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Had a 10-minute chat with a botanist at the farmer's market that floored me
She explained how my tomato plants were getting too much nitrogen from my balanced fertilizer, and that's why they were all leaves and no fruit. Has anyone else had a random expert call out something you were doing totally wrong?
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daniel_gonzalez1mo ago
That part about the botanist calling out the nitrogen issue really hit home for me. It's wild how we can be doing something with good intentions and just making things worse without knowing it. I've noticed this pattern goes way beyond gardening though. In my experience, most problems in life come from giving something too much of a good thing - too much water kills plants, too much attention can smother a relationship, too many choices can freeze you up at the grocery store. Your mileage may vary, but I've found that a lot of times the answer is actually doing less, not more. Once you start paying attention, you see this balance thing everywhere, from cooking to parenting to fixing your car. It's like the universe is trying to teach us moderation in every single thing we touch.
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kai_webb911mo ago
Oh man, same thing happened with my hydrangeas last summer.
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lewis.mila1mo ago
Same thing happened to me with my azaleas last spring. The trick I figured out was to check the soil pH before doing anything else - most of the time it's just too alkaline. Once I added some aluminum sulfate and a good layer of pine bark mulch, they bounced back in a few weeks. Did you test your soil before you tried fixing them?
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