Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hey everyone! I've been experimenting with companion planting in aquaponics. Has anyone else tried this? I know that large hydroponic producers, including Plenty, sometimes implement companion planting.

For those of you who are not familiar, companion planting is a technique commonly used in organic gardening and permaculture that involves intercropping with certain plants that do not primarily serve as a food source, but provide other sorts of benefits and ecosystem services. These benefits could include nitrogen fixation, control of pest insects, attraction of beneficial insects, soil building, etc.

Here is a good article on the subject with a list of companion plants. Many culinary herbs can double as companion plants. I have grown nasturtiums and chives as companion plants in the past, and in my experience, they DID keep pest insects (mainly aphids) away from neighboring plants, including plants in completely different aquaponic systems. The nasturtiums grew very well (I have attached a picture of the half tower of nasturtiums I had a couple months ago as well - they got a bit overgrown!).

I just planted my system with a couple (with a description of their benefits from the article I posted). These should all be perennial for me, as I am fortunate to be in USDA hardiness zone 10a:

- Petunias: Repel aphids, tomato hornworms, asparagus beetles, leafhoppers and squash bugs.
- Chives (and alliums in general): Repel slugs, aphids, carrotflies, and cabbage worms. In my experience, these benefits may only be realized if the chives are allowed to bloom.
- Marigolds: Repel aphids, mosquitoes, rabbits, nematodes, and whiteflies

I get destroyed by mosquitoes everyday when I got out to the greenhouse. Maybe time to plant marigolds?

Then again, a bunch of these guys have taken up residence and I'm not ready to evict them.

Ouch! Citronella in particular is supposed to help with mosquitoes.