Chives: 26 good and bad companion plants, sowing

Other names

wild chives, garden chives

Botanical name

Allium schoenoprasum

Family / Genus

Amaryllidaceae / Allium

Plant category

Leek vegetables, Herbs

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Chives are one of the most popular herbs. They're perennial, so you don't need to replant them every year. A well-established clump is sometimes enough to supply a family of four.

Because chives are helpful to other plants and their pretty flowers attract bees and other insects, they're a popular choice for bed edging in monastery gardens.

Facts and figures

Light requirements

Sun / partial shade

Nutrient requirements

Medium feeder

Difficulty level

Easy

Row spacing

20 cm

Plant spacing

30 cm

Growth height

20 - 50 cm

Sowing depth

2 cm

Germination temperature (minimum)

5 °C

Germination temperature (optimal)

18 - 25 °C

Germination type

Light and dark

Pre-growing period

30 days

Planting & harvest times of Chives

Direct sowing

Pre-grow

Transplant

Harvest

from year 1

Direct sowing from Early March to Late July. Transplant to bed from Early April to Late July. Pre-grow about 30 days before transplanting, approximately between Early March and Late June. In the first year, harvest can begin and continues until Late November. From the second year on, harvest can begin as early as around Early May.

Sow and plant Chives

You can sow chives in pots or straight outdoors. In a 12 cm pot, spread around 20 to 30 seeds across the whole surface. Outdoors, scatter a few more over roughly the same area, since more seeds fail there. Chives are perennial, so you usually don't put them in the vegetable bed. Over the years they form dense clumps that you can divide now and then. In theory, one clump of chives is enough for a family of four.

Location and soil

Chives like it sunny, nutrient-rich and not too dry.

Good and bad companions of Chives

Chives go well with carrots, tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce, beetroot and strawberries. Planted along the edge of your carrot rows, they are said to keep the carrot fly away, though a net gives you more reliable protection. Chives grow poorly next to beans, and you are better off keeping them away from other alliums, leeks above all, because they share pests and rust.

Good neighbours

Lollo biando / Lollo rosso

Bad neighbours

Predecessors and successors of Chives

Move your chives to a new bed every two to three years, one where no alliums have grown for four years. A bed that previously held tomatoes, May turnips or a green manure such as phacelia, which dies back over winter, works well. The soil is then loose and almost free of weeds, and chives need that because they grow slowly when young. Keep a two-year gap from peas and beans.

Good predecessors

Bad predecessors

Bad successors

Crop rotation

What stood on that bed three years ago is hard to recall come spring. grove remembers. Once you have planned with it for a few seasons it knows your beds and warns you as you plant when a growing break is still running. The other way round, grove points you to the spots where Chives fits particularly well right now.

As green manure before Chives, grove suggests Phacelia good for example, provided the crop before it fits as well. As the crop before it, grove suggests Tomato good, Potato good or Turnip good.

Onion poor, Pea poor, Bush bean poor and 9 more plants may only return to the same spot after 4 years. grove still remembers that three years from now.

Chives stays in the same spot for several years. grove keeps that spot free over the years and plans around it.

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Varieties

There are different varieties, some with fine and others with coarser stems. Flower colour also varies, from white through red to the well-known violet.

Care and fertilising

Unlike most other herbs, chives need an occasional feed and a helping of mature compost in spring before new growth starts. Since they constantly have to produce new leaves when you harvest them regularly, that's no surprise.
They don't cope well with drought either. The stems turn tough, or the plant dies off altogether.

Diseases and pests

Susceptible to

Allium leaf miner(high susceptibility)

Leek moth

Leek rust(high susceptibility)

Onion basal rot(low susceptibility)

Onion downy mildew

Onion fly

Onion thrips

Stem nematode

White rot

White tip

Harvest and processing

You can happily eat the beautiful flowers too. They have a delicate flavour and look lovely in a salad.

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