're doing is with the solid time you're just kind of poking a hole you're not really doing as much.

What you're trying to open up is that pore space.

Jackie may have more to say on that.

<Amanda> Jackie let me ask you depending on where you are in the state, your turf grass is going to be getting ready to become active.

Do you generally want to do that when the turf grass is entering an active stage of growth.

What do you think?

<Jackie> You do.

You'd actually want to wait from warm season grasses into May.

You can actually go a little bit later.

If you're experiencing any issues with disease in you lawn, you want to wait until June.

If you have cool season grasses you'll want to do it really September, October.

It depends on if you had a huge problem with certain weeds like annual bluegrass, you might want to wait a little bit longer into October to do that.

<Amanda> Now, the little plugs that come out you don't have to rake them away or anything, do you?

<Jackie> Actually the best thing is to let them dry out and then let irrigation or rain reincorporate them back in.

That will reintroduce the soil micro organisms to the top and can actually be used as a control for thatch.

<Amanda> Okay.

Well, Chase right now you said you don't have any seeds that you can see.

If you if you've already got seeds there, there wouldn't be any point in using a post emergent herbicide, but at this point could you maybe prevent the seeds from being formed if you used a proper post emergent herbicide?

>> Yeah that's correct Thank you Jackie for correcting me on that.

That's why you're the turf grass expert here.

So, if you already have seeds, the little burrs are the seeds we're referring to, there's not much you can do.

You're kind of in trouble unless you want to go out there and spend hours digging and digging and digging the stuff up which is not a long term or help effective solution.

One thing you can do if you don't have those burrs yet, There's a chemical called Speedzone Southern that's on the market.

I believe there's a Speedzone and a Speedzone Southern but Speedzone Southern particularly is what we're referring to and that's something that can be used on centipede and St Augustine.

Jackie, can give a list of other grasses it could be found on.

You definitely have to watch your rakes on Saint Augustine because it'll burn it up a little bit if you go too high.

>> Jackie are some of our southern grasses - I mean, our warm season grasses, the ones we like so much, do we really have to - we always are supposed to be extremely cautious about following the label but sometimes they have to have a lower amount than some of the other grasses.

>> Yes, St. Augustine is probably the most sensitive to different herbicides so you do have to be careful.

<Amanda> Okay.

So again the thing is to read that label and follow it because it is the law.

Okay.

And then I think Terasa, you said that someone else had something that was kind of one of those low spreading weeds.

This seems like a lot of them are, unless they're dandelions, but tell us did they give us any hints.

You think our experts might be able to figure this one out?

>> They did send a picture and so I can tell that this one is low in spreading but it has elliptical shaped leaves so that foliage looks very different from the lawn burweed.

>> Jackie, since you are one of our turf specialists and Terasa discovered a description does anything come to mind?

>> Sure.

Sounds like chickweed.

<Amanda> Okay.

>> That's a common annual.

<Jackie> That weed actually needs light to germinate and so if you keep a good three inch layer of mulch in your landscape, not only does it do so much for your plants but it is a great job at stopping a lot of these annual seeds from getting enough light.

to germinate.

It also needs a lot of light.

So keeping your mowing height on your grass a little bit higher will help to shade it out.

So, that can limit some of that seed germination on your lawn.

<Amanda> Okay.

So a lot of times just cultural practices can be our first line of defense and we don't have to go to chemicals.

Is that right?

>> Exactly, yes.

>> And chickweed actually is edible and when I was at Clemson I was taking a writing class with a Mark Steadman and there was a lady in the class who was 80.

She didn't type and I would type her for papers and she had me over for supper and she knew a lot about natural things that you could collect and forage.

She gave me a salad made of chickweed.

So, when I find chickweed I always like to pick some up and chew it.

If you have some and you know no one's been spraying your yard you might want to try it because it has a delicious, delicious sweet flavor.

It's fun sometimes when we can find something nice about a plant that other people consider weeds.

<Jackie> That's true.

