Companion planting is the planting of different crops in proximity (in gardening and agriculture), on the theory that they assist each other in nutrient uptake, pest control Pest control refers to the regulation or management of a species defined as a pest, usually because it is perceived to be detrimental to a person's health, the ecology or the economy, pollination Pollination is the process by which pollen is transferred in plants, thereby enabling fertilization and sexual reproduction. Pollen grains, which contain the male gametes to where the female gamete(s) are contained within the carpel; in gymnosperms the pollen is directly applied to the ovule itself. The receptive part of the carpel is called a, and other factors necessary to increasing crop productivity.
Companion planting is used by farmers and gardeners in both industrialized and developing countries for many reasons. Many of the modern principles of companion planting were present many centuries ago in cottage gardens The cottage garden is a distinct style of garden that uses an informal design, traditional materials, dense plantings, and a mixture of ornamental and edible plants. English in origin, the cottage garden depends on grace and charm rather than grandeur and formal structure. Homely and functional gardens connected to working-class cottages go back in England and Home gardens in Asia.
For farmers using an integrated pest management These methods are performed in three stages: prevention, observation, and intervention. It is an ecological approach with a main goal of significantly reducing or eliminating the use of pesticides while at the same time managing pest populations at an acceptable level system, increased yield and/or reduction of pesticides A pesticide is any substance or mixture of substances intended for preventing, destroying, repelling or mitigating any pest. A pesticide may be a chemical substance, biological agent , antimicrobial, disinfectant or device used against any pest. Pests include insects, plant pathogens, weeds, molluscs, birds, mammals, fish, nematodes (roundworms), is the goal[citation needed].
For gardeners, the combinations of plants also make for a more varied, attractive vegetable garden, as well as allowing more productive use of space.
Companion planting is considered to be a form of polyculture Polyculture is agriculture using multiple crops in the same space, in imitation of the diversity of natural ecosystems, and avoiding large stands of single crops, or monoculture. It includes crop rotation, multi-cropping, intercropping, companion planting, beneficial weeds, and alley cropping.
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History
In China, the mosquito fern has been used for at least one thousand years, as a companion plant for rice Rice is the seed of the monocot plant Oryza sativa. As a cereal grain, it is the most important staple food for a large part of the world's human population, especially in East, South, Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Latin America, and the West Indies. It is the grain with the second highest worldwide production, after maize crops. It hosts a special cyanobacteria Cyanobacteria is a phylum of bacteria that obtain their energy through photosynthesis. The name "cyanobacteria" comes from the color of the bacteria (Greek: κυανός (kyanós) = blue) that fixes nitrogen from the atmosphere, and also blocks out light from getting to any competing plants, aside from the rice, which is planted when tall enough to stick out of the water above the azolla layer.
Companion planting was practiced in various forms by Native Americans The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North, Central, and South America, their descendants, and many ethnic groups who identify with those peoples. They are often also referred to as Native Americans, Aboriginals, First Nations , Amerigine[dubious – discuss], and by Christopher Columbus' geographical and prior to the arrival of Europeans. One common system was the planting of corn Maize is a grass domesticated by indigenous peoples in Mesoamerica in prehistoric times. The Aztecs and Mayans cultivated it in numerous varieties throughout central and southern Mexico, to cook or grind in a process called nixtamalization. Later the crop spread through much of the Americas. Between 1250 A.D. and 1700 A.D. nearly the whole (maize) and pole beans The runner bean is often called the scarlet runner bean since most varieties have red flowers and multicolored seeds, though some have white flowers and white seeds. It differs from the common bean in several respects: the cotyledons stay in the ground during germination, and the plant is a perennial with tuberous roots (though it is usually together. The cornstalk would serve as a trellis for the beans to climb while the beans would fix nitrogen Nitrogen fixation is the process by which nitrogen is taken from its relatively inert molecular form in the atmosphere and converted into nitrogen compounds (such as ammonia, nitrate and nitrogen dioxide). This is an essential process for life because fixed nitrogen is needed to make nucleotides which are needed to make DNA and also to make amino for the corn. The inclusion of squash Squashes generally refer to four species of the genus Cucurbita native to Mexico and Central America, also called marrows depending on variety or the nationality of the speaker. These species include C. maxima , C. mixta (cushaw squash), C. moschata (butternut squash), and C. pepo (most pumpkins, acorn squash, summer squash, zucchini). In North with these two plants completes the Three Sisters The Three Sisters are the three main agricultural crops of some Native American groups in North America: squash, maize, and climbing beans technique, pioneered by Native American peoples.
