Turf Talk Ep. 4 | SCAG Mowers & Fall Services: transcript
This automated transcript accompanies the original Turf Talk recording. Names, figures, and speaker identification may contain errors; check important details against the audio. Timestamps refer to the episode, not advertisements.
0:00Speaker A From the fields that feed America to the landscapes that keep it all growing, welcome to Turf Talk.
0:05Speaker B I'm Jennifer the Turfette Jones.
0:06Speaker A And I'm Eric the Turf Teacher Jones.
0:08Speaker A Together, we
0:09Speaker B we are are the Green
0:10Speaker A the industry green industry couple. couple.
0:11Speaker B Bringing you real conversations, practical education, and first-hand experience.
0:16Speaker A And from the farm and the job site to the classroom and the biggest trade shows in the country.
0:20Speaker B So settle in
0:22Speaker B let's talk turf.
0:23Speaker A Welcome to Turf Talk. Let's get today's conversation. Get started! Hey everyone, welcome to Turf Talk here. I'm Eric Jones, better known as the Turf Teacher. I'm with the lovely bride of mine, Jennifer Jones, the Turfette. This is episode four. And sweetie, what's going on? What are we going to talk about on today's episode?
0:40Speaker B Well, we've got some exciting things to talk about today. The first thing on the agenda we're going to talk about is what you and I are going to be doing this weekend.
0:48Speaker A That's right. We're going to be headed to Rockingham, North Carolina, halfway to the beach. That was always halfway stopping. stopping point on our way to Myrtle Beach growing up we are going for the big NHRA drag racing and we're going to be hanging out with who
1:04Speaker A Skag outdoor power equipment I can't wait to see those guys there so we've got what top fuel and funny car races that we're going to get to see we're going to be in the Skag tent hanging out with our dealer we're going to be there with James Bottoms who was with uh formerly with riddle tractor and now is with skag so uh we get to hang out with with those guys and be in their hospitality tent and we're going to go down late friday uh friday evening uh it's not too far it's about two hours here from from the studio and we'll be down there and get up pretty early and hang out with those guys so um you know we better wear some some good good some good ear protection because those things are going to be loud
1:50Speaker B I know, and I have to sing at church Sunday on the worship team, and I need to make sure I can hear.
1:57Speaker A exactly and then all that smoke that's going to come from those tires burning is going to be cool so uh we're we're going to be smelling what's
2:05Speaker B I have to make an admittance, okay?
2:08Speaker B The only drag race I've ever been to has been none.
2:12Speaker A Yeah, I've never
2:13Speaker B been to a drag race. I've been to Bowman Gray here in Winston,
2:18Speaker B but I've never been to a NASCAR race and I've never been to a drag race. So I've
2:23Speaker A never been drag racing. I've been to multiple NASCAR races and some IndyCar races, but never.
2:29Speaker B watched them on TV, but I've never actually, I mean, growing up in Moxville, I was only hour 15 minutes from. from NASCAR
2:37Speaker A Motor Speedway.
2:38Speaker B so I didn't, I didn't, I didn't ever go.
2:40Speaker A Yeah, there was a few years in there where Dad and myself and Brent, we got really, really involved with it. We loved the Daryl Waltrip days,
2:51Speaker B I remember those days.
2:52Speaker A Dale Earnhardt, Jeff. Jordan,
2:55Speaker A you know, that to me was a great time in NASCAR history. So I have kind of stepped away from it. We're just too busy to even keep up with any sports. I mean, we used to have season tickets for Wake Forest football and basketball, and we haven't done that in two years.
3:10Speaker B Well, yeah, we did. We we had them last year, but We we just didn't
3:14Speaker B yeah, we didn't go. We didn't go this year. Well, we had back up. We didn't have football season tickets last year. We decided it was. but it was kind of a waste of money
3:22Speaker A Yeah, because the previous year we only went, what,
3:24Speaker A to two games?
3:25Speaker B and um not not to be negative but Wake Forest has really struggled in their sports um ability to win a game and that's frustrating but also we did do season tickets for basketball but there again we didn't go very much
3:39Speaker A We went to maybe four games.
3:41Speaker B yeah maybe four we're just too busy so but
3:44Speaker A It was not worth
3:45Speaker A the investment.
3:46Speaker B right it was better for us to just to just buy tickets per game
3:49Speaker A That we want to go see,
3:52Speaker A But I would love to get to Raleigh and see some NC State basketball.
3:55Speaker B yeah of course yeah
3:56Speaker A Maybe we can do that this year.
3:58Speaker B but i look forward to being at the drag race on saturday
4:02Speaker B was told that this is the first year that rockingham has opened their drag strip back up for the first time in like 30 years and
4:10Speaker B it's really? called yeah it's called at the rock and
4:12Speaker B and this will be their first drag race in 30 years probably well in that time frame it's been 30 years so um no
4:20Speaker A wow see i didn't even know that so that's like since nhra has been there or was it still open to part-timers or
4:26Speaker B no I don't think it's been open somebody came in and revived it and opened it back up and so um this drag race is the first one there
4:34Speaker A okay well that's that's going to be pretty cool to see and special because like you said that a lot of these older tracks have been being revamped and opened up by investors and so just like north wilkesboro
4:47Speaker B that was a big deal.
