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Beans with Tomatoes, a no no?
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Posted by aftermidnight Z8 V. Island B.C. (My Page) on Tue, Nov 17, 09 at 20:57
I have a raised bed cut into a bit of a slope where I grow tomatoes, it has a fiberglas roof on 8 foot posts over it. The last 10 or so years we have been troubled with late blight so we built a permanent roof over this bed.
The back side has netting strung for pole beans. I now read it's not good to plant beans and tomatoes close to each other, why? I have always had decent tomatoes and a good crop of pole beans and I always get a good amount of dried seed pods regardless of the weather as the roof keeps most of the rain off of them. Would I have an even better crop of beans if the tomatoes were not there?
Annette |
Follow-Up Postings:
RE: Beans with Tomatoes, a no no?
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| Only reason I can think, other than a wrongly placed tall plant blocking sun from a shorter plant, is that beans fix nitrogen, and too much nitrogen might cause a tomato to overgrow leaves and undergrow fruit. Have you noticed anything like that? How much nitrogen do beans produce anyway? I've read that alliums (onions and garlic) stunt the growth of beans. Is that true? |
RE: Beans with Tomatoes, a no no?
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| LOL, I've also planted a row of shallots along the front edge of this planter in the fall successfully many a year. The soil in this planter warms up quickly in the spring so bean seed goes in about the beginning of April. The tomatoes I grow in pots in the greenhouse until the end of may then they get planted out. I don't think the tomatoes suffer, we get more than we can eat and the beans are definitely not stunted.
Every fall I rotate the soil back to front for three years or four years then I replace it with soil from another part of the garden adding lots of compost.
Everything seems to grow without any problems, maybe I'm just lucky. Has anyone had problems planting tomatoes and beans close together? Annette |
RE: Beans with Tomatoes, a no no?
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| I've grown tomatoes directly adjacent to a row of pole beans, and both seem to like the arrangement. Since I let most of my tomatoes sprawl, they eventually reach the beans, and cover most of the ground between them. The tomato vines form a living mulch that helps trap moisture, and the beans thrive. For their part, the tall beans act as barriers between my different tomatoes, allowing me to save nearly pure seed. Both crops bear heavily, so I see no down side. I should point out (while it is a little OT) that pure seed from tomatoes is not a given. Once again this year, had two large-fruited varieties from exchanges that were 30-50% crossed. My guess is they were grown side-by-side with other tomatoes, based upon the (faulty) conventional wisdom that "tomatoes don't cross". Using the pole beans & other tall crops as barriers, I have yet to experience a cross from my own saved seed. |
RE: Beans with Tomatoes, a no no?
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". I now read it's not good to plant beans and tomatoes close to each other, why? "
The only reason that I can think of is that tomatoes and potatoes are subject to many of the same diseases especially late blight. |
RE: Beans with Tomatoes, a no no?
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| Farmerdilla, true that tomatoes, potatoes, eggplant, tobacco and other related plants may share diseases and pests, but how does that affect beans? I planted beans and tomatoes side by side (well, three feet apart with a path between them) this year again and saw no problems other than shade issues. Weeds that might have thrived on bean nitrogen affected the whole garden, not just the beans. So I wondered how much weight to give to companion planting myself. |
RE: Beans with Tomatoes, a no no?
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| I have grown pole beans with tomatoes and got good productivity on both. Right now i have 4 sungold tomato plants on a raised bed, and i put a trellis on one side of it with pole beans (soisson verts). The tomatoes are producing like gangbusters, and the soisson verts are going to let me see what they taste like very soon (almost at the shelly stage). Last winter I inter-planted peas and tomatoes for the first time. That also went really well. Everything seems to grow well with legumes in general, however i have refrained from planting alliums with any legume since so many companion planting sites discourage the practice, claiming it will stunt the growth of both. Has anyone here observed this? What about beets and pole beans? also discouraged for some reason. Well, I got beets growing with favas, no pole beans. |
RE: Beans with Tomatoes, a no no?
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| i have had pole beans and tomatoes close together also with success. biggest problem is when the beans are growing fast, if you aren't paying attention, they can start wrapping around a tomato, and get tangled up good. my garden gets full sun, so shade isn't an issue. keith |
RE: Beans with Tomatoes, a no no?
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- Posted by remy 6WNY (My Page) on
Wed, Nov 18, 09 at 22:00
My answer is the same as Keith's : )
Remy |
Alliums
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| Not knowing about alliums and beans, I put lots of store bought garlic cloves in all around the outside of the bed where I had beans going over a cattle panel hoop. Hard to know if it was due to the garlic or the massive hailstorm damage, but I didn't get any mature seed from one bean variety and only a few from the other. Think I'll move the garlic just in case. Can I move it now or wait till spring? |
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