CARROTS LOVE TOMATOES

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Cucumbers dislike potatoes, while potatoes grown near cucumbers are more likely to be affected by phytophthora blight, so keep the two apart.

Beneficial fungi are another enemy of nematodes. If you suspect their presence, build up the humus content of your soil. A chive spray is helpful for downy mildew on cucumbers as is a spray made of horsetail.

Cucumbers dislike potatoes, while potatoes grown near cucumbers are more likely to be affected by phytophthora blight, so keep the two apart. Cucumbers also have a dislike for aromatic herbs.

Plant scientists William Duke, of Cornell, and Alan Putnam, of Michigan State University, have discovered that certain cucumber varieties fight weeds by releasing a toxic substance. This natural process—allelopathy—is believed to be an inherited trait. Thus, attempts are being made to incorporate weed resistance into commercial crops much in the same way as insect and disease resistance is bred into plants.

Eggplant ( Solanum melongena ). Redroot pigweed makes eggplant more resistant to insect attack. During dry weather, mulching and irrigation will help prevent wilt disease. Dry cayenne pepper sprinkled on plants while still wet with dew will repel caterpillars. Eggplant growing among green beans will be protected from the Colorado potato beetle. The beetles like eggplant even more than potatoes, but they find the beans repellent.

Garlic ( Allium sativum ). Eldon L. Reeves and S. V. Amonkar, of the University of California, discovered garlic to be a powerful destroyer of mosquitoes, achieving a 100% mortality of five species of California mosquito larvae by spraying breeding ponds with a garlic-based oil.

Researcher David Greenstock, of the Henry Doubleday Research Association in England, found that a garlic-oil emulsion, used as an insecticide, killed 89% of aphids and 95% of onion flies.

Here's a recipe for a good garlic spray: Take 3 to 4 ounces of chopped garlic bulbs and soak in 2 tablespoons of mineral oil for one day. Add a pint of water in which 1 teaspoon of fish emulsion has been dissolved. Stir well. Strain the liquid and store in a glass or china container, as it reacts with metals. Dilute this, starting with 1 part to 20 parts of water, and use as a spray against your worst insect pests. If sweet potatoes or other garden plants are attracting rabbits, try this spray. Rabbits dislike the smell of fish, too. Garlic sprays are useful in controlling late blight on tomatoes and potatoes.

Garlic grown in a circle around fruit trees is good against borers. It is beneficial to the growth of vetch, protects roses, and, when cloves are stored in grain, will repell grain weevils. All alliums , however, inhibit the growth of peas and beans. Plant garlic with tomatoes to protect against red spiders. I have done this for three successive years, with good results.

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