Hello and thanks for joining us for another episode of MidAmerican Gardener.

I'm your host, Tinisha Spain, and in the studio with me today is my good friend John, and we are going to be talking about some timely things that are going to be going on now-ish in our backyard.

Some of them are going on now, which is so exciting, something we can't do now.

We turn the corner, I feel like, or we're about to turn it.

Yesterday was a this whole week is 60 and 50s.

Yes, it's a coming.

Well, introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about you.

My name is John BODENSTEINER.

I'm a Vermillion County Master Gardener, and I take care of a greenhouse.

I volunteer at Schlarman High School, and I help with a botany class and take care of the greenhouse.

I enjoy just about gardening with anything I have shrubs, trees, flowers.

We were talking earlier.

I've got hellebores starting to bloom, and they're not looking real.

We had a hard winter.

Yes, we did.

And so it's not, not the normal.

Normally, I'd have have them up.

I have them out with some of the I have orchards.

So I have orchard bees that are usually on them.

They're not even open yet.

So, wow, I don't know now, being buried under that snow probably was not the greatest.

It was just so cold.

I think the ground got so cold and everything.

And I did they, I didn't rake leaves off of them.

So they were insulated to a certain degree.

And they, they look okay.

They're just probably a month behind mine.

Look pretty scraggly.

So I did take all the old leaves off.

I, you know, I'm, you know, now's the time to trim it so that the new flowers will show and then the new leaves will come up.

So, you know, you're gonna have to get rid of the old, old ones.

You may as well do it now where you're getting rid of the rest of the junk.

So, yeah, okay.

So today we're gonna we've got a couple topics to cover, first of which is pruning.

We've talked about this a little bit on previous shows, but now we're going to really get into it.

John's brought some great examples, and we're going to talk about how and when, and get more into the timing of it.

All right, so you want to do it, you don't want to go out there and hack them.

You want them to look nice.

Winter is usually the best time to prune things, and we're still in winter.

There's a few things, though, that that's not true.

Your spring flowering shrubs.

If you prune those now, and I'll go, I've got a list here of things that you don't want to prune, but if you trim them now, they've already set buds, and you can I brought them in some samples here.

These are all flower buds.

And so if you take those off, cut them off, prune your tree, especially heavily, you're going to be tribbing off all the flowers.

You won't have any flowers.

And you know things like your forsythias.

Which one is my Forsythia.

I think this is a forsythia and lilac.

Lilac is another one.

This is where's my I've missed another opportunity.

So rhododendrons, so I'll just go through the list.

Here are things not to prune right now, Forsythia, lilac Rhododendron, azaleas, viburnums, yglia Mock orange, and then your macrophyll hydrangeas, the big leaf Not, not there's others that you can trim.

And I'll get I'll go over those now, the ones you just mentioned.

When do you prune those right after they bloom?

Got it after they're blooming.

So these are what we consider shrubs that bloom, or trees, like if the lilac technically a tree that bloom before June, if they bloom before June, do not prune them now.

Okay, that's a good rule of thumb.

And then if those that you are going to prune, I'll go over a list there too.

Evergreens.

Is another one that you really should be very cautious about blooming right now or pruning right now.

They can do some light shaping, box, wood, hues, things like that.

It's okay for light pruning on anything.

You should never prune more than 1/3 of the tree or shrub off, because that just it shocks.

It's too much of a shock, too.

It's a lot to recover from, and you a it just, it's, it's just best not to do it until if you are and even that 1/3 other than these, these after June, you should do it after it frees.

And after they go dormant, one thing that another one that I didn't mention right now, the maple trees.

We've got people that are collecting maple syrup, so it stands to reason, if you would prune that now, you're going to cause a lot of bleeding if the sap is going to run, especially if it's above 40 or above 32 in the day, below 32 at night, that's when the sap goes up and sap goes down.

And so those are the ones that I would not prune now.

Now, as far as those that you can prune now, are those the ones that you brought in to show us.

These are the ones.

These are the ones that you shouldn't prune.

Okay, I did prune just enough for the show.

Do as I say, not as I yeah, these are what I brought in here is there's a lilac.

There's a couple of lilacs here.

I've got a contorted filbert.

This doesn't really have a true blossom.

They have candles and things like that, that that form.

And you can see where they're forming right here, that's, that's, that's going to be the flower.