Companion planting was widely touted in the 1970s as part of the organic gardening Organic horticulture is the science and art of growing fruits, vegetables, flowers, or ornamental plants by following the essential principles of organic agriculture in soil building and conservation, pest management, and heirloom variety preservation movement[citation needed]. It was encouraged for pragmatic reasons, such as natural trellising, but mainly with the idea that different species of plant may thrive more when close together[citation needed]. It is also a technique frequently used in permaculture Permaculture is an approach to designing human settlements and agricultural systems that mimic the relationships found in natural ecologies, together with mulching In agriculture and gardening, mulch is a protective cover placed over the soil, to retain moisture, reduce erosion, suppress weed growth and seed germination, and provide nutrients as they decay. Mulching in gardens and landscapes mimics leaf cover on forest floors, polyculture Polyculture is agriculture using multiple crops in the same space, in imitation of the diversity of natural ecosystems, and avoiding large stands of single crops, or monoculture. It includes crop rotation, multi-cropping, intercropping, companion planting, beneficial weeds, and alley cropping, and changing of crops Intercropping is the practice of growing two or more crops in close proximity. The most common goal of intercropping is to produce a greater yield on a given piece of land by making use of resources that would otherwise not be utilized by a single crop. Careful planning is required, taking into account the soil, climate, crops, and varieties. It.
Examples of companion plants
See also: List of companion plants This is a list of companion plant relationships. Many more are in list of beneficial weeds See also: List of repellent plantsNasturtium are well-known to attract caterpillars Caterpillars are the larval form of a member of the order Lepidoptera . They are mostly herbivorous in food habit, with some species being insectivorous. Caterpillars are voracious feeders and many of them are considered pests in agriculture. Many moth species are better known in their caterpillar stages because of the damage they cause to fruits, therefore, planting them around vegetables such as lettuce or cabbage protects them from damage, as egg-laying insects will tend to prefer the nasturtium[citation needed]. This practice is called trap cropping A trap crop is a plant that attracts agricultural pests, usually insects, away from nearby crops. This form of companion planting can save the main crop from decimation by pests without the potential issues and controversy involved in using pesticides. Trap crops can be planted around the circumference of the field to be protected, or interspersed.
Marigolds assist crops suffering from aphids About 4,400 species of 10 families are known. Historically, many fewer families were recognized, as most species were included in the family Aphididae. Around 250 species are serious pests for agriculture and forestry as well as an annoyance for gardeners. They vary in length from one to ten millimetres (greenfly among others) through their smell being deterrent to aphids and attractant to hoverflies (a predator of aphids)[citation needed]. Marigolds are also said[weasel words] to deter other pests[which?], and their roots emit a chemical that repels some "bad" nematodes.
Versions
There are a number of systems and ideas using companion planting.
Square foot gardening Square Foot Gardening is the practice of planning small but intensively planted gardens. The phrase "square foot gardening" was popularized by Mel Bartholomew in a 1981 Rodale Press book and subsequent PBS television series. The practice combines concepts from other organic gardening methods, including a strong focus on compost, closely, for example, attempts to protect plants from many normal gardening problems by packing them as closely together as possible, which is facilitated by using companion plants, which can be closer together than normal.
Another system using companion planting is the forest garden Forest gardening is a food production and land management system based on replicating woodland ecosystems, but substituting trees , bushes, shrubs, herbs and vegetables which have yields directly useful to humans. Making use of companion planting, these can be intermixed to grow on multiple levels in the same area, as do the plants in a forest, where companion plants are intermingled to create an actual ecosystem, emulating the interaction of up to seven levels of plants in a forest or woodland Ecologically, a woodland is a low-density forest forming open habitats with plenty of sunlight and limited shade. Woodlands may support an understory of shrubs and herbaceous plants including grasses. Woodland may form a transition to shrubland under drier conditions or during early stages of primary or secondary succession. Higher densities and.
Organic gardening Organic horticulture is the science and art of growing fruits, vegetables, flowers, or ornamental plants by following the essential principles of organic agriculture in soil building and conservation, pest management, and heirloom variety preservation often depends on companion planting for its best performance, since so many synthetic means of fertilizing, weed reduction, pest control, and other garden needs are forbidden.
