Transcript
Alexis: Well, welcome to fall where it feels like all of us have done 18 billion things within a five hour period. Jessica just said before we started, feels like she's lived five lives already today or five days within less than a full day.
Alexis: i think, ah yeah, all before lunch.
Jessica : All before lunch.
Alexis: I think a lot of us are feeling like that in the fall just because of the amount of things that we have to do. I know i am extra caffeinated this time of year.
Plant People: Yeah.
Alexis: How about you guys?
Plant People: Oh, I'm extra caffeinated all periods of the year.
Jessica : Oh, I am too.
Plant People: Yeah. yeah I'm consistently caffeinated. How about that? But especially in the fall, I guess, because number one, I love the fall. So I need that extra energy to just go extra hard.
Alexis: Just want to enjoy it extra hard.
Plant People: Yes. I want to enjoy it extra hard. That needs to be the title of this episode because it's a beautiful day here in Kentucky at the recording.
Alexis: We might get tagged.
Plant People: It's warm.
Alexis: Apple's going to tag us. Is this appropriate?
Plant People: Yeah, I'm just going to go full send.
Jessica : Right.
Plant People: How about that? I don't know if that's any better. ah But yeah, FALSA, I don't know, a busy time in local extension offices, I know, and probably other organizations as well.
Brett: Mm-hmm.
Plant People: But it seems like lots of field days going on, lots of end of season kind of gatherings and educational programs, but especially the field days. And there's some of those coming up.
Plant People: You know, we were talking about that before we hit the record button today. Do you guys have any that you would like to plug that's coming up immediately in the future? Some them we may have already talked about in previous episodes.
Jessica : Well, I have one that's happening in like four hours. So that one probably people will probably be able to attend that one.
Alexis: Uh-uh.
Plant People: Oh gosh. Yeah.
Jessica : But our annual.
Plant People: It'll be like a three, four weeks too late by the time this episode post.
Jessica : Yeah. Yeah. Our annual Mercer County Ag Field Day that we're having tonight.
Plant People: Yeah.
Jessica : So as Ray mentioned, it's odd because like you think fall is not going to be that busy, right? You think like, OK, the spring rush, the production season of summer.
Jessica : And then you're like, oh, the fall is going to get here. It's going to be a little more relaxing. Right.
Alexis: and
Jessica : But instead, there's all sorts of things always going on.
Alexis: Second spring, baby.
Plant People: Yeah.
Jessica : Yep. Yep.
Plant People: Yeah.
Alexis: yeah
Plant People: It seems like people, I've said it before, but people are just in a gathering mood. I don't know if it's the the seasonal change or the weather gets more moderate here in Kentucky. Usually gets more moderate.
Plant People: Not always. as of recording today, it's going to be in the mid 80s. But yeah, the fall time of the year, it's just, I think people, it's ah it's a gathering time. yeah an hour I always thought maybe the seasonality of Kentucky had something to do with that.
Brett: Yeah. i I think sometimes being on campus, we, we don't, or I at least don't get as delusional about fall being not hectic because it's the, it's the time when all of the student undergraduate students return to campus.
Plant People: Maybe. Maybe.
Plant People: Oh, yeah. Mm-hmm.
Brett: And it's a, it's a different city, like it's a different city, different campus.
Plant People: Yeah.
Alexis: Mm-hmm.
Brett: Um, and the excitement is in the air. There's football being played roundup events with lots of straw bales and, um,
Plant People: Yeah.
Brett: and apples and and gourds and stuff. um And, and unfortunately, or fortunately for our future selves, Alexis and I will have just come off of, we we will have have in the rear view, I think as of the posting of this episode, a mechanical weed control field day and our 25th anniversary for our center for crop diversification.
Brett: So,
Plant People: Yeah. You guys have two big events that are being the rear view mirror by the time this episode.
Jessica : Yeah.
Brett: I don't feel relaxed now, but you're hearing my voice in a time where we will be. So I'm just going to lean into that.
Alexis: Yeah, in the future. There
Plant People: You're going to have to just project it forward, Brett, and be in that space.
Alexis: is some Matrix stuff going on right now.
Plant People: Yeah. Once, once they these two events are behind you and they're going to be amazing. I know you guys ah have had incredible interest in, you know, in those events. Uh, it's going to be great and you're going to be super relaxed.
Plant People: You just need to handle that.
Brett: To be fair, I'm not as stressed out as Alexis is because and not doing as much as she is.
Plant People: Hmm. Hmm.
Brett: So, um,
Alexis: he's He's doing things that I'm not good at, so he can be stressed out over there.
Brett: yeah. And the, the mechanical weed control field day is, I mean, I guess, so it says since it's now in the future past, we'll just give a huge shout out to, to Alexis into Sarah Gerking from Oak, the Queens, the Queens of my technical assistance, agricultural world.
Plant People: Hmm.
Brett: Congratulations.
Alexis: Queens of mechanical weed control, which is something that, you know,
Brett: Thank you.
Alexis: you may have done or are thinking of doing and maybe you're just going to mow everything down and put in some cover crop because the end of September, mid to end of September, depending on where you are in Kentucky, can be cover crop season.
Plant People: Yeah.
Alexis: um And that's a great thing to do for your gardens and ah gardens, farms, just unused beds in general, just have some living roots in there.
Jessica : That's a good, good transition there from talking.
Plant People: Just something going on.
Brett: Ooh.
Plant People: and like Yeah.
Alexis: Thank you, I appreciate it. Only Jessica caught on where I was like, let's talk about things.
Jessica : tu Yeah, I caught it.
Plant People: Alexis was, Alexis was totally bringing us back around.
Jessica : It's from like, you know, from talking about all of our meetings. So wrapping that back around with plants of all the fall things that can happen because the fall is also a very busy time.
Plant People: That's going to be done. Yeah.
Plant People: yeah
Jessica : Horticultural wise.
Plant People: Yeah, it's like so it's a super important time.
Jessica : Yeah.
Alexis: Yes.
Plant People: This is coming out late September when this is going to post up, and we got to thinking about you know that before we recorded today, and and it's a busy time.
Jessica : you
Plant People: I mean, I know that for home gardeners, ah plants are starting to regress. They're starting to kind of slow down and go away, and I've even talked to some um homeowners this past week.
Plant People: They've already pulled up. They're sick of looking at tomatoes. ah They've pulled up their tomatoes and their their home garden is in a state of decline, the way they put it.
Alexis: i I saw a um quote. It was, and I wish I could remember who said it, but it was ah like, fall, the plants in the fall are the most wild because they have nothing to lose.
Alexis: And I was like, that just like hit me in a way because, you know, we say that, you know, plants are, you know, we use maybe the word decline, but ah for a lot of our plants there, if you know, finishing setting seed, um they're doing a lot of their, you know, really pushing energy back down into the root system.
Plant People: Mm-hmm.
Plant People: Yeah.
Alexis: So like from an annual perspective, sure decline, right? Cause they don't like the cold there. They are dying. But I think for our perennials,
Plant People: Mm-hmm.
Alexis: you know, we think of those is if they're not declining and they're kind of wild and crazy right now because they're just trying to get the most out of the end of the year and put the most back into what is going to be happen next year.
Plant People: No.
Alexis: so I don't know.
Plant People: No.
Alexis: I just thought that was a fun way to think about it.
Brett: So one of one of the things that that brings to mind for me, there's a bonsai guy that I follow and I'm sure he didn't invent it, but I've heard him say it, that that for him, he thinks of fall as the first season of the year.
Plant People: ah
Brett: um that Because that's when seeds are created.
