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Growing Tomatoes – Should You Remove Bottom Leaves?

A local gardening group was touring a greenhouse operation that grew tomatoes. The tour guide told the visitors that they removed the lower leaves from the plants because “they robbed nutrients from the upper part of the plant that was producing fruit”. In short, removing lower leaves resulted in a better harvest. It is unclear if that means larger tomatoes or more tomatoes.

Some home gardeners remove lower leaves believing that they will get a better harvest. Others don’t bother and claim they get a good harvest without the extra effort. Who is right?

Growing Tomatoes Should You Remove Bottom Leaves — Growing Tomatoes – Should You Remove Bottom Leaves? source: Dan Klimke

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Citronella Plant – Does it Really Keep Mosquitoes Away?

Mosquitoes are becoming a more important pest as new varieties move north in North America, and the incidence of diseases increases. Around here there is a big concern about the West Nile Virus so it is only natural that people try to find simple ways to keep mosquitoes away.

A very common solution is citronella. Some suggest planting the citronella plant next to your patio to keep mosquitoes away. Others rely on citronella candles. These solutions are just myths.

Pelargonium Citrosum - marketed as "mosquito plant" — Pelargonium Citrosum – marketed as “mosquito plant”, source: Chhe (talk)

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Soil Testing for NPK

Which fertilizer should you be adding to soil? How much fertilizer should you add? Why is my plant not growing well? These are all very common questions and a very common answer to them is; do some soil testing!

That may be the right answer, but there is much more to the story. Let’s have a look.

Soil testing for NPK, source: r. nial bradshaw

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Do Coffee Grounds Acidify Soil?

It is a common belief that used coffee grounds are acidic and that they will acidify your soil. Lets see if it is true.

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Increasing Soil Acidity

There is a lot of advice on how to make make acidic soil both in print and on the net. You can use coffee grounds, pine needles, and sulfur to name a few. This advice has two problems. Firstly, the recommended product may not actually acidify soil. For example in Do Pine Needles Acidify Soil I show that pine needles do not make acidic soil. Coffee grounds don’t acidify soil either. The second problem is that before such advice is given it is important to know the soil types (ie soil texture) being treated. Let’s take a closer look at this.

acidic soil texture — Soil texture is important when trying to acidify soil

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Invasive Plants You Should NOT Buy

You are at the nursery and have found a nice-looking plant. Is it safe to bring home? Your friend has some extra plants and offers to give you some – should you take them? In both cases, you can get into a lot of trouble by taking the plant home.

This is a list of invasive plants you should never, never, never add to your garden–unless you want them everywhere.

Nurseries should be restricted from selling them to unsuspecting customers.

See also Products You Should Not Buy!

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Castor Beans – Are They Poisonous?

I was giving a talk at a local Master Gardner meeting the other day and I mentioned that castor beans contain one of the world’s most deadly organic compounds. Someone in the audience commented that you can actually eat several castor beans and you would only get a mild stomach ache.

These two points of view seem to contradict one another. What is the real story?

Castor beans, caster bean plant, Ricinus communis — Castor beans, Ricinus communis

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How to Get Rid of Moss in Lawns

Lots of people want to know how to get rid of moss in the law, but a better question to ask is, “why does moss grow in lawns?”The most common response to this question is that the lawn receives too much shade and that the soil is acidic. The common advice is that grass will grow better if you limb up the trees and add lime to the soil to make it less acidic. Or you can spread a moss killer for lawns.

What about moss that is growing in a sunny area? What about moss growing in soil that is alkaline? There is much more to the moss story and the only way to really get rid of moss in a lawn is to understand why it is there in the first place.

How to get rid of moss in lawn — Mossy alkaline bolder at Aspen Grove Gardens

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Liming Acidic Soil – Adding Lime

Your soil is acidic and you would like to change the pH so that it is less acidic. The universal advice is to add lime to the soil ie liming your soil. Lime is alkaline and it will neutralize the acidity of the soil and make it more neutral. Adding lime certainly works – but there is a catch!

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Do Pine Needles Acidify Soil

This is an old gardening myth that just won’t rot away!

This common, incorrect, advice goes as follows: if your soil is alkaline (ie has a pH above 7) and you want to make it more acidic, add pine needles to the soil. Since pine needles are acidic they will acidify your soil. This advice is very prevalent especially for growing acid loving plants such as azaleas and rhododendrons.

There are two important questions to ask. Firstly, are pine needles acidic? Secondly, do they acidify the soil? Let’s have a closer look at both questions.

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Compost Tea

Compost Tea has become a very popular topic. The following is a quote from Fine Gardening (ref 2):

Gardeners all know compost is terrific stuff. But there’s something even better than plain old compost, and that’s compost tea. As the name implies, compost tea is made by steeping compost in water. It’s used as either a foliar spray or a soil drench, depending on where your plant has problems.

Why go to the extra trouble of brewing, straining, and spraying a tea rather than just working compost into the soil? There are several reasons. First, compost tea makes the benefits of compost go farther. What’s more, when sprayed on the leaves, compost tea helps suppress foliar diseases, increases the amount of nutrients available to the plant, and speeds the breakdown of toxins. Using compost tea has even been shown to increase the nutritional quality and improve the flavor of vegetables. If you’ve been applying compost to your soil only in the traditional way, you’re missing out on a whole host of benefits.

Let’s look at the facts.

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Deep Root Fertilization for Trees

Deep root fertilization is a recommended procedure by many arborists. Does it work? Is it the best way to fertilize trees? Do trees need to be fertilized?

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