It's crazy because it's one of those plants that is good and bad like with everything you need there's a good and a bad side to it.

It's used in salve sometimes for burns, but it also is one of the plants that carries Tomato Spotted Wilt Virus.

So, if you are a tomato grower you'll want to limit chickweed in your landscape because the thrips can transfer it to your tomatoes.

>> Oh my goodness!

<Jackie> Good and bad with everything, unfortunately.

<Amanda> Yeah.

Thank you, Jackie.

We sure are glad to have you sharing this knowledge with us.

I know everybody's been missing seeing you It's happy to see you.

You're one of my favorite things about you is that you like sparkly stuff.

I think you've got a little sparkle for us today I can count on my bling friend.

(Amanda laughs) Those of you who watch the show are familiar several of the staff members at Riverbanks Zoo.

Andy Cabe and Eric Shealey.

Another member who's been there for a while whom we have not had the pleasure of dealing with before is Melodie Scott-Leach and she has a specific area of expertise and I think you're going to be fascinated by what she talks about in this coming segment.

♪ (Rhythmic drum music) ♪ It's a nice cool day in Columbia, South Carolina and I am at Riverbanks Zoo and Garden speaking with Melodie Scott-Leach.

And you like me graduated in horticulture from Clemson but I sure didn't take any classes in zoo horticulture.

<Melodie Scott-Leach> There aren't any classes in zoo horticulture.

It's a lot of on the job training.

<Amanda> How did you get fascinated with this and become so proficient in it?

<Melodie> It kind of just happened into the job then it became as you said fascinating and challenging and so different than most types of public horticulture.

There were so many different aspects to it.

<Amanda> And the new trend now in this is to, do what?

<Melodie> It started really in the 80s called immersive habitats and you try and surround the visitor and all the guests and mimic the habitats of animals.

So you don't necessarily bring in the exact plants that would be from Africa or Australia or Europe or someplace.

<Melodie> That would be very hard in any situation anywhere where zoos are to try and bring in plants.

Sometimes it works out and we can do it but for the most part, we have to try and mimic plants from that habitat.

<Amanda> You're doing two things.

You're trying to give me the visitor a sense of what it would look like if I were going around the world on safari.

<Melodie> Absolutely and we're also trying to be set designers for the animals to give them places where they feel comfortable, where they can hide if they need to.

nobody likes to be on exhibit all the time.

So, alright we use plants to do that a lot of times.

And that means you've got a lot of when you're putting plants in with the animals, there are a lot of things you have to think about.

<Melodie> Absolutely.

How they're going to interact with the animals.

You have some animals that eat plants.

So, that can be particularly challenging, but a lot of animals don't like cats and stuff but they may play with plants in a different way than other animals.

So, it just depends on how the animals going to utilize the plant and of course toxicity is always important too.

You don't want to be hurting any animals.

<Amanda> And where we are sitting right now, which is so pleasant.

There's a breeze and we're probably going to have a little unexpected noise because we're right by the sea lions.

Sea Lion and seal exhibit.

This exhibit's only about three years old and even though I can't plant anything, of course this is an aquatic exhibit, So I can't really plant much in there with them.

All the habitats surrounding this exhibit I did try to mimic the California coast.

Of course when you pull up pictures of that you see wind swept conifers.

You see grass is blowing in the breeze and you also see a lot of wild flowers and small silvery shrubs.

That's what I've done here.

(sea lion barks) <Amanda> One of the newer things that you've been working on is a rhinoceros exhibit.

And it was different.

different types of rhinoceros eat different things.

They do.

Well, about ten years ago, we did have black rhinos here riverbanks and they are browsers which means that they eat the shrubs.

Eat off trees.

<Amanda> Okay.

<Melodie> Now we have white rhinos who have just come to riverbanks and replaced elephants on exhibit.

They're grazers.

So, they eat grasses.

Even the same animal you would think who would be the same are completely different.

