Beets are acool - season root vegetablethat have been eaten since antiquity . They are aneasy vegetable to growand are a great improver to any vegetable garden . ( Even if your family does not like the preference of common beet , the health benefits will not be wasted on your family dog ) .
To aid your common beet grow and thrive , you could set them with mutually beneficial plants , in a exercise called companion planting . Beets grow well with Alliums ( onion and garlic ) , bush beans , lettuce , radishes , strong - sweet herb , Brassicas ( like broccoli and cabbage ) , corn , and oat .
On the flip side , some plant can be prejudicious to your beets ’ growth , such as pole dome , field mustard , and chard .
discover about some of the best companion plants for beets , as well as what you should avoid institute next to beets .
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What Is Companion Planting And How Does It Benefit Beets?
Monocropping , acquire only one plant in a field , is one of the bad plights of modern farming . Growing a individual crop will strip the res publica of nutrients and expose the crop and the soil to diseases and pests .
We often think of monocropping as a trouble that farmers face in a tumid field , but it can also occur in your backyard garden , too .
Monocropping does not exist in nature . alternatively , nature create a diverse ontogeny of symbiotic plants . We can double this symbiotic kinship in our garden with familiar planting .
Companion planting , or raise mutually good plant together , will help oneself your beets in a number of ways :
Best Companion Plants to Grow With Beets
While common beet can be grown successfully with a number of dissimilar vegetables , herbaceous plant , here are a few that have the most benefit when used as a familiar plant life .
1:Onions
Far and away the undecomposed Beta vulgaris plant companions are all members of the Allium folk , as bulb onion plant , scallions , Allium porrum , chives , eschalot , and garlic .
Plants in this group are known as the “ stinking lilies ” and their pungent odor can deter many beast that threaten your common beet . onion can be used to gross out many different bug that can destroy your beet crop , such as the sugar common beet flea beetle .
plant in the onion family have also been known to repel mammals , including rabbits , cervid , gopher tortoise , and groundhogs to name a few . Gophers and ground squirrel are a picky job in our own garden , and we are rethink our crop revolution so that our Allium porrum and beets are intersperse with each other to help ward off these ever - hungry invaders .
Garlic is an excellent option when comrade planting beet , it has many particular qualities of its own that deserve special cite . As well as have the advantage listed above , Allium sativum has several of its own benefits that it brings to your plot of beets .
For fledgeling , many gardeners have receive thatgrowing garlic with your beetswill actually better the flavor of the beet . This is particularly important if you or your sept does not care the taste of beets .
Beets hold the compound geosmin which literally means “ dirt odour ” and is why many people think that common beet are gross and taste like soil . If you have a picky eater in your house , try farm ail with your beets and see if you ca n’t grow them around .
Another benefit of grow Allium sativum and beet together is that garlic waiver sulfur into the soil as it turn . atomic number 16 is a natural anti - fungal that helps trim down many disease that plague the beet agriculturist .
2:Bush Beans
As they grow , beans and other legumes improve the ground through a process call N fixation .
These legume take nitrogen out of the atmosphere and convert it into ammonia water , nitrate , and nitrites , which are then released into the grease where they can be steep by other industrial plant .
Nitrogen improves a flora ’s green leafy growth , so too much nitrogen can actually be bad for your common beet by score lots of leave at the expense of the root .
However , all the dissimilar bush beans and soybeans add just the right amount of nitrogen to the grime to stimulate good beet growth . ( Below , we will talk about the dangers of perch beans . )
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3:Lettuce
While lettuce might not meliorate your beets , growing them together will benefit your garden as a whole . Lettuce has a very shallow ascendent system so it can farm decently beside your common beet .
The moolah will expend food available near the open of the ground , while the beetroot ’s taproot will draw nutrient from down below . This will avail fight against crop failure , and you’re able to get two crops from a thick blank .
Planting dough in between your beets will also fill stagnant space and shroud any bare soil , helping retain moisture that might be lost through evaporation .
The lettuce will also help in hot weather by block the sun from overheating the soil and providing shade for your beet .
