Bad gardening advice is everywhere online. Someone plants a bean seed and they’re already considering themselves an expert and boast a YouTube channel.

I belong to several Facebook gardening groups. Most are local but two are from science-based gardening folks with brilliant credentials to back them up.

A recent topic in both has been “how can we stop all the stupid gardening myths we see online?” or something to that effect. Bad gardening advice has probably killed more plants than grasshoppers.

Nobody came up with a solution. Which is sad, because there is so much garbage on so many gardening websites. One site in particular shows up in Google searches on the first page, often in the first position, so I imagine the perpetuation of myths comes largely from this site.

I want my readers to be better informed. That way, when you see myths being spread, you can help stop it.

And, the way we’ll do this is by subjecting everything you read, posted by a novice (typically anyone whose website ends in .com) to a C.R.A.P. analysis.

If you find yourself agreeing with someone that honey is an amazing rooting hormone, STOP. Research is your friend.

Put C.R.A.P in your gardening toolkit and you’ll never again blindly accept gardening myths.

The C.R.A.P. research method was developed by a library instruction coordinator at Columbia College Chicago, Molly Beestrum.

Currency

The “C” in the acronym stands for currency. No, not money, but recency. If someone cites a scientific study, check the date of the study. It could indicate outdated, bad gardening advice.

Then, check for more recent studies that may have different findings. The easiest way to do this is by adding .edu (dot edu) to the end of your search query.

For instance, if I want to find scientific studies on using cinnamon as a pesticide, I would go to my favorite search engine (DuckDuckGo, in case you’re wondering) and enter the following in the search box:

cinnamon pest control site:.edu

All of the search results will be from university websites. Yes, we’ve found mistakes and myths on those as well (usually in pieces written by master gardeners, not science-based writers), but not often.

Reliability

The “R” in C.R.A.P. stands for reliability. Recently, in one of the Facebook gardening groups, a woman counselled another member to add Epsom salt to the soil when she fertilizes her plumeria.

I chimed in and asked her why. Her response is that “Epsom salt helps the plant absorb the nutrients from the soil.”

I asked her to point me to where she got this information. She answered that she got it from another member of the group.

In other words, without proof of her claim, she was spreading bad gardening advice to new gardeners who will then pass it on and it will live into perpetuity.

Epsom salt is magnesium sulfate. Our soils, regardless of where we live, are typically not magnesium-deficient. If you think yours might be, have it tested by a university or other reputable soil lab before adding anything to it.

Too much magnesium in the soil will actually compete with the plant’s uptake of calcium and potassium, causing deficiencies.

Potassium’s most critical role, by the way, is to regulate water and nutrient movement in the plant’s cells. Therefore, using Epsom salt may actually prohibit this activity.

ALWAYS consider the reliability of the information you read. Most gardening articles will state the author’s name and, often, link to a bio that you can read.

Be on alert when reading – watch for anecdotal evidence cloaked as fact – and disregard the entire piece if you run across this.

When an article or blog post offers a source for a claim, the writer should link to the source. Follow that link and use your C.R.A.P. detector on it. Who wrote it? When?

If the writer failed to link to the source I doubt its veracity and typically disregard the entire article or blog post.

Oh – Wikipedia, by the way – is NOT a reliable source. The site’s founder even admitted it’s not.

Authority

On the world-wide web EVERYONE is an expert, right? On the surface, perhaps. But, dig deeper into the bios of gardening website writers and you may be shocked at how lacking in gardening experience they are.

Here are excerpts from the bio of one who wrote about plant diseases and their cures on a well-known gardening site

“[Name redacted] has written content for journals, websites, newspapers, radio news and newsletters, ranging from [names of journals and websites redacted], to non-profit organization websites. A librarian for over 30 years and a professional writer since 1996, she’s an experienced, knowledgeable researcher.”

Judging by some of her articles on this site, she may be an experienced researcher, but she is far from knowledgeable. She is a writer and none of the journals and websites mentioned in her bio show any garden writing experience.

Therefore, she lacks authority.

Purpose

“P” is for purpose. What is the advice-giver’s purpose?

There are writers and, more recently, YouTube garden gurus who have ulterior motives. One gentleman works for a fertilizer company while another sells large (huge) volumes of seeds.

Gardening information offered by someone with an agenda should set off an alarm in your C.R.A.P. detector.

I’m not saying they’re all full of ca-ca, just that you should read or watch with a very open mind.