Potatoes Love Beans and Eggplants: Potato Companion Plants

Summary: Potatoes love beans and eggplants as beneficial companion plants. Andean culture traditionally pairs potatoes with mashua, another New World tuber.

bean-and-potato patch: Ciarán Mooney, CC BY SA 2.0, via Flickr

Companion planting is a gardening strategy for grouping beneficial plants and separating adversarial plants. Combinations are gleaned from such formal and informal resources and sources as experimentation, research, and tradition.

As with many popular garden plants, potatoes do not exhibit general bonhomie. Some plants perturb potatoes. Others protect potatoes from ravaging pests. Other plants vivify potatoes by encouraging well-being.

Beans, eggplants and potatoes form a beneficial trio, a blending of New World and Old World natives as well as of three different types of plant foods.

Common beans (Phaseolus vulgaris) are New World legumes hailing primarily from Mexico.

Eggplants (Solanum melongena) are Old World fruits originating in cultivations in southern and eastern Asia.

Potatoes (Solanum tuberosum) are New World tubers with native habitats mainly in South America's Andes Mountains, favoring Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru.

The beneficial trio pools the individual plants' sensitivities and strengths to overcome adversity and promote crop productivity.

The Colorado potato beetle (Leptinotarsa decemlineata), with a boisterously bright orange yellow body and five brown lengthwise stripes on each elytron (forewing), is a New World pesky insect with presumed nativity in southwestern North America, especially Colorado and Mexico. Colorado potato beetle larvae and adults have a penchant for skeletonizing crops.

Although attracted to potatoes, these voracious beetles easily are lured away from the tuberous perennials by nearby eggplants. The diversion, however, is transformed into an exodus by the presence of beans, which are repugnant to Colorado potato beetles.

Potatoes, in turn, repel Mexican bean beetles (Epilachna varivestis). The New World species of lady beetle with presumed nativity in the plateau region of southern Mexico have a notorious reputation for devastating infestations of bean plants.

Other companion plants for potatoes include cruciferous vegetables such as cabbage (Brassica oleraceae) and horseradish (Armoracia rusticana, syn. Cochlearia armoracia); food and fiber plants such as flax (Linum usitatissimum); grain plants such as corn (Zea mays); and herbaceous plants such as marigolds (Tagetes).

A successful traditional strategy from the Andes Mountains pairs potatoes with mashua (Tropaeolum tuberosum), a New World tuber sharing the Tropaeolum genus with nasturtiums. Mashua is effective especially as a border crop for protecting potato patches from pests. Outside of its native Andes Mountain habitats, mashua is finding favor as an introduced crop, particularly thriving in New Zealand and in the Pacific Northwest of the United States.

Adversarial plants are detrimental to potato crops by way of such letdowns as stunting the tubers' growth and lowering resistance to Phytophthora infestans. The New World microorganisms were responsible for the potato famines in Europe during the Hungry Forties (1840s).

Plants disfavored by potatoes include global plants such as raspberries (Rubus) with New World and Old World varieties. New World natives disfavored by potatoes include pumpkins (Cucurbita), sunflowers (Helianthus) and tomatoes (Solanum lycopersicum). Cucumbers (Cucumis sativus) are Old World gourds that are adversarial to potatoes. Old World trees, such as apples (Malus domestica), increase potato susceptibility to phytophthora blight.

Potatoes enjoy global popularity as garden plants and as a versatile culinary ingredient.

Healthy potatoes reflect supportive gardening strategies such as companion planting.

A thriving potato crop promises success from garden to table.

colorful varieties of potatoes: Scott Bauer/USDA ARS (US Department of Agriculture Agricultural Research Service), Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

bean-and-potato patch: Ciarán Mooney, CC BY SA 2.0, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/20156581@N03/6076206310/

colorful varieties of potatoes: Scott Bauer/USDA ARS (US Department of Agriculture Agricultural Research Service), Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Patates.jpg

For further information:

Marriner, Derdriu. "Mashua Tropaeolum tuberosum: Fresh or Cooked Delicacy of Andes Tuber." Earth and Space News. Thursday, Feb. 19, 2015.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2015/02/mashua-tropaeolum-tuberosum-fresh-or.html