4:48Speaker A and i've been to that nascar
4:50Speaker B had the championship race there just recently
4:53Speaker A -star NASCAR, yeah
4:54Speaker A and that used to be at charlotte motor speedway
4:58Speaker B It's cool, though, that they're reviving the old, the memorabilia type places like North Wilkesboro for racing. A lot of people, I had a friend of mine, I know her father-in-law looked into purchasing it and it ended up being more than he was willing to take on and whoever bought it, I'm glad they did.
5:16Speaker A Yeah, yeah,
5:17Speaker B I think the right people got in because they've been able to bring racing back to the track. So I think that's awesome.
5:22Speaker A yeah, and you see the big bridge that goes across 421, you know, I guess where they have additional parking and all the signage and lighting that when you drive by in the evening. Evenings. It's just awesome.
5:32Speaker B There's just something to be said of generational memories keeping them alive by keeping the venues alive. We've seen restauranteurs come up recently with Pizza Hut.
5:49Speaker B They're reviving the old 80s Pizza Hut vintage
5:53Speaker A yeah. Yeah.
5:53Speaker B And this guys went in is buying back Pizza Huts to revive them back to the 80s. And our generation, you and mine, our generation, we feel like it that that time frame is just kind of went away like the vapor in
6:10Speaker B the wind. It's just but to see it come back gives you a new sense of excitement.
6:15Speaker B But what's even more cool is our kids thinks it's cool to
6:18Speaker B see things that we loved and had in the 80s. I think Stranger Things on Netflix is what revived the 80s feel back because it was based on the 80s. And so the attire in the TV show where they went shopping at the mall was set up like the 80s. So like the old shopping mall stores that were there. all that just kind of brought back that nostalgia and it's good to see people wanting to reopen and
6:47Speaker B revive that
6:48Speaker D I saw a video on Facebook. It says a Friday night in the 80s, and it started out with you going to Pizza Hut with
6:56Speaker D your parents and then going to Blockbuster and getting the Christmas movies, and they were coming back, and they had a bowl of popcorn and everything sitting on the couch as a family.
7:05Speaker B I know I know somebody I saw this on Facebook a while back It's probably been several months, if not been a year. Somebody talked about how we have removed color from life and how monotone everything has become. And the science that falls behind that, that color makes people happy. Color brings a certain vibrant feel with it and a vibrant spirit and happiness and joy with color. But look at everything today. They're removing color and everything's going monotone. And there's a whole science behind how color affects behavior. And look at our society.
7:51Speaker D Yeah, yeah,
7:52Speaker D that's blue.
7:52Speaker B cars. I remember when I was a kid, there were cars that were red, yellow, orange, green. I'm talking, I remember the Ford Pinto, they had like a green Ford Pinto. I'm talking like grass green. Color cars. If you pull pictures of just scenery from back in the 80s and 90s of just vehicles and then pull it up from today, you can see a stark difference between.
8:17Speaker B between the two and then you look at behavior in society today look at our homes you don't see color in our homes
8:24Speaker D No. It's more slate gray and whites.
8:26Speaker B very monotone so all that to say I think bringing back some of that 80s 90s nostalgia back into our generation it's revived our kids our kids are like hey this is pretty cool you know it's not gray black and brown it's not the monot monotone
8:45Speaker A colors they're seeing vibrancy so to see something like the NHRA come to Rockingham and revive the drag and strip there and then see North Wilkesboro races come back to the North Wilkesboro racetrack is so cool and you and I get to be a part of that with Skag this weekend so
9:02Speaker B that's right. That's right.
9:04Speaker A going to be a thrill to be a part of
9:06Speaker B I hope they're like in the infield or whatever they call it. I know it's the infield. that nascar races but that they have some v rods and turf uh turf tigers and stuff like that that
9:16Speaker B we can uh that we can practice on and have some fun but if not you'll get to do it at expo
9:21Speaker A We got to think about how we're going to dress because the weather has changed significantly.
9:26Speaker B it's going to be a hoodie and jeans
9:30Speaker A weather is so funny because the weather yesterday was like 90 degrees. It was like 91 degrees on the car yesterday.
9:37Speaker A And then today it's gotten only what
9:39Speaker A to 64. 60. Yeah, 64.
9:41Speaker B So that rain cooled
9:43Speaker A sure did. I mean, right now it's 57 degrees outside
9:46Speaker A a little bit of a breeze. But this weekend, I'm pretty certain that you may want to take a jacket or a hoodie. It might get a little chilly. Now, maybe not. Not so much during the day if you're standing Yeah, out in the sun,
9:57Speaker A but I think it's going to get a little chilly. Right now we're dealing with wet weather, which, you know,
10:04Speaker A for agriculture,
10:04Speaker B could be raining this weekend.
