- Today on Oklahoma Gardening, we look at all the variables that come with a good rain event.

I'll share an ornamental grass you might wanna add to your landscape.

We visit the Bricktown Ballpark to learn more about all the work that goes into preparing for a game.

And finally, you can never have too many salvias in your garden.

Underwriting assistance for our program program is provided by the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, Food and Forestry, helping to keep Oklahoma green and growing Oklahoma Gardening is also a proud partner with Shape Your Future, a program of the Tobacco Settlement Endowment Trust shape your future provides resources for Oklahomans to make the healthy choice the easy choice.

I love sharing with you guys the cool things that plants can do.

We're back here at the Student Farm.

I wanna share with you a tropical plant that you might find in some Oklahoma landscapes.

It's important to know which plants we are dealing with so that we can continue to maintain them successfully for years to come.

April showers bring May flowers, and as gardeners we anticipate any rainfall that we might get.

Have you ever heard on the news that we got a significant rainfall or perhaps you've seen in your rain gauge that you, there was some good rainfall only to go out into the landscape, pull back the multch and find some dry areas.

Still, when the rain is falling from the sky, we just assume that it's going to reach the ground.

But is it any wonder that when we're putting ground covers down and mulches down to prevent evaporation and water loss up out of the soil Then when the cycle is reversed, we also have obstructions that prevent the rainfall from penetrating down into the ground.

This is known as rainfall interception.

Rainfall interception is when rain is prevented from reaching the soil because it is intercepted by plant canopies or plant residue, and then eventually evaporates before coming into contact with the soil.

Now, there's a couple of ways this can occur, but first of all, not all the rainfall is blocked by the canopy.

This is known as through fall.

Through fall is the term used to describe the rain that passes through the canopy of the plant.

However, the rainfall still may land on plant debris or mulch preventing that rainfall from penetrating down into the soil.

You can also see this in your home landscape sometime when you've rain your irrigation system for a period of time only to go back into your landscape and pull back the mulch to find that there still is not moisture down in the soil.

For the rainfall that does come into contact with the plant, two things can happen.

Stem flow describes the rain that hits the plant canopy and aided by gravity travels down the leaves to the branches and eventually to the stem or the trunk of the plant.

At this point, the rainfall can still be intercepted by plant debris at the base of that plant.

However, some rainfall will actually be able to penetrate down into the ground as it follows the trunk of the tree.

Regardless, stem flow does influence rainfall distribution.

Meanwhile, some raindrops roll off the canopy of a plant like water rolling off the shingles of a roof.

In fact, the outermost distance of a tree's canopy is called the drip line.

Think of it like how the water drips off an umbrella.

This can result in more water being redirected to the drip line than other areas.

This rainfall interception is called the canopy drip.

While this occurs in nature, keep in mind that this can also occur with irrigation in a home landscape, especially pop up or spray heads that shoot the water horizontally.

As plants grow, they can block the irrigation from traveling to the intended distance, causing more water to fall around the base of one plant and prevent other plants from receiving adequate moisture.

There are two components at play with rainfall interception.

That is the vegetation and the rainfall.

Let's first talk about the vegetation.

Plants come in all shapes and forms and have adaptations in order to survive in their ideal climate.

Orchids are a classic example.

Many orchids are epithetic an epithied is a plant that does not grow in soil.

Instead, it grows by clinging to another plant.

Often a tree epithetic orchids have large root systems not only to help anchor them in the tree, but also provide greater surface area to absorb rain that is often flowing down the tree through stem flow.

Not only do orchids take advantage of the stem flow coming down the tree, they often have a v-shaped branching habit creating their own stem flow that directs rainfall towards their roots.

We can also see this in vermillias that form a cup with their vegetation.

This equips the plant to be able to selfishly store water, allowing it to endure drier periods and giving it a competitive advantage over other plants.

Now, you may be thinking these are tropical plants that live in the rainforest, but rainfall interception happens everywhere.

In fact, it's been reported that the rainfall interception rate in the Amazon rainforest is at 9% while under eastern red cedars it's at 36% and a whopping 44% in the tall grass prairie another plant adaptation is the surface of the vegetation.

