Companion Planting

conceive of planting cuke with potatoes in your garden this season ? peradventure you are curious if it ’s even a unspoilt idea ? In this article , gardening expert and homesteader Merideth Corhs examines if planting cucumbers with your potatoes is a good musical theme this season , or if you should stick to other fellow traveler for either vegetable .

Contents

A close up of potatoes and cucumbers recently harvested after growing in the garden. The cucumbers are in a brown wicker basket, and the potatoes are still covered in soil, in a blue plastic basket.

Growing white potato is in reality quite the playfulness experience . Aftergrowing potatoesin my garden for the first clock time , I was mesmerised at how other than they grew compared to cucumbers . All the action takes place below the Earth’s surface of the soil !

decide to plant potatoes take a flake of pre - planning drive . There are many plants that produce well in skinny law of proximity , but there are also quite a few that do not . Some greatcompanion plant for potatoesare lettuce , spinach , and radishes . These are all veggies that have above - soil growth habit and wo n’t interfere with the tubers .

But what about a summer staplelike cucumber ? Can they be mature together with potatoes or will this cause some serious problems in our garden ? scan on to read about thespecific needs of both veggiesto see if they make good neighbor or if you need to pick another fellow traveller .

A close up of a group of garden vegetables on the ground. You can see potatoes, cucumbers, tomatoes, carrots, beets, onions, greens all resting together. There is also farming equipment including a used watering can, and a shovel that has also been used. In the background, you can see planted onions and other leafy greens.

The Short Answer

We do not urge planting cucumbers with tater ; they just do n’t play well together .

One reason is that both works are heavy feeder and will majorly compete with one another for vital resources and water supply . The cucumber will more than likely turn a loss that battle since it has a shallower root organization . This will ensue in poor growing and low take .

Another reason is thatharvesting potatoes requires extirpate them . This process can easy disturb and break the thin , shallow side etymon your cucumber plant bank on . Cucumbers have also been eff to spread fungous disease to Irish potato in sure climate . No matter how you expect at it , cuke and tater do not make upright neighbor .

An image of potatoes growing in the garden next to other greens in rows. All of them are in season but not yet harvestable.

The Long Answer

Figuring out whether you could interplant Cucumis sativus and potatoes together will postulate contain a look at theirgrowing needsand whether they make helpful or hurtful companions to each other .

Explaining Interplanting

Also known as interplanting , companion planting has been used for centuries . The process is mean to replicate what you ’d see in nature – works mixed together growing attractively .

An interconnected rise system works together growing in harmoniousness . All the biologic structures are working with one another to farm inviolable plant that are more resilient to pest and diseases .

advanced farming today does n’t really look like this . Most vegetables and fruit are grow in similar crop andcovered in antimycotic agent and pesticides . When gardening at house , you could assure this through interplanting and companion plant certain veggies , herbs , and flowers to make a complimentary ecosystem .

Onion lush greens, carrots and other vegetables are growing in the garden. They are planted in rows together, and each type of vegetable is growing in its own row.

Reasons to Interplant

There are many understanding to choose to companion plant . welfare includepollinator attraction(which helps increase return ) , pest and disease management , savour sweetening , maximize space and light , mourning band suppression , and more . It can also be a great blank deliverance scheme when you have a smaller home garden .

Reasons to Avoid Interplanting

There are a bit of reasons you should also skip interplanting certain plants . This is because some plant will have a negative influence on those raise around it .

Some plant can influence the gustatory perception of other plants ( garlic for example ) and others entice in even more destructive insects . Others will compete for sun and shade off out everything around them . And some vie for the same resources , like spud and cucumbers .

Nutrient Competition

All fruiting works command quite a bit of water and nutrients to produce and mark fruit . So why are we single out cucumbers and potatoes for being cutthroat when it comes to nutrients ?

While many ardent time of year crops – thinktomatoes , peppers , and cucumbers – areheavy feeder , they can happily coexist with one another . They have standardized alimental needs , but there seems to be enough to go around if you pay attention to reproducible fertilisation throughout the growing season .

potato , on the other hand , are n’t great at communion .

A pair of young vining cucumbers growing in the garden. The fruits of the plant have bright yellow flowers at the end and are growing off a vine. The background is blurred with green foliage.

Potatoes are tubers , meaning that the growth of the industrial plant ’s ‘ yield ’ happens entirely belowground . Root vegetables profit from muchhigher levels of atomic number 19 and phosphorustostimulate genus Tuber growth .

