While many flowers I grew in my northern garden can’t be grown here in Florida, the marigold certainly can. The scent of marigolds will repel mosquitoes, which are a bother all the time in my yard. I’m not sure if they work on no-see-ums, but maybe! As my garden space grows, so will my number of marigold plants. They are colorful and so easy to grow.
Marigolds and Nematodes
Marigolds may also help keep nematodes away (maybe not – read on). They do not hinder all types of nematodes, but do help with common root-knot nematodes. My Great Garden Companions book, by Sally Jean Cunningham (Amazon affiliate link), says to turn the entire marigold plant into the earth after the growing season is over.
To Till or Not To Till
My thoughts on cleaning out a garden is to cut off the plant and leave the roots for the earthworms. Disturbing the soil disrupts the ecology of the soil, or so I’ve read. BUT… if you have nematodes, doing this helps them survive! Maybe I just need to find out if I do have nematodes and go from there.
What is a nematode?
Once I began planting my garden I kept hearing about nematodes. I did not know what they were, only that they were damaging to crops. (Apparently there are also good nematodes.)
Nematode damage appears as yellowing and wilting of crops. The little buggers affect the roots in a way that removes the ability of the plant to take up nutrients and water from the soil. When nothing you do helps the plant, maybe it’s some kind of nematode (there are many types).
Don’t look for them with the naked eye because they are microscopic. (Think “monsters inside us”.) This page at the University of Florida gardening site has excellent nematode pictures to show the size of nematodes. It also explains them really well. So well, in fact, that you may be scared off gardening all together!
Reading all this info on nematodes is very disheartening. Florida can have all kinds of nematodes because nematodes love sandy soil.
The UF site says this: French Marigolds – particularly the yellow or gold “Petite French” Tagetes patula variety can help keep certain nematodes (the root-knot) away. (This info was found in Table 2 in the link above.)
And then… I read this, on the same UF site: Garden Myths: Volume 1 which talks about Marigolds and false beliefs that they can deter nematodes..!!
Holy cow. I guess marigolds can’t hurt, but we can’t see them as the one great answer to destroying nematodes either.
Marigolds and Beneficials
Not only do marigolds repel possible pests in the vegetable garden, and help deter nematodes (we hope), they constantly flower throughout summer – and more seasons here in Florida. That means butterflies and other bugs can enjoy the flowers as sources of food. They are not high on the list for nectar, but I’ve had bees and butterflies on my flowers.
I have marigolds growing in some raised beds and among the ground garden veggies. The tall yellow flowers wind their way up through eggplant and help shade the oregano.
The fluffy orange flowering marigold is so pretty, I will save its seeds and plant many more. Saving marigold seeds is easy. I simply scatter the seeds around the gardens and see what grows. Or, they can be scattered in an empty grow pot and then the seedlings can be transplanted. They do very well when transplanted too.
This frilly gold-orange marigold flower is interesting. I keep waiting for it to “open” but this is all it does. The older flower is now looking like it’s gone by. I hoped it would be more than this. It is different, and I’m not sure what type it is.
Marigolds Can Handle the Heat
Marigolds are wonderful choices for this humid and very hot location. I’ve never had them wilt or seem stressed by the baking sun. The big yellow flowers can get ants, but other than that, no pest problems.
Be Careful of the Rains
Once we began getting big afternoon storms (July), my marigolds fell over. Big sections of the plants just fell to the ground!
I’d already planned to put cages around the yellow marigolds because of their height, but it seems these orange ones need support as well.
The broken parts are going into the compost. Next year I will buy some short cages, sold near the tall tomato cages at Home Depot, and put them up for all the marigold plants.
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Thank you for sharing!
Hydrangeas Blue 