Companion plants for Trich's

[squishpixie]

Hey everyone,

I'm new here- I met some of you at the Melbourne Botanical Gardens meet up on Sunday (Niggles partner). Thanks for being awesome and generous!

I'm wondering if any one has had much experience with interplanting veggies and trich's. Basically, I've run out of room to plant more veggies in the garden, and the only room left to go is in the gaps between cactus. If anyone has tried this, how did it go? Did you find that any veggies in particular thrived (or suffered) alongside the cactus more than others? Do you think there'd be any negative effects on the veggies at all from root competition or anything?

Thanks in advance for any help

[goodude]

hey squish n niggles. awesome codenames u got. can u make one for me? anyway, vege and cacti. interestin thought. well ive never done it but the following is my thoughts. im pretty sure nearly all cactus have fairly shallow roots, so maybe plant something with deep roots. most cacti love good drainage, airation, not too much organic matter etc so if ur cacti have this type soil, plant something that also likes this soil. but theres a million things to consider. maybe i reckon just dont look at the cacti, look at the soil light water n plant accordingly. but ive got a good feeling about chilli with cacti. dont know why. hope this helped.

craig

[Micromegas]

Hey, welcome. I planted broad beans throughout my garden a few years in a row. Since the beans grow in winter, competition for moisture was not really an issue and anyway it would be rampant weeds otherwise, this was all in the ground just digging trenches with a mattock a couple of inches or less and chucking the seed in, all around and through cacti. If the winter rains were good, I got good beans. The most significant effect was that the earwigs, which normally cause havoc at the tips of my cacti when spring comes around, preferred instead to eat the leaves on the bean plants and damage at cactus tips was much reduced those years. Go figure. Too many beans to eat though and you have to like broad beans. Other legumes might work. The beans continue to self seed now to a point which is nice, only I am not around to see or eat them.

maybe i reckon just dont look at the cacti, look at the soil light water n plant accordingly. but ive got a good feeling about chilli with cacti. dont know why.

That's a good point. Chilli and cacti would be awesome, and other solanaceae, they come from the same place anyway hey (Andes). I don't water my cacti tho so my chillis would certainly die.

EDIT: cacti are really forgiving (trichocereus esp.) so I think ultimately the sky is the limit with companion planting

Edited October 2, 2013 by Micromegas

[Halcyon Daze]

Companion plants are a bit tricky with Trichs because they like to pup from the base. It's better to give them plenty of room or the pups can get shaded out and become limp and diseased looking.

I removed a very nice bell pepper for this very reason.

If you're hard up for space then try growing veggies in big styro boxes, with nice enriched soil etc. Find a nice place that would be otherwise unusable like the edge of a paved area or on the shed roof etc

[Amazonian]

Yay, welcome to The Corroboree squishpixie

Depending on the density of the foliage of the vegetables grown in a cactus patch, it might create too much humidity around the cactus and cause some mildew on the cactus. Also, things like snails and slugs might have more places to hide and cause a bit of damage without having to travel out of the vegie jungle. I am sure it can be done, but just keep an eye on the cacti ...My two cents anyway.

[IndianDreaming]

Hi Squish!

Not directly related to Trich's, but a quick search (G00gle search for 'companion planting chart' - then click images) comes up with a some fantastic companion plant info - maybe finding plants similar to cacti on the list would be a start - then find the companions? Great idea by the way - we planted corn, spuds and beans(I think?) together and they all went well. there's a name for that combo that escapes me, I'm new to companion planting. But I did encircle our tomatoes with chillies and it kept all the bugs away that absolutely swamped the other non chilli garden bed

http://www.permaculturenews.org/resources_files/Poster_GDN_Com_Plant.pdf

WELCOME!!!

[trucha]

Something I've seen show consistently great performance in companion plantings with the peruvianus or macrogonus sorts is blackberries.

[naja naja]

strawberries work well

[Bert&Ernie]

I think anything not to talk growing that loves water but not to much that it will die if under watered but something that can suck away all the moisture in the soil for the trich so it gets that nice wet/dry period.

[Stillman]

Iceplants look good with cacti

[naja naja]

Dianthus and carnations also look good. And smell incredible.

[squishpixie]

Thanks for the welcomes and all the great ideas.

Halcyon Daze, I've got a some stuff growing in containers and Styrofoam boxes, but it's just not quite as satisfying as planting in the ground. So i'll definitely give some of these ideas a shot! It's a pretty large patch of cactus, so maybe i'll experiment a bit and plant a few different things in different corners and see how the cacti and the different veggies respond and find out what works best. Thanks again for all the help

[Sallubrious]

Something I've seen show consistently great performance in companion plantings with the peruvianus or macrogonus sorts is blackberries.

You'd have to pick your place though. I know a few places with Blackberry thickets that cover several square kilometers, once they get get a foothold they can be very prolific and turn a large area into no-mans land in a relatively short time.

Know your water table.

[niggles]

hey squish n niggles. awesome codenames u got. can u make one for me? anyway, vege and cacti. interestin thought. well ive never done it but the following is my thoughts. im pretty sure nearly all cactus have fairly shallow roots, so maybe plant something with deep roots. most cacti love good drainage, airation, not too much organic matter etc so if ur cacti have this type soil, plant something that also likes this soil. but theres a million things to consider. maybe i reckon just dont look at the cacti, look at the soil light water n plant accordingly. but ive got a good feeling about chilli with cacti. dont know why. hope this helped.

craig

i quite like goo dude!

[EthnoGuy85]

I have volunteer random pepper/tomato sprouts pop up out of my compost that I mix with my Tricho's every year.

I always let em grow, but they never reach their full potential either

[goodude]

thx niggles. though its meant to read 'good dude' not goo dude!

[niggles]

I picture goo dude as a human shaped lime jelly mold jiggly!