10:06Speaker A it could be. I'm pulling up the weather right now and I will tell you exactly what's going to happen this weekend. It is going to be sunshine on Thursday and Friday. Actually, not Thursday. Friday and Saturday, the 25th and 26th and 27th is when the drag race is open.
10:24Speaker A It's going to be 76 on Friday, 82 on Saturday and 82 on Sunday with the lows in the 50s.
10:30Speaker B Yeah. T-shirt.
10:32Speaker B be fine with a T-shirt.
10:33Speaker A going to be nice. It's going to be nice.
10:34Speaker B So good drag racing weather. And so I'm ready to see some orange. I'm ready to see some Skag orange. But anyway, guys, I want to jump into what. But what we need to be doing for fall services and using those Skag mowers, because a lot of people, I've heard it so many times, we go to Quip Expo and we hear a lot of the single owner operators, they've already shut down for the year. They've already winterized their mowers, they've already parked them in their garage and they're like, we don't fool with leaf removal. And I guess that depends on where you're at in the country, but here in North Carolina, look how many trees. it's just full of and we were in colorado last weekend and we could see forever but
11:16Speaker B you know i was talking about sweet i was like we go to see your mom and dad and we're driving down i-40 It's forest on either side, and we can't see miles and miles like we could in
11:29Speaker A it's hills and forest.
11:30Speaker B Yeah, and so we have that leave. We are known for the leaves. People always come to North Carolina to go through our mountains.
11:39Speaker A to see the change in the leaf colors. But it's always shocked me that a lot of these guys across the country, they have already started shutting down and they're not doing so many winter services. But here in North Carolina, we work 12 months in the year as a landscape contractor. So September, I still see plugging and seeding going on. Every day riding up and down the road, we see. We see the aerovators, we see the core aerators, we see the ride-on fertilizer spreaders, and Skag has a super cool ride-on sprayer spreader, and maybe we'll get to see that too because nothing excites me more than the spray equipment, does it?
12:20Speaker B When it comes to spraying things, you're pretty excited about
12:24Speaker A got so excited at Walker last weekend seeing how they had... The Walker set up with either a fertilizer spreader or a front mount boom sprayer. So it's cool seeing that. But guys, you know, fall is the time to plant. It's the time for plugging and seeding. You got leaf removal right around the corner. It's also time to start prepping for snow removal services, you know, marking your properties, going around flagging the curbs, doing dry runs for that. that because we never know here in the south north carolina particular we can see all four seasons in one day and so you wake up it's cool it gets hot then it turns off to fall but then there may be a snowstorm at night so we want to make sure that that's happening but another fall service that we have always offered but we're not doing it this year is what
13:21Speaker A Putting those
13:23Speaker A those Christmas lights in trees, we finally got out of that business just due to everything that we're doing. It was hard to make it happen, and we've sold that to an individual that still wants me to help, you know, and we probably will help him kind of get it off and running. My biggest problem with our Christmas lights is the week of Thanksgiving. We worked ourselves to death and we could not enjoy Thanksgiving.
13:54Speaker A I'm not doing it. For the first time in my life, I get to take the Wednesday off before Thursday and Thanksgiving and the day after. We're not pushed, pushed, pushed for Christmas lights.
14:05Speaker B Yeah. And I'm not, I'm not really sure how that's going to look or feel. Oh, because I'm not used to that with you. Usually for the holidays, we're humping it out there getting
14:15Speaker B house, you know, roof lines done, trees hung, you know, getting the lights wrapped on the branches. I mean, it's a lot to it. People think, oh, you're in the Christmas light business. Oh, that's such an easy business. No, not if you come out and followed us for a day. You would see just how technical it can really get real.
14:33Speaker B Yes, and if you're not organized,
14:37Speaker A You're going to have a mess.
14:39Speaker B And, you know, I think we had perfected our system with, you know, with the lift and, you know, we had a toolbox truck set up with everything on it. But it's just so much work in a short amount of time.
14:54Speaker B And customers, they don't want you putting their lights up, you know, the week of Thanksgiving. given uh or they wanted to up the week of thanksgiving so that they can turn it on thanksgiving night and then friday you know hey you're putting up your daytime decor you're doing all of that your bows and your wreaths and it just you you you work yourself to death and your guys get burnout because i don't know how many times we've tried getting people to put the lights up in october even late september they don't want to do it like but who's going to see that you got a roof light on and I mean you know until you turn it on
15:30Speaker C Yeah, yeah,
15:31Speaker B so but this whole new permanent lighting thing a lot of people are getting into so because they can change the colors they they do the one-time install and then on their phones they can do the purple and orange for Halloween and then do red and green for for Christmas and and all throughout the year for the different holidays
15:51Speaker D Well, it has so many benefits, permanent lighting, you know, not just holidays. You can put it up for birthdays, you know, change the lights for the birthdays, change the lights for, you know, if you're a big sports fan
16:03Speaker B team colors,
16:04Speaker D But just beyond that, it creates security around
16:08Speaker D your house. It lights up everything around your house. And so I know a lot of people, that is one of the biggest benefits why they did permanent lighting. just for the security purposes.
