Companion planting herbs with marijuana

Discussion in 'Growing Organic Marijuana' started by Lowflyer17z, May 12, 2011.

  1. Hi I am really into organic gardening and was wondering if anyone had some vegetables, herbs or flowers that can be planted near my cannabis to help repel harmful insects and draw in good ones, also maybe some might help the plant grow better? Seems like a good approach to natural I sect control and growth aid.
     
  2. Great Idea
     
  3. I would like to add to his question. Living mulch Vs. Regular mulch? and suggestions for each or the preferred.
     
  4. Green Manure/Mulch: Comfrey leaves or its cousin - Borage.

    You can grow Borage in and among other plants but not so with the comfrey. It should be planted in another location, cut the leaves and lay in the soil in and around your other plants. They'll be gone in a few days - it's really that fast if your soil is alive and healthy. You can get 4 - 6 cuttings per growing season.

    Living mulch? I used White Dutch Clover all over every raised bed in our garden this year. This is a perennial and will provide nitrogen (clover is a nitrogen-fixing plant like other clovers) and will grow 4 - 8" and all you do is take some clippers and cut it back and leave the leaves on the soil as you do with comfrey leaves.

    Plus the clover will remain as a winter cover crop. Cheap fertilizer, IMHO

    LD2
     
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  5. also, bush beans, only do pole beans if you plan on growing a ten foot behemoth
    they put nitrogen back into the soil for you, if im right comfrey is a super high yeilding plant, so one or two plants would give you plenty of living mulch
    clover also sounds useful, but i'd say pick which ever one will require the least amount of maintanence in your area, don't wanna visit your plot more often then nessacary
     
  6. I use marigolds in my outdoor garden. They are a natural insect repellent.
     
  7. Marigolds are great companion plants. They keep away many pest and even rabbits. The only problem with companion plants I have found is even though they drive away some pest they attract others so you have to use them in combination with others. Like marigolds and dill. Marigolds attract spider mites while dill repels them.
     
  8. I grow indoors, and have recently started experimenting with growing other things in my containers as well. The clover is coming along quite I well I think, and has really changed the overall properties of my container. The top is what I would describe as being more "aerated". Someone much smarter than I told me it was "biology creating soil aggregates". Either way, it waters in way mo' betta. It also creates shade for the soil, and I notice all the little critters are much more active.

    In addition to the clover, I planted some orange thyme in another container. I'm going to try a couple other things as well. Maybe some beans?

    Here's a pic, it's from about a week ago:

    [​IMG]
     
  9. Way slick!

    I had an 'idea' about using clovers or alfalfa to 're-cycle the soil' after a harvest.

    Using Masanobu Fukuoka's work (The One Straw Revolution) as a basis for this experiment, once you harvest a plant from your container and remove as much of the stalk as possible then plant one of the nitrogen-fixing plants and let it grow out to 12" or so.

    Then wet the container more than usual to remove as much of the plant material above the soil line, lay the material on top of the soil, hit it with a solid AACT and once the plant material is digested by the microbe colonies you'll have a charged soil ready for a rooted cutting.

    That was today's thoughts as I drove through the Oregon countryside pondering life.

    It could work - maybe?

    LD2
     
    • Like Like x 1
  10. Man, coming from you LD.... Thanks a lot lol.

    I didn't know who M. Fukuoka was until I watched these two youtube videos:
    ww.youtube.com/watch?v=0sbPuNvV_TQ]YouTube - One Straw Revolution Part 1
    ww.youtube.com/watch?v=mG9M5MARu2k&feature=related]YouTube - One Straw Revolution Part 2.mp4

    Definitely worth the 25 minutes for anyone who isn't familiar with him! I live in an unfriendly state, so my grow is indoors, personal scale, but I've started to implement some of the things I've learned in my vegetable gardens. Cover cropping being one of them! Trying to go for more of the "natural garden" as it were. It's funny how trapped we become in particular paradigms. I thought rice had to grow in water a la rice paddies (paddys? paddii?). Funny stuff.

