Travis I think you are saying an ounce of experience trumps a pound of knowledge.

I'm not at all sure what you (and the iced Hennessey) are trying to say. :)

But while hands on experience is a good teacher, a little research into the basics never hurts IF you use reputable sources. Quality rather than quantity.

How much it helps all depends on how you value your time and effort. Even minimal research can save you a lot of time and wasted energy.

Realistic expectations is another time and worry saver. Those who expect and even insist on perfect, blemish free, plants and fruits are in for a rude awakening.

Dave

The greatest thing about personal experience is that everybody who came before us also had one, and we can learn from them.
Gardening is not rocket science, but neither is it entirely intuitive. I disagree that common sense will guide a person to gardening success. I know a whole lot of people who are unsuccessful with their gardens, and most of them give up blaming it on their lack of a "green thumb," when in fact it is their lack of desire to seek out information or take advice to guide their actions in an informed way. As you mentioned, we have very little control over the weather. There are enough natural obstacles to a successful harvest. Why would somebody deliberately add ignorance to the pile? Growing food has been done for thousands of years, not as a hobby, but as a means of survival. A ton of research and anecdotal experience has been amassed, and most of it is pretty consistent. Why wouldn't a gardener want to tap into this to increase their chances of success?
There are enough varying opinions on this forum to offer plenty of opportunities for experimentation by trial and error. Support vs. sprawling, heirlooms vs. hybrids, mulch vs. no mulch, pruning vs. no pruning, container gardening vs. in the ground, winter sowing vs. starting indoors under lights etc. etc. The great thing is that this forum offers a departure point down paths of proven success, and allows new gardeners a better chance of success as they build their own base of personal experience. Successful gardeners keep growing food. Unsuccessful ones quit. The desire to help newbie gardeners succeed and spread their love of heirlooms has attracted posters here who are leading experts on tomatoes, as well as plenty of passionate experienced gardeners from different zones and climates all over the US. People here also share the results of their own experiments, whether it is rooting vines from the grocery store, comparing two types of potting soil, varying light exposure under fluorescent lights, or whatever. I personally don't have time to try all these things out, but I am delighted to benefit from the shared experimentation of others.
If gardening for you is less about successful harvest and more about personal discovery, that's great. Gardening means something different to everybody. There's no wrong way to garden, as long as you're having a good time.

I guess I can relate people in the past sharing their experiences. I just question the validity of it.

Today is my birthday. What I did was plant 48 Cherokee and 12 German Pink Tree. Both were from tomatoes that I started from Baker Creek back in mid January by seed. By mid Feb they were in the ground,and by late April I had some tomatoes that I saved seed from.

All in the same day, I cut the tomato and squished the tomato with the pulp and seed falling onto a paper towel. I then grabbed another dry paper towel and placed it over the towel with the seed..etc. Then used my fingers to pick out the remaining slimy seeds. Once most of the slime was gone, I had a paper towel with multiple wet seeds and some slime.

I then took this paper towel and scrapped everything onto a newspaper, then set this newspaper on a table in the 100 degree hot sun until everything was dry. Scraped everything into a bowl, grabbed some potting soil, and planted these seed all in the same day. These plants look fine, and about half of them are in the ground as of today.

Also, today I planted in standard rows as far as distance between rows. But I decided out of curiosity to plant these viners 1 foot apart in the row, with the intention of letting them sprawl. And oh yes, I am sunburned.Feels good to burn.

Take care,
Travis

1. Grow a darker shade of skin.

What the Hennessey does that mean?
How is this one of the most important things .?

I think he means "get a tan", so you don't get sunburned from spending all day outside tending plants.

i love my gardening tan. It's on my face, hands and feet.

Experience is a great teacher. Use your own eyes, check local university extensions for advice and meld that all into a winning style for yourself. Learn by doing.

lex parsimoniae

there seems to be a tendency to over-think things

many people "over love" tomatoes (or kill with kindness - too much water, too much fert)

I think maybe "darker shade of skin" should be "grow a thicker skin"

if you judge some of the posts on this forum it is more lack of thinking or worry worting about little nothings, that I see newbies posting about.

Much like first-time Mothers who listen to too much advice from well-meainign family and friends--they wind up worrying more than they should.

"grow a darker shade of skin" = spend more time outside in your garden (in the sun, getting tanner) observing and working with your plants and less time reading/researching/worrying.

Hopefully my Hennessey-to-English translation is accurate. Actually that's the one part of the OP that always seemed clear to me.

I find that people have a tendency to go to extremes and to be rather anal about things, when it is absolutely not necessary.

I found this to be true when I was raising guppies and swordtail fish when I was a kid. I found it true when I was raising finches later in my late 30s. Now, in my late 50s, I find it to be true in gardening.

The fact is, nature pretty much has all this stuff figured out. Its been doing it for hundreds of thousands of years, without you or me being involved at all!

This is my first year gardening ... totally a learning experience for me. I am reading a lot, watching tons of YouTube videos, and talking to folks that garden, and at the gardening centers.

I'm finding out its much more important to pay attention to what you should not do, than what you should, and mostly that means, DO NOT GET IN THE WAY OF MOTHER NATURE.

Just give her the tools (seed, good soil, water) ... and stand back and be amazed.

most youtube videos a waste of time.

I dunno, I find YouTube to be like anything else ... just another resource of opinions.

Some of it good, some of it not so good.

Being able to see some things in video at least lets you get context to somethings that words and pictures just won't convey.

Its always best to get on site and see it with your own two eyes, and that's about as close as you're going to get with a lot of this stuff. No?

I think he has just harvested a new hallucinogenic tomato.

Yeah man, it's a beefsteak-type tomato that is bright orange,with a taste of Ken Kesey,along with a great after-taste of Jerry Garcia.

It goes well with spagetti,wine,and a buttload of glowsticks.

Take care,
Travis