16:18Speaker B Yes. you know you don't want because even now you know we left for church tonight and it was already dark you
16:25Speaker B know we didn't go to the full service we went you know for for for choir practice and stuff but uh it was dark leaving the house and i didn't like that i was like where where did the sunlight go and plus it was a cloudy rainy day so we did lose a little bit of light that way but you know it's been a while since we've driven to church in the dark
16:43Speaker D I am of a different opinion than you when it comes to Luke. losing the light in the evening and for me it's just because it's a childhood memory type thing for me when it started getting dark earlier that meant Christmas was coming
16:59Speaker D now now you know you can't enjoy Christmas lights if it's if it's bright
17:04Speaker D outside at 8
17:04Speaker B 9 o'clock.
17:05Speaker D o'clock at night so for us you know for our business it was good that the sun went down at five o'clock
17:11Speaker B True, true. And yeah, from that standpoint, I agree. I agree with you wholeheartedly, but it was just, you know, today I really realized, hey, it is the fall.
17:19Speaker B It is dark now.
17:21Speaker D It's amazing how quick the weather changed 90 degrees yesterday and then by about eight o'clock.
17:28Speaker A last night the wind like the front started coming through and it got windy and the temperature started dropping i mean we literally dropped nearly 30 degrees since yesterday i
17:37Speaker B And so we're going to see that tall feskey start kicking butt.
17:42Speaker A know people are gonna we're gonna have to mow a couple more times before everything shuts down mowing wise but that's the one thing i love about fall there are services that can still be done And through the fall and
17:55Speaker B Yeah, it is.
17:56Speaker A and forward.
17:56Speaker B It is. And, you know, we are in that transition zone here in North Carolina, which means some of our clients had warm season grasses, cool season grasses, but, you know, the majority were cool season grasses, which we have, you know, the tall fescues. We did see a lot of bluegrass in Colorado last weekend, but we did see some tall fescue there. But plugging and seeding, this is the season for tall fescue. So you guys are going to be aerating. You're going to be putting out your grass seed. You're going to be putting out a starter fertilize. Something like 1824-12 is going to be your ratio, your NPK for your seeding and fertilization. But I want to stress that even though you've put out fertilizer now mid-September through first of October time frame with your plug-in and seeding, you want to go back and hit your turf grass again in early December,
18:57Speaker B late November with a 24-5-11 ratio or somewhere close to that. A lot of your vendors will have that. that late fall early winter fertilization and i promise you you fertilize that time of year you're going to see a faster green up come spring because even though it's september and you know october is next week we still need to start thinking about our turf grass in the spring you will see neighbors that don't do that late fall fertilization, and then the neighbor does do that, you will see a quickening green up with that fertility app if you do do it. And it is the most profitable app.
19:43Speaker B And if you take my turfgrass calculations course, you will actually see that.
19:48Speaker A I have a question for you. How late in the fall season can you fertilize?
19:54Speaker B would fertilize up to mid-December. um here you know especially in in our in our zone uh and it's going to be different throughout the year i mean throughout the country i mean so it just depends like you know in florida where everything is warm season grasses they've got their own schedule but here you know north carolina going straight across the country uh into the midwest and stuff and wherever you have cool season grasses you could fertilize up into to mid-december in my in my personal
20:23Speaker A belief and with the 40-some years that I've had in the industry.
20:28Speaker B What's your favorite product when it comes to fertilization? What do you tend to go after?
20:38Speaker A You know, I like a six-step program, and right now that 182412 or similar ratio, you know, we use the Lesco products, you know, from SiteOne for years. Anderson's got a great product as well, but like I said just a few moments ago, the 24511 or that late winter fertilization. is going going to help you out in the spring so so much so i know it's fall we're talking about fall services but we're also preparing that turf grass to be um ready to to to kick off in in the springtime because even though it is you know we're in the cool season region uh our grasses will will mow probably one time right before christmas everybody wants that general cleanup
21:30Speaker A up uh you know so we'll mow thanksgiving maybe once or twice in december but definitely um right before christmas when when family starts coming over and that'll be the last time up in until spring but but then you know january you start doing your soil test and you start doing lime applications and then you move into your pre-emergence that happen in february and early april so just depending on how many yards you got so Some chemical companies have up to 5,000 yards here in the area. Your smaller guys may be taking care of 50 to 100 yards. So it just depends on that timing and which product that they do use in the spring.
22:09Speaker B That's good today.
22:09Speaker A I do. And I love, I can talk, I
22:12Speaker B I know you can.
22:13Speaker B very sexy to me,
22:17Speaker A Is it, is that that, is that why he is winking at me?
22:20Speaker B Yeah, it's pretty sexy when you start throwing out calibration numbers and your fertilization numbers and MPK and it's
22:29Speaker A You know that soul. You are a soul scientist.
22:32Speaker B well, I'm learning. learning.
22:34Speaker B I'm not going
22:34Speaker B to say I'm an expert, but I'm definitely learning. Right now, my most favorite class that I have right now is learning plant propagation.