<Amanda> If these animals that want to eat every sprig of grass that comes up, you can't really mimic the savannah in that respect, so how do you give the viewer a sense of what it would be like if we were seeing them.

<Melodie> In the public spaces of exhibits I have to utilize that a lot to try and make the visitor feel part of the habitat and mimic that animal's habitat.

Of course, they're from the plains of Africa, a lot of grasses, acacia trees.

So, I'm looking for plants that will grow here that I can mimic and I use that parts to make the visitor feel immersed.

Although, I will continue to trying grow grass out on the rhino exhibit.

It'll just be challenging and it'll be continually seeding and it may take ten years but eventually I'll get something out there.

<Amanda> I'm sure that like all of us, they sometimes get an itch and do they need something to scratch and rub against?

<Melodie> They do.

We do have an actual brush out on exhibit.

But in the wild they would rub up against tree trunks probably to scratch themselves.

And I did plant four large trees out on the exhibit, but I needed to protect those trees because they're going to provide shade for them.

So we did some big boulders just big rocks around there so that they can rub against those but hopefully it's going to protect the trees.

<Amanda> While you were talking about the need for shade, you've got tigers and they can't take their winter coat off, their fur off, so what have you done to try to change their exhibit, give them more comfort and yet still give us a sense of where we might see a tiger?

From very far away we hope.

<Melodie> Very far away.

Like you said they wear their fur coat, year round and with that size exhibit it's hard to plant a large tree for shade in there, because that can give them access to climb out of the exhibit.

So, I have to be very careful about what I plant.

So, the team here at Riverbanks came up with a very creative idea of using a old concrete culvert and running the cold water from the Saluda River through that to give them a cool, shady place to lay and it was my job just kind of make this culvert not look like a culvert any more.

So, planting grasses on it using rocks, using dead fall from trees just to kind of hide it but to still provide animals what they need.

<Amanda> Do you try to give them a place to get out of the view of the public?

Is that something they need and does that help them feel secure?

<Melodie> They do.

I mean most animals aren't really comfortable on a wide open plain.

Maybe tigers, not so much from a predator standpoint.

But no one likes to be vulnerable all the time.

So even though the visitors may not enjoy it, I think it's important for the animals to have that security to have a place to get to where they feel like they aren't on exhibit all the time.

<Amanda> One thing I always enjoy doing is visiting the guerrillas because they remind us of ourselves, perhaps with better qualities in some ways and other ways.

I think this is an area that you feel y'all have excelled in creating.

<Melodie> I think from the exhibit design which is - there's height to it which gorillas like.

They like to be up high and you know planting trees in there is difficult because of palm trees and most trees aren't sturdy enough to handle the weight of the gorilla.

<Amanda> Which type of guerrilla is this?

<Melodie> They're Lowland Gorillas.

And the height is good.

and you know it's difficult because gorillas eat plants but we've been very successful with the plantings in this exhibit and it's very lush and we actually have the problem of having to go in there and cut out some of the foliage.

<Amanda> That's to your credit that y'all have made such good selection that can withstand that.

Yet still give us a sense of where they would be and let them enjoy themselves as well.

<Melodie> They do enjoy it very much.

<Amanda> And then although some people don't like reptiles, I'm very fond of them and they do provide some much control of things like rodents and things that are problematic we just have a beautiful, beautiful display and you said that you work very closely with the people who are the specialists there.

<Melodie> We do.

Because we don't go into those exhibits very often, we work really closely with the reptile keepers and they kind of are conduit to get plants in the exhibit.

One thing I love about reptiles is the fact that they don't interact with plants in the ways that mammals and birds do.

So therefore, I'm able to grow a lot more, in those exhibits.

We have a lot of interior exhibits with some tropical and even natives.

We also have our tortoise exhibits outside.

<Amanda> And you told me that the Galapagos have some favorite things they enjoy and some of the other tortoise to eat.

<Melodie> They do.

They really love pansies.

So, in the fall and winter when we're dead heading pansies out throughout the zoo and the garden, we will bring what we did head over and we'll toss them to the tortoises and they munch on them.

