Are onions comptiable w/ lettuce?

Are onions comptiable w/ lettuce? I'm planting some scallions and want to know if I can also plant lettuce w/ them.

Some books report that they are not good together. That is precisely why I do grow them together and always have. I get a kick out of testing such claims. :)

May I suggest a ring of onions filled with a bed of lettuce. Stick a sign in the center that tells all onions and lettuce will not grow together.

Dean W;
Ed Smith lists no "garden enemies" for lettuce and lists the onion family as friendly. Also the link below agrees.

http://www.gardenguides.com/how-to/tipstechniques/vegetables/vcomp.asp

Thanks, you all!

Thanks Indy, that is a super link, I've saved it to my desktop as I plan my first veggie garden in years. c4

i am going to try a few veggies this spring and had no ideas some veggies didn't do well next to others! guess i have lots to learn--

CUDO'S Indy on that link...Had not seen that one before...added to my favorites list for further research. One thing I misssed on the chart was potatoes. I have information that says to avoid squash and cucumbers with potatoes, but that's as far as it goes. My 2008 layout had the potatoes at the north end of the garden this year. I didn't like that option, so I moved them back next to south end next to the strawberrys. Doesn't seem to be a problem with these two from the chart, but since potatoes wheren't mentioned thought I would ask.

Indy writes: "Ed Smith lists no "garden enemies" for lettuce and lists the onion family as friendly." This a book or a DGer Indy?

Squash, pumpkins gourds, cukes and potatoes have the same insect and fungi trouble makers. I don't understand why anyone would want them side by side anyway.

All of the above excepting potatoes ramble all over the patch. One of the above plants can cover a 20' X 40' space or 800 sq. ft. of your garden. There are bush varieties but those catalog text writers lie a little now don't they?

This message was edited Jan 15, 2008 10:54 AM

If a veggie doesn't appear in either the good or bad column, can we assume it's neutral?

BB

BB,

Likely so. If it was known as a troublemaker, I think it would make the list.

mraider3,

Ed Smith is Edward Smith who gardens in New Hampshire and wrote a book called The Vegetatable Gardener's Bible. I am hesitant to call other books a Bible, but that is what it is named.

Somewhere I read that if any of us read more than one gardening book we were instantly in trouble due to conflicting data. :)

Google has turned that all around. Anyone can know instantly just about all there is to know as well as sort out the chaff and throw it to the wind.
To CMA...I guess I should say...most of the time.

What makes the vegetables 'bad companions' besides common insect and disease issues?

Shrubbs............I've messed around trying to prove or disprove many of the good and bad companion suggestions to no conclusive proof in my experience.

A few plants like walnuts and sunflower seed do have growth stunting ability. I view this as something different. These are known proven factors.

I admit companion planting does make for a good read. I continue to experiment but have never had significant proof of the players being noticably better than if the companions were not in the picture.

Thanks.

I know that Black Walnut has a toxicity in it's root system so you can't install many plants around them. I just wasn't sure about vegetables.

I have a black walnut the squirrels planted right in the middle of an established flower bed. I can say that hosta, cranberries and numerous weeds show no effect because of the association. I left it grow because a friend has a specific English Walnut that produces giant walnuts when grafted onto Black Walnut stock. My graft if we do it will be done this spring. I now have a consultant that may not like where that sucker is growing. :)

Don't some companion plants influence the taste of their companions? I read somewhere, I think, that if you plant anything in the allium family too close to legumes, you can wind up with onion-y tasting peas. Basil and tomatoes are supposed to work the same way, I believe.

Nope I don't think one plant can cause off flavor in any other plant. However I will stand by for proven opinion on this if I should be wrong.

docgipe writes..."Squash, pumpkins gourds, cukes and potatoes have the same insect and fungi trouble makers. I don't understand why anyone would want them side by side anyway."

OK doc I hear ya...squash and cukes I have had no problem with insects or fungi planting them together. Potaotes are at the opposite end of the garden so we agree here. I haven't decided on where to plant pumpkins or mellons yet but these would appear compatable, if not placed near the other plants mentioned (yes/no?). I have also considered planting one pumpkin mound at the end of each of eight corn rows, and considering only a couple mellon plants only as an experiment.

Indy...Just checked the net catalog at our library and they have a copy of Mr. Ed's 'Bible'...put it on my save list. You seemed a bit reticent to recommend it.

I have the book and it's ok. Lots of pictures and how to's about a lot of veggies. It was a good book when I was beginning.

I think the info I get here is much better and more thorough. If you have been gardening awhile, you might not find anything new in it.

BB

Sure.........in my experience I have at one time or another planted anything beside everything. The enemy facts I stated are indeed factual in the long run for most of us.

Say we have similar plants side by side in a sizable grouping. The beetle find one group of plants or even a single plant within that group. Up come the beetle we see. Powdery Mildue to mention just one enemy is in everyone's patch. The beetle go marching on and on and on moving the mill dew where ever they tread. If this happened to only one plant at the end of your corn you have a chance at least to catch and begin your war on them. Neem Oil will kill the adults. The adults are only above ground for fourteen days or so. It is the larva....thousands of them that do the damage to your plant roots next year. Critters with the munchies are far worse than critters with wings.

I like the idea of spreading crops around when possible and not creating a huge mass of anything.

I was once advised to state my success by CMA COMMENTS like "presently" "yet" and "in so far as I can determine" and "knock on wood". Remember the only consistancey in gardening is the very inconsistancey of it all.

