4 Plants to Avoid Growing With Onions Info Article

Not everything plays well with onions. Here are four plants to avoid.

1. Legumes

Onions and beans definitely don’t mix well. Onions give off a chemical that kills good bacteria on the roots of beans. This will stunt their growth, or even kill the plant.

With beans, include other legumes that don’t work well with onions like:

• Peas
• Lentils
• Alfalfa
• Clover
• Chickpeas
• Soybeans
• Lupins

Legumes fix the soil with nitrogen, so consider planting onions after you have legumes in an area of the garden. Onions are big nitrogen feeders.

2. Sage

Sage isn’t bad for onions, but the conditions it requires are different. If you try to get things right for the sage, the onions will suffer, and the same for the sage if you try to get the growing conditions set for the onions.

The best thing to do is keep both plants well separated.

3. Asparagus

Onions and asparagus compete for the same nutrients, so unless you are always in the garden monitoring them, one will suffer if not both.

Asparagus also takes a long time to get established and grow year after year. You will disturb them if you harvest the onions close to the asparagus.

4. Other Alliums (Except Leek)

Garlic and shallots are to be kept well away from onions. Onion maggots will move from onions to garlic and shallots easily and you’ll lose all three crops.