Companions for Tomatoes

[jbosmith]

I'm planning 3 rows of tomatoes, 12 varieties per row and 3 plants per variety with 7.5 feet between varieties. I'm looking for something useful to plant in that 7.5 feet.

Criteria:
- Needs to be able to deal with shade from tomatoes
- Can't make the tomatoes sick
- Needs to be able to grow well in black plastic mulch

Any suggestions? I thought about peppers but they are so marginal here that I wasn't sure the shade from the tomatoes would work for them. I'd prefer another night shade for rotation purposes but am not tied to the idea.

[jbosmith]

Oh yeah - something productive would be good too since it'll likely go to the food bank. This probably also means semi-main stream.

[swampr]

marigolds, or basil or borage, or anything in the umbellifera family that will flower and attract beneficial insects like the little wasps that feed on hornworms and other pests. cilantro dill

[blane]

I will agree with Swamper....Marigolds.
However Basil....the fight is on! Those will compete (here in MS) your climate may vary-
Zinnias attract alot of beneficial insects-
Had good experince with carrots, as long as you pick them, on a day to day basis, allowing the Toms to grow up, while the carrots are being harvested-
Peppers, are a good companion, but its a matter of spacing issue- Dont over crowd these two, like you would with mass crowding of Tomatoes alone-
Onions, but....only for early season spring-to-summer pickings...(again, zone may vary)
My perspective on this....
In general, Tomatoes dont really need a companion neighbor-
But adding the Touch of a certain herb or flower, does make for an interesting site to behold!

[jbosmith]

I should have picked a different title. My primary concern isn't the beneficial aspects of the 'companion' since there are lots of those in neighboring rows.

I'd like to leave some room between varieties for organizational purposes and don't want the space to be unproductive. I also don't want anything that's going to spread disease to my tomatoes. We're talking about 270' of row space total. I love basil but don't really need that much of it

I suppose I could just plant more tomatoes and have less space in-between, but at this point I might have to give away living room furniture to make room for the starts!

[jbosmith]

Ok so - if I go with 5 plants of each variety with 2' between plants and then an extra 2' between varieties (where I'll plant a marigold as a marker - I like that idea), I'll use a total of 12' per variety with 12 varieties in each row. That frees up 30-40' at the end of each row where I can grow my peppers. I like it.

[grunt]

Stick in a bunch of onions. Even if they don't like the shade from the tomatoes, you will get something edible from them. Or carrots = they really don't care if they get a bit of shade, and if you are in a hot area, may even benefit from some shade. Bush beans are another option, particularly if your tomatoes are indeterminates.

[veggie maker]

I have had good luck with the asian eggplants... millionaire and ping tung etc.. if you like them and my family does.... I plant them there also for the rotational purposes and they usually get about four ft tall here and seem to do fine with tomatoes. .... I also use crimson clover every year around everything especially in the squash and melon area, but tomatoes don't seem to mind it either, they pull in a lot of bees here when they start blooming...