I have very limited space so I had to intercrop my tomatoes with my garlic last season. That was my best tomato growing season because I had minimal pests on my tomato plants. Something about the garlic that pests must not like. So I’m not going to question and I will continue to do this moving forward.
I plant marigolds with everything, and it helps tremendously! I also plant herbs around tomatoes, like parsley and oregano. Good idea about the bush beans! I'll try that this year!
I agree. This is the first year that I planted lots of basil and marigolds in my garden. My husband‘s raised bed is 3 feet away. He’s having lots of insect damage while my garden isn’t. So I shared several herb plants and marigolds to his garden!
Thanks for the info, good stuff. I wouldn’t say that plants can’t communicate though. It’s just a lot different than our communication. They let go chemicals that can be sensed by nearby plants. One plant can get attacked by an aphid. Send out a chemical to inform the plants nearby to put up the aphid defense. Also communicating with insects. “Hey I’m under attack by aphids any hungry wasps around”
Guess it depends on your interpretation of companion planting….I put alliums around the perimeter of my garden to keep rabbits out. It works and I consider it a companion to everything within their perimeter.
I wonder if garlic and onions would work to repel chipmunk that are almost as bad as the rabbits. Chipmunks ate all of my strawberries as soon as they got ripe.
Thank you for the information! We are about to finally plant out our warm weather corps. It’s been a cold spring. This is help me plant near other plants. The explanation was wonderful:).🌺
This year I planted bush beans on the outside of one of my raised beds and tomatoes on the inside. I string trellis my tomatoes so they are rising up above my bush beans and my bush beans have created an attractive (and productive) border around my tomatoes. I planted my bush beans a little thick so even though I hard prune my tomatoes they may end up with some airflow issues. We'll see how it plays out.
I planted bush beans around tomatoes and watermelons last year thinking it will add nitrogen to the soil and help the melons and tomatoes grow better. It back fired. The bush beans were always robbing nutrients and water from the main crops. I had the worst production of melons and tomatoes overall. The beans thrived
I have Marigolds and herbs planted around my tomatoes. Holy basil, summer savory and chamomile. The chamomile came up from last year. Also some borage.
Thanks Luke!! After your last video I went out and planted green beans and beets, and radishes. Then I see your next video, Good and bad plants to intercrop around tomatoes!! NO!! NO!! he's going to tell me I did it all wrong! I guess I did something right for once!!
I save seed from basil every year and I plant basil under my indeterminate tomatoes. It is a beautiful display and they go well together. I love the smell of fresh basil.
So i actually studied this in university and dependent intercropping is actually a thing, plants do communicate that's actually Proven, but also, im this case, it's more about ecological functions that support each other. So please don't discourage it; it can be really beneficial to plant growth and biodiversity. I don't know about these guides you mention and what they recommend, but it's also possible to make your own model :)
Plants roots communicate through michorizal fungi and other soil biology. There are companion planting guides on most of the seed company web sites, farmers almanac site, county extension web sites and a entire list of guides will come up if Mr. Google is asked for garden companion planting. Some plants and vegetables simply do not get along and will impede each other’s growth and production so knowing basic companion planting rules will help avoid issues and improve successful crop growth and production if done correctly. Can create a under, mid and upper story situation like for instance the 3 sisters that always has worked very well for me as it did for my ancestors hundreds of years before me.
You guys have it all wrong... he's just saying don't limit yourself to a "companion plant guide". That's all. He's not discouraging anything at all. I kinda think you guys didn't listen to the whole video.
I planted beets between the tomatoes last year. They didn't do very well. 😔 Not because they weren't happy there. The chickens kept eating the greens! 😄😀 They have their own space now. Blessings!💜
I've been thinking a lot about this lately. I'm trying to plant as much as I can to maximize the space I have. I think it also makes sense to consider root size. planting onions or lettuce that have a shallow root system next to tomatoes that have deeper roots would probably be good
And dandelions. They taste great and are very healthy foods. They will also cover the entire surface of the soil. (Yes I eat dandelions. Yes they are edible. Yes you should try them too and not post some dumb response to this post.)
@@scorpionspets9832 I always thought dandelions hindered the growth of my veggie plants but recently learned they actually help by pulling up nitrogen and feeding the other plants around them I'll never pull them out of the ground again.
@@juliblued yup but not the other way around. I have 4 varieties of tomatoes now stunted by carrot proximity. Same varieties : Thriving a few meters away with basil under them. Same aspect and management of course. It’s the same beds, with a row of carrots in half, a row of basil the other half.
I had too many onion seedlings going for their spot so I ended up putting a lot of the extras with my tomatoes, I thought I had seen that in a prior video and this one confirmed it. Thank you for all the super informative content, I've learned so much in such a short time. Just need to get the actual experience now lol.
I say oh contraire to your statement of plants don’t communicate. So much communication goes on under there. Love your videos always I recommend The Hidden Life of Trees by Peter W. To start with:)
I read that while only plants of similar species evolved to communicate with each other, it might also be possible for plants of different species to "eavesdrop" on the chemical signals given off by other plants. There would be an obvious survival advantage to this, for example if a nearby plant is being damaged by something, then unrelated plants would benefit from shoring up their own defenses.
