Companion planting yes or no?

This is actually a never ending debate among the scientific
community and the biodynamic gardening community. The biodynamic
gardening is based on some "bad science" especially with the
"sensitive crystallization method".

However, there is a type of "companion planting" done on large farms called no-till farming. This technique has become popular in recent years and is being used around here for the sorghum and grain crops. However no-till is planting in the residue of the last crop and not doing the traditional tilling of the land. This is different that the companion planting you are referring to.

The farmers here are for the most part highly educated with bachelors
and master degrees and keep up with the latest research, and none of
them utilize companion planting except "no-till".

I have never seen a lot of scientific studies that have really studied this technique but have personally tried it a few times myself and was not impressed with the results. The last time was two years ago when I tried doing the three sisters approach. Actually the corn did good but the beans and squash were nothing to write home about.

I am sure that Mittleider studied the technique thoroughly and came to the conclusion it was not useful and actually detrimental as I experienced.

I could not consider the article you posted as a "Well Researched Article" but it is a very well done general introduction of companion planting. I enjoyed reading it myself. Please refer to this article for what a "research article" is.
http://www.lib. utexas.edu/ lsl/help/ modules/research .html

Below is an article of a study that a student did for her masters degree She did a two year study of companion planting with potatoes. This is a summary article and of course not a research article. There is not a research article cited. However, it is interesting reading.
http://www.organica gcentre.ca/ ResearchDatabase /res_cpb_ companion_ tara.asp

This is an article from Cornell.
http://www.gardenin g.cornell. edu/factsheets/ ecogardening/ complant. html

Companion planting yes or no?

I want to grow 1000 tomato plants using the Mittleiter method,
interspersing another 1000 basil and a handful of good
companion plants such as garlic, onion, marigold, melon...

(We don't recommend companion planting at all - JK)

How many grow boxes should I make to fit them all?

I know the formula for 'normal' agriculture is nine square
feet for each plant, but I figure using this method, I will
need a lot less space, right?

(25 18"-wide Grow-Boxes of 30' in length will grow 1,000 tomato plants. This would require 3,750 square feet of garden space.

If you use 4'-wide beds you can plant 2 rows in 7 1/2' width, giving you 1,000 plants in 2,812 square feet of garden space.

Of course in order to do this you have to grow those plants vertically, and we recommend the use of T-Frames to do that.

Jim Kennard
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