It's a treat for them.

In the summer, they love hibiscus flowers.

I have actually planted some hibiscus plants in there so that when they drop off or when keepers want to they can pick them off and throw them down for them to eat.

<Amanda> Birds, oh my goodness, they can be as loud as these sea lions we're listening to and whenever I think about Riverbanks, especially if it's a hot day is those flamingos.

<Melodie> Yes, the flamingos are fun.

They're one of the most colorful animals in the animal world and people love them.

That's one reason we have been very near the front entrance because it's a draw that attracts people over there.

Flamingos are one of those animals that like more open space because they use it for nesting.

<Amanda> Oh!

<Melodie> We can't encroach much on that.

They do have a nesting island in their exhibit and part of horticulture is providing what the animal needs.

A lot of times we're bringing heavy clay in there for them to use for their nesting.

But we do plant the perimeter of the exhibit.

<Amanda> And tropicals are about tropical look are always fun.

<Melodie> Absolutely.

<Amanda> Now, we can have the tropical look going through the end of November sometimes in South Carolina.

<Melodie> You're right.

I think we go three months of the year without something being tropical.

<Amanda> The parrots you said have some peculiarities that some of the other birds don't that make it more challenging about what wood you use?

<Melodie> That's true.

There are some toxic woods and parrots do a lot of chewing.

They gnaw on wood a lot.

So you have to be careful the wood you use in a parrot exhibit.

And you know all birds are different.

They use plants in different ways.

You know just like our native birds here.

Some use them for nesting or some use them for food.

The parrots, they're used them to perch in and to chew.

So, I do have to be careful.

I have a list of parrot safe wood at my office.

You said that there's a small group of y'all and y'all share information.

<Melodie> Yeah, we actually have an international group but most are from the U.S. and we have message boards and we can say, "Hey what do you have planted in this exhibit" or "What's worked for you in this.

So it's great.

(sea lions barking) <Amanda> You have an exhibit of mixed birds from Australia and of course that continent is completely unlike anything else.

So what have you tried to do there to give us a sense of what it would be like?

<Melodie> Well, you're right.

Australia, even the continent of Australia is very different.

What I've tried to do is find plants...

I was fortunate to find a eucalyptus that would grow here that mimics a lot of eucalyptuses there.

It's cold hearty for us and I do try and maintain the plant palate among all the Australian animals here.

So, it's similar and if you're paying close enough attention, you feel like you're in Australia in all those areas, <Amanda> The kangaroos of course are from there and so tell me what you did there and a funny story that goes along with it.

<Melodie> There's a funny story.

Well, I thought that Vitex mimicked a lot of the scrubby trees that I saw in pictures from Australia and I planted that in the exhibit.

Well, of course the Vitex common name is the Chaste Tree.

And it turns out that the kangaroos were actually nibbling on this and it was a bit of a problem that came to me and it seemed it was kind of messing with their reproductives.

So, we now know why it's called the chase tree and I ended up having to remove it all from the exhibit.

<Amanda> And then the very special little animals you have, a few of them are the koalas.

Now tell me what it is that they only eat.

<Melodie> They only eat eucalyptus and only certain eucalyptus.

They're probably more than 500 different you know species of eucalyptus all over the world but the ones that they do like to eat, do not grow here.

It gets too cold for it here.

So, we have to ship in eucalyptus and we ship from two suppliers, one in South Florida and one in Arizona.

And that is in case something happens to either supply we always have a back up to go to.

We also have to maintain a emergency supply here and of course we had to build a specialty greenhouse for that.

We have a greenhouse in our growing center complex that just has a dirt floor and the trees are planted directly in the ground and we just keep them trimmed back to maintain in that green house and occasionally feed out from it.

<Amanda> If we had a hurricane or something and delivery trucks and planes couldn't get here for a couple of days, we know that these animals have everything that they need.

<Melodie> Absolutely, we can feed them for probably I would say at least two weeks.