@@MIgardener "but they don't communicate at all with other plants." Wow what a pile of bullshit. please do not present something you have no real way of "knowing" as fact. I bet your plants hate your pov here too. Jesus.
Thank you for this. I see to many new gardeners get confused by these friend and foe lists that they end up just not doing it. I feel that most of those are just made up by bloggers to get people to follow them but don't have much science behind them. I have been just using common sense and have only run into problems when I under estimate how much space something (like zuccini or cucumbers) will take. I blame square foot gardening diagrams for that.
I got a book for Christmas with a companion planting section. And to my surprise it listed plants for the exact reasons you mentioned. As well as things that wouldn’t be good for the same things you said. I companion plant for space and bugs. Tomatoes did have cinnamon basil last year for the essential oils. This year I haven’t yet decided but most of mine are determinate so I was thinking about pots of the big deterring plants instead. Love how you pointed out plants don’t tall to each other hey buddy I’m gonna help you out lol nature all was created in one way or another to help something else out it’s amazing! Love and prayers from Canada ❤️🙏
You previously mentioned planting onion starts near tomatoes so that's what I did. I also put in a few basil plants where there was room. All are looking good so far. I may try carrots with the tomatoes next year. Very helpful information.
I'm interplanting carrots, onions, and tomatoes; I'm also adding alyssum, marigolds, and basil. actually bush beans and lettuce as well in another area where different tomatoes are going to be. its going to be an interesting year I hope. Good luck in your garden!
@@dalegaa4094 :O oh no! I hope the rabbits in my area wont eat them! Its to i think repel aphids. So what im doing is, i have a boarder of marigold to deter wild life and attract aphids away from my other plants, inside im interplanting allysum near tomatoes to attract pollinators and deter aphids as well as having a living mulch because i got dwarf/shorter ones. Then around in random areas im having the carrots, onions, and beans.
@@Wolf-E-Romeo Thanks for the info. I also plant marigolds in with my beans to hopefully deter bean beetles and anything else that wants to eat the plants.
Thanks for the information, I’ll be planting most of my veggies that I’ve started from seed, out into garden beds tomorrow. Zone 3 Northern BC Canada LOL. Short growing season here. I’ve been watching your show for a couple of years and have learned a lot from your knowledge definitely be using your suggestions 👍👍
Unless you're growing black walnut trees planting plants together in general reduces pests because it confuses them with so many plant profiles to filter through
When someone lists companion plants for those who want to know, I think it's just as important to know the WHY a particular companion plant is suggested and WHY a particular plant is discouraged. For instance, basic information on nutrient enhancing vs nutrient depleting would be beneficial. I'm a "but WHY" person, so don't just tell me this is good, that isn't good....tell my why. It's like anything else you learn; the more you understand why, the better you will be an implementing this knowledge. Nobody can ever say that you don't give enough why's and wherefore's when you explain things! Also, I think it's important to understand the difference between interplanting and simple companion planting ....what makes one perfect for this or for that space or purpose. Good information, Luke.
Love the look and smell of marigolds and basil with my tomatoes, I’m gonna keep doing it. Great success, and I grow a lot of bush beans so I like to keep them separate so I have good access to harvesting. Great video again, keep ‘em coming.
I planted bush green beans last year with my tomatoes. It was my first time doing this and I liked it. I think I might put green beans around other empty spots this year too. They don't take much room really and my husband loves green beans.
I had alyssum underneath my brussels sprouts this year. By the beginning of August, they were very scraggly and wild and just looked ugly so I pulled them up. Before that I had minimal pest presence. Two weeks later, I had six different types of bugs/caterpillars all over my Brussels. Apparently, the alyssum made a difference. My guess is that they actually created a home for ladybugs and such and they would eat the pests. I will never pull up my alyssum again. Sidenote, I actually saw a baby praying mantis on a marigold the other day. I take this as a good sign that I’m doing things right! 😊 Lastly, every marigold I plant gets at least 3 feet tall. Can somebody recommend a marigold that won’t get bigger than 12 inches? I purposefully planted the smaller ones and they still got really tall.
One of the best companion plantings or goals of tomato companion planting is to make sure you plant parasitic wasps attractors near tomatoes even a near by bed such as yarrow sweet alysum, dill flowering carrots, fennel, zinnias cosmos or thyme. If u get tomato horn worm u will be glad u did. The parasitic wasps will lay eggs on the caterpillar and as they hatch the eat the caterpillar from the inside out. This happened last year one decimated one of my tomato plants and when I found him he was covered in what looks like rice. Those were my garden partners doing the pest control for me. Read "plant partners " there's alot like these pairings in there.
@@MIgardener One of my beds got blown up this season with carpenter ants. Watched another of your videos and mixed up some borax and sugar. They're gone. I still have carpenter ants roaming so they're somewhere else. I'm going to do the same but make traps with it to place around.
