Took me 4 years to figure out I was planting things wrong

I always dug holes the same size as the root ball. Last spring my wife dragged me to a nursery workshop in Spokane. The guy there said to dig the hole 3 times wider than the roots. I thought he was full of it. Tried it on some shrubs and they took off like crazy. All those trees I lost over the years probably just choked themselves out. Anyone else have a basic gardening habit they learned late?

2 comments

2 Comments

luna_wright29d ago

Yeah the tomatoes thing hits home. I did the same deep hole trick for YEARS because grandpa swore by it. Then a neighbor told me to just lay the stem sideways in a trench and cover it. Night and day difference. Tomatoes got HUGE. Also learned the hard way that watering little and often is useless. You gotta SOAK them deep once or twice a week instead. Roots chase the water down. Who knew. Gardening is basically just figuring out your plants are smarter than you.

charlescraig1mo ago

Same thing happened with my tomatoes. Always planted them deep because that's what my dad did, then learned they actually need the hole dug wide so the roots spread out. Made a huge difference in how much fruit I got.