Mustard Companion Plants
- Mustard greens will add a spicy taste to salads.Jupiterimages/Comstock/Getty Images
Many people do not care for the peppery, tangy taste of mustard greens, a cool weather leafy vegetable. Yet mustard greens provide a wealth of nutritional value in vitamins, protein and minerals, with low calories. Additionally, mustard greens can offer benefits to particular plants growing around the greens. Be aware, though, that there are many plants that are incompatible with mustard greens and you will need to avoid placing them together. - As a companion plant for cabbage, mustard greens will ward away harlequin bugs from the cabbage. Mustard also attracts harmful insects which will originally attack the mustard before migrating to the surrounding companion plants. Careful and consistent observation of your mustard plants for harmful bugs and removal of the insects and/or the damaged leaves can save the companion plant from attack. Cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, radishes, turnips, kohlrabi and collards benefit from the insect attraction of mustard.
- Mustard plants grow and thrive in the cool weather of spring, dying off when hot temperatures return. The plant is often grown as a cover crop, particularly in vineyards, because mustard enhances the soil by adding nutrients directly into it. As a fast-growing plant, mustard keeps weeds out in the spring and early summer, and can then be tilled into the soil as green manure (green cover crop plants that are worked into soil to supplement the soil with added nitrogen). Mustard grown in a location prior to planting onions or radishes will benefit these vegetables with a larger yield.
- As beneficial as mustard growing nearby can be to some plants, it can be incompatible and harmful to other plants. Mustard will cause these plants to have stunted growth. Beets and bee balms should not be grown near mustard. Although mustard interplanted with turnips can repel harmful insects, do not grow it in abundance as it may stunt the growth of turnips.