Plant People: Mm-hmm.
Brett: That's when roots are reinforced. That's when you know you're sort of preparing, you're putting together your package that's going to take you as a plant. take you through the next year. You know, that, that seed gets set now.
Brett: That's a, that's a baby embryonic plant with its ah starter food supply in a hard, mostly, you know, hard capsule kind of thing. Like that act of, of creating that thing.
Brett: It's like, that's the birthday of the plant kind of, um, not to get too political.
Alexis: yeah
Brett: I'm just kidding. Um, uh,
Plant People: Thank you.
Alexis: Well, and and i think I think for a lot of our farmers, it's that way too I mean, um you know, they're they're finishing up the year. They're thinking about what didn't work so they can make the plans for next year. So they're having these like this, you know, their plan for their baby farm of 2026.
Brett: Mm-hmm.
Alexis: happens in 2025. And I think that that's like one of the ways farmers have taken a key from what nature does of, you know, taking in everything from this year and starting to make those plans for next year to be more successful.
Alexis: um And, you know, for some of our growers, they're putting plants in the ground and overwintering them.
Jessica : Right.
Alexis: So, and, you know, so that the baby starts now and the first sales aren't going to be for, you know, several months. And, you i mean Jessica could talk more, but it feels pretty similar even for livestock from a like planning perspective.
Alexis: um you know What are you do going to do in 2026? What was successful in 2025?
Jessica : right
Plant People: It's a, it's a interesting, this and this is where I see a, um, uh, a dividing point sometimes between home, ah c growers, uh, for home purposes and then commercial growers.
Plant People: This is where I start to see the branching out come in as far as the way that they view, as Brett said, the the end of the season, some people's ends are other people's beginnings, uh, especially those commercial people, um,
Brett: Well, i have I have a quick vibe check question for those of you out in the field doing doing the real the real work out there. So this year, weather-wise, we're in year 2025, have been hard to grow plants.
Brett: um seems to have been hard ah to grow plants
Plant People: Boom and bust.
Brett: Yeah. ah You know, it's the wetter than it needs to be drier than it needs to be.
Plant People: Yeah.
Brett: um But never, you know, those two crossing necessarily. So have you have you what my question is, have you noticed like gardens and or commercial operations winding down earlier this year than is you would typically see?
Plant People: Hmm. Hmm. I see plants that got used ah in home garden situations that are typically not irrigated. They looked pretty good if they could, if diseases were under control, you know, they look pretty good.
Jessica : Thank you.
Plant People: They look like irrigated gardens. They were getting frequent rains. And as long as diseases didn't overtake you, gardens and especially lawns looked amazing. Everything looked like it was irrigated.
Plant People: And then at a point the growing season here in Kentucky, It just became very dry. And i Brett, to answer your question short, I guess I saw things collapse more quickly than I normally would. ah I don't know if that's just because I noticed it because the weather transitionist was ah transition was so sharp or it affected the plant growing conditions and then those high moisture conditions went away.
Brett: Hmm. Hmm.
Plant People: It got very dry, so the plants reacted to that. because the root structure, you know, sometimes the roots follow the moisture as far as depth goes. um But there's a lot going on. In my case, I've noticed in certain situations, especially for homeowners, mostly homeowners, ah people's gardens went down a little bit quicker than normal.
Jessica : I saw a mix of it. um Alexis and I had an opportunity to go to a field day here in our county ah not too long ago, and where a lot of homeowner stuff has already gone down if they weren't doing regular irrigation.
Plant People: Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Jessica : This commercial grower in particular, we had so many heavy rains in the early spring, things flooded, Things got put out later. So a lot of their crops were really just getting going like later in this late in the summer.
Plant People: Yeah. Yeah.
Brett: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Plant People: Late.
Brett: Mm-hmm.
Jessica : Right.
Plant People: in him
Jessica : So I think it really depends on your production system.
Plant People: Yeah.
Jessica : And if, if you could get things out early and the rain didn't, when we had all that rain didn't inhibit you. um But agree with Ray, a lot of the homeowner stuff of if they weren't doing regular irrigation, we saw once we got in this drought kind of,
Jessica : you know spell that we were in things went down pretty quick and you know or disease and pests took over you
Plant People: Yeah. And I noticed, uh, I never, I've, I've didn't observe that in any place more than I did, ah home lawns. We don't talk a tremendous amount on the show about home lawns, but that is the question I've been getting the last couple of weeks. It's pretty amazing. Uh, early, you know, every lawn looked beautiful. It looked like an irrigated golf course and I've mowed more this year than I've ever mowed up until it got dry. And then I've not mowed. This is going on four weeks. I've not touched my lawn.
Plant People: ah too awfully much at all. It's been hot. It's been dry. I don't want to get on there and do any damage. But the homeowner question of the day seems to be they're noticing weeds that are still kind of green in some situations, weeds like crabgrass that are more green than their cool season grasses that look very brown and very dormant at this point.
Plant People: So we we're that's the question I've been getting here lately.
Brett: have to
Plant People: I don't know about as far as county offices. Jessica, have you been seeing that also? As far as lawn questions, I mean, people's lawns went from beautiful and lush to not
Jessica : Yes.
Plant People: beautiful and less real quick
Jessica : Yeah. So we were extremely dry in our area and that's what people were noticing, right?
Plant People: over
Jessica : So they were noticing crabgrass because crabgrass was still like thriving and loving the conditions.
Plant People: yes and yes
Jessica : So that was like the only really green thing in their yard. So then people became obsessed with trying to control the crabgrass, which it's not the right time of year. And, you know, you could add more damage your your lawn that way.
Jessica : or people who are already battling Bermuda grass and you know that's the only thing they could see that was still thriving in the conditions you know wanting to control those so just that weather playing a big part in those weeds thriving and and then you know
Plant People: Yeah, and that's the only thing that you see green out there is the weeds. And that then once again, Jessica said it, that's not the time to even spot spray for weeds. Anytime it's you know this hot and this dry, as of recording today when we're recording this, um ah now we can't look into the crystal ball when this is going to be posting at the end of September. But if the weather continues hot and dry, that is not the the time to do any kind of weed control because the way those products work. So you may want to hold off.
Plant People: until you have adequate recovery and moisture, because the golden rule for weed control is don't spray a weed that's not actively growing. You're not going to have favorable results from products.
Plant People: In short, I mean, and you're going to, as Jessica said, you're going to do some damage to your lawn, or you, at the very least, you're going to add some further stress to your home lawn.
Plant People: Now, going in, you know, September.
Brett: but Can i have and I ask a question real quick about, so ah not, you know, some of, unlike you all, I i was not born knowing all this plant information.
Plant People: Yeah, yeah, go ahead.
Brett: um
Plant People: make it up.
Brett: Can you describe like what, I'm not, what does crabgrass look like and what does Bermuda grass look like? Because I think sometimes we like talk about it and people all assume that they know what it is. There's a point where I had to look it up.
Brett: Like people kept so talking about it. i was like, what is this? So like, what would you, how would you describe what it looks like?
Plant People: I guess easiest thing in Kentucky um to ah to recognize Bermudagrass, other than just doing what you said, Brett, to look it up, is I tell people to look a week after their first hard frost. And you're going to see these In a lot of Kentucky lawns, you're going to see large brown areas all of a sudden.
Plant People: And and that's ah that's a common phone call we get. People's like, you know, it's frosted. And two weeks later, we have these huge dead spots in our lawn. Did it kill our grass? Well, most of the situations I'll go out and look at those large dead brown spots two weeks after the first hard frost in Kentucky.
