S3:E02 Winter Pruning with Andrew Ristvey

Hello Listener, 

Although it may be cold and dreary outside, it’s the perfect time to take inventory of your deciduous trees and shrubs to see which plants would benefit the most from pruning. In this months episode we’re sitting down with Extension Specialist in Commercial Horticulture, Dr. Andrew Ristvey. Dr. Ristvey is giving us the ins and outs on winter pruning. 

We also have our: 

• Bug of the Month  (Winter Stoneflies) at 37:30
• Garden Tips of the Month at 45:55
•  Native Plant of the Month ( American holly)  at   49:00

Here are some great resource to learn more about pruning: 

• The University of Georgia Extension:  Basic Principles of Pruning Woody Plants 
• Virginia Tech Pruning Handbook
  • Virginia Tech Shrub Pruning Calendar
  • Virginia Tech Deciduous Tree Pruning Calendar
  • Virginia Tech Evergreen Tree Pruning Calendar

 If you have any garden-related questions please email us at  UMEGardenPodcast@gmail.com or look us up on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/GardenThymePodcas. For more information about UME and these topics, please check out the UME Home and Garden Information Center and Maryland Grows Blog at https://marylandgrows.umd.edu/.

The Garden Thyme Podcast is brought to you by the University of Maryland Extension. Hosts are Mikaela Boley- Senior Agent Associate (Talbot County) for Horticulture, Rachel Rhodes- Agent Associate for Horticulture (Queen Anne’s County), and Emily Zobel-Senior Agent Associate for Agriculture (Dorchester County).

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The Garden Thyme Podcast is brought to you by the University of Maryland Extension. Hosts are Mikaela Boley- Principal Agent Associate (Talbot County) for Horticulture; Rachel Rhodes- Senior Agent Associate for Horticulture (Queen Anne's County); and Emily Zobel- Senior Agent Associate for Agriculture (Dorchester County).

Theme Song: By Jason Inc,

University programs, activities, and facilities are available to all without regard to race, color, sex, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, marital status, age, national origin, political affiliation, physical or mental disability, religion, protected veteran status, genetic information, personal appearance, or any other legally protected class.

Transcript

Garden Thyme Podcast Transcript:  S3:E02 Winter Pruning with Andrew Ristvey


Note: The Garden Thyme Podcast is produced for the ear and is designed to be heard. If you are able, we strongly encourage you to listen to the audio, which includes emotion and emphasis that's not on the page. Transcripts are generated using a combination of speech recognition software and human transcribers, and may contain errors.   
 
 
: Up beat Music: 



Mikaela

Hello, listener. Welcome to the University of Maryland Extension Presents, the Garden Thyme Podcast, where we talk about getting down and dirty in your garden. We are your hosts. I'm Mikaela.

Rachel

I'm Rachel.

Emily

And I'm Emily.

Mikaela

And in this month's episode, we're talking about pruning. Although it may be cold and dreary outside, it's the perfect time to take inventory of your deciduous trees and shrubs to see which plants would benefit the most from some pruning. So in this month's episode, we're sitting down with extension specialist in commercial horticulture, Dr. Andrew Ristvey. Dr. Ristvey is giving us the ins and outs on winter pruning.

: Up Beat Music: 

Mikaela

Thanks for joining us, Andrew. We love having guests on.

Rachel

I'm so excited about this. It's been two years since we've been actually in person.

Mikaela

So we have several questions for Andrew today. And we're very thankful to have him on board because he's not only the expert in pruning, I feel like he's the expert in everything. So it's really nice to have some time with him. We'll go through these questions. He's got some really good answers for us, better than we could ever answer. So we can get started. And Rachel, if you want to take the first question.

Rachel

Sure, Andrew. Why should we prune?

Andrew

Okay, so we prune for various reasons. First, to maintain the health and appearance of the plant, primarily to remove dead tissue. We prune to renovate or rejuvenate plants. We can train them plants for size and shape, especially when they're young, for food production and management of fruit load and fruit trees, and also to control the size or shape of them for safety reasons.

Mikaela

And now, do we always prune in winter or why should people be interested in winter pruning?

Andrew

So, in actuality, in my opinion, winter pruning may not be the best time to prune for all plants. So it depends on the flowering and growth habit of the plants themselves. For instance, spring flowering shrubs that's flowering on old wood tissue. These should be done right after they've completed their flowering. So let's say a plant would flower in May after they're done flowering, at the end of May through June into July would be the best time. Now, as I said before, this should be done up until mid July before those plants begin to form the primordial flowers for the following year. In this case, you have about a two month window after flowering. Now, in other cases, an early spring trimming may be best, which is what's done on most plants that flower on new wood or for fruit tree growers who are thinning their fruit load.

Rachel

This is a really good example of when to prune your hydranges and when not to prune your hydranges. I think we could have a whole episode on pruning hydrangeas. Exactly. I didn't prune my hydranges this year. I just ran out of time in July. And then in October, I was like, I'm just going to take off some of these flowers and it was so evident, those swelling buds underneath, like, oh, booger, I'm glad I'm doing this by hand and not with hedgers.

Andrew

So with hydranges, it's going to depend on the species.

