Complete Video Transcription:

CONCORD — Host, Sarah Rutan: If you’re having a problem with raccoons tearing up your lawn, you may not realize the true root of the issue. To learn more, we’re in Concord with B.J. Walker of Gingrich Horticulture Service, speaking on behalf of Diamond Certified Expert Contributor John Gingrich.

B.J. Walker: As a homeowner you have may noticed in your lawn or your neighbors’ lawns huge sections ripped up by raccoons. The root of the problem is a white grub. The white grub is an insect larva of a beetle that chews up the root of the grass. What this does is it makes the grass, your established turf, come up like brand new laid sod. It pulls right up off of the surface, and that’s where you’ll find the grubs. So, to check you can pull up the grass and look for the grubs just underneath the surface.

So, to get rid of them the easiest time is actually back in June when the eggs are first laid. So, the adults fly around and they lay their eggs, and you need to put your treatment down before the eggs are laid. When the eggs hatch it’s the easiest time to kill the grubs. It’s when they’re most vulnerable. The best time to deal with the grub issues is in June. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

So, if you find yourself in fall with a torn up lawn from raccoons, the best thing to do is go in and treat, but then the raccoons will keep coming back. They’ll keep coming back and eat dead grubs, and they’ll keep coming back to check for grubs even after you’ve killed them. So, what you need to do is piece back together your lawn, treat for the grubs, and then use either fruit tree netting or a shade netting or a shade cloth, stake it down in the sections that are getting ripped up, and this will prevent the raccoons from physically pulling up the lawn. What this will do is give the grass time to reestablish its root system and hopefully come back and look great next year.

Host, Sarah Rutan: To learn more from local, top rated companies, visit our Diamond Certified Expert Reports at experts.diamondcertified.org.

Complete Video Transcription:

CONCORD – Host, Sarah Rutan: When selecting a new tree to install on your property, there are some important things you should look for. Today we’re in Concord with Diamond Certified Expert Contributor John Gingrich of Gingrich Horticulture Services to learn more.

Diamond Certified Expert Contributor, John Gingrich of Gingrich: Hi. I wanted to talk today about planting and selecting quality plants and how to properly put them in the ground. First of all, as far as selection we’ll start with trees. One of the critical things with trees is you want a tree that can stand on its own without being staked. It’s far preferred than selecting plants that need to be staked. Here’s two trees. One is obviously standing without being staked. They’re nearly the same height, and this one here is nearly the same size at the base of the tree as it is seven foot high. It’s been proven that trees that didn’t need staking at the time of planting develop a stronger root system and a stronger branching structure than trees that have been staked.

Another critical point when selecting a tree is looking at the root structure. Now, we can’t see much of the root structure, but we can see the very tops of the roots where they flare off of the main trunk. In this tree here, it’s a large tree in a small pot which indicates to me that there may be problems. As I look into the container, I see one of the main roots is growing over to the side of the pot. I suspect it’s going to be wrapped around this pot several times by the size of that root and the size of the pot. This will lead to problems if it’s not trimmed away at the time of planting. This is a much better selection here as far as the root development that I can see. Now, obviously I can’t see what’s under the soil, but I can see the root development here and I don’t see any roots that I suspect to be circled around the base of the trunk.

So, here’s a good example of a bad tree selection. When I bought this tree it was in a 24 inch box container, and the soil covered the root flare. I didn’t uncover it. I thought it was buried at the proper depth. When I planted it, I planted it a little bit high, and now that the excess soil has washed away from the root crown, I now know why this tree has been failing. You can see these girdling roots growing around and around the trunk. These roots will close off any flow of water or minerals and nutrients up and down the trunk, and it’s killing itself because of the girdling roots at the base.

Host, Sarah Rutan: To learn more from local, top rated companies, visit our Diamond Certified Expert Reports at experts.diamondcertified.org.

Complete Video Transcription:

CONCORD – Host, Sarah Rutan: When installing a new tree on your property, knowing the proper procedure can help ensure a healthy acclimation. Today we’re in Concord with Diamond Certified Expert Contributor John Gingrich of Gingrich Horticulture Service to learn more.

Diamond Certified Expert Contributor, John Gingrich: Hi. Today I want to discuss how to properly plant a tree. First of all, you need to dig a proper hole, and the hole should be as deep as the root ball of the plant. You don’t want to dig it deeper because if you dig a hole too deep, it will settle in the hole after planting, and we don’t want that because it’ll cause problems in time as the soil fills in around the trunk. So, you want to dig the hole as deep as the plant but twice as wide. As the new roots develop you want to give them plenty of nice loose soil to grow into.

So, I’ve already dug the hole. We’re going to plant the plant. Now I’m looking at the roots in this container. I don’t have any girdling roots, any circling roots in the container, which looks good. I don’t have any roots at the bottom of the container that are circling so I’m going to go ahead and plant this tree. We’ll set it down in the hole, and you’ll notice that the crown of this plant, the root flare, this point right here, is at soil level or just above soil level. If I use a bar across, you can we’re just about an inch or two above this soil level here at its current planting depth. So, that’s exactly right. We always want to make sure that this root crown is above the soil level so that in time soil doesn’t fill back in around the base of the tree. That extra soil will cause rotting here at the base so it’s critical that this be followed.

When you back fill around the base of the tree, just start putting in the dirt, and you can tamp it in as you go. Using water will also help settle the soil, but you don’t want it too loose because too many air pockets will create dry spots where the roots can’t grow. So, you want to kind of make sure that you limit the amount of open air pockets around the root. You’ll notice that I’m also not using any amendments in this soil. It’s better. Unless you can amend the entire roots on the plant you’re planting, you wouldn’t want to use amendments in the back fill. It’s proven that the plant develops a better root system quicker if you don’t add the amendments.

