Sometimes vulgar cognition , what everybody know to be honest , just is n’t . That ’s the vitrine , I ’ve feel , with much of the loosely accept data about companion planting .
Do tomatoes really wish sweet basil ? ( By Gausanchennai – Own oeuvre , CC BY - SA 4.0 , https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=76192302 )
Tomatoes , for instance , are supposed to “ like ” basil ; likewise , schnittlaugh and cultivated carrot purportedly “ like ” each other .
Do tomatoes really like basil? (By Gausanchennai – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=76192302)
Where does such data come from ? That ’s what I began to wonder a number of geezerhood ago . Why should tomatoes wish basil ? Typically , the sharer of this data could n’t say . I move to organic gardening literature , which usually just acquaint the companion planting combinations as fact . By comparing many different explanation of companion planting , however , I finally identified a rootage . A number of the books credit Ehrenfried Pfeiffer as an originator of companion planting know - how .
And if so , is the smell reciprocated ? ( By Castielli – Own workplace , CC BY - SA 3.0,https://commons.wikimedia.org / w / index.php?curid=7133704 )
A trip to the New York Botanical Garden Library reveal who this inscrutable authority was . Ehrenfried Pfeiffer was a German immigrant who was a disciple of Rudolf Steiner , a late 19thcentury , other 20thcentury Austrian philosopher and mystic . Among other activity , Steiner founded biodynamic gardening . Pfeiffer was one of only a fistful of people that Steiner entrusted with making his biodynamic “ preparation , ” such as preparation # 502 which call for milfoil blossoms to be gourmandize inside the urinary vesica of a red deer and exposed to the sunlight over the summertime , then buried over the winter before being disinter and used to inoculate the compost wad .
Do tomatoes really like basil? (By Gausanchennai – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=76192302)
At Steiner ’s behest Pfeiffer also developed a procedure he called “ raw crystal . ” In this process Pfeiffer would mix some biological extract with a solution of cop chloride and pour out the result into a petri dish antenna to observe the approach pattern of crystals that formed as the liquid state evaporated . He applied this process for the most part to the survey of plant . If the flora excerpt contributed to a unclouded and orderly pattern of crystal , Pfeiffer judge this to be a augury the plant was healthy . If the blueprint was unclear or disorganized , Pfeiffer took this as cogent evidence that the plant was unhealthy . When two plant infusion were combined with the Cu chloride solution , an attractive pattern was test copy that the plants were compatible and should be grown together .
Pfeiffer published his observations as a associate planting list . Picked up and endorsed by J. I. Rodale , an other leader of the American constitutional horticulture movement , this list of supposedly compatible plants became a popular tool of constituent gardeners , who usually did not know of the nature of its parentage . Passed down from Scripture to al-Qur’an , Pfeiffer ’s doubtful findings are still exclaim as gospel today .
Does this think that all fellow planting information is bastard ? Not at all . There are people who have pursued a more science - based take on this subject . I ’ve interview one of them , Robert Kourik , on a podcast at thomaschristophergardens.com .
And if so, is the feeling reciprocated? (By Castielli – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0,https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=7133704)