Plant People: And that's either Nimblewool or Bermuda. They're very closely related and they look very similar.
Brett: Mm-hmm.
Plant People: They're warm season grasses. But that's the easiest way I tell people to find them is you will see them seven to 14 days after a hard frost in a Kentucky lawn, because they're going to be brown areas of your lawn and then make a mental note of where those spots are.
Plant People: You can also very easily look up, look up those online, but there's, it's actually very nice grass. You can mow them very close. It's soft, it's thick, it's almost fluffy, except it's got the one Achilles heel here in Kentucky zone six and seven here in in central Kentucky of it's dormant six to seven months out of the year because it is a warm season grass.
Plant People: And if it wasn't for that one characteristic of Bermudagrass and Nimblewille, it would be a wonderful long grass like it is down south in the southern U.S.
Brett: And
Brett: and then what about crabgrass?
Plant People: Oh, crabgrass. You will see it by its wavy seed heads. The way I pick it out in lawns right now, Jessica said, as she said, it's it's green now. And you'll see these sort of triangulate seed heads coming out from crabgrass.
Plant People: And they're angular and thin and narrow. And it's going to be putting up a prodigious amount of those seed heads right now. And it sort of looks grassy. It'll hide itself. It's low and spreading, sometimes with a lighter colored center crown.
Plant People: um but it's typically green when, if it's hot and dry, it's green when ah your cool season grasses are not green and and looking nice. And you'll tend to notice those June and July in Kentucky ah because that's their prime growing season for crabgrass. But you'll notice the seed heads. That's the first thing you'll see that's growing above your lawn. And that's the only spots I'm mowing now that if I have a hot spot of crabgrass, and I do in my back lawn,
Plant People: I don't do a lot of weed control back there. And when I see those seed heads first starting to pop up on crabgrass, I mow those because I don't want those contributing to the excess seed bed that I already have in my lawn. So I will mow those and not let those go to seed. That's my version of low impact seed ah weed control in my back lawn. It's when I see those seed heads from crabgrass, go ahead and mow those.
Brett: Yeah, I think i think that the idea of a cool season and warm season grasses is another thing. If you're getting into this stuff, you're fresh to it, or you haven't read about it before, that might be something else to just look up about some of the seed mixes and all that kind of stuff.
Jessica : Thank you.
Plant People: Yeah.
Brett: Now, Alexis, you love crabgrass. Is that correct? Am I quoting you correctly in that?
Alexis: Uh, if by love you mean wants to burn the ground, uh, yeah.
Plant People: Loathe. She said loathe, Brett, not love.
Brett: Oh, yeah. That's what I meant. that's Oh, loathe.
Plant People: Loathe.
Brett: Got it.
Plant People: Yes. Another L word.
Alexis: Yes, another L word, another, a lot of choice words I have for crabgrass in particular, it is the bane of my existence, but...
Plant People: It produces so many seeds and those seeds, once they're in the soil, ah they last for years and years and years.
Jessica : Thank you.
Plant People: I mean, they've done trials where, you know, even 30 years later, you know, they've collected seeds and I don't know the process, but they've germinated, still had a certain percentage germination rate. So that once you have them in your soil, you're going to be dealing with those for a long period of time.
Plant People: So don't let, if you don't like crabgrass.
Alexis: yeah only only thing I can say trying to look on the bright side, is it's because it kind of comes from like a rosette form where it all comes back to like one center point, it is, long as you get it before it is not, you know, three foot wide, relatively easy to pull up.
Plant People: Yeah.
Plant People: Very satisfying.
Alexis: Yeah.
Jessica : Like satisfying to weed out.
Alexis: Yeah. Versus, right, it's satisfying versus Bermuda, the way it spreads through, you know, rhizomes, um it can be very difficult to like manually remove, which is really frustrating if you're trying to avoid herbicide use.
Plant People: Yes.
Plant People: Mm-hmm.
Alexis: um You know, manually pulling it is almost impossible to get it all versus crabgrass. You can pretty, you can go in and confidently say you've got all of the active living plants, but yeah The seed bed is a whole other thing, which is why we have other techniques like mechanical weed control and cover crops to combat those crabgrass.
Plant People: Yeah.
Plant People: You know, if the weather, and you know, once again, we're talking about the weather as of today, we've made comments on that, but in the fall going into October, ah around October, mid October, that's some of the best times of the year, October, November to control those.
Plant People: And Brett mentioned that different weeds come up at different times of the year. There's summer, you know, the summer season plants weeds, and then there's a winter season weeds. Well, winter annuals germinate October, November in Kentucky, and you'll get a much better control of those if you,
Plant People: do some broadleaf sprays then. So don't forget that.
Jessica : oh We've been talking a lot about like not a negative topic, but like combating weeds, right? Something that it's like, oh, but in the, right.
Brett: Bring the vibe up for us, Jessica. Bring the vibe up.
Jessica : But something, you know, in the fall that some, I look forward to is opportunity to plant more trees because that's a prime time for planting trees, for dividing your perennials, sharing those around, still planting things out in your garden.
Plant People: Bring it up.
Brett: Come on.
Jessica : Cause you might think like, I'm thinking of like your flower beds and things like that garden. But there's still like plenty of time, you know, to do those kind of things. And they actually thrive better, ah especially when it comes to trees versus planting a tree in the middle of the summer is not going to be very happy.
Plant People: Yeah, it's a great time to do that.
Jessica : ah They much prefer being planted in the fall and have a better ah chance of survival, we'll say, to be positive.
Brett: Well, here's something negative I can say about that.
Plant People: Yeah.
Alexis: Yeah, please.
Plant People: Yeah.
Brett: No, I'm just kidding.
Jessica : Ah, Rhett.
Plant People: Yeah.
Brett: I'm not bringing i'm not going to bring the vibe back down. I think, yeah, planting fall stuff in the fall and getting a nice like bed of mulch down, it's so satisfying to... have that the crisp air, beautiful pops of color.
Jessica : Thank you.
Brett: Maybe you throw a couple of mums out, maybe even some pots, maybe in the ground. Who knows? I love that. ah Like, ah yeah, some and throwing some annuals out. ah ah yeah We mentioned cover crops a little bit, but, you know, cover crop seeding time is like, man, I don't really have a space to do it now, but...
Brett: easter ah used to love that that time of year of just these little little short ah carpets of cover crop coming up.
Plant People: Yeah. Well, Charles, cover crop of choice. I know there's so many good options, um but we're entering fall. We're in fall here in Kentucky as of there, you this podcast, but what's everybody planting this year?
Plant People: I know we've had this discussion before.
Alexis: i
Plant People: I forget when a year took them.
Alexis: I actually do a mix.
Plant People: Yeah.
Alexis: Yeah, I usually do a mix.
Plant People: Yeah.
Alexis: I, for my purposes, i like to use that cover crop as a mulch when I take it down, so that impacts what I grow. so um like I always incorporate some sort of like winter wheat or winter rye because it creates a and really nice mat when I'm like flail mowing it down and then I can plant right into it versus, you know, and and like I'll add a legume in there or something, but ah for, you know, nitrogen fixation and for weed control.
Plant People: Yeah. Yeah.
Alexis: But for those purposes, I like that. If I'm not, if I know I'm going to till it in and not use it as necessarily a mulch, I'm just looking for more um you know, bio matter to go into the soil.
Alexis: um Then I'll go with something a little more lush. I like a red clover in my mix.
Plant People: Yeah, like a crimson or a red.
Alexis: indeed Yeah, crimson clover is pretty.
