The things we got wrong
This page is a log of corrections—not a celebration of what we did right. It exists so you can judge the work by its failures, not its claims. A site that publishes mistakes is rare enough to be worth trusting.
Most gardening sites hide their errors behind polished photos and confident prose. Here, you’ll find the opposite: the things we got wrong, who noticed them, and how we fixed them. If a site won’t admit its mistakes, how can you trust its advice?
Three we had to fix
The most consequential failures come first. These are the ones that could have misled readers, wasted time, or even ruined a harvest. None were intentional, but they happened—and now they’re here so you can see how we caught them.
The wrong soil pH chart
- 1Published incorrect pH ranges
For six months, our soil acidity guide listed tomato plants as thriving in pH 6.0–7.0. In reality, tomatoes prefer 6.0–6.8. A reader in Texas, whose cherry tomatoes kept yellowing, sent a photo of their soil test. Dwight Barrera cross-checked with three university extensions and updated the chart the next day. The old version was removed within hours of discovery.
- 2Mislabelled composting times
Our ‘Fast Composting’ guide claimed kitchen scraps broke down in 30 days. A permaculture volunteer in Oregon timed their compost pile and found it took 50 days—with only 60% decomposition. Dwight Barrera rewrote the section after testing with three different bin setups, including a failed attempt with too much nitrogen. The original claim stayed online for 21 days.
- 3Deadly pruning advice
An old post advised cutting back lavender stems to ‘just above the first set of leaves.’ A reader in France sent a photo of their plant—now brown and crispy—because they’d pruned too late in the season. The fix was simple: replace the vague language with exact measurements (‘cut 1/3 above the lowest leaf node’) and add a warning about timing. Dwight Barrera made the change after consulting a horticulturist, but not before three other readers reported similar damage.
What those three changed
These mistakes forced us to rewrite how we test advice. Now every fact is tied to a real garden, not a textbook—or worse, a guess. The rules that came from them are simple: measure twice, test once, and never assume a photo proves anything.
Rules that came from mistakes
- Every pH range must be sourced from a university extension or peer-reviewed study (from the *wrong soil pH chart*).
- Composting timelines are now based on controlled trials, not ‘typical’ claims (from *mislabelled composting times*).
- Pruning instructions include seasonal warnings and exact measurements (from *deadly pruning advice*).
The people behind this
Dwight Barrera is the founder and editor of *Tree Roots*, and the only person who signs off on corrections. You’ve already met them through their mistakes—which is the only honest way to introduce someone who writes about gardening.
They’ve spent years digging up their own errors, and it’s not a job they’d recommend.
Keeping a log like this means admitting when you’re wrong in public, even when it’s uncomfortable. It also means answering emails from readers who’ve lost crops because of a typo, or worse, because a method failed in their climate. Dwight Barrera does it anyway because silence would be worse.
One mistake not in this log? The time they overwatered a batch of seedling trays so badly the roots rotted before they could be transplanted. The lesson—that ‘damp’ and ‘soaked’ are not the same—stuck with them longer than most.
If you find a mistake here, the best thing you can do is tell us. The contact page is where to start.
There will be a next one
This list isn’t finished. Gardening is full of variables—soil, weather, luck—and what works in one yard can fail in another. If you spot something wrong, assume it’s our fault first. The contact page is how you let us know.
The guides are grouped by category: Advice, Aphids, Blooming, Companion Plants, Container Gardens and How To.