Ep. 181 Plant problems we are seeing in 2024 | #GoodGrowing

Welcome to the Good Growing podcast. I am Chris Enroth, board of college educator with University of Illinois Extension, going to you from Macomb, Illinois, and we have got a great show for you today. Have you had problems this year with your plants? Oh, I bet some of us have. I know I have.

Hello, Chris. I've had lots of problems in the garden. Most of them have been self inflicted.

It's all your fault. That's right. I tell

you. And

Weeding, watering, overplanting, expectations, time.

That sums it up.

Yeah. That's that sums up a lot of problems. We could eliminate a lot of problems if we just had more realistic expectations of what we would accomplish in one growing season. It's already July July. It it's crazy.

Yeah. I think that about wraps up the podcast for this week.

And there you go. And thank you everyone for listening. You've been doing great. Looking good. Oh, man.

It was good. It tastes like a tomato. It's not quite as not as quite as strong as a tomato flavor, a little less acidic, but maybe a little sweeter. But, yeah, it tastes like a tomato. I don't have any extra limbs or anything growing on me, at least as of yet. So

Well, listeners, I haven't said anything to him, but he's starting to turn purple as we speak. No. He's still he's still our redheaded Viking friend here. So no. Yeah. So it tastes less acidic, less tomatoey, but still tomato.

Still a tomato. At least the the one that we ate in. And with that, you know, they're coming on green. It's like, wait a second. I thought these were supposed to be purple, and I kept waiting and waiting and waiting. And I hadn't checked them for a while, and I checked the other night. And, oh, look. There's purple tomatoes there.

Oh, man. I I have two purple tomato plants, and they have been green for weeks. It's just a matter of time.

So you got the the stem with with multiple tomatoes on there because they're cherry tomato size. And some of them are fully purple, others are still green on that same stem. So it looks like they just have to hit that like a regular tomato. Hit that Mhmm. That full size, then they'll start coloring up. Interesting.

Well, I I'm excited to try it. Excited to to see how it took how it goes, and, and I guess these do come true from seed the following year, so you can potentially save seed. Now when when we bought these, we had to like, there's a little checkbox agreement thing that we had to say, like, we're not gonna sell these tomatoes commercially. We're not gonna we're not gonna do anything to make money off of these tomatoes. This is just something to grow in a backyard home garden.

It weren't it for you. I would could have you know, 20 seeds or whatever. I had one come up, and I had no cotyledons or anything. It was just the stem, and so I guess 0%. Well, I guess it did germinate, but it didn't. So

Unsuccessful. I had one without cotyledons as well, and it was just it developed this big ball on the tip of the stem probably where all that growth hormone and energy is getting pushed to. It was like, there's nothing there. There's no leaf buds. There's nothing to grow. So, yep, germination rate, not that great.

Yes. And for for years, have you been pruning off suckers, or have you just been letting it go wild?

Just letting it go nuts.

So that's probably why mine have have matured quicker because I've pruned off all the suckers. So they're probably pumping everything into those fruit instead of now longer, and you'll probably get more tomatoes than I will. But

Well, sounds like I need to at least go to one of my purple tomato plants and a little experiment. I'm gonna take the scissors to it tonight. You've convinced me. Because they're they're, yeah. Those suckers really make the tomato plants pretty unruly, especially in my yard where space is at a premium and everybody's fighting for a little bit of sun.

Yeah. Mine's basically a single stock. They've got tied up to a a post.

Mhmm. Yeah. I I really so I've adopted Ken's staking post technique where, essentially, you take, like, a two by four. Right, Ken? You just rip it in half. I went I cut, like, a little, I don't know, spear tip in it with the with the miter saw also, and you get, like, an eight foot pretty sturdy stake for your tomatoes. So I did that this year too. I I love that technique. You know? I'm not growing 50 tomatoes.

Yeah. We've had some on the ground now for two, three years now. No. We had a couple that really started warping that we've taken out. They're almost like a sea by the time they got done. But bottom of stayed relatively straight, and we did have I can't remember if we got 10 foot boards or 12 foot. Well, we didn't need a step ladder to pound them into the ground. Yep. Because I could not reach even on my tiptoes Mhmm. With the to get the sledgehammer on top.

