Intercropping with bush beans

[maxfromaustralia]

Hi all. I have been wondering if growing a few bush beans around the base of tomatoes might be useful. Not crowding the tomatoes, just a few, with the view of the beans supplying the tomatoes with nitrogen. Has anyone tried this? If so how did it work? cheers

[Fred Hempel]

Hi Max,

In my experience it is hard to get the bush beans growing soon enough to have a marked effect.

[Tormato]

Max,

From what I've read... while beans fix some nitrogen, it isn't enough for the bean plants themselves, let alone producing for any neighboring plants.

Gary

[ddsack]

I would go ahead and try it a few places. The bush bean roots are nowhere as deep as the tomatoes, so even if they don't give any benefit, they shouldn't do any harm either if your soil is fertile and has enough moisture. The beans might serve as a living mulch in hot dry climates. But they could also hinder air circulation in damp climates, there you might not want to grow things too close together.

I don't exactly intercrop them, but I set a row of tomatoes about 1/3 of the way in, in 4 foot wide raised beds, and grow a row of bush beans (or broccoli) along the other long edge of the bed. Everything does great.

[SharonRossy]

I tried, and don't know if it was just the intense heat or what, but the beans were so so and in the end I ripped them out. I wasn't sure if they were interfering with the tomatoes, but I felt the toms did better after I took the beans out.
Sharon

[Lorri D]

I looked in both of my companion planting books and I did not see any pro's or con's for them being together.

[RayR]

I think there is a misunderstanding of how Nitrogen fixation works in legumes. The plants and their symbiotic bacteria that are actually doing the N fixation do not release Nitrogen into the soil since the legume plant uses all available N from the process during the growing season. N is tied up in the biomass of the plant and is only returned when it is decayed and returned to the soil.
You must also have the proper species of bacteria present for the host legume for root nodules to form, which is where the bacteria set up house. If you've never grown beans in that area and never purchased and applied an inoculant for beans before you may not have those species inhabiting the soil.

These are root nodules formed by N fixing bacteria on pea roots

[Redbaron]

Originally Posted by maxfromaustralia

Hi all. I have been wondering if growing a few bush beans around the base of tomatoes might be useful. Not crowding the tomatoes, just a few, with the view of the beans supplying the tomatoes with nitrogen. Has anyone tried this? If so how did it work? cheers

Beans don't help tomatoes. Since 90% of Australia is dry. I am guessing you need a low growing plant that will help provide a micro climate and help chase away pests disease. I like Marigolds dwarf for keeping root pests at bay and borage, tarragon basil and rosemary for above ground. But keep the basil well away from the rosemary. Both are friends of tomatoes but enemies of each other. Another good one is celantro...strange relationship. Celantro will help the tomatoes, but in the end the tomatoes will kill the celantro? I am guessing the celantro must trap some unseen pest. I haven't been able to confirm it yet. But in some years here in Oklahoma we have various deadly plagues early that can wipe out everything. When they hit, the only survivors will be the ones right beside a celantro. It happened to me this year and 2 years ago. However I always loose those same celantro that saved my tomatoes a month or so later they yellow and die. This year I had to replant all but 2 tomatoes. The only 2 that survived had a very large bushy celantro directly between them. Few weeks later the celantro died for no apparent reason and those 2 tomatoes are still producing fruit.

Glad I spotted that 2 years ago. Because I haven't seen that in any companion planting guide.