- 2 days ago
9 tomato growing myths can quietly wreck your harvest, and the fix is often simpler than the advice people keep repeating. Here the focus is on common tomato growing mistakes, what actually causes problems like blossom end rot, and which tips are worth ignoring if you want healthier plants and better fruit.
The lesson is practical and direct: crushed eggshells in the planting hole do not solve blossom end rot, because uneven watering is the real issue. It also explains why pruning depends on the type of tomato, why stripping off too many leaves hurts ripening, and why more sun is not always better in hot climates. You’ll also hear why deep, less frequent watering builds stronger roots, why Epsom salt is not a general fertilizer, and why saved seeds from open-pollinated tomatoes can be a smart, long-term choice.
This gardening guide also covers companion planting, cracked tomatoes, and the value of mulching, shade in extreme heat, and steady moisture for a better vegetable garden. It is useful for home gardeners, raised bed growers, container gardeners, and anyone looking for tomato care tips, garden myths, and practical harvest advice.
Created for viewers searching for tomato growing tips, gardening advice, vegetable garden help, and common tomato myths explained. It fits how-to gardening, backyard growing, and seasonal planting searches for people who want healthier tomato plants, better yields, and simple organic gardening guidance.
The lesson is practical and direct: crushed eggshells in the planting hole do not solve blossom end rot, because uneven watering is the real issue. It also explains why pruning depends on the type of tomato, why stripping off too many leaves hurts ripening, and why more sun is not always better in hot climates. You’ll also hear why deep, less frequent watering builds stronger roots, why Epsom salt is not a general fertilizer, and why saved seeds from open-pollinated tomatoes can be a smart, long-term choice.
This gardening guide also covers companion planting, cracked tomatoes, and the value of mulching, shade in extreme heat, and steady moisture for a better vegetable garden. It is useful for home gardeners, raised bed growers, container gardeners, and anyone looking for tomato care tips, garden myths, and practical harvest advice.
Created for viewers searching for tomato growing tips, gardening advice, vegetable garden help, and common tomato myths explained. It fits how-to gardening, backyard growing, and seasonal planting searches for people who want healthier tomato plants, better yields, and simple organic gardening guidance.
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00Half of what you have been told about growing tomatoes is dead wrong, and it is quietly
00:05costing you your crop every single year.
00:08The advice gets passed around the fence and printed on the seed packet and repeated so
00:13often that everyone takes it for gospel, and a good deal of it is plain false, some of
00:20it harmful, and following it holds your tomatoes back or ruins them outright.
00:25Today, I am going to give you nine of the most common tomato myths, the ones near everyone
00:32believes, and the plain truth behind each, quick, one after another, so keep up, for at
00:39least a couple of these you have surely believed your whole life, and dropping them will grow
00:45you a better tomato than any feed or trick ever could.
00:49I am Elias, and I would rather tell you the plain, honest truth of a thing than pass on
00:55a pretty tale that fails you.
00:57So let me clear away the nonsense and leave you the truth, myth by myth.
01:03Quick word before I go further.
01:05The old methods my family uses, there is more of it than fits in any one video.
01:11I gathered the whole of it into a book at EliasYoder.com.
01:22My grandfather used to say that half of gardening was doing the right thing, and the other half
01:28was not doing the wrong thing you were told to.
01:31He had watched folk his whole life chase bits of advice that did nothing while their tomatoes
01:37failed, and he would just shake his head and tend his own by what he had seen with his own
01:43eyes truly work.
01:45Believe what the plant shows you, Elias, not what the neighbor swears by, he told me.
01:51So in that spirit, let me clear away the nonsense for you.
01:55The first myth, and a harmful one, is that eggshells in the planting hole stop blossom end rot.
02:02You know the trouble, that black, sunken rot on the bottom of your tomatoes.
02:07And everyone will tell you it comes of a want of calcium in the soil, so crush your eggshells
02:12in the hole to add calcium and cure it.
02:16And here is the truth, that it near never works, for it was almost never a want of calcium
02:22to begin with.
02:23Your soil has calcium enough near always.
02:27The real cause of blossom end rot is uneven watering, the soil going dry, then flooded,
02:34then dry.
02:35For the plant can only carry its calcium up to the fruit steady when its water is steady.
02:40And when the water swings, the calcium cannot reach the fruit however much is in the soil,
02:46and the bottom rots.
02:48So the eggshell does little, and worse, folk trust it and never fix the true cause.
02:54The real cure is even, steady watering and a good mulch to hold the moisture level.
03:01Water steady, not eggshells, is the answer to blossom end rot.
03:06Now do not hear me wrong and throw your eggshells out, for they are a fine thing worked into the
03:12compost or the soil over time, giving their calcium slow and helping the soil.
03:18So save and use your shells by all means.