Many plants are pubescent, meaning that they have fine hairs either on the surface of the leaves or along the stems, and these hairs actually serve a purpose and capture some of that moisture retaining it for the plant a little bit longer.

The second factor to consider is the rain itself.

A rain event is described by the amount, the intensity, and the duration.

Locations that receive frequent yet short periods of rainfall will have more rainfall interception.

This is because small raindrops have less kinetic energy as they're falling from the sky, making them more prone to wet the surface of vegetation and residue rather than having the velocity to penetrate through the soil.

This means that interception losses increase as droplet size decreases.

This should also be considered when setting up your irrigation.

Irrigation systems that are too brief or have nozzles that spray fine droplets will often result in having more water loss due to evaporation and also will create more water particles settling on the vegetation.

Now, you may be thinking if vegetation prevents rainfall from getting down into our soil, why do we worry about covering our soil with cover crops and mulch and other plant debris?

Well, for that, we gotta take a closer look at the rain drop.

Just as a water drop makes a ripples in the water as it lands, a raindrop falling on soil makes an impact on the soil, almost like tiny little bombs hitting the earth.

The larger the raindrop, the greater the speed, the greater the impact.

A soil's ability to handle this impact is known as the soil's strength.

When rain falls on the soil with low soil strength, the soil will not only splash up, but ultimately this can be the catalyst for major erosion problems and soil loss.

We've all experienced one of those good slow rainfalls where you just wanna grab a book and curl up and stay inside all day.

Well, a lot of times we call those rainfalls a good soaker.

And in the landscaping world, soaker hoses and drip irrigation have become more popular as a way of watering your landscape and also conserving water because what they sort of do is mimic that rainfall interception, allowing large raindrops or irrigation in this case to seep out of the soaker hose, but at a slow rate, allowing it to penetrate down into the soil profile.

Now, not only does this reduce the impact on that soil structure, reducing soil splashing, but it also allows for a good infiltration of that irrigation and reduces evaporation loss and moisture on any of the vegetation nearby.

So does vegetation influence rainfall distribution?

Yes.

Does it prevent some rainfall from actually penetrating down into the soil profile?

Yes.

However, that vegetation also serves a critical component and acts as a shield protecting our soil.

It only not only takes the impact from the raindrops, but it also reduces soil loss and soil erosion.

So the next time you look at your rain gauge and you see that you get an inch of rain, just know that not all rain is created the same.

Today we're here on OS U'S campus to showcase one of the plants that really has been catching my eye as we drive down the main street here through campus, and this is called ruby grass.

It's a great ornamental grass that you can add to your garden.

Now it is not a native ornamental grass.

It is in fact native to southern Africa.

So it's slightly drought tolerant, but you wanna make sure that you still give it consistent water, but also well drainage, which makes it appropriate for a container like this.

Now this particular hybrid is called pink crystals and it actually gets a little bit larger.

So it's gonna be about two feet tall.

And what really is sets ruby grass apart from some of your other grasses is these plumes that you get.

So you're gonna get about a four inch to six inch plume that comes on.

They start out more of a pink color, and then as they sort of mature a little bit more, they'll fade to kind of a silvery color later on the season.

So we, here we are, it is July, August, and you can see how much of a display you're gonna get.

And this display will continue on through late summer into fall as well.

It has a kind of a grayish blue foliage it, so before it actually puts up these flowers, you're gonna get that foliage.

And it sort of reminds me kind of that narrow foliage of what you might find on mully grass.

And of course that pink color that you might find on pink mully too.

Definitely a different type of a in fluorescent than you would get with pink mully.

But again, you're gonna get this in fluorescent sooner than you would with pink muley that comes later on in the fall.

So as I mentioned, this particular hybrid is called pink crystals.

We have one back at the Botanic garden called Savannah and it's slightly smaller.

So if you're looking for something to add into your garden, kind of tuck it in, you might look at the Savannah Cultivar instead.

We have about three plants right here in this container that's about four feet long.

So you can see it doesn't take too many plants to create quite an impact here in your garden.

Now of course, because it's an ornamental grass, it's gonna give you all those same features that we love of ornamental grasses.