And so that you don't want to to trim off.

And here there's all kinds of, all these little buds that are swollen buds.

These are all going to be the flowers.

And so this here is a magnolia.

This one here, you can really see, this is my star this is the star magnolia.

It's the little white ones.

I didn't trim the big, the purple Magnolia, the saucer, but this is the star magnolia.

And you can see if I, well, I trim this off and I'm, I'm going to lose 1234567, at least seven blossoms off of that shrub now.

Now is that one of the ones that, if you cut a branch off, you can bring it inside and force it to if you wanted to enjoy it inside.

And that's, that's one of the other things that, if you do have to, and sometimes you do have to storm damage, storm damage.

You know, if it's crack, it still may be on there, but if you leave it on, then you're going to be prone to more diseases and more injury to the plant.

So, but yes, you can bring them in, especially the forsythias.

Those are the ones that really do nicely if you bring them in.

So, but I now, when you're making cuts, do you have a way that you could demonstrate for us how to make those cuts if you're outside pruning?

Yeah, because we talk about it a lot, but seeing it on camera is so just say, this was still hooked to the tree and I wanted to trim this off.

I wouldn't come out here and leave this big stem on.

Okay?

Because this again, this, there's nothing gonna there's no no leaf notes, anything like that.

So what I should do is come right back here, not hit this collar.

You've got a little collar here that's going to the plant is going to heal over, but if you come right up to it right there, so you're not getting exactly flush with it, but as close as you can without injuring that right and, and, and then, if you are trimming on something, let me get Another one here.

Say this.

And as you can see, this one had some injury on it, so I felt okay cutting this.

This is on my lilac.

I really hated cutting off.

But what you should do is make a 45 degree cut, about a quarter to a half an inch above the bud, and then off it goes, Off it goes like that.

So that way, you know you're not getting close to where the node is there.

You're far away from that, but it's still you're not going to leave a big point here for for disease and injury to be.

So about the lilac because this is a personal question.

I have a row of them, and they are, they're misshapen, they're overgrown and kind of crazy.

And so now I have to leave them and look at that all summer, right?

No, as soon as they bloom, or as soon as they bloom, then you can do it, you know.

So you know, they usually bloom around Mother's Day.

So right after that, that's when you go back and you trim off.

And for lilacs, if they've gotten overgrown, they're supposed to be tucked neatly under the window.

And they're kind of spindly, you know, they need some work.

So what you can do on lilacs, what I usually tell people is, there's usually many more shoots than just one.

Take the worst ones and those that have the bark on them, so to speak, the you know, the where you can actually see the wrinkles in it Gotcha, okay.

Take that all the way to the ground, okay?

And no more than a third of them from each you know, you know.

There's probably, if there's six of them, you would take no more than two, but you take it all the way to the ground, and that's giving your third.

Now, if you don't want to do if you have more pruning on that, you would take one all the way to the ground and then trim the others back so that you still aren't taking more than 1/3 Okay?

And is it okay to top them with like a tiny, little hand saw, or do you go in manually with a tool?

I go in, I don't like to go in with a hedge trimmer.

It's just, it's, it's, you get that hedge trimmer look.

If you can go in and you trim, you know, you make this one here, this one here, this one here, and stand back.

Don't do it without going back and standing 10 feet away and and those are, you know, then you'll be happy with your aunt.

Now you want it to trim some things now.

So shrubs that you can prune now bloom on new wood, hydrangeas, the paniculate type is that the panicle, the big panicles, the annabelles, you can trim those all the way to the ground now they'll come back.

Bodilia butterfly bush, spireas, roses, any of the roses, they're still, they're still, now's the best time to prune your roses.

Noted the red twig, red twig, dogwoods, Holly.

Holly's can take a light pruning right now.

You don't want to ever do a whole bunch of pruning on Hollies, but you can do that, and then you can remove any dead or injured or, you know, if you can see a actual disease that's forming a canker or something, you can always take that off.

Make sure that you use a good, clean, sharp tool.

If you've had disease in the process.

In between each cut, I would have a solution, a 10% cleaning solution, and make sure that proper cut, all right, I think that's that's it.

Well, thank you.

I actually, I feel more prepared about pruning and going out and kind of shaping things up.

So now we're going to be talking about seed starting finally.

Now this when this time of year hits, it's just such a great high to know that we are coming back around to spring and it's time to put some seeds in the ground.

