Can You Plant Marigolds With Tomatoes?

Do you want to pair your tomatoes with marigold plant and worry whether it would be beneficial for growing tomatoes or not?

Marigolds are very common among gardeners, especially the french marigolds. It is a very economical plant requiring less effort to set in your garden. This plant is resilient to heat.

It is a very friendly plant when planted with most of the plants and overall benefits its neighbor plants and your overall garden.

Now the question is whether it is going to benefit your tomato plants or not and whether these plants are compatible with each plant association.

In short, there are many benefits to companion planting marigolds near tomato plants as both plants are competent to each other, require direct exposure to sunlight, have similar watering requirements, and are resilient to heat. If you have enough space to plant both plants, they thrive extremely well together. Marigolds are also well known for their pest-repellent properties, which help to restrict the entry of harmful pests, insects and caterpillars.

This heat-tolerant plant has many benefits which are even scientifically proven. They proved to be one of the best companion plants for most vegetable plants because of their pest-repellent property. 

This plant can be easily available in any nursery or garden centre. Now, will it be beneficial to plant closer to your tomato plants?

This article explains whether planting marigolds with tomatoes would work or harm your garden and how these two plants are used together.

5 Reasons Why You Should Grow Marigolds With Your Tomato Plants

1. Marigolds attract bees and other tomato-benefiting insects.

Having beautiful butterflies, bees, ladybugs, and other favorable creatures in your garden is quite mesmerizing.

They are also a great pollinating agent, which helps to maximize the yield. Marigolds also attract many other beneficial insects which act as predators for aphids, hornworms or caterpillars. 

2. Marigolds act as a “trap crop” for slugs and snails.

Tomatoes attract slugs and snails. You would only come to know their presence when you got to pluck your lovely tomatoes. These night thieves leave some soft holes and secret slim trails. 

The beautiful ornamental Marigolds plant is a “Trap Crop” for slugs and snails. The foliages of marigolds attract these slugs and snails and later destroy them. 

3. Marigolds deter animal tomato pests.

The marigold feels aromatic for humans, but this smell feels like order for many pests and insects which deter them from your garden.

Rabbits, deer, cats and snacks remain away from marigolds. And your crop is saved with these species. 

4. Marigolds help to keep soil healthy.

Root-knot nematodes are very harmful to homegrown tomato plants and other gardeners. They also impact other nightshade plants like eggplants and peppers. 

Marigolds trap these root-knot nematodes and destroy them completely. Planting marigolds in regions where root-knot nematodes are infested is quite beneficial. 

A toxin found in the marigold roots is enough to kill these nematodes at their initial production stage. 

5. Marigolds deter tomato worms.

Tomatoes attract an abundance of pests, hornworms and caterpillars. Large moths begin their life in tomato garden as tomato hornworms and can destroy the tomato plants. 

Marigolds restrict the entry of these hornworms in two ways. 

Firstly, its strong smell acts as a pest and moth repellent, making it inefficient for laying eggs. 

Secondly, it attracts many predators that feed these hornworms and other hazardous pests and insects and keeps your garden from harmful insects and pests.

Note: Plant marigold seeds around and between your tomato plants to give them an extra boost. These vibrant flowers germinate quickly, so you’ll have a lush garden in no time! Once they reach 2-3 inches tall, make sure to thin out the soil around them to ensure they don’t overcrowd each other.

Marigolds and Tomatoes

You can use marigolds and tomatoes in different ways and plant them easily in raised beds as well as in hanging baskets and create an impassable border around the tomato plants.

They need similar growing conditions like full exposure to sunlight, heat resistance, and well-drained rich soil. 

They form a symbiotic relationship when planted as companion plants and can easily survive with each other and benefit one another.

It will advise you to plant larger varieties of marigolds a little far from tomato plants as they can shade the tomatoes whereas you can plant small marigold varieties a little close to tomatoes.

Benefits of Marigolds

1. Marigold flowers can easily attract pollinating agents like bees and insects in your garden. 
2. Tomato plants are pollinated by these pollinators and thus increase fruit production.
3. Marigold acts as harmful pests repellent due to pyrethrum content in it.
4. Nematodes, cabbage worms and tomato hornworms hate marigolds. Thus it saves your garden from these harmful pests.
5. Marigold roots contain alpha-terthienyl, which is toxic to root-knot nematodes found in soil.
6. This compound protects your tomato plant’s root system.

Planting Them Together

Tomatoes and marigolds love to grow and develop properly if they get at least 6-8 hours of direct exposure to sunlight per day. 

Ensure to maintain proper spacing between the plants. Maintain at least 10-12 inches of distance between each plant. In such a way, the plants get enough space to grow properly.

Also, note that it should be as close to tomato plants as possible so that they can get the benefits of marigold plants. 