03:21It is only the notion that a handful in the hole will cure the rot that is false, for the
03:27shell breaks down far too slow to feed that plant this season, and the rot was never a
03:33calcium want anyhow.
03:35So use your shells in the compost, but cure the rot with steady water.
03:40The second myth is that you must pinch off every sucker, always, on every tomato.
03:46The sucker is that little shoot that springs up in the crook where a branch meets the stem,
03:52and you are told flatly to pinch them all off or you will get no fruit.
03:57And here is the truth, that it depends entirely on the kind of tomato, and pinching them all
04:03off the wrong kind costs you your crop.
04:06For there are two sorts of tomato, the tall, sprawling, indeterminate kinds that grow and
04:12grow all season, those you do pinch, keeping them to a stem or two so they do not turn to
04:19jungle.
04:20But the bushy, determinate kinds that grow to a set size and set all their fruit at once,
04:26those you must not pinch, for they make their fruit out on those very suckers, and pinch them off,
04:32and you pinch off your whole harvest. So know your tomato first, and here is how you tell them,
04:38that the tall, indeterminate kinds keep growing taller and taller all season and never stop till
04:46the frost, needing a tall stake or a string to climb. While the bushy, determinate kinds grow to
04:53about a set size, a tidy bush of three or four feet, and stop, and set the most of their
05:00crop in one
05:01great flush. The seed packet will often tell you which you have. Pinch the tall climbers, leave the
05:08bushy kinds their suckers. Never pinch every sucker on every plant. The third myth is the one the source of
05:17this very list gets wrong, so I will correct it plainly even as I pass on the rest, and it
05:23is this,
05:24that you can strip all the leaves off a tomato late in the season and it does no harm, that
05:31you do not
05:32need leaves to ripen the fruit. Do not believe it, for it is false and it will cost you. It
05:39is true and
05:40good to strip the lower leaves, the old ones near the ground, for airflow and to keep disease off,
05:47that much is right. But to strip a plant of all or most of its leaves is a great harm,
05:54for the leaves
05:55are how the plant makes its food, and feeds and finishes and sweetens its fruit, and a plant stripped
06:02bare cannot ripen its tomatoes well and leaves them naked to the sun to scald and blister.
06:10So strip the lower leaves, yes, but never the plant bare. The leaves feed the fruit, so leave the plant
06:18its good top leaves. The fourth myth is that more sun is always better, that a tomato can never have
06:27too
06:27much. And in the cool north, near true. But in the hot country, false and harmful, for in a fierce
06:35high
06:36summer heat, above the 90s, a tomato stops setting its fruit and its flowers drop, and the fruit it has
06:44can scald and blister in that brutal sun. So in the hot places, a tomato actually wants a bit of
06:52shade
06:52through the worst of the afternoon heat and bears better for it, where the full blazing sun would stall it.
07:00So full sun in the cool country, but some afternoon shade in the fierce heat. An old sheet or a
07:08bit of
07:08lath on some stakes, to break the worst afternoon sun through a heat wave, keeps a tomato setting fruit
07:16when the neighbors, out in the full blaze, have quit and dropped their flowers. More sun is not always better.
07:24The fifth myth is that you should water your tomatoes a little every day. It feels kind and careful,
07:32and it grows you a weak plant. For watering a little each day wets only the top of the soil,
07:40so the roots stay up shallow where the water is, a weak, shallow-rooted plant that wilts the first hot,
07:47dry day. The truth is to water deep and seldom, a good long soak that sinks down deep, then leave
07:57it a
07:57few days to dry before the next, so the roots chase that water down deep and grow a strong deep
08:04root
08:04that stands any drought. Deep and seldom, never a daily sprinkle. And how do you know when to water,
08:13if not by the day of the week? By the soil itself. Push your finger down into the soil a
08:20couple inches,
08:20and if it is still moist down there, leave it be, and only when it comes out dry do you
08:27give it its deep
08:28soak. Let the soil tell you, not the calendar, and you will never over water nor under water again.
08:36The finger in the soil never lies. The sixth myth is that Epsom salt is a fine all-round tomato
08:45fertilizer that grows you a bigger crop, so douse them with it. And here is the truth, that Epsom salt
08:53is no fertilizer at all. It holds none of the real plant food, no nitrogen nor phosphorus nor potash.
