Cauliflower could be loved in so some ways: dipped in ranch dressing, sauteed, in a stir fry as a rice substitute, and even to make pizza crusts. With so many choices for this versatile plant, you’ll have to develop your individual simply to attempt all of them! You may assume you don’t have room for them since they will develop so massive, however many companion vegetation don’t thoughts being subsequent to the cauliflower.
You’ll want to decide on vegetation that like loads of water and don’t want the identical vitamins as cauliflower. Since these brassicas are heavy feeders, they need to be fertilized recurrently all through the season. There are numerous methods to include different vegetation into your cauliflower patch that can profit or tolerate cauliflower close by.
I’ll present you 15 companion vegetation you may develop with cauliflower so you should utilize all of your backyard house. There’s no have to let rogue cauliflower leaves take over!
What Is Companion Planting?
Crops work higher collectively, and anybody who makes use of companion planting of their backyard is aware of it. Completely different plant varieties in the identical house can profit one another in methods that can assist scale back pests, improve development, and generally even improve the flavour. Most significantly, companion planting improves biodiversity by bringing in additional pollinators and helpful bugs.
Companion planting permits you to lengthen your rising seasons past what you’d usually do with out it. A backyard mattress devoted to lettuce will bolt in late spring or early summer season, however when massive vegetation like tomatoes or sunflowers shield these heads of lettuce, they will final just a little longer as a result of they aren’t struggling underneath the summer season solar.
This gardening methodology can profit farmers with a number of acres of land, a small container backyard on a balcony, and each backyard dimension in between.
Cauliflower as Companion Crops
I used to suppose you couldn’t plant something with cauliflower due to how huge the leaves can develop. However these vegetation can nonetheless be good neighbors even when they occupy loads of house. Let’s take a look at what you may count on with these cole crops round.
A lot of the cauliflower plant is above floor, which means it doesn’t take up a lot house beneath the floor. You may make the most of that house by planting crops that want loads of soil, like potatoes or beets. The cauliflower leaves might help shield roots and tubers as they develop.
Cauliflower doesn’t want loads of the identical vitamins as its companions, so it gained’t need to compete for them as a lot. Nevertheless, they want loads of nitrogen, so that you’ll nonetheless have to fertilize them all through the rising season.
I affiliate cauliflower (and the remainder of the Brassica bunch) with pests. They’re inclined to cabbage loopers, cabbage worms, cabbage root maggots, armyworms, aphids, cucumber beetles, snails, slugs, flea beetles, and thrips. Almost each plant is inclined to one thing, however it looks as if cauliflower attracts pests that eat up loads of its companions, so that you’ll have to preserve an eye fixed out for pest invasions.
Cauliflower wants 1-2 inches of water every week, which can restrict what you may plant close by. Should you select a companion that additionally likes water, you should present much more water for the thirsty vegetation in that small space. Holding companion vegetation in containers close by is an effective technique to make sense of your watering schedule.
Companion Crops for Cauliflower
Let’s take a look at some vegetation that can work properly with cauliflower. Some vegetation present advantages, whereas others are beneficial as a result of they don’t trigger any issues.
Beans
Since cauliflower wants loads of nitrogen to develop its leaves and head, you’ll wish to preserve loads of beans close by. Beans soak up nitrogen from the air, then affix it in nodules on their roots. Whereas this nitrogen gained’t turn out to be accessible till the bean roots decompose after the season, you’re primarily bettering your subsequent season’s crop upfront – and any fertilizer you add will go straight to the cauliflower!
Each bush and pole beans are doable, however you’ll want to regulate pole beans with trellises to forestall them from overtaking cauliflower with their vines. You could additionally guarantee they don’t forged an excessive amount of shade over the cauliflower. Alternating rows of every plant will work, as will rising cauliflower in entrance of a row of beans on the aspect that receives probably the most daylight.
Do not forget that beans are heat climate lovers, so this pairing is finest throughout these joints between the seasons; late summer season into early fall while you plant the autumn cauliflower crop or within the spring earlier than you harvest your closing cauliflower heads.
Beets
Cauliflower roots are shallow, however regardless of that, beetroot normally pairs properly with them. You may plant them fairly shut to one another so long as the cauliflower gained’t get shaded out by beet greens or vice versa. Do not forget that cauliflower can have fairly huge greens itself, and also you’ll wish to preserve the beets out from underneath them.
Although a beet’s root is commonly the extra fashionable crop, its greens are simply as essential. They’re stuffed with magnesium and can assist your cauliflower develop properly. Let lifeless leaves fall to the bottom, and in case you’re not a fan of consuming the greens, depart them behind to behave as a mulch and enrich the soil.
Celery
Celery is an effective companion for cauliflower as a result of they each want loads of water to be completely satisfied. They need to obtain 1-2 inches per week and shouldn’t be allowed to dry out, though you additionally don’t need water to puddle round both plant kind.
An enormous profit celery gives is maintaining away cabbage moths. These moths will gobble up your crops shortly, so think about rising just a few celery vegetation to maintain them at bay.
Cucumber
Cucumbers make good companions for cauliflower so long as you guarantee each vegetation have every little thing they want. They’re each extremely thirsty vegetation that can want 1-2 inches of water every week and probably extra in case you reside in a dry space. You’ll additionally have to fertilize them recurrently since they’re each heavy feeders.
Rising cucumbers might help you lengthen your cauliflower harvest into early summer season since they’ll present loads of shade as soon as they climb trellises. Cauliflower will bolt as soon as the climate warms up until you give them shade.