Rachel

Yes, it was. These are macrophylla.

Andrew

So the macrophylla, they have their flowers on old wood and you can cut them in the summer after the blooms, and typically don't want to cut off any more than 30% of the living tissue. But the old canes can be cut down to the base and you want to cut out all the deadwood for those. Bupet with the hydrangea, peniculata and arborescens, which bloom on new wood each year in early spring is best. And they should be cut back to about 18 inches from the top of the ground, basically leaving a crown of old wood for that new growth to grow. And all that new wood is where the flowers will be coming from.

Rachel

Yeah, those are great tips.

Mikaela

So I have a question that's not in the script, so I'm going to hit you with a curveball. Okay. So in general, would you say evergreens couldn't be pruned at any time of the year, or would winter be preferable for those as well? Or again, is it going to depend on the species?

Andrew

It's going to depend on the species. But a lot of your evergreens this is your Conifers, we're talking Conifers. Conifers typically have their fresh new growth in the spring. Okay. And so typically what you want to do when you're pruning Conifers for shape, you want to basically cut their candles. Candles are those fresh new buds that are stretching from the branch tips. And typically with those, you want to try to cut them when they're still relatively young. You cut those candles in half and that will increase the branching. One thing that I think we all know, and I just want to reiterate for those people who don't know, is that with conifers, you can't cut past the green leaf material, the needles, because there are no active meristems. There are very little active meristems past that towards the trunk. So if you do cut a conifer with those types of trees, past that green, you're going to have a dead branch, which would mean you're going to have to cut that branch out anyways.

Mikaela

I'm really glad you mentioned that because we see that all the time where something's been pruned, well, habitually, people want it to be pruned to a certain size. And if that conifer is bigger than the size people want, you can start to get back to that deadwood at a certain age.

Andrew

And so you see a lot of spruce trees with a lot of dead branches that are just sticking out, heading cuts that are just sticking out down the bottom of the trunk. And it's not a good thing. You don't want to have those stub cuts like that.

Mikaela

And you know what I would say is that if it's a boxwood, you can just prune that right to the ground and just cut it right there at the base.

Rachel

We habitually don't like boxwood.

Mikaela

Well, I think you see so many of them come into the office, you just start to.

Andrew

A lot of diseases problems it's really unfortunate they are beautiful.

Mikaela

But they are very common.

Andrew

They are very common and there's a lot of problems associated with them. And you have to be really careful. And we can get into cleaning your tools later on, which is a major problem when it comes to managing Boxwoods. What's the next question?

Mikaela

Yeah, we'll get back on track.

Rachel

Yeah, we should. We always digress here. So Andrew, are there any pruning principles or rules that homeowners should follow when they are pruning?

Andrew

Oh, yeah, absolutely. I think first of all, it's good to know some plant anatomy. We can talk about some of that in a little bit. And it's also good to have the correct equipment, especially safety equipment. For safety, you should always have a pair of certified safety glasses, you know shatter proof, and a pair of good gloves. If you're working with tree branches, especially ones above your head, a hard hat is not such a bad idea. Now, for plant anatomy, there are a variety of websites that show pictures of plant anatomy, parts of the plant so reference I would look at those. Most importantly, the part of the plant anatomy that I want to talk about is where the branch, the branches that we're trimming meets the stem or the trunk. So just to clarify, no matter what or where we are trimming, we call the branch what we're trimming and the stem what we're trimming the branch from. So a stem can be a branch and so on and so forth. But anyway, the union between the branch and the stem is the branch ridge. And there is stem tissue called the branch collar that surrounds the branch.

At the union point of those two, the collar sometimes looks exactly like a collar. It's stem tissue that surrounds the branch at that union. That branch collar is an extremely important plant anatomy when we're doing specific cuts.

Rachel

That's great.

Mikaela

And what we can do is include a link to a photo or a resource in our show notes so that people know what to look for, because I think a visual does help on this one, although you explained it very well using just verbally.

Rachel

So Andrew, do you have any Pruning tips when we're starting out?

Andrew

Yeah, first, as I said before, know your plant anatomy. Good pruning depends on knowing parts of the plant. Now, there are two types of cuts. There's thinning cuts and heading cuts. Thinning cuts remove a branch from the stem. These are typically done when you want to thin out or reduce the density of a plant or tree. These cuts typically do not encourage growth. In heading cuts, or should I say with thinning cuts, you must look for the branch collar and cut the branch as close to the collar without damaging it. That collar is responsible for the proper compartmentalization of the wound. If the collar is damaged, good compartmentalization will be delayed or even may not occur. This could introduce pests and diseases into the heartwood of the plant. The larger the cut, the longer it will take to compartmentalize. Now, just to be clear what compartmentalization is, so trees, plants, when you make a cut, they don't heal. The tree is damaged. It needs to grow around that wound. And that's called compartmentalization. It's a process of secondary growth, or the growth of the cambium around the wound. And the cambium is a living part of the stem, which increases the girth of the plant.