22:43Speaker B I took, okay, so we're going to sideline for a second if you're okay with that,
22:47Speaker B because you're talking about fertilization.
22:49Speaker B So we're talking about what I worked with today in regards to fertilization. I have never taken a fruit off of a tree. and planted the seeds until today it
23:01Speaker A What and what plant was it?
23:02Speaker B was the cornice coosa dogwood
23:04Speaker A Oh, okay the
23:05Speaker B it was the coosa dogwood and if anybody knows their trees you know that the coosa dogwood produces little fruit and it almost looks like
23:18Speaker A The little sticky balls that hang off of oak trees,
23:20Speaker A but it's not.
23:21Speaker B Like a sycamore that
23:22Speaker A like a sycamore tree, but they're little orangey red. They're almost kind of salmon color when they're ripening.
23:29Speaker B Are they edible?
23:29Speaker A They are edible,
23:31Speaker A which I don't think I want to eat them.
23:32Speaker B Well, I've eaten them before.
23:34Speaker A They're kind of bitter. If you don't get them ripe enough, they're a little bitter. It kind of reminds me of persimmons. If you don't get a persimmon ripe. it's pretty you want to talk about the bitter tartness
23:47Speaker A in your mouth oh boy I
23:49Speaker B And when they are ripe, though, to me it tastes like a mushy peach.
23:54Speaker A it's I had
23:55Speaker B like eating
23:55Speaker B toothpaste.
23:55Speaker A I had the mush today and it didn't look very inviting okay so I'm I probably am not going to try to eat it but It's depending on the fruit it hangs it's got a little stick
24:08Speaker A and it hangs it so the stick is probably about three to four inches long and then the fruit is very circular and it's got little points on it
24:15Speaker A and it's it's just a it's a fleshy fruit so you take it and you mash it and when you open it up and start mashing through it there's seeds in there and they're they're about the size of a corn kernel maybe a little bit smaller it
24:29Speaker B How many seeds were in it?
24:30Speaker A It depends.
24:31Speaker A It depends. Each one had different amount. Like I had one had like seven or eight seeds in it. Then I had one that had no seeds in it.
24:38Speaker A So it was kind of cool to see that. But I propagated seeds straight from a cornice kusa dogwood tree today and put it in my planter. And I'm learning about there's different soil mixes per the type of planter you're going to be using based on moisture level. vegetable
24:56Speaker A so i'm learning a lot in plant propagation you know a lot of this stuff you just you just kind of do because you saw your grandmother do it but i'm technically am learning all the technicalities of why we do what we do but it was really cool so we took the cornice coosa dogwood tree and got the fruit from that and propagated the seeds out of that then there was a the the black berry um lily it
25:22Speaker A the the blackberry lily you can't eat it because the the pulp around the berry around the seed itself is not very thick at all it's
25:29Speaker B yeah beautiful
25:30Speaker A just basically just wipe plant yeah
25:31Speaker B though yeah
25:32Speaker A it is very pretty the the flower that comes up around what looks like blackberries it's almost looks like fairy wings it looks like a fairy wing it's so pretty it's kind of clear opaque we
25:43Speaker B so y'all propagated them too okay
25:44Speaker A propagated those today too so
25:46Speaker B did you have to use any type of um sandpaper or anything to scratch them Last up yeah
25:51Speaker A week we had the moon, what's it called? Moon flower. It only blooms at night.
25:59Speaker B yes yep draws
26:01Speaker A And it draws your number one pest.
26:07Speaker B the spiders
26:07Speaker A No, no, no, no, no. Draws your pest killer, the one that gets rid of your mosquitoes. The bats.
26:15Speaker B Yes, a moon flower attracts
26:17Speaker A bats. Okay.
26:18Speaker B So if you have moon flowers, don't put it anywhere where you sit out outside at night,
26:23Speaker B especially
26:23Speaker A going to be bats.
26:24Speaker B Yeah, because you're going to have bats flying over you. It attracts bats.
26:27Speaker A But I'm wondering how close you could plant them around a seating area if you wanted to make sure you didn't have any mosquitoes.
26:32Speaker B Well, yes, that's the purpose of planting them is to keep the mosquitoes away. So just be aware at night you may see some bats flying around. around your porch area if you have mosquitoes yeah
26:42Speaker A I might see Batman coming.
26:44Speaker B so it's pretty cool so we we took we had four different cups that we put four seeds in the moonflower seeds and they're they're a little bit bigger than a corn kernel um one we nicked you nick it because that's that's scarification you got to scar it to get it to kind of push it into germination so we did the nick we did sandpaper um what was the other one next sandpaper one we didn't do anything and gosh I can't remember what the fourth one was Oh, that's going to drive me crazy. I take pictures of everything. Let me pull my picture up because I've got pictures of it on
27:22Speaker A to go back to that cornice kusa the kusa dogwood you know because we're talking about fall services and stuff so you guys are mowing you know you're mowing around a property that has a kusa dogwood that fruit's going to drop on the sidewalks it's going to get in your mower tires it's going to get underneath your deck and it's it's going to be kind of nasty but um you know grandparents you know that was something that you know my grandma would make you know kusa jam like
27:47Speaker B I've never heard of that until Lisa was telling us today that it's edible. And I was like, oh, really?