<Amanda> Gosh.

<Melodie> It's a lot to take in and to maintain.

<animal barking> You know, y'all are open all the time I think and have lots of visitors and we, the visitors are animals.

<Melodie> Absolutely and they interact with all of our animals here.

One area in particular is our farm area we're encouraging people to interact with the goats as they go out on with them or they can feed the goats.

We have goat feeders with food in them down there.

What we found though, was that some of the visitors were actually- say you didn't have a quarter in your pocket, they were picking some plant material down there at the goats and feeding it to them.

Unfortunately you know plants interact with certain animals differently than they may with us and it was causing a lot of tummy troubles with the goats.

It was azaleas that I had planted.

Turns out they're toxic on them.

So even though they were pretty far away from the goats, I had to remove most of those from the area to keep the human animals from bothering the goats.

<Amanda> There are many homeowners who rue the day that they planted bamboo but you are very happy about a bamboo you have here.

<Melodie> We do love bamboo.

<Amanda> What is it used for?

<Melodie> We use it for everything from staking tomato plants down at the farm to building garden trellises in other areas but the main thing that it's important for is the food source for our animals.

All of our browsers like to have those leafy plants to eat.

And in the winter it can sometimes be difficult because most of our trees and shrubs are deciduous here.

So, it is an evergreen plant and it's easy to cut, easy to get to, easy to access because we do have so much of it.

And the keepers will cut it and take it out on exhibit for the animals to enjoy.

I will say by the end of winter they're probably sick of bamboo.

So they're really happy when other things start to leaf out and we can give them different variety.

<Amanda> It's like when we've been eating collard greens three months in a row and are ready for something else.

<Melodie> Exactly.

>> Well this has just been the most fascinating topic and I envy you and admire you for the wide breadth of knowledge you collected and shared with your friends.

Remind us again of how easy it is to visit Riverbanks.

<Melodie> We're here all the time.

We're open 9 to 5, every day except Thanksgiving day and Christmas day.

So, you can come and see the animals year round.

<Amanda> Well, I have had a wonderful time today and thank you for sharing.

>> We have more stories to tell.

So come back.

(sea lions barking) >> We just found our experience out there fascinating and I just imagine that they're so sweet that they actually go and pick pansies for some of the turtles or tortoises to eat.

They certainly give the animals beautiful care.

The zoo at times in the past has just been wildly packed with people.

Right now in these days of social distancing, they're taking great care and you need to go to the website and set an appointment time because they want to be certain that you can go and have a wonderful experience and yet still be socially distanced and safe while you're there.

I found it really wonderful because I'm so short.

I could see the animals much better than normal, because you know here on the station a lot of times they make me stand on a soapbox, an apple crate actually because I'm so short.

So, if there's a beautiful day, see about taking your family to the zoo.

You will have a wonderful time and find that the crowds are very small.

You'll feel very, very comfortable while you're there.

I have to make hats and Sean reminds me, "Oh, you've got to get a hat.

I went on the back porch, my husband has all this stuff out there.

I don't know what this long green thing is.

I guess it's a succulent but my husband right now is painting a portrait of me and I asked him if I had horns on it and he said not yet.

So, I hope that watching this hat won't make him decide to give me horns, because occasionally as you can imagine, a lot of people have found being coped up at home with their husbands and my wives, it makes things a little testy at times.

I also found a flower and this is Viburnum tinus, Spring Beauty and it's been blooming for about a month.

It's a lovely, very easy plant to have.

Mine needs pruning.

It's gotten kind of tall but a great, easy plant to have.

Isn't it nice to go out and have a flower in the yard to bring inside?

Chase, you have fortunately been able to - I guess fortunately - because you got two young children, a full time job, you were going to go and get a graduate degree with one of your favorite professors at Clemson.

So, tell us a little bit about what you are planning and what your research will focus on, please.

<Chase> So, I guess we'll start from the top because it gets kind of - we go in-depth with what I'm going to be researching.

