Learn Russian: Несмотря на то, что была засуха, пшеница растёт намного лучше. - Despite the fact that there was a drought, the wheat is growing much better.

In Russian, complex conjunctions that include то, что (literally "that, that") typically place a comma right before что. This comma separates the prepositional part from the actual subordinate clause. While you might occasionally see the comma moved before несмотря depending on the sentence flow, separating то and что is the most standard punctuation.

Can we mix past tense (была) and present tense (растёт) in the same sentence like this?

Yes! Unlike English, which sometimes forces tenses to match across a sentence (known as "sequence of tenses"), Russian tenses are absolute. The drought happened in the past (была), but the wheat is actively growing right now (растёт). You simply use the exact tenses that reflect reality.

Why do we use намного лучше instead of just много лучше to say "much better"?

When intensifying a comparative word like лучше (better) or больше (bigger), Russian requires specific words like намного (by a lot) or гораздо (much/vastly). Using just много directly before a comparative word sounds unnatural to native speakers.

What is the infinitive of растёт?