Companion planting/Interplanting

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DirtTherapy
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Companion planting/Interplanting

#1

Post: # 32290Unread post DirtTherapy
Tue Oct 13, 2020 11:10 am

Hello! I admit I only recently heard the term "interplanting" and thought at first it must be something different than companion planting. I don't think it does.

I will often put marigold seeds or some variety of basil seed in with my tomatoes when I transplant them out. I bought a bunch of Root Pouch 10-gallon pots this year to add to my 5's and 7's, and there's just so much tempting surface area!

So, my new venture this year is trying some Tom Thumb peas (a dwarf variety) around some of the maters. they will probably be done producing before I start getting tomatoes, and I saw nothing that said it was a bad idea. In some others I sprinkled some dwarf Greek columnar basil.

Just curious whether anyone else has tried peas in a container with a determinate tomato. The Tom Thumb look adorable, and I'm becoming a fan of all things micro. :) Will probably do some sort of container of just peas, otherwise I won't have enough for even a serving at one time and they will be eaten right in the garden as a snack.

In other growing news, I finally got the rest of my seedlings planted out, and some are hiding in the shade to get themselves through this heat. I sowed a tray and a half of more seeds, this time all the micros I acquired over the summer. GoDawgs, your Red Robin are in there, as well as some I bought from Renaissance and Bunny Hop. Those are going in the garden barrel, probably interspersed with some additional thyme plants (I never seem to have enough), the lemon balm which has already taken over a chunk of the barrel, and parsley. We're starting another garden barrel for the bare root strawberries I have on order! Hopefully we'll do okay with them.

Temps this week in Orlando: highs in the mid to high eighties, lows 74-69 in the seven day forecast. Still waiting for it to creep down just a little!

-- Ann

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Rockoe10
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Re: Companion planting/Interplanting

#2

Post: # 32300Unread post Rockoe10
Tue Oct 13, 2020 3:17 pm

That's amazing, i won't lie I'm jealous of your weather. Its far too cold here in PA.
- - - - - - - -
Rob, ZONE 6A with 170 days between frost dates, Western Pennsylvania

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GoDawgs
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Re: Companion planting/Interplanting

#3

Post: # 32304Unread post GoDawgs
Tue Oct 13, 2020 5:41 pm

I'm a fan of good space usage. Peppers down the middle of a bed don't mind carrots planted down both sides. Brassicas or hills of corn planted down the middle of a bed don't mind onions, garlic or scallions planted down the sides. Radishes can be stuck in anywhere. And there's always room for a trellis at the end of a bed.

Peas and 'maters... yep, the peas will be done before the tomatoes start producing and can then be yanked out and replaced with something else!

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bower
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Re: Companion planting/Interplanting

#4

Post: # 32342Unread post bower
Wed Oct 14, 2020 9:30 am

I haven't been successful with several attempts to plant other things with my container tomatoes - but this may well be because my greenhouse is essentially under ground (down about 4 ft anyway) and that reduces the chance of light getting down to anything a tomato is happy to shade out.
Enormous self-seeding dill plants seem to be happy companions of tomatoes at the farm greenhouse.
I've tried dill, cilantro, carrots, basil. None thrived at the foot of tomatoes in my place.

I would love to see pics of the peas and tomatoes! :)
I once read a study about interplanting beans and tomatoes (in a hot country somewhere) and they said the overall yields were higher. Bonus!
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DirtTherapy
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Re: Companion planting/Interplanting