09:01It is only magnesium and sulfur. It helps in the one case where your plant is truly short of magnesium,
09:10which shows as a yellowing between the veins of the older leaves, and then a little helps. But poured
09:17on a plant that is not short of it, it does nothing but build up salt in your soil and
09:22harm it. So it is
09:24no fertilizer and no general booster, only a narrow fix for one particular shortage. Do not douse your
09:33tomatoes in Epsom salt. The seventh myth is that you must buy fresh seed every year, that saved tomato
09:41seed will not grow. False, and it robs you of a free garden. For the old open-pollinated heirloom tomatoes
09:50grow perfectly true from your own saved seed year on year, and you need never buy again, only ferment the
09:58seed a few days to clean it and dry it. Now it is true of the modern hybrid kinds, the
10:05ones marked F1,
10:06that their saved seed comes out a jumble, so of those you must buy anew. But plant the old open
10:14-kinds
10:15and save your own seed, and the myth that you must buy fresh is broken forever. And there is a
10:22fine
10:22gift in it beyond the thrift. That seed you save from your own best plant year on year slowly grows
10:30suited to your own ground and weather, a tomato that becomes your own, which no bought packet could
10:37ever give you. So save your seed from your best, and grow a tomato that is yours.
10:45The eighth myth is that planting basil or marigolds among your tomatoes will keep all the pests off and
10:53work like a magic guard. Now do not throw out your basil and marigolds, for there is a kernel of
11:00truth
11:00here, that a garden full of flowers and herbs does draw the good bugs and confuse some pests, and helps
11:09a little. That much is real. But it is oversold, for a few basil plants will not stop a determined
11:17pest,
11:17nor cure an infestation. And folk plant their marigolds and then neglect the real work, thinking they are
11:25guarded, and lose their crop. So companion plants are a help, a good one, but not a magic shield. Plant
11:33them, but do not trust them to do the whole job. The ninth myth is that a cracked or split
11:41tomato is
11:42ruined and must be thrown away. Not so, and it wastes good food. A tomato cracks from that same
11:51uneven watering, a sudden drink swelling it faster than its skin can stretch, and while a crack left
11:58long on the vine can let in rot and bugs, a tomato you catch and pick as soon as it
12:04cracks is perfectly
12:05good to eat. Just use it soon rather than store it. So do not bin your cracked tomatoes. Pick them
12:13promptly and eat them. They are as sweet as any. A cracked tomato is not a ruined one. And if
12:21one
12:21cracks while still a touch green, do not leave it on the vine where the crack will rot. Pick it
12:28and set
12:28it on the windowsill to finish ripening indoors, for a tomato ripens well off the vine once it has begun.
12:35To turn, and you save it that way from the rot and the bugs the crack would draw. Pick the
12:43cracked
12:43ones and ripen them in, and lose not a one. Now let me say a small plain word, not a
12:51who-profits
12:52sermon, for a tomato is no one's scheme. But notice how many of these myths sent you towards something to
13:00buy or do that did not work. The eggshells, the epsom salt, the fresh seed every year, the fussing and
13:09the dousing. When the real answers were plain, free things. Steady watering, deep watering, a bit of shade,
13:18knowing your kind of plant, saving your seed. So much false garden lore, passed around and printed up,
13:27quietly steers a body toward the busy, bought way, and away from the plain true one. The old people
13:35were not so easily fooled, for they watched their plants close, and knew what truly worked from what
13:42was only said to, and grew fine tomatoes by the plain truth while their neighbors chased the myths.
13:48That old habit of trusting what you see work over what you are told is worth more than any packet
13:57of
13:57advice. So there are nine tomato myths to drop, and the truth behind them. Eggshells do not cure
14:06blossom end rot, steady watering does. Do not pinch every sucker, only the tall kinds, never the bushy.
14:15Do not strip a plant of all its leaves, only the lower ones, for the leaves feed the fruit.
14:23More sun is not always better, for the fierce heat wants some shade. Do not water a little daily,
14:32water deep and seldom. Epsom salt is no fertilizer, only a fix for one shortage.
14:40You need not buy fresh seed, for you can save your own from the old kinds.
14:47Companion plants help, but are no magic shield. And a cracked tomato is not ruined, just pick it and eat
14:55it soon. Drop these nine, follow the plain truth behind each, and you will grow a better tomato this
15:03year than all the old myths ever let you. Now I want to hear from you. Tell me down below
15:10which of
15:10these nine you had believed, for I will wager it is the eggshells or the Epsom salt that catches the
15:17most of you, and whether the truth surprised you. And tell me your county and how your tomatoes have
15:24fared. For now you know which bit of bad advice may have been behind your troubles. I read every one.
15:32Next time I want to show you the biggest plain mistakes I see folk make with their tomatoes.
15:38Not the myths they believe, but the simple errors they make without knowing. The ones so common and so
15:45easily fixed that the naming of them may save your whole crop.
15:50The old people did not swallow every bit of garden lore that came down the fence. They watched their
15:56own plants close, and kept what they saw truly work, and quietly dropped what did not, and so grew
16:04fine crops by the plain honest truth while the myths led others astray. There is a quiet wisdom in that,
16:13entrusting your own eyes and the plain nature of a thing over the pretty tale everyone repeats.
16:19The people who built this country with their hands knew that, and we are only just starting to remember it.
16:26are of critical, and they also have to support the property that is equal to the fact that,