It's got a lot of movement and flow to the garden.

So you can actually add multiples and have kind of a mass of these, or you can just add one or two.

One of the recommendations though is because it has this kind of pink color, you might combine it with some colius or other annuals that sort of offset this pink and kind of highlight that pink a little bit more.

Here they have it next to Cassandra.

That is a cultivar called watermelon that kind of picks up some of that pink in that Cassandra, but a colius would be a nice addition as well.

Now with this, like I mentioned, it is native to southern Africa, so it is not hardy here.

In fact, it's hardy from zones nine to 10.

And while it is a perennial in southern Africa, it is treated as an annual here.

But you can go ahead.

Once these seeds are starting to turn brown, you could collect those seeds.

Or if you wanna preserve this and have it for next year, you could simply dig it up, pot it up, and kind of bring it into over winter.

That way is another option.

So Ruby Grass is a great addition to your annual landscape.

Today we are at the Chickasaw Bricktown ballpark, and joining me is Jeff Jackson who is the head groundskeeper, and today we're gonna learn a little bit about what it means to be a groundskeeper.

Jeff, thank you so much for having us down here today.

- Thank you very much for being here.

- Yeah.

So you are a horticulture OSU alum, right?

- Yes, I am.

- And you, you found yourself in an amazing office to work in.

Yeah, - Absolutely.

- Tell us a little bit about what it means to maintain the grounds.

I mean, we're in the middle of baseball season, so you're pretty busy, right?

- Yeah, about halfway through the season.

So far we've played 36 AAA baseball games, about 20 high school baseball games and a couple other special events that we've had on the field.

It's been a, it's been a crazy, crazy weather pattern it seems.

Seems like it was kind of cool and rainy all up until about the, the last two weeks, month or so and it, the heat's kicked on pretty good, - So, well, I just know how it is to maintain a garden.

I can't imagine having that many eyes looking at my work.

Tell me a little bit about, so baseball season goes from March to October, correct?

Yeah.

So how do you get it green in March?

- So this is a full Bermuda grass field.

We actually start in late December, early January.

We actually have, we've actually tried a little bit of a new new system here, whereas you might see rye grass overseed or things like that.

Right.

I've actually found it more beneficial to the Bermuda grass health to go full Bermuda grass.

So I actually use turf pigments, turf colorants, turf paints that have recently been released really helps the grass absorb a lot of heat.

As you know, green absorbs a lot more than a, than a white dormant Bermuda grass would be and also have a full field of turf grass growth blankets.

- Okay.

- Those are permeable blankets that kind of act as like a greenhouse effect that can heat the soil temperature up at a good five to 10 degrees more than it, than it would just naturally out on a a non-covered surface.

- Okay.

So you sort of camouflage it until it starts doing its own thing.

Yeah.

And you mentioned Bermuda grass.

What type of Bermuda grasses are you dealing with here?

They're not just your regular common grass, - Right?

Yeah, so we've got some of the latest high Bermuda grasses on the infield and foul territory.

We have the newest Oklahoma State to Homa 31 Bermuda grass on the outfield.

We have a TIF tough hybrid Bermuda grass.

It was at the Tifton, Georgia, - And I know those need a lot more maintenance.

Of course you're giving that daily here.

Yeah.

Using a real mower.

Tell us a little bit about what is that daily maintenance look like for this Bermuda grass?

- So we're mowing daily.

Basically we mow with a walk behind real mower on the infield and foul territory just because those are a lot more high traffic.

We don't want like our big riding fairway mower, we don't want that kind of the traffic on the infield or foul territory.

So we're usually walk mowing.

Okay.

Those, and we also collect the clippings on those areas.

The outfield, we're also mowing daily.

That's with our Toro 35 75 fairway mower.

It mows the outfield.

We kind of have it as specific pattern.

We have the stripes where the ball tries not to snake, so if you have a bunch of crisscrosses with a real mower and rollers on the back, the ball might snake.

So we try to have it out to all.

- What does that mean?

The ball might snake.

- So if, if you're an outfielder or you're an infielder, if it crosses the stripes intersect the ball might move this way or this way.

