Welcome to Garden Myths – We are the Garden Myth Busters!
Our Goal: to provide correct gardening information and make you a better gardener.
Our Process: We research topics and examine scientific studies to bust gardening myths. Then we provide FREE blog posts.
Our Experience:
The author of most posts, Robert Pavlis, has 50 years of gardening experience, is an award winning author of 11 gardening books, holds an M.Sc. in chemistry and biochemistry, teaches numerous gardening courses and has written articles for many popular magazines such as Mother Earth News.
Robert has just won the Independent Publisher Book Award for Science with his book, Plant Science for Gardeners.
Our Guarantee:
- The information on this site is more accurate than most other gardening sites. If you find an error and let us know in the comments, we’ll correct it immediately.
- None of the information is created by AI – we prefer real people.
- All of the information is science based.
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Recently found your YouTube and love your thoughts and insights. Seems like gardening has become so complicated and you help bring back the fun.
As summer is coming to a close my vegetable plants are looking pretty sad and everything is becoming infested with aphids. What are your thoughts for the best way to clean up and prepare for a fall garden. My first frost date is usually mid October
Thanks so much for your wisdom
Move finished plants to the compost pile. Aphids are less of a problem in fall, so don’t worry about them unless they are present in large numbers.
Preparing soil for fall crops is the same as spring crops. Add organic matter if needed. Add fertilizer if a soil test shows a need for it.
Hi Robert,
Looks like this is another myth to debunk.
https://youtu.be/t7xv9WMYHrg?si=x1hR1SRvFrFmwnFN
Fertilizing with citric acid, does not make sense in my opinion, as no it does not contain any nitrogen and it is super expensive.
What is your take on it.
Regards
Roland
Citric acid is a weak acid. If the soil is very alkaline, adding it might make some difference to plant growth. It is not a fertilizer. It is also an extremely expensive way to acidify soil – sulfur is better.
The citric acid cycle is central to cellular metabolism. Most people encounter the citric acid cycle (aka Kreb’s cycle or TCA cycle) when they learn about cellular respiration. Following the breaking down of glucose (glycolysis), two carbons from pyruvate are shuttled to the mitochondria as an acetyl group on coenzyme A (acetyl-CoA). The two carbons are combined with oxaloacetate to make citrate (the conjugate base of citric acid). From there, many byproducts can be made including fats, amino acids (protein building blocks), and nucleotides (nucleic acid building blocks). Or, you can just strip the electrons from the break-down products to use in the electron transport chain that eventually powers ATP. One break down product of citrate is succinyl-CoA, a building block of chlorophyll. So, in short, citrate is an energy source. Roland, to make amino acids for proteins using citric acid, the nitrogen will have to come in from some other metabolic path such as the urea cycle or from ammonia. I doubt I would buy it for feeding my garden unless I try it on something like blueberries that would be OK with soil acidification…in moderation.
To Robert (and team if there is one) thank you for a gold standard website and information. I have read all the information you have provided three times over and have returned many times to reference. I am an amateur gardener with a good foundation of knowledge and I try to help others just starting out or struggling. I won’t help anyone unless they have read your website first (I test them as well to make sure they did!). In a world of snake oil salesman and con artists I have found myself a victim on more than one occasion of the next miracle bullet you can fire into your garden to create an Eden – there isn’t one or should I say there is only one – never stop learning, never stop trying, don’t give up, roll up your sleeves, get your hands dirty and do the work.
Thank you – its a team of one.
I have the same team working for me! You want something done right do it yourself.
I am 64 years old and move over 2000 kg everyday in my growing season,
Thank you again for your time and effort
I just watched your recent YouTube on not using 10-10-10 but a 3-1-2 ratio.
Is there a product with this ratio that you would recommend?
I use Miracle Gro 24-8-16
I am reading your book, Garden Myths 1, and in myth 57 ‘calcium will prevent BER in Tomatoes’, I maintain that consistent watering is the issue generally. As you state, early season BER is more prevalent, but that also highlights the fact that there is less shade on the soil due to the lack of leaf cover from the plant which in turn, leads to soil drying faster from direct sun and heat. With dry spells between watering, you have inconsistent moisture which makes for difficulty for the plant in its ability to transport calcium effectively. Later season has better soil coverage keeping roots cooler and shaded thus preventing interim drying of the soil and therefore less BER due to consistently available moisture. Thoughts?
It is usually caused by uneven watering, either by the gardener or nature.
I think new plants have more of a problem because they still don’t have a large root system, but shading soil as you suggest can also have an effect.
I should have said ‘consistent moisture’ as I meant and not ‘consistent watering’.
Good day. I’m from Pretoria, South Africa. I want to find out more about the use of greywater and its affect on soil and soil organisms.
Could you kindly let me know what works best for a chinch bug infestation in our lawn?