That brings us down to attractive mases which also work to attract the insects that attack a grouping of plants that have similar weaknesses.
If your plants can stay very healthy and strong all problems become less of an issue. Mother Nature with all of her goodness does not like sick and weak individuals. She will tell her army to attack and remove quickly the less than strongest of her members.

That brings us down to the fact that most of us have much difficulty with crop rotation due to confined space and the act of wanting to grow the same garden plants year after year.

All of the above combines a lot of factors all of which are less than good and never best of practices. We even resist not growing as a group those plants that are really hard to grow or maintain. Crop elimination can be part of success.

Finally we have to consider the fact that soil building is even more important. However that too is really a chore for most of us. We know the basics but it is not easy for anyone to gather in the building blocks and apply them today. Those who do anything to build their soil are about one in a dozen. Those who garden today are indeed far and few between and maybe one in several thousand people.

If this seems like preaching to the choir accept it as a compliment. If anyone picks up any suggested practice or principle we as a group will be strengthened in due time.

Around me is farming...mostly corn and soybeans with a bit of hay and wheat. Real gardens beyond a few tomatoes and a bit of corn are rare. So we are preaching mostly to the choir.

I read where someone posts that they will flirt with planting a melon or two to see what happens. I don't know about you, but I have found cucurbits [watermelons, cantaloupes, squash, cucumbers, and pumpkins] to be among the most troublesome plants after a first year in that location. My two cents....plant a goodly amount your first year and enjoy and then start battling wilts, bugs, and diseases after that first year!!!

This message was edited Jan 18, 2008 4:48 PM

INDY...........you are right on target. Grown in very healthy soil the forgiving factors are a little better.

The healty soil healthy plant theory is a good one but elimination of difficult plants is nearly always a factor used to avoid troubles in those gardens too.

doc...I like your philosopyical views on gardening, but fortunately or unfortuantely for me I have had very little problem with any pests. Our winters are harsh enough for perma frost to go more than two feet and that may be the reason for fewer pests. I rotate crops each year and try to figure the best companion planting for each of the groups. Melons, pumpkins and winter squash I have not tried yet beacuse of the short growing season, so I have just begun to reaseach these. And as you mentioned I am only doing a few of each to see what the outcome might be. Based on what i'm hearing it might be a good idea to skip a year between the plantings as well.

Indy..................All of the giant growers in your neck of the woods and even as far south as zone 5 use a temporary cold frame to start pumpkins and squash. We also have nearly a school of thought that includes underground cables and in frame heaters ranging from simple shop lights to small space heaters. I am between a zone 4/5. Some years I need the shop light and blanket covers on the temporary cold frame. Here is a pix of my temporary frame for pumpkin and squash. The higher than needed height is to provide safety time from quick temperature changes. I work with water and air thermal mass for a degree of safety. Heating cables just never seemed to be in my needs thinking.

My gain for this effort is about three weeks of growing time with soil temperatures up to fifty degrees where I live.

doc,
I don't do giant pumpkins [squash], but I do raise watermelon and cantaloupe transplants to get some July melons. I use raised unbordered beds and some IRT plastic mulch around some of the melons...about a 3x4 foot piece that is reuseable several times. This warms the soil early which is the main concern here....warm and not too wet in May. I did use home made hoops to raise some extra early watermelons [too much trouble now] . I got one harvested on June 21 so I can rest on that now!!

Indy..........the folks that mess with melons real serious are now weighing in with two hundred pound plus fruit. They will do anything to get another twenty pounds. The Southern growers have the edge in natural growing seasons but when growing only one fruit per plant and trying to keep them healthy for longer periods of time they run into heat and milldew to work around even more than we Northeastern growers.

So far I have avoided this insanity.

Me too. I just really love excellent watermelon....21-40 pounders are what I shoot for. Again, I really love good watermelon....not the minis or the megas.

I just like to start my melons early so I can have more melons for a longer time.

Yes watermellon and to some extent other mellons are relatively long keepers both on and off the vine. Now it is just the wife and I so we grow less and shop the farmer's markets more.

Indy:

WHat do you do with a 50 pounder? There are just 3 of us and that's a WHOLE lotta melon.

LOL

BB

We had a 180 pounder at our state weigh off last year. There were about a hundred guys attacking that melon as I rode out of sight. Reports are that it was just as good as any properly grown and nurtured melon.

They usually get purchased by the brokers for display in lawn and garden centers. This one had a small spot that indicated that it may be on it's way out of town too. A great time was had by all except me. My oxygen supply was running low to the amount of time remaining. I had to head on back to the ranch. :) There has to be a picture of that somewhere. I'll see if I can capture it.

BB says, "WHat do you do with a 50 pounder?""

I don't know. Mine have not been 50 pounders and if you raise very many 50 pounders, you would be a most unusual grower! This problem will confront very, very few people. So lets talk real down to earth meloning.

Wilt and vine and leaf diseases can be a real problem....kinda like the other cousins like cukes and squash. Most of us don't have acres of deep, rich, and sandy loam to rotate in. So that can often narrow the problem of excess QUALITY melons. I and my son can polish off a really delicious 25 pound watermelon in 3 days all summer and early fall...really, I love really good melons...but don;t like 3rd grade ones. Yes, I am spoiled and want to raise only the very best varieties. If I have any excess, there are several people that also LOVE great melons.