Myths about gardening.

Myths about fertilizers and taking care of plants at the dacha

The mass dacha movement in Russia has existed for several decades. During this time, dacha owners, often with no experience of real farming, have created many myths, which are followed by gardeners of new generations. Today we will try to dispel some well-known myths about gardening, which dacha owners rely on to this day.

Table of Contents

Myths about organic fertilizers

We will talk about the “harmful advice” about the various organic fertilizers for garden crops.

Organic is safe in all its forms

Organic fertilizers in excessive amounts will do plants more harm than good. The same goes for biopesticides, which are thoughtlessly used by some supporters of ecology and clean farming. For example, pyrethrin-based poisons derived from purely biological plants (chamomile, dudnik, chrysanthemum) can be deadly not only to pests, but also to all other animals.

If you choose to control pests without chemicals, choose bacterial insecticides. Bacillus thuringiensis bacteria are more selective.

Plants have enough nutrition from natural organic matter and water

To obtain high yields and develop high-quality fruits, modern crop varieties, in addition to the necessary doses of organic elements and water, require mineral fertilizers, complexes of trace elements in an accessible form for assimilation, including various ready-made pellets of LCP and other fertilizers developed by industry together with agronomists and breeders.

Not enough compost.

Compost of poor quality or made from pesticide-treated plants is highly discouraged from use in the garden. When creating a useful fertilizer, it is important to watch its properties.

A sour smell from composted plants, for example, is an indicator of poor quality fertilizer. Such compost should be diluted with a better product or canned for a longer period of time.

Take note

Plants after pesticide spraying are best burned rather than composted.

Banana peels are a natural potassium supplement

One can only agree that compost is made from banana peels. In its “raw” form, it is of little use: before potassium enters the soil, microorganisms take nitrogen from the soil to use the banana peel.

Mineral fertilizers are needed by plants in strictly regulated amounts. Pexels/Photo by Greta Hoffman

Crops grown with mineral fertilizers are dangerous to humans

If the concentration of fertilizer and the timing of its application to the soil as fertilizer are properly calculated, there is no danger in eating any fruit, berry, vegetable or herb grown with mineral fertilizer. If the rules are not followed, however, harm is possible.

Modern industrial technology and the work of regulatory agencies almost completely eliminates the entry of dangerous products on the counter. But products grown by dacha farmers, where plants are often fertilized by eye, may be less useful.

Calcium for heartwood trees is more useful in the form of foliar feeding

The quality and warming of seeds, mainly apples, really depends on the presence of calcium available for the mold to assimilate. Lack of this element can be determined by the presence of spots on the fruit.

However, calcium can be successfully applied to the soil at the beginning of the growing season in the spring. The apple tree roots will definitely take advantage of this to build up a supply of the element. In addition, spraying will successfully work to maintain the necessary concentration of calcium in the tissues.

Photo Pixabay/Hans: Calcium is responsible for the quality and shelf life of apple trees.

Myths about plant care

Introducing gardeners to other well-known misconceptions about garden care.

When plants do not grow well they need to be fed

Plants can develop poorly for a variety of reasons: lack of nutrition is just one of them. If the feeding schedule has not been violated, the plants should not receive excessive nutrition. First you need to find out the cause of the pathology, and only then decide how to help your favorite greens.

• pest infestation;
• infection;
• unfavorable weather;
• Improperly selected soil.

Myths about the benefits of milk and coffee for plants

The natural acidity of coffee grounds is lower than normal. However, this does not mean that areas with plants need to be deacidified for their normal growth and development. For this purpose, it is recommended to use proven products containing sulfur.

Important

Coffee grounds not only lower the pH of the soil, but also maintain the nitrogen needed for plant life.

Milk spraying is used to prevent fungal diseases in garden plants. However, dairy products can also provoke rot. Spraying with milk products should therefore be approached cautiously with additional plant protection.

Disks and spikes should be protected with garden varnish

A glass of garden brew is an obligatory attribute of a garden party. It is recommended to use the authors of special literature. But in nature, trees do not grow back after collapse: they are protected in spite of the penetration of infection in the cracks and fractures. It is recommended to give fruit plants a chance to overcome sections and cuts themselves.

Drought-tolerant plants should not be watered.

Only mature plants can withstand drought, including prolonged drought. Young seedlings always need care and watering. When watering crops, it is important to watch the amount of water so as not to cause stagnant moisture at the roots of those plants for which relatively dry soil is safer than water.

