What is better for your seedlings; top watering or bottom watering?
Lots of online sites and social media discussions recommend bottom watering for seedlings – are the claimed benefits real? If rain works in nature, why do we need to bottom water when starting seeds in the house? I am going to sort all this out in this blog.
My mother used to grow “low acid” tomatoes because high acid levels gave her mouth cankers, or so she thought. There is a concern that canning low acid tomatoes causes botulism because the acid level is too low.
Lots of seed companies and garden blogs talk about low acid tomatoes and usually identify yellow, orange and small fruited varieties as low acid. Some claim that modern breeding has increased the acidity of tomatoes and that heirlooms have less acid. Others claim that there is no such thing as low acid tomatoes.
It turns out that this story starts as a myth. People tried to correct the myth only to create a new myth in the process. I’ll have to debunk the debunkers.
Artificial Intelligent (AI) programs have been all the rage for a couple of years now and they are being used more and more by gardeners to get their information. They are easy to use. Just enter a question and an answer appears. That is a lot easier than doing a Google search and having to read through blogs to get the information, but is it a better way? And most importantly, is the information correct.
Here are Garden Myths we don’t accept every answer, even if it is from AI, so we decided to do some testing.
NOTE: Since I published this post – some people have been getting errors saying the site is not safe and may have a virus – I have checked it several ways and it doesn’t have one. In an effort to try and resolve the problem, I have removed all the links in this post.
I had never researched biodynamic gardening/farming very much, but I did know about the magic produced by aging manure in cow horns. I was introduced to “peppering” in a recent post in our Facebook group, Garden Fundamentals, and had to have a closer look. If this thing works, it would be a cure for just about every pest problem in the garden.
There are many reasons why people grow their own food including freshness, taste and nutrition. It is commonly believed that home grown food is more nutritious than store-bought food. That organically grown food is more nutritious than conventionally grown and that heirloom varieties are more nutritious than modern day varieties.
Is any of this true? What can you do to improve the nutrition of your home grown food?
The CDC has reported that 46% of all foodborne illnesses are due to fresh produce. One out of every six Americans that will get a foodborne illness this year. “From a historical perspective, fresh produce was linked to less than 1% of all foodborne illnesses in the 1970s, and less than 12% in the 1990s. Why is foodborne illness from produce on the rise?”
Part of the increase is due to better detection, but it is also due to increased use of fast food and a more complex food production/delivery system. Food that we buy in local stores has passed through many hands from farm to table and each step is a possible source of contamination. Another problem is that more people are growing their own food and they incorrectly believe that home grown food is safe.
In this post I will have a look at a number of myths about foodborne illnesses and how you can prevent them.
We all know cedar chests repel moths and cedar shavings are routinely used in homes to control insect pests. Based on this, gardeners have concluded that cedar mulch will repel insects in the garden and will negatively impact pollinators trying to get to flowers. For these reasons they recommend you should not use cedar mulch.
Is there any science to support these claims? Does it harm bees? Does it affect ants and termites?
Should you stop using cedar mulch?
Baptisia australis, also called false indigo or false blue indigo, is a native of North America and a great garden perennial. In addition to this species there are a number of other species in the genus Baptisia that are suitable for the garden. Some grow as herbaceous bushes while others are vines.
Germination of the genus seems to be difficult, at least in my hands. A single seedling might germinate, but in many cases none of the seeds germinate. This article summarizes a study conducted to better understand the germination of Baptisia australis seed.
I have been aware of Korean Natural Farming (KNF) for some time but never had a close look at it. KNF is not very popular in North America but apparently it and other forms of Natural Farming are popular in Asia. It is time to have a close look at KNF. What is it and does it work?
People love to go organic, which is a good thing. Unfortunately, the information about organic fertilizers is not always correct or complete. Here are some real important things you need to know about organic fertilizer.
Pinching and topping refers to the removal of the top part of a plant. Pinching peppers results in more side branches and a bushier plant which, it is claimed, leads to more fruit and a higher yield. Is this true? Should you pinch pepper plants?
Some people also suggest removing the first bloom to allow the seedling to grow larger and develop a better root system. Does this really happen? Does it increase yield. Should you pinch the first bloom?
There are lots of opinions online and in blog posts, but I found none that actually presented any scientific evidence for their suggestions. What does science say?
Common advice is that tree roots grow in spring and fall and take a rest in summer. The tree is too busy in summer taking care of leaves, flowers and fruit to do much root growth. Roots also grow better in cool weather. Perennials also take a rest in cold winters, but do the roots grow in summer? This certainly seems to make a lot of sense, but is it really true?
