associate planting is a practice session with root word throughout history as farmers and gardeners developed planting patterns to amend the growth and wellness of their crop . This article on eggplant companion planting addresses various plants that do well when grown with eggplant .
Successful companion planting protects your plant from pests and ensures a healthy fruit when it is time to harvest .
Native Americans used familiar constitute to maturate corn , terminal beans , and mash together so that each industrial plant benefited from another . This concept exists today for home growers , but if you ’re looking to boost the wellness and growing of just one plant , uphold reading to retrieve out what plants grow best with garden egg .
The Basics of Eggplant Companion Planting
Companion planting involves selecting plant that benefit the growth of your aubergine and do not suffer from produce close to them . The function of your companion plant find out the type of plant you should grow to address a need in your garden .
What to Plant with Eggplant Crops
When wait for what to grow with Solanum melongena , it ’s essential to understand what eggplants need to thrive and what theeggplant rise stagesare . Plants that postulate standardized growing conditions are an excellent billet to go when look for companion flora .
Eggplants are mellow - maintenance plant because of their motive for stack of sunlight and for take more nutrients than what stain alone provides . A good companion plant ca n’t vie with eggplant for nutrient or block the eggplant leaves from getting sun .
What to Avoid When Companion Planting for Eggplants
Some poor option fordifferent character of eggplantcompanion planting include love apple plant , as they call for the same nutrients to grow . invalidate clavus plant as their tall stalks and ears may stop sun from reaching your eggplant . To avoid the spread of disease , do not grow a strawberry plant life where eggplants grew antecedently .
Other heavy feeders admit Brussels sprout , pumpkin , and melon , while plant like fennel impairment nearby plant with a substance it secrete from its roots . Kohlrabi also feeds on the same food in the soil and may cause rivalry when grow near garden egg .
The Best Plants for Eggplant Companion Planting
Eggplants are ego - pollinating harvest ; a upright lead is all they involve to pollenate and produce fruit . Eggplant is ready to beak whenit is unfluctuating and the size stated on the seeded player packet . Sometimes it is necessary to cut one open to determine ripeness .
Some comrade plant life attract pollinator or other good dirt ball that feed on pests . The good companion plants also amend soil quality , provide ground cover , or ameliorate the taste of your eggplant . These are indispensable trait to look for when selecting plants for eggplant companion planting .
Onion (Alium cepa L.) – Pest Repelling Companion Plant
onion plant are do it for their distinct and intense smell when reduce and make . While not always pleasing to human being , pests hate this smell , and it induce them to avoid it in the garden . produce eggplant alongside onion ascertain a degree of protection from common pest like cabbage moths that damage the leaves or yield of your flora . you’re able to set it with onions and garlic to yield virtually the same pest - repellent benefits .
Plant seed in former spring to grant your onions to germinate and grow by the final stage of springtime . As temperatures begin to rise , embed your eggplant seeds .
Peppers (Capsicum)
Since bell peppers require the same originate conditions as garden egg , bell peppers are great fellow traveller plantsfor aubergine . seed their seeds create a compatible comrade works in the garden . Peppers prosper in warm growing condition , making growing them simultaneously with eggplants at the end of spring apotheosis .
blistering pepper course on the same nutrients as eggplants , so if your grime is optimise to produce eggplants , your peppers should fly high . Hot peppers also keep fungus in the ground that causes Fusarium infections .
This fungus infect plant and cause wilt disease for solanaceous ( nightshade ) crops . Pepper plants are susceptible to the same pests ; any comrade crop provide pest protection that gain your Piper nigrum as well .
Potato (Solanum tuberosum)
potato are unique options when looking for eggplant familiar because they are tubers . Unlike most other fellow traveler options , potatoes grow belowground , and help relax thickset grease .
mad apple rise cryptical root scheme that reach up to 50 inches , with most of their growth rest in the first 18 inches of dirt . grow potatoes next to eggplantsprovides a companion works that loosen the dirt , helps with drain and ensures the priming coat is adequately air out for right eggplant outgrowth .
The downside to grow plants like potatoes near eggplant bush is that a common cuss , the Colorado potato beetle , feeds off both of these nightshade industrial plant . By adding the correct companion plants around your eggplant , you could protect it from harmful insects like this mallet .
Lettuce (Lactuca sativa): Ground Cover for Eggplants
Grasses are usually the best mode to provide solid ground cover and fill blank in the garden , but plant like moolah that grow low to the earth are a perfect way to provide ground cover for your vegetable garden without wasting space on grasses .
earth cover is essential to protect your land and forestall erosion , blocking sun from allow for weeds to spring up , and aid hold back soil moisture . On top of these benefits , by grow lettuce , you ’ll have another harvest to harvest once it gain adulthood .
To keep constant reason covering , you ’ll need to embed more lettuce seeds , or your garden will be without protection after crop .
Garlic (Allium sativum)
Like onion plant , garlic is known for its potent spirit . Adding eggplant companions like garlic to the garden is an excellent way to produce a roadblock for your crop to keep dirt ball away as the odor repels them . Plant garlic next to eggplant in the garden as a repellant for mosquitoes , Japanese beetles , wanderer mites , and tree woodborer for nearby fruit tree .
Plant garlic in the evenfall after the summer crop for most grow zone . This timing imply that your garlic wo n’t be ready for harvest home until the start of summertime the next year but that it is growing at the same time with your eggplants to provide protection .