Sand improves the structure of clay soils

Sand mixed with clay is a good solution for masonry stoves. Loamy and clayey soils require looser materials – composts – to drain and improve their structure. Adding a solid portion of compost to the soil will actually improve drainage and increase soil fertility.

As a side note.

It is important to prune the tree properly. It will cope with the wound through its internal reserves.

Read more helpful gardening and gardening tips:

What myths about taking care of cultivated plants in the summerhouse do you know? Share with other gardeners in the comments!

gardening myths. Top 10 most common misconceptions of gardeners

Renowned gardener and horticulturist Andrei Tumanov exposes the most popular harmful inventions that prevent dacha owners from getting good plants.

boron, iodine and verdure.

Forgotten, inherited from grandma, new and secret methods usually turn out to be complete nonsense. Plant diseases are almost never cured. If they appear, then the damage is already done. Plants are unlikely to revive and produce a good harvest.

In our country, 99% of amateur gardeners begin to fight the disease when it is too late. If you compare it to a person – doctor, I have gangrene, what mineral water should I drink?

For example, late blight, a fungal disease of the nightshade family, especially of potatoes and tomatoes, is incurable. Even the most advanced drugs can not beat it. There are many popular ways to easily get rid of it in just a few days.

Skimmed milk or milk product with a drop of iodine in it is now heralded as the main remedy against late blight. Many people like over-the-counter medications, especially antibiotics, even though they only fight bacteria. Millions of our fellow citizens spray plants with iodine and they turn bright green. I assume that pharmacists will be pouring out information about its benefits on forums. You have something stale and gardeners are sweeping it away.

In the last two years, when iodine “went to the people”, its sales increased a hundredfold. Boron began to feed three years ago and “increased the yields at times. But the plant absorbs no more than a microdose of boron, just as you don’t need to eat 10 plates of the former at dinner.

Yeast and brine.

The Internet is full of fantastically illiterate people who cultivate “tips for gardeners” headlines. Gardeners who have never grown a single tomato or cucumber in their lives broadcast on the main channel. There are quite a few lectures on the Internet about feeding bread or yeast. The presenter pays attention to all sorts of little things, for example, the temperature for growing yeast should be 26°, not 25°. However, he makes a wild mistake: when the yeast solution penetrates the soil, it supposedly reacts to release nitrogen, which the plants feed on.

Yeast are fungi. They feed on sugar and turn it into alcohol and carbon dioxide. Even theoretically, no nitrogen can be formed there. These videos are viewed hundreds of thousands of times. The main thing is to get the title of the video right: “Yields increase threefold.” If someone actually invents a technology that increases yields by 20%, they get a Nobel Prize.

Last year, following advice gleaned from the Internet, gardeners actively sprayed plants with a salt solution in the hope of getting rid of pests. Onion and carrot flies can be eliminated this way, but the soil can easily be spoiled for a long time. One of the half-myths is the feeding of beets with a salt solution. Any expert will tell you that beets tolerate some soil salinity, but this does not mean that they grow better.

mushrooms and eggshells

One prankster tells you on the Internet how easy it is to grow mushrooms in your garden. He suggests picking white hats, blankets, diluting with water, infusing and watering the floor. Then he demonstrates his action: There are porcini mushrooms growing all around. You can see with the naked eye that they were just planted. The video has been viewed 1.5 million times.

It was soon followed by followers. One of them garnered 600,000 subscribers. He did the same thing, but sprinkled a fungus solution on the houseplants. Two weeks later, he showed white mushrooms sticking out of all his pots.

Forest mushrooms grow only on certain kinds of trees, not on the property. Many people sincerely believe this nonsense and, more importantly, repeat it. Also on the Internet you can find a video with millions of views, in which a man destroys a bear cub with the help of eggshells. Apparently, she loves her very much. The shell has a sharp shape and is thrown into her belly. If the bear cub were that stupid, she would not have passed natural selection.

lunar calendar

If you plant according to the lunar calendar, it won’t make things worse, but no one has yet proven the scientific dependence of plants on the moon. Even in the Junnata area, we did planting on the most unfavorable and favorable days. There were no differences.

And for some testers, the harvests on the forbidden days even turned out to be the best, and they claimed they were always cheated. Things get much worse if you don’t plant on the recommended biological period. Then you can lose up to half of your crop.