I love this time of year.

It's me too.

It's you can look forward.

It's you know to to what's going to be happening and make plans.

That's a big part of it is find out what you want.

Make your plans.

Don't go to the seat place and say, I don't know what I want, but once you get looking, oh, that looks that looks nice.

And then you get home, where am I going to put all this?

Exactly, yes, yes.

So there's certain things that we can do now that actually it's still just a little bit too early for most things, six to eight weeks before our last frost, average frost, which is May 1 to May 15.

So we're still a little bit ahead of time for that.

But for those seeds that we do want to start tomatoes, peppers, broccoli, cabbage, a lot of your annual flowers, your herbs, most of those, we can actually start fairly soon.

There are others that don't do as well if we sold them now.

Cucumbers, for instance, they just don't like their roots disturbed.

Yeah.

They want them direct.

Yeah.

So those that that you sow directly into the soil, your beans, corn, carrots, radishes, those, those you just plant right into lettuces, any dill.

I like to plant those directly, unless you're going to put them in a pot and you want to grow them in a pot that then you're not going to be moving those so that you can plant in a pot.

Check your seed packets.

There's all kinds of information on the back of the seeds packets telling you how many weeks prior to transplanting you need to get them ready certain, certain plant seeds require a longer germination period.

If you save the seeds yourself.

A lot of people starting to save seeds.

I saved a whole bunch of hosta seeds.

Well, I started looking, I said, you know, I've never done this before, but I have to stratify those, which means they have to have a cold.

If I would have just picked them and then tried planting them, they probably wouldn't have they wouldn't have germinated, because they have to go through that cold period.

And it varies some.

Seeds take four weeks.

Some take six, some take 90 days of stratification.

So usually you can look up an internet or there's information University, the U of I, has all kinds of information on that.

As far as the period that you should put it in your refrigerator.

Don't have to freeze it just just below 40 degrees, usually is what they want.

What tips do you have for folks who are looking to start seeds?

You know, we talked about the difference between potting soil and seed starting mix and those kind of things.

So tell us bingo right on time.

Vanna, this is, this is probably one of the most important things that we need to make sure that we have is a good seed.

And I'm not saying that you have to buy this brand.

This is just one that I, I was able to find.

It was on sale.

Need something that seeds start, that says seed starting compound.

It's a sterile, non soil.

There's no weeds in it.

There's no fungus in it, no weed, no diseases in it.

The problem with this, it comes really, really dry.

And so a day or two, maybe even a week, before you're going to do this, cut it open.

And if you have to put it in.

Take all this, put it in the pot.

Water it down.

What you want to get this is damp, not soggy, because this is going to be hydrophobic if it's if it's really dry, when you water it, the water is just going to run off.

So this is, this is, you know, this is one of the things that you might start looking now, even if you're not going to do it now, because people run out of this.

And what's the difference?

Let's talk a little bit.

Is it the weight?

Is it you've mentioned it's sterile.

You mentioned that there's no weed seeds in it.

But what is it about seed starting mix that's different from there's no soil in it.

Gotcha, there's no microbes in it.

There's, it's a sterile solution.

They've sterilized it.

It's good draining.

It's just the right drain for you want it to hold some moisture, but you don't want it to get soggy.

So this, it's just, it's, it's made for seed starting.

Do you amend this in any way, anything to it?

I do not amend anything to this, as far as the base goes.

When I put it in, in a tray, if you, if you, if you're going to start, this is what this is, 50 of them.

I guess a 50 start if you're going to start.

A lot more than that.

Holy cow, you can do the 200 you know.

And again, what I normally do is I just pour it in here, and I just go back and forth and make sure.

And I don't pack it.

You don't want to pack it.

And depending on the seed and the type of what you're going to do, you may I'll take what they call a dipple and make little holes in each one, depending on the size of the seed.

If it's a very, very small seed, I do not do that.

Some of your flower seeds get to be almost dust as far as like pansies.

I was planting pansies a few days ago, and those guys are so tiny, I was literally trying to just sprinkle them in each so these seeds starting.

Make sure they're clean if you've used them before.

This is a brand new one, so I don't have to worry about that.

This one here, I'll probably dunk into some Clorox, a 1% or 10% Clorox, one part Clorox, nine parts water, just a mild and then dry it.