Plant People: Crimson winter kills a little bit more. no
Alexis: um And then, you know, some sort of like winter pea or something like that. um I've done vetch. I've done a vetch, winter wheat and um crimson clover mix the past couple years. And that's kind of been good across the board.
Plant People: If ah you look at, um I'm kind of pleased about this, but I've noticed over the last four or five years, order sources for cover crops for home gardens, even i know commercial cover crops have always kind of been a big thing, but for home gardens, it's pretty wild.
Alexis: Mm-hmm.
Plant People: You can get eight 12 way mixes now for home gardeners.
Alexis: Mm-hmm.
Brett: Oh, wow.
Plant People: And it's kind of wild. They'll have the peas in there and they'll have annual rye, which comes up in three to five. I mean, super fast, but it's all the things Alexis, you just mentioned, but these mixes are like six way, eight way mixes are real common.
Alexis: okay
Plant People: Now when you just jump on your, yeah.
Alexis: And then small quantities, you know, like if you have five raised beds, they now have quantities that used to be, you know, you have to buy 10 pounds of cover crop and it's, you don't need that, but you can buy half a pound now and,
Plant People: Yeah.
Plant People: Yeah.
Brett: yeah or like get
Plant People: Yeah. It's really cool. i love it.
Brett: you get like five different seeds of 10 pounds each and have to mix your own.
Plant People: Hey, they exactly.
Alexis: or yeah, you're like, I don't need this many turnips.
Brett: And it's like, Oh God.
Plant People: That's where I bred.
Brett: Yeah. Those, those mixes became like really hot with NRCS there for a little bit.
Plant People: yeah.
Brett: And people were all about the mixes.
Plant People: oh yeah
Brett: And there was this whole question of how much biodiversity within the mix is actually even matters versus it's just sort of like a vibe, you know, it's like, Oh, I got a 15 way mix out there.
Alexis: dead
Brett: And like, three, eight three quarters of it didn't germinate. Like, okay, it's a nice stand of winter wheat and some Austrian winter wheat.
Alexis: Yeah.
Plant People: Yeah, it's ah your your old standards are the ones that are doing the job out there, yeah.
Brett: Yeah. But i always thought they were cool. nonetheless, um, yeah, uh, we, so Alexis, um, you mentioned rye.
Brett: Do you have any issues, ah with any like allelopathy and what is allelopathy?
Alexis: So allelopathy is going to be the natural root. um In this case, I think for rye, it's root exudates, which means it's um the the plant does not want competition, right? Right up, it's sucking up its water and nutrients.
Alexis: So it's going to put a chemical out into the soil right around it that is going to keep seeds from germinating, which for weed control, you can use to your advantage, right? Like ah ray Ray was saying, you know, some seeds live in the ground for 30 years, but if we can keep them from germinating, they're more likely to be, you know, killed off in some way. So people will use rye for weed control. So um I don't because I go in with ah plugs when I'm planting into a cover crop that's not been like tilled in necessarily, which is when you, once you till it in, you kind of disrupt that that little allelopathic
Alexis: zone it's created uh for the most part but uh if i'm going in i'm not i'm not tilling and i'm so i'm going in with plugs ah meaning that it's a plant that's already germinated so i don't have to worry about that um personally more it's more of like a i don't want to smother anything but it is something and i think for rye don't quote me on it but i want to say it's like two weeks that the allelopathy kind of stays in the ground so you know you can use that to your benefit um to keep things from germinating and then go in two weeks later and seed if you would like.
Brett: Yeah, people people sometimes may be familiar with walnut as just an example of like a tree where, yeah.
Alexis: and
Plant People: Yeah.
Alexis: ah glo
Jessica : Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Brett: um So what about you, Jess? you the as the as the one person As the person here who's doing some actual ah size and has some fields, or I guess one of the two people, just speak for myself.
Brett: um As someone who's doing vegetable side though, like what's your cover crop, you know, vibe?
Jessica : Well, to be fully transparent and honest here, it depends on when the plastic gets pulled out ah with the raised bed.
Brett: Hmm.
Plant People: I was just going to ask you about the plastic pulling process.
Jessica : And that that plays into it because we've done some rye before, ah but it really depends on how late those crops go because...
Plant People: Yeah.
Jessica : We might time this airs. We still might have a few tomatoes, but we will definitely still have peppers going probably at that time.
Plant People: Yeah. Mm-hmm.
Jessica : So that gets kind of tricky in with it because some of those cover crops you have to get in earlier than you think.
Plant People: Yeah.
Jessica : Now I can speak for my father, though, who does grow row crops. ah He does a mix of wheat and crimson clover and all of that on his fields during the dormant season.
Plant People: Mm-hmm.
Jessica : and But then he's also using that for cattle feed and then also incorporating, you know, with it no till um when it's rotation of corn and beans and all of that stuff. But yeah, it really depends on how long of production we have going.
Jessica : If we can get in and put different cover crops back on, or if we're just going to try to incorporate some organic matter in once that plastic is is pulled up in the form of like composted manure or you know something else like that, just because we still have things going a lot later.
Plant People: So much lighter.
Jessica : Yeah.
Alexis: that's the hardest part yeah is the if you still got things growing and like it's it's still economical right because sometimes you still have stuff growing and it's like it's five tomatoes like it's not economical it's better off to just you know finish it but if it's still economical it's hard and that's like personally something I've been like
Jessica : And that
Alexis: wrestling with with my rotation because I want, I need that on my fields. I know I need that cover crop and it just lends itself to what I'm trying to do, but it doesn't work always.
Plant People: Mm-hmm.
Alexis: And it doesn't work with the types of crops I'm doing. So I've had to incorporate what I'm like, basically just plastic covered beds, like silent it like a silage tarp that has no plants in them um over winter because i'm I'm doing that on the crops that were late to finish so they don't get a cover crop but I can still cover the soil and I think the ultimate thing here for people who maybe are struggling with the but I don't want to kill my peppers they're still doing good but I want a cover crop it's you know kind of trying to figure out a rotation of all right I might have two beds with cover crop two beds with just plastic so the you know
Alexis: soil doesn't go away and then maybe two beds in coal crops or overwintered crops and then you just kind of cycle through those things um because the as a reminder the point of sustainability is not just environmental so sustainability it's also you know economic sustainability and just like your lifestyle like farming or grow gardening or whatever has to be sustainable on multiple things to
Jessica : Oh.
Alexis: be truly sustainable because I feel like sometimes that word gets a bad rap of like well you're not doing the best thing for the environment well I'm getting a good average here and sorry I'll get on my soapbox so i should say
Plant People: Hmm.
Brett: Yeah. and And if your're if your your approach um shaves years off of your life because you're staying stressed 24-7 year round, or if all of your ligaments in your knees and elbows don't work anymore because you did this thing that's really low impact on the environment, but you are toast at 37, I have a little bit of some elbow problems from some of that.
Alexis: yes exactly right
Alexis: yeah
Alexis: with.
Alexis: but
Brett: um So but do you i have a question. Do you all find, you're talking about, you're trying to talk about this decision at the end of the season of like when to say enough's enough. Do you, from your cash crop or from your whatever primary target crop, do you find that ah over time and with more experience, you become more or less ruthless about saying we're done?
Plant People: Oh man, I'm more ruthless. I mean, I started that years ago, maybe 20 years ago, I started getting more ruthless as far as terminating crops. When I was actually growing more commercially, you know, Alexis brought up an awesome point.
Jessica : Thank you.
