What to Plant with Tomatoes to Keep Bugs Away:
Marigolds:
Did you know that the strong scent of marigolds can repel a variety of pests such tomato hornworms, aphids, whiteflies and thrips? It's true! There has also been research that indicated that planting marigolds between tomatoes protects the tomato plants from harmful root-knot nematodes in the soil.
We have certainly noticed that our tomato plants do better when we have planted some marigolds nearby, so we now grow them every year in our tomato and pepper garden.
More Herbs & Flowers to Plant with Tomatoes to Keep Bugs Away:
Don't just stop at planting Marigolds with your tomatoes. For further protection from pest bugs, you can also plant basil, beans, bee balm, borage, sweet alyssum, chives, garlic, nasturtium, mint, anise, onion, and parsley.
For a healthy garden, grow lots of flowers and herbs! When you have a lush garden with lots of variety, it can attract pollinators, birds, and beneficial insects like Braconid wasps and paper wasps that will help keep pests like tomato hornworms (shown above) in check.
The tomato hornworm, Manduca quinquemaculata (Lepidoptera: Sphingidae), is native to the United states – and they only feed on solanaceous plants such as tomatoes, eggplants, peppers, potatoes, Sacred Datura plant (Datura wrightii), primrose, and other solonaceous "weeds" including: horsenettle, jimsonweed and nightshades. They WILL eat your Tomato plant down to the stems – so we like to move Tomato worms to a trap crop when we find them, as (at least here in Colorado) we don't see them much anymore, and they turn into the beautiful sphinx moths or hummingbird moths that are a delight to see in the garden at dusk. We moved this tomato hornworm above to a potato patch that was getting ready to harvest anyway, which was a perfect alternative host for them since the potatoes were at the end of their season.
We highly recommend adding lots of these Plants that Attract Beneficial Insects »
Above: Don't assume everything is a bad guy! These mysterious eggs on stalks are Lacewing eggs, one of the good guys. They love eating aphids! To attract them, incorporate these Plants that Attract Beneficial Insects »
Tomato Seeds
When selecting tomato varieties, you must choose between plants with different types of growth habits called determinate or indeterminate. All tomatoes are either one or the other. Determinate varieties reach a certain plant height and then stop growing. The majority of their fruit matures within a month or two and appears at the ends of the branches, and are good for canning as the harvest comes all at once. Indeterminate varieties continue to grow, bloom and produce tomatoes all along the stems throughout the growing season.
Sandia Seed recommends a garden that has both open-pollinated heirloom and hybrid tomato seeds. Grow open-pollinated seeds for great flavor and seed saving and hybrid seeds for vigor, yield and better disease resistance. If you grow several varieties of both, you're sure to have success! We find that each year, depending on the weather, pests, and soil conditions, different tomato varieties thrive and others struggle. Where one year a certain variety will thrive, the very next year it can do poorly for a variety of reasons. So placing your bets on planting several different varieties each season will help you succeed and have a good tomato harvest every year.
Grow some new varieties of tomatoes this year in your garden! We offer a huge selection of both Heirloom and Hybrid tomato seeds. See a sampling of some of the varieties we carry below. View all of our Tomato Seeds »
