What plants keep bugs away from tomatoes?

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.

What should I plant next to tomatoes?

What flowers protect tomato plants?

A pretty marigold. Marigolds—a flowering plant in the daisy family—are common companions for tomatoes. In the long lore of gardeners, the marigold is thought to do something to help tomatoes avoid pests.

Do marigolds really help tomatoes?

Planting Marigolds with Tomatoes

Marigolds and tomatoes are good garden buddies with similar growing conditions. Research studies have indicated that planting marigolds between tomatoes protects the tomato plants from harmful root-knot nematodes in the soil.

Do marigolds keep tomato worms away?

The essential oils in the marigold act as a repellent to many insects, including the moth that lays the tomato hornworm. Plant marigolds around crops that attract tomato hornworms, as well as throughout the garden. Beneficial insects are the most effective means of keeping tomato hornworms in check.

Natural Ways to Keep Bugs Off of Tomato Plants

How do I protect my tomato plants?

Bird netting helps protect tomato plants in the garden. Barriers, such as fencing, prevent animals from getting the goods. Chickenwire or plastic mesh fencing or lightweight bird netting (available at garden centers) can be installed around a pot or a row of plants.

What is eating holes in my tomatoes?

ANSWER: The critter eating the holes in the tomatoes is the tomato fruitworm. This common caterpillar eats holes in the fruit about the diameter of a cigarette. The holes can be shallow or deep.

How do I protect my cherry tomatoes from bugs?

Dusting your plants with plain talcum powder repels flea beetles away from tomatoes, peppers, potatoes, and other plants. Catnip and basil also repel them.

Why should you not plant cucumbers near tomatoes?

Cucumbers' and Tomatoes' Shared Diseases

Phytophthora blight and root rot are more serious issues as these disease pathogens can ravage both cucumbers and tomatoes. Plants can be treated with commercial fungicides as a preventive measure, but it's better to just use good cultivation practices.

Should you plant tomatoes and peppers together?

Tomatoes

Although it's usually recommended to not plant tomatoes and peppers right after each other in the same bed every year, they can be grown together in the same garden bed (and then rotated to another bed next season).

How close can you plant basil to tomatoes?

In a traditional garden or raised bed growing space, a couple of plants around each plant is more than enough to do the job. Sow four to five seeds about twelve (12) inches away from the base of each tomato. As seeds germinate and develop, thin to allow two basil plants for each tomato plant.

Do marigolds keep bugs away?

Marigolds – The marigold is probably the most well-known plant for repelling insects. French marigolds repel whiteflies and kill bad nematodes. Mexican marigolds are said to offend a host of destructive insects and wild rabbits as well.

How do you get rid of tomato bugs naturally?

If you don't want to use chemicals in your garden, another way you can kill tomato hornworms in an organic way is to mix up a combination of liquid soap and water. Spray the mixture on the plant foliage before adding some cayenne pepper – this will get rid of the bugs and then repel them into her true.

What pests do marigolds deter?

The marigold is one of the most well-known insect-repelling plants and with good reason — they have a scent that will keep pests like mosquitoes, nematodes like cabbage worms, and other pests away. Plant marigolds to attract beneficial insects that attack and kill aphids. Ladybugs are especially fond of aphids.

What is eating my tomatoes at night?

Nocturnal feeders with a fondness for tomato plants include skunks, rats, raccoons, and deer. Skunks do the least damage, taking a bite from a single low-hanging fruit. Deer will cause extensive damage by grazing from the top down. Raccoons and rats will feed more on the lower fruits.

Is it OK to spray plants with soapy water?

Soaps and detergents are toxic to plants. A strong solution of soapy water sprayed onto foliage can disintegrate the leaves' waxy coating, resulting in water loss and the eventual dehydration death of the plant.

What is eating the tops of my tomato plants?

When the leaves at the top of the plant are being stripped but the stems left in place, you probably have tomato or tobacco hornworms. These large larvae consume tomato, pepper, potato and eggplant leaves quickly and they can grow up to 4″ long.

Why should you plant marigolds and tomatoes next to each other?

Marigolds are one of the best companion plants of all for tomatoes. Not only do they help to repel many of the common pests that can injure or destroy your tomato plants, they also serve as a calling card to bring in an enormous amount of pollinators and beneficial insects to the garden as well.

What should I plant next to marigolds?

Do marigolds keep pests away from tomato plants?

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.