You Should Consider Growing Your Tomatoes And Cucumbers Away From Each Other

Companion plants for tomatoes encourage them to grow larger, tastier, and less prone to pests. However, there are also "rival" plants that can drastically stunt both crops, which is why you might want to consider growing your tomatoes and cucumbers separately to prevent competition.

Both cucumbers and tomatoes require similar growing conditions: full sun, plenty of water, heavy fertilization, and a soil acidity between 6.0 and 7.0. Given this, you'd think it makes sense to plant them together, as you can prepare the soil for both in the exact same way. However, the real difficulty comes down to competition for resources. Both plants are voracious, heavy feeders that want to devour all the nutrients they can get their roots on. Those same root systems also like to spread prolifically, and tangling up the two creates a sort of wrestling match where neither side ends up quite as large as they could have been.

Above ground, things can get even more crowded, especially if you work with indeterminate varieties of both. Since they tend to grow until cold weather sets in, they'll eventually crowd each other to steal sunlight and reduce airflow, leaving both more prone to fungus. Plus, both cucumbers and tomatoes share many pests, so if one gets infected, you can all but guarantee the other will fall ill as well. Whether it's aphids or mosaic viruses, it's best to keep the two separated to prevent your whole crop from collapsing before harvest.

While your cucumbers and tomatoes should never be close enough to butt heads, that doesn't mean they can't share the same plot. A couple feet of space allows them to spread above and below ground enough to thrive, but proper pruning and selecting the right variety can ensure they never need to compete for resources.

If you have an especially small garden, choose determinate tomatoes and bush cucumbers. Determinants grow to a finite size, produce fruit, then die, unlike indeterminates, which can spider up 10 plus feet of trellis. Similarly, bush cucumbers are quite compact, producing a surprising volume of vegetables for how little space they take up. Both types also tend to grow quite well with the bucket trick using five-gallon containers or large grow pots, so you can use sunny spots outside of your garden to save on space.

Still, if you must grow indeterminate tomatoes and vining cucumbers anywhere near each other, try pruning them for tight spaces. While designed to control the growth of small tomatoes, the two-leader system works just as well on cucumbers, allowing you to keep them separated on the same trellis and maximizing your space. You'll still want them to plant them at least a couple of feet apart at least, where possible, but this should prevent airflow issues from overgrown, un-pruned gardens.