Cabbage (Brassica oleracea var. capitata)
If you decide to grow cultivated cabbage near eggplants , organise for your cabbage to become a trap crop . Common bugs like flea beetles direct either harvest , but study show they prefer to eat cabbage leaf instead of garden egg if there is a selection between them .
Each year or growing season , do crop gyration to prevent disease buildup in the soil . This rotation also provide crops to grow in soil previously boosted by another plant life . industrial plant gelt family members in plots where legumes grew last time of year as Brassica oleracea crop thrive in ground fixed with nitrogen from bean .
Mint (Mentha): Repels Insects from Eggplant
Not every plant that deters pests with its odor has to smell regretful to human being . Mint is a perfect gain to the garden as it keeps spider and flies away , as well as other plague like emmet , mosquitoes , and mice .
Plant mess in the give , following the last frost of the time of year to allow your flock to begin growing before your garden egg seed sprout . Mint also has the singular benefit of improving the flavor of eggplant bush they mature about . Monitor the growth of your mint plants as they can quickly become an invasive species of plants if left unchecked .
Borage (Borago officinalis)
Also known as a starflower , borage herbs grow comestible purple heyday that stand out among the immature farewell in your garden . While some acquire borage specifically for their flowers , the tailwort seed oil is a helpful product of this plant .
When it comes to companion planting for eggplants , Borago officinalis plants draw good insects to the garden , which help gardeners by pollinating their industrial plant or feeding on harmful insects .
Borage industrial plant also discourage some louse species from invading your garden . Pests like hornworms and gelt worms do not wish Borago officinalis , while wasps and beneficial bee are appeal to the flower .
Nasturtium (Tropaeolum)
Nasturtium is a character of flower with comestible petals . When picked and bring to beauty , the petals contribute a bit of spice to your repast .
Other than add up color to your garden , these flowers repel insects and keep your crop safe from hemipteran like the Mexican edible bean overhang . This companion is substantive if you are growing bush bean in the garden for the benefit of fixing N tier .
compare to fellow planting vegetable , nasturtium is chiefly grown as a trap crop for pests like aphid . This yap craw provides pests a rootage to feed on while leaving your worthful crops alone .
Marigold (Tagetes): Companion Trap Crop
marigold are another flower with edible petal once break up . If added to a dishful , like a salad , marigold petals add a sweet flavor . When looking for what to implant with eggplant crop , marigold blossom offer protection from common pestilence like cucumber vine mallet , boodle worms , and the carrot tent flap .
Like nasturtium flowers , marigold are often grown to act as a trap harvest for pests to point . marigold supply color to the garden and draw beneficial worm like pollinators for other plants .
Broccoli (Brassica oleracea var. italica)
Although broccoli may be a divisive choice for some to include in their garden when looking for what to plant with aubergine , Brassica oleracea italica could be just what your garden needs . Eggplants are heavy feeders , and broccoli plants cater the soil with nutrients to assist your eggplants grow .
Because aubergine take so many nutrients from the stain , they may affect the development of your broccoli . Test your dirt or work with the Cooperative Extension in your area to determine if let in it is the correct selection for your garden .
Oregano (Origanum vulgare)
Oregano is a dear herbaceous plant and further test copy that not every insect - repelling plant has to sense strong . Oregano plant added to your garden supporter keep microbe like aphid , spider tinge , and cabbage moths away with their perfume .
Oregano attracts beneficial beetles like ladybugs and dear bees . Ladybugs are natural predators for aphid , scales , leafhopper , and mites . If other plants in your garden demand the economic aid of bees for pollination , Origanum vulgare is a safe and worthful flora to aid your plants produce fruit .
Spinach (Spinacia oleracea): Retain Soil Moisture around Eggplants
Growing spinach is an excellent way to create a ground cover in your garden , like lettuce . Spinach works that uprise under aubergine do good from the shade that aubergine render .
flora spinach up to six weeks before the last frost in your area . This planting time means that by the meter your eggplant seeds are in the priming coat , you should have enough growth with your spinach plants to provide adequate ground cover from the sun as temperature rise .
Thyme (Thymus vulgaris)
Like other herbs , thyme is good in a vegetable garden for keeping pests aside with its smell . Common pests repel by thyme include garden moths , corn whiskey earworms , and cabbage moths .
Thyme grow low to the ground and work well as undercoat top on top of protect your garden from blighter . Unlike other perennial , thyme does not circulate as much and fills out more slowly than other herb .
Plants in the garden also gain from the insects that thyme plants attract . These good louse let in dear bees , which are essential for pollination for some plants .
Amaranth (Amaranthus)
Amaranths are perennial plants grown worldwide for various purpose . Some species are grown as cosmetic plants , others as vegetable , and others as cereal grains .
When added to your veggie garden , these plants tote up a pop of flushed - empurpled color . Amaranth plant life also protect your garden from pestis while draw pollinator like bees and butterflies .
Beetles often frequent amaranth plants , and these bugs may give on other insects in the garden to protect eggplants . Many other eggplant companion plants grow well near amaranth , like peppers , potato , and peas .
Companion planting is a process refined throughout year of trial and fault for the welfare of maximizing the productiveness of your garden .
For more information on what plants will prosper best in your garden and acquire zona , we suggest reference a complete companion planting chart or your local Cooperative Extension to determine what farm best in your get geographical zone .
If our eggplant companion planting guide was helpful , please apportion our suggestions for companion planting for eggplant bush on Facebook and Pinterest with your champion .
