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.
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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.
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Enjoying your blog and website, but just wanted to leave a comment about the possible benefit of the seedless tomato. We had been enjoying tomatoes very much all our lives, until, that is, our family cardiologist (who is also a research doctor) told us about the effect of solanine on the blood vessels. Apparently, he says, in past generations it was well known that one did not eat tomatoes because they were known to cause health issues, notably heart disease, he says, due to the solanine found in the skin and seeds of tomatoes and other nightshade vegetables. It has ony been in the last century that tomatoes have been used as food, he says, and the effect on blood vessels in particular has been incredibly bad. So I suppose blanching the tomato and removing its skin and finding seedless tomato varieties would be possibly helpful in avoiding future circulation problems and heart disease, if one wants to err on the side of caution! This makes me very sad as a tomato lover (every meal would be improved by a tomato, in my humble opinion!). Although I have not personally done the research, this cardiologist is quite reputable and supposedlly has written papers on the matter–just passing along the information, as I begin my search for seedless tomatoes!!!
“in past generations it was well known that one did not eat tomatoes because they were known to cause health issues” – I don’t think that is true. In past generations people did not eat tomatoes because they were concerned about this possibility. Eventually, people believed this was not an issue.
“the effect on blood vessels in particular has been incredibly bad.” – there is no way to know the problem is caused by tomatoes without a lot of studies and as far as I know they don’t exist.
I tried olives tree branches to propagation and also used alcovera gel wait many weeks but not successful.
Please can tel the way how propogat olive branches
Thanks
I have not done it – you could ask in our FaceBook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/GardenFundamentals/
Robert
I have always wondered about placing tinfoil beneath plants to deter insects. We know that honeybees use the pattern of polarized light in the sky to navigate. And we know many insects prefer the underside of leaves to hide from predators. My hypothesis is that the reflection of light from the ground will confuse some insects. The tin foil might add a few extra lumens for the leaves to help them grow faster.
I don’t have the sort of space to grow more than one or two of each plant, or I would do a test. I suspect it would be an idea to have tin foil under one set of plants during the day, and place it under the other sets at night. IF it works, it just might be from having mulch. A third row could be a different mulch, or tin foil that had been spray painted black.
My comment on the conventions used to denote N:P:K ratios seems to have been lost:
N : P : K
commas and dashes must be a US convention? Hard to read, I’m finding.
Greetings Robert
Just read you book on composting from cover to cover. Some years ago I remember reading in The Guardian newspaper about a gardener who died after inhaling a large dose of Aspergillus spores. There may have been additional reasons that exacerbated his condition but none the less, aspergillus spores in compost might be worth mentioning in the chapter Using Compost – Can compost make you sick?
Thoroughly enjoyed you book and must buy it for my daughter who is starting off gardening. I’m sure this will be her go-to reference book for many years.
Thank you kind words.
I am a bit confused about your latest video regarding epsom salt, which is just magnesium sulfate found in many micronutrient fertilizers.
My soil has low magnesium but very high calcium, I did a soil test. Why would using epsom salt be a bad idea? And why would it be a bad idea in my potted plants combined with gypsum?
I prefer not to use dolomite lime in my potted fruit trees because my tap water pH is 7.6.
As for my trees planted in the yard the soil pH is 6.8 with extremely high calcium.
I am assuming you just meant it won’t help do anything to old potting mix besides add magnesium?
I suppose it is possible my tap water has calcium carbonate and magnesium in it because of the higher than neutral pH, but is that really enough for potted fig trees?
Using Epsom salt is not a bad idea if you have a reason for adding it. I am sure the video said that adding it when you have a magnesium deficiency or a sulfur deficiency makes sense, except for the fact that it is a very expensive source for both nutrients.
Unfortunately, many gardeners believe it does a lot more than add these nutrients, which are not usually deficient.
We badly need you gardening myth busters. People love believing they have some rare knowledge about Epsom salts, egg shells, or elephant manure to make them feel special. Insisting on science and research to support practices is maturity
Hi Robert, hope you are well. How do I get rid of scale insects on my citrus trees? I tried dish soap, but that made the problem worse. There is bees, some birds and ladybugs feeding on these pests and I don’t want to harm them or scare them off with harsh pesticides. I sometimes spray them with the water hose, but this is not affective. I try not to use any insecticide or pesticides in my garden. I live in Pretoria, South Africa.
You don’t want to use anything to get rid of them, but you were willing to spray toxic dish soap on them?
Ladybugs are not feeding on scale – scale are covered with a hard covering that would prevent this – maybe you have not yet identified the problem correctly?
scale spray https://youtu.be/vFRg0xiHbzg
Hello, what fertilizer would you recommend for a houseplant?
NPK 5,4-1,8-5,7 + micronutrient
NPK 8-4-5 + micronutrient
NPK 7-5-6 + micronutrient, thank you.
First one – the other two have too much P.
Why do I find those ratios hard to read?
I’m used to the convention that “.” represents a decimal point. No idea what a hyphen “-” means, other than to separate items in a list, sometimes. The format I learned at school for stating ratios is: a:b:c
Have I got this right (ratio 1):
5 : 4.1 : 8.5 And what is the 7?
In which case, doesn’t ration 1 have (slightly) more P than ratio 2. Ratio 2 has more nitrogen and less potassium than ratio 1.
Sorry – meant to add:
a:b:c is spoken as: “a” is to “b” is to “c”
I am aware that the European convention is to use “,” in place of “.” for the decimal point.