I'm in N.E., MT with a back yard that gets a lot of sun. We're finally in the 50's at night & high 70's in the day. Memorial Day wknd is supposed to be our ideal time to plant. The lady at my nursery said her brother has grown Okra so I was wondering if it's true they're alright around pollinating plants like sunflowers & marigolds??? Any other suggestions that have worked would be appreciated too. My home's backyard came ready with 8 Rhubarb plants. I've heard veggies like cauliflower & broccoli benefit from being planted nearby. Any help is greatly appreciated. I'm giving away the rhubarb to the food pantry & hospital volunteers. I want to do the same w/any fruits & veggies I have an abundance of. Happy Abundant Garden Blessings to All! ~ Covah
If you don't wish to harm them, I would add: scent deterrents, hot pepper spray on the plant leaves, purposely feeding the squirrels to distract them (birdseed and suet work) and growing sacrificial plants away from your main garden.
I have basil, onions, alyssum, and radish next to my tomatoes. The next row over is peppers. I also have some cosmos, zinnias, and nasturtium near by as well.
I am trellising snap peas with my tomatoes on the same trellis... My tomatoes and peas are trellised on cattle panel arches. So no worries about the tendrils grabbing the plant and pulling it down...
on your seed packets, I do not remember if you include this status "determinate" v "indeterminate" also on your web shop, but having this info on the packet would be beneficial.
How to plant beets in a 4 x 5 raised bed with tomatoes. Would you plant tomatoes on each side with a row of beets down the middle or scatter seeds under tomato? Or tomatoes in the back and beets in front? My garden faces south.
Thanks! I have been planting lettuce and carrots and onions under the tomatoes and wondering, hey, shouldn’t I plant something “better”? I just don’t need basil everywhere 😂
How do you prevent weeds from coming up through the walkway areas in the garden? I have a big problem with grass, dandelions, plantain, even strawberries and green onions coming up. Do you have weed carpet under the walking areas?
Companion planting like the book Carrots Love Tomatoes is about deterring pests. It's a great book full of lots of useful information. It explains the why of it all. Not just because. Read it and you will see.
I enjoy your videos and learned a lot. Along with your message of growing more food in less space, I notice that the spaces allowed between your beds are about as wide as your beds. Why so much empty, & I consider, wasted space? Expanding your beds by one foot at both sides of each bed would increase your growing space significantly. Thanks
last year I planted marigolds (from seed) with my tomatoes and it was the first years I've ever had massive white fly problem, covered everything in 5-10ft area.
One video I would like to see from you or another garden channel is what you do to prevent getting bites on your legs, etc when gardening. It could be that I have more issues in my garden, but I wasn't sure if you used lemon citronella, deet, etc on your legs, or if you don't spray at all. When I see you sitting with the wood chips I'm always wondering how you don't get bit up. Do you just wash off your legs after or work in garden then shower? I just never see much advice on it. Maybe something to consider for future content. Thanks!
I don’t know about other people but I’ve been making a homemade bug spray ( although it’s actually oil) for years and it really works. Pick whatever oil you want as the base ( I use regular olive oil) and put a combination of essential oils in there. I use cinnamon, rosemary, citronella, peppermint, clove, orange, lemon etc. it really works for all kinds of bugs but especially mosquitoes which love me. Just my 2 cents.
Lol I'm gonna have to do some rearranging in my garden my Armenian cucumber plant has attached to my jalapeno plant 😅 plus it's next to an indeterminate tomato plant so now I know why my cucumber isn't fruiting
How often do you prone your tomato plant, weekly, monthly? Also do you recommend the use if a 5-10-10 fertilizer if I have poor soil. Do you know of anything I can do to keep my butternut squash abs pumking frin getting powdery mold. It killed my squash last year. I still got alot of squash but I am afraid this year since I planted tomatoes, eggplant celery near by the powdery mildew will spread to the other plants
Our tomato plants are 3-4 feet tall now. I’ve removed lower limbs so foliage doesn’t touch the ground. And I’ve tried to prune suckers out as best I can. @MIGardener please tell me how to remove extra limbs to give airflow higher up in the plant. I don’t want to damage the plants by removing too much. And do I use scissors or plant clippers? Thank you for all the great content on your channel.
I would suggest anyone that does not believe that intercropping is real and plant communicate to learn about the “Soil Food Web”. Just might change your mind. 😉
So I did not follow any crop rotation formats and planted my tomatoes where my pumpkins were last year. I have a few volunteer pumkins coming in, should I let them go and see what happens? Or should I try to transplant them into where my pumpkins are this year?
You have container friendly tomatoes that I'm trying to germinate now. Where can I find the information to figure out the size of the containers? Thank you for all the information!!
Can you please tell me all you know about “dog vomit fungus”. I had some growing on my lemon balm and more growing in some of my pots. I removed it as best I could while trying not to spread spores.
Good video. But I don't believe basil repels aphids. My basis is the fact that my winter time indoor grow lamp garden had a couple basil plants that were absolutely infested with aphids. But just about every plant except my rosemary was. Thankfully, my purchased ladybugs successfully reproduced in my grow room and wiped out the aphid population.
When you single stem tomatoes do you do it before you put the tomatoes into the ground or should I let the tomato grow and get acclimated first so it’s less stress on it??