So anyone who's propagated or has an idea of propagation knows that what you do and I specifically focus on stem propagation.

Cutting off a stem of a plant and whenever you cut a stem on a plant, the moisture that you're left with is only what's inside of that stem.

So it comes down.

I get lots of questions from folks of what do I once I take this cutting.

Do I take it and put it in a pot?

Do I water the soil that it's sitting in?

And the answer is no because there's no roots to take it up.

At that point what it comes down to is we have to mitigate the loss of water from the leaves.

So, you think about where water leaves from a plant.

So, sure we can get some water loss from the base where you made that cut, but most of it you know and hopefully your stomata or the little holes, the stoma on the bottom of the leaf where most everything exits anyway, hopefully those are still open.

That's kind of your key to success.

So what we have to do is we increase pressure through humidity.

Humidity is air pressure.

So we preset air pressure around outside of the leaf and by doing that it reduces the amount of water that's sloshed the leaf itself and you don't have as much desiccation and it doesn't dry out as fast.

>> That's one of the hardest things to overcome is keeping that cutting fresh and moist while you're trying to grow those roots and not having it dry out and just die on you.

>> That's correct.

Live Oak Quercus virginiana has been one of my big projects for the past five or six years and being able to root that to a commercially viable level which is you need to be able to root at least 70 percent of your cuttings for it to be considered commercially viable.

And it can take up to 8 to 12 weeks to root one of those.

How do you hold all that water that's just sitting in a cutting until you get these new roots to emerge and pull new water up into the plant.

So, studying this aspect of what we refer to as vapor pressure deficit or the difference between total saturation, talking about air completely filled with moisture so the difference of relative humidity that's there now or no humidity at all.

>> Oh!

So, you want to have the air surrounding the plant have so much moisture in it that the plant won't try to achieve equilibrium by losing moisture through the leaves.

>> Yes ma'am and there's a certain point - I'm a first semester graduate student, so I haven't been able to delve into this too much but hopefully over the next semester.

So, we'll get into the greenhouse and we have so many awesome tools these days that we can connect to leaves.

Yeah we can connect it to the leaf.

We can sense moisture on top of a leaf.

We can sense vapor pressure deficit.

We use light sensors and this all can be transferred back to computers.

That gives us a lifetime data.

Then we run it through statistical software and look at numbers to find out what really matters, because at some point you're right.

You need to have that high humidity around the leaf because you want to slow down that water loss from the leaf.

But at some point you have to flip that light switch once you start to get these new roots and you have to allow that water to move through the leaf in order for all the nutrients and everything else to move for a plant to grow.

>> Okay.

So, Chase within the greenhouse y'all will have different tools and devices where y'all can control that condition?

<Chase> So, Dr. Jeff Adelberg who's my major adviser we worked on a what we specialized in regarding this, is what we refer to as a micro environment.

So, what I mean by that, if you see a greenhouse structure I would refer to that is a macro environment, in a micro environment is a structure that we build inside of that.

What we did is created these rolling tunnels and I'll get you some images and videos of this but basically we hooked it up to a computer and made it think like a cutting.

So that way, it could open and close, or it could increase the vapor pressure or it could decrease light and the rooting percentages success we had was phenomenal.

It truly was phenomenal.

And it was one of the best projects I've been able to work on in my life.

I'm truly thankful he gave me that experience.

>> We're thrilled and I know he's thrilled to have you back because I've talked to people with whom you worked when you were at Clemson and they glow and smile when they talk about when you were one of their students.

But one of the things, this sounds interesting and fascinating from a scientific standpoint, but I think people need to understand that what Dr. Adelberg and people at Clemson do has a a direct relationship with the success, financial success of our nursery industry because if they can produce plants with success, especially plants that are somewhat hard to root then that's something that they can add to their inventory and people will say, "Well, gosh!

Now that it's affordable, I would like to have that for my yard as well.

Is that part of the reasoning behind this?

>> That's correct.

