What grows well with Cucumber? – Companion Planting Guide ( What to grow and what to avoid? )

What grows well with Cucumber? Are you also curious about that? Summer is here and you have planted cucumber. But that’s not it! Cucumbers thrive well in summer but they do extraordinarily great in the company of a few plants. Companion planting can be a great way to grow plants just like the Mediterranean plants. It is a process in which two different plants are grown near to provide benefit to both of them or only in a few cases. 

Quick takeaways:

• Cucumbers can be grown near vegetables, fruits, herbs, and flowers that will enhance their growth and provide support or other benefits.
• Cucumber companion planting is just not to get benefits from other plants but cucumber also provides many benefits to the buddy it is growing with.

What are good companions in companion planting?

Good companion plants like tomatillos are plants that will help another plant to grow well by enhancing its functioning. Good companion plants improve the quality of soil, soil and keep insects and harmful agents away from a particular plant.

What are bad companions in companion planting?

Bad companions are the plants that are seen to inhibit the growth of plants and can damage the plant in one way or another. It can be taking away all the nutrients from the soil, competing with the plants, etc. 

Benefits of cucumber companion planting 

• Many plants like marigolds, chives, catnips, etc are plants that can repel many insects and pests from the main plant. 
• Pants like bush beans and pole beans keep the soil nutrients maintained in the soil by improving the quality of the soil too. Legumes have a good tendency with nitrogen-fixing bacteria to fix a good amount of nitrogen into the soil.

• If you want your cucumber plants to grow fastly, you need to plant them with good companions. These plants release some chemicals that enhance the growth of cucumber plants, whether in a pot or garden
• Some plants like oregano form great ground covers that extend well on the soil and keep the soil cool and moist. Cucumbers grow in full sun and also need moist drained soil for growing well. 

What grows well with Cucumber?

1.) Vegetables 

Beans and peas: fix nitrogen into the soil due to the presence of Rhizobium bacteria on their roots.

Corn: for this, choose short-sized cucumber plants. The corn acts as good support for the cucumber vines on the other hand cucumber can act as a good shade for the soil to keep it cool and moist.

Beets and celery: these plants provide neutral company to the cucumbers. They both don’t bother each other. Beets can be a great healthy vegetable to go in a salad with cucumbers.

Lettuce: lettuce is a good companion to plants like radishes, strawberries, cucumbers, and carrots. They don’t do any harm to cucumbers

Radishes: cucumbers have long roots, with a taproot and tiny lateral roots, on the contrary radishes are root vegetables. These contrasting root systems will help the cucumber grow with no competition.

Onion: Onions don’t invade the cucumber plants, providing them with good space due to pests don’t attack the cucumber. Some other companion plants to grow with onions are Chamomile, Carrots, Beet, Tomatoes, Swiss chard, etc.

2.) Flowers

Marigold: don’t let aphids come near cucumber plants

Nasturtium is a great pollinator attractor and also attracts aphids that otherwise would harm cucumber and other vegetable plants. Make sure that your plants’ nasturtium is far away from vegetables

Sunflower: act as a natural trellis for cucumber vines

Borage: Borage has attractive huge flowers that can attract many pollinators and some beetles that can cause diseases in vegetables. 

3.) Herbs 

Catnip, chives, oregano: having a strong aroma, these herbs are useful to deter many beetles and insects away from the garden. They also repel many pests. 

Dill: attract useful pollinators into the garden and repel harmful pests and mites like spider mites.Some other compainion plants to grow with dill are Cucumber, Brassicas, Basil, Asparagus etc.

Tansy: they are useful for cucumber in repelling Japanese beetles, cucumber beetles, cutworms, pests, etc. They also keep the deer away from the garden.

What not to grow alongside cucumber?

1.) Vegetables

Potatoes: Potatoes are vicious feeders and compete with cucumbers for water and nutrients.

Cabbage, Cauliflower, Kale, Kohlrabi, and Brussels sprouts: They compete with cucumber for water as they have similar water needs

2.) Herbs

Basil: basils are companions of cucumbers as they usually give strong good flavor to tomatoes, so no need to grow them near cucumbers. Some other compainion plants to grow with basil are Tomato, Oregano, Peppers, Parsley, Chamomile etc.

Sage: this makes the flavor of cucumber worse. Other compainion plant to grow with sage are Rosemary, Brassicas, Strawberry, Cabbage, Oregano, etc.

Mint: Mint plants invade the space of cucumbers, and also compete with them for nutrients. Some other compainion plants to grow with mint are Brussels sprouts, Tomatoes, Bell peppers, Dahlias, Onions etc.

Fennel: inhibit the growth of cucumber plants.

3.) Fruits

Melons: Melons are bad companions of cucumbers as they both share common pests and are vining types of plants.

Final thoughts on context:

Cucumbers are the best salad plants and can be ingredient in many tasty dishes. Planting cucumbers in the garden is beneficial no doubt. You want your plant to be healthy and thrive well. We have let you know the way you can do cucumber companion planting to get good fruits, nice growth, and other benefits. We hope you liked our effort on this. 

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