Plant People: Now, as ah Alexis and Jessica were talking a minute ago, of when do you terminate crops? You know, with tomatoes and peppers, how far do you have to walk to harvest that whatever quantity you're trying to harvest? Does it make sense? But Really, when I'm sick of looking at it now, I used to feel bad about taking down ah an heirloom tomato that just won't stop, that it's grown 20 foot and it still is going.
Alexis: I
Brett: We've had enough brandy wine.
Plant People: it's good I've got one tied to, and after this episode, I'm going to go out to my deck and there's one that's grown up into the second floor deck and it keeps going and it's got all these beautiful beefsteak tomatoes on there.
Brett: We've had enough.
Plant People: It's toast. I am sick of watering that thing. So I am team termination as far as my home garden goes. No economic decisions. ah It looks ratty. It's not as thrifty as it once was. I'm team termination, Brett.
Brett: about y'all?
Jessica : I think with us, it comes down to, because we do farmer's markets and that's, you know, every Saturday, every mid one one day, midweek, we get to the point personally where it's almost like, well, it's football season.
Plant People: hello
Jessica : We really like to watch some football and have other things going But
Plant People: Yeah.
Brett: Mm-hmm.
Jessica : We pay attention to the tomatoes. How are they going? Are they starting to slow down? And then we also do a fungicide spray schedule with our tomatoes and why.
Plant People: Hmm.
Jessica : And then as soon as we stop that, and I think I've mentioned this before on here, as soon as we decide, all right, we're We're done, you know, doing this. They're all going to go down. Right. Because they're just that's just how it works in Kentucky.
Plant People: Hmm.
Jessica : So I think that's kind of our thing. We just go out and evaluate and be like, all right, they're like, even with us doing these fungicide sprays, doing all of our regular maintenance, they're slowing down.
Plant People: Hmm.
Jessica : Right. There's fewer to pick.
Plant People: no
Jessica : Yeah.
Plant People: The days are getting shorter, just the sunlight, the reaction to that.
Jessica : The days are getting shorter, you know, and then that kind of makes it where it's like, all right, we're done.
Plant People: Yeah.
Jessica : like It's, you know, maybe go to a few other markets.
Brett: So, but do but do you find that to be easier or harder to do as as time goes?
Jessica : it's It has gotten significantly easier, but for our our life, right?
Brett: Okay.
Brett: okay Sure.
Jessica : Because now we have children and we have, you know, other things going on that, as we mentioned earlier, that sustainability, do you want to like work yourself to death and not enjoy other parts of life as well?
Plant People: Brutal.
Brett: Right.
Brett: Mm-hmm.
Jessica : Right. So it's made it easier as we have progressed in this career of growing produce.
Brett: Mm-hmm.
Plant People: You know, as we talk about balance, that's the hardest sell I've ever had in Extension, especially, well, for primarily for home gardeners. Because, you know, we see we have all these charts and all this nice information on gardening in the fall, starting out crops beginning this time of year. I'm looking at you like leaf lettuce and spinach and all the cool season crops that are there to have such incredible eating quality in the fall.
Plant People: But that's a tough sell. And I think it has to do with, Brett, quality of life. People have went through the season, the primary season of growing.
Jessica : Thank you.
Plant People: And at some point they're kind of done along with the plants. But I haven't worked with a high percentage of home home gardeners specifically that do that fall a segment of, you know, garden crops.
Plant People: And I think it's just because of what you said. I think the life balance kicks in and they're kind of done.
Brett: Yeah, I do. Well, I do think that, you know, one thing that people could try is to skip the summer garden. I know that sounds crazy, but what did you say?
Alexis: Boom.
Brett: Boo or boom?
Plant People: no
Alexis: I said boom.
Brett: Yeah, skip the summer garden.
Plant People: you know you What do you have against heat and sweat, Brett? Really?
Brett: the
Jessica : Can't do that. Tomatoes are king.
Plant People: and
Brett: um i'm very I'm very good at both, so I don't know what I have against it, but
Plant People: You must suffer.
Jessica : Tomatoes.
Plant People: you You must suffer.
Brett: Yeah, i'm I'm a world champion, a world sweat champion. um ah But the, I think, you know, in in the middle of the season, that's when you have a lot of folks who are really, who have a lot of stuff available, you know, like it's great to be able to walk out your back door and get that, but I'd rather go and buy it from Jessica, you know, that like, you'll let you all go out there and sweat and pick it and And then in the fall, have some kale plants, have some, some lettuce, have some stuff like that.
Plant People: Mm-hmm.
Brett: um But I think another thing that was ah the reason I asked about the, whether it gets easier or harder to, to, to say, you know, to say goodbye every year, it just reminds like, ah it was one of the funny things working at the, at the South farm and we'd have ah students who come out and do this apprenticeship where they spend, you you know, a hundred, I think someone just told me that a hundred hours that they work out at the farm
Jessica : Thank you.
Brett: Doing various hands on tasks are harvesting their weeding they're doing irrigation whatever. And when they come out there like their sense of like scarcity and also how how delicate they are with everything is is they're very delicate.
Alexis: Yeah.
Brett: And if they, you know, if they were going to thin beets, they're going to save all the little beet thinnings and then try to replant them somewhere else and do all this.
Alexis: Yeah.
Brett: And it was a similar thing. Cause I mean, Annie, my wife grew up gardening some, but you know, we, we did a big garden there for a while and seeing her over the course of the several years, just becoming significant, I would say significantly less precious about the things and being like, well, the, I don't have time for saving this and doing this and all, you know, all these other things.
Alexis: ah
Plant People: Every seed is precious.
Brett: And, um, It's just one of those fun things to see people. Cause the other thing I think is like transplanting. You'll see people handling transplants like are the most fragile thing in the world.
Plant People: Oh yeah.
Brett: And then you see these people like on the back of a setter and they're like, just hammering them in the ground.
Plant People: Yeah.
Jessica : Yep.
Brett: And it's like, Oh, so these things are actually pretty, yeah pretty robust, huh?
Alexis: People are so disturbed when they see me like pulling transplants out of a plug tray because I'm like just grabbing a fistful of whatever's above and yanking it out of the tray, which is the exact opposite of what we tell people to do.
Brett: Yeah.
Brett: yeah
Alexis: We're like, oh, no, you want to be gentle with the roots and massage them out.
Brett: Wrap it gently at the base and just massage it
Alexis: And like, yeah, that's true. But like, there's nothing I love more than literally just grabbing a chunk of them and just ripping 20 plugs out at one time.
Plant People: Nature versus nurture.
Brett: out.
Jessica : And it, it, exactly what Brett said, taking those transplants out and on a water wheel setter and just like shoving them as hard as you possibly can into the ground.
Brett: This isn't going to be the hardest thing that happens to you this year, bud.
Plant People: Tough luck. Alexis is team tough love.
Brett: Yeah.
Jessica : Right. And then there.
Plant People: You guys are so fortunate.
Brett: you
Plant People: You mean you got gotta to actually sit on the center? I was the one following and had some loser sitting on the center that missed every third plant. So I had to carry them with me. I had to walk. What are you talking about?
Jessica : I put my time in following the tobacco setter doing that, yeah.
Plant People: Oh yeah. We, we, we switched off. So, but Brent, that's a great point.
Jessica : yeah
Brett: So in case anybody's not familiar with this, this is a, a, a thing, an implement that comes off the back of a tractor and it's got these, uh, these wheels that you, you lower it down.
Jessica : you
Brett: And as you roll, it punches a hole in plastic or in the soil.
Plant People: like a slit seater, basically, essentially.
