what should i interplant with tomatoes

What are the best companion plants for tomato plants?

A Great Trio of Companion Plants: Tomatoes, Squash, and Borage Luckily, tomatoes make good companions with many popular garden vegetables. Some companion plants reportedly help boost the health and vigor of the tomato plants, some improve the tomato flavor, and other companion plants allegedly repel and deter ​ insect pests and diseases.

Can you plant Tomatoes with other plants?

Still, it is interesting to try them out in your own garden. Plants recommended for companion planting with tomatoes include amaranth, asparagus, basil, bean, borage, calendula (pot marigold), carrots, celery, chive, cleome, cosmos, cucumber, garlic, lemon balm, lettuce, marigold, mint, nasturtium, onion, parsley, peas, sage, and squash.

What can I plant with tomato plants to keep bugs away?

8. Garlic, Onions, Chives (and other Alliums) Garlic, onions, chives and other alliums all work well as companions to a number of other plants. Their strong smell can repel a range of pests that might otherwise bother your tomatoes.

How do I choose the best tomato plants?

Some tomato cultivars grow bushy and close to the ground, while others are tall and spindly. In most cases, you’re going to want to choose plants with sparse foliage, like carrots, instead of those that grow tall and bushy, like broccoli.

What to intercrop with tomatoes?

Companion Plants to Grow With TomatoesBasil. Basil and tomatoes are soulmates on and off the plate. ... Parsley. ... Garlic. ... Borage and squash. ... French marigolds and nasturtiums. ... Asparagus. ... Chives.

What plants should not be grown with tomatoes?

Companion Plants To Avoid Growing Near TomatoesBrassicas. Cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, kale, Brussels sprouts, and kohlrabi can stunt the growth of your tomato plant because they out-compete them for the same nutrients. ... Corn. ... Fennel. ... Dill. ... Potatoes. ... Eggplant. ... Walnuts.

What is Companion Planting?

Companion planting is simply the process of planting different plants together. It is a far better alternative to mono-crop cultivation.

The Different Types of Companion Plants

Before we start to look at the options for companion plants to grow with your tomatoes, we should look at the different types of companion plants.

Vegetables & Fruits To Companion Plant With Tomatoes

If you are growing your tomatoes in an annual growing area, you must consider a number of different factors when choosing companion plants.

Herbs To Use as Companion Plants For Tomatoes

Tomatoes grown in an annual polyculture can also benefit from herbs grown nearby. Annual herbs can be rotated in your annual areas with your fruits and vegetables.

Flowers to Use as Companion Plants For Tomatoes

Flowers can also be great companions for tomatoes in beds, borders or containers. Again, they can be annual or perennial, and be included in a wide range of different garden zones.

Weeds To Allow to Grow in Your Tomato Garden

One final type of plant to consider are those commonly called ‘weeds’. Plants that are often called weeds can, in the right places, be incredibly useful and resilient.

Examples of Tomato Polycultures To Consider

One thing to remember when creating your polycultures and companion planting schemes is that while all of the above plants may work well with tomatoes, they may not all work well with one another.

What Can I Plant with Tomatoes? Intercropping and Companion Planting Guide

If you’re thinking of what you could plant with your tomatoes to fill in the gaps in your tomato bed, you have a lot of options.

What is Intercropping and Companion Planting?

The three sisters method of agriculture was featured on the 2009 Native American U.S. dollar coin.

Benefits of Intercropping and Companion Planting

The most common use of intercropping is to maximize space in your garden. If you are growing perennials, you may have space around them to plant other vegetables.

Best Vegetables to Plant with Tomatoes

Now that we’ve covered the basics of intercropping and companion planting, we can start to figure out what are the best (and worst) things to plant with tomatoes.

What to Avoid Planting with Tomatoes

Avoid growing large plants with your tomatoes. This goes without saying, but planting any vegetables that will compete with your tomatoes for light and nutrients will lead to smaller harvests of both. For instance, don’t plant sunflowers or cucumber plants right next to your tomatoes. Whichever grows faster will end up outcompeting the other.

Companion Planting Basics

Companion planting is thought to work, in part, because it increases plant diversity. Imagine a hungry insect population finding its way into your garden. If it encounters an entire row of its preferred food, you can bet that the entire row will be decimated before you even notice.

Intercropping

You can also intercrop more than two varieties. A classic multi-species intercropping example is growing onions, lettuce and carrots together. Each of these plants grows its roots at different levels in the soil, so they don’t compete with each other for nutrients.

Companion Gardening at a Glance

This is a page from Louise Riotte’s book that gave me lots of ideas for approximately how far to space things that were and were not compatible. Such a wonderful potager ( kitchen garden ); I can just imagine walking through it in my mind.

What to Companion Plant Near Tomatoes

Chives, Onions, and Garlic~ Members of the onion family are great companions and beneficial to plant with many types of crops due to the pungent odor they emit. This helps deter many insect pests.

What Not to Plant with Tomatoes

Brassicas: Tomatoes and all members of the brassica family repel each other and will exhibit poor growth when planted together. This includes broccoli and cabbages.

What is Intercropping?

You may enjoy looking at a nice, orderly garden in which each crop has a specific section of the garden dedicated solely to it and it alone.

