Peas Compatibility Question

[packyderms_wife]

Ok I'm looking at the companion plants list and am seeiing that it's not good to plant peas/beans with onions or anything in the allium family.

What the list does NOT tell me is how far they need to be apart before I have success.

So does anyone here know how far my peas need to be from the onions, leeks, and garlic to have successful harvests of all of the above??? I'd like to get my peas into the ground today, unfortunately I'm limited on garden space.

It's bad enough I now have to move my freshly planted potatoes and potato beds because they are incompatible with just about everything <sigh> :sad:

Kimberly

[Martinhouse]

I don't know what allium can do to harm peas, but I've never paid much attention to companion planting. For all I know, those allium might repel the aphids that just love peas!

Carrots might love tomatoes, but if I have a nice plot of deep rich soil that will grow my carrots well, I don't give a rat's patoot if the tomatoes are at th eother side of my garden.

Like Ruth Stout said...."If someone tells you not to mulch with (whatever), I suggest you just ignore them."

I thought that was the best garden advice I ever read!

Common sense and a little experience can go a long way in the garden!

Carol

[Martinhouse]

The only thing your potatoes might be incompatible with is maybe soil that has too low an acid content. Lime, ashes, things of that nature, might make them scabby. Too rich soil can do that, too.

I would not trouble to move the potatoes unless you've limed heavily there.

Carol

[packyderms_wife]

the potatoes have been moved they are under the west side of the red oak so will get plenty of sunshine! The garden they were in was heavily limed. I got ahold of a friend here that's grown lots of potatoes and she said it's due to the blight that potatoes get and it can be wind blown to other plants. That and potato beetles. She recommended keeping potatoes at least 5 feet from everything else. Well I didn't have that much space in my other garden.

More later

Kimberly

[Summerthyme]

I played with the whole "companion planting" deal for a few years back when I was starting, and can honestly say I didn't ever see that it worked. Yes, it's important to ROTATE crops from year to year, and know enough about your plant "families" so you don't, for example, rotate from cabbage to brussels' sprouts (all "cole crops" need to be considered to be one "crop"... ditto the "nightshades"- potatoes, tomatoes, peppers)

And some things work nicely as "trap crops" to attract insects to them, which keeps the insects off your food (or helps). Radishes are probably THE king of the trap crops... I plant them everywhere, including in my vine crop hills... the radishes sprout first, and if there are flea beetles around, they hit the radishes. But they seem to "lock on" to that taste... and don't bother the vine crop seedlings which show up a week or so later.

But "5 feet" isn't remotely enough space between potatoes and tomatoes to help prevent the spread of blight. Blight spores can spread by wind; but I suspect most of it ends up being spread by being carried on clothes and tools- including stuff like when you brush the rototiller against a row, and then go to the next row or garden. The best way to help prevent spread of blight is to never, EVER work the garden when the plants are wet (even from dew). If possible, don't even WALK through it when the plants are wet.

Oh, and it's recommended that you don't lime or otherwise try to raise the pH in your soil where you're raising potatoes because it encourages SCAB, not blight. However, I haven't seen too much trouble with that... some varieties are much less scab susceptible than others. Manure is also supposed to encourage or "cause" scabby potatoes, but the 80 tons of manure on the 1/2 acre garden last year didn't do it here!

One reason it's suggested to not plant root crops near beans or peas is valid: too much nitrogen causes oddly shaped, malformed or "hairy" carrots, and probably other roots. Root crops need more phosphorus and potash, but not much nitrogen. And beans and peas are legumes, so they "fix" nitrogen (pull it from the air and put it into the soil with the help of symbiotic bacteria)

Summerthyme