So, I finished back filling around the tree, and then it’s a good idea to mulch. The mulching will help moderate the soil temperatures and the adverse conditions of the heat as far as drying. So, the mulch will help with this tree’s development, but when you’re mulching around the tree, you don’t want the mulch up against the trunk like I’m pouring here. You want to make sure that between two to four inches of mulch is applied, but make sure that that mulch is back away from the tree’s trunk again as not to hold any moisture up against the trunk because the moisture will cause rot at the base of the tree. If it rots here, the rest of the tree dies.

Host, Sarah Rutan: To learn more from local, top rated companies, visit our Diamond Certified Expert Reports at experts.diamondcertified.org.

Complete Video Transcription:

CONCORD – Host, Sarah Rutan: When selecting new plants from a nursery, one factor you should take into account is their pre-installation size. Today we’re in Concord with Diamond Certified Expert Contributor John Gingrich of Gingrich Horticulture Service to learn more.

Diamond Certified Expert Contributor John Gingrich: When selecting a plant when you go to the nursery, you know the kind of plant you want, and you’re looking at all the plants available in that species. It’s not always the best thing to choose the largest plant that’s available.

These two plants are both the exact same species. They’re Thuja Emerald Green. Both were available at the same store. This one looks like a better deal. It costs a little bit more than this one, but it’s not necessarily the best choice. This plan is a little bit too large for this one gallon size container. It’s probably a bit root bound where this plant is more appropriately sized for the container. It’s most likely not root bound. Well, even this one we have some circling roots at the base that should be trimmed or at least loosened before we plant it. You can imagine what this one’s going to be like, much more circling roots or just totally root bound. This container is nearly a solid ball of roots. So, this smaller plant is a much better choice. It’s cheaper, and it will develop more quickly in your garden.

Host, Sarah Rutan: To learn more from local top rated companies, visit our Diamond Certified Expert Reports at experts.diamondcertified.org.

Complete Video Transcription:

CONCORD — Host, Sarah Rutan: An important part of caring for trees on your property is identifying and treating disease. Today we’re in Concord with Diamond Certified Expert Contributor John Gingrich of Gingrich Horticulture Service to hear about one disease commonly found in the Bay Area.

Expert Contributor, John Gingrich: This is fire blight. It’s on an ornamental pear tree, but the same disease affects fruiting pears, apples, and ornamental apples such as crabapples and several other closely-related plants.

The disease is a bacteria. It’s often spread by honeybees in the spring when the plants are flowering. The honeybees inadvertently carry it on their feet, land on the flower, and inadvertently infect that flower. The disease then can progress from that flower down into the plant tissue and it moves down from the tops of the trees down into the bigger branches.

The main control for this disease is to prune it out before it travels too far. It’s important to make sure that you’ve sterilized your clippers between each cut and you want to make sure you start with a clean set of sheers. So, I’m sterilizing the blade with a just Lysol disinfectant. It can be any high alcohol or a bleach solution. The bleach has to be at least 10% if you’re using bleach.

We’ve got a sterile set of sheers. So, you can see this was the infection here in this short spur. It’s gone into the branch that it’s connected to, and if I were just to cut this off, I wouldn’t have gotten all the bacteria. I need to cut at least six to eight inches below that point. I went a little bit beyond six to eight inches just to make a proper cut on the branch.

And remember, it’s important to sterilize your sheers after each cut and it’s also a good idea to sterilize them before you put them away so you know when you pick them up the next time, you’re working with clean tools.

Host, Sarah Rutan: To learn more from local, top-rated companies visit our Diamond Certified Expert Reports at experts.diamondcertified.org.

Complete Video Transcription:

Host, Sarah Rutan: When it comes to keeping your lawn well-maintained, there are three key areas to address. To learn more, we’re in Concord with Pete Gumas of Gingrich Horticulture Service, speaking on behalf of Diamond Certified Expert Contributor John Gingrich.

Pete Gumas: Hi. We’re here today to talk about lawn care. We’d like to split it up into three portions. It would be mowing at the proper height, watering, and fertilizing. We’ll talk about mowing now. Mowing is important in a lawn, mowing at the proper height. This here is a bluegrass lawn. It’s probably best mowed at about two and a half inches. A rotary mower does the best job at cutting it. A rotary mower has a very fast blade. It cuts it well. Rotary mowers are easily adjustable, and they do a pretty good job with the cut and the lawn looks good after.

Watering is best when done in the early a.m. because it’s the coolest time of day, the least amount of wind, and the water goes into the soil most efficiently. If you have any brown spots in your lawn, then you can check very easily with just a regular screwdriver with about a five or six inch blade. If you stick it into that brown spot and it only goes in halfway, then you know you have to adjust. You have to either increase the water or adjust your sprinklers to green up that area. If you take that screwdriver and it goes all the way into the handle, you have adequate soil moisture and you’re okay.

Regular fertilizing keeps your lawn actively growing out of any problems it might have. Nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium, which is a complete fertilizer, thickens turf density and keeps the weeds out and keeps the turf actively growing out of any disease or insect problems it might have. Weeds such as crabgrass, spurge, and dandelion have a tougher time to establish when you have a thicker turf density in your turf. Blue rye requires at least seven to eight feedings a year, year round, about every six weeks. Tall fescue requires about six to seven fertilizings per year and will keep it dense too.

Host, Sarah Rutan: To learn more from local, top rated companies, visit our Diamond Certified Expert Reports at experts.diamondcertified.org.