Plants for pest control

I received an email advertisement for plants that help control bugs. I thought this info maybe helpful for some of you, that grow outdoors.

Tomatoes love Marigolds.


Marigolds are particularly helpful for tomatoes, repelling the nematodes that like to attack the roots of vegetables.

Sage is Strawbery’s hero.


Sage will deter slugs from eating your strawberry plants! This is especially important when first planting strawberries.

Mint protects Lettuce.


Plant mint among your lettuce to keep away the bugs that feed on lettuce leaves, or plant chives and garlic to repel aphids.

Basil enhances Peppers.


Did you know that basil repels aphids and spider mites and is said to improve peppersflavor?

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Though it wasn’t for pest control, I’ve grown peppers, basil, cilantro, rosemary, and a few other herbs and veggies in my tents.

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@Ickey thanks for the enlightening!

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I agree with all those but the mint. Be careful with mint. It will overgrow your lettuce and whole garden. I recommend only keeping it in a small pot. I have been fighting a previous owners planting of mint for 17 years. It survives me putting a concrete slab and deck footings over it. Digging it down several feet. And tiny little pieces of the stem will sprout like you just threw out a hundred pack of seeds.

You have all been warned. Leave the mint to the stick of gum and do not put it in the ground.

The best compliment I can give mint is as a pollinator plant. The bees love it more than any other classic pollinator plant and I have them all in my lot.

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So while we are on this topic, i was told you can plant clover in your pots to regen the soil while your plant is growing. Have you heard about this?

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Has anyone co-planted basil with their cannabis outdoors? Spider mites and aphids are pretty common outdoor pests. If so, any crossing of basil odors/tastes to the cannabis plants? This has me thinking of interplanting it Making pesto with ithe basil seems like a good additional benefit. It is also easy to root from stems in water from the market basil. I tried interplanting marigolds one year, but didn’t see any benefit.

Now if there was something to plant to keep butterfly’s and moths from laying eggs that turn into destructive caterpillars, please advise.

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Yes you can, but you would want to run a 10gal or bigger pot. I often get clover contaminated containers that for whatever reason I did not use on any crop that year. If I dump out a 3 to 5gallon pot, those clover roots root bind to the bottom of the pot just like cannabis. Too many plant roots even if the clover puts out nitrogen. Clover has deep vigorous roots. :point_left:

In a bigger pot one could easily bank in enough organic nitrogen to not need the cover crop at the same time. Like Neem meal or dead (sun dried) clover off the top of my head.

If you are not reusing living soil there is no reason to do this. Or running big inside beds maybe.

I use cover crops a lot thru the fallow season. To prevent erosion. The clover fixing nitrogen in the roots is a bonus. But most green nitrogen cover crops are for the fallow season to prevent erosion at the same time preventing other noxious weeds from getting established. Then that crop is turned over to die and mulch the soil with the nitrogen in the plants. Clover too. My favorite cover crop is strawberries. Shallow roots and they grow dense enough to pinch out the weeds that try to grow. Save a few runners and turn over all the rest.

A podcast I love, queen of the sun, says she quit using clover as a cover crop because the aphids loved it as much as the pollinators. And the root mites she got flourished in it too. She switched to buckwheat now she says. Due to unwanted pest that came to the clover.

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Yes, I do every year. I usually freeze 5-10 gallon baggies of homemade pesto every fall. I have not had any problems growing it intermingled with cannabis. It does not rub off taste or odor on the cannabis. Aphids have no problem landing on plants touching basil. I put it between my roses every summer and the aphids seem to not care at all.

I cannot say for spider mites. I have been growing since 1988 and never once got a spider mite on an outdoor plant. Indoors they eventually always find their way. I often cure spider mites by sticking them outside amongst all the other predators if I catch it early and isolated.

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Planting pollinator plants is the best way. I have found that if I surround my lot with pollinator plants I get more predatory wasps, lace wings, and hover flies. They are AMAZING at stopping the caterpillars. Don’t remove spider webs, they always love the segments of tomato cages. I would say my favorite wasp is the golden digger wasp I see a lot.
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Heather, catnip, flowering herbs like cilantro and rosemary (for sure basil), wild flowers like aster and goldenrod.

I cannot prove this, but I have noticed every time I plant an orange flavor strain (surprisingly not general citrus terps but orange) it gets infested with caterpillars. Like more caterpillars than plant matter. Agent orange, tangi, orangegasm all met the same fate. Like the other 18 strains not 1 caterpillar at harvest grown adjacently in the same bed. But even the baby clone on the other side of my lot rooting out in the shade gets infested too. Anyone else notice this orange terps and caterpillar correlation?

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Lovethe indoor veggies…They make me hungry !! Nothing like fresh herbs to cook with!
@noddykitty1 Oh you are Soooo right on the mint…We had some in my backyard when I was a kid and it stayed forever…My ol man was pissed cause it never went away! It smelled good was green and hearty but no easily killed.Its like Ivy it just wont go away very easy! I had some In Pots this year along with Marigolds… Also no I don’t have any orange strains,but I did notice that the least bothered by Caters this last season was the Bubba Kush…Only a few Caters…Now my Runtz and Magic Melon…Chocolate Kush …Afghan Kush and Northern lights were affected more But the Bubba the least ?
@Ickey Really cool graphics ! Thanks…

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@Ickey, sorry not trying to hijack your thread. But I had to add alliums to the list. This is the garlic and onion family. They are great at deterring pest aphids because they mask the smell of delicious (to the bugs) plants. The flowers also attract lots of pollinators and predatory insects. If you get green onions or walking onions they are perennial plants and stay small and don’t take over. Tasty too.

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Yes tomato mites, aphids and whitefly are hanging around my outdoor garden right now and I have washed a few off the outside ladies. I find that the healthier and balanced the garden is though, the pests still arrive, usually on high winds (australia), but they’re controlled by the good bugs that live here.

I am so jealous. I have tried bubba kush at least 6 times here since 2006 and failed every time. Love the smoke. It can’t handle the humidity here in seattle after Labor Day. Juicy buds that become botrytis sticks of goo…:upside_down_face:

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No problem, post as many replies as you want, and about what ever you want. Actually, I don’t mind when someone takes one of my threads, in a completely different direction. It makes me happy, the words that I string together causes, someone else to think about something.

That came from a Ferry-Morris advertisement. They sell seeds, plants, and garden supplies, (all non weed). Good service and prices.

@noddykitty1 Oh that’s too bad but there are other strains that like humidity…Yeah Seattle is very wet… :shower:
@Ickey Oh yeah I bought my T-5 seedling light and coupler from FM…Some peat pots back when I was using them,Good Company!