He has such an obsession with the word companion planting when it’s the exact thing he’s talking about! Companion planting means the plants are beneficial to each other. And why not use it when you have pests to fight and are trying to prevent them because they come and you don’t want to have to use chemicals?
The point of inter cropping and companion planting is not that they don't communicate (Which they do) but the part you are not apparently understanding is the exudates that go into the root zone which those exudates do effect the other surrounding plants next to that one... like camomile and alfalfa are supposed to help with tricantonal. Which also helps increase flavinoids in the plant.... So it is not about they same hey I know I'm next you so ill help you... it is here are my exudates use them if you need and I'll borrow some of your exudates to help me..(talk asthe plants) certain plants can use minerals and nutrients easier then other plants and after they are uptake by a different plant the exudates it Extrudes can also help make those same minerals and nutrients avaliable to the plant that is struggling to up take them.
Or if you are like me having to grow my tomato inside (nights are too cold where I live high in the mountains) so need to add something in my pot to keep my cat from digging in the bare soil😅🐈⬛ I will be setting up my pot this weekend most likely and will surround it with herbs.
I thought plants communicated through their roots?!? Did I not learn that from you? I'm pretty confident to some degree the plant is aware of it neighbors in a way. I think human kind still struggles with understanding this life form.
Interestedly, the color of soil is not always an indicator of good soil. In Iowa, soil is black. In Georgia, soil is red. Other places have brown soil.
Our soil is so black you could lose sight of it at night. It's just dry on the top which is normal. We have lots of clay which is a cause for the lighter color on top.
I have very limited space so I had to intercrop my tomatoes with my garlic last season. That was my best tomato growing season because I had minimal pests on my tomato plants. Something about the garlic that pests must not like. So I’m not going to question and I will continue to do this moving forward.
I plant marigolds with everything, and it helps tremendously! I also plant herbs around tomatoes, like parsley and oregano. Good idea about the bush beans! I'll try that this year!
I agree. This is the first year that I planted lots of basil and marigolds in my garden. My husband‘s raised bed is 3 feet away. He’s having lots of insect damage while my garden isn’t. So I shared several herb plants and marigolds to his garden!
Thanks for the info, good stuff. I wouldn’t say that plants can’t communicate though. It’s just a lot different than our communication. They let go chemicals that can be sensed by nearby plants. One plant can get attacked by an aphid. Send out a chemical to inform the plants nearby to put up the aphid defense. Also communicating with insects. “Hey I’m under attack by aphids any hungry wasps around”
Guess it depends on your interpretation of companion planting….I put alliums around the perimeter of my garden to keep rabbits out. It works and I consider it a companion to everything within their perimeter.
Exactly
Alliums meaning garlic?
I wonder if garlic and onions would work to repel chipmunk that are almost as bad as the rabbits. Chipmunks ate all of my strawberries as soon as they got ripe.
Very good points here Luke! 👊🏻🌻👊🏻
This spring is my 10th year gardening. I wish I had found your channel years ago. I’m still learning new things every year.
3rd year gardener, and I have learned so much from your videos. Thank you.
Awe thanks Linda!
Thank you for the information! We are about to finally plant out our warm weather corps. It’s been a cold spring. This is help me plant near other plants. The explanation was wonderful:).🌺
This year I planted bush beans on the outside of one of my raised beds and tomatoes on the inside. I string trellis my tomatoes so they are rising up above my bush beans and my bush beans have created an attractive (and productive) border around my tomatoes. I planted my bush beans a little thick so even though I hard prune my tomatoes they may end up with some airflow issues. We'll see how it plays out.
You should be fine. I plant my blue lake bush beans in succession and they are thick and grow just fine
Bush beans around my tomatoes last year did great. Doing again this year too.
I planted bush beans around tomatoes and watermelons last year thinking it will add nitrogen to the soil and help the melons and tomatoes grow better. It back fired. The bush beans were always robbing nutrients and water from the main crops. I had the worst production of melons and tomatoes overall. The beans thrived
I have Marigolds and herbs planted around my tomatoes. Holy basil, summer savory and chamomile. The chamomile came up from last year. Also some borage.
From my experience this year, camomile is an incredible self seeder.
Can be too good of a self seeder
My holy basil is struggling, I'm growing it outside in a raised bed but it's not really growing at all have any advice?
@@gregorynelson5397 yes..invasive
@@earthisflat Try some mild fertilizer, fish emulsion is my go to. It could be too much sun or not enough to get established.
Such great common sense! Thank you for reminding us of the little details that we sometimes forget.
It's often the little details we forget
Thanks Luke!! After your last video I went out and planted green beans and beets, and radishes. Then I see your next video, Good and bad plants to intercrop around tomatoes!! NO!! NO!! he's going to tell me I did it all wrong! I guess I did something right for once!!
Hey! I am sure you do a lot right! :D Happy gardening!
I save seed from basil every year and I plant basil under my indeterminate tomatoes. It is a beautiful display and they go well together. I love the smell of fresh basil.
Thanks for making gardening simple! You often times get me out of my own head. Gardening isn’t so serious, and you remind me that
Interestingly, I have basil, onions AND marigolds all planted by my tomatoes. They seem to love it!
