Would you want to know if You can Plant Strawberries Next To Tomatoes? My experience will let me say no. One should not plant tomatoes and strawberries together.
Tomatoes planted next to strawberries can cause fungal disease to spread. However, companion planting seeks to replicate nature by forging symbiotic interactions between plants that help one another.
This thorough guide is one of the most entertaining and dependable methods to raise strawberry output in your organic garden.
It will explore all the specifics of our preferred strawberry partners if you have been wondering which friend plants are ideal for strawberries (and which to avoid).
ALSO READ – Can You Grow Strawberries In A Cup
Now, let’s get started.
Can You Plant Tomatoes & Strawberries Next To Each Other
Good friends in the garden are not tomatoes or strawberries. Strawberries could not be grown in a garden with tomatoes for several years.
Mulched is preferred for both strawberries and tomatoes. Mulch helps tomato plants retain soil moisture and boost root mass, using which they grow seasonally.
Conversely, strawberries use mulch as a protective layer against frost and cold. The mulch is hauled out in the spring.
Tomatoes and strawberries do not share the pH needs of the soil. Strawberries thrive on soil pH between 5.8 and 6.2.
Conversely, tomatoes thrive on a soil pH between 6.5 and 7.0. Both plants enjoy a soil high in organic materials.
While strawberries want deep, well-drained loam soil with a sandy component, tomatoes prefer well-drained loam soil.
While strawberries cannot be grown in newly plowed sod sections, tomatoes may. New plowed sod exposes strawberry roots to white grubs and generates weed issues. Lawns abound with these grubs, which consume strawberry roots.
Strawberries and tomatoes both need a minimum of six hours of direct sunshine. Tomato growth patterns provide shadows that would be harmful to the strawberries.
Moreover, tomatoes thrive on level ground, while strawberries need a gently sloping terrain.
This hill directs any frost that could show up far from the strawberry bushes.
Verticillium wilt affects tomatoes as well as strawberries.
Although certain plants are cultivated to be verticillium wilt resistant, they might bring the disease into the garden. From then, this exposure might permeate the non-verticillium-wilt-resistant garden plants.
Different fertilizer needs to be applied to tomatoes and strawberries. The tomato garden calls for a soil analysis.
After soil testing, add a maintenance application of 5-10-10 or 5-10-5, and nutrient shortages have been corrected.
Apply 8-31-16 or 6-24-24 as the tomato plant starts to bloom; apply every two weeks for the complete growth season.
ALSO READ – Can Strawberry Runners Be Rooted In Water
Is It A Good Or Bad Idea To Plant Strawberries Between Tomatoes
Indeed, that is a horrible concept. Indeed, aside from the problem of fertilizer, varied water and soil needs between different kinds of plants placed next to one another,
is it still inadvisable to put anything next to a tomato, grape, or bigger plant owing to surface root disturbance and competition?
Though I suppose there are plenty of surface roots not readily apparent to the eye throughout these 3-foot gaps between the tomato plants, it appears to the eye that there is a wasted 3 feet of space between them.
Thus, even if a strawberry plant had the same watering and soil requirements as the plant it is being put next to,
is it safe to assume that placing the strawberry plant anywhere within a 3-foot radius of the tomato is still stifling the tomato plant’s success somewhat because it occupies space where all the surface roots should be
Would it be wiser to sandwich strawberry pots between the bigger plants?
Hence, a container on top of the surface roots of the tomato shouldn’t be as awful since it would allow the tomatoes, etc., to still fling their surface roots through the entire region without being excessively disturbed.
Making sure the containers dangle above the ground would be a better step up from this so they do not even touch the ground.
ALSO READ – Do Strawberries Regenerate
What Are The Strawberry Companion Plants
Various additional plants help strawberry plants in different ways. They include:
Borage (Borago officinalis) is a virtual magic bullet for companion gardening.
Phaseolus, the Bush Bean:
Strawberry bushes are well-known donors of common beans. It attracts nitrogen-fixing bacteria that help to nourish the ground for higher strawberry production and drive certain bugs away.
Caraway, or carum carvi:
Another herb that somewhat helps strawberry plants by being close by is caraway. Caraway mostly helps by drawing voracious predators of several common strawberry pests, parasitic wasps, and parasitic flies.
Lupin, commonly known as Lupinus:
This blossom is a legume. Like the previously stated beans, it also fixes nitrogen in the soil, feeding nearby plants, including strawberries. It appeals to honeybees as well.
ALSO READ – What Strawberries Bloom All Summer
What Are The Plants You Won’t Want Too Close To Your Tomatoes
These are certain crops you should avoid growing next to your tomatoes and in the same area generally.
1. strawberries
Though they grow in the same season, strawberries and tomatoes shouldn’t be grown next to one another.
Every red-fruited plant runs the risk of a lethal fungal disease known as verticillium wilt. Avoid placing the two next to one another as they are both vulnerable; if one catches it, the other will likely follow.
2. corn
Though the same cannot be true in the garden, corn and tomatoes are a great gastronomic combo.
Like strawberries, they are particularly susceptible to a common insect known as the tomato fruit worm or corn earworm.
Once more, should one catch it, the other will follow suit. Tomatoes also require full light; corn can offer too much shadow.
3. Dill
Dill and tomato plants have a rather loving-hateful connection. Dill helps tomato plants withstand wind damage and helps repel aphids and hornworms from them.
Mature dill plants will, however, slow down tomato plant development. Although tomatoes are annuals, you might put them next to young dill for one season, but steer clear of older plants.
ALSO READ – Do Strawberry Plants Choke Out Other Plants
What Are The 5 Types Of Plants To Avoid Planting Near Strawberries
If you have strawberries in your home garden, try to keep these bushes away.
Members of the Brassica genus deprive strawberry bushes of nutrients and pilfer moisture from this delicious fruit.
1. Brassicas comprise any vegetable falling under the cabbage family. Steers clear of cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, kohlrabi, collard greens, kale, broccoli, turnips, and radishes.
2. Nightshade: As nightshade family members, tomatoes, eggplant, and potatoes may contaminate your strawberry crop with fungal illnesses.
3. Steer clear of growing cantaloupe, honeydew, and other melons close to your strawberry plants. Melons in a strawberry patch compromise space as well as nutrition.
4. Okra: Strawberry plants can contract a fatal disease called verticillium from okra.
5. Roses: Depending on the temperature, roses could grow invasive and drain strawberry plants of nutrients.
ALSO READ – How Much Do Strawberry Plants Spread
Final Thought
We have established that You can not Plant Strawberries Next To Tomatoes. Good companion plants are not tomatoes and strawberries.
You could raise them together, and they could both turn out great.
However, strawberries and tomatoes are quite vulnerable to two fungi known as “verticillium wilt” and “anthracnose,” which may readily transfer from one plant to another.
To stop the spread of these diseases, tomato and strawberry plants should be placed in separate parts of the garden.