In the ecologically managed hobby garden, mixed culture dominates. This is accompanied every year by the question of whether tomatoes and strawberries get along as plant neighbors. It's better not to make the decision impulsively, but rather pay attention to our approach.
Can you plant strawberries and tomatoes together?
Tomatoes and strawberries are not ideal plant neighbors because tomato plants shade the sun-hungry strawberry plants, intensive fertilizing of the tomatoes disrupts strawberry growth and the tomatoes' high water requirements affect the taste of the strawberries. However, wild strawberries are a better alternative to mixed cultivation with tomatoes.
Mixed culture celebrates the harmony of opposites – sometimes
The success of a mixed culture is based on the optimal combination of crops in terms of size, root space, maturation time and nutrient requirements. From this perspective, the tall tomatoes should get along excellently with the low strawberry plants. In addition, tomatoes are heavy eaters and strawberries are weak eaters, so they don't get in each other's way in this regard either.
Nevertheless, these opposites do not attract each other and therefore contradict the premises of a successful plant partnership. In addition to the botanical properties, the requirements for location and care also play a role in the assessment. These aspects speak against a mixed culture of tomatoes and strawberries:
- the towering tomato plants shade the sun-hungry strawberry plants
- regular, intensive fertilizing of tomatoes allows the strawberry plants to sprout
- The higher water requirement of tomatoes dilutes the taste of strawberries
Wild strawberries thrive under tomato plants
The native wild strawberry is much better able to cope with the challenges of mixed cultivation with tomatoes. Contrary to popular belief, the wild strawberry is not the wild form of our garden strawberry. Their origin goes back to a cross between two strawberry varieties from America. Wild strawberries thrive even in the shade of tall trees and know how to get along with tomato plants.
Tips & Tricks
The most careful planning of a mixed culture is doomed to failure if it is overlooked that strawberries are incompatible with themselves. If a bed is intended to plant a strawberry culture there, there must not have been any other members of the same species in the previous three to four years.