A lot of the work that I'm doing is primarily focused on increasing knowledge and having these field days for the propagators of our state and if there's anybody watching who's a commercial landscaper or runs a commercial nursery, they're familiar with what we call the plant locator, which is a book where we can go in.

It's like a little catalog where you can go in and find all the plants you want and if you look at where most our cuttings come it's from out of state.

So, one thing we want to do is we want to increase this knowledge and give this information out there to help our plant propagators become more profitable and successful.

And I believe that's something that we can implement and you know the reason that we clone these plants because they have superior aspects.

Like the plant Jackie was talking about earlier, it maybe disease resistance, it may require less water, which we all know that you know controlling our water output these days is a huge factor.

Or it may just be something new that everybody really wants a piece of.

SO, that in a nutshell, that's what we clone plants.

>> And I think one of the things that is they're not many side effects that are positive from the situation we're in,, but so many things are virtual now.

And I think you'll be able to safely work with your advisor and do some of this work without having to make a long trip and leave your family.

And we are so grateful for that.

We're going to come back in a little and learn a little bit more.

First, I'm going to go to Terasa, because a lot of people do just particularly enjoy like making cuttings.

Maybe they've got a grandmother's house or something where they're going to go home when we can travel again and would like to get a cutting of something and then root it and have it in their yard too.

Have we had any questions related to this topic Terasa?

<Terasa> Well, what you just described is almost exactly the question we received.

So a viewer wrote in and said I really enjoyed hydrangeas that were on my grandmother's property, such fond memories of playing in her yard as a child but the house is now being sold and I'd really like to be able to enjoy those hydrangeas on my property and have them for my children to enjoy as well.

So, do we have tips for how to make that happen?

<Amanda> Alrighty!

Chase, tell us if this is one that you have to be a graduate student to have any success with or if you think this person can maybe easily have a plant to bring back fond memories of grandparents.

<Chase> Absolutely, It hits home when I hear somebody say that.

A long time ago, it was really common for family members to pass down plants over the generations.

And I actually have plants that came from my grandmother.

When these folks pass on, it gives us something that we can remember them by, a way to connect ourselves and in your case you're very lucky because hydrangeas are not too hard to do.

Amanda and I were having a discussion earlier.

Hydrangeas if you feel along the stem you can feel and even see little bumps that are there.

Those little bumps are called meristemoids and those are preformed root initials.

You ask a lot of folks whenever they go to propagate a plant whether or not they might need some type of rooting hormone.

Most people think you do.

Hydrangea that's not the case with that.

Those preformed rooting initials, if you take your cutting I would highly suggest, you could root it year round to be honest with you.

But anytime in the spring, you get that new growth.

It's real green.

It kind of hardens up just a little bit.

The problem with green growth is it'll desiccate and end up dying real fast.

If you let it get harder, stick it, you'll root it pretty fast and it's also a pretty easy plant to layer.

and I think Amanda, you discussed this earlier how you can aerate it.

<Amanda> At my house the chimneys fall off periodically.

We got a big pile of bricks.

Sometimes if there's a long stem, I'll just scrap a little bit of the bark off and place it down on the ground while it's still attached to the plant and get one of those bricks that I have several piles of and put it there.

If you just go do something else for a couple of months and come back and you got a plant just like that.

Don't you?

<Chase> That's exactly correct.

It's an exact clone.

One thing that I need to mention real quick too that I've talked about before, you have to be very careful to check and make sure these plants are not patented or have pending patents, or have a plant patent applied for.

And if you're curious about that you're welcome to look me up online.

If you search Chase Smoak Clemson, my name will pop up.

We also have plant patent lawyers within the state who could probably help you.

There are laws that protect the propagation of propagating patented plants.

>> People went to a lot of trouble to develop new plants and so for a certain amount of time they deserve to make a profit from them so they can do that with another plant we'll enjoy.

Chase, once we let this we take the cutting on the hydrangea that's gotten a little bit woody or toughed up a little bit.

What do you suggest we do to it?

