My first attempt at gardening taught me the opposite of what everyone says

I tried growing tomatoes in my backyard in Columbus, Ohio a few summers ago. Everyone told me to plant them in full sun, water them every day, and use a lot of fertilizer. So I did exactly that. But by August, the leaves were all yellow and the fruit was splitting open. I asked an older neighbor who has a beautiful garden, and he told me I was overdoing it. He said I should water less often but deeper, and stop using so much chemical feed. I cut back to watering every three days and switched to compost tea. The next batch of tomatoes was the best I ever had. Has anyone else found that doing the opposite of common advice worked better for them?

2 comments

2 Comments

susanb341mo ago

I remember reading somewhere that plants actually like a little stress, it makes them work harder. My neighbor used to swear by that for her roses, she'd barely water them and they'd bloom like crazy. With tomatoes especially, I've heard overwatering makes the roots lazy and then they can't handle a dry spell. The splitting fruit thing is classic too, that happens when they gulp up too much water too fast. So it makes sense that backing off helped you out.

wilson.joseph1mo ago

Doesn't compost tea count as a kind of fertilizer though? I think people get too caught up in the "natural" label and forget it's still feeding the plant. Maybe the real lesson is just that you were overdoing it, not that common advice is always wrong.