Brett: Yeah. It's like poke some holes. And then the, um, There's two, there can be one or two seats that actually sit on this thing and get to ride along with the tractor and you're pulling out transplants and pushing them into these holes.
Brett: It's a ah whole process, but then there's people who off who have to walk and it's usually they're pretty low on the totem pole. Never was there myself.
Plant People: ah
Brett: I just was immediately.
Plant People: and Brett never had his endear.
Brett: Yeah.
Plant People: and
Brett: I don't know what that's like, but you guys can share what you're, now I'm just kidding.
Plant People: Yeah.
Jessica : Thank you.
Plant People: It's, um, It's an old process, but good point, Brett. Yeah. When you're doing things to scale your, your tolerance for rough treatment of plants, maybe changes. I felt the same way the first time I used a dibble bar and did my first like forestry program, you know, many years ago.
Brett: Oh yeah.
Plant People: And I'm like, now be very cautious by the end of that week. And I'd planted 20,000 tree seedlings. I was like, just basically slinging them at depressions in the soil. ah You're fine.
Brett: Yeah.
Plant People: You're fine. Yeah.
Brett: Yeah, it's its and it's just a ah matter of of like that skill and comfort and all those things happening.
Plant People: Yeah.
Alexis: Same with harvesting.
Plant People: It's a,
Alexis: Mm-hmm.
Plant People: Yeah.
Brett: And and that's part of the fall to like you, you start to have this almost this sense of like, oh, it's time to put cover crop out.
Jessica : you
Brett: Oh, it's time to clean this up.
Plant People: Yeah.
Brett: Oh, it's time to do this thing. And you associate it with the football games or the cooler weather or the whatever. It's a don't know.
Alexis: Yeah.
Brett: It's just an interesting inter intersection.
Alexis: Well, you know, the benefits of terminating something early outweigh the last of your you know energy. But even if you just look at the crop itself, like, you know, that getting a cover crop in is going to be more economic for then better for again, that going back to the three prongs of sustainability.
Plant People: yeah
Alexis: Maybe it's better to get that cover crop in than it is to, you know, pick another 10 pounds of tomatoes or whatever that is.
Plant People: Well, Alexis, you know, Jennifer doesn't care about the three prongs of sustainability.
Alexis: And so. Well,
Plant People: She will not let me cut those ratty flowers down in our square beds.
Alexis: yeah. yeah
Plant People: Yeah, and I so much want to go down there and throw some annual rye down or some crimson or whatever my cover crop is going to be this year. I'm itching to get that tiller out because I love it. And I want to just throw sling some soil and put some seeds down.
Alexis: that's where That's where you say, if I don't do it by this date, it can't get done. And then, you know, it doesn't happen. So you just kind of have to, like, you have a date.
Brett: that how do How would that go, Ray?
Plant People: It would go, would be like Alexis said so, and that may gain me some traction, but if I say so, that doesn't matter.
Brett: Yeah, now we're talking.
Plant People: that day She knows Alexis.
Brett: Alexis said...
Plant People: Alexis knows Jennifer.
Alexis: Alexis cuts her zinnias down by the end of September.
Brett: I'm...
Plant People: but ah But Alexis is, look, and I'll show her pictures, and you'll have beautiful flowers, and then that's going to do me in for another two weeks.
Brett: yeah
Alexis: ah
Plant People: So thanks, Alexis.
Alexis: No, my zinnias are looking pretty ratty and I don't care.
Plant People: Are they?
Alexis: Like, die already.
Plant People: Leaf spot, huh? Yeah.
Alexis: That's where I'm at. I'm like, I'm done with you.
Plant People: Yeah. Well, we're on the topic of flowers and Jessica started steer us in the direction of ah landscapes. We can't leave that hanging. jea Jessica started us out talking about it's great time of year to get trees and shrubs in the ground.
Brett: Is anybody planting any trees or shrubs this year?
Plant People: Well, I've got this little ah cut leaf sumac that I need to get in there. i Actually, I may wait.
Brett: Hmm.
Plant People: I got a friend who gave me this beautiful little tree that's got lots of form, but I think that I may actually grow that guy under some grow lights this summer.
Brett: how
Plant People: This winter, he's a little too tender. I'm going to grow him off. But if he was just a little bit older, I would put, be putting that tree in the ground because it is a good time to do that. But you were speaking of flowers, Alexis, what are we dividing this time of year as far as perennials in the landscape?
Plant People: i mean, there's Mm-hmm.
Alexis: Pretty much any of your herbaceous perennials, if they've gotten a little too big for their britches, can be divided this time year.
Plant People: bunches m
Brett: You said herbaceous?
Alexis: It's a good time of year. Herbaceous is so basically if it's think of something like a ah coneflower echinacea where there's no woody parts on it versus something like a hydrangea, it's more woody.
Plant People: oh Like a hostess daylily, stuff like that All those things Yeah
Alexis: It can be divided, but like an easy rule of thumb is sort of those herbaceous things. And, you know,
Alexis: Haasas, daylilies. You're not going to go divide a rose, though, right? Because the growing point is all from one area. And by divide, we mean you're taking a shovel and you're going, you're chopping through, kind of right through the middle of something.
Brett: Hmm.
Alexis: Let me do it.
Plant People: And that's those tough loves too. I used to be very delicate about that. And some you have to be a bit more delicate, but now with daylilies, I literally just take a dull shovel and bludgeon it until it falls apart. And it's fine.
Jessica : Yeah, they'll come back.
Plant People: It's fine. But now's the time of the year to do that.
Brett: Thank you.
Plant People: Yeah, it'll do What kind of bulbs ah as far as that is going in the ground in the fall? I mean, there's lots of those that go in now in the fall for spring.
Jessica : All the, yeah, everything, a lot of the things you see blooming in the spring is when you want to get them in for the fall.
Plant People: Yeah.
Jessica : um Your daffodils, crocus, tulip, what else we have? Hyacinths.
Plant People: Yeah,
Jessica : um So yeah, that's just think about anything that you normally see in the early spring and you're like, man, I wish I had some of those. You're like, that's the time to do it in the fall.
Plant People: I do all of that. And Brad already mentioned what mulch ah I have desperately got to get some mulch down because I did not do that this summer. And we had so much rain. Most of it ended up in the street because I use the wrong type of mulch on a sloped bed that has a little bit of flow.
Alexis: It floated away.
Plant People: It did. It was not no float mulch because they all float down here apparently where my house is. ah So I've got to desperately, i I really need to get some mulch down because I don't water anything, of course, during the wintertime and I have boxwoods and things, no young plants, but um a younger lilac that needs to be mulched because I want to, you know, get the benefits of that mulch through the winter of insulation and moisture retention. So that's on my checklist as far as the landscape goes. Anybody got anything else that you're kind of any projects, lawn or landscape that's ah going down this fall?
Jessica : I have a nice tray of some native plants that I need to get in the ground. And as all gardeners do, we get excited and we buy a bunch and then they kind of sit there for a little bit, but they're doing okay.
Plant People: Oh,
Plant People: yeah.
Plant People: Like trees or shrubs?
Jessica : They're okay. A lot of native perennials, pollinator friendly things to add to my yard.
Plant People: Oh,
Brett: Yeah.
Plant People: cool.
Jessica : But yeah, got to get those in.
Plant People: Well, you got to give a plug to the pollinators this time of year too, as far as garden cleanup.
Brett: and what
Plant People: How does, how does pollinators play into that? We haven't talked about that and as far as the the way we kind of manage.
Jessica : ah
Plant People: If you're kind of thinking of pollinators.
