Potatoes offer one of the most satisfying harvests of anything in the garden, but they are susceptible to a few common diseases and pests. Luckily, some plants that love growing with potatoes are also handy for deterring potato pests. Other potato companion plants improve the soil condition, attract beneficial insects, act as trap crops for pests, or improve potato flavor.
There are many ways to enhance your potato yields with companion plants, especially if you combine pest-deterring herbs or flowers with nearby trap crops. This guide covers what grows well with potatoes, what doesn't, and how to avoid certain pests with creative interplanting.
Skip Ahead: Benefits of Companion Planting • The Best Companion Plants for Potatoes • Bad Companions for Potatoes • Potato Pests
Benefits of companion planting with potatoes
As companions, potatoes offer excellent soil conditions and some shade later in the growing season. But unlike some herbs and flowers, potatoes aren't a great choice for deterring pests or attracting beneficial insects. Instead, they benefit from being planted with other vegetables, herbs, and flowers that offer those qualities.
The best companion plants for potatoes
There are a few ways you can boost your potato crop with companion planting: intercrop with soil-friendly companions that improve growing conditions, pest-deterring plants, sacrificial trap crops, or plants that attract predatory insects. No matter which route you go, a smart companion planting choice will always share its neighbor's growing requirements.
In the case of potatoes, the best companions are vegetables, herbs, and flowers that require rich, well tilled soil and full sun.
Here are a few plants that grow well with potatoes:
- Lettuce
- Spinach
- Radishes
- Onions
- Legumes
- Corn
- Cilantro
- Parsley
- Basil
- Thyme
- Horseradish
- Sweet alyssum
- Marigolds
- Tansy
- Dead nettle
Get 9 Free Companion Planting Charts
All of the companion planting on Make it Seasonal, consolidated into handy PDFs that you can save to your phone.
Click through to access the whole collection
1. Lettuce
Lettuce varieties that are fast-growing will mark your potato rows and be ready to harvest before the potato leaves shade them out. Planting out lettuce seedlings will give them a head start and lower the odds of the young plants being eaten down to the soil by slugs, snail, rabbits, or mice.
2. Spinach
Companion planting with spinach in the early spring allows you to take advantage of the empty space between developing potato plants. Like lettuce, spinach matures quickly and can be harvested as a catch crop before the potatoes are ready in the summer.
3. Radishes
Radishes are one of the quickest vegetables to mature, making them ideal for sowing between just-planted potatoes. Radishes are also a trap crop for flea beetles, which can chew through potato leaves.
To grow radish as a trap crop, try sowing a row of them a short distance from the potatoes. The radishes will send up green shoots quickly, luring any flea beetles away from the potato row.
4. Onions
Onions may help deter potato pests including potato beetles, flea beetles, and mites. They'll also enjoy potatoes' growing conditions and their well-tilled soil.
If you grow onions and potatoes together, be sure that the soil drains well; onion bulbs can rot if they sit in wet soil for too long.
Read More: The 20 Best Companion Plants for Onions
5. Legumes
Potatoes are an ideal companion plant for peas and beans, as they share the same requirements, can be grown trellised to maximize space, and fix nitrogen in the soil. Legumes planted in the trough next to hilled up potatoes will also enjoy run-off water from their neighbors.
6. Corn
Sweet corn has shallow roots and a tall growing habit, meaning that it won't compete with potato plants for nutrients or sun. Planting corn and potatoes together can maximize your space and, in theory, improve the flavor of your potatoes.
7. Cilantro
Companion planting with cilantro can help deter pests like aphids, mites, and potato bugs. Cilantro will also thrive in potatoes' growing conditions, and it'll happily grow next to them until it gets too hot in late spring.
If you plant the cilantro north or east of the potatoes, the potato foliage may provide some needed shade for the cilantro as spring turns to summer.