Oh, so you want the ball to play as true to the outfielder or the infielder as possible.

- Okay.

So it helps the ball player kind of predict where the ball's gonna be - Rolling?

Yes.

Where it might roll or where even you might position a player, you might position 'em on a certain dark stripe or a light stripe.

- Okay.

I never realized that.

And it makes sense the way the grass is laying can actually influence the ball movement.

Yeah.

So obviously it's not just grass, you're also dealing with some different dirt or textures areas.

Yeah.

Tell me about those.

Yeah, - So first I'll talk about the what's underneath the actual grass as a little different than what might a homeowner might see.

Okay.

So we actually have, it's a basically A-U-S-G-A style putting green under this entire surface.

So we have an 18 inch collector drain that goes all around the entire field.

We have 15 four inch lateral lines that go across the field.

Every 15 foot above that we have four inches of pea gravel and then we have 10 inches of 92 8 engineered USGA sand blended with 8% peat moss.

- All right.

- Then you would have your sod on the top.

We have that under the grass just because we, are playing so many games, you need the field to drain if we're dumping the tarps or something like that, you need the field to drain and be safe for the players, usually within 30 to 45 minutes after we dump the tarps.

So the water needs to percolate and move down through the soil.

- So I would imagine you're irrigating a lot and that also helps with that drainage as well.

- Yes.

So we actually have a water reclamation system that all the drains tie into from the field.

So we're actually reclaiming that water and pumping it and using it back out on the, through the irrigation surface.

Okay.

So we're watering more deeply and infrequently just to try to get our, our roots to dry for that water and things like that.

You don't want 'em shallow where you're just kind of feeding the shallow roots.

You need the roots to drive down through the sand and things like - That.

Okay.

All right.

Very good.

And so going back to like the warning track and the pitchers mound and all of that stuff.

Yeah.

Let's talk a little bit about some of that aggregate.

- Yeah, so the infield dirt portion is made up of an engineered infield mix called Durt Edge Professional Infield Mix.

It's actually mined out of Slippery Rock Pennsylvania and is engineered and blended with the right amount of silt, the right amount of sand, coarse sand, fine sand, medium sand.

We have a six inch column of that infield mix on the infield surface.

It's one of the more professional infield mixes that you can have these days.

It really helps with water retention, but also water shedding.

And then we have Calcine Clay and expanded shell manufactured by Dur Edge as well.

Those are kind of top dressings, kind of helps for sliding water retention.

If we have any rain gains or things like that, the Cal sign clay and absorb water.

Okay.

A lot quicker.

But - I, I know you're quick to cover it, right?

If - It Yeah, so the, the dirt portion of the, of the field is probably the most critical.

That's where the game is played the most.

If the dirt portion of the infield was to get too wet or unplayable or unsafe for the players, we'd have to postpone the game or potentially cancel the game and that loses a lot of revenue for the ballpark.

We play 150 games throughout the year, so it's hard with the team schedules, you know, to try to reschedule, - Reschedule - Games and things like that.

Plus all of our paying fans here, it's hard, you know, it might be your only time to come out to the ballpark.

So we're very cautious and very critical about keeping the, the, the infield dirt playable for all of our games.

- And so how do you, how do you manage that, those dirt areas?

Do you have to top dress that additionally or?

- Yeah, so hot days like this, we're using more of the expanded shale that holds the water.

We're actually usually putting standing water after the games or on hot days like this and the, it'll just absorb and it actually makes the dirt play a lot better.

It would almost turn into concrete if we didn't water it and things like that.

You know, you don't want hard hit balls taking hops or hitting players that could - Yeah.

- Chip a tooth or things like that.

You know, you gotta prize prospect or shortstop here, you don't want 'em chipping a tooth where you might be out sliding is a big issue.

You know, you're sliding into second base or third base, you don't want anyone hurting or tearing up a knee or things like that.

So it's real critical just to try to keep it on that, on that fine line of, you know, it's, it's wet enough that it performs the way we need it to, but not to wet where, where it can - Pull.

That's really fascinating.

Is there, is there a certain moisture?