So i actually studied this in university and dependent intercropping is actually a thing, plants do communicate that's actually Proven, but also, im this case, it's more about ecological functions that support each other. So please don't discourage it; it can be really beneficial to plant growth and biodiversity. I don't know about these guides you mention and what they recommend, but it's also possible to make your own model :)
All of this + Indigenous folks have been companion planting for millenia so this all kind of rubbed me the wrong way.
This made me question his knowledge as well because plants do actually communicate. His guidance here was definitely off.
Bold statements for Mr. @MIGardener to make. I hope he did his research.
Plants roots communicate through michorizal fungi and other soil biology. There are companion planting guides on most of the seed company web sites, farmers almanac site, county extension web sites and a entire list of guides will come up if Mr. Google is asked for garden companion planting. Some plants and vegetables simply do not get along and will impede each other’s growth and production so knowing basic companion planting rules will help avoid issues and improve successful crop growth and production if done correctly. Can create a under, mid and upper story situation like for instance the 3 sisters that always has worked very well for me as it did for my ancestors hundreds of years before me.
You guys have it all wrong... he's just saying don't limit yourself to a "companion plant guide". That's all. He's not discouraging anything at all. I kinda think you guys didn't listen to the whole video.
I planted beets between the tomatoes last year. They didn't do very well. 😔 Not because they weren't happy there. The chickens kept eating the greens! 😄😀 They have their own space now.
Blessings!💜
I've been thinking a lot about this lately. I'm trying to plant as much as I can to maximize the space I have. I think it also makes sense to consider root size. planting onions or lettuce that have a shallow root system next to tomatoes that have deeper roots would probably be good
Carrots Love Tomatos
And dandelions. They taste great and are very healthy foods. They will also cover the entire surface of the soil. (Yes I eat dandelions. Yes they are edible. Yes you should try them too and not post some dumb response to this post.)
@@scorpionspets9832 I don't have to plant those. They invite themselves! 😁
@@scorpionspets9832 I always thought dandelions hindered the growth of my veggie plants but recently learned they actually help by pulling up nitrogen and feeding the other plants around them I'll never pull them out of the ground again.
@@juliblued yup but not the other way around. I have 4 varieties of tomatoes now stunted by carrot proximity. Same varieties : Thriving a few meters away with basil under them. Same aspect and management of course. It’s the same beds, with a row of carrots in half, a row of basil the other half.
I had too many onion seedlings going for their spot so I ended up putting a lot of the extras with my tomatoes, I thought I had seen that in a prior video and this one confirmed it. Thank you for all the super informative content, I've learned so much in such a short time. Just need to get the actual experience now lol.
I say oh contraire to your statement of plants don’t communicate. So much communication goes on under there.
Love your videos always
I recommend The Hidden Life of Trees by Peter W. To start with:)
Like species can "communicate" to ripen fruit or flower at the same time, but they don't communicate at all with other plants.
@@MIgardener we are going to have to agree to disagree and acknowledge that neither one of us can necessarily prove it;)
I read that while only plants of similar species evolved to communicate with each other, it might also be possible for plants of different species to "eavesdrop" on the chemical signals given off by other plants. There would be an obvious survival advantage to this, for example if a nearby plant is being damaged by something, then unrelated plants would benefit from shoring up their own defenses.
@@michelleprull4105 I agree 😉. With you.
@@MIgardener "but they don't communicate at all with other plants." Wow what a pile of bullshit. please do not present something you have no real way of "knowing" as fact. I bet your plants hate your pov here too. Jesus.
Thank you for this. I see to many new gardeners get confused by these friend and foe lists that they end up just not doing it. I feel that most of those are just made up by bloggers to get people to follow them but don't have much science behind them. I have been just using common sense and have only run into problems when I under estimate how much space something (like zuccini or cucumbers) will take. I blame square foot gardening diagrams for that.
I got a book for Christmas with a companion planting section. And to my surprise it listed plants for the exact reasons you mentioned. As well as things that wouldn’t be good for the same things you said. I companion plant for space and bugs. Tomatoes did have cinnamon basil last year for the essential oils. This year I haven’t yet decided but most of mine are determinate so I was thinking about pots of the big deterring plants instead. Love how you pointed out plants don’t tall to each other hey buddy I’m gonna help you out lol nature all was created in one way or another to help something else out it’s amazing! Love and prayers from Canada ❤️🙏
I look at companion planting charts only to see what doesn't grow well together. I planted carrots in my tomato bed. Thanks for the video.
You previously mentioned planting onion starts near tomatoes so that's what I did. I also put in a few basil plants where there was room. All are looking good so far. I may try carrots with the tomatoes next year. Very helpful information.
I am doing that this year. So far so good. All though it seems to be taking a little longer for the tomatoes to ripen up.
I'm interplanting carrots, onions, and tomatoes; I'm also adding alyssum, marigolds, and basil. actually bush beans and lettuce as well in another area where different tomatoes are going to be. its going to be an interesting year I hope.
Good luck in your garden!
@@Wolf-E-Romeo Is the allysum to attract pollinators? I planted some once and rabbits ate it all.
