Strawberry Companion Plants
Fragaria x ananassa · rose family · rotation group: other
The best companion plants for strawberry are Borage, Sweet alyssum, Onion, Thyme, and Lettuce. Avoid planting strawberry near Tomato and other nightshades, Brassicas (cabbage, broccoli). Of the 9 pairings recorded here, 1 is supported by published research and 8 are traditional practice with no controlled evidence behind them.
What to plant with strawberry
| Plant | Claimed benefit | Evidence | What the evidence actually shows |
|---|---|---|---|
| Borage | Borage planted with strawberries increases fruit set, yield and berry quality. | Research-backed | The strongest garden-scale companion planting result found: a replicated 2020 study combining researcher-led trials and citizen science recorded 35 percent more fruits and 32 percent greater yield by weight, driven by increased pollinator visitation. |
| Chives | Chives interplanted with strawberries reduce fungal problems. | Traditional | No controlled evidence; the fungal claim in particular has no proposed mechanism beyond general allium folklore. |
| French marigold | Marigold protects strawberries from root-knot nematodes. | Traditional | Marigold nematode suppression is genuine but only when marigold is grown as a dense pre-crop in the same ground for two or more months before planting; as an interplanted border it does nothing for the crop's roots. |
| Lettuce | Lettuce and spinach fill the space between young strawberry crowns in the establishment year. | Traditional | Practical use of the first season before runners fill in; no biological interaction is claimed or tested. |
| Onion | Alliums bordering a strawberry bed deter pests and slugs. | Traditional | Allium volatiles disrupt host-finding in some documented fly systems but nothing has been tested on strawberry pests. |
| Sweet alyssum | Sweet alyssum supplies nectar for hoverflies whose larvae eat strawberry aphids. | Traditional | The alyssum-hoverfly-aphid chain is well documented in lettuce production; it is highly plausible here but no strawberry trial was found. |
| Thyme | Thyme edging a strawberry bed deters pests and attracts pollinators. | Traditional | Thyme is one of the few herbs with real trial data behind it, but that work is on brassica pests (diamondback moth, cabbage looper), not strawberry. |
What not to plant with strawberry
| Plant | Claimed problem | Evidence | What the evidence actually shows |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brassicas (cabbage, broccoli) | Brassicas stunt strawberries planted near them. | Traditional | Widely repeated with no mechanism given and no supporting data; competition for nitrogen is the most likely explanation if there is any effect. |
| Tomato and other nightshades | Strawberries should not follow or sit beside tomatoes, potatoes, peppers or eggplant because of Verticillium wilt. | Traditional | Verticillium dahliae genuinely infects both strawberry and solanaceous crops, so the mechanism is real, but neither the UMN strawberry guide nor the NC State small fruits chapter states this rule and no controlled comparison was found; their published rotation advice is about strawberry-after-strawberry root rot instead. |
The honest verdict
Of everything gardeners recommend planting alongside strawberry, 1 pairing has been tested properly: Borage. Those are the ones worth planning your bed around.
The remaining 6 pairings on this page are traditional practice. They circulate on every companion planting chart online, but we could not find controlled evidence testing them. They are not wrong so much as unverified — most cost nothing to try, and interplanting flowers and herbs has its own well-documented benefit of pulling pollinators and predatory insects into the garden.
Every row above links to the publication it came from. See how we grade evidence.
Other recorded effects
1Effects that aren't about a neighbouring plant — what strawberry does for (or to) the garden around it, and the caveats attached to the popular versions of those claims.
| Effect | The claim | Evidence | What the evidence actually shows |
|---|---|---|---|
| Previous strawberry planting | Replanting strawberries into old strawberry ground causes decline. | Research-backed | This is the one strawberry rotation rule extension actually publishes: ground cropped to strawberries for four or more years builds up root-rotting organisms, so beds should be moved every 3-4 years and new patches sited where strawberries have not grown for 2-4 years. |
Growing strawberry: the numbers
| Sun | Full sun (6+ hours) |
|---|---|
| Water | Moderate |
| Spacing | 18 in apart · 42 in between rows · 4 per square foot |
| Mature size | about 10 in tall |
| Soil pH | 5.5–6.5 |
| Days to maturity | 28–30 days |
| Frost tolerance | Hardy — takes hard frost |
| Containers | Yes — 2 gallon minimum |
| Typical yield | 0.5 lb (about 1 quart) per season |
| Hardiness zones | 3–9 (perennial) |
| Common pests | tarnished plant bug, strawberry bud weevil, slugs, spotted wing drosophila, sap beetles, aphids |
| Common diseases | gray mold (Botrytis), leaf spot, leaf scorch, anthracnose fruit rot, black root rot, Verticillium wilt |
When to plant strawberry
Zone 6b shownTransplant outdoors: Mar 27 – Apr 9 — 2 weeks before last frost
Expected harvest: Apr 24 – Apr 26 — 28–30 days from planting
Those dates are for zone 6b. Get your own dates by ZIP code →
Varieties worth knowing
bare root plants- Honeoye — June-bearing, early-midseason, reliable heavy cropper, hardy to zones 3-4
- Earliglow — June-bearing, early, the flavor benchmark, good disease resistance
- Albion — day-neutral, firm long-season fruit, the everbearer that handles heat best
- Seascape — day-neutral, suits containers and long harvest windows, hardy to zones 3-4
Variety names link to bare root plants on Amazon. As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. These are the varieties named in the extension sources for this crop, not a paid placement — where a source recommended a variety for a specific reason, that reason is the note beside it.
Put it in a bed
The garden planner checks every square against this ledger as you place crops — if you drop strawberry next to something recorded as a bad neighbour, the square turns red and tells you why.
Records for the plants named above:
Same rotation group (other) — don't follow one with another:
Strawberry companion planting questions
What should not be planted next to strawberry?
How far apart should strawberry be planted?
Does companion planting with strawberry actually work?
When should I plant strawberry?
Sources for this record
- Growing strawberries in the home garden, University of Minnesota Extension
- Growing Strawberries, University of Illinois Extension
- Growing Strawberries, Penn State Extension
- Extension Gardener Handbook, Chapter 14 Small Fruits, NC State Extension
- Fragaria x ananassa, NC State Extension Plant Toolbox
Record compiled 2026-07. Spot an error or a study we missed? Tell us and we'll correct the entry.