Yep. Same here. Had to get the ladder and the hammer out and get those pounded in the ground. And, it lasts a long time. These aren't treated with anything. This is just cheap old pine board. You know? Nothing nothing special. So, yeah, if I get two seasons out of it, I'd be thrilled.

I think we did use pressure treated, so it shouldn't last several years, hopefully.

Yeah. Okay. Well well, maybe we'll do a tomato trellising episode. Well, the season will be over before we know it, but eventually

For next year. Talk.

So many topics that we can think of. Speaking of topics at hand, we're gonna chat about some of the issues that we have been seeing, namely the summer, things that folks maybe email or call the extension office that they're seeing, and these would be multiple phone calls that we've been getting, multiple conversations that we've been having with people. So it's not like an isolated incident necessarily. This is occurring throughout Illinois throughout this growing season. So, Ken, I we this started this conversation started with the first thing here last year when you came to visit me here in Macomb.

Yeah. I think so this is coneflower rosette mite, and then the symptoms look somewhat similar to Asterillos. I don't think everything kinda gets something as Asterillos, but there there is there are some differences. So with with coneflower rosette mite, we can pop a picture up here of what it looks like. You kinda get these these tufts, these spikes kinda galls on the cone part of the cone flower.

so

with that, you know, if you if you've got that, you could you could prune those flowers off, get take them get them out of the garden, dispose of them so they don't they're not spreading. But it's not gonna cause long term health issues to those plants. Aster yellows on the other hand, and we can throw in pictures of some of the symptoms here. You get the flower petals turning green. Sometimes you'll get, like, shoots coming off the flowers of smaller flowers and stuff too.

Yeah. I agree. I but, fortunately, Ken, we we I I met you, and you taught me that when it comes to trying to compare Aster yellows to the coneflower rosette mite, you gotta look at the flower first and look very closely at that. But then the mite just affects the flower of the coneflower. Aster yellows affects the entire plant.

Yeah. And Astroyalis looks cool. So take a few pictures, but then pull those plants because it'll affect other plants too. It's not just conovirus. A lot of plants in the aster family, most of name, can get it as well. So this is it's not something you necessarily wanna leave around. Otherwise, you could you could have lots of issues in your landscape potentially if you do leave that.

It's a lot of plants in the Aster family. Rogue it out.

And then don't just let it sit out. I I would probably bag that up. So if there are any plant hoppers on the plant, you're bagging them or they're not sitting there for a day or two where they could potentially feed on it as well. Yeah. And I think our our next one, which I haven't seen, but I've we've gotten some questions about about it.

But I'm very fortunate that I have a a network of arborists all around me that know what to look for when it comes to oak wilt. And and, unfortunately, it seems to be pretty common in sort of McDonough County where I'm located. I've seen it also in Adams County and kind of throughout the western part of the state, but I can really only comment sort of locally where I am in terms of how frequent it occurs. Now oak wilt, a lot of people will call, and they'll say something's wrong with my oak tree. I think it has oak wilt.

Yeah. And then, like, the so the sis symptoms for that is is kinda on the leaves. You get the they're usually browning from the tips coming down in to the plant. You'll have some green tissue in the middle, which looks similar to bacterial leaf scorch.

Yes.

So those can get confusing. So this is one of those things, you know, if if you suspect it, I would send a sample off to the plant clinic to confirm what you have because with oak wilt, you're taking very drastic measures. You're cutting trees down. Then you'll start getting canopy thinning, and and then on trees that are infected, I don't know if not sure how quickly these fungal they'll form fungal mats under the bark. We gotta get these black mats with the with the fungus, and they're producing spores.

Yeah. Let's so let's talk about submitting a sample if you wanted to test your oak for something like this. As Ken described, we want to avoid pruning oaks pretty much during the growing season. However, in order to get a viable sample where our lab can actually culture out this disease, we need to have living tissue. We need to have a plant part or a branch that is infected but not dead.

Yeah. I would say if you're if you're gonna submit a sample, I I would even think about calling the plant clinic first.

Yes.