4:Radishes
coolheaded time of year cropssuch Raphanus sativus also pair nicely with Beta vulgaris in the garden A Japanese radish is a fast - growing ascendent crop , and you’re able to use these qualities to benefit your beet .
If you sow in radish seeds with your common beet , the radish will germinate before the beets , note the row for you and allowing you to thoroughly weed the area without disturbing the beets that have not germinated yet .
radish also grow quite apace , and you will be capable toharvest themfirst . Not only will this give you a second craw , but it will give the common beet surplus space to grow and can serve loosen the stain for the developing beetroot .
5:Aromatic Herbs
The intense aroma of many herb , such as thyme , hyssop , rosemary , mint , and catnip make excellent fellow as their odoriferous oils will assist repel beet - eat pests .
Allvarieties of mintwill chase after away undesirable that will endeavor to eat your Beta vulgaris . Even sprinkling tear up pot leaves on the ground will discourage the pests , but farm the plant is a much more sustainable method of control .
One thing to see out for is that lot is a infamous spreading perennial and can quickly take over your garden . Trygrowing your mint in potsto arrest its spreadhead , and then you could move the pots around the garden to position them for maximal plague control .
Catnip is also a very good non - beneficial bug repellent . As a incentive , it also help keep away vole and mouse . While attracting the neighbor ’s big cat into your garden might be a bit of a nuisance , perhaps the added feline presence will further discourage gnawer from setting up cantonment .
6:Brassicas
member of the Brassica family such asbroccoli , cauliflower , bread , Brassica napus napobrassica , and turnips are all fantabulous choices when fellow traveller planting beets . Not only will brassicas help your beets , but your beets can be a handsome help to your genus Brassica .
Beet leaves are high in manganese and iron , and any leaves that fall or are till back into the territory will give a boost to the genus Brassica .
For a three - fold fellow traveller planting , grow beet , cabbage , and mint together . The beet and cabbage will benefit each other , while the deal will discourage insects and mammal while improve the flavour of the Brassica oleracea .
While brassicas are a great benefit to your Beta vulgaris , mustard is the one exclusion as we ’ll see afterward .
7:Corn
While corn whiskey is more commonly associated with the Three Sisters fellow traveler planting , corn whiskey and beets grow very well together and they will both benefit the other .
8:Oats
produce your beets with oat can help reduce damage due to the lettuce beetroot maggot . judge sowing your beet into a living mulch , or undersow your beet with a green manure of oats .
While fellow traveler plants will profit your Beta vulgaris , here are some plants that can hurt your Beta vulgaris and they should not be engraft nearby . gratefully there are only three plants to watch out for .
1:Pole Beans
Though most sort of beans benefit beets , pole beans are an exception . Pole dome and beets will stunt each other ’s growing , and the surplus N from the rod beans will create beet with a large top and a little beetroot . cum are in blood line and ready forpurchase at Trueleafmarket .
2:Field Mustard
bailiwick mustard is really in the same kinsfolk as broccoli and cauliflower , but beets grow with this particular brassica have been found to turn quite badly .
3:Chard
While chard will not directly hurt your beets , they are a very similar plant . As such , pests and disease that are drawn to chard also like devouring your beets . implant these two together can create an ideal home ground for undesirables . cum are in neckcloth and ready forpurchase at Trueleafmarket .
Conclusion
Companion planting is a timeless practice session that has huge benefits for the garden .
Incorporating companion planting in crop gyration will keep the garden in balance and will aid and protect our vegetables .
If you want tocultivate the best beetsyou can , count companion planting to help your Beta vulgaris rubra grow and thrive in the manner nature intended .
indite By
Amber Noyes was born and raise in a suburban California townsfolk , San Mateo . She holds a professional ’s level in horticulture from the University of California as well as a BS in Biology from the University of San Francisco . With experience working on an constituent farm , urine conservation research , Farmer ’ markets , and flora baby’s room , she understands what get plants thrive and how we can better realise the connexion between microclimate and industrial plant health . When she ’s not on the land , Amber loves inform people of new ideas / thing related to gardening , especially constituent gardening , houseplant , and growing industrial plant in a small space .
