Esther E. McGinnis, Horticulturist

NDSU Extension

What is your primary source of gardening information? The 2025 Axiom Gardening Outlook Survey shows that approximately 40% of gardeners get their information from websites and social media. One of my hobbies is perusing the web and social media to see which false information is gaining traction.

My favorite garden influencer fail concerns the gender of bell peppers. Social media would have you believe that bell peppers with four or five lobes or bumps are female and sweeter than male peppers containing four lobes.

When influencers started perpetuating this myth, we horticulturists laughed ourselves silly! This is as scientifically accurate as a child saying that babies come from the stork.

Pepper plants produce flowers that contain both male (stamens with pollen) and female (stigma, style and ovary) components. Male pollen grains land on the female stigma and fertilize the ovules in the flower’s ovary. The ovary swells to become the pepper fruit we consume, and it contains seeds, which are the product of the male and female union.

What does this mean for you in the grocery store or in the garden? The number of lobes on the bottom of the bell pepper fruit has nothing to do with sweetness or with gender. Sweetness is determined by a pepper's ripeness stage. For example, if you grow a bell pepper in the garden, it will initially be green. If you leave the pepper on the plant to further ripen, it will turn red, orange or yellow, depending on the cultivar. Red, orange or yellow bell peppers are much sweeter than immature green peppers.

The most persistent social media garden myth asserts that applying Epsom salts to soil prevents blossom end rot in tomatoes. Nothing could be further from the truth! Blossom end rot in tomatoes is caused by an internal calcium deficiency in the tomato fruit. The fruit cannot grow cell walls without calcium. Therefore, the bottom of the fruit rots. The best way to prevent blossom end rot is to properly irrigate your tomato plants to dissolve calcium in the soil, allowing the roots to take the nutrient and transport it into the plant.

Epsom salts, composed of magnesium sulfate, cannot remedy a calcium deficiency. In fact, excessive magnesium levels will interfere with a plant’s ability to take up calcium from the soil. This garden influencer myth is not just inaccurate; it is harmful. Do not add magnesium to soils unless a soil test reveals a deficiency.

These are just two examples from a host of persistent garden myths. Don’t fall for garden influencers that lack horticultural training and make their money from Instagram clicks. If you have a gardening question, don’t hesitate to contact your local North Dakota State University Extension office, whose mission is to provide unbiased, science-based information.

NDSU Agriculture Communication – March 10, 2026

Source: Esther McGinnis, 701-231-7406, esther.mcginnis@ndsu.edu

Editor: Dominic Erickson, 701-231-5546, dominic.erickson@ndsu.edu