8. Parsley
Parsley can act as a living mulch for potatoes, and it thrives in their nitrogen-rich soil. When it flowers in its second year, parsley attracts a variety of predatory insects that keep aphid and mite populations in check. Companion planting with parsley is also rumored to improve potatoes' flavor, but that's for you to judge.
9. Basil
Basil makes a great neighbor for potatoes and potato companions like peas, beans, nasturtium, marigolds, parsley, and cilantro. It shares potatoes' growing requirements and its strong aroma can reduce damage from aphids, plus deter thrips, tomato hornworm, and possibly whitefly.
Read More: Top 9 Companion Plants for Kale
10. Thyme
Thyme planted with potatoes can act as groundcover and cut back on pest damage by attracting predatory insects like hoverflies. Thyme essential oils can even kill the bacteria that causes potato scab in the soil. Paired with other aromatic herbs, companion planting with thyme is also a fantastic way to attract pollinators.
11. Horseradish
Horseradish, an annual in the cabbage family, produces oils with fungicidal and insecticidal activity. Its long taproot wont interfere with potato tubers, and it may help deter a range of common pests.
12. Sweet alyssum
Sweet alyssum is as fantastic companion flower for vegetables, as its small flowers attract beneficial insects that prey on many common pests-- including potato beetles and aphids. It also has a low-growing habit, allowing it to act as a living mulch.
13. Marigolds
Planting potatoes with marigolds can help withwhitefly infestation and kill root-knot nematodes. They also make fantastic bedding plants, and tradition has it that they improve the taste of potatoes.
Read More: The 16 Best Companion Plants for Marigolds
14. Tansies
Research shows that tansy flowers actively deter potato beetles. Tansies grow to tall to be interplanted with potatoes, but they would make a beautiful pest-deterring border around a potato patch.
15. Purple dead nettle
Purple dead nettle, which can be slightly invasive, may be effective at deterring potato bugs. It's also edible, beautiful, good for attracting pollinators, and excellent for breaking up clay soil.
What not to plant with potatoes
Potatoes share common pests and diseases with many other main season crops, including other vegetables in the nightshade family. It also won't do well with plants that struggle in rich soil and harsh sun.
- Nightshades
- Cucurbits
- Turnips
- Dill
1. Nightshades
Growing tomatoes, peppers, or eggplants with potatoes can make both plants more susceptible to pest damage. As members of the Solanaceae (nightshade) family, all of these plants host the same diseases and insects; interplanting with members of other families (like carrot, onion, and mint family plants) can mitigate damage.
Read More: The 11 Best Companion Plants for Tomatoes
2. Cucurbits
Cucumbers, pumpkins, squash, melons, and other members of the cucurbit family are not good companions for potatoes as they are all susceptible to blight. They're also heavy-feeding vegetables that will compete with potatoes for nutrients.
3. Turnips
Turnips can grow with other root vegetables in parallel rows, but inter planting potatoes and turnips will lead to competition for root space and nutrients.
4. Dill
Companion planting with dill can attract beneficial insects, help repel aphids and mites, and act as a trap crop for hornworms. Unfortunately, it also stunts the growth of nightshade plants. Dill shouldn't be planted with potatoes, but it could be beneficial to keep it in a pot nearby.
Common potato pests
Potatoes are susceptible to damage from many of the same pests that plague tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, and even brassica plants. Some of these pests much prefer trap crops like radish and dill, and are unlikely to seriously affect a potato harvest. Others, like potato beetles and flea beetles, you're more likely to find in your potato patch.
The best way to avoid pests for any vegetable is to plant it in the right place, water it appropriately, and feed it appropriately. Inadequate or excessive nutrients in the soil-- as well as over- or under-watering-- will make your potatoes much more susceptible to pest damage.
Here are the most common potato pests to look out for:
- Aphids
- Wireworms
- Grubs
- Colorado potato beetles (aka potato bugs)
- Potato leafhoppers
- Blister beetles
- Flea beetles
When deciding what to interplant with your potatoes, consider companions that deter some of these pests, like cilantro, onions, garlic, chives, and marigolds.
