Can’t We All Just Get Along? No: Frenemies in Companion Planting
Not all companion plantings get along. While you can plant strawberries and onions together, and strawberries and beans together, you can’t plant beans and onions together. Its like the best friend triangle back in school: Jenny and Sally are BFFs and Sally and Amanda are BFFs, but Amanda and Jenny hate each other, and refuse to be in the same room together (as if!) and so Sally is constantly juggling to make it work with both of them. While we all know that Amanda and Jenny just need to get over it already, and if not, then Sally needs to dump their sorry selves and find new BFFs, it doesn’t always happen, and the antagonism and cat fights over Sally will continue. So it is with companion plantings – except some will never, ever get over it or get along.
When you are deciding where to plant your veggies, here are some relationships that will not work:
Vegetable | Haters | Why? |
Beans (bush) | onions, garlic, or chives | see, onion |
Beans (pole) | onions, beets, kohlrabi and cabbage | they don’t grow very well when grown together; see, onion |
Beets | Pole beans | they stunt each other’s growth |
Cabbage family | Strawberries, tomatoes and pole beans | the cabbage family plants will have their growth impaired by strawberry plants close by. The major members of the cabbage family include: broccoli, broccoflower, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, Chinese broccoli, cauliflower, collard greens, kale, kohlrabi, and Romanesco broccoli |
Carrots | Dill | carrots won’t grow very well; dill and carrots are in the same family |
Chives | Peas and beans | see, onion |
Cucumbers | Potatoes, aromatic herbs | the root of the potato plant releases substances that negatively affect the growth of cucumber plants. |
Onions and Garlic | Peas and beans | while beans associate with bacteria to fix nitrogen in the soil, members of the onion family produce and exude an antibacterial substance. This kills the bacteria on the roots of the beans and stops the nitrogen-fixing action. For this reason, beans should never be planted close to onions, garlic, leeks, chives or other members of the onion family |
Peas | Onions, garlic, potatoes and chives | see, onion |
Potatoes | Pumpkins, squash, cucumbers, sunflowers, tomatoes and raspberries | the other plants tend to increase blight in potatoes |
Pumpkins | Potatoes | tends to increase blight in potatoes |
Squash | Potatoes | tends to increase blight in potatoes |
Strawberries | Cabbage | the cabbage family plants will have their growth impaired by strawberry plants close by. The major members of the cabbage family include: broccoli, broccoflower, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, Chinese broccoli, cauliflower, collard greens, kale, kohlrabi, and Romanesco broccoli. Also tomatoes, potatoes, eggplant, and peppers are susceptible to verticillium. If these plants have been grown in the same spot recently (within 5 years), it is best to grow your strawberry plants elsewhere. Otherwise, the strawberry plants may be infected and die themselves |
Sunflowers | Potatoes | tends to increase blight in potatoes |
Tomatoes | Kohlrabi, potatoes, fennel and cabbage | these crops stunt/inhibit tomato growth |
Note: This doesn’t mean that you can’t have the frenemy plants in your garden, only that you have to plant them away from the plants that they don’t get along with.
This us really useful info especially about the strawberries.
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Thank you.
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That’s a great graphic. It really catches your attention.
I had real good luck with carrots and leeks.
http://solarbeez.com/2013/01/10/raised-beds-and-companion-planting/
The leeks deterred the little worm that gets into the carrots late in the season. The leeks were transplanted, but the carrots, I had to plant them FOUR times.
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I looked at your post on carrots and leeks. They grew so well. Thank you for sharing that. I continue to find it so amazing what you can accomplish through companion plantings and without the use of chemical pesticides, herbicides and fungicides.
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