Jessica : to leave a lot of your things instead of like completely cleaning your beds out. Cause a lot of like the little native bees, they like to use the twigs and stuff but um to overwinter
Plant People: Like I want to like I want to do.
Alexis: Yeah.
Plant People: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Jessica : You might have, we have been something we have not talked about at our household. We have been rearing lots of caterpillars this summer. We've had swallowtail caterpillars on our kitchen table.
Plant People: Hmm.
Jessica : Now we are in full monarch mode. ah The monarchs will have already flown and done their thing times this has aired, but we have five monarch caterpillars currently living on my kitchen table on their plants.
Jessica : But You know, when you clean out your garden, sometimes you're ended up, you're going to clean out not only those native bees that I mentioned, but some of our butterflies and moths, they overwinter in their pupil state and cocoons and you risk, you know, removing them as well.
Jessica : Just like we talk about leaving your, leave your leaves out in your yard, right?
Plant People: no
Jessica : We haven't mentioned that, but a lot of critters overwinter underneath the leaf cover out in the yard, like the luna moth and ah a couple of other ones that are really cool.
Plant People: Yeah, so that's, ah you know I got a question last week and i was thinking cover crops in my head, but this was a native gardener and she was very much aware of, you know, the habitat.
Jessica : Thank you.
Plant People: She was becoming aware of the habitat necessary for some of our native bees in her case. But, you know, she had lots of questions on that and it made me back up and think, well, in some cases you already have enough cover out, natural cover out there, if depending on what you're growing.
Plant People: And then her question was exactly what you just stated, Jessica. So, you know, we kind of came up ah plan with her basically is leave things in place longer. And if she wants to do that late winter into spring, some cleanup that leaves habitat for a period of time through the winter time to get the benefit for those native pollinators. So it made me kind of stop, pause and think.
Plant People: ah Once again, she didn't really need a cover crop after we started talking because she had enough coverage there of the soil where, you know, it just wasn't necessary. So yeah, good point.
Brett: but I think one, one other, one thing we may be missing and didn't talk about, I know we're, we're getting close to time, but um some people, some crazy people have pots and plant or plants and pots.
Plant People: Oh, man.
Brett: ah I'm not talking about just bonsai though. I am talking about bonsai. But like some, people you know, some of those things are tender or they're, you know, even tropical or, so or, you know, semi-tropical or something.
Brett: um So like, when do you all, do you all have that? Or do you you know, talk to people who do and when, when's the timeline for that?
Plant People: Yeah.
Brett: Like, I know we we have frost dates, but there's some things that are even more sensitive than that.
Plant People: When I worked with nurseries, of course, they do large operations of healing in. They accumulate plants that are in pots together and they'll use something typically like a, you know, a mulch of some kind to kind of,
Brett: Mm hmm.
Plant People: make those one unit to provide insulation. i don't know, Brett, do you do anything like that? I know that you have several things in containers. How do you deal with that through the winter? I can't remember if we've talked about this before not.
Brett: So, so one of the things I think to keep in mind is like, is, would the plant, that plant be hardy if it existed in the ground?
Plant People: Hmm.
Brett: And if the answer is yes, then that's, that's, I treat it one way. And if the answer is no, I treat it another way. So in other words, is this thing going to, if I leave it outside, is it, would it, and it was planted in the ground, would it die?
Plant People: Mm-hmm.
Brett: And so those things I would typically, you,
Plant People: yeah
Brett: The healing in probably isn't going to be quite enough for that, um depending on what it is. So things like a camellia or an azalea or in the bonsai world or some of the tropic kind of tropical-ish trees, um like I guess like lemon trees and orange trees and stuff like that would be in that ballpark, I guess.
Jessica : you
Brett: I don't know. um That's not something that people tend to have in pots and sometimes, but outside. um They almost can become houseplants in some cases, or if you have a greenhouse or you have some other way of of bringing them in.
Plant People: yeah
Brett: One of the interesting things with like with the bonsai stuff ah is that the trees still prefer, especially, yeah, especially the deciduous trees. They still, but all of them now, no, even, even the deciduous trees prefer a little bit of sunlight through the winter. So it's, you know, people sometimes want to just put it in a garage or put it in somewhere like that. And I tend to leave my potted stuff outside almost the whole year.
Brett: um But all of those things are hardy in this environment if they were in the ground.
Plant People: Do you like mass them together?
Brett: It's the fact that they're in the pot.
Plant People: Did you say the one?
Brett: um I put them together.
Plant People: Okay.
Brett: like I have a little mini greenhouse that I put up over them, but I'm only really worried if it gets below 20.
Plant People: Yeah. yeah Yeah.
Brett: I wasn't trying to push this into this. I was thinking more of people who have banana trees or they have you know things in pots that they maybe...
Plant People: Well, this is the season of ah I have got to calm down on the outdoor plants that have to be moved in in the winter because I have no more space.
Brett: yeah
Jessica : you
Plant People: We've gotten so much.
Brett: calm down ray yeah yeah yeah
Plant People: And ah yeah, like all the amaryllis and, you know, all the typical things that I moved to the front porch and the back porch. I filled up my office. I've already started that process. And now I'm starting to dry down some plants and ah
Brett: oh this is a good time for me to ask so alexis i have an amaryllis that you grew that's still still rocking um what's the deal what do i do how do i how do i
Alexis: Yeah, yeah's that's good timing. um So when this comes out, it's perfect timing. you can you want that You want to force dormancy on that plant because it when it comes out of dormancy is when it signals to bloom so you're going force dormancy on it i don't have my notes in front of me as far as like exact number of weeks that's easily something you can look up but the the hardest part i think i can explain through is um by forcing dormancy you're doing that by putting it in the dark it doesn't have to be like complete darkness i put it in uh you know like my attic stairwell there's windows up there it's not a big deal
Plant People: Mm-hmm.
Brett: Mm-hmm.
Alexis: Um, you want it to be a little, maybe a little bit cooler, ah you know, of an area and you want to stop watering it. And so you, which feels like it's killing it, but remember amaryllis are a bulb.
Alexis: Uh, so they're going to store nutrients and all that kind of stuff in the bulb. So you're not gonna, you're not gonna kill it by doing this for a few weeks. You do this for Ray might know off the top of his head cause he's working on a program, but what is it?
Alexis: Nine to 12 weeks or something? Maybe long?
Plant People: Yeah, I usually say eight and eight, like eight dormant, and then eight to 12, just says exactly what you said. After you bring it out of dormancy until it blooms on average, it varies a little bit, I guess, from what I'm reading.
Plant People: So, yeah.
Alexis: Yeah, from paper whites to amaryllis, something like that.
Plant People: Yeah.
Alexis: So anyways, you you force it to go dormant for roughly eight weeks. And then you bring it back out. Everything's died back. You're like, this thing is not alive. What have I done? Put it in some sunny area. Put it where it's going to be warm because these are tropical plants. And then you start watering it again, just lightly.
Alexis: Keep the soil just lightly moist. um And then you'll see it sprout. You'll see green come up. And then with amaryllis, you're going to see a bloom stalk pretty uh fairly quickly and then it's going to feel like it takes forever to actually bloom so um
Plant People: Yeah.
Brett: so it So if it has green, like green on it right now, leave the green on it when I put it into dormancy?
Alexis: it
Alexis: yeah yeah I just let it die back naturally it's kind of how I keep a general look on is it going dormant or did I just cut the leaves off let's
Brett: Let it die back. Okay.
Plant People: Now.
Brett: And do I need to do anything? Do I need to top it off with any media or anything like that? Or.