Is it more just experience and a, a field test that, - You know, there there is moisture meters that you can use.

A lot of, a lot of it just goes from experience and what you're kind of see sometimes if you have a moisture meter, you're trying to get to a certain number and then that's the, the number that you'd like to play off of.

Okay.

It just kind of varies.

You know, in Oklahoma it can be really windy and sunny or it can be sunny and humid, so you just kind of gotta, or you know, it might be cloudy a a different day, so you can't put as much water on it.

So you just, it's very fine line that, you know, you're not looking at just the next day, but you're looking at days ahead and things like - That.

Right.

So you're always watching the weather for us.

Yeah.

With so much work that goes into this, I know, you know, you as a horticulture major obviously love this, but why does somebody put all this effort versus just synthetic, - You know, coming from Oklahoma State, you know, developing all the Bermuda grasses and things like that, it's really fun to get to experience and showcase those as well.

Here.

Also just for safety of players, you know, it's extremely hot here in Oklahoma during the summer months with players taking batting practice or practice like during the heat of the day, you know, the four to five o'clock just before the games, it could be very detrimental to players' health and player safety as we were playing for a synthetic surface Absolutely.

And it's nice and cushioning actually.

Yeah.

So I imagine that helps them when they're running or sliding that maybe it gives a little bit more too.

- Yeah.

So, you know, some standardization of other sports, you might have a gmax test where the softness or a shear test where actually the, where you can see the grass give way or things like that.

Whereas synthetic surface it might not be as forgiving and things like that.

So it is very critical to have that softness and that ability for the, for the grass to give way for players, you know, joints or, or ligaments or things like that, or bones or just playing on a, a soft surface is, is key.

- Well Jeff, you're doing, you and your team are doing an excellent job and me and I know thousands of other appreciate the work that you're doing on a daily, weekly basis out here.

Thank you so much for the influence that horticulture has on the game.

- Thank you so much for having me.

- As you guys know, every year we like to introduce you to some of the All America selection winners that we have on display here at the Botanic Garden.

And this year I wanna showcase this one that we have here.

It's already blooming well early into the spring.

It's a Salvia Nermerosa and it's called Blue by You.

And you can see it's, it's similar to the May night, but in fact May night was the comparison plant for this one, and it actually starts blooming a couple of weeks ahead of May night.

Now you can see it just gets shy of about two feet in height and half of that is actually these flower spikes that it produces.

It has a lot of pollinators all over it, so it's really good for the pollinator garden, your, your cut flower garden or just along a perennial bed also.

We've got it here and in fact we're gonna, we haven't even finished planting our garden yet.

You can see how well these are doing here.

Now this is actually only the second season, so they're gonna get a little bit bigger probably this year.

The nice thing about this salvia is not only does it bloom early in the spring, but it'll continue to bloom for us throughout the season.

So as these spikes sort of decline, we'll come through here and sort of deadhead these just to encourage that re blooming.

But it can bloom up to several, almost five times throughout the season, continue to bloom into fall for us as well.

And at that point, it'll just sort of die back to the ground and then resume next spring.

Again, it is hardy from zones four to nine, so it can handle both our heat as well as our cold winter temperatures as well.

So if you haven't checked out this salvia, it's called Blue Bayou and it's a great selection to add to your garden.

There are a lot of great horticulture activities this time of year.

Be sure and consider some of these events in the weeks ahead.

Join us next week on Oklahoma Gardening as we talk about the basics of basil distance, not only to help anchor them in the tree, but also provide greater.

All right.

To find out more information about show topics as well as recipes, videos, articles, fact sheets, and other resources, including a directory of local extension offices, be sure to visit our website at Oklahoma gardening dot OK state.edu.

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Oklahoma Gardening is produced by the Oklahoma Cooperative Extension Service as part of the division of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources at Oklahoma State University.

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We would like to thank our generous underwriters, the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, food and Forestry, and Shape Your Future, a program of the Tobacco Settlement Endowment Trust.

Additional support is also provided by Greenleaf Nursery and the Garden Debut Plants, the Oklahoma Horticulture Society, the Tulsa Garden Club, and the Tulsa Garden Center.