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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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?