4 Garden Myths To Avoid Right Now

You know that there are many

myths

, misconceptions or simply misinformation about

garden

ing that are widely spread on the Internet. Or maybe you've heard it from family or friends. Or maybe you've even told some of this to family and friends. But what I thought I would do today is bust four different

myths

and misconceptions when it comes to

garden

ing. Hopefully, we'll shed a little more explanatory light on what's really going on in the garden so you can take that knowledge and use it to grow some epic plants. So let's go ahead and jump

right

into it. The number one mistake is the use and misuse of eggshells in the garden.

So eggshells are very popular amendments. Many people like to use them in the garden. And what I thought I'd do is first, before we get into how people use them or misuse them, let's talk about what's really in an eggshell that makes it so valuable to us. First, calcium, approximately 50 parts per million of calcium within the shell of an egg. There are other elements too. You've got sulfur, potassium, magnesium, sodium, and then if you look really closely here, you can see that the inner membrane of the egg is still there. So there is also some organic matter.

I think typically about five percent by weight of organic matter in each eggshell. There are certainly a lot of good things and there are definitely some reasons why you would want to use them in the garden. But let's talk about one of the most common ways I see them used that actually has nothing to do with their nutrient content. And that would be like a barrier against snails and slugs. Many people will crush these eggshells and use them by placing them around a sensitive plant, perhaps one that is prone to slugs and snails, with the logic that the sharp edges of the crushed eggshell will deter slugs and snails. snails.

It's simply not true. It is verifiable and demonstrable that it is not true. In fact, you can watch time-lapse videos of the slugs crawling over and over again. And in fact there are videos of slugs and snails crawling on the blades of extremely sharp knives. Therefore, the edge is neither a good reason nor a deterrent for a slug or snail. What really deters slugs and snails is impeding their movement so they can't get to the plant at all or do something that dehydrates them or affects their actual tissue,

right

? So salt, sheep wool, dry diatomaceous earth.

If you are in a drier place, it can be a very good option. The edge of the eggshells really isn't enough and I would highly recommend not using it as a mechanism anymore. Now, another thing that people will use when it comes to eggshells is that they will just plant directly into them and plant their seeds in them. It's a really good way to use up a spent eggshell, right? You've already had omelette for breakfast. You might as well plant a little seed in this thing. Well, that's good. There's no real gardening-specific reason to do it.

Aside from the fact that it simply makes use of something that would otherwise have gone to waste. But you know, I think a lot of people will do this. They think the organic matter will break down, give you some extra calcium, this and that. It will not be bioavailable anywhere near the time frame that a seedling is growing and the seedlings get most of their nutrition from the soil or the seed itself. And then when you transplant this, you're not really going to use any of the nutrient content. And if you transplant this directly into the ground with a young seedling inside, the roots will attach down here.

It would be the same logic as why you wouldn't put a plastic pot in the ground. It is very difficult for the roots to go through this. So, you'll want to break up the bottom and then plant it or, honestly, just take it out and plant it directly in the ground. Why wouldn't you do it that way? It makes a lot of sense to me. And then you can use this eggshell for probably some of its best purposes, which we're going to talk about now. So why would you want to use an eggshell? Well, what you can do is shred it and throw it into your vermicompost, your compost bin, your hot compost bin, or you can put it in your soil.

But the finer the particles, the better it breaks down. That's just a general rule of composting. The finer it is, the more surface area there is for microbes, etc., to start acting on this material here. It is a very resistant material, hard and breaks. If you put this directly into your compost or certainly into your vermicompost, it won't do much good for a while. On the other hand, if you blend or grind it, it will break down much faster. So it is a better way to use eggshells. And I'll leave you with one last way, which is actually a very clever and creative way from my friend Steven from Nature's Always Right.

You can take the calcium out of the eggshell, make it water-soluble, and actually use it as a foliar spray if you create something called water-soluble calcium. So the way to do it is to crush the eggshells, put them on a baking sheet, bake them for about 45 minutes at normal temperature, 350, something like that. You want to burn the organic matter and sterilize it. Then you put it in a jar, mix one part eggshells with 10 parts brown rice vinegar. Let it sit for seven to 10 days. You are actually making the calcium soluble in water. In a way you are mobilizing it to get it out of the egg shell itself.

And then what you're going to do with that mixture is you're going to mix that mixture, one part of that mixture to a thousand parts of water, and then you're going to use it as a foliar spray on your plants to give it a quick dose of calcium. That can be a very good way to extract the calcium faster so that it is bioavailable very quickly and you can use it in the garden. Myth number two is to use forks or pointed objects to place upright in the beds to prevent animals from getting into them. This is actually a bit of a funny story.