Andrew

That's why you must not damage that branch collar. It has cambium cells. Now, heading cuts shorten a stem. Unlike thinning cuts, heading cuts encourage new growth in small woody plants like roses and other shrubs. Heading cuts need to be done approximately a quarter inch away from the branch and about a 45 angle away from that branch. Any closer, the branch may die, and any further, the wound will take longer than necessary to compartmentalize. You can also manipulate the direction of the growth of the shrub by making more or less by making them more or less dense based on where you make your heading cut. Now, heading cuts for trees are more difficult and they can be technical and can take a long time to compartmentalize, especially if you're cutting large branches. If you are unsure about this, talk to a professional tree expert. By the way, Maryland Department of Natural Resources has a certification called Maryland Tree expert Certification. Legally speaking, only tree experts can work on trees taller than 20ft for compensation. That means payment. All tree companies in Maryland should have one of these tree experts.

Mikaela

Now, is compensation money or is it the exchange of goods? All right, we like to clarify that. Compartmentalization, that's a great scrabble word. I feel like you could win scrabble. That's right.

Rachel

So do we refer to is a heading cut topping?

Andrew

Not all heading cuts are topping, but topping are heading cuts.

Mikaela

Got you. So when we do prune, do you need any special equipment?

Andrew

Well, sure. Why don't we start with the Pruning equipment? And that's going to depend on the size of the job. If it's a small job like shaping or thinning out small shrubs like a rose bush, it's a good idea to have pass through pruners, which is pretty much all you need. Now, pass through pruners are basically scissor type pruners. I avoid using the guillotine style because they have a tendency to crush on one side of the branch. For larger jobs, you may need a lopper or hand saw, maybe even a chainsaw. But with those, we really need to talk about safety and experience level for the time we have. Let's just focus on small Pruning jobs.

Mikaela

And how often do you need to prune?

Andrew

Well, certainly that depends on the plants and the intent of the pruning. Some plants need yearly renovation. Some plants should be pruned often, like roses to remove spent flowers and encourage new flowering, or like grapes to manage vegetative growth. Fruit trees need to be pruned to reduce fruit load in the spring. So it just depends on the plant.

Mikaela

And I think we have some resources that we're going to include in the show notes for people who are looking for a specific species of plant and what their pruning needs are.

Andrew

Okay.

Mikaela

And should you use paint or sealant over any of your cuts? Because we get that question all the time, and I'm sure you do all the time.

Rachel

It is something that's probably 100% of the pruning and I still see it. Yeah.

Andrew

So the sealant that has been used or at least advertised for plant health has been discouraged for years. If you make a proper cut, the plant will compartmentalize around that cut in good time. It's really all about your technique. The sealant may encourage disease. There's no way to sterilize that cut. After you make the cut, you put the seal around it, you may have disease already in that cut, and the sealant just encourages that disease to grow.

Rachel

And disease inside that cut, would that be from not properly clean pruning equipment?

Andrew

Yeah, could be one way that fungal microbes get into the wound itself. So the sealant, and I think even the sealant, may not promote or actually hinder compartmentalization. It's just not what we want to use. A good way to prune and to avoid using or needing or even thinking about using sealant is to learn how to prune and make good pruning cuts.

Mikaela

Okay, so I have another curveball question, because in the winter and in January, we see some heavy snow sometimes weighs down branches quite a bit. We see a lot of broken branches. So those aren't obviously aren't the pruning cuts we really want. What happens if that branch collar gets damaged or those branches get torn in ways that we can't really fix them very well?

Andrew

Yeah, I've got boxwoods at home that have that problem. I think the first thing to do is to understand that there's a way to shape boxwoods and other plants and other plants like that to help not so much prevent, but to discourage that kind of damage. You want to prune in a way that's an upright triangle, whereas the top is less wide than the bottom. And typically those types of cuts and that type of shaping prevents that damage from snow. But when it happens after the snow melts, you sometimes need to go in and kind of clean things up. If the collar is damaged and you get that ripping of the bark down the stem, it is what it is. You just have to try to promote good health of that tree during that time period, even the sealants and that you don't want to use. There is compartmentalization of those types of wounds depending on how large it is. And if you have serious damage, like what we see with Bradford Pears, with the ice damage and heavy stone damage, sometimes those trees just need to be taken out. When you've got those serious heavy branch damages, because it's the shape of the branch and the way the branch exits from the stem that creates those problems.

Andrew

A very weak point is that branch bark ridge that I have referred to at high angles, the Branch Bark Ridge is not a really good union, and it's very weak. So sometimes the best thing to do in order to not have that type of damage from snow and ice is to do the proper management before it happens is to try to remove or minimize the size of those branches that would typically break under that much weight.

Rachel

I think that's one of the hardest things for us as educators to deal with is when we have to tell somebody to take out their tree, because you never want to say unless its a Bradford unless or a boxwood.

Mikaela

Sorry, I'm cutting those. Sorry Andrew.

Rachel

But it's so difficult to say to somebody, it's time to take that tree out.

Andrew

One of the most problematic trees that I've seen, and always around the houses are those really big silver maples. They have horrible growth habit. They grow quickly, their wood is relatively soft, and they break, especially when they get really large. And you see a lot of the silver maples that have lost branches that were, what, maybe one or two foot in diameter, maybe actually one of the big stems. And when that happens, you really need to consider just removing the tree. And if you have those types of large trees around your house, you should probably consider getting that tree removed just for safety reasons.

