Companion Planting // 14 Companion Plants for Tomatoes (Evidence Based)

ever wish there was a solution to keep pests and diseases off your tomato plants without hours of vigilance and labor from you are you tired of pulling weeds all around your tomato patch there's a companion plant for every issue that your tomatoes face in the garden and it can all be taken care of for you in the heat of summer while you're sitting in the shade sipping your lemonade hey i'm brian with next level gardening and if you're looking to join an online garden community that offers tips tricks and support to help you take your gardening to the next level you're in the right place start now by clicking subscribe and click the bell so you never miss anything now let's get growing in today's video i'm going to show you 14 companion plants that will keep your tomatoes pests and disease free and take care of some of the weeds they've got i'm also going to show you two plants that you never want near your tomatoes companion planting is a study that fascinates me however you will not be seeing a lot of the companion strategies on this video that you normally see on sites like pinterest mainly because a lot of it is complete nonsense so if you're here for information like planting basil next to my tomatoes will make my tomatoes taste better you might want to go somewhere else because in my experience and in all the research i've seen that is impossible what you will hear from me is evidence-based companion planting strategies now if you have one of those possible folklore myth type of companion planting strategies in your head go ahead and leave it in the comments below i'd like to see just how many we can debunk let's start off with the most famous pest for tomatoes and that would be the tomato hornworm hornworms can strip the leaves off of your plants within a couple of days there are two companion plants that can help you deal with these chubby little devils seriously they even have a horn one of the best companion plants in the garden for tomatoes is also one of the best companions for tomatoes in the kitchen and that is basil but not for the reason we mentioned earlier the very reason i love it is the reason it works so well and that is the scent there's something so summery about walking through the tomato patch and smelling the tomatoes growing in the garden and then brushing past the basil and smelling that at the same time i love it but hornworms hate it it's a common misconception in companion planting circles and literature that the smell of certain plants like basil will repel certain pests recent research actually shows that rather than repelling them it confuses them by masking the odor of the plant they're looking for so the spotted hawk moth which is the full grown version of the tomato hornworm is actually attracted to the tomato plant by smell and if you've got something like basil in the air it confuses them and they're going to look elsewhere another beneficial insect that takes down tomato hornworms are parasitic wasps these are stealthy little insects they actually lay their eggs under the skin of the tomato hornworm they hatch out and a little baby wasp larva literally eat them up inside kind of like that last comment from your boss on the last zoom meeting to attract these tiny tiny little wasps that are harmless to humans they do not sting you want to plant a lot of plants from the carrot family it's not the carrot that brings them it's actually the flowers so anything like carrots celery dill and fennel now on to the next one do stink bugs stink up your tomato season if you have these stippled colored spots on your fruit it could be the work of a stink bug one way to keep them off of your tomatoes is to plant a crop that they like even better like cow peas you want to plant the cow peas about five feet or at least five feet away from your tomatoes so they will see those and make a detour and go to the cow peas rather than your tomatoes anybody have a problem with flea beetles if your tomato leaves look like the old-fashioned punch ballots sorry to get political lots of punch card type holes with no hanging chads it's probably the work of a flea beetle or many of them similar to stink bugs you want a crop planted nearby that will lure them away from your tomatoes and a crop that they love even better than tomatoes are radish leaves but unlike the stink bug flea beetles don't travel very far they pretty much stick to a very small radius so you want to plant your radishes not five feet away but you want to plant the radishes in and among your tomato plants you can also use pak choy for this and go ahead and let your radishes go to flower and that's going to attract even more beneficial insects to your garden so we all know what aphids look like right now how about thrips you're most likely not gonna see the bug the thrip um and if so it's not gonna be big enough to make out an actual shape they're very tiny but you're gonna be able to notice the damage if your leaves look like this that is thrip damage parsley is a plant that attracts hoverflies now hoverflies do two things adult hoverflies are great pollinators hoverfly larva on the other hand feed on aphids and thrips so go ahead and plant parsley everywhere one of the pests that's really hard to get rid of once they've taken a hold are red spider mites these are really tiny red spider-shaped mites i really have a gift for describing things here's a picture of the damage they cause if it gets really bad you'll see webs on the undersides of leaves but by that time it might be too late however you can head them off at the pass by planting alliums so garlic onions chives much like the basil the smell the really strong smell of the alliums will confuse the spider mites so they will go over to your neighbor's tomatoes rather than yours because that guy doesn't watch this channel all right let's move into diseases are diseases like black spot and blight ruining your tomato harvest before the season even gets going plant a cover crop of hairy vetch that's a thing a cover crop of hairy vetch why can't i say that without laughing a cover crop of hairy vetch grow up in research trials harry vetch provided a 65 reduction in these foliar diseases and more than an 88 decrease in diseased fruit compared to bare ground or plastic sheeting mulch the results were actually comparable to fungicide that's big so grow yourself some hairy vetch plant it in the fall and cut it down to the ground in spring as soon as seed pods begin to swell leave it there as a mulch and plant your tomatoes right through it since it's a legume it will also add more nitrogen to the soil than it takes now is there a companion plant that will deter weeds yeah hairy vetch this is a twofer not only does it protect against disease but it actually protects against weeds that same mulch that you leave on the ground and plant your tomatoes through you can also plant a living mulch of crimson clover i've already got some coming up and it's going to compete with the weeds and it will win the only thing is as soon as it goes to flower you want to keep an eye on it because you do not want it to go to seed or it's going to become unmanageable really quickly so when you see those flowers start to bloom you can leave them for just a bit but before they start to go too far you want to chop them down at ground level and you can either leave them as a green mulch or you can put them in your compost it is also a legume so it's going to add more nitrogen to the soil as well now if you didn't see last year's companion planting for tomatoes video there are two plants that i want to bring up that are sworn enemies of tomato plants now i know there's going to be comments from you for these two plants you've grown them successfully with tomatoes for decades and that's fine i'm not here to argue with you i'm just telling you what the research shows the research shows you don't want to grow your tomatoes within a 50-foot radius of the trunk of a black walnut tree it secretes a substance that will either kill or stunt the growth of your tomato plants potatoes are the same family as tomatoes the nightshade family and they share some of the same diseases like blight although potatoes are much more susceptible earlier on than tomatoes and so they can pass it very easily so you want to make sure they're at least 10 feet apart but the further the better i hope that was a good enough list for you to try your hand at some companion planting with your tomatoes this year if you learned something please give the video a thumbs up consider subscribing if you haven't already and i will see you next time [Music] you

Channel: Next Level Gardening

Views: 235,054

Keywords: companion, patio, container, garden, gardening, natural pest deterent, control, pest control, better flavor, flavor enhancing, companion planting, best, marigold, marigolds, onions, garlic, organic gardening, raised bed garden, growing tomatoes in containers, how to grow tomatoes at home, growing tomatoes, planting tomatoes, tomato, how to grow tomatoes from seed, grow tomatoes, tomato growing, how to plant tomatoes, tomatoes, tomato plant, organic, chives, what to grow with tomatoes

Id: G731euRlCi0

Length: 10min 32sec (632 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 28 2021