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PERMACULTURE & GARDENING
BY THE DESERT ECHO
True Spring Tomato (Solanaceae) Companions
Why do tomatoes and basil make the perfect pair?
BASILMy favourite basil for colour is the purple ornamental, but sweet basil is the tastiest. This grows up to 45cm towering over the 15cm compact bush basils. It has been reported that basil helps tomatoes resist disease and actually improves the flavour of tomatoes it grows near, I can’t confirm this, but it certainly does attract bees if you let it flower. Be warned though, once your basil flowers it is the end, pinch those blossoms off as soon as they appear to extend the life and taste of your plants. A pesto of old basil tends to taste like grass and if you’re wondering that is as ghastly as it sounds. It repels aphids, white-fly and fruit-fly; if you leave it on a windowsill it can help yours well as the tomatoes warding off houseflies and mosquitoes. |
AMARANTHAmaranth rises through a sea of green with crimson, purple splashed or yellow foliage, rising up to 60cm. Leafy amaranth is eaten like spinach and grain amaranth dazzles with sculptural plumes. Fast growing, drought tolerant with few disease problems itself it is said to be a good companion for eggplants as it repels insects. Tomatoes become more resistant to harmful insects and potatoes have greater yields. It also loosens the soil for plants that come after the solanace rotation such as beetroot, carrots and radishes.
Berry punnets reused for seedling propagation |
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Simple cut and fold the cartons for a sustainable, free draining, biodegradable seed raising pot.
PROPAGATION
Both these plants like the tomatoes they assist require warm weather to flourish and shouldn’t be planted out until the maximum daily temperature is reliable over 10C (November in Melbourne). In True Spring, I plant them in discarded berry punnets to keep them warm, with a tray of water underneath to keep them moist.
When they show their first true leaves I gently move them into a milk carton. Many people transplant their seedlings into milk cartons with both the top and bottom cut off, but after too many seedlings falling out the bottom before their time, I decided to fold the bottom in.
Then I place the folded carton this inside a bottle greenhouse with water in the bottom half allows them to thrive despite the cold. When the temperature is right simply unfold the bottom and plant directly in the ground without disturbing the roots.
This year the warm weather seemed to come late so I sowed a second batch of basil and amaranth in High Summer as a backup.
7 Comments
I love the idea of milk cartons and gently planting the seedlings – Thanks. This is a lovely informative and friendly site – Thanks for that too
Thanks so much for your comment Deborah. It means so much to me that you have gotten something out of looking at my site. 🙂 🙂
Basil does not alter the taste of tomatoes nor does it repel any pest or disease that are common in Australia. I have been involved in several trial plots that tested density of basil vs tomato and no difference was ever noticed in yield, taste, health of plants, water consumption, pests and diseases etc.
It would be nice if some permaculture places redid these trials so we could eventually reduce how many people believe this myth and actually encourage more people to grow organically. Spreading these myths does far more harm than good!