Companion Planting

There are lists in the gardening books but do any others at DG actually do this?

Planting marigolds around tomatoes are a must as passed down from my Grandpa (discourages nematodes and insects) but I also interplant:

- Dill with Cabbage
- Radishes with Beans
- Rosemany bushes at the ends of the pole bean trellises (deters beetles)
- Lettuce around the cucumbers (only early when trellised cukes are small)
- Never plant cukes with beets (I don't know why)

Last year I planted marigold with my tomatoes and all went well until the marigolds became infested with WHITE Flies.
This year I planted naustarium. I hope there will be no more white flies, although now I have a pin worm infestation and I have used Dipel Dust as suggested by some of our pros.

Oh my, Tplant, I've had some white flies on the tomatoes but never on the marigolds!? Never had pin worms, sounds dreadful. No offense, but, I hope it's a warm climate thing.

Ladybugs and 'daddy long-leg' spiders seem to 'naturally' keep the tomato pests in check. Are there any beneficial insects to counteract pin worms?

Last year I put nasturtiums next to my tomatoes. The tomatoes were completely pest free all season. The nasturtiums were infected for the early part of the growing season. The little buggers ate away much of the leaves. After the infestation was gone the nasturtiums bloomed beautifully until the heavy frosts came.

Other combinations I've used:

Tomatoes with marigolds, nasturtiums and basil
Squash and green beans (pole)
Chives near carrots
Celery, tomato, nasturtium
Cucumber and sunflowers

Last year I grew all my veggies in containers and placed them adjacent to thier "companions". I didn't need to use any other pest control techniques.

I always have horehound planted with my tomatoes. Seems to help.

tplant, you sound sad about your marigold white fly infestation but didn't it save the tomatoes? i always interplant different herbs and flowers in my vegetable garden and it seems to help the veggies. does anyone know of a good interplanting to discourage squash bugs?

My references show that squash bugs can be reduced with yarrow, nasturtium, tansy and sunflowers.

My references reflect LadyAspen's findings for squash. Also recommend interplanting squash with corn, onion & radish, but, I have no experience with this.

Corn, beans and squash have traditionally been grown together. The beans put nitrogen into the soil and the corn takes it out, not sure what the squash do but they are heavy feeders so maybe the beans help them too.

Gang,
The three sister's method of growing beans, squash, and corn uses pole beans to climb the corn. Its primary benefit is to save space. If you study legumes, they grow the nodules on their roots for nitrogen fixation prior to the formation of the beans. It's then that the beans transfer the nitrogen in the nodules into the formation of the seeds for the next generation. So as for fixing nitrogen for the corn/squash, I doubt that very little goes into them. However, its a great way to grow pole beans without having to make trellises. Also, the legumes are most valuable as a cover crop to turn in to the soil at the point they are flowering before seed formation if you want to keep the nitrogen nodules in the soil. The other half of the nitrogen gained from turning under the foliage is more volatile and less will remain as mineralized nitrogen in the soil for future crops. I'm not a soil scientist, so if one comes along, hopefully they will correct any mistakes if I made any.
Tom

There used to be a companion garden guide, cannot seem to find it now. It was on Daves, and I think it was on the Extras forum.

Thanks Tom, for correcting my misinformation. These things get a bit tangled up in my unscientific mind. I know that some farmers plant corn the next year after gorwing a field of beans so maybe it is the old vines tilled under that help the corn. Of course they are using commercial fertilizer too. Every three years they plant a cereal crop that helps with weed control, then go back to beans.
Tplant, maybe the chief value of your marigolds was as a trap crop. I think I would have put plastic bags over them and pulled them out to get the white flies out of the garden. I have used radishes this way interplanted with carrots. The worms that get into carrot roots prefer the radishes so I got 4 benefits from planting radishes with the carrots. First the radishes come up fast and mark the row, they shade the young slower growing carrots from our merciless sun, they help loosen the soil when they are pulled rootworms and all, and they trap the worms. Very good job for the lowly radish. And if you plant the long white icycle radishes you will find that the worms are in the lower 1/3 of the root so you can cut that part off and eat the rest of it. So that makes 5 benefits. Lets hear it for the radishes!!

MaryE, you just might get me to plant radishes with your glowing report!!!

I hope you do Darius. The tops make a great addition to the compost pile. I've never tried to eat them but they might be a lot like turnip greens. So that would be 6 good things radishes can do.

MaryE -- What happened with the marigold--they did draw white flies but they also infested my tomato plants with leaf miners.Fortunately, they don't harm tomatos,except for appearance,and were eliminated with Daconil but it took a long time. As far as the pinworms, BT did a great job and my plants are fresh and clean and loaded with tomatos. This is the best crop I've ever had. I really wish that I could share them with you.

I bought a Farmers Almanac that has a great companion guide in it. I had to look thru 4 to find one that had what I wanted.
Kelly