Choosing the right companion plants that can be planted with potatoes is a completely natural way to keep your plants pest-free.
Choosing the right potato companion plants can help protect your plant from common pests such as the Colorado beetle, aphids, and cut worms. Many herbs, vegetables and flowering plants can help keep tubers strong and free of pests without resorting to poisonous insecticides.
Below are the best companion plants for potatoes as well as basic tips to increase potato harvest with the help of these crops.
The Best Potato Companion Plants
1. Sweet Alyssum
Sweet Alyssum is a low-growing, flowering year known for its delicate white and purple flowers. But Alyssum is more than just an attractive decoration. It is also one of the best companion crops for potatoes.
The Alyssum flower is very attractive to beneficial insects, including hoverflies and beetles, which can keep unwanted potato pests under control. When used as mulch, Alyssum also helps bind soil moisture and prevent weeds, making potatoes bigger and stronger.
2. Cabbage Family Members
Broccoli, cauliflower, beets and other related crops have a short root system that does not compete with potatoes for valuable soil area. The combination of these two plant species will help you get the most out of your garden beds.
It should be borne in mind that these plants are heavy nutrients, so you need to fertilize them regularly with balanced fertilizers so that the vegetables receive all the necessary nutrients.
3. Horseradish
Horseradish isn’t often grown among backyard gardeners like some other vegetables, but it’s a delicious spice and a better companion crop for potatoes. Radish has large, large-sized leaves that help protect the soil around potatoes, prevent weeds, and retain moisture in the soil.
In addition, radishes appear to repel the Colorado’s destructive Colorado potato beetle and may improve potatoes’ natural ability to resist disease. However, it can spread a lot, so it is better to plant radishes where you can store it.
4. Alliums
Chives, leeks, onions and other allia are among the best plants for natural pest control. The strong smell of these plants repels many garden pests, including aphids and beetles.
When it’s time to harvest, you’ll be happier planting these companions together, as you’ll have all the ingredients on hand to get potato and leek soup.
5. Cilantro
Coriander is an excellent potato plant, especially if it can flower. When flowering, this plant attracts hovercraft, garters, bugs and parasitic wasps to your garden.
These insects, in turn, hunt pests of ordinary potatoes, including the larvae of the Colorado beetle and aphids.
6. Nasturtium
Nasturtium is an attractive plant that is usually grown for its appearance or harvested for its edible flowers and peppery-tasting leaves. But nasturtium is also the primary companion plant for natural pest control, as it helps keep many pesky insects under control.
Nasturtium often acts as a “trap plant” and attracts pests such as aphids and Colorado beetles from potatoes, making them easier to control and eliminate.
7. Beans and peas
Beans and peas don’t compete with potatoes for garden space or nutrients, so you don’t have to worry about these plants stopping harvesting potatoes.
In addition, the nitrogen-fixing ability of natural legumes provides the soil with valuable nutrients. When legumes are planted with potatoes, they can also help grow more leafy potatoes and more tubers.
In addition, beans can repel Colorado beetles. In turn, potatoes drive away Mexican bean beetles, which can destroy bean crops.
8. Sage
Sage is an ideal aromatic herb to attract bees and other pollinators to the garden. But its strong smell is also known as a deterrent to flea beetles and other common pests . And if you need more reasons to grow sage with potatoes, then it is difficult to beat sage and potato gnocchi in a pleasant night.
9. Lettuce
Potato ripening can take months in the garden, which can take up valuable garden space. However, if you combine slow-growing potatoes with faster-growing plants like lettuce and other leafy greens, you can get plenty of food from your vegetable garden.
A lettuce planted between potatoes is a smart way to use garden space, and unpretentious lettuce to potatoes won’t compete for nutrients.
10. Marigolds
Keeping marigolds in an organic garden is one of the best ways to prevent pests naturally. The smell of marigolds is naturally repellent to many common pests, including Colorado beetles.
Planting marigolds between tubers helps protect plants from natural pests, and marigolds give a bright color to revitalize the garden beds.