To humans, a good companion makes life worth living and enjoyable. And to your sweet potatoes, companion plants around the surrounding soil is a good way to help them thrive well with lots of botanical benefits.
Although all types of plants may not provide the best companion for your sweet potatoes, some come with a handful of benefits to your sweet potato garden.
Perhaps you may be wondering what type of sweet potato companion plants you should add to your sweet potato garden, this is the perfect spot to get the right information that will guide you in your journey of sweet potato companion plants.
So, pull up a couch and read on as we demystify sweet potato companion plants with simplicity.
What is companion planting?
Planting various kinds of plants together is called companion planting. Once more, growing sweet potato with companion plants attracts beneficial insects that can help plant development.
Planting two unique sorts of plants together, either in a similar holder or in neighboring soil, is called companion planting.
By doing this, you'll be able to maximize your planting region while improving your plants' soundness.
Planting sweet potatoes with companion plants is more beneficial than planting them alone.
Planting sweet potatoes with certain companion plants will help them to assimilate more sunlight.
Also, this practice can help improve your sweet potato's resistance to disease and infection that can hurt them while they are still developing.
With the assistance of some companion plants, your sweet potatoes will develop better and produce better.
Since tomatoes and peppers have similar growth prerequisites, they are frequently planted together as companion plants. Picking the right plants is basic for companion planting.
Consider the number of plants you intend to grow close to sweet potatoes. Planting such a large number of plants close to one another supports contest and adversely influences all.
Sunflowers are an incredible illustration of terrible sweet potato companion plants. This is because it assimilates all the water close by.
To grow sunflowers in your yard, make certain to put them far enough away from your sweet potatoes.
It could be somewhat troublesome to companion plant sweet potatoes in pots. For instance, you can grow numerous plants in a similar compartment.
Utilizing pots with numerous layers and compartments for different plants is the simplest method for achieving this.
You can also utilize a huge piece of a plastic bag with openings bored into it. The last option is to grow the sweet potato plants in the ground and have a few pruned plants close by.
The benefits of companion planting
With companion planting, you can capitalize on your garden region while making serene, beautiful energy for your plants.
Companion plants have been found to help a wide assortment of plants, from herbicidal flowers to nitrogen-fixing vegetables.
The fundamental benefits of companion planting are as follows:
1. Environmental benefits
Companion planting is an incredible method for further developing soil quality and cleaning air and water.
Growing certain companion plants will assist with getting rid of harmful mixtures from pesticides or different foreign substances that might be available in the soil.
Accordingly, you will have better plants, which will expand your yields.
Companion plants likewise forestall bugs in crops by making a boundary between the pest and their prey.
In companion planting, plants grow close to one another and can likewise be utilized as normal composts, assisting the soil's capacity to withhold water and supplements.
This saves you time and cash since you don't need to invest as much energy watering and preparing your yields.
2. Protection against pests and harmful insects
Companion plants are vital for the protection of the sweet potato vine. Companion plants will attract beneficial insects (like ladybugs or ribbons) to assist them with battling pests.
Since they consume aphids, ladybugs are truly adept at dismissing them. For instance, Bidens cernua forestalled bugs while taking care of different plants by taking care of different plants through leaves and flowers.
3. They beautify your garden
Being able to plant numerous colorful varieties of plants is one of the benefits of companion planting. This is likewise an extraordinary method for improving your garden's beauty.
What grows well with sweet potatoes?
For a plant to grow well with sweet potatoes, they must complement themselves and the competition for resources must be minimal.
Below are a few plants that are considered great companion plants for sweet potatoes.
1. Beans
Beans like pole beans and bush beans are magnificent sweet potatoes companion plants. Beans are nitrogen-fixing plants.
They assist with fixing nitrogen in the dirt, consequently advancing the development of different plants (like sweet potato plants)
2. Peas
Because of the job of nitrogen-fixing nitrogen in the dirt, peas are good companion plants for sweet potatoes. Pea can be planted with sweet potato vines close by.
If you desire peas in your garden, it is important to know that they thrive well in a cool climate like California or Oregon.
3. Sweet Alyssum plant
Sweet alyssum is also one of the sweet potato companion plants. This is a flowering and ground cover plant in the Mediterranean locale. It fills in open spaces like walkways, it can be grown almost anywhere.
In the pre-summer and late spring, the charming pink flowers sprout on the plants. Even though it thrives under a shed, it can still grow well under adequate daylight.
Ladybugs and parasites (ordinarily called Vespula species) are drawn in by sweet Alyssum, which helps to deter pests from sweet potatoes. Hence, they are considered the best companion plants.
Companion planting sweet potatoes in vegetable gardens
Planting sweet potatoes and pole beans or peas in your vegetable garden will assist them with their development.
