Companion planting and moon planting

[Just-Moxie]

Hello folks! I am currently trying "planting by the moon"....and also looking into "Companion Planting". Our little 1 acre spot has had gardens before, but it is new to us. It has several different micro-environments, so that first season, we just planted stuff to see what grew, and where. Second season, we had a bit more information based on experience. 2012 was a terrible year for gardening...all around. The heat got out of control, no rain, it just sucked.
Is anybody else using these planting practices? I am definitely using moon phase planting and companion planting this season. Something has to work.
I am in Zone 8a, I think. SC, midlands.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Yeah, last year was pretty bad for a lot of us. Ridiculous heat and no rain. Well see what this year brings. I think you have to be an optimist to garden after some of the years we sometimes go through.

I dont follow the moon cycles. I plant more of when I can. My springs are so wet I have to grab any early opportunity to get the cool weather stuff in when it gets dry enough. I got that early stuff in early March, then immediately had 2 of rain dumped on it. Most of it did really well. Even the carrot seeds didnt get scattered very badly, which has happened before in those circumstances.

I look at companion planting with a bit of caution. I like to know what the benefits are. It seems back in the 50s or 60s someone got a new toy, I cant remember what it was called. Anyway he took bits of different plants, mixed them, and looked at the results using this new scientific instrument toy. If it was clear they were friends. If it was cloudy, they didnt like each other. Absolutely no science behind it and he did not plant one plant to prove any of it. Yet he wrote an article and it made its way into companion planting folklore. I didnt keep that reference and cant find it now, but when I see terminology like friends or dont like each other, I think of that one. Im sure there is other misinformation on the internet about companion planting.

Ill offer this article that doesnt really give an explanation of what the benefits really are with certain combinations but seems to have more realistic thought behind it to give you a start to specific research.

http://utahpests.usu.edu/htm/utah-pests-news/spring2010/companion-planting/

Dont expect miraculous results either. These things help some but they generally dont totally cure a problem. I remember a conversation we had on here about French marigolds a year or two ago. I think the conclusion was that yes there can be some benefits but youd have to have a lot of marigold to get much benefit. They have a limited range of effectiveness. I still grow marigolds interspaced in my garden. Whether I get much benefit from them or not, they add a lot of beauty and color, especially later in the year when things start to come out and I open it up.

 

[so lucky]

I have tried planting by the moon, and I couldn't see any benefits. I planted a bunch of marigold seeds last year; had little plants out the wazoo. Put them everywhere in the garden. Had very few bugs of any kind. Well, had a few cabbage worms, but I hand picked and used dipel.

 

[vfem]

It was quite dry here too last year, mixed with the heat it was miserable for man & plant here.

I do companion plant, and though not everything I tried has worked as I read it would... I have found that a LOT of it did. I now live by certain aspects in the garden sticking to my 'does work' list though.

Moon phase planting, never thought to try it?

 

[baymule]

I guess I companion plant in a helter skelter crazy kind of way. In One bed I have a couple of zuchinni, 4 yellow squash, 3 bell peppers, 1 cayenne pepper, 3 reisentraube tomatoes, 1 garlic, scattered marigolds and periwinkles, clumps of dandelions and volunteer tomatoes from last year.

In another bed I have several varieties of tomatoes, about 12-15 total, 6 eggplant, scattered carrots, dandelions, periwinkles, marigolds and radishes. I garden in organized chaos. It works for me!

I planted potatoes by the moon, we got monsoon rains and they all drowned and rotted. I replanted without looking at the signs and they are growing like mad.

 

[thistlebloom]

Well sometimes I wish I had a companion to plant with, and even by moonlight! That might be fun!

But alas, I plant alone.

 

[Just-Moxie]

Thanks all for your replies! I hadn't really looked in to the history of companion planting, although I a aware of the Three Sisters. I was just looking at alternative ideas for gardening, as it seemed like the usual ones weren't working. And us being new on this property, we couldn't ask the previous owners anything.
We have numerous micro-environments on this one little acre. Not to mention, shade, full sun, partial shade etc. We have clay soil, sandy soil up front, some topsoil with organic matter in it. Like, I had originally planted my peonies in the front of the house..but that spot had full sun. I had to move them in the fall as it was just too hot for them. Now I have strawberries in that spot. I moved the peonies to a cooler spot on the north side of the garage. They are doing well there.

As far as companion planting goes, I have noticed some things do grow well next to others...and some do not. It is all just a big experiment for us here, to see what grows, and what doesn't. We are delighted if we get to eat the results!! The same with the chickens.....I know nothing about raising chickens..being a city kid and all. DH was the country boy. But I am the one tasked with the animal husbandry, and so far ....we have healthy chickens, pretty regular layers, and our first batch of chicks this year. Woot!

 

[so lucky]

Have you noticed that weeds are "companion planters", too? They seem to cunningly grow next to a desired plant that looks very similar to it. I'm sure most of the effect is because I don't notice the weed right away, but it sure seems opportunistic to me!

 

[vfem]

Here's a nice companion planting guide...

http://www.motherearthnews.com/orga...lanting-guide-zmaz81mjzraw.aspx#axzz2S8mntVEr

I do find that some of the suggested plants only work with the idea of 1 plant assisting the other to do better. Making 1 of the plants worthless. Such as I randomly plant radishes as a trap crop. I get a couple of harvests early, but I have to leave the rest to bolt and attract pollinators, and attack insects. It also traps and attracts squash bugs and cucumbers beetles. So I plant it adjacent, yet away, from cukes and squash. It really does work and I rarely have to pick those bugs off of other plants, even though I find them on the radish (where even they are attacked by other bugs)!

Its a very complicated system that I love watching take place.

 

[digitS']

Here is a quick synopsis of that initial claim regarding plants that are companions because of something that can be seen in a chromatogram. Scroll down to "Bad Science" -- Companion Planting, Cornell

The best way for companion planting to work, it is claimed, is if one plant benefits and another plant "isn't seriously inconvenienced."

There are, however, companion examples everywhere - in ancient and modern methods. Sometimes, it has more to do with the benefits to the grower than anything else. For example, I find that onions can fit in with a lot of other plants and that "salad vegetables" can be grown together because they are harvested early and about the same time. Having them all in one place makes sense to a lot of gardeners.

Steve