Good weeds
There are many beneficial weeds A Beneficial weed is any of various plants not generally considered domesticated, but which nonetheless has some companion plant effect, or else is edible or somehow beneficial. Beneficial weeds include a great many wildflowers, as well as many weeds that are commonly removed or poisoned, which can be allowed to grow alongside plants, imparting the same kinds of benefits as mixing cultivated crops.
Host-finding disruption
Recent studies on host-plant finding have shown that flying pests are far less successful if their host-plants are surrounded by any other plant or even "decoy-plants" made of green plastic, cardboard, or any other green material.
The host-plant finding process occurs in phases:
- The first phase is stimulation by odours characteristic to the host-plant. This induces the insect to try to land on the plant it seeks. But insects avoid landing on brown (bare) soil. So if only the host-plant is present, the insects will quasi-systematically find it by simply landing on the only green thing around. This is called (from the point of view of the insect) "appropriate landing." When it does an "inappropriate landing," it flies off to any other nearby patch of green. It eventually leaves the area if there are too many 'inappropriate' landings.
- The second phase of host-plant finding is for the insect to make short flights from leaf to leaf to assess the plant's overall suitability. The number of leaf-to-leaf flights varies according to the insect species and to the host-plant stimulus received from each leaf. The insect must accumulate sufficient stimuli from the host-plant to lay eggs; so it must make a certain number of consecutive 'appropriate' landings. Hence if it makes an 'inappropriate landing', the assessment of that plant is negative, and the insect must start the process anew.
Thus it was shown that clover Clover , or trefoil, is a genus of about 300 species of plants in the pea family Fabaceae. The genus has a cosmopolitan distribution; the highest diversity is found in the temperate Northern Hemisphere, but many species also occur in South America and Africa, including at high altitudes on mountains in the tropics. They are small annual, biennial, used as a ground cover had the same disruptive effect on eight pest species from four different insect orders. An experiment showed that 36% of cabbage root flies laid eggs beside cabbages growing in bare soil (which resulted in no crop), compared to only 7% beside cabbages growing in clover (which allowed a good crop). Simple decoys made of green cardboard also disrupted appropriate landings just as well as did the live ground cover.
Source: [1] Horticulture Research International, Wellesbourne : “Insects can see clearly now the weeds have gone.” Finch, S. & Collier, R. H. (2003). Biologist, 50 (3), 132-135.
Companion plant categories
Companion plants can benefit each other in a number of different ways, including:[1]
- Flavor enhancement — some plants, especially herbs, seem to subtly change the flavor of other plants around them[citation needed].
- Hedged investment — multiple plants in the same space increase the odds of some yield being given, even if one category encounters catastrophic issues
- Increased level interaction — plants that grow on different levels in the same space, perhaps providing ground cover or working as a trellis for another plant
- Nitrogen fixation Nitrogen fixation generally refers to the natural process, either biological or abiotic, by which nitrogen in the atmosphere is converted into ammonia. This process is essential for life because fixed nitrogen is required to biosynthesize the basic building blocks of life, e.g. nucleotides for DNA and amino acids for proteins. Formally, nitrogen — plants that fix nitrogen in the ground, making it available to other plants
- Pest suppression — repelling pest insects, weeds, nematodes The nematodes or roundworms (phylum Nematoda) are the most diverse phylum of pseudocoelomates, and one of the most diverse of all animals. Nematode species are very difficult to distinguish; over 28,000 have been described, of which over 16,000 are parasitic. It has been estimated[weasel words] that the total number of described and undescribed, or pathogenic fungi A fungus is a member of a large group of eukaryotic organisms that includes microorganisms such as yeasts and molds, as well as the more familiar mushrooms. The Fungi (pronounced /ˈfʌndʒaɪ/ or /ˈfʌŋɡaɪ/) are classified as a kingdom that is separate from plants, animals and bacteria. One major difference is that fungal cells have cell, through chemical means [citation needed]
- Pollinator and predator recruitment — The use of plants that produce copious nectar and protein-rich pollen Pollen is a fine to coarse powder containing the microgametophytes of seed plants, which produce the male gametes . Pollen grains have a hard coat that protects the sperm cells during the process of their movement between the stamens to the pistil of flowering plants or from the male cone to the female cone of coniferous plants. When pollen lands in a vegetable garden (insectary plants) is a good way to recruit higher populations of beneficial insects that control pests. Some insects in the adult form are nectar or pollen feeders, while in the larval form they are voracious predators In ecology, predation describes a biological interaction where a predator feeds on its prey (the organism that is attacked). Predators may or may not kill their prey prior to feeding on them, but the act of predation always results in the death of its prey and the eventual absorption of the prey's tissue through consumption. The other main of pest A pest is an organism, usually an insect, which has characteristics that are regarded by humans as injurious or unwanted[citation needed]. This is often because it causes damage to agriculture through feeding on crops or parasitising livestock, such as codling moth on apples, or boll weevil on cotton. An animal can also be a pest when it causes insects.