27:53Speaker B I don't know. It doesn't look appetizing to me.
27:55Speaker A well and they would take that fruit they would make like a like a like a almost kind of like an apple butter you know
28:01Speaker A that you would put
28:02Speaker A stuff like that
28:04Speaker B it's the same with persimmons, you know, and persimmons. And persimmons, they ripen in the fall. That is a fall tree, a
28:11Speaker B fall fruit that ripens in the fall. And I love persimmons. We have a few at my mom and dad's house. And we had many persimmon trees on the dairy farm.
28:19Speaker B And my mother and grandmother have always made persimmon pudding. And that is definitely a must have at my mom and dad's house for Thanksgiving and Christmas because that's our
28:29Speaker B holidays are. But the persimmon fruit itself, once it starts falling off the tree, it's ripe. It's time to eat it. It's time to make things with it. But if it's still hanging on the tree, it's not quite ready and it's pretty bitter. But I kind of viewed the cornicecusa fruit kind of the same way. And I
28:48Speaker B was like, I don't know if I want to eat that or not.
28:50Speaker A i've ate it right off the tree it's uh it it just has that it's like toothpaste like you you take a bite into it and then Then you might
28:59Speaker A hit the texture seed.
29:00Speaker B of it was kind of like Play-Doh. When you start massaging
29:07Speaker @ it, it's like Play-Doh.
29:08Speaker B you mash it together.
29:08Speaker A you mashed the fruit it
29:10Speaker A had the look and texture of play-doh it was kind of neat looking it had moisture in it you could see the moisture in it but once the moisture came out it almost looked a little bit like play-doh yeah it was it was interesting but I found the picture it was the scarification process we used for the moon flower was Nick sandpaper soak in water only and then one seed got nothing it just sat
29:35Speaker A in the cup guess yeah
29:35Speaker C you did like an experiment.
29:37Speaker C to see which one comes up.
29:38Speaker A which one germinates yeah and how they germinate based on how they the
29:43Speaker A scarred yeah yeah
29:45Speaker C I love it. Horticulture is your best. The bougie botanist.
29:49Speaker A know I'm learning so much which is why I'm so glad I am in school I'm learning learning so much about You know, everything that pertains to the green industry all starts with your plants.
30:00Speaker C Yeah. And Lisa is such a great instructor. Like she is just awesome, awesome. So you're lucky to have her as a professor.
30:11Speaker A She is probably one of the most talented.
30:16Speaker C horticulturist
30:16Speaker A horticulturist I've ever known that that woman is is a wealth of knowledge she's a walking textbook you
30:23Speaker C Yeah, she is yeah,
30:24Speaker A can ask her anything and she knows the answer to it like I almost feel a little intimidated by her because of her knowledge but Lisa has been a huge help to me she's she's been a great teacher professor for me and I've enjoyed working with her and and Sterling they've been great having them as teachers as teacher so I'm enjoying the process I've been I've been fortunate my teammates I sit at a table unit with three other students in my class and we're a full class there's several of the tables but my table we all get along pretty well and
30:58Speaker A work well together and we work fast that's
31:00Speaker A something I noticed we always get our stuff done and some of the other tables are still working on the first thing and a lot of the other students talk the whole time and I think I think that's why they're not getting all their stuff done because they're too busy talking. We are in it to win it when we sit down.
31:16Speaker C yeah and what's cool though is you're in class I'm in my office and I shut the door and I get so much paperwork done like
31:21Speaker A Yeah, yeah, exactly what I told you yesterday. It's cool that you have a space that you can go in and shut a door and concentrate on
31:28Speaker C yeah because
31:29Speaker C I got I got behind on my attendance I got that little naughty note
31:33Speaker A I'm sure. You got what? What do they call it? The nasty gram.
31:37Speaker A That's what we call it.
31:38Speaker C like this must be done today
31:39Speaker A Did you get the nasty gram?
31:41Speaker C I did I did so but
31:44Speaker A but there's all kinds of false services that
31:46Speaker A could be done. For landscapers that they can remain profitable through most of the season.
31:52Speaker C Yes, we are lucky enough that, like you said, our services continue and then, you know, moving into Christmas lighting and, you know, even Halloween.
32:02Speaker A I know a lot of decorators or holiday decorators that focused on Christmas lights now have moved into lighting for Halloween. But it's also, like I said, preparation for snow removal services here in North Carolina. We don't know if we're going to have snow or not.
32:24Speaker B Yeah, we don't really typically know what our winter is going to be until after Christmas.
32:29Speaker B It's usually January.
32:31Speaker A Yeah. Yeah, because we've had shorts and T-shirt days on Christmas. Like it's,
32:37Speaker B I remember one Christmas we got about 10 to 12 inches of snow one Christmas and the boys were little so it's only been maybe 15 years ago and that was so because I have pictures of my family outside and my mom and dads were throwing snowballs at each other on Christmas day it was the craziest thing I'd ever seen that's the only time it's ever snowed on Christmas that I can recall
32:58Speaker A can remember.