Rachel

Yeah, we call those widowmakers, right?

Mikaela

Yep, that's exactly what they are the widowmakers. I see a lot of silver maple, big ones, in Easton. It's like they planted them as common landscape or street trees for a long time, and now they're just so big.

Andrew

Or what happens typically when they're out in the sun, they have that tendency to have those multiliters which come out at those really acute angles that are growing straight up or such. And those are those stems that are particularly problematic because they're not anchored well to the main trunk or the bowl. And it's something to consider, especially if you're buying a house or you have a house with one of these trees around it. We get some advice from a professional tree expert.

Rachel

That's some great advice.

Mikaela

So let's say we're doing more purposeful pruning. How much can we prune off of a tree or a shrub?

Andrew

Yeah, so there are some tips about how much you want to prune off of a plant. In particular, certainly you need to take off as much dead tissue as possible. And the guidance for thinning trees suggests no more than about 25% of the living tissue at any time. Now, there's a term called crown raising, which is basically cutting the lower branches off to make it appear that the crown has been lifted up. You don't want to take out any more than a third of the height of that tree so long as it's less than 25% of the total living tissue you're taking off. Now, most bushes or shrubs are more forgiving, so you can take off about 30% of the living tissue with those. And again, it really comes down to your intent and what you're planning on doing. Now, cutting too much away from any plant may impede the plants from recovering properly because you're taking off their solar panels, their device for making new tissue, which are their leaves, and it's very stressful to a plant. So you want to minimize how much you need to take out. Only take out the minimum as necessary.

Andrew

No more than 25% of the tree and probably no more than 30% of a shrub.

Mikaela

Would the exception to that be things with rejuvenating cuts? Okay.

Andrew

Yes. Certainly those plants that have that resistance or very strong growers, like bolia, fast growing plants, those spring wood, flowering hydrangeas, those are typically cut back because they typically grow. And a good fertilization program when you are doing those for those plants is probably a good idea because they need the energy and they need the nutrients to bounce back after you've cut them back that far.

Mikaela

Okay, and what kind of fertilizer would you recommend then?

Mikaela

For shrubs.

Mikaela

Okay.

Andrew

If you are working with azaleas, you want to have ammonium based fertilizers. If you're working with hydrangeas, it's going to depend on what color you want those flowers to be if they're macrophylla. So you can use acid based fertilizers to get your blue color in your hydrangeas, your macrophylla, that is, or nitrate based fertilizers if you want the pink color in those macrophylla.

Mikaela

Okay, good advice. What are the top plants that shouldn't be pruned in winter?

Andrew

Yeah, so that's a good question, I think. Again, you don't want to prune any plants that have the spring flowering, the types of spring flowering plants, those plants that are blooming on old wood. Because when you do that, you're removing your flowers. And a lot of our plants we like to have as ornamental. So again, it really depends on the types of plants that you have. If you're doing a winter prune, you want to have it late winter so that there's less time that cut is exposed. You should probably be doing that. Again, if it's one of those plants that are new wood, you can prune in early spring, late winter, early spring, so you can get that new growth, and that new growth will be ready to flower in mid-July.

Mikaela

Got you. So it's too late for this year's blooming. But you can still do those prunings after the spring.

Andrew

Yeah, absolutely. Again, when it comes to pruning flowering plants or spring flowering plants, you want to prune in shape after they're done flowering, like you've got that two month window, which you can do that, but certainly don't prune after mid July, because those when the flowers are blooming. As I said, as I mentioned earlier.

Rachel

I think that's so hard for us to remember as gardeners because June and July are really starting to get kind of hot. And as a gardener, I'm like, I'm not sure I want to go out there and prune when it's so hot. How much is it going to damage my plant? Because we're in the middle of a drought to prune this plant. So that's something hard that you always have to remember, like, oh, it's June, it's done blooming. I have to prune it now.

Emily

Andrew

If you want it shaped, if you want it to be small in size, yeah. You have to understand the growth habits of the plant and to prune accordingly.

Rachel

So what are some pruning mistakes that you often see?

Andrew

Andrew yeah, so I think the biggest pruning mistake is not people that are cutting past that branch collar. When that happens, the compartmentalization is delayed, it's damaged. It may be not even well compartmentalized. Typically the process, the compartmentalization process takes so long that disease gets into the plants or insects, even beetles that eat wood, beetle larvae that eat wood. So that's the first one do not an appropriate cut, those heading cuts, which are which some people are, I guess, sometimes. Pollarding you know that that whole process of heading cut could be done properly if done in the right position, in the right angle. Again, that's a very technical cut that I think everyone should read more about before they attempt it. And so it's pretty much those heading cuts, especially on Conifers and thinning cuts, that don't follow that branch collar rule. So those are the two that I see most of and also a lot of deadwood people, a lot of times leave deadwood. I'm guilty of it. There are times when I just don't get to those dogwoods that I have in my front yard. And they have a lot of deadwood because of the diseases.