- Positive hosting — attracts or is inhabited by beneficial insects or other organisms which benefit plants, as with ladybugs or some "good nematodes" [citation needed].
- Protective shelter — one type of plant may serve as a wind break or shade for another
- Trap cropping A trap crop is a plant that attracts agricultural pests, usually insects, away from nearby crops. This form of companion planting can save the main crop from decimation by pests without the potential issues and controversy involved in using pesticides. Trap crops can be planted around the circumference of the field to be protected, or interspersed — plants that attract pests away from others
- Pattern disruption — in a monoculture Monoculture is the agricultural saying of producing or growing one single crop over a wide area. It is widely used in modern industrial agriculture and its implementation has allowed for large harvests from minimal labor. However, monocultures can lead to the quicker spread of diseases, where a uniform crop is susceptible to a pathogen. 'Crop, pest spread from one plant to the next, is interrupted by companion plants.[2]
See also
- Satoyama Satoyama is a Japanese term applied to the border zone or area between mountain foothills and arable flat land. Literally, sato (里) means arable and livable land or home land, and yama (山) means mountain. Satoyama, which have been developed through centuries of small scale agricultural and forestry use, also promise biodiversity if properly
- Intercropping Intercropping is the practice of growing two or more crops in close proximity. The most common goal of intercropping is to produce a greater yield on a given piece of land by making use of resources that would otherwise not be utilized by a single crop. Careful planning is required, taking into account the soil, climate, crops, and varieties. It
References
- ^ "Notes on Natural Pest Control for an Organic Garden on DigGood.com". http://www.didgood.com/health/naturalpestcontrol.html.
- ^ Research International, Wellesbourne : “Insects can see clearly now the weeds have gone.” Finch, S. & Collier, R. H. (2003). Biologist, 50 (3), 132-135
External links
- Companion planting: A chemical-free way to repel pests with plants Jessica Damiano
- A companion planting table
- Companion Planting at Golden Harvest Organics
Categories: Organic gardening Categories: Horticulture and gardening | Sustainable technologies | Permaculture | Crops A crop is any plant that is grown in significant quantities to be harvested as food, livestock fodder, or for another economic purpose. This category includes crop species as well as agricultural techniques related to cropping | Biological pest control Biological pest control is a rapidly expanding field of agriculture, where natural agents, primarily parasitoids and predators are used to control a pest organism that has been causing economic harm to human interests. These methods can be as alternatives or supplements to conventional pest control methods such as insecticides. Human disturbance | Sustainable gardening | Sustainable technologies Categories: Sustainability | Environmental technology | Organic farming | Sustainable agriculture Sustainable agriculture integrates three main goals, environmental health, economic profitability, and social and economic equity. These goals have been defined by a variety of philosophies, policies and practices, from the vision of farmers and consumers. Perspectives and approaches are very diverse, the following categories intend to help
Santa Barbara Independent
One such proven companion plant for susceptible plants is the common marigold. Alternate them along the row, in rows between the rows of vegetables, ...
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Hilary
hu, 27 Mar 2008 21:35:00 GM
Gardeners have known for centuries that a good mix of plants gives you a healthier garden, but even better, in recent times, several scientific studies about . companion planting. have proven that it actually works, but how? ...
Q. what is a companion plant to put with snowpeas?
Asked by jenjen - Tue Apr 25 20:30:34 2006 - - 4 Answers - 0 Comments
A. I don't think I'd plant other climbers, like cucumbers. If you want edible plants, how about parsley or basil?
Answered by myrtguy - Tue Apr 25 23:50:58 2006
