My grandpa's advice about planting tomatoes was totally wrong

He told me to bury the stem super deep (like 8 inches) to grow stronger roots, but I did that with 6 plants in my backyard and 4 of them rotted within 2 weeks. Turns out he was gardening in sandy soil in Arizona, but here in Ohio clay it just holds too much water. Has anyone else gotten gardening advice from a relative that backfired because of different soil or climate?

3 comments

3 Comments

dakota_singh3912h ago

Yeah that's the thing with a lot of old school advice, it works perfect in one spot but people treat it like a universal law. It's like how my uncle swears by changing your oil every 3,000 miles but he's driving a beater from the 90s on gravel roads, it's just not the same for everyone.

felix1551h ago

That oil example from @dakota_singh39 is perfect. My neighbor tried using his grandpa's "1 inch of water per week" rule on his sandy soil and just ended up washing everything away. You gotta ADAPT stuff to what you're actually working with.

piper_dixon451h ago

Buddy of mine tried his dad's mulching method from down south. Ended up smothering all his pepper plants up here in the northeast, total mess. Soil's just different.