@@dalegaa4094 :O oh no! I hope the rabbits in my area wont eat them! Its to i think repel aphids.
So what im doing is, i have a boarder of marigold to deter wild life and attract aphids away from my other plants, inside im interplanting allysum near tomatoes to attract pollinators and deter aphids as well as having a living mulch because i got dwarf/shorter ones.
Then around in random areas im having the carrots, onions, and beans.
@@Wolf-E-Romeo Thanks for the info. I also plant marigolds in with my beans to hopefully deter bean beetles and anything else that wants to eat the plants.
Thanks for the information, I’ll be planting most of my veggies that I’ve started from seed, out into garden beds tomorrow. Zone 3 Northern BC Canada LOL. Short growing season here. I’ve been watching your show for a couple of years and have learned a lot from your knowledge definitely be using your suggestions 👍👍
Same here Susan. It was a really long winter in Northern Michigan
I live in Prince George, BC. I planted my veggies on Monday. We’ve had so much rain this week. Hopefully, the seeds I’ve planted survive.
I went with bush beans and carrots, around mine. Thank you for the tips. 😊
good choices! You will love them.
Hi Luke, very good video, to the point and complete, thanks!
Unless you're growing black walnut trees planting plants together in general reduces pests because it confuses them with so many plant profiles to filter through
Parsley and basil also are beneficial to interplant along tomatoes; the herbs and tomatoes enhance each others' vigor.
When someone lists companion plants for those who want to know, I think it's just as important to know the WHY a particular companion plant is suggested and WHY a particular plant is discouraged. For instance, basic information on nutrient enhancing vs nutrient depleting would be beneficial. I'm a "but WHY" person, so don't just tell me this is good, that isn't good....tell my why. It's like anything else you learn; the more you understand why, the better you will be an implementing this knowledge. Nobody can ever say that you don't give enough why's and wherefore's when you explain things! Also, I think it's important to understand the difference between interplanting and simple companion planting ....what makes one perfect for this or for that space or purpose. Good information, Luke.
Love the look and smell of marigolds and basil with my tomatoes, I’m gonna keep doing it. Great success, and I grow a lot of bush beans so I like to keep them separate so I have good access to harvesting.
Great video again, keep ‘em coming.
As a newbie planting this year, this helps out so much! Thank you❤
Happy gardening! Grow BIG!
I planted bush green beans last year with my tomatoes. It was my first time doing this and I liked it. I think I might put green beans around other empty spots this year too. They don't take much room really and my husband loves green beans.
I love your channel please look into mycology plants know that other plants are there they do communicate though mycelium cheers great channel
Exactly. I totally questioned that bit of wisdom myself.
I had alyssum underneath my brussels sprouts this year. By the beginning of August, they were very scraggly and wild and just looked ugly so I pulled them up. Before that I had minimal pest presence. Two weeks later, I had six different types of bugs/caterpillars all over my Brussels. Apparently, the alyssum made a difference. My guess is that they actually created a home for ladybugs and such and they would eat the pests. I will never pull up my alyssum again.
Sidenote, I actually saw a baby praying mantis on a marigold the other day. I take this as a good sign that I’m doing things right! 😊
Lastly, every marigold I plant gets at least 3 feet tall. Can somebody recommend a marigold that won’t get bigger than 12 inches? I purposefully planted the smaller ones and they still got really tall.
One of the best companion plantings or goals of tomato companion planting is to make sure you plant parasitic wasps attractors near tomatoes even a near by bed such as yarrow sweet alysum, dill flowering carrots, fennel, zinnias cosmos or thyme. If u get tomato horn worm u will be glad u did. The parasitic wasps will lay eggs on the caterpillar and as they hatch the eat the caterpillar from the inside out. This happened last year one decimated one of my tomato plants and when I found him he was covered in what looks like rice. Those were my garden partners doing the pest control for me. Read "plant partners " there's alot like these pairings in there.
I have marigolds in all my tomato beds on your suggestion. I did follow your other suggestions for carrots and such.
They are fairly effective at pest reduction. Thanks for watching!
@@MIgardener One of my beds got blown up this season with carpenter ants. Watched another of your videos and mixed up some borax and sugar. They're gone. I still have carpenter ants roaming so they're somewhere else. I'm going to do the same but make traps with it to place around.
As a gardener for 50 years, I can say that Basil definitely communicates with tomatoes in my soup! 😅
All better! ❤️ I really got excited. Glad it's fixed.
I'm in N.E., MT with a back yard that gets a lot of sun. We're finally in the 50's at night & high 70's in the day. Memorial Day wknd is supposed to be our ideal time to plant. The lady at my nursery said her brother has grown Okra so I was wondering if it's true they're alright around pollinating plants like sunflowers & marigolds??? Any other suggestions that have worked would be appreciated too.
My home's backyard came ready with 8 Rhubarb plants. I've heard veggies like cauliflower & broccoli benefit from being planted nearby. Any help is greatly appreciated. I'm giving away the rhubarb to the food pantry & hospital volunteers. I want to do the same w/any fruits & veggies I have an abundance of. Happy Abundant Garden Blessings to All! ~ Covah
Can you do a video on how to keep squirrels and other pests out of your garden beds. Would be extremely helpful
Rabbits toooooo!!!!