And they can they can take you through the process, and we can include a link in the notes to the the plant clinic website where they've got instructions and and ways to contact them and how much it's gonna cost and Mhmm. And all of that fun stuff. And so that's so the beetles is one way you can try. I think the primary way, I think, is what 90% of the transmission is through root grafting. So when oak trees are growing together, when the roots come into contact with each other, they'll graft together.

Mhmm. And the trees, as as they die, the oak trees, they are they are they sacrifice those that last bit of energy, you know, that maybe they could have pushed into new growth. They take that that those energy, that sugars, carbohydrates, all that, and they push it into those root grafts to their surrounding trees. A lot of times, if it's their progeny, like, you know, their seedlings, that there's, like, a priority there of shifting that energy into those that's their offspring, their genetics. So that just hastens that the spread of oak wilt.

Yeah. There I think there is one fungicide you can use. I think it's an injection. Mhmm. But it's it's a preventative. It's not a curative. So once your tree's got it, you're done. But you could again, it it's I don't think it's necessarily all that commonly done because it's not necessarily cheap. So this again, you're gonna be getting into your high value specimen trees, things like that. Was it propiconazole?

It is.

What you could potentially treat trees with to try to prevent them from becoming infected. Again, if they've got it, just cut it down. There's Yeah. There's nothing you can do, especially with red oaks, to save them.

And the problem with systemic fungicides is that the risk to resistance is higher because that active ingredient is ever present in that tissue, getting exposed to whatever fungi or disease is trying to make its way into that tree. And, eventually, after being exposed over and over and over again, one of those fungal cells develops resistance because that rapiconazole or whatever the act whatever that systemic active ingredient has been in there for years, and, eventually, something breaks through. That's just that's just how it works, whether you're talking fungicides, herbicides, insecticides, and any of that stuff. Resistance develops, the more exposure you have to that chemical.

Yeah. Lots of doom and gloom.

Man, I feel really depressed right now. We need to take a break. This is our job, though. We we deliver a lot of bad news about people's plants of trees and stuff, so I guess we're used to it.

Yeah. I've I've ruined many a days with my answers.

It's like, how much does it cost to cut down a tree? Are you kidding me? That much? Yeah. That's expensive. Sorry.

Yeah. So as I just did just summarize it. If you suspect it, send a sample off to confirm that's actually what you have because, again, you are we're going the tree removal route here. We're not spraying to to save it. So I would say better be safe than sorry to make sure that's actually what you've got before you get into some some very expensive management techniques here. Mhmm. Yep.

Well, Ken, there there's one disease that I have seen a lot of this year, and it happened a lot more. It seemed to come through more for you folks in kind of that Central Southern portion of the state, and that is fire blight on ornamental pears. Now this is one I'm like, yeah. It's fine. It's okay.

Yeah. This is the this is the feel good part of the podcast.

Yeah. Kill those plants.

Yeah. There's I've seen some. So my neighbors have some Callery Pear. It's got it's had fire bite in it for several years, but it's it's got quite a bit canopy thinning and all the the strikes, the the black shoots with the typical shepherd's crook there, the the tip curling over. Now it looks like it got hit by lightning or somebody burned it, thus fire blight.

Yeah. There if that damage makes it all the way to the main trunk of your tree also, just it cut it down. There's really not much you can do from there. As Ken said, there are some things. Most of them are available for, like, a commercial orchard grower or something like that.

Yeah. I don't know if we've got streptomycin resistance in Illinois, but other states do have it. So that's one of

Not to name names, Michigan, but, yes, they do.

Yeah. So that's why need you. If you do use it, make sure you're reading that label and do not use more than you need to or more often than you need to because you do not we don't wanna get resistance here because that just makes it that much more difficult to grow and manage.

Yeah. And doesn't look like they're coming out with new antibiotic formulations for homeowners, and probably not many, if at all, for commercial growers as well. So use them sparingly and just, yeah, cut down your calorie pear. I'm sorry if it is a beautiful price tree to you, but they're weak wooded. They drop branches all the time. They're they have a lousy growth habit. Their flowers smell bad. What other there there's how many more reasons do you need? Yeah. There's better trees out there.

Yes.