Alexis: Um, probably not unless it's outgrown the pot. I usually just kind of leave them in their pots. If I'm going to repot something, I do that when it is the most actively growing, which for amaryllis is going to be spring.
Brett: Yeah.
Alexis: Mm-hmm.
Brett: Okay. Perfect.
Plant People: And I grow mine year round anymore. The last four or five years, we have several different types and um I just grow them year round. But when we bring them in, we set them on a 12 hour timer because that's what our plant lights are next to the window. They're on a 12 hour and they never stopped growing.
Plant People: They just grow year round.
Brett: So you're saying you you don't induce dormancy?
Plant People: No, that but now what I find, and Alexis probably has more info on this, is my bloom period is a bit more random. because I don't induce dormancy at all now.
Alexis: Thank you.
Plant People: I just, because I like the foliage of amaryllis and we like to have something green on the inside of the house.
Brett: Okay.
Plant People: why I've got too much green.
Brett: So do you cut it back?
Plant People: No, no, the leaves will naturally sinester. They'll naturally just, they'll turn yellow and die and kind of in these successions.
Brett: Ours just keep getting longer and longer.
Plant People: Yeah.
Alexis: Yeah, it is it is
Plant People: Amaryllis can get huge.
Alexis: They, so they're going to bloom, even if you're putting them under artificial lights, they really are only going to bloom once a year.
Plant People: Mm-hmm.
Alexis: Now we try and put, make them bloom in the winter, which is when um they're going to bloom in
Plant People: Yeah.
Plant People: Yeah.
Alexis: in their native, like, I think it's like Australia or South America or something. It's different, like, a different hemisphere. um So we're trying to keep up with that timeline of where they're native to versus what Ray is doing.
Plant People: Yeah.
Alexis: They're still going to bloom probably once every 10 to 12 months, but he's letting them choose when they do that.
Plant People: yeah
Brett: Hmm.
Alexis: And so he's not forcing dormancy.
Brett: Hmm.
Alexis: They're going to naturally do it. So um But it's not ah it's not always, in my my experience, which is probably less than Ray's, where I've done that, it's sometimes more frustrating to wait on them.
Plant People: Yeah, if you like to control things or if you're like forcing for the holidays, what Alexis said is exactly what you want to do. But I just kind of let those go natural. And I think my, ah I got two or three types of amaryllis now that I thought were pretty small.
Plant People: And on average in the wintertime, I'll get a bloom period in the winter and then one mid to late summer. But they're kind of spread out. Like Alexis said, they're random.
Brett: how
Plant People: But there the bloom stalks on those are 48 inches tall.
Alexis: And the species. Yeah.
Brett: okay How?
Plant People: They're huge.
Alexis: I mean like race.
Brett: Okay. How big of a pot is this in?
Plant People: i've got I've got like six or eight pots of those now, and they're probably four to six-gallon pots.
Brett: Oh, wow.
Jessica : oh
Plant People: but in But each pot is 20 to 30, so in some of those bulbs are huge.
Brett: Oh, so you're doing them as like a little a little grove.
Plant People: I do clusters.
Alexis: I have mine in like a big window box.
Brett: I see. a little grove
Plant People: You have yours in window boxes?
Alexis: Yeah.
Plant People: Yeah.
Alexis: Yeah. I have like 10 of them in a window box, but like they, you don't,
Brett: i see I'm glad that you were also surprised, Jessica, because I felt like an idiot.
Jessica : I am. I, I have a very sad one on my back porch right now. And I've just kind of been like saying like, let's see what happens. Cause it's going to go along with, I haven't mentioned this to you all yet.
Alexis: yeah
Jessica : I have a poinsettia that I've never repotted. It's in the foil. I've had it for three years and it's huge.
Plant People: Oh, wow.
Jessica : Yeah.
Plant People: Love it.
Brett: All right, let's go.
Jessica : And we're just seeing if the poinsettia is just going to keep doing it. So amaryllis, Franken amaryllis experiment as well.
Plant People: Amaryllis gets, they get huge when you grow them through and I, and I do the bulbs for programs and Alexis knows I'm kind of cheap. I don't like to, but that's way I grow bulbs for programs too. And I have some started at the office. have 50 or 60 bulbs going right now.
Plant People: But yeah, I'm very curious about the poinsettia. I've never grown those. i know you can, but I've never grown those over through the season. So cool.
Jessica : Fingers crossed. It's still thriving. It's kind of a mean experiment to leave it in the same container.
Plant People: And you just bring it in and inside.
Jessica : No, it just, it's just stayed in my, my house at a window.
Plant People: your
Brett: you're trying You're trying to bonsai the constricting its roots.
Plant People: Oh.
Jessica : i think I have.
Alexis: husband
Plant People: Yeah.
Brett: i like that
Plant People: But this end of season, yeah, you have to make all these decisions on your plants that you have outside.
Jessica : Accidentally.
Plant People: Like Brett was saying a few minutes ago, you have to make that decision before the you know, the first frost.
Brett: so So just check, take a look and and and check and see what the temperature, because I'll just monitor the temperatures.
Plant People: Yeah.
Brett: And it's so it's, I don't bring it in by date.
Plant People: Yeah.
Brett: I bring it in the first time that it's going to get below 50 at night for some of the stuff that's really sensitive and below whatever, 45, but 20s where I watch watch out for stuff that's hardy, but is in a pot.
Plant People: Yeah.
Brett: <unk> s Awesome.
Alexis: so
Plant People: yeah
Alexis: Cool. So, quick, quick recap. Don't cut down all of your native plants, leave them for the bugs and the birds. ah If you've got ah plants in pots, figure out what their hardiness is. Are they ah tropical or are they something that would survive in the ground here? And then treat those two differently if you have the ability to put in cover crop it's a great thing to do but overall cover the soil somehow so living roots are the best way next would be a natural mulch third would be like a plastic so that your soil doesn't run away with the wind and snow um what else
Alexis: one more.
Plant People: Oh, lawns and landscapes.
Alexis: Plant your trees, divide your perennials, plant your trees, and then don't spray your weeds ah quite yet your lawn.
Plant People: It's yeah. Plant your trees.
Plant People: When, uh, if your lawn is stressed, don't spray and do get your fertilized down in October. November is the best time to fertilize. And if you need to do any kind of reseeding spot reseeding or larger scale reseeding, do that during the cool seasons of the month.
Jessica : And soil testing along with that.
Plant People: That's usually September beginning of October. yeah Oh, thank you, Jessica.
Alexis: Yes.
Plant People: How,
Alexis: Great, Jessica.
Plant People: Could we forget that in this conversation this long into the conversation? Thank you.
Brett: and Ray is the Amaryllis King and Alexis does not love crabgrass.
Alexis: You get your results
Plant People: Yes. In summary.
Alexis: i think I think we've nailed it. If you guys have any questions about you know what you should be doing in fall or you know maybe what cover crops are best, we do have some resources on our CCD. We have a really, i use it all the time, like personally, a calculator for cover crops. And so like whether you're doing four by four raised bed and you want to know how much winter wheat you can put in there, you can put those numbers in and get that all the way up to acres and acres. so And it's got a bunch of different options for you. So I just like to recommend that because it's something that can be really helpful If you're not quite sure where to go.
Alexis: But if you've got questions about, you know, anything we talked about today, feel free to reach out to us via our email. You can find that in the show notes. ah Follow us on Instagram at Hort Culture Podcast. You can shoot us a message over there if you've got any questions.
Alexis: um And we are happy you guys were with us today. We hope that as we grow this podcast, you will grow with us and have a great one. See ya.
Plant People: Thank you.