Marigolds can be planted as border plants in your vegetable garden. It works great as a barrier, but before using it as a border plant in your vegetable garden, proper spacing is a damn important factor. 

Maintain at least 1-0-12 inches between each plant while planting. 

Planting Together in Containers

Most home gardeners find it convenient to plant in containers. Are you also willing to grow your marigolds in pots, containers or small raised beds near your tomato plants? 

Here also you need to be conscious about spacing. Use at least 5 gallons of container for your tomato plant. It can be enough to grow one tomato plant. 

Suppose you want your tomatoes to be accompanied by marigolds. In that case, it indicates that you need a little container bigger than 5 gallons and a widener to maintain a distance of 12 inches to grow both plants together. 

An alternate option to plant them together is to plant each plant in a separate container. Ensure to keep both plants closer to each other.

In this way, it would resolve spacing issues, and tomatoes would benefit from marigold plants. 

Which Marigolds Are Best For Tomatoes?

Out of the 50+ species of marigold, Tagetes erectus (African Marigolds), T. patula (French Marigolds) and T. tenuifolia (Signet Marigolds) are the top three recommended for garden use due to their brilliant color displays and benefits!

I can simply say that all the marigolds efficiently benefit tomato plants whether they are French marigolds, African marigolds or signet marigolds.
But still, if you are going through any issues, you can try the following:

Marigold Variety	What Does It Do?
African Marigold	Deer deterrent
French Marigold	Root knot nematode
Signet Marigold	Attract bees and beneficial insects
All Marigold Variety	Deter tomato worms and caterpillars

You can merge some of the marigold varieties and check which is best for your tomatoes.

Quick Tip: Typically, Signet marigolds don’t need deadheading for optimal growth and blooms; however, African and French types of marigold will require regular maintenance via deadheading to maximize flowering.

6 Alternatives To Marigold That You Can Plant With Tomatoes

If you want to opt for planting other than marigolds to enhance the show and beauty of your garden or for any other reasons, I suggest you some other companion plants for your tomatoes.

These plants may not serve the same benefits as marigolds but can provide many other symbiotic benefits for your tomatoes. 

Calendula

Calendula, scientifically known as calendula officinalis, is an annual flowering plant generally having 8-10 inches in height and requires full exposure to sunlight to grow properly. 

It is also known as a pot or scotch marigold and is heat-resilient and a Vivid Flower. Its shape is almost similar to African Marigolds. It is planted as a companion plant with many vegetables and has many medicinal properties. 

Alyssum

Alyssum, scientifically known as Lobularia maritima. It grows up to 6-8 inches and loves full exposure to sunlight. 

It is also said to be a sweet alyssum because of its sweet floral aroma, a compact growing plant. The color of its flower is purple and white. Its flower has the ability to attract many pollinators in your garden. 

Zinnias

Zinnias, Scientifically known as Zinnia elegans, is an annual flowering plant that grows in full sunlight and possesses a height of 8-36 inches. It is a heat and drought-tolerant resilient plant.

Nature has gifted us with a wide variety of Zinnias. Their height depends on their variety, and they flower in shades like purple, pink, red, orange and many more. It attracts many pollinating agents in your garden. 

Nasturtium

Nasturtium, scientifically known as Nasturtium, is an annual plant with a height of 10-24 inches and enjoys growing in full and partial sunlight. 

Nasturtium possesses few varieties, and all of its varieties bloom in warmer shades like gold, red and orange. It grows quite efficiently in warmer conditions and beautifies your garden with its colorful flowers throughout the season. 

It has a similar growing habit to tomato plants and can easily spread in your garden if you reseed them. It best suits all vegetable plants that grow in full sunlight and is edible. 

Anise Hyssop

The scientific name of Anise Hyssop is Agastache foeniculum, and it is an annual plant. It grows to a height of 12-24 inches and loves to grow in full exposure to sunlight. 

It has wide varieties and colors. Warmer climatic conditions are favorable for Anise hyssop and flowers all time. 

It is a damn aromatic flowering plant that invites many pollinating agents into your garden. It also has many medicinal properties. 

Ageratum

The scientific name of Ageratum is Ageratum. It is also an annual flowering plant with a 10-24 inches height that enjoys both full sun and partial sunlight exposure and is a heat-tolerant plant.

It works best as a border plant for your garden. It attracts bees because of its fuzzy flowering cluster. It can only grow blue and white flowers but gives your garden a fantastic look. 

Growing is very economical and works best with vegetable plants that grow in full sunlight.

Summary

It is beneficial to grow both marigolds and tomatoes together. Marigolds have many beneficial properties for your garden. It acts as a pest and insect repellent, attracting many predators and pollinating agents in your garden. As a result, your juicy and hard-grown tomatoes benefit from marigolds. I suggest planting marigolds with your tomato plants, and you would be amazed to see the results.