Using cannabis as a companion plant in your vegetable garden can help you grow a high-quality crop with minimal damage from pests. Companion planting also improves the quality of your soil, providing nutrients and preventing erosion.
There are many plants that can be used as a companion plant in your garden, offering benefits such as hiding the smell of cannabis, deterring pests and fixing nitrogen. We’ve rounded up our top choices to get you started!
1. Basil
Basil is a popular herb with a sweet, spicy-sweet flavor that makes a great addition to salads, pasta dishes and sauces. While basil can be grown in a variety of growing conditions, it needs consistent moisture and plenty of sun to thrive.
When planting basil seeds, either direct sow them outdoors or start them indoors about six weeks before the average last frost date for your area. Sow basil seeds in a potting mix that contains high quality, well-drained soil with a pH of 6.0 to 7.0.
Once the seedlings are ready to transplant, plant them at a sunny location that gets six to eight hours of sun per day. Basil plants prefer a moist, well-drained spot that receives consistent moisture and a little shade in the afternoons if you live in a hot climate where the summer sun is intense.
To ensure the basil plant has a steady supply of nutrients to fuel leaf production, feed your plants every 1 to 2 weeks throughout the growing season. Start feeding your plants about a month after planting with MIracle-Gro(r) Performance Organics(r) Edibles Plant Nutrition, following the directions on the label.
After the first set of true leaves appear, water deeply and thoroughly. Make sure the top inch of the soil is consistently moist.
Using the right companion plants in your vegetable garden can make a big difference to the overall health of your plants and increase their yield. These companions can prevent pest problems, enhance the flavor of the plants and improve their appearance.
The following vegetables, herbs and flowers make excellent companions for basil: Marigolds, cilantro, parsley and oregano. These plants help improve soil quality and ward off pests, which is important for the success of your basil plants.
2. Dill
Dill is a great companion plant to grow with your cannabis because it improves soil health and helps prevent pest problems. In addition, it has a strong, anise-like flavor that works well in soups and salads.
Dill plants thrive in nutrient-rich, well-draining soil that has a pH of 5.5 to 6.5. It also prefers a soil with a high percentage of organic matter and one to inches of mulch around the plant.
To grow dill, sow seeds directly into your garden soil in spring or early summer. The best varieties include ‘Fernleaf’ (which has a compact growth habit and long-lasting flavor) and ‘Bouquet’ (which produces more seeds).
Keep in mind that dill is prone to bolting when it gets too hot, so make sure you choose a location with plenty of shade to prevent this from happening. The plant is also prone to yellowing, so avoid over-fertilizing or watering too much to keep it looking fresh and healthy.
For a longer harvest of dill, continue sowing seeds every few weeks throughout the growing season. Ideally, the flowering stage will not last too long; if it does, cut off the blooms to encourage more leaves to grow.
Then, dry the seeds to store them in a paper bag or dehydrator for use later on. Dill is a great addition to salads, soups and pickles.
Dill also works as a natural insecticide, especially in combination with other plants such as basil. The odor of dill will repel many insects and discourage spider mites, butterflies, and caterpillars, helping to protect your garden and your crop from harmful pests. It can also help attract beneficial insects such as ladybugs and lacewings to your garden, which will clear up damaging species in no time.
3. Alfalfa
Companion planting is an old-school gardening technique that gardeners use to enhance the health of their vegetable crops. Using companion plants in your cannabis garden can help improve soil health, attract beneficial insects, deter pests and increase overall crop production.
One of the best-known companion plants is basil, which provides a great boost to your marijuana crops by increasing yields and the oil content of the buds. It also repels many pests, including slugs and snails, according to I Love Growing Marijuana.
Another useful companion plant is chrysanthemum, which contains pyrethrin, a natural pesticide that prevents nematodes from damaging your marijuana plants. This plant also adds organic fertilizer to the soil and is a natural deterrent for aphids, which can damage your cannabis.
