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In the kitchen and the garden, onions are a vegetable with incredible versatility. These edible alliums, which range from green onions to storage onions, enhance practically every savory dish with flavor.
Their value in the garden for general pest prevention may be less widely known. Onions have a powerful aroma that keeps many common garden pests away, and they can even help some veggies taste better.
Similar advantages are provided by other plants to onions. However, not all plants get along, therefore it’s crucial to understand excellent companion plants to separate good onions from bad.
What are the best and worst companion plants for onions?
Planting your onion crop next to various herbs, flowers, or vegetables that are known to help them as they grow will yield a bountiful harvest of nutritious vegetables for the pot.
This method has been tried and tested. When it comes to protecting their neighbors from pests and fungus, onions are excellent companion plants.
By interplanting onions with the appropriate plants, you can lessen the likelihood that pests like onion maggots will attack your vegetables.
Choose a layout that matches the appearance of your onions by experimenting with various companion planting combinations and patterns.
Ideas for raised garden beds Planting crops that don’t compete for nutrients is also vital.
The ideal plant companions for onions also help to establish a healthy ecology in your garden, which promotes lush development and enhances the quality of your produce.
Adding companion plants to onions is a natural approach to fend off pests and illnesses, and it also promotes the diversity of helpful insects that will improve the garden plot.
Give your crop a head start for the finest growing season ever by learning what plants onions prefer to be planted next to.
What are the best companion plants for onions?
While certain plants help onions flourish, others gain from being in close proximity to onions. You can learn which plants will go well with onions in your garden by consulting this list.
Beets: When planted together, onions protect beets from larger pests like deer and rabbits as well as flea beetles, aphids, and other stinging insects.
Brassicas: Onions also deter cabbage worms, cabbage maggots, cabbage moths, and cabbage loopers in addition to flea beetles. These dreadful little pests consume plants in the brassica family, such as Brussels sprouts, cabbage, broccoli, kale, cauliflower, and kohlrabi.
Carrots: Plant onions alongside your crop of carrots to help ward off the deadly carrot fly. These two plants don’t compete with one another since they get water and nutrients from various soil depths.
Naturally, the taproots of carrots are long, whereas those of onions only extend a few inches below the surface.
Chamomile: Chamomile has antifungal characteristics that help shield onions against fungal diseases, which can be particularly troublesome in locations with higher humidity levels.
Chamomile flowers can draw advantageous insects to the yard. Maybe the top of the list should include this powerful plant!
Summer Savory: Another “wonder herb,” at least in terms of onions, summer savory promotes robust growth in onions, draws beneficial insects, and even enhances the flavor of onions.
What other plants make suitable allies for onions?
Pests, especially those that rely on their sense of smell to find their next meal, can be repelled by onions and other members of the allium family due to their potent odors. These include slugs, mosquitoes, spider mites, flea beetles, aphids, and more.
You can plant onions, garlic, scallions, and shallots wherever in the garden, and they will be wonderful companions for your plants, with a few exceptions (learn about those below).
What are the worst companion plants for onions?
Although having onions close is beneficial for many plants, other plants do not get along with onions. The following plants shouldn’t be cultivated close to onions:
Alliums: Onions and other members of the allium family are susceptible to the same illnesses and pests. Separating members of the allium family helps limit disease transmission and deter pests. The same goes for growing onions close to where alliums were present the prior year.
Asparagus: Growing them together can stunt one or both crops since onions and asparagus fight for the same soil resources. Asparagus is a perennial that takes a while to establish, thus this would be extremely harmful to immature asparagus.
Legumes: Onions should not be planted close to beans (pole beans and bush beans), peas, and other legumes due to a chemical incompatibility that might restrict their growth.
However, onions are a major nitrogen feeder, whereas legumes fix nitrogen in the soil, therefore it makes sense to use crop rotation and follow a crop of legumes with a crop of onions.
Sage: While many herbs pair well with onions, sage prefers a different growing environment than onions. But maybe more significantly, sage can prevent onion plants from growing normally.
Conclusion
That being said, that is essentially all there is to know about onions’ partner plants. You now understand which varieties are excellent to grow close to your onions and which you should never grow too close to.
Without the use of harmful artificial pesticides, growing these plants together can help you fend off a variety of pests and enhance the quality of your crops. Utilize this knowledge during planting season to provide noticeable improvements during harvest.
Reference
- Best (and Worst) Onion Companion Plants, retrieved from here
- Nutritional quality of lettuce and onion as companion plants fromorganic and conventional production in north GreeceNikolaos
- 17 Best and Worst Companion Plants For Onions, retrieved from here
- 12 Best Companion Plants for Onions (And 4 to Avoid), retrieved from here
