Growing basil with tomatoes

[chills]

I've been reading about companion planting and I have a question on growing some basil along side my tomatoes. My question is what will happen if my basil goes to seed, I was not successful with keeping my basil from going to seed. Should i try to companion plant them, and just let the basil go to seed or might that change the flavor of the tomatoes?
thank you.

 

[bid]

It shouldn't change the tomatos flavor IMO. I have never noticed any change myself and I plant basil in between tomatos.

 

[Greenthumb18]

Yeah i havent noticed any change of flavor either. You should also look into planting marigolds with tomatoes also.

 

[lesa]

What you should do, is eat more basil!!! I am so addicted to the stuff, it never has a chance to go to seed!

 

[hoodat]

I've been reading about companion planting and I have a question on growing some basil along side my tomatoes. My question is what will happen if my basil goes to seed, I was not successful with keeping my basil from going to seed. Should i try to companion plant them, and just let the basil go to seed or might that change the flavor of the tomatoes?
thank you.

I wouldn't worry if it did go to see so long as the tomatos have a good head start. Tomatos are a much more robust plant. It isn't likely the basil will overwhelm it. Thin the basil seedlings out some if you need to get more size to it.

 

[chills]

thanks guys .. i will plant some marigolds on the 'front line' and some basil in between .. last year was my first try at basil and it went to seed quick .. still learning when to use and when i waited to long ..

 

[chicken stalker]

I'm going to try using a bucket to hang my tomatoes (hole in bottom). I was thinking about planting basil in the top of the bucket.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Once the basil gets going, I can trim it pretty severely to take the blooms off without hurting it in my garden. It will just regenerate growth. You might have different results where you are?

I normally keep all my basil trimmed back except for one that I let go to bloom since the pollinators love it so much. Than after it goes to seed, sort of, I trim it back and let another go to bloom.

 

[Whitewater]

I don't know anything about basil in the garden (this is my first year with it, and it hasn't been warm enough yet to do so without killing the poor young plants!) but I was astounded to see what happened to the basil after I was forced to pot up my young tomatoes and keep them under the grow light in the basement.

Wow. That basil . . . I could LITERALLY see it growing before my eyes. It's surrounded by young tomato plants now and all of a sudden, ALL the basil (the ones in the peat pots and the ones in the plastic cups) are growing like gangbusters and suddenly looking a lot more healthy.

Dunno what it is. All I changed was adding the young tomatoes to surround the basil -- and I didn't do that on purpose, that was just the way the space worked out.

Based on this I say confidently that tomatoes and basil are excellent for each other! Not only that, but they taste fabulous together as well, and I have always figured that if they taste good together, you can probably plant them together.


Whitewater

 

[boggybranch]

Basil is prob my favorite herb. Check this link....

http://ramonasbasilgarden.com.s3.amazonaws.com/Love Your Basil eBook/Love Your Basil eBook 1.pdf