Transcript for:
Companion Planting and Natural Pest Control

how does companion planting contribute to Natural pest control and can you give some specific examples yeah yeah uh Al so I'll Trust I'll try to touch on like some of the ones that like are a little more easily accessible to a lot of us and some things that we're we're pretty familiar with and you could probably grow it in in whatever Zone you're in um but in terms of like they do it a couple of different ways so they have like scent so through essential you know essential oils the release of certain smells that deter pests uh bringing in beneficial Predators trap cropping uh or even trap confusion so in terms of scents uh marigolds uh basil lemongrass a lot of the herbs that you would use in culinary things or in medicinal herbs and things like that a lot of those are actually usually also great at repelling pests so like mint rosemary garlic basil marold all these things that you can plant that you're either going to you're going to consume them yourself as well they're also very good at deterring pests uh so a lot of them release their essential oils like basil fantastic uh merold would probably be the one that a lot of people would associate with companion planting you'll see that indoors and Outdoors so the maragold itself does release uh an essential oil right a smell that'll deter things like aphids uh White flaws and some others but it also has uh um a compound that it releases into the soil called thiophene and that actually deters predatory nematodes so and and they can you know there's other things like molds can also be like a a trap crop as well so that like it'll attract uh other things to come eat it before they make it to your plants but some of the major benefits for that yeah like I'm saying are are just the the the deterrence of the smells so which is cool because like these all have like multiple uses right you could grow basil and Rosemary and Thyme uh lemongrass all these things that you can use in culinary use medicinal herbs and things like that but they also deter gnats white flies aphids and other bugs um I think another a great example of that would just for even in just your garden or just in your backyard alone citronella plant something that all very you uh we find very commonly in like Walmart or wherever you're going you can get like citronella candles and citronella sprays you can plant the citronella plant around the perimeter of your property and that deterge things like mosquitoes and and other gats right so like you know so in terms of scense you have a lot of different options there uh but there's also like like trap cropping so uh one of my favorites probably if you if you've seen me grow indoors or Outdoors Nast ners I love nashers so we plant nashers around the outside of like a standup bed or out around the perimeter uh and a lot of PL a lot of these like pests and stuff they'll go and they'll probably consume the Nur from first they just kind of get lost in it they go they eat this first and they don't make their way into your Tomatoes or into your cabbages or whatever it is they're making their way to um that's probably one of my favorites cuz you can eat the entire thing right you can eat the leaves you can eat the stems you can eat the flow plus it's it's trapping other ones and they kind of make a home there first before they ever make their way into your precious crops right so um plus they're just they're pretty and they make a great ground cover right they have a lot of extra like kind of uses that citrella tip you mention is gold for a lot of people man I know I used to live in Massachusetts and mosquitoes were crazy and they had the citronella candles and sprays and all that stuff it's like planted around your property you know what I mean like the perimeter property and help get rid of those I don't know how how well that'll work I mean guess depends on how big your properties and stuff like that but I can imagine some of that stuff working really really good and Mer Golds one you didn't name which I'll throw out there is peppermint the peppermint is another one that kind of Falls in that category of pesc control I use that as IPM spray so essential oil mix it with water and surfactant and spraying that on the plants around the plants the soil stuff like that once a week well every other week you know kind of rotating sprays Rosemary mentioned and yeah so there are ton of different things like that that going to help with pest control and I'm glad you got into them and yeah you and you'll find those in like you're saying in a lot of your you know your organic sprays and stuff are usually some form of like peppermint oregano Rosemary uh cloves cinnamon any of those kind of like essential oils and stuff and you find a lot of those uh in some of your natural hers and stuff that you can grow so they have like multiple uses they could be Ground Covers they could be pest deterrents or they can you can pick them off and throw them in your throw them in the frying pan so this clip is brought to you by AC Infinity use discount code Mr Grow at 15 to save on any of their products [Music]