My neighbor's tomato advice turned out to be totally wrong

My neighbor Carol told me last spring that I needed to water my balcony tomatoes every single day without fail. She said her grandma did it that way and grew the biggest tomatoes in Ohio. Well, after 3 weeks of daily watering I had sad yellow leaves and no fruit at all. Turns out she was overwatering them like crazy and I should have let the soil dry out between waterings. Once I cut back to every 3 days the plants bounced back and I got about 15 decent cherry tomatoes off two plants. Has anyone else gotten bad advice from a well-meaning friend that messed up their balcony garden?

2 comments

2 Comments

william_miller14d ago

Oh man, that's rough! I had a similar thing with a friend who swore by eggshells for everything in the garden. Told me to crush them up and sprinkle them all over my pepper plants to keep bugs away. I ended up with a bunch of eggshell shards floating around my little porch pots and actual bug problems because I guess eggshells don't really do much for pests? I mean, maybe it's just me but I think my friend's advice came from a half-remembered Pinterest post. At least your tomatoes bounced back though, mine just looked like a sad egg-themed mess for a month.

the_kim14d ago

Haha oh no, that eggshell thing is such a common myth huh. I've seen people swear by it online but like, does it really do anything? Seems like more of a hassle than it's worth honestly.