fish, not all marigolds are created equal. Some get nematodes just as bad, and maybe more so. They can also attract insects and mites.

I believe when they talk about a "cover crop", they are not talking about growing them along side your tomatoes.

You would grow a cover crop when you are not growing tomatoes, then incorporate that crop into the soil before you plant out your tomatoes.

Corrie

Here is a link that might be useful: Marigolds as cover crops

After 5 yrs and (the nematodes that ate chicago), it seems that we have finally found the cure. We have tried everything and enriching the soil definitly gets rid of them. Made friends with a horse farm and get a large quantity often to put in the compost (hot) or right on the garden (cold). This growing season will be the real test. The last tomato plants that I pulled up (froze) had barely any, and we were unindated......... now the whiteflies, that's another story.....

My mother grew great tomato plants and always planted marigolds with them - as a companion plant, not as a ground cover. It worked for her.

Kate

Way back when me and my son did the required Science Fair project on root knot nematodes. He received an A grade plus an honorable mention. 20 years ago. We had a control group of do nothing,fumigate with Vapam,co-plant with Marigold and
add massive amounts of compost/organic material. The Marigolds were not the little border plants but the big tall Inca giants. The compost had alot of Sargasso Sea weed and the Vapam is of course Vamapam a fumigant.
This Science experiment worked out well for a whole generation of my offspring. Vapam worked best of course but the co-planting of Inca Tall marigold almost rivaled that of the heaviy composted area. The do nothing plot gave us root knots that Pres. Jimmy Carter would be proud to call a
peanut crop. The co-planted Inca Tall marigold plot almost equaled that of the heavly composted area. The Vapam area of course ruled the years of experiments. During every year of the experiments we used the "Delicious" variety tomato. We got some real whoppers over the years.
That is my story and I am sticking to it.

fishhead
thanks for the story and the experiment information.

I agree with corrie that not all marigolds are created equal lol. I'm going to search for some inca mg's because I've got RKN the size of sweet potatoes (will post when I get off my lazy butt and upload to photobucket).

I tried planting the smaller mg's and they did not flourish at all but I didn't know why. All my winter tomaotes are now in pots and pickle buckets. The pbuckets are delightfully easy to move around too.

Denise