For example, indeterminant (high and late) tomatoes should be planted in late February, and determinant (low and early) – in late April. Some people do not dare to understand such subtleties. It is easier to focus on the lunar calendar. It’s just like a horoscope, only ridiculous. In Germany, no one uses the lunar calendar. Your farmers plant on flow charts made by professionals and describing the details of growing crops.

Organic pesticides are safer than chemical pesticides.

For many people, the word “organic” is associated with a product that is environmentally friendly and safe for the environment and health. But there are no active and harmless pesticides. What is harmful to insects is dangerous to humans. And vice versa. If you spray the Colorado potato beetle with a fruit drink or kvass, it will not refuse it. If you take a bitter decoction of hot pepper, the aphids will die from it, but humans won’t like it either. It is all interrelated.

If someone says that the medicine is absolutely harmless to humans and everything else from it goes away, this is a fairy tale. Of course, there are biological and bacterial drugs, such as Bitoxybacillin, Lepidoside or Dendrobacillin. The Colorado potato beetle eats these strains of bacteria, which is bad for its digestion. However, such preparations can cause allergic reactions in humans. Insecticides are not used in professional production.

More fertilizer is needed when plants are planted

Some unfortunate plant breeders believe that plants grow poorly and get sick often because of a lack of nutrition, and they solve the problem with fertilizer. But this is the wrong approach.

The situation can be compared to a person. Suppose he is sick with the flu. The doctor prescribed him to eat three meals at a time? There has to be a norm in everything. Plants, like humans, have immune systems. Which people get sick less often? Healthy and hardened. So do plants. If they are carefully cared for and nourished, they will resist disease better. But if you over-fertilize, you can burn the plants and even provoke disease in them.

If you hammer a copper nail into the tree, the productivity will be higher

Professionals don’t do that. The nail disrupts the usual flow of sap in the trees, they stop their growth and in a state of stress direct plastic substances to lay fruit buds.

Hammering a nail into a living plant is the worst dozen ways to mechanically trigger an orchard. Better to do it by altering magnetic fields, such as with an axe buried under an apple tree, or magnets tied to the tree. In theory, a blocked nail gives more yield, but to the detriment of the plant. In such a case, there is no need to heal the wound. Necrosis will form in that area.

Nailing gardens is an irrelevant question for an expert. It occurs only to the amateur, because every year the professional apple tree bears fallen fruit. If the tree did not set buds, it means that it was not cared for: not trimmed, not mowed, not fed, not watered. The apple tree “thought”: “No one loves me – I will not create a big family. Why feed my children if I can barely survive? “

Sprinkle

The tea used cannot replace a full meal. Even if dried leaves are contributed to the forehead, which contains phosphorus, nitrogen and potassium, microdoses that don’t make the weather. In rooms, sleeping tea can get parasites: Drosophila, which likes to settle in a flower pot. Spirited tea is the basis for compost. When it decomposes, regular fertilizer is put into it. The plants themselves eat nothing – neither the tea nor the banana bowl – except nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium.

Bacteria and fungi help decompose and mineralize the products and turn them into available substances. It makes no difference whether the elements are extracted from red caviar or spiked tea. The nutrient content is about the same everywhere.

The best fertilizer is fertilizer.

It is not fertilizer. Plants don’t eat manure. It is a crude product with only nitrogen in its available form. Only when processed does manure turn into humus and give off nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. Weed seeds and pathogenic bacteria can lodge in manure. Pure manure reduces plant nitrogen. Typically, nitrates are not found in large farms that use mineral fertilizers, but in private farmers who live healthy lifestyles and produce healthy bio-products.

Nitrogen is a chemical element that does not differ in urea and manure. One kilogram of urea contains 46% nitrogen. It’s hard to get the dose wrong. Fresh manure contains a lot of nitrogen, old manure contains another. The loofah is a helper, not a panacea. It should be used very carefully. It is better to put it in compost and not to use it in its pure form.

Tomatoes and cucumbers should not be planted together

Tomatoes and cucumbers need different growing conditions. Tomatoes like dry air and temperatures no higher than 25°, while cucumbers like hot air and high humidity. But if there is no possibility to grow separately, you can plant in a greenhouse. The harvest from this will not lose much.

It is much more important to worry and prevent the appearance of diseases. To reduce the damage, you can remove the polyethylene film from the crops and set the temperature and humidity for each separately.