gunsmokex
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Location: South Dakota zone 4b

Fennel does it really kill everything?

I had a question on fennel. This is my first year gardening and I guess I didn't quite realize that it kills everything its near :(

I planted it near my asparagus and so far the asparagus looks just fine, there are even new shoots coming up from the asparagus but I only planted the fennel there about 5 days ago.

Does anyone have any experience with fennel?

Thanks,
Justin

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rainbowgardener
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I am in California visiting my son. He has a tiny city lot with a couple of small raised beds. One has a big fennel plant surrounded by kale chard & other stuff. Everything is growing like crazy all crowded together. The kale is so close to the fennel their leaves are touching.

valley
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Fennel is a good neighbour, it also can be used to flavour Oghi, if you have a still.

Richard

imafan26
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Fennel does not kill everything near it. It actually benefits all plants in the garden by attracting all sorts of beneficial insects like lady bugs, hover flies, parasitic wasps, tachinid flies, lacewings, minute pirate and big eye bugs. It even repels fleas.

However, fennel is not a good neighbor to all plants. Fennel does not like to be near any of its parsley relatives, coriander or dill. Fennel gets along with some plants and do not seem to bother them. Horseradish, ginger, gynuura (cholesterol spinach), aren't phased, but then those plants are pretty much bullet proof.

Fennel and dill seem to stunt plants around them when the flower heads come out. The plants that are affected seemed to be the ones that attracted the same type of aphid that fennel attracts. So tomatoes, peppers, and perilla should be planted at least 10 feet away. Aphids don't bother fennel and are needed to feed the ladybug larvae, otherwise the ladybugs would not hang around. The flowering umbrels provide nectar for the other beneficial insects.

I haven't had a green aphid problem in the garden in the last three years since I planted fennel. I prefer fennel to dill since dill is much more short lived and will not grow except in summer and the fennel flowers last longer. Fennel does not affect black aphids much. For them, I plant nasturtiums. Black aphids go after beans and onions.

gunsmokex
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Posts: 62
Joined: Fri Jul 12, 2013 4:13 am
Location: South Dakota zone 4b

That's great to hear :) I was a little worried and only after I had planted everything did I even think to look for some kind of chart of what to plant near what. My tomatoes and peppers are on the opposite end 30 ft away so the bugs will be happy. The asparagus bush and the fennel bush are touching so I think I'll find out immediately if there is going to be a problem, so far its looking good.

I really need to get a dig cam so I can take some pics of this stuff.

I'm not quite sure what Oghi is but it sounds interesting and I really wish I had a still, I could use some homebrew :) Hmm Oghi sounds yummy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oghi_(beverage)



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