    Back on topic lol. Right, recycling the soil.

    I can't see why that wouldn't work. I know I've read about using LB/BIM/EM or what have you to help break up the roots after a grow. I'm still not quite sure on what microbes work with which ones, or "win" at others expense as far as using that stuff in conjunction with ACT's. Perhaps I should pick up that Teaming With Microbes book I purchased a few weeks ago.

    So far, when the clover got up to about 3" I cut it down to about 1/2" and top-dressed with some compost. After about 3 days the clover had pushed back through and I'm starting to see some more little flowers develop. Think I'll see any ill effects from that stuff decomposing while I'm trying to grow other things? I feel like I'm trying to get too ambitious in too small of a space. Like, out in nature this would be fine and dandy as you have a whole ecosystem. Confined to my little 15 gallon pots, I don't have quite the same thing. Que sera.

    Thanks for the support/advice
     
  11. Very cool. Think I would stick to herbs more than clover though. Clover is mainly cow feed but with the herbs they stay short and you could use them when you cook. Nice to have fresh herbs at your disposal. Also strong smelling herbs could help cover up smells.
     
  12. wish i could LD soem rep again
    thx to both of you for that link and one straw revolution thing, really expanded my knowledge, even more
    i knew permaculture was possible in a vegetable garden, but with just three crops recycling the soil and making one single plot better every year without compost... awesome, thx agian guys!
    :gc_rocks:
     
  13. Here's a general list of plants which do well together and which ones are best to avoid as far as companion plants - Companion Planting

    From other lists that are available to review, the main issues between plants usually involve the brassica family meaning that cannabis shouldn't have any problems with the majority of plants to be considered.

    The reason that I think that clovers planted in and around the plant you want to benefit is that the Red Clover and Crimson Clovers (i.e. field clovers) push root down 20-25' pulling up minerals into their leaves and the root zone making them available to other plants through an extended CeC process where plants pass off cations to one another as requested by the plants themselves via root exudes which signal the bacteria to make these minerals available.

    LD2
     
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  14. :eek::eek::eek:25 FEET!!! wow, plants surprise me daily man
    and once again wish i could give you rep man, you really are a great source of knowledge, i have learned quite a lot from your posts both from readind and researching your topics, thx for contributing so much to the city:wave:
     
  15. oceansgreen

    Stinging Nettle will provide you with some specific secondary metabolites into the soil which will help plants which produce resins and oils to step their game.

    In addition to that, Stinging Nettle is a natural barrier to leaf-eating insects (mites, aphics, et al.) and when you take a few plants, crush them and let them brew in water for 5 or 6 weeks which by that time almost all of the plant material will be gone leaving you with a high-impact nutrient tea as well as one of the most effective insecticide and fungicide agents you can use.

    BTW - General Hydroponics sells bottled Nettle tea from their operation in France under the name of "Urtica" [cite] but it is not available in the US at this time.

    I can't give them too much credit on the name as the botanical name for Stinging Nettle is Urtica dioica but such is life.

    The use of Stinging Nettle by organic farmers in France, England, Austria & Germany has a long history. There have been commercial bottled nettle extracts going back to the 1920's so the market reception on this new product might be pretty good.

    LD2

    Edit: Stinging Nettle contains very high levels of Silica (Si) and moves that into the root zone through plant root exudes making it available to other plants nearby.
     
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  16. My brain has swollen with knowledge from reading your posts LD , thanks as always.
     
  17. the only reason your rep bar hasn't exploded yet LD, is because i can't give you more rep at this time:(
    seriously i can't thank you enough for your help in my learning and understanding of permaculture and the like, thanks a lot man!
     
  18. Russy, good to see you hanging on the organics board! Been enjoying your input on other threads for a long time....
     
  19. #20 NoPanicOrganic, Jun 7, 2011
    Last edited by a moderator: Mar 15, 2016
    Very curious as to how the companion clovers are working out?
     

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