#5

Post: # 32350Unread post DirtTherapy
Wed Oct 14, 2020 12:10 pm

Rockoe10 wrote: Tue Oct 13, 2020 3:17 pm That's amazing, i won't lie I'm jealous of your weather. Its far too cold here in PA.
Ah, you wouldn't be jealous if you knew that most of the summer (June through early October) it's too hot, too rainy (a tropical thunderstorm nearly every afternoon), and too full of pests, fungi and the rest to grow much of anything in the summer. I grew up in Eastern Pennsylvania, and this is the season I truly miss the most, with the chilly evenings and fall foliage. And mountains! I mean, it's nice not having to wait for a thaw, and we only had two nights last year where we covered plants, only to not really need to, but you have to be really tolerant of the heat, and so do your plants. Plus, the native soil is almost all a fine sand, great for drainage but not much else. Our pineapples and fruit trees are in amended soil in-ground, but everything else I'm growing in grow bags and other containers. It also allows me to move them out of the full sun if it's too overbearing. Another wrinkle, when the weather is cool enough, the days are going to be mighty short, and during the week I leave by 7:20 and am often not home until after dark, so I don't get to see things until the weekend. I'll have to train my other half to look for pests and problems.

I tried a few maters over the summer, set in afternoon shade, and only got a few which set early, then nothing. Too hot. Then hornworms, army worms, constant spraying for mildew and stuff after the rains. It was a learning experience, and I did have good luck with my micros grown indoors.

Still not sure I can manage any of the cucurbits. They seem to start OK and then get hit with downy or powdery mildew and wipe out before they fruit. I'm trying Armenian cucumber, properly a type of melon, with a test run now in fall, and a plan for early spring.

In the summer, the only things that produced were our pineapples, and we only had a few mature enough to produce, while next summer we should be tripling that thanks to some tops planted out after my sweetie volunteered a couple of times cooking at the coalition for the homeless (all pre-Covid as the outside groups haven't been back.) We always come away with scraps for compost as well if no one else wants to take them.

Next summer I also hope to have sweet potatoes going earlier, as they survive our summers, along with a native Seminole pumpkin. I also may try asparagus beans (aka yard long beans).

Best,

Ann

DirtTherapy
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Re: Companion planting/Interplanting

#6

Post: # 32352Unread post DirtTherapy
Wed Oct 14, 2020 12:38 pm

Bower wrote: Wed Oct 14, 2020 9:30 am I've tried dill, cilantro, carrots, basil. None thrived at the foot of tomatoes in my place.
I had absolutely no luck with carrots last year. We put some in the top of our garden barrel, so feet of loamy peat-mixed soil underneath. I think it's the heat and sun. They only grew to baby size. The dill, however, absolutely took over a side of the barrel, it was a huge plume.

I read somewhere that mature dill isn't a good companion for tomatoes. I have some new dill started, maybe I need to move it to its own space.

Cilantro I can grow outside, in winter, but most of the year it's too hot and it just bolts. I've got some going on a sunny windowsill but even there I have to watch the ambient heat.

Basil, going well at the moment in a box of its own out of most of the afternoon sun. Last year, my first living where I do now, I had a terrible ant/aphid situation which spoiled the whole lot of basil I had going. I'm still keeping a lot of it indoors. Looking into putting the planter in a sort of moat to deter ants. Then again somehow they got into the hummingbird feeder which was hanging from a tall tree branch by a thin 15 feet of wire, so, argh. Seems like the spicier globe basil and Greek columnar are less attractive to the pests.

Surprisingly, the other thing that's going well this year is the herb salad burnet. I planted it last fall and it was sluggish, but is now throwing trailing leaves of a foot long or longer. I'll have to do homework on when to divide it in my crazy Florida climate.

:)

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Re: Companion planting/Interplanting

#7

Post: # 32354Unread post Amateurinawe
Wed Oct 14, 2020 1:04 pm

Mixed experiences of this. Thought it a good idea but also been told otherwise. So here's a few thoughts