Make sure it's dried off if you have to rinse it.

And that's just in case, if last year you ran into some sort of some type of disease, a fungus, a blight, some of them over winter, and I doubt that most of them are going to over winter outside this year because we did have some cold period spray bottles, a nice spray bottle, because once you put your seeds, especially if they're small, you don't want to take a heavy or a spray hose, and who knows where your seeds are going to end up.

Let's talk drainage.

Drainage.

I don't know if you can see these on camera, but they've got the drainage holes in the bottom.

And this does too thing.

You have to watch out for these trays you can buy.

This is one without holes, but they do come with holes, and so if it does not have holes, you have to really watch how much water you're getting, get to that grow lights I brought this little we know John loves a gadget.

This is a small one, but, and they have such cool stuff.

Now you can find really cool gardening projects online.

Is it not?

Wanting to cooperate for TV.

There we go.

So you can buy the one with the light, or you can buy the one with just the vent, but this is a 12 pack.

So what you would do, this has got the humidity dome on it, and this would, again, just be on here, and it's going to give the light.

Once they this, you don't have to turn this on until the plants actually emerge.

Then they need some light, and this is within a couple inches, so this should be good until you're going to transplant them.

Now, how do you get sometimes, when I have my trays and the domes are on them, I see a little mold.

What do you do if you start to see that going on, that means that you're probably over watering.

Okay?

What I have done is I get, like I said, don't want to bury these small seeds too much.

I take vermiculite, and it's a very fine dust, and I just lightly dust also tends to dry out fairly quick as far as top and so that keeps me from over getting the funguses, you know, the dye back, and things like that that you can get.

So that's that I like to use vermiculite on some of those.

So got about three minutes left.

Okay, what other rapid fire heat mat?

Ooh, that's a good one if you want, if you're growing tomatoes, peppers, some of those things, if you're having, if you've had trouble, get, get a heat mat that fits one of these trays, the humidity dome, just like this.

They make them for this size.

And they make them the big ones too.

You can see here you can control, somewhat control humidity.

And even on the big ones, a lot, I would get one that has that the humidity dome with the vents labels.

As soon as you put the seed in.

Put your labels.

Start putting your label.

In fact, sometimes I actually like to put my labels in before, so that, you know, I know what I'm going to plant.

I've gone through my packets.

I write it as soon as because I don't know, maybe I've got more seeds.

Maybe I'm going to have three rows rather than two or and so then I think you're going to remember, but you don't, you're not.

And so do you pot up?

So from these, will these, like, for instance, will these go from this tray straight out?

Or do you pot up to other things?

I will, usually, I will, depending on what it is and where I'm going to put it, I will transfer from, especially this 200 count, I will usually put in in a three or four inch pot, gotcha, and that at that time, then I use a good potting soil.

So after, after they've germinated and your translate, you don't have to use the seed starting compound.

You can go to the good potting soil.

One more question, how do you know when it's time to take them out of the seed starting tray and put them in a larger pot?

What's the what's the giveaway?

You want at least one set of true leaves when they come up, especially the dicots, which is going to be the ones that have the where the seed splits open, that's that you're going to have it caught on each side.

Those are not the true leaves.

They will do a little bit of of of growing for you, but you have to wait for the true leaves to do the the you know where it's going to capture the sun and grow you.

Okay, larger seeds, like I said, put them in, usually about two to three times the size of the seed.

In other words, if that seed is this big, you're going to go like that.

If they're this big, you want to go like that, that deep and then cover them.

Don't pack them in.

You want that soil to be somewhat light again, label immediately.

That is so important.

Water properly.

A lot of if you want a proper water from the top, that's good.

A lot of people like to water from the bottom, room temperature water.

Keep it moist but not soggy.

Light temperature guide 60 to 75 degrees.

All right, thinning, we're gonna have to leave it there we are, out of time.

I think you set us up for success.

I think you set us up.

We've got some great tips here.

So John, I appreciate you coming in always a wealth of knowledge, seed starting book.

Oh, and you can get a handbook, the seed starters handbook.

Yep, that's a real good one.

All right.

Well, thank you, John.

I really appreciate it, and thank you so much for watching.

If you've got questions, you can send them in to us at yourgarden@gmail.com, or search for us on socials.

Just look for MidAmerican Gardener and we will see you next time.

Good night.

You you you.