Plants can benefit from close associations with some other plants. Radish plants, for instance, are sometimes called a "nurse crop" when scattered in among pumpkins and squash because they repel the squash-vine borer. Companion planting was a common agricultural practice before the industry's reliance on synthetic chemicals and petroleum-based pesticides and insecticides. With companion planting, you can grow a wider variety of healthy fruits and vegetables, enjoy increased crop yield and forgo a chemical coating of pesticides and herbicides on your garden plants.
Functions of Companion Planting
As with people, some plants are happier, healthier and perform better when they associate closely with certain other plants, according to researchers at the National Sustainable Agriculture Information Service. Companion planting is the practice of planting flowers and vegetables that are known to have what scientists call "beneficial interaction" near each other, or even in each others' rows or beds. Companion planting is also known as intercropping or farmscaping, and is a traditional method of natural pest and disease control.
Types of Companion Planting
Trap cropping is a type of companion planting that provides natural pest protection. Sometimes farmers or gardeners will plant collard greens in among their cabbage crop to lure away pests. Diamondback moths eat cabbage, but they prefer collard greens, so they eat the collards and leave the cabbage alone. In another type of companion planting, gardeners will interplant a nitrogen-fixing crop, such as beans, to aid the growth of a nitrogen-consuming planting, such as corn.
Benefits
Companion planting can help provide food security by helping growers produce more and better crops. Some companion plants, such as African marigolds, release biochemicals that repel nematodes that eat many vegetable crops. The squash plant produces large leaves that grow close to the ground, repelling weeds and providing shade that shallow-rooted plants need. When planted with corn, the prickly squash and pumpkin leaves also may discourage raccoons from harvesting your corn crop before you do. You may also use companion planting to create an attractive habitat for beneficial insects you want to attract to your garden.
Common Companion Plantings
Traditional companion plantings include the "three sisters" that early settlers reportedly learned from Native Americans: pole beans planted in a circle around corn plants in small plots that are also interplanted with squash. Try a "salad companion planting" of lettuce, carrots, radishes and cucumbers. Onions do well with beets, carrots and members of the cabbage family. Tomatoes benefit from neighboring nasturtiums, lettuce, onions, cucumbers and marigolds. Your pumpkins will enjoy interplantings of marigolds with a corn patch nearby. Leave room near your asparagus trenches for tomatoes, basil and parsley.
Cautions
Just as some plants do better near some companions, tradition demonstrates that some plants are best parted. Black walnuts release a biochemical that can retard the growth of some plants. Plant your pumpkins, squash and turnips away from your Irish potatoes. Cabbages are not fond of tomatoes or strawberries. Planting sweet peppers and hot peppers too closely together can result in cross-pollination that may give your sweet peppers more heat than you'd like. Check with your local horticulturist or garden center if you think your companion plants aren't getting along.
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