Billy wrote:
In article ,
"David Hare-Scott" wrote:

andy candy wrote:
This year I decided to try growing some fennel in my garden.
Unbeknownst to me, however, fennel apparently inhibits the growth of
tomatoes -- at least this is what I have been told. Can anyone
testify personally to this? Should I also uproot the fennel once
it's big enough? I have it growing on both ends of my garden, right
next to my Brandywine and Caspian Pink plants. Alternately, is
there a "safe" distance away from my tomatoes where I can
transplant the fennel? I'm also curious if anyone knows how the
inhibitive fennel effect works -- via the roots, flowers, fully
grown plants, whatever.

Much obliged to all for any shared advice.

Drew (rhymes with Grew)

I have grown fennel in many parts of my garden for years, it now
self-seeds all over and I pull out the ones I don't need. I have
not noticed it inhibiting anything.

David

Thanks for the reality check, David. Is this the type of fennel that
grows a bulb or the one that grows a large tap root?

The bulb sort 'Florence' fennel, I have no idea if that is important.
Apparently there is evidence of some allelopathy from some sort of fennel
but in the studies I saw it doesn't affect all plants and some proven
effects are not very strong.

David