32:58Speaker B that I can remember
32:59Speaker A What? What year did you
33:01Speaker B boys were little,
33:03Speaker A were okay.
33:03Speaker B within the last 15 years, yeah, it was about 15 years ago.
33:06Speaker A I'm remembering. Let's see. I remember pre-COVID. So this is probably 10 years ago. John Carson, you know, I talked to him, you know, he had a birthday September 21st. My former boss, the late John Carson, one of the most respectable and influential guys in my career as an educator. cater um we were in his office one day and he's like i need you to go ahead and get those alternate assignments for uh for class next week i'm like for what he said you haven't been watching the the the news i'm like no what i told him he said like snowmageddon's coming and i can remember going out that door right there with my two dogs And it adds like it's starting to snow and it I mean we had we were closed the week prior to Christmas break
33:54Speaker A at the talking college
33:54Speaker B about 2017?
33:56Speaker B I remember that year because I have pictures of the boys building a ice, what do you call it? They have them in Alaska. What's it called? Ice houses? Igloo.
34:06Speaker B Yeah, that's it. Oh my gosh. Yeah, they built an igloo outside because the snow was so good. good for packing it
34:14Speaker B perfect snow
34:15Speaker A and I was like John what are you talking he said dude it is going it is going to snow and
34:20Speaker B I couldn't get out of my driveway
34:21Speaker A yeah so they you know the the last week of college um and that was final exam for for HOR 112 landscape design one uh no classes and then we moved into to winter break so it's uh that that was cool we don't i don't i can't remember what snow removal we even did dad was still here so he may have done a little bit
34:41Speaker B my dad has been part of snow removal every year he works he's got he's got ties with people that work for the state so he gets to go every year he gets one of those huge graders and goes out and pushes snow it's pretty cool to watch him do that but um yeah and
34:57Speaker A Remember, it's snowed pretty heavy one February in 2015. I, it snowed pretty heavy then too. I remember that snow. It was pretty heavy. Um, and there's been several throughout
35:07Speaker A the years, but here in North Carolina, we don't know how bad it's going to snow until usually after Christmas. And even then it's kind of sketchy depending on, you know, how the, the, the weather maps end up falling with the flows and bands of all the pressure. So we don't ever really,
35:22Speaker A really know. The one thing I have learned. That if a snow system is coming up from Georgia, it's going to be a bad one.
35:30Speaker C Yeah, yeah. So we've got to have that southern moisture come up and meet the cold air.
35:35Speaker C So it's not the snow systems that come
35:39Speaker A from the north.
35:40Speaker C we've got to have that moisture from the south and cold air
35:43Speaker C from the north. But one of the most important things which I think should only be done. in the fall is what it's
35:55Speaker A planting and transplanting.
35:57Speaker C the perfect season now i know as a landscape contractor you know you get these new houses built you get the new commercial buildings built and your contractors want the stuff done but it is the perfect time of year to do your planting
36:11Speaker A It is. That's something else I have gotten to see in plant propagation is how quick a root system can be developed,
36:20Speaker A on the plant. If you're propagating plants straight from another plant, the root system, it begins to establish itself well within two to three weeks.
36:31Speaker A And it also depends. on the weather and the moisture system so if you're if you're transplanting any type of plants or trees or shrubs during the fall it's a perfect time to do that because you can get that root system established before winter hits and then you should be good you just want to make sure that if it's a blooming plant that you watch for frost back you know in the spring but yeah once those plant systems the root systems get established Fabulous, you're good.
37:02Speaker A That's a good time to get it done is in the fall.
37:04Speaker C Cool. Good stuff, good stuff. Also, irrigation winterization is, you know, you've got to make sure that that, I mean, look, the difference in temperature we've had in two days here, what if it continually gets cold? It's going to be time to shut down the irrigation systems, blow them out. You know, some people even take their back flows out. So just depending on where you're at is make sure that system's cleaned out and just start getting prepared for winter. after make sure you've got covers for some of your plants that that need to be covered up when it gets a really hard freeze and just be ready to go and after Christmas I'm so looking forward to spring like I want January and February to go by really really quick so that we can get into
37:51Speaker A the spring startups
37:53Speaker B Yeah, I'm looking forward to Christmas this year because last year we were so. inundated with our landscape business the Christmas lighting our podcasting I was in school you're a professor we had so and turf teacher we had so much going on last year this year because we sold our landscape company we're not landscaping therefore we're not out doing Christmas lights therefore we're also not out plowing snow this year so
38:30Speaker A That's the one thing I'm like,
38:32Speaker A want it to snow, snow, snow and you and I sit on the couch
38:36Speaker B we we missed out on that I I had friends that would post you know they're at home they're baking this and cooking this and they're watching tv with their kids or finding these movies and I was like you and I were like we didn't get our Christmas tree up till the week of Christmas and
38:50Speaker A That's true. That's true.