Corn
Corn is one other companion that will help you get extra out of your brassica crop. It is probably not tall sufficient to assist your cauliflower survive the early summer season warmth, however when planting seeds in July for a fall harvest, the corn stalks will present loads of shade.
Relying on while you planted corn, it needs to be prepared to reap on the finish of summer season when the cauliflower is at an early stage. You may depart the stalks within the floor or use a shade fabric if the temperatures are nonetheless too scorching for cauliflower to be completely satisfied.
Dill
Dill attracts quite a lot of pollinators and helpful bugs that can profit your whole backyard. Most of the critters it brings in eat aphids, which generally is a detriment to your cauliflower. Dill and cauliflower each have shallow root programs, so you might wish to preserve dill in a container close by in order that they don’t compete for water.
A giant draw of getting dill close to a brassica patch is that it repels cabbage moths. You’ll have them round anytime you’re rising brassicas, so planting just a few dill vegetation will enable you to decrease the inhabitants.
Onions
Onions and cauliflower get alongside properly since their root programs and foliage don’t intervene with one another. You may plant them fairly snugly collectively if in case you have a small house. Like beets, although, it’s finest to not put the onions immediately underneath the cauliflower foliage!
You’ll need onions close by as a result of they repel main brassica pests, together with cabbage loopers, rabbits, and aphids. All three of those critters hurt your crops in another way however will preserve their distance since they don’t just like the onion scent.
Nasturtium
You probably have loads of whiteflies and aphids bugging your brassicas, use nasturtium as a lure crop close by. Permit these pests to feast on the plant whilst you take away them out of your primary crop. When it’s time to eliminate the plant, you’ll eliminate many pests.
Nasturtium grows lovely flowers that appeal to many helpful bugs that can go after brassica pests. They carry in loads of ladybugs that go after aphids in addition to hoverflies, parasitic wasps, and lacewings that go after cabbage worms and whiteflies.
Nasturtium doesn’t want as a lot water as most vegetable crops, so you may plant it on the sting of your annual beds or preserve it in containers.
Potatoes
Potato vegetation develop their tubers fairly deep within the floor, in order that they gained’t compete with shallow cauliflower roots. The foliage has a brief bushy development behavior that shouldn’t get in the best way of your cabbage until you plant them too shut.
Potatoes and cauliflower have totally different necessities and gained’t compete for a similar vitamins. They want the identical quantity of water every week, making them straightforward to look after within the backyard.
Rosemary
You’ll wish to preserve a number of rosemary vegetation round due to every little thing it should deter! Cabbage moths, snails, slugs, and several other fly varieties hate the scent and can keep distant.
Rosemary is drought-tolerant and can develop finest in a container. It prefers dry soil and solely must be watered about as soon as per week, if even that. This low-maintenance schedule could also be tough to maintain up with if it’s within the floor subsequent to your cauliflower. Alternatively, think about planting some rosemary on the very finish of cauliflower rows, however don’t run the drip irrigation as much as it; so long as it has just a little little bit of water once in a while, it’ll carry out properly.
Sage
Sage is one other herb that can go to battle to your cauliflower. It repels main pests like flea beetles, cabbage maggots, cabbage worms, cabbage moths, and cabbage loopers. When sage goes to flower, it should appeal to all kinds of pollinators.
Sage and rosemary make nice companions for one another, so you may plant them each with cauliflower to assist preserve pests away. Sage additionally prefers dry circumstances, so maintaining them close to however separate out of your brassicas is right. Whereas it should tolerate extra water than rosemary will, it does favor a drier soil base than your cauliflower.
Spinach
Spinach is an easy-to-grow spring crop that can develop properly with cauliflower. This fast-growing plant will act as a residing mulch and assist suppress weeds whereas your cauliflower seedlings develop.
They each have shallow root programs however shouldn’t compete an excessive amount of if there’s sufficient house between the vegetation. They each like water and daylight and can bolt as soon as the temperatures get too heat, so caring for them concurrently will probably be a breeze.
Sunflowers
Should you want extra pollinators in your backyard, sunflowers are the best way to go. They appeal to bees, butterflies, and different helpful bugs you’ll wish to have round.
So far as brassica crops go, sunflowers present just a little shade for cauliflower that’s getting shut to reap time within the spring, plus they will supply shade late within the season while you’re beginning your new vegetation.
Swiss Chard
Swiss chard is a type of companion vegetation I discussed that doesn’t essentially profit cauliflower however doesn’t trigger issues. Chard and cauliflower are content material to exist with one another with out giving or taking. It feels like a straightforward friendship!
Each vegetation have shallow root programs, however when appropriately spaced, they gained’t get tangled and battle for water. They don’t want the identical vitamins, in order that they’re not competing for that, both. Pair these two peaceable residents with some herbs that usher in helpful bugs (particularly ones like dill that may attract predators for widespread brassica pests), and also you’re good to go.
Thyme
This fragrant herb can masks the scent of cauliflower and preserve bugs away. Most pest bugs don’t just like the scent of thyme, to start with, in order that they’ll keep away from the beginning. Thyme is sweet to maintain round as a result of it should repel earworms, maggots, hornworms, mosquitoes, and whiteflies.
Thyme can even appeal to pollinators and helpful bugs when it flowers, and plenty of of them will eat pests like aphids. This herb also can behave as a floor cowl in case you enable it to unfold out so it will probably assist suppress weeds.
Thyme is one other herb that prefers dry circumstances, so that is one other one to place in a container or on the sides of your brassica mattress, the place the soil will dry out faster.