Andrew

They're under a lot of stress. Every year the diseases hit my dogwood and I lose a lot of branches, and I just don't get to that deadwood. And you can even see that branch collar starting to wrap around that dead branch. And when you start seeing that that's time, it's like, okay, I need to get that dead branch cut off. So that's another problem I've seen that's a lack of pruning.

Mikaela

well, and we talk a lot about the appropriate timing and everything, but for deadwood, anytime. Okay. Just want to confirm that. So people aren't waiting to take out their dead branches.

Andrew

Because dead branches are also a hazard. Especially if they're large.  It's one of those things where whenever you see a dead branch and if it can be pruned and if it's easy, you've got time to do it. You can do it in the wintertime. That doesn't matter.

Mikaela

And it may be that with winter damage, people have to wait till spring for things to leaf out before noticing whether the branches correct truly died or not.

Rachel

Very true.

Mikaela

If you're ever in question, you can always wait and see what happens in the spring.

Andrew

Yeah, one of the things that I've noticed with that, especially with our hydrangeas, hydrangeas, especially the macrophylla, are very sensitive to temperature. And of course, with our crazy climate and weather that we've had in Maryland for the past few years, I've noticed a lot of warm weather, which in February or early March, and this goes for all plants that they get confused. They get their cold units in, their chill units in, they start growing. And then we have a frost. And my hydrangea that I have at home hasn't really bloomed well because consistently, every year we have those late frost and it kills off that wood that has the flowers on it.

Rachel

That's so sad. I'm so sorry.

Andrew

It's horrible.

Rachel

I have like 15 different varieties of hydranges at our house. I'll just bring you some.

Andrew

Thank you.

Rachel

Sorry, I'm taking I have a hydrangea problem. Emily, you're going to edit this part out. So notoriously, Ryan and I lived at his mother's house, my mother in law's house, before we bought our farm. And I planted slews of hydranges because it has the perfect morning sun and afternoon shade for them. Every single fall in like October, she chops those bad boys back and I die. It's really not going to bloom for two years now. And I think I probably text Emily and Mikaela. And I'm like, I'm dying inside. Dying inside.

Mikaela

Well, speaking of dying, how about something we refer to it commonly as crepe murder, but we see that practice happen a lot. Can you talk to us about what happens when people take those Crepe myrtles and just really chop them off at the top?

Andrew

I'll tell you, you gave me that question. That's a really good one. I searched the internet for that and there's just all kinds of YouTube videos about how not to commit crepe murder. So if anyone's really curious, they can get online for more information, especially YouTube, which has got the information that you need to live.

Mikaela

That's not an endorsement.

Andrew

But with Crepe myrtles, you want to start at the bottom and you want to remove those base suckers, which they typically do, and low branches that may interfere with the beauty of the bark of these great myrtles. Many of them have some really interesting ornamental bark, too. So you want to kind of prune away using the thinning cut, locating with those small branches. It's kind of tough to see that branch column. You can lightly thin the canopy and you want to look for inward moving branches and cross branches. You want to remove those the dried flower head. If you want to maintain the size of a Crepe myrtle, do it early in its life. Don't try to do it immediately. The crepe murder you're referring to is the heading cut, which basically at whatever heights, they'll just lop it right off. And what you'll get are those really ugly knuckles, which have got just myriads of meristem growth on it. Basically, when you do a heading cut like that, you really sign the tree up for management, lifetime management and management that's often. So it's not just with Crepe myrtles, it's with any tree that you make these heading cuts, improper heading cuts, you're signing one to management and constant management.

Andrew

And in the wintertime when you have this beautiful bark and you see those funky knuckles, it's just not pleasant. So avoid those heading cuts on Crepe myrtles. Follow the directions I just gave you. And there's plenty of visual aids on the Internet when it comes to Crepe myrtle.

Rachel

There's someone that lives down the street from me that has done this to his crepe myrtles. And a little bit further down, there's another person that's done it to their river birch. And I just want to scream every time I go by them. I try not to look. And now it's gotten to the point where I just want to knock on their door and say, can I take pictures of your trees? Because this is what we tell people not to do. And this is a really good example.

Mikaela

Yeah. I also see it done like, under wires, under electrical wires, or this happens to the crepe myrtles that are planted too close to the house. So they're growing up into the eaves. And hindsight is always 2020, but it's always good to notice the growing conditions and making sure you're selecting a plant or a tree that's appropriate size for the space and to space it away from the house.

Rachel

It's the perfect time for right plant, right place.

Andrew

It's true. I noticed that someone had planted a large number of Red Cedars Juniperus Virginiana right under power lines. Right directly under the power lines. And it's like, what were they thinking? I don't understand it. If you have a situation like that, if you buy a house, inherit a house, or you just have a house with these plants, and you know, eventually what you do is you start early, you manage their size. If you don't do it, someone's going to do it for you, and they may not. And of course, when you're working around power lines, you don't actually don't want to work around power lines. That's where you really have to have a professional tree expert come out, do the work. They're certified working around power lines, it's dangerous work and it's something. That you don't want to take on yourself. But even if it's underneath the house or something like that, you can either move the plant when it's young or just manage the plant in a way that you're cutting back early and often to keep these plants, these trees or these large shrubs to manageable size.