Dogs, electric fencing, or my cost effective solution - motion detecting waterer. A decent spray has proven a great deterrent.
And gophers. Uuugh we have so many this year!
If you don't wish to harm them, I would add: scent deterrents, hot pepper spray on the plant leaves, purposely feeding the squirrels to distract them (birdseed and suet work) and growing sacrificial plants away from your main garden.
Grandkids & Red Riders 🤣
I have basil, onions, alyssum, and radish next to my tomatoes. The next row over is peppers. I also have some cosmos, zinnias, and nasturtium near by as well.
I took your advice and our production is great 👍
I am trellising snap peas with my tomatoes on the same trellis...
My tomatoes and peas are trellised on cattle panel arches. So no worries about the tendrils grabbing the plant and pulling it down...
I love growing calendula, rosemary, bush beans, alyssum, basil under and around my tomatoes
on your seed packets, I do not remember if you include this status "determinate" v "indeterminate" also on your web shop, but having this info on the packet would be beneficial.
intercrop plants on envelope would be good also on the seed packet.
Yea!!!!!!
Finally.
A forecast that doesn't have night time temps in the 30s.
Today and tomorrow the rest of my starts go in.
Well, I guess I am glad my cabbage didn’t come up, lol. I guess I have to come up with plan B. I am so glad, I listened to this. Thank you.
Cabbages need space. They are so big!
Absolutely amazing.. 🌷🌷👌👌
How to plant beets in a 4 x 5 raised bed with tomatoes. Would you plant tomatoes on each side with a row of beets down the middle or scatter seeds under tomato? Or tomatoes in the back and beets in front? My garden faces south.
what... luke... plants do communicate. they communicate through their roots and mycelium. anyway great vid as always, so helpful as always!!
Thanks! I have been planting lettuce and carrots and onions under the tomatoes and wondering, hey, shouldn’t I plant something “better”? I just don’t need basil everywhere 😂
I use marigolds to keep aphids off my roses. And I plant onions and garlic near the roses as well
They are great for that. Thanks for watching!
As a Michagander myself, I love watching your channel.
How do you prevent weeds from coming up through the walkway areas in the garden? I have a big problem with grass, dandelions, plantain, even strawberries and green onions coming up. Do you have weed carpet under the walking areas?
Companion planting like the book Carrots Love Tomatoes is about deterring pests.
It's a great book full of lots of useful information.
It explains the why of it all.
Not just because.
Read it and you will see.
I enjoy your videos and learned a lot. Along with your message of growing more food in less space, I notice that the spaces allowed between your beds are about as wide as your beds. Why so much empty, & I consider, wasted space? Expanding your beds by one foot at both sides of each bed would increase your growing space significantly. Thanks
last year I planted marigolds (from seed) with my tomatoes and it was the first years I've ever had massive white fly problem, covered everything in 5-10ft area.
I have calendulas, nasturtium, basil, savoury, and bunching onions around my tomatoes. I wanted to confuse everything with the mix of scents. Lol 😂
That’s great actually!
I keep mine in pots so they can be easily interchangeable or removed from the in ground plants area
One video I would like to see from you or another garden channel is what you do to prevent getting bites on your legs, etc when gardening. It could be that I have more issues in my garden, but I wasn't sure if you used lemon citronella, deet, etc on your legs, or if you don't spray at all. When I see you sitting with the wood chips I'm always wondering how you don't get bit up. Do you just wash off your legs after or work in garden then shower? I just never see much advice on it. Maybe something to consider for future content. Thanks!
I don’t know about other people but I’ve been making a homemade bug spray ( although it’s actually oil) for years and it really works. Pick whatever oil you want as the base ( I use regular olive oil) and put a combination of essential oils in there. I use cinnamon, rosemary, citronella, peppermint, clove, orange, lemon etc. it really works for all kinds of bugs but especially mosquitoes which love me. Just my 2 cents.
I use lemongrass mixed with grapeseed oil. Sometimes i use old fashioned skin so soft.
Lol I'm gonna have to do some rearranging in my garden my Armenian cucumber plant has attached to my jalapeno plant 😅 plus it's next to an indeterminate tomato plant so now I know why my cucumber isn't fruiting
How often do you prone your tomato plant, weekly, monthly? Also do you recommend the use if a 5-10-10 fertilizer if I have poor soil. Do you know of anything I can do to keep my butternut squash abs pumking frin getting powdery mold. It killed my squash last year. I still got alot of squash but I am afraid this year since I planted tomatoes, eggplant celery near by the powdery mildew will spread to the other plants
Our tomato plants are 3-4 feet tall now. I’ve removed lower limbs so foliage doesn’t touch the ground. And I’ve tried to prune suckers out as best I can. @MIGardener please tell me how to remove extra limbs to give airflow higher up in the plant. I don’t want to damage the plants by removing too much. And do I use scissors or plant clippers?
Thank you for all the great content on your channel.
