24 Best Eggplant Companion Plants

By growing eggplant alongside other plants, you can help boost the growth of your eggplants or the other crops, repel insects, or heighten flavor. These shrubby vegetables are part of the nightshade family, and they grow nicely with a wide range of companion plants in the garden, including flowers, other vegetables, and herbs. Eggplants can even improve the fruit quality of those around them.

Here are the best eggplant companion plants for a healthy harvest, as well as several plants to avoid.

Benefits of Companion Planting

With companion planting, two plants (or more!) lean on each other for a range of benefits. In some cases, the scent of one plant repels pests that are known to flock to the other plant. In other cases, one plant attracts and traps the insects that could otherwise attack the other.

Companion plants also attract beneficial pollinators and improve soil nutrients through the chemicals they put back into the ground. Together, these plants enrich and improve fruit quality and taste. In some cases, one plant can even suppress weeds that could take over the garden.

Best Eggplant Companion Plants

• Marigolds: Marigolds do a great job of repelling pests from a garden, so planting them near your eggplant can keep them free of insects, like nematodes, as well as rodents.
  
• Nasturtiums: Nasturtiums attract valuable pollinators and predatory insects, repel pests, and guard against certain pathogens.
  
• Calendula: This beautiful flower is the perfect natural pest deterrent because it attracts predators and repels pests.
• Borage: Borage not only keeps pests and worms away from your eggplant, it also attract pollinators to your garden.
• Beets: These cool-weather root veggies do an amazing job preparing the soil for the next nears harvest by aerating the soil.
  
• Spinach: Spinach can grow in close quarters and is perfect for a plant that uses the shade cast by eggplant in the warm summer months.
  
• Onions: Onions are excellent companion plants for repelling common eggplant pests like aphids and spider mites.
  
• Brassicas: The mustard and cabbage family, which includes kale, mustard greens, broccoli and cauliflower, put nutrients into the soil that eggplants need and vice versa.
  
• Tomatoes: Tomatoes, in the same family as eggplant, the nightshades, so they enjoy similar conditions and will enhance flavor.
  
• Peppers: Peppers are another nightshade that shares growing conditions with eggplant. They create diversity in the garden while helping enhance flavor and maximize growth.
  
• Beans: Eggplant is a heavy feeder and quickly consumes nutrients, especially nitrogen, from your soil. Legumes or bean plants are nitrogen fixers and will replenish the nitrogen that eggplant has consumed.
  
• Potatoes: Another nightshade, this root vegetable is a cold-weather crop that is harvested in different seasons than your eggplant, allowing you to maximize crop efficiency.
  
• Radishes: This fast-growing vegetable creates beneficial soil conditions by aerating the soil; they will be ready much earlier than the eggplant and grow between the plants.
  
• Lettuce: Lettuce and all greens act as a great weed barrier creating a ground cover when planted between your eggplants. The shade created by the eggplant will enhance the greens that would normally wilt in the summer sun.
  
• Peas: Peas are another perfect companion plant for eggplant because of their nitrogen-fixing ability.
  
• Carrots: To maximize crop yield, plant shade-tolerant carrot, which grows fine in tight quarters, in between your eggplant.
  
• Chives: This herb will attract pollinators to your eggplant, repel pests, and enhance eggplant's flavor.
  
• Dill: Besides being incredibly aromatic, dill does an amazing job drawing in pollinators. Plant this flavorful culinary herb next to your eggplant for an increased yield and a big boost in growth.
  
• Oregano: Planting oregano with your eggplant will attract pollinators, increasing crop yield.
• Kohlrabi: Plant kohlrabi next to eggplant, and you'll repel flea beetles, cabbage worms, and aphids.
• Turnips: The deep roots of turnips will help aerate the soil for eggplant.
• Mint: The strong fragrance of mint will keep pests away from your garden, including aphids, cabbage moths, aphids, and even rodents.
• Garlic: While people may love the flavor of garlic, pests do not. Garlic will repel beetles, caterpillars, cutworms, aphids, and other insects.
• Swiss chard: Swiss chard and eggplant utilize different nutrients from the soil, which makes them excellent companion plants.
  

What Not to Plant With Eggplant

Not all plants play nicely with eggplant. Here are several that you should avoid planting near your eggplant crop.

• Melons: Both melons and eggplants are heavy feeders, so these two will fight for nutrients within the soil and reduce each other's growth.
• Corn: Corn and eggplant will compete for the same nutrients, leading to a reduced harvest for both.
• Pumpkin: Similar to melons, pumpkins are also greedy with nutrients. When planted near eggplants, they'll fight for nutrients and impact the growth of the other.
• Zucchini: Zucchini is another heavy feeder that will compete with eggplant for nutrients within the soil.
• Geranium: Geraniums are known to have a pathogen that can impact an eggplant's growth and lead to a poor harvest.
• Cucumber: Cucumbers will also compete for food with eggplants and should be grown far apart.
• Fennel: Fennel can stunt the growth of eggplant and other members of the nightshade family.