Rachel

I think it's also really important to mention that if, for instance, you have a plant that's too close to your house and you know you have to take it out, you need to call your utilities company to make sure there's no underground wires or lines absolutely. That you need to worry about when you take that out.

Andrew

Yeah. 8-1-1 Miss utilities.

Mikaela

And you can actually complete a request online as well. And they'll come out and they do it really quickly, or at least the last time I requested.

Andrew

And it's free. When I do my pruning program for your master gardener, I have some really beautiful pictures of those situations and some examples of why you really want to make sure that you're checking for utility lines before you're doing any digging, especially removing plants or stump grinding.

Rachel

Yeah.

Mikaela

And those pictures wouldn't be from your house, would they, Andrew? We all know these rules because we make the mistakes.

Andrew

We learn from our mistakes.

Mikaela

I don't know if we want to ask more about hydrants. We talked a lot about it.

Rachel

Yeah, we did.

Mikaela

We've talked a lot about heavy pruning.

Rachel

Oh, how do we care for our implements? So let's do that one. So we've talked about how we're pruning. Now, what do we do with our pruning implements to make sure that they're safe for our plants?

Andrew

All right, so I think, first of all, it's important to clean your pruners, your cutting instruments every time you use them. You can easily do that with undiluted rubbing alcohol or ethanol, something undiluted, or just 10% Bleach, and that'll work. And then after that, you just want to keep them sharp. The sharper the tool, the easier they go through the woody tissue. So a sharp tool cuts woody tissue much better. And you actually can save your hands by having sharp tools. So keep your tools sharp and keep them clean.

Mikaela

I believe we talked about I'd have to look it up. Emily, edit this. We talked about Bleach and rubbing alcohol, but I can't remember what episode.

Rachel

Yeah, I think we did, too, because we talk about it when we clean our cleaning up our garden.

Mikaela

Yeah. Can edit this out.

Rachel

Yeah. Because we're going to have to meet with Emily anyway to talk about our other stuff.

Mikaela

All right, well, I think that concludes our formal, formal questions for Andrew. But always talking with you is such a pleasure, and it's so easy. It just kind of flows with conversation. So if you have any other questions about Pruning, you can always email us questions at the umegardenpodcast@gmail.com. And this is if you still have gone through the resources and still have more questions, but we're going to hopefully provide some helpful resources for you to prune the correct species at the correct time.

Rachel

Well, thank you so much for being here, Andrew.

Andrew

Thanks for the invitation. It was great seeing both of you again.

Emily

What buzzing? It's the bug of the month with Emily.

Emily

So this month's bug of the month is winter stoneflies. So this is two families, the small winter stone flies and then what are called willow flies within the order of Plecoptera. We have about over 300 species found worldwide, but only about 24 that have some sort of historical record in Maryland. So stoneflies are typically found in freshwater rivers, but these ones are a little unique in that while most insects tend to migrate or hide out or hibernate during our cold, frosty season, winter stoneflies are super happy and are in their height glory. This is because of special proteins and sugars that are in their bodies that act like antifreeze and prevent them from freezing to death and actually allow them to be up and moving around. So the adults are going to be dark brown, and they can range in size from about a fifth of an inch for those small winter stone flies to three quarters of an inch for the willow flies. One of the defining characteristics about these is that they do have too long cerci coming off of their abdomen. They can be winged or wingless, but you oftentimes find them near water, specifically cool, fresh, clean water.

Mikaela

Hey, Emily, would you explain to me and maybe some other listeners what are cerci?

Emily

So cerci are these decorative appendages hanging off of their abdomen.

Rachel

Is it kind of like a silverfish? Like the back of a silverfish?

Emily

Yeah, think of it just like a silverfish. So they just have these two long appendages hanging off of their abdomen, and they have these both as nymphs and as adults.

Mikaela

I wonder if it helps with, like, surface tension on water.

Emily

Does it keep them well, so the nymphs live underwater and the adults crawl out of the water and don't go back into it.

Mikaela

It sounded smart in my head.

Emily

No, I think from a nymphal predation standpoint, the same thing with silverfish is that if you're going to come, go and eat me, and you're going to grab at the very end of me, you're either going to get hit with these two things that are going to keep you from grabbing the fleshy bits, or you're going to grab on and chomp off a section of these and the rest of my actual body is going to be able to get away. So I imagine they're probably more of an anti predatorial defense mechanism from an evolutionary standpoint. But still. Some of the adults are known to feed on vegetation or algae or lichens, but others are so short lived that they actually just come out of the water, mate lay eggs, and then they die. There are several types of stoneflies that will come out all throughout the year, but these ones, specifically the winter stoneflies, like to come out when it's cold. So, January through April here in Maryland, the nymphs are aquatic, and you find them in cold, fresh water, preferably clean. These are actually an indicator species, which we'll talk about what that means in a sec.

