Every gardener has experienced growing pains, from plant choice and environment to pests or diseases. I have always struggled with pests in my indoor garden and, more recently, powdery mildew. I almost always have thrips or mites and do my best to minimize the damage they cause. I am implementing new protocols and am optimistic that 2025 is the year I kill all these mother F***ers. This edition has informed and motivated me to make some changes. I hope you can solve your problems too with a little help from our friends.
Everest Fernandez has two informative articles any grower can relate to. In “Evaluating Clones” and “Powdery Mildew: A Quick Guide to Sanity,” you’ll find tips and tricks for selecting healthy plants and keeping them that way.
Countless growers use Calcium-Magnesium supplements, aka CaMG, to solve many plant problems. While vital to plant health, what’s the real scoop on Camg? Can it fix everything that goes wrong in a grow? In “CalMag – Cure-all or Quackery?”, our resident nutrient expert Av Singh, PhD, gives us the answer.
Alex Field offers excellent growing advice for all our budding mushroom enthusiasts in his article, “The 5 Most Common Mushroom-Growing Problems – and How to Avoid Them.” Xavi Kief writes about living soil as an IPM, a must-read for diehard organic growers.
I would also like to take this opportunity to introduce Haley Nagasaki, our featured author and newest member of the Garden Culture team. We could not be more excited! Get to know her better on p.9.
Happy Gardening
Gardens don’t grow without problems, but you can get a head start on battling pests and diseases! Catherine Sherriffs offers a list of preventative strategies.
When you think about it, gardening is not all that different from dating. In this article, Xavi Kief shares some tips on plant selection for a successful grow.
What are your first recollections of gardening? Louise Sanders credits her Papa with planting the seeds of what has sprouted into a passion for growing veg.
Isabel Openshaw has rediscovered her love for medicinal plants and connected with the ways of our ancestors and botanical folklore.
Strive for a self-sustaining ecosystem in the garden with cultural practices like crop rotation and interplanting. Haley Nagaski reveals her IPM toolkit.
Mushroom cultivation can be a very fruitful hobby – or even business, once the correct conditions are dialled in.
