Potatoes can be combined with other crops when planting.
It even needs the right neighborhood to grow healthy and fruitful. Properly selected neighbors and predecessors are an important factor for obtaining a high-quality and large harvest.
Legumes
Some of the best neighbors for potatoes are members of the legume family. Peas, beans, and broad beans can be grown together with potatoes or before them. Lentils, chickpeas, a vetch-oat mixture, and lupine can also be sown as a predecessor. Legumes form nodules with nitrogen-fixing bacteria on their roots, and nitrogen is an essential nutrient for potatoes. But many pests, such as nematodes, wireworms, and cockchafer larvae, do not like legumes.
Corn
Another good neighbor for potatoes is corn. It quickly outgrows potatoes in growth, does not create dense shade, but light shading in the heat saves potato tops from the scorching sun. Corn roots go deep into the ground, so it does not take nutrition and water from the surface roots of potatoes.
If you use corn as a precursor, its tops should be dug into the soil. From the depths, this plant extracts many nutrients that are released when the tops decompose and become food for potatoes.
Pumpkin
Potatoes also grow well together with pumpkin. Pumpkin covers the soil with its leaves, which reduces the intensity of moisture evaporation, suppresses the growth of weeds and helps keep the soil looser. Of course, there may be some difficulties when digging, so it is better to combine pumpkin and late varieties of potatoes.
Potatoes should not be grown together with or after crops of the same family (tomatoes, eggplants, peppers, physalis, nightshade). These plants increase the risk of diseases and pests on potatoes.
Choosing the right neighbors for potatoes can help improve their growth and yield, as well as protect them from pests and diseases. You can test different combinations yourself to see which crops potatoes grow well with.