Emily

The nymphs are going to be brown and kind of elongated with slender bodies. A neat thing about them is, because they are aquatic, is that they have these kind of primitive gills that you're going to find all along their kind of back of head, throughout their thorax and their abdomen, depending on the species. They can be grazers that feed on sub aquatic vegetation or decaying organic matter, things like leafs that fall in the stream, as well as there are some that have been known to be mildly predations. When the nymphs get done completing their development, which normally takes about a year or so, they'll move to the edge of the stream and latch onto a stone or plants and slowly climb out. Once they've sort of gotten out of the water, they will molt for the last time into their adult form. Generally speaking, winter stoneflies are relatively weak flyers, so they tend to prefer to walk, and you tend to see them walking along the stream edge. Some species of stone flies are better flyers. So oftentimes, particularly if you live near a freshwater stream or a clean river, you may find these around lights at nighttime, people will oftentimes find these as well, like near or under bridges and along fence posts along the edge of rivers.

Emily

So after they emerge, male stoneflies will kind of walk along rocks and or small branches, and they'll drum the substrate with their abdomen. So they'll just thunk their abdomen on the substrate that they're walking on to a certain beat or rhythm. And this is to help them attract a lady stonefly. So if a female hears this, and she's of the same species, and she's impressed by his cool rhythm and sound, she'll drum a response back. This will continue a few times while they get a sense for each other, and if they like what they hear, they'll mate. Right after mating, the female stonefly will swoop down to the surface of the water and deposit her eggs right into the river. Those eggs will sink down to the bottom. In a few days, they'll hatch out, and the baby or the nymphal stoneflies will live down at the bottom of that river. The stoneflies play a key role in our ecosystem, so they are an important indicator of water quality. They do not like water that has lots of heavy sediment, low in oxygen, or is polluted. So you tend to only find them in clean, pristine rivers and streams.

Emily

And again, they tend to like the colder ones because they have higher oxygen content. If you're finding these emerging from a local stream and or river, it's a good sign that there's a healthy environment there. Another thing that these guys do is they serve as a great food source for our freshwater fish. So things like trout, steelheads, and so forth, they tend to feed on both the adult and the nymphal stages of stoneflies. And they're so popular among fish that many fishermen have lures that will mimic the way a stonefly looks. So again, back to those cerci or those filaments coming off the abdomen. A lot of fishermen will have fancy knots that they tie that will have the bushiness to look like the gills, and they'll have these two long things to do that it's actually funny when you look for more information about these, you tend to get more information out of fishing articles than anything else. So if you are out and about in the snow and want to go for a hike, you might be lucky enough to see one of these guys.

Mikaela

It's funny because when I looked up a picture of the winter stonefly, you're exactly right. Some of the first things that come up are, like, the fishing lures, not the actual insect.

Emily

Yeah. Which it's funny because we look at it and you can look at the lure and be like, that doesn't look anything like this insect. But if you're a fish and you're seeing it, like up on the surface or something below, maybe it looks a lot. But I always find it really interesting how fishermen kind of mimic a lot of the aquatic nymphs from a lot of these things because it makes sense. Like, that's what the fish eat.

Mikaela

Yeah, that's cool. Emily, thanks for sharing.

Rachel

Especially for the winter. We don't really think about active insects in the winter especially.

Emily

And you may live in a place where you have stoneflies that aren't the winter ones. You might say something like, oh, we have stoneflies, but they come out in April or they come out in May. And there's some species that come out in late summer. So it's just these particular ones have somehow modified themselves to decide that winter is when they want to come out, probably to avoid predation from things like birds and other things or even fish migrations. So they're just kind of a weird, unique one. It's a special little bug.

Mikaela

That makes sense.

Rachel

Now I want to go hiking along a riverbed and see if I could find some.

Emily

I couldn't find any of these species that have been historically known in Maryland on the Eastern Shore. Most of these you're going to find over in the Western areas.

Mikaela

Maybe they favor, like, spring fed freshwater, because we really don't have a lot of that here.

Emily

I think our stuff is while it's not salt water at the head, I think it's always going to be slightly more brackish or something like that around here.

Rachel

Get your tip of the month here with Rachel.

Rachel

I think it's really important to mention for February, we have a lot of snow and ice, and the Maryland Fertilizer Law prohibits anyone from using fertilizer products to melt snow or ice on steps, sidewalks or driveways. And avoid foot traffic on frozen turf as it can injure the crowns. And so what are acceptable things for removing snow and ice? Go to your big box store or your local hardware store and get things specifically for melting snow and ice. Make sure that you're keeping your garden beds covered with shredded leaves, straw or mulch to help minimize the risk of soil erosion and nutrient runoff. And that happens a lot in the winter. If you have exposed soil, it's time to order your summer bulbs and your vegetable and flower seeds. You can buy local seed or you can order from mail seed companies, but you want to make sure that you select cultivars with resistance to diseases so that you don't have any problems in your garden. And you can also check with your local master gardener programs. Some of them may be having seed swaps coming up in the upcoming months, or they may have a seed bank that you can get seeds from as well.

Rachel

If you are starting seeds indoors, set up fluorescent grow lights and gather your needed materials such as pots, soilless mix trays, and your germination mats early this month. Start seeds of early crops such as leeks, onions, shallots and artichokes indoors, and you want to make sure that you're using your fluorescent lights for those. In addition, you can start your peppers because they are really slow growing and they take a while to germinate. Later in the month, you want to start your beets and turnips, Chinese cabbage, kale and other early crops inside as well. These can be set out in the garden in about three to five weeks after you've started them. You can also direct seeds crops in the garden as soon as the soil can be worked. So I usually like to start my early crop of radishes and lettuce, kale, collards as soon as the ground can be worked up. There's nothing better than like, fresh spring radishes to me. Love them. If you have time and you have a good space, build a cold frame later in the month. You can also add compost to your soil. After the soil can be worked, it's usually, what, March 15?

