Sunflowers Do Not Belong With Potatoes In The Garden - Here's Why

A lot goes into taking care of a garden so vegetables and fruits grow well and have a good outcome. One popular way of accomplishing a good harvest is to use companion planting, which can benefit your garden by repelling pests or making care easier. However, not all plants do well next to each other and some just shouldn't be planted together in your garden. An example of two specific plants that should not be planted next to each other is sunflowers and potatoes. Sunflowers release allelopathic chemicals into the soil as they grow and when they decompose that can harm certain sensitive plants such as potatoes. When these two plants are planted close together, the potatoes can be negatively affected and you will end up with a poor crop of misshapen potatoes that are also very small. 

Managing the soil is one way you can reduce the spread of these harmful chemicals. Utilizing mulch over the soil around the sunflowers and removing debris from the sunflowers rather than just letting them decompose at the end of the season are other ways you can control these harmful effects. You should also plant sunflowers away from potato crops that are sensitive to the harmful allelochemicals. Avoid planting potatoes in the same soil that you planted sunflowers in the previous year when you do crop rotations, too.

Potatoes and sunflowers also don't make good garden mates for another reason. They have similar nutrition needs, as they're both heavy feeders. As such, they could end up going after the same resources which can cause problems for both plants. In addition, potatoes need at least six hours of sunlight each day, so growing tall sunflowers next to them can block the necessary sunlight from your potatoes, resulting in poor growth.

Choosing the right companion plants for your potatoes will increase their yield and enhance their growth. There are a lot of choices available that make great companions for potatoes such as crops that are included in the cabbage family like cauliflower, broccoli, cabbage, and kale. All of these vegetables have shallow root systems so there will be no competition for the space that deeper-rooted potatoes require. Other good companion plants for potatoes include garlic and onions, which are known to repel pests from the potatoes. Pole beans also have the same soil and temperature needs and work together to increase the yields from both.

If you want your sunflowers to thrive, utilize these seed-sowing tips and plant them with companion plants that can enhance their growth and are not sensitive to allelopathic chemicals. This includes corn, which also grows tall and has similar sun-loving characteristics. Other good sunflower companion plants include basil and several flowers such as zinnias and marigolds.