38:52Speaker B I was like this is sad that I because everybody that knows me thanksgiving day my tree's up
38:58Speaker B on thanksgiving day when i get home from my mom and dad's for lunch that's the first thing i do is i come home and i put my christmas tree up that had been the first the last two years i have not had time to put my christmas tree up
39:10Speaker B i said this coming year we're going to put a tree up and we're going to decorate this house where it's winter wonderland when you come in here i
39:17Speaker B cannot wait you
39:18Speaker A And I'll have the roof lights on. You know, so that Thanksgiving night we can turn them
39:22Speaker A on Hallmark
39:23Speaker B I want yard decor. I want I want my front porch like it walked right out of Southern Living.
39:28Speaker A Channel true.
39:29Speaker B Yes. I mean, I'm I'm so looking forward to Christmas this year with you because I feel like you and I are more established as a husband and wife, but also as a household this year.
39:41Speaker A I Yeah, agree with you on
39:43Speaker B I hadn't been living here not even six months last year. Because we got married July,
39:47Speaker B well, June 28th. My first month here in the house was in July and then Christmas came and
39:55Speaker A and it was boom
39:57Speaker B we were all over the place. So I'm excited about Christmas this year.
40:00Speaker A true that's true well anyway we've got a big weekend coming up skag nhra drag racing in rockingham don't forget next tuesday guys if you want to learn more about the turf grass that we were talking about in these fall services we're going to do a class uh tuesday night which will be that is the Uh, is the 29th. We'll be doing the 29th. It's going to be the turf grass calculations course via zoom. So you can go to turf teacher.com, click on pesticide credits and sign up for that course, but I'm, uh, I'm, I'm ready to get to Rockingham.
40:34Speaker B I am too. We should, what we want to do right now is just go over everything we just talked about and just do a hot topics of everything. everything just so that everybody can remember exactly what we talked about.
40:46Speaker A fall services so guys and gals for fall services even you homeowners people that aren't in landscaping
40:53Speaker A you want a list of things to do to get you prepped and ready for the fall for coming spring season for your yard you need to do a leaf cleanup you need to do lawn aeration you need to check for overseeding make sure you have the proper fall fertilization mowing finalize your mowing Do your bed cleanups around your shrubbery and in your yard. Make sure the weeds and everything's cleaned up around there. Tree and shrub care, it's time to do any kind of pruning. Just make sure the pruning time for that tree or plant is the right time to do it because that varies.
41:28Speaker C It does, and also I want to mention that real quick. Don't prune everything at once, guys. Like Jennifer said, you've got to make sure that it is in its... It's bloom cycle because if you prune it, it's going to generate that soft herbaceous growth and then if you get a hard freeze, you
41:46Speaker C could kill. kill the plant.
41:47Speaker A Yeah, exactly. Make sure when you're planting and transplanting, check your weather and check the plant type too, because the weather can, you know, we're in a very hardy zone here in Winston-Salem in the middle part of North Carolina, but you still need to check the hardiness of that. That plant that you're getting ready to plant or transplant, make sure you check your weather and plant varieties that they will make it through the winter months once you've transplanted. Also, Eric talked about irrigation winterization. Make sure you get everything done before the freezes damages your pipes and your backflows. Drainage cleanup. That means everything around your house. Debris, your surface drain swells, your catch.
42:29Speaker A catch basins make sure you're catching all that before heavy rain and freezing and snow make sure your drainage is cleaned up and then prep for the winter so make sure you protect anything that's vulnerable before the first winter storm Yeah, so like
42:44Speaker C or have it
42:44Speaker C in your garage ready to go.
42:45Speaker A yeah because here in North Carolina your first winter storm may not happen until January so you have a little time to get it done but if you have questions and you're not an expert in this field field and you're just friends or friends of friends that are listening to our podcast that aren't in the business but yet you want to learn you can always get in touch with Eric and I through our contact information that you can find at turf talk podcast.com it's
43:11Speaker C That's right.
43:12Speaker A turf talk podcast.com
43:14Speaker C .com and you can find us on all the social media at turf talk now that's on Instagram Facebook TikTok YouTube But more importantly, you can locate Jennifer, the turfette, the turfette on all the social media. And then, of course, I am turf teacher on all the social media, including YouTube. You can see just about every lecture that I do at the college. So that's a good place to start learning if you want.
43:41Speaker A I know some more, but my name's Eric Jones. The turf teacher, I will see you in the next lecture.
43:47Speaker B And I'm Jennifer Jones, the Turfette, and I'll see you at the next event.
43:51Speaker A See you guys.
43:52Speaker B Thanks for joining us today on Turf
43:54Speaker A Talk. We hope today's conversation gave you something useful and worth sharing.
43:58Speaker B Follow, subscribe, or visit us at turftalkpodcast.com for more episodes and updates. I'm Jennifer, the Turfette Jones.
44:06Speaker A And I'm Eric, the turf teacher Jones.
44:09Speaker A are the green industry couple.
44:11Speaker B Until next time,
44:12Speaker A Keep learning and keep growing and keep talking turf.
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