Did you want us to put it in potting soil?

Or did you want us to put it in water?

Or what would you recommend?

>> So I had this discussion a while back with one of our co workers and he was asking me.

He said why do some plants just root straight in water?

My only answer is that because they would probably root on concrete too.

There's some plants that can root really well.

So the first thing you want to do you anytime you take a cutting is you want to make sure it's clean.

And what you can do is you can fill up a bucket.

Get a five gallon bucket.

Or anything that will hold water that will feed the cutting and squirt just the smallest amount of Dawn dish detergent in it and stir it up and you barely - you might want to see a couple bubbles on the top but it doesn't need to look like you're taking a bubble bath and dunk it in and out a few times and let it sit and dry and then depending on whether or not you need to use a hormone.

In the case of hydrangea, you don't.

You can take that hydrangea cutting and you could stick it down into some type of soil less media and those are commercially available you know at any of the big box stores that we have.

>> How long a cutting would you How long should each cutting be would you think?

>> Depends so you know you're talking hydrangea, I would say that you would want at least three nodes and by node we mean the point where the leaves are coming off the plant.

So you would leave - the top two nodes would have leaves on them and then you would take the bottom two nodes where the leaves were and kind of just pull them off.

<Amanda> Okay.

>> Pull them off and that kind of helps in the rooting success.

You don't want to stick that thing down in there real deep.

You want to stick it in to the point where it's stabilized and then you take your fingers and barely pinch the soil around the base of that cutting.

>> And do I need to put an empty Pepsi Cola two liter thing on top of it or something like that?

<Chase> You can but you need to make sure that there's air holes that are on it.

You need air movement around a plant.

If not, you're going to get a very high saturation point.

So, we talked about humidity earlier.

There is a sweet spot with this humidity or the vapor pressure we were talking about.

I can't tell you that off the top of my head because I haven't gotten there yet.

Hopefully, we'll know in a couple years.

You want to get some holes in it, make sure that there's air flow so it's not sitting in there drowning all the time.

>> Okay.

Chase I'm going to get you back to help us with something a little bit harder to root and I'm going to wish you that you make straight A's and just come through this flyingly and I know you are.

Terasa, we have about two and a half minutes left, is there something that you think Jackie might be able to answer a question fairly quickly from one of our curious viewers?

<Terasa> I think this one might be perfect for her.

We have someone trying to grow strawberries at home and noticing small round spots on the leaves and wants to know are the strawberry plants sick.

>> Well Jackie it sounds like something's bothering him.

I don't know how serious it is.

What's your response to this?

<Jackie> There is a leaf spot disease of strawberries called Common Leaf Spot.

That's probably what they're seeing.

Leaf spots can hinder photosynthesis and slow down the production of fruit and so mostly we treat strawberries as annuals instead of perennials.

And so I would just recommend that they switch to a June bearing strawberry that gets planted in October and but reap the benefits in April and May and then take the plants out in June when they're done.

<Amanda> Okay.

When we go to pick strawberries, they're usually on plastic.

Is that something we need to do as a homeowner?

>> No.

That's used to prevent weeds and set it up to make it easier for picking.

As a homeowner they can be planted in the ground.

Okay and then people get so worried when we have a freeze but from what I think you told me in the past, the strawberry plant itself isn't going to be bothered by a freeze in the winter.

Is that correct?

>> Correct?

No.

They'll be fine.

The blooms may get a little bit of damage but that would be it.

And that's the thing about the June bearing is they put on so many blooms you're going to get a fair amount of strawberries as opposed to box stores and garden centers, you see day neutral strawberries where you only get a couple berries at a time, sporadically throughout the season.

>> I've never done that but I think next year but I could remember, tell me again what month to plant them.

>> Plant in October.

<Amanda> I want to thank all of y'all for this wonderful information that you've given us today.

It was fun to have some of my old friends that I haven't seen, back with us.

Y'all take good care.

We'll look forward to seeing you next time right here on Making it Grow.

Bye, bye.

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