Lastly, alfalfa (Medicago sativa) is a perennial herb that provides the nutrients your cannabis needs as well as improving your soil and suppressing weeds. This perennial helps keep nitrogen levels up in the soil and also accumulates iron, magnesium, phosphorus and potassium, all of which are essential for your cannabis garden.
This perennial grows best in slightly acidic, moist soil with good drainage and a sunny location. It also makes a living mulch that locks in moisture and suppresses weeds.
The benefits of companion planting for your cannabis grow are many and varied, so it is important to choose the right plant for the job. These plants can make a huge difference to your cannabis grow, and they are easy to get started with as seeds or plant plugs.
These are just a few of the many plants that can be used as companions for your cannabis garden, but you can find plenty more options at Homegrown CannabisCo. They have a wide range of high-quality seeds to suit all your needs, and they have extensive growing instructions and advice to support you in the process.
4. Clover
Incorporating companion plants in your vegetable garden is a great way to boost the health and quality of your cannabis crops. These plants are symbiotic with the cannabis plant, and the terpenes they produce can improve soil, encourage beneficial microorganisms and help combat pests in your grow room.
Alfalfa, for example, is a great partner for cannabis because it increases the concentration of nitrogen in the soil. This nitrogen, in turn, boosts your crop’s energy levels.
Clover, too, can be an excellent companion plant for your cannabis because it is a nitrogen fixer and helps improve soil drainage. The deep roots of clover also bring up nutrients from the soil to the surface, where they can be used by your cannabis and other garden plants.
Whether you choose annual or perennial clover depends on your needs. Annuals reproduce by seed but need to be re-seeded each year, whereas perennials establish themselves in one location and then re-grow annually without any extra work.
If you want to grow clover as a companion plant for your cannabis, choose a variety that can withstand cool conditions and hot temperatures. Regardless of what you choose, clover is easy to grow and adds an attractive addition to your garden that’s good for both the plants and the earth.
Chamomile is another herb that can be used as a cannabis companion plant because it repels mosquitoes and whiteflies, making your garden less attractive to these insects. It also produces essential oils that can protect your plants from harmful insects and diseases.
Coriander (Coriandrum sativum) is another aromatic herb that can be used as a cannabis partner because it deters pests like aphids and spider mites. Its scent is unpleasant to these pests, and it also attracts predatory wasps that help keep the pest population down.
5. Southernwood
Companion planting is a way to improve your food crop yields by growing plants that will enhance each other’s growth and help them thrive together. This can also help to keep unwanted weeds from sprouting and competing with your food crops.
Some crops and herbs are good companions because they attract beneficial insects, repel pests or serve as ground covers to help retain soil moisture and suppress weeds. Others are bad companions because they have allelopathic effects, which inhibit the growth of other species.
Among the most traditional and reliable companions are beets, cabbage family (broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower and Chinese cabbage), carrots, chard, celery, corn, cucumber, eggplant, peas, potatoes, pepper, radish, strawberry, summer savory and sage. Other plants that are believed to benefit from companion planting include chives, dill, garlic chive, hyssop, marigold, mint and nasturtiums.
Herbs can be grown both in the vegetable garden and in ornamental borders. Many are fragrant and attract beneficial insects to your plants, while some repel harmful insects or deter them from your food crops.
For instance, nasturtiums and tansy are used to protect against cucumber beetles, while chives and garlic chives repel aphids. Nasturtiums are also a good plant for getting rid of green peach aphids in your fruit garden.
Wormwood and southernwood are herbs that repel thrips, snails, slugs, spider mites and mealybugs. They also produce yellow flowers that attract bees, flies and butterflies.
As a result, Southernwood can be a great companion plant in the garden and in herb containers. It is drought tolerant and deer resistant, and can be propagated by seed or semi-hardwood cuttings in late summer. It grows best in dry to medium, well-drained soils.