They do n’t necessitate as much nitrogen , which can help upgrade vegetal growth . A good fertilizer for potatoes may have NPK levels like 5 - 10 - 10 or 8 - 24 - 24 . micronutrient are also in high demand for potatoes . Sulfur , bull , manganese , zinc , and boron are all needed for respectable increase . When they ’re lacking , you will see a noticeable impact on both plant life increment and yield .

Cucumis sativus also have needs for those same macro- and micronutrients , which is whythey have better option as companionsthan potatoes . But their shallow solution system really have no chance of bewitch them with deeply rooted potatoes nearby . As a outcome , your cucumber vines will not grow well and the output will be very disappointing .

A gardener digging a hole in the garden to dig up some potatoes. They are fully grown and ready to be harvested. There are other plants around them ready to be dug up. The soil is dark and fertile.

Harvesting Potatoes Can Harm Cucumber Roots

grow murphy is really middling nerveless . You start up off by planting seed tater – or slips – in the ground and marvel at the amount of young potatoes that are mold by a undivided plant . Generally , you’re able to expect between 5 - 10 potatoes for every plant you grow . Not bad for some turn out - up bourgeon ejaculate white potato vine !

You canharvest your potatoesas soon as they reach the sizing you require . ‘ New ’ or baby potatoes are generally quick between60 - 90 from planting . This typically coincides with the plant life beginning to flower . Full - sized spud are quick about 120 days from harvest home .

Let ’s try the timing of all this . you may plant potatoes as betimes as 4 - 6 weeksbeforeyour last frost particular date . You have to wait to implant cucumber until 2 weeks after your last frost dateat the earliest . Most garden look quite a bit longer than that since cucumbers prefer a soil temperature of 70 degree .

An up close image of a browning potato leaf. Gardener is holding the leaf examining it for fungal disease, with green uninfected foliage in the background.

you could start to see the problem .

Your potatoes will be quick for harvesting while your cuke flora is still fairly young . Even if all the principal align in your growing time of year and your cuke is nice and fledged , it will still be in the unconscious process of flowering and setting yield when it ’s metre to harvest your potatoes .

This make a very highrisk of damage your cucumber rootswhen you start to glean your potatoes . harvest potatoes requires excavate into the soil and rummaging around for all the Irish potato .

Organic cucumbers growing in a greenhouse. There are several fruits growing off a single vine, and the vine is trellised, but the trellis is not visible. They are growing vertically and there are four fruits off the same vine. Behind it is green foliage from the vine.

Shallow cucumber roots that spread from the principal stem can easily become entangle in nearby murphy plant . harvest the Solanum tuberosum can pretty easy rend up or significantly damage those trailing root .

Damaged roots cause meaning tenseness to a plant . If source harm is significant , it can cause the works to wither and go bad since it can no longer play up decent water and food from the soil . Best lawsuit scenario is that the root scathe emphasis have the plant to stop grow fruit . Either option is less than ideal for your garden .

Cucumbers can Spread Disease to Your Potatoes

So far we ’ve speak about the problem potato will cause your cucumbers if they ’re plant nearby . This section is in reality focused on the opposite becausecucumbers can diffuse a fungous diseasecalled white potato blight if the two are planted tight together .

Potato blight is a fungal disease due to thePhytophthora infestansfungus . It can distribute quickly in a garden via airborne spore until they land on a susceptible plant . The spore lie dormant in dry weather condition , but once quick and humid conditions rebel , they begin to get and disperse .

Both plants are also susceptible to common other and previous blight . Placing these plants next to each other greatly increase the chances of one plant encountering the fungal disease . Once a plant is infect , it quickly circularize to its neighbour .

Our Recommendation

Our testimonial , perhaps unsurprisingly , is to keep your Irish potato and cucumbers in disjoined area . I actually urge raise white potato vine in a grow udder if possible . This makesproper fertilizing and wateringvery simple and make harvesting a cinch .

Instead of get to dig around in the priming for your potatoes , you’re able to dump the entire grow traveling bag out and well pick up your harvest . This is in reality a really fun activity for nestling – it ’s kind of like an easter egg Holman Hunt !

Final Thoughts

While it ’s tempting to go as many plant life in our habitation gardens as possible , it ’s significant to be smart about what grows well together and what does not . After reading this article , we now know that the smart play is tokeep cucumbers and potatoes as far apartin our garden as potential .