I don't If

you need I If you need suggestions, stop by your local office and get it under the canopy guide.

We have hundreds and thousands to give out. Yes. If you need that under the Canopy guide, I will happily mail them out to you. All I need is a mailing address, and you're gonna get at least 300.

Alright. So another one that think we're seeing an uptick in now that it's getting warmer and drying out again is blossom end rot. Now you usually usually see this in in tomatoes, but you can also get it in peppers and cucurbits and all kinds of other things. But it's another one that's rearing its ugly head, it seems like.

Yeah. It it's one that I've definitely got several calls about, I think, because we had a very dry springtime, very dry early summer as well, and people maybe were watering infrequently, which can be which is the cause for creating this blossom end rot. But then also we had a lot of lot more rain in July here, which would have, again, swung the soil saturation pendulum to, weigh on one side. And then you swing back to dry, and that's a inconsistent watering where the plant can't take up calcium into its system up from the roots into its tissues. And without consistent watering, that calcium can't move, and you wind up with blossom end rot, which is key to that formation of that that blossom end or that that tissue skin part of that fruit.

Mulch is your friend

Mhmm.

In in more ways than one. That's right. And and I think we've done maybe a couple podcasts on this now, we can always link to that if you wanna get real really into the weeds. And a lot of it do depend on we're talking about tomatoes, the cultivar. Some of them are just very prone to it.

Yeah. Yeah. I'm I'm mean to my cherry tomatoes, and they still won't stop giving me cherry tomatoes. Anything else come to mind while we've been talking? We really haven't had much in terms of, like, anthracnose. That's been pretty tame. Not much rust. Not many rust calls. Nothing really about peach leaf curl. Not like, none of the usuals that I normally get. Japanese beetle has even been pretty quiet this year in terms of questions.

Yeah. They haven't gotten Japanese beetle question in couple years. That's They've really slowed down around here. I think a lot of visitors are not as bad as they had been. We've kinda we get that peak, and now we're on the downward slope for that.

Oh, maybe yeah. Well, let's talk about it then, Ken. Japanese beetles. Why aren't we seeing Japanese beetle questions? Do we we don't know, do we?

No. I say So for for here in Jacksonville, you know, when I first started, we'd be getting multiple questions every year, every summer. But in the last several years, I I think even going back to COVID before COVID, they really started tailing off. I don't think last year two years ago, I don't think we got any questions about them. I haven't gotten any questions about Japanese beetle this year.

Well, I'll take it. Yeah. I I remember they showed up in McDonough County the same year as Emerald Asheboro showed up. It's, like, 2014, '20 '15. And I that was a very busy summer for me.

Yeah. We used to do a Japanese beetle article every year for good growing, and we haven't done that for several years now.

Haven't had to. Yeah. Well, that was a lot of great information about some of the common plant problems we've been seeing this year. Aster yellows. Is it Aster yellows?

least where we're at. Well, yeah. We're we're angry as of Aaron and David.

Yeah. Yeah. The wave has pushed farther westward into Missouri and Kansas and stuff. So apologize to all you people out there if if you're listening.

It'll get better eventually, maybe.

Yes. Hope so. Well, the Good Morning Podcast is a production of University of Illinois Extension, edited this week by Ken Johnson. And thank you, Ken, for hanging out with me today. As always, chatting about, oh, them troublesome plants and why we love them so much. So thanks, Ken.

Yes. Thank you. I'm gonna check my cone flowers out, make sure I got all my Aster yellows out of there, and see if I can find some mites.

Sounds like a plan.

And let's do this again next week.

Oh, we shall do this again next week. We got a garden bite coming at you, so looking forward to that. Fun little short episode for you next week, and then back to the old grind here as we get some end of the season good growing episodes back at you. So well, listeners, thank you for doing what you do best and is listening. Or if you're watching us on YouTube, watching. And as always, keep on growing. Take a drink of my tiny cup of water.

Go to the dentist.

Gotta last me all afternoon. But these are the same cups that they make you, like, spit into. And it's gonna require a greenhouse for me and maybe a trip to The Bahamas. But other than that Yeah. We'll figure it out. I'm kidding. We won't do that. Cut that part out, Ken.