Rachel

Is it March 15 when we can start adding stuff back into our soil? If you haven't started your compost pile, go ahead and get it constructed so you're ready to start in the spring. That's all the tips I have. Buy some bulbs.

Mikaela

It's the native plant of the month with Mikaela.

Mikaela

So my pick this month actually real quick. I think Andrew was really surprised when I said I did a Native Plant of the Month every month. He's like, he's kind of incredulous, like, don't you run out of things for January and February? I was like, no, we have so much more in the landscape than just like a bloom or fall color or something.

Emily

Silly Andrew.

Mikaela

Yeah Andrew no kidding. So American holly is actually my pick for this month, so that's Ilex opaca. So many Ilex species are shrubs, but the American holly is an interesting specimen of a tree, so it tends to be more in the tree category. It's a very classic looking evergreen. It makes you think of winter and the holiday season. Of course. It's got those pointy, thick evergreen leaves and the branches are adorned in clusters of bright red berries. And it tends to have more of a pyramidal shape in maturity, so once it gets a little bit older. So, American holly is very slow growing. It reaches about 25 to 60ft tall in maturity, but it takes a very long time to get there. And it has a wide range of growing conditions, although it prefers slightly acidic soils, which is probably why we see it so much here on the Eastern Shore. And it can also be found growing in moist to wet woodlands. So it's an essential understory tree, provides year round cover and food for birds. So this is a perfect time of year to spot them in the woods, because likely, other than loblollies, it's one of the few things that stays green.

Mikaela

It can grow in full sun to full shade. But I will say that in an understory environment, it has a much more sparse canopy. So the more dense shade that you have, the fewer leaves, the less full it's going to look. And I actually think the bark of this tree is also very attractive. It reminds me of American beech. It has very smooth, kind of gray bark, so it doesn't have a lot of ridges or anything. It's very smooth and very light colored. So there's a lot of ornamental hollies in landscape. But the native holly has a lighter color leaf and the surface of the leaf is dull instead of the very shiny, non native species. And the specific epithet opaca actually means opaque or dull. That's Latin for that term. So the important thing to remember about the Ilex group is that they are dioecious. And that's going to throw you back to Botany 101. That means that the male and the female flowers grow on separate plants. So in order to get the red berries that we all know and love, which grow on female plants, you have to have a male plant as well to pollinate those female plants.

Mikaela

So it's beneficial to have at least one male for several females if you're going to be doing this in the landscape in order to get those beneficial berries. Now, this tree can get plagued by insects such as scale, leaf miner, spider mites. Emily I don't know if I'm missing any others, but it can have a series of problems.

Emily

That sounds like the main ones.

Mikaela

Yeah, the ones we see the most.

Mikaela

And they can also get a fungal leaf spot in locations that are too crowded or lack air circulation. The leaves will start to yellow when growing in soils that have a higher PH, so an alkaline soil. But I will say it is also natural for these leaves to shed just like deciduous trees. It just doesn't happen at such a rapid pace. So we will get calls and we will get people saying that the leaves on their American holly are turning yellow and falling off. Well, sometimes that does happen, just like a lot of our pine trees as well. There is a time of year where they start to cast those leaves, so don't panic too much if you start to see some drop. So this is pretty tolerant of clay soils and is left alone by most browsing mammals due to the prickly and unpalatable leaves. So if you have deer problems, this is probably a good plant to have and a fun bit of trivia. So on Wye Island natural Resource Management Area so it's located in Wye Mills, Maryland, there is a holly tree specimen that is over 275 years old. In fact, I think that number is close to 280.

Mikaela

Now that seems like an old figure to me. So this really speaks about the longevity and the resilience of this particular species. And even though it's kind of a specimen in rough shape, it is still.

Mikaela

Growing, it's still standing. It's really, really impressive.

Mikaela

So if you ever find yourself over by Wye Island, it's definitely worth the trip. It's not too far to walk off the main drive path. So that's my native plant of month.

Emily

Awesome. That's a pretty good pick.

Mikaela

Well, that's all we have for this episode, listener. We hope you enjoyed it and will tune in next month for more garden tips. If you have any garden related questions, please email us at umegardenpodcast@gmail.com or look us up on Facebook at gardenthymepodcast. That's garden T-H-Y-M-E for more information about the University of Maryland Extension and these topics, please check out the University of Maryland Extension Home and Garden Information. Center website at go.Umd.edu/HGIC. Thanks for listening and have fun getting down and dirty in your garden. Goodbye.

Mikaela

The Garden Time Podcast is brought to you by the University of Maryland extension. Mikaela Boley, senior Agent Associate in Talbot County for Horticulture, Rachel Rhodes, Agent Associate for Horticulture in Queen Annes County. And Emily Zobel, senior Agent Associate for Agriculture in Dorchester County.

Emily 

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