Companion Planting and Care of Citrus Plants

[Pree]

I am very interested in the art of companion planting in vege patches to reduce pest problems with food producing plants. It is my aim to have a totally organic garden without using pesticides, or at least as far as possible.

Plants like garlic chives, coriander and sweet basil are said to be good plants for deterring pests. I put this theory to the test in my own patch where I have planted rocket and long climbing beans along with these super plants. Tomato plants are said to have natural pest deterring capabilities as do marigolds. I've also read that sweet basil and tomato plants seem to thrive when planted near each other, but i'm not sure the reason for this.

I have also read that a good way to reduce pest infestation in your garden is to have good healthy strong plants as pests often target out weak plants.

I'd love to hear from anyone that has other tips on companion planting or natural ways to deter pests from the garden. So far, I have been lucky to avoid any serious infestations, though my citrus trees are another matter altogether.

One of my lemon trees (the lemon with wrinkly skin - not sure of the name of this variety of lemon yet, in Fiji, we referred to it as the "bush lemon"), seems to be infected by a stem borer in parts of the stems. I have pruned off the infected stems, but it seems that the infection had spread to the neighbouring lemon tree (smooth skin variety) with one or two branches infected. If anyone has tips on how to prevent and/or rejuvinate a citrus tree that has been infected by stem borers, please let me know!

Until then, happy gardening.

Oh - and my okra seeds have finally germinated!

[Florence]

Basically I found that aromatic plants are generally good for repelling pests, but some will secret chemicals which inhabit growth of other plants.

I've done some research on companion planting online before and have put together a list of plants I might grow that are friends or foe for my reference, I can send it to you if you message me your email address. It's by no means complete though, and I found there are some contraditing information there.

[Lyn H]

Companion planting confuses the pests because their favourite plants are camouflaged in smell by so many other vege and herb smells. Use a companion guide chart, because you can hinder the growth of some veges by planting non-compatible herbs nearby. Lots of insect attracting flowers also help as they attract the preditors which in turn, eat the pests.

[Vanessa]

Hi Pree, I'm an avid companion planter and organised the last two beds I planted to be completely companion planted. I think I may be reaping some rewards from it too! I use the website: http://www.ghorganics.com/page2.html#ALFALFA: as I find it has most plants on it that I want to grow. Good luck with the citrus - they seem to attract many pests and diseases here.

[Elaine de Saxe]

The citrus borer can be just cut off as you've done, put the affected pieces into the rubbish though, don't compost on any account!

Try the library catalogues for companion planting books. As well, SAGonline have a poster available for sale. That's Sustainable Gardening Australia, the website sales are www.sgaonline.com.au or something similar.

The best way to deal with pests is not to attract them if at all possible (in an ideal world!) so adding as much compost as you can get or make and/or worm castings. As well, liquid feeds with seaweed, bokashi, weed tea, manure tea all help to keep the plants healthy in their increasingly-healthy soil. It does take time and patience.

In the meantime, any plant which is not doing well and you figure you've given it the best chance you have, my suggestion is to pull it out and either compost it or put it into the bin. I do notice that towards the ends of their lives, annual veges are likely to attract more pests since they are less vigorous or perhaps the winter ones are being heat stressed.

With citrus in general, do not have any other plants growing under their drip-line. They are surface rooted and resent competition especially from lawn grass.

[Donna]

My tomato plants are natural pest attractants I think! If you have healthy soil you get healthy plants, I think that seaweed is also good for strengthening the cell walls of the plant to avoid pest infestation.

It depends on the specific pests that you are having problems with, there are natural ways to treat just about anything. I will have to look up what to do for borer though, haven't experienced this problem myself (although was thinking for awhile there couldn't be anything left my garden *hadn't* had go wrong lol).

A very quick search revealed this, I will look in the books if I get a chance though for a more friendly method:

http://www.daleysfruit.com.au/forum/citrus-borer/