I have a follower on Instagram @epicgardening, if you haven't already followed me there, who sent me this crazy photo of a raised bed. In fact, many raised beds where she had 750 plastic forks stuck to her beds are like this. And she hoped that both her cat and the stray cats would stay out of it. First of all, what an incredible misuse of 750 single-use plastic items, right? Not much use right there. But even if you used bamboo stakes, etc., that won't deter most cats and crawling animals. So there are many different ways to deter garden cats. This is not one of them.

I mean, a chicken wire fence around them can work great. You can use Remay, which is like an ice cloth. In fact, I have used Remay very well and to great effect on a burrowing skunk I had here in the yard. That worked very well for me. You can do all kinds of things and in fact on Instagram they have this crazy thread of people with hundreds and hundreds of suggestions of ways they've dealt with cats in the garden. Just don't make pointy things sticking out of your beds. It's a nuisance. It kind of gets in the way.

And especially if you use single-use items, unlike this metal fork, it's an incredible waste of our natural resources. So that's myth number two. Myth number three has to do with blossom-end rot. It is not caused by an insect or a disease. First of all, what is blossom-end rot? It refers to a condition on the plant where the flower end or the bottom end of this tomato here will have a water-soaked spot and then eventually harden. It will turn black or brown and very hard and that plant will effectively be ruined or that fruit will be ruined.

Now you hear the word rot and you think, well, maybe it's a bacterial problem, maybe it's a fungal problem. It's actually a plant condition and a lot of people will say, well, it's a calcium deficiency in the fruit. And technically that's true, although you know it's not that simple. What is actually happening is a plant's inability to transport calcium to where it needs to be that is causing that problem. Often the soil itself has a lot of calcium. Something happens in the plant that can't take that calcium and transport it to where it needs to be.

So, one of the best ways to prevent blossom-end rot is to care for the plant as perfectly as possible. Uneven watering is a very common cause of blossom-end rot. So if you grow tomatoes, certainly in containers, it can be a very good idea to use some mulch. Or really, anywhere you grow tomatoes, use some mulch to even out soil moisture. Also just take care of the plant. And so these kinds of links go back to our question of eggshells. You would think, okay, we'll throw some eggshells in the bottom and crush them or not, that will help mobilize some calcium and then the plant will get the calcium and not have blossom-end rot.

Most soils have sufficient calcium. It is the inability of the plant to move it. So it's definitely a misconception and I think a lot of people who suffer from blossom end rot will just try spraying the leaves with calcium. These tomato leaves are not capable of sending calcium from here to here. The roots are how this fruit will get its calcium. So those are just some misconceptions if you want to prevent it. Some people still spray the leaves and give it some calcium with the underlying theory that if the leaves get enough then the roots will not send it to the leaves and then conversely they will send it to the actual fruit.

Good. Here are some things about blossom-end rot that you may not have known. Hopefully this will clear up myth number three. Myth number four: Pine needles will acidify the soil. This is simply not true. It just happens that fresh pine needles are slightly acidic. Older pine needles really aren't acidic at all. And in fact, the researchers took soil samples from an area where there were pine trees that were at least 50 years old and had been growing continuously for that time. Then he took a soil sample from that area. They took a soil sample from another area where pine trees had not grown for 50 years and the pH of the soil was relatively the same.

So the ability of pine needles to acidify soil certainly won't happen if they can't even acidify soil in a pine forest. And in fact, even acid rain itself, which is not related to pine needles, does not actually acidify the soil itself. So it's very difficult for something like that to do that. And what that means is that if you have a really good source of pine needles, by all means, go ahead and use it. And you can even let them dry out a bit to make sure they get close to a neutral pH. But I wouldn't worry about the pine needles acidifying the soil.

In fact, they can be a fantastic compost additive, mulch additive, or many other uses in the garden. So four different myths. I hope you have been helpful. I have much more planned for you this growing season. We are approaching the challenge of the growth of the apocalypse. The book Field Guide to Urban Gardening is about to be published, so go ahead and order it in the video description. I'll send you a free seed packet if you order before May 14th which is the release date, which I'm really excited about. And much more to come. So if you have any of your favorite myths, leave them in the comments below.

Maybe I can make in-depth videos on them. Or if there is anything in this video that you want explained further, leave it in the comments below. Maybe I can do a standalone episode about it. Until next time, good luck in the garden and keep growing. And look at this garden right here. Look at this thing. Greens on autopilot, baby. And that will happen soon. Okay, later.