1. Herbs

Growing herbs with your tomatoes is a smart choice. Many herbs not only require minimal space to grow (both in terms of height and root coverage) but they also are easy to care for. They won’t take a ton of nutrients from your soil and they won’t compete with your tomatoes for water, sunlight, or airflow, either.

2. Groundcovers

Just about any groundcover plant can be grown with tomatoes. Many of these are also herbs, like marjoram and oregano, but you can grow any plant that grows low to the ground with tomatoes. They won’t take up much space or compete for nutrients.

3. Lettuce

Grow leaf lettuce and other leafy greens (with the exception of spinach, a heavy feeder) beneath your tomatoes. Not only will the lettuce act as a living mulch to keep the soil cooler, but it can reduce the spread of disease in the garden, too.

4. Beans

Many people don’t think of growing beans next to or underneath their tomato plants, but it’s actually a smart choice. Beans are not heavy nitrogen feeders, and instead, add nitrogen back to the soil. Tomatoes, on the other hand, consume heavy amounts of nitrogen.

5. Radishes

Radishes love the shade, so growing radishes under tomatoes is a smart choice. Your radishes will stay cool, which can prevent them from bolting.

6. Root Vegetables

Most root vegetables grow well in the shadow of tomatoes, too. Some good options include parsnips, carrots, beets, and rutabagas. All of these crops grow best when they are exposed to soil that is high in phosphorus but not quite as high in nitrogen.

Companion Planting

Before we delve into the best companion plants for your tomatoes, we will take a look at companion planting and the types of companion plants. Companion planting includes:

Types of Companion Plants

There are multiple types of companion plants, and they will all offer your tomatoes different benefits. Listed below are the different benefits that a companion plant can offer your tomatoes.

Environmental Aid

Specific companion plants can improve the environment in one way or another, which is beneficial to the plants they are planted next to. For instance, they may create a good ground cover, offer support for growing plants, or cast beneficial shade. This can keep the soil healthy, reduce loss of water and competition from weeds.

Beneficial Attractants

Beneficial attractants are companion plants that attract certain creatures and predatory insects that can help keep the number of pests down. Usually, they prey on pests, meaning you will not have to worry about keeping the pests away.

Pest Controllers

Specific companion plants can repel or distract pests, which in the long run prevents your crops from being decimated. For instance, you could use onions and carrots for this purpose. The scent of marigold also repels a lot of pests.

Dynamic Accumulators

Through companion planting, you can significantly increase the nutrients available in the soil, making them more available to the plants. Dynamic accumulators are companion plants that collect nutrients from deep within the soil or from the air, making them available to the plants next to them. This includes comfrey, beans, and peas.

Make the Most Out of Time and Space

You can maximize your harvest through companion planting. Make the most out of your time and land by ensuring that your garden is giving you everything it can, and it will keep doing that sustainably. You can use companion plants to fill the space between your tomatoes.

Borage (Borago officinalis)

Borage is a herb that many people have never heard of. It is easy to grow, has beautiful summer flowers, and offers a flavor similar to cucumber. Both its leaves and purple blooms are edible. Many gardeners grow borage as a companion to tomatoes because they believe it deters the pest tomato hornworm.

Chives (Allium schoenoprasum)

Chives are part of the onion family, and they’re a great addition to any vegetable garden. Since these plants are considered cool-season crops, you'll often see them blooming white, pink, purple, or red flowers early in the spring, before other plants have emerged.

Marigolds (Targetes)

For years, gardeners have been planting tomatoes and marigolds together because they believed the flowers eliminated insect pests. Although this has been a popular belief for a while, it wasn't until 2019 that a study finally confirmed this to be true.

Nasturtiums (Tropaeolum majus)

Nasturtiums are one of the most popular edible flowers—they have a slightly peppery flavor and can be easily pinched off and thrown into salads or another dish. Nasturtiums attract bees and butterflies, as well. Gardeners plant these flowers in veggie gardens because they have a reputation for drawing aphids and other pests away from other plants.

Basil (Ocimum basilicum)

Basil is one of those herbs that offers many different varieties, such as sweet, lemon, and Thai basil. Make sure to check the label for specific info about what you select. Basil and tomatoes grow well together because they have very similar growing conditions. They both like a lot of sun, heat, and regular watering.

Calendula (Calendula officinalis)

Calendula, also called pot marigold, thrives in sunny conditions and is bright and daisy-like. It has a reputation for deterring pests while attracting good pollinators.

Carrots (Daucus carota subsp. sativus)

Carrots can be tucked in and planted wherever you have extra space, which makes them a convenient companion to tomatoes. Carrots help aerate the soil, which improves the process of watering, and they can be planted in waves, every few weeks apart.

The Benefits of Companion Planting with Garlic

First, let’s look over some of the benefits companion planting has for garlic and garlic has for other plants, which will certainly inspire you to get going if you are new to the technique.

14 Great Companion Plants for Garlic

There are a number of plants that will be mutually beneficial when grown with garlic, including a number of fruits, veggies, and flowers. Here are some of the most common ones by category:

6 Plants to Avoid Planting with Garlic

Along with the beneficial plants, there are a few plants that do not like to be anywhere near garlic, and their growth can actually be stunted if grown together.

Key Takeaways

Companion planting can be an effective and low maintenance way of controlling pests and improving plant growth.