He has a video on how to hard prune tomatoes
Actually plants communicate and help each other
only plants from the same species can. And it is for things like when to flower or when to ripen fruit. But not different plants.
They do 😉
I plant marigolds next to carrots to deal with root nematodes. It is the only way I get good carrots.
So you are saying, don't overcomplicate it!:)
I'm growing squash and zucini along with carrots and halapaino peppers together
I would suggest anyone that does not believe that intercropping is real and plant communicate to learn about the “Soil Food Web”. Just might change your mind. 😉
Thanks for the good video. So what you're saying is: use your brain when planting, don't use list someone created. Cheers.
So I did not follow any crop rotation formats and planted my tomatoes where my pumpkins were last year. I have a few volunteer pumkins coming in, should I let them go and see what happens? Or should I try to transplant them into where my pumpkins are this year?
Any thoughts on Bomide Rot Stop? Have any videos on that? Is it safe?
You have container friendly tomatoes that I'm trying to germinate now. Where can I find the information to figure out the size of the containers? Thank you for all the information!!
Can you please tell me all you know about “dog vomit fungus”. I had some growing on my lemon balm and more growing in some of my pots. I removed it as best I could while trying not to spread spores.
Luke, would you recommend I use bunching onions near my tomatoes, eggplant?
I have carrots (first time growing them) and basil growing with mine.
I'm confused I was sure you said in another video that onions were very nitrogen hunger. Wouldn't that cause an issue?
I'm curious about this as well. Maybe you would just add extra fertilizer? I hope Luke responds.
Onions use nitrogen to grow large, but they don’t use lots of it. Hope that clears it up!
@@MIgardener thank you for answering.
How are your water-barrel(s) doing? Did winter crack the plastic?
It is doing well! We use it for water regularly.
I need help with my tomato plants. Worms are literally eating the tomato 🍅 itself. I just saw them yesterday 3 tomatoes eaten
Good video. But I don't believe basil repels aphids. My basis is the fact that my winter time indoor grow lamp garden had a couple basil plants that were absolutely infested with aphids. But just about every plant except my rosemary was. Thankfully, my purchased ladybugs successfully reproduced in my grow room and wiped out the aphid population.
When you single stem tomatoes do you do it before you put the tomatoes into the ground or should I let the tomato grow and get acclimated first so it’s less stress on it??
I just bought some of your seeds I know I'm late to the party but I'm gonna cross my fingers 🤪 (or wait til next year)
You aren't late! Get them growing. They will do great :)
Does crop rotation fit into this? Ie certain intercrops shouldn't be done every year? Or maybe a reason not to choose some "companions" ever?
How close should i plant marigolds and/or garlic to my tomatoe plants?
He has such an obsession with the word companion planting when it’s the exact thing he’s talking about! Companion planting means the plants are beneficial to each other. And why not use it when you have pests to fight and are trying to prevent them because they come and you don’t want to have to use chemicals?
Have you planted ground cherries? do you have a video on it?
I grew some tomatoes from seed.
How tall should they be when I transplant them?
The point of inter cropping and companion planting is not that they don't communicate (Which they do) but the part you are not apparently understanding is the exudates that go into the root zone which those exudates do effect the other surrounding plants next to that one... like camomile and alfalfa are supposed to help with tricantonal. Which also helps increase flavinoids in the plant....
So it is not about they same hey I know I'm next you so ill help you... it is here are my exudates use them if you need and I'll borrow some of your exudates to help me..(talk asthe plants) certain plants can use minerals and nutrients easier then other plants and after they are uptake by a different plant the exudates it Extrudes can also help make those same minerals and nutrients avaliable to the plant that is struggling to up take them.
Yea nice garden
One thing I know is don't plant fennel next to anything..
Or if you are like me having to grow my tomato inside (nights are too cold where I live high in the mountains) so need to add something in my pot to keep my cat from digging in the bare soil😅🐈⬛ I will be setting up my pot this weekend most likely and will surround it with herbs.
try marbles or small stones on top of the soil - the cats won't like to dig through them to do their business
Yes small stones as soil cover worked for me. They also help to stop the fungus gnats breeding.
thanks
Could I intercrop bush beans with tomatoes?
Why does my volunteer tomatoes ALWAYS come up under my squash plants?
I thought plants communicated through their roots?!?
Did I not learn that from you?
I'm pretty confident to some degree the plant is aware of it neighbors in a way.
I think human kind still struggles with understanding this life form.
Hi Luke, I do try to order from you but I don't HV those payment apps bc I don't trust them. But at least I do enjoy your videos.
You don't need any payment apps :)
Your soil always looks so dry and idk if its a lack of organic matter or what for my soil but ik I need more organic matter im my garden
Interestedly, the color of soil is not always an indicator of good soil. In Iowa, soil is black. In Georgia, soil is red. Other places have brown soil.
Our soil is so black you could lose sight of it at night. It's just dry on the top which is normal. We have lots of clay which is a cause for the lighter color on top.
You forgot the trifecta plus. Lol
Uh oh I'm not getting any sound.
Planting peppers and tomatoes together, is this bad
Not necessarily. Just give enough space so they don't compete for space.
so... at 8:50 he actually tells you the plants to plant