Social Media Gardening Tips and Tricks to Avoid

If your provender is anything like mine , you get a constant flow of newsy horticultural information every prison term you look at your phone . Many of these articles , memes , and posts are passably upright , or at least not harmful . But some ideas that keep pop up are either useless or potentially dangerous to either you or your plants . Here are a few particularly ridiculous societal medium fictions that we should all avoid sharing .

Myth 1: Oil and vinegar will wipe out weeds

Homemadeweed killershave been get to the rhythm on social media ever since I first ventured onto Facebook over 15 years ago . Almost all of the homemade gage killers you ’ll see admit acetum or oil color that purportedly vote down plants more rapidly and “ naturally ” than something like Roundup can . The trouble is that while vinegar and oil will rapidly kill the top of a flora by burn it , they wo n’t wipe out the intact plant , and so weeds will grow back by the roots . Of naturally , very small plants may be whole stamp out , but this is the exception rather than the rule . A final trouble with vinegar and oil is that they can be very dangerous for amphibians , reptiles , insects , and other creatures that dwell our gardens . attract weedsby hand is a much safer stake .

Myth 2: Ground-up vegetables make great fertilizer

There are numerous recipes that let in mixing and grinding Irish potato , tomatoes , onion peel , lemon tree , lentil , and other plant matter into water to be use to plant as afertilizer . commonly the solid part are filtrate out and the liquid is applied to the soil or directly to the foliage . This practice is n’t so much bad as it is wasteful . All of these organic materials would be wonderful additions to a healthycompost bin . Why go to the trouble of partially extracting a few nutrient and throw out the rest of the cloth ? It ’s just silly and purposeless .

Myth 3: Spicy, home-brewed concoctions will keep bugs away from plants

Everyone seems to have a “ secret ” formula for a homemade insecticide that they are willing to apportion with the whole internet . Ingredients such as garlic , hot peppers , and even tobacco get a lot of social media attention as cure - alls for worm problem , but these claims are not based in science . Yes , a few of these mixtures can have some effect on insects , but it tends to be humble and short - lived . Depending on what they contain , homemade sprays can also damage your plants by burning them or can be harmful to you . Hot capsicum and garlic mist in the eye , anyone ? If you are attend to apply safer insect - ascendency sprays , the safe option is almost always to purchase commercial insecticidal soaps or horticultural oils . These mathematical product are formulated specifically to be both tough on louse and secure for your plants and for you .

Myth 4: Brewing compost tea is worth your time

The number of post I have seen recently proclaim the virtues ofcompostingis off the chart . There are many types of composting , and most are perfectly wonderful . Fromvermicomposting(using worms to help break down mesa scrap ) tocold composting(the easygoing method , which consists of piling up food flake , leaves , and other organic materials and then get nature do its affair ) , there ’s a composting expressive style to suit almost everyone . However , the origin and use of “ compost Camellia sinensis ” total an unnecessary step to the composting operation and can potentially usher in harmful microbes to the mix . Compost is full of nutrient that both helpful and harmful microorganism love , and inquiry has show that brewing a quite a little of tea can boost populations of pathogen such asSalmonellaandE. coli . Even for the experienced compost enthusiast , this practice has more drawbacks than benefit and should be forefend .

Myth 5: Ice cubes are an easy way to water orchids

There is a detail of people , include some faculty member , who think that ice cubes are an appropriate way to waterorchids . They recommend localise these methamphetamine hydrochloride block on top of the media in which the orchidaceous plant is planted and then allowing the cube to mellow out , thereby slowly fork up an appropriate amount of water to the industrial plant . It sounds smashing , and some people have certainly had winner with this method . Here at theUNC Charlotte Botanical Gardens , however , we have find that orchids watered this way slow refuse over the course of about six months , presumptively because of the temperature of the ice cubes . A better method for lacrimation is to take the orchids over to a sink and run half-hearted weewee over the roots for a minute or so about once a week . One affair you should never do is to let orchids baby-sit in digest piss .

Myth 6: Rocks improve pot drainage

An all - too - coarse good word is to place rock , clayware fragment , or other little , enceinte objects in the bottom of a pot to aid with drain . Putting heavy material in the bottom of a container may be useful if your container is made from a lightweight material , or if it will be in a location where it could be frequently knock over by confidential information . However , rocks do not better container drain and will instead actually raise the piss board inside the kitty . H2O will conglomerate in the soil above the rock’n’roll layer , and drainage will suffer . So jump the rock and clayware shard and concentre alternatively on finding a soilless mix that is well - suited to the plant you are turn .

Jeff Gillman , Ph.D. , writer ofThe Truth About Organic Gardening , is the conductor of the University of North Carolina Charlotte Botanical Gardens .

Illustrations : Savannah Gallagher

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