Vestal Community Gardener Caitlin Clark's advice for Companion Planting: Tomatoes & Carrots
Companion
planting is a wonderful way of gardening that incorporates beneficial
plants with unlikely partners who not only keep pests away, but also
increases pollination, a must for any garden.
Tomatoes
are a delicious and popular plant with a number of edible companion
plants: cucumber, carrot, chives, onion, garlic, nasturtium and parsley.
Marigold is a favorite companion flower for tomatoes, but opinion is
divided about how beneficial the flower really is.
Did
you know that all plants of the brassica family such as kale, cabbage
and broccoli (and more!) actually repel tomatoes and shouldn’t be grown
together? It’s okay if they’re in your plot, just keep them apart.
Tomatoes also dislike growing near potatoes and fennel. Keep corn and
tomatoes at a distance because they both attract the same pest and
together they’re too much of a good thing for the corn earworm a.k.a.
tomato fruitworm.
Asparagus
and tomatoes are great friends and will enjoy being grown together as
they both deter each other’s pests (nematodes and asparagus beetle).
If
you’re planning to grow carrots near your tomatoes, go ahead and plant
some onions or leeks nearby. All of these are friendly with each other.
The onions and leeks repel the carrot fly and a number of tomato pests;
rosemary and sage will also deter the carrot fly. Bush beans, pole
beans, peas and lettuce are also beneficial to carrots.
Resources: Carrots Love Tomatoes by Louise Riotte, http://www.zenfulneps.com/CompanionPlants/, http://www.tomatodirt.com/companion-plants.html
Photo Credit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/colemama/9473457079
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