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Your Garden: Common Garden Myths

NEWS CENTER's Cindy Williams discusses common garden myths with Longfellow’s Greenhouses

MANCHESTER, MAINE, Maine — Gardening season is upon us. The Spring flowers are up and the heartier crops are in the ground. There are a lot of myths out there and when and how to plant, so we thought we’d find out of they are true or not, to get your growing season off to a good start.

Myth #1- When your plant is wilting, it needs more water.  That is NOT always the case.  Scott Longfellow of Longfellow’s Greenhouses says touch the soil with your finger.  If it’ dry and warm, it does need water.  If it’s cool and moist then you have something else going on. It could be a host of things stressing your plant, including root diseases. Let it dry out and then investigate.  But don’t add more water. That will just make matters worse.

Myth #2- If you plant a banana peel in the soil with your plant, the plant will absorb the nutrients. Somewhat true. But Ellie Longfellow of Longfellow’s says there are not enough nutrients that actually get absorbed by the plant to see any real benefit. To pack a punch, she says just use your favorite fertilizer.

Myth #3- If you plant a small plant in a big pot, you’ll get a big plant without having to report every few years. FALSE. Ellie says “A few misconceptions about repotting house plants and plants, in general, is that you can actually cause too much stress on the plant to buy putting it in a pot that is too big.“ if there is too much space, “The roots don’t know where to go.”  It also causes watering issues. The plant is used to a certain amount of soil absorbing and hold water near its root. The more soil there is, the more water is absorbed and the plant gets stressed.

Myth #4- It’s never too early to plant cucumbers. FALSE. There’s an old wives tale that you can plant vining veggies after the first full moon in May. That’s really doesn’t work in Maine, and especially THIS May, because we can still get a frost that would kill the plants. Will Longfellow tells customers at their greenhouse outside Augusta, that they should always wait until June 1. So you eager beaver out there need to take a breath. We will get there, eventually.

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