5 Best Companion Plants for Tomatoes for Maximum Yields and Healthy Plants & 2 Plants Tomatoes Hate

Hey guys, it's Brian with California Garden TV and welcome to our first ever Tomato Tuesday. In today's video we're going to talk about five plants, companion plants, for tomatoes and why they're so beneficial for healthier plants. We're also going to go over the two plants you should never grow with tomatoes. That's all coming up. If this is your first time here and you're looking to join a gardening community that offers tips, tricks, and advice to grow your best garden ever, you're in the right place. Start now by hitting subscribe and click the bell notification so you are notified every time we upload a video, which right now is three times a week, Sunday, Tuesday, and Friday. Let's get started. Just wanted to start off the video real quick with an update on my tomato plants. They're in the solo cups and I'm just getting ready to add the next layer of soil. There are two extremes when the subject of companion planting comes up. One side is the mystical magical view that certain plants are just really good friends and they help each other to grow bigger, better, stronger, more fruit. Then there's the other camp on the other end of the spectrum that believes in 100% science. If there is not 10 double blind studies to back up that hypothesis, then it doesn't exist. I'm somewhere in the middle and I hope you are too. I do believe that there are plants when combined or when planted in proximity to tomatoes and other plants do help that plant grow stronger by providing it protection from certain pests. I also think there are methods that have been passed down through generations that work and they don't have to have, you know, five double blind studies to prove to me that they work. As always, this is an interactive gardening community and I would really like to hear from you guys down in the comments section. If any of the companion plants that I'm about to lay out, if you've had experience with those positive or negative, um, and if there's some that I haven't thought of that you have, you'll swear by and you've done it for years, we'd love to hear that too. Let's get into number five and that is marigolds. There are very few plants that produce a substance that is toxic to nematodes, specifically root knot nematodes. Root knot nematodes are microscopic round worms that live in the soil and on plant roots. They injure plants by feeding on the root cells with their needle-like mouth parts and the root system can become damaged to the point where the plant can't properly absorb nutrients and water. Plants may appear stunted, discolored, they may die, they may wilt easily in hot dry weather, and appear to have nutrient deficiencies. Beneath the ground the roots may have knots or swollen areas, but the effect of the marigold may not be only because of the natural nematicides in it. Nematodes may enter the root system, get trapped, and not be able to continue their life cycle, but the nematode may actually actively be killed on the plant when the nematode starts to chew into the root system. French marigolds are the best. Tangerine appears to be the most potent variety. Number four is members of the allium family like onions, garlic, and chives. Now, according to Cornell University's Home Garden website, members of the allium family actually put off such an odor that it does repel pests, especially red spider mites. Red spider mites are pale orange to red and feed on the underside of leaves. They're really difficult to see with the naked eye. They suck the sap out of your leaves and the damage appears as many shiny, pale yellow marks on the top of the tomato leaf. Eventually the leaves turn brown and die or fall off. Now, if untreated, it can lead to a very severe issue with actually the formation of webs on the plant. Now, if you prune your tomatoes like I do, and I'm actually going to be doing a very in-depth video on tomato pruning in a future episode of Tomato Tuesday, but if you prune them like I do, it actually removes a lot of the lower leaves and branches, which allows plenty of room underneath tomatoes to plant members of the allium family. Now, garlic, it's a little late when you're getting tomatoes in the ground. Garlic should have already been planted. You can plant garlic beforehand and then plant the tomatoes around it, but right now is the perfect time to plant onions and chives, and so those will be perfect planted in and among your tomato plants. Number three is peppermint. The strong smell of peppermint is known to repel a lot of unsavory and damaging insects. I'm most interested in its ability to repel rodents. Now, you guys, if you've been watching my channel any length of time, you know that I have a rodent issue, and rodents are my big nemesis in the garden. And last year, after I mentioned that for the first time, I got a lot of you viewers telling me about peppermint, and after watching a YouTube video that I'm going to post down below, I was absolutely convinced. So this year, I'm actually going to be taking some peppermint cuttings and planting them in pots throughout my tomato bed. Now, one word of warning. Mint is very, all kinds of mint are very invasive, and so you want to make sure they're going to be planted in a pot. And they're actually so invasive, you want to put that pot not directly on the soil. You want to put like a stepping stone or a brick underneath it, so that the roots don't escape through the drainage holes and take over your bed. Number two is parsley. Now, parsley is used in a ton of cooking recipes, but parsley is actually a really, really good companion plant for almost every garden plant. The reason is, it has the ability to attract hoverflies. But you have to let it go to flower, and it will do that this summer. Parsley flowers attract hoverfly, the larvae of which will eat aphids, thrip, and other harmful insects. Some harmful beetles are also repelled by the presence of parsley. As a side note, swallowtail butterflies lay their eggs on parsley leaves as well, and they will bring a whole new generation of butterflies to grow up in your garden. Now, my favorite companion plant for tomatoes comes in at number one, and it absolutely has to be basil. Now, just the smell of basil and tomatoes growing together in the garden, that says summer to me, and that's good enough reason to plant them together right there. But basil is also said to repel tomato hornworm. Now, last year, the only tomato plant that had tomato hornworm was one that came a volunteer away from my basil plants. Another reason to grow basil, other than the great pesto, is for the flowers. Bees absolutely love basil flowers. Now, the problem with that is, as soon as basil flowers, the leaves become bitter. And so, I grow two types of basil. I grow green basil, which I keep pinched throughout the summer, to keep it from blooming, so it never gets bitter until the very end when I let it go, you know, in the fall. And then I grow purple basil. And this, I let go to flower. And I'm telling you, the bees come from miles around to find basil flowers. They just swarm it. So, it brings in the pollinators to help with your tomatoes and every other plant in the garden. Now, I grow a ton of basil, so I start it in these solo cups. And after hardening it off, I prick them out and plant three per cell. And when the weather warms up, I'm going to plant these guys all over the garden, but especially around my tomatoes. Okay, so real quick, I promised you two plants that you should never grow near your tomatoes. The first one are potatoes. Potatoes are very susceptible to blight and are a host for fungi that causes flucerium and verticillum wilt, which spread throughout the soil. These diseases keep the plants from utilizing water, resulting in leaf wilt and death. And if one crop get the disease, either one of the diseases, the chances are good that the other one will too, especially if they are in close proximity. Also, the root system of potatoes inhibits the growth of tomatoes if they're planted next to each other. The second thing you don't want planted near your tomatoes are walnut trees. Walnut wilt is actually caused by the uptake of the chemical juglone, which is toxic to tomatoes. Juglone's toxicity to tomatoes directly depends on how close tomato plants are to walnut trees. Tomatoes planted within the tree's root spread, which is two to three times the circumference of the tree itself, are most susceptible to this disease. So thanks for watching, guys. If you learned something, definitely give me a thumbs up, hit subscribe, and make sure you hit the bell notification so every time we have one of these videos, you get notified. And if you have any comments, if you've tried one of these and you have it work for you, or if you have something else that we didn't cover, we'd like to hear that as well. See you guys on Friday.