Rant: that old guy at the nursery who laughed at my tomato plants

Honestly, I was at Armstrong's Garden Center in Riverside last Saturday grabbing some compost, and this older dude walking by saw my cart with a few sad-looking tomato seedlings. He stopped, pointed, and said, 'Those are never gonna make it here in July, you're wasting your money.' I told him I had shade cloth and drip irrigation set up, and he just shrugged and walked off. Like, why do some people feel the need to tear down a hobbyist instead of just keeping their mouth shut? Has anyone else run into that kind of negativity from random strangers at a garden shop?

2 comments

2 Comments

brookethomas1mo ago

July heat is rough on tomatoes but shade cloth helps a lot if you harden them off right.

sandra6931mo ago

Oh totally agree on the shade cloth! I learned that lesson the hard way last summer when my plants looked like wilted lettuce by noon. I use a 30% shade cloth propped up with some old bamboo poles and it makes a huge difference - my tomatoes are still producing through this heat wave. Harden them off slow like you said, start with just a few hours of filtered light and work up to full sun over a week or so.