1 don't plant gladioli near tomatoes , thrips love gladioli
2 garlic, the odd chilli, dwarf pepper near tomatoes seems good. The diligent watering and feeding benefits both.
3 watercress thrived near tomatoes, but then I couldn't eat it fast enough so out it went
4 don't interplant fennel but it does attract wasps for insect control
5 I grow onion intermixed with carrot. Old wives tale, the carrot fly is confused by the onion, and the onion fly is confused by the carrot. I did not try a placebo effect and don't really believe this. So I told my wife so :-) however I don't get problems with either fly although I about to now get a problem with my wife :-)
6 a beekeeper friend of mine said, plant things so that you always have flowers year round. The succession of flowers is pretty but also keeps and feeds the bees. So whatever veg you grow the bees are not far away at their flowering time.
7 if you are Nifty and quick you can sometimes get two lots of growing with different veg. Peas and mange tout pretty much die off production early in season and you can always get in some quick growing veg as a replacement. This year I put potatoes in the same bed in succession with no problems. If you interplant at right times I am sure you can maximise production.
8 tall and short, got good wind protection from early asparagus beds once they ferned but also made a couple of boo boos on other plants which shaded others , better planning next year.
9 next year I try the mio fungi stuff but need to make sure it is proper experiment. Hear there is good symbiotic relationship there.
10 next doors weeds certainly created some unwanted interplanting. Gonna pay more attention to that.....
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DirtTherapy
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Re: Companion planting/Interplanting

#8

Post: # 32699Unread post DirtTherapy
Tue Oct 20, 2020 7:37 am

Amateurinawe wrote: Wed Oct 14, 2020 1:04 pm 6 a beekeeper friend of mine said, plant things so that you always have flowers year round. The succession of flowers is pretty but also keeps and feeds the bees. So whatever veg you grow the bees are not far away at their flowering time.
Love this. I'm working towards this, but not there yet. I'm hoping to pick up some African blue basil, possibly when I pick up my bare root strawberries if that vendor has some. And I keep talking about planting some very fragrant flowering vines and shrubs as perennials (confederate jasmine, and a couple of other ones which do well in Florida) when we set up a little side area for relaxing.

Thanks for all the tips! :) Ann

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Whwoz
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Re: Companion planting/Interplanting

#9

Post: # 32802Unread post Whwoz
Wed Oct 21, 2020 8:39 pm

Anyone know if Sunflowers affect tomatoes, looking at planting some down the middle of the tomato beds plus in the squash bed of course

eyegrotom
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Re: Companion planting/Interplanting

#10

Post: # 32805Unread post eyegrotom
Wed Oct 21, 2020 9:39 pm

This past.season I had Sunflowers planted in my raised beds with my Tomatoes, and I didn't have any problems. Also had Sunflowers with my Peppers as well.

DirtTherapy
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Re: Companion planting/Interplanting

#11

Post: # 33114Unread post DirtTherapy
Wed Oct 28, 2020 7:47 am

eyegrotom wrote: Wed Oct 21, 2020 9:39 pm This past.season I had Sunflowers planted in my raised beds with my Tomatoes, and I didn't have any problems. Also had Sunflowers with my Peppers as well.
That's a fun idea -- did the tomatoes try to use the sunflower as a stake? Or were they not that close?

My one wrinkle is that I put some basil seeds in one of the grow bags I was going to top off when the deeply-planted tomato seedlings had grown up a bit. If the basil takes off I may have to pull it out gently, add a top layer of compost and mulch, then carefully work the basil plants back in.

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Re: Companion planting/Interplanting

#12

Post: # 33115Unread post eyegrotom
Wed Oct 28, 2020 7:53 am

[mention]DirtTherapy[/mention] The Sunflowers were not that close,and also the Tomatoes plants are in their own Cages

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Amateurinawe
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Re: Companion planting/Interplanting

#13

Post: # 33133Unread post Amateurinawe
Wed Oct 28, 2020 2:26 pm

Looking to do lots of sunflowers next season but need to do a tall thin raised bed to accommodate them near a wall. We have a house on raised land and the four foot wall has a seven foot drop the other side. I reckon if I do the raised bed then the sunflowers will look twelve foot high :-) we have lots of finches and sparrows nesting annually across the road so fingers crossed. Only problem is We are easy West facing, hope they develop owls necks.....
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DirtTherapy
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Re: Companion planting/Interplanting

#14

Post: # 33184Unread post DirtTherapy
Thu Oct 29, 2020 9:17 am

I popped the sunflowers right into our sandy soil and they seem to be doing fine. The soil's been amended a bit.

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