Beans assist with keeping the soil damp and cool while keeping nuisances like flea beetles, potato bugs, slugs, and snails under control.
Also, peas will attract beneficial insects to your garden, which will assist with controlling sweet potato pests.
The vegetables that can be planted close to sweet potato vines are Beets, carrots, radishes, and spinach.
Spinach's growth habit effectively creates an edible ground cover that suppresses weeds and keeps the soil from drying out in dry climates or during dry seasons.
As a bonus, spinach is a short-season crop and will be harvested before the sweet potatoes are ready, giving them more room to grow.
Oregano is also a good ground cover for sweet potatoes as they grow, and can be mulch for them as well.
The vegetables that should not be planted with sweet potato plants are Brussel and broccoli. A lot of sulfur is in these plants. They can be harmful if planted near sweet potatoes.
Additionally, try not to plant them close to one another in your vegetable garden, as they will rival each other for supplements and water.
Companion planting sweet potatoes with flowers
Flowering plants are a good companion plant for sweet potatoes. Pollinators are beneficial insects that assist with keeping your sweet potato garden sound and solid, and they get nectar from flowers.
Flowering plants attract beneficial insects like butterflies, honey bees, and hoverflies.
This will give food to beneficial insects that visit your plants and assist with drawing in pollinators all through the garden.
Marigold buds repulse different insects on leaves, including aphids, and parasites.
The bright orange and yellow flowers of marigolds are a great addition to the garden, and they make excellent sweet potato companion plants.
Companion planting sweet potatoes with beneficial herbs
Sweet potatoes and certain herbs are suitable companion plants.
To keep insects like Japanese scarabs and aphids from sweet potatoes, beneficial herbs like sage, thyme, and rosemary can frequently be planted close by.
These herbs will assist with controlling weeds when planted close to them, lessening your responsibility.
These beneficial herbs are deleterious to aphids, whiteflies, insects, and numerous bugs.
Dill draws in beneficial insects, like ladybugs, to assist you with certain harmful insects away from your garden.
Garlic is a great companion plant, it repels pests from primary plants like sweet potatoes.
It distracts pests from its signature pungent aroma and protects companion plants from getting destroyed. Garlic is also effective in treating late blight, even more than fungicides.
Small garlic cloves may take up to nine months to mature into a mature head of garlic.
While basil will draw in caterpillar-eating moths, chives will repulse pests that feed on sweet potato tubers.
With these herbs around, you can be sure that your sweet potatoes are free from harm.
What should not be planted with sweet potatoes?
A few plants cannot be planted near sweet potatoes as they will impede their development. These plants are corn, fennel, Irish potatoes, and sunflowers.
While sunflowers aren't generally so intrusive as these three, they can sometimes create issues when planted extremely close to your sweet potatoes.
Sweet potato vines and corn are not viable. Corn needs more water, and sweet potatoes need free soil and sufficient seepage.
If they are planted in a similar bed or garden, they will battle for space and sustenance. Give your sweet potato plant enough root space, and plant your corn at a very good distance away.
By doing this, these two plants can be planted together without contending furiously for water and other minerals
Because of their enormous taproot and numerous stems, these specific plants are bad for sweet potatoes.
A plant with many stems will consume all its resources, leaving anything barely for other plants close by.
A plant with an enormous taproot will occupy all soil room that other plants could utilize. Plants with shallow roots are considered excellent companion plants for sweet potato beds.
However, fennel, Irish potatoes, and sunflower could be planted with sweet potatoes.
Simply be mindful to avoid putting them extremely near one another as this might impede their development and growth.
Mint is another outstanding companion plant. Mint is one of those aromatic herbs that prevents insects and advances the growth and development of sweet potatoes.
Nonetheless, a few mint species are known to draw in pests and harmful insects like aphids.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Can sweet potatoes be planted close to onions?
Certainly yes! Sweet potatoes and green onions or spring onions have a similar growth requirement and can be planted near one another.
The two plants are connected because they have a spot in the Allium species, which implies that the two have white flowers.
Can I plant pepper close to sweet potato vines?
Sweet potatoes and pepper plants can be planted together. They are great companion plants as the two of them fit well into comparative regions and complement each other.
Since both pepper and sweet potatoes thrive in cool conditions and low to medium light circumstances, they are similarly astonishing companions.
Final thoughts - Sweet Potato Companion Plants
Companion planting involves planting different plants with mutual benefits to each other. This practice has both environmental and botanical advantages for the plants involved.
Some typically beneficial and good companion plants for sweet potato include legumes such as beans, sweet alyssum plant, and peas, as well as herbs such as thymes, rosemary, and even sage.
Plants that cannot be planted as companion plants in a sweet potato garden include Irish potato, sunflower, fennel, and corn.
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