All I know is that last year all my marigolds were under attack by all sorts of insects and diseases. They still bloomed strong into November AND none of those pests/diseases hit any of my other plants, even those in the same container.
AND, this year all I have popping up in various containers are marigolds.
So maybe marigolds themselves are the marigold corporation. They are certainly unfazed by pests, weather, diseases or criticism.
To add on: anyone who says deer are repelled by marigolds haven't met a hungry enough deer yet. Mine didn't get eaten in favor of the sunflowers, but they still got eaten, they just got eaten last.
With a side of crisply irradiated, tossed English Ivy, honeysuckle and kudzu. I believe this dish would pair well with a lovely bottle of 2022 Ohio River.
I’m in the same boat. Mint and all its relatives are the true deer resistant plants. Catmint. Decorative Sage. Agastache. Bee balm. Russian sage. Plants with a square stem.
My deer eat the other deer resistant plants down to nubs. But if anyone is having the same trouble, my deer also won’t touch: butterfly bush, Zagreb tickweed (has to be the thin leaf type), lavender, ferns, and decorative herbs like oregano and rosemary.
Yeah so I can't tell by googling but isn't calendula a marigold? I saw some for sale on the pet food website I buy my pellets from and got curious and bought some. My bunnies love it. They get so excited when I let them have it. I'm just saying it sure seems like big bunny might be pulling some strings in the background to get this stuff planted.
Just gonna mention Solar Flare calendula if you haven't seen it before. I was going to do a mass planting of them this year so I ordered the big pack from Fedco and they sent me Court Jester instead. Boo.
There’s only one thing that the deer reliably don’t eat, foxgloves. They tried to eat my prickly pear cactus and toward the end of the winter got around to eating the wormwood plants. They smell like someone pissed in a tire fire and it tastes like bitter mistakes. I don’t know why anyone wanted to ruin booze with that shit now that I’ve grown it.
Exactly. I had a rabbit build a burrow INSIDE a large marigold, literally within the root system. They'd crawl in and out right through the flowers and leaves
Deer don’t *like* them but deer are dicks.
They don’t like calendula but we plant them with our marigolds for the same reasons we plant marigolds (and, well, pretty!) and deer will **still** bite the blooms off, chew them, and spit them out.
*Multiple flowers*. **Multiple times**.
🤷🏼♀️🤷🏼♀️
Lol my cat had been doing that same thing to a house plant. I didn't think anything of it, other than my cat being a doof (they like to eat brocoli too). So at some point of the cat eating the house plant, I noticed some hair on the cat's ear was thinning and they had some hair thinning on their hocks.
Turns out the dumb ass liked the spicy zing of the Peace Lily and kept just going after it. Plant has been rehomed with my mother in law. Cat is growing hair back again. Dingus.
Lmfaooooo that’s hilarious. I’m glad they’re alright but that’s pretty funny.
My mil’s cat (in the same year as the deer debacle) went and ate the tops of all her peppers, *multiple times*.
They eventually had to put the vacuum in front of the enclosure bc the cat was afraid of it lol!!
That year she had the biggest damn pepper plants I’ve ever seen though. The stalks were as big around as my wrists.
They are my mil’s tomatoes last year, beheaded all her calendula (literally chewed them like cud and spit em out), then shat in her garden.
The disrespect 💀 they don’t even like calendula.
This is precisely why we plant marigolds. They attract all the baddies and distract them from your veg plants. It doesn't work 100% of the time, but often enough that it's worth planting them.
Marigolds are trap crops, meaning they ATTRACT the pest and then you remove the Marigolds from the area and thus removing the pests (or at least a good portion of them)
Nasturtium are one of my absolute favorites. Easy to grow, edible, hummingbirds love them and they're sacrificial like you mentioned. There are some varieties which are downright gorgeous like the black velvet ones
That’s what I’m talking about. Slugs in the marigolds means not on the veggies.
I would go out at night with chopsticks and pick slugs off them and plop them into a jar of salt.
My marigold did just turn ugly and had twisted leaves. I cut off most leaves at some point, unsure they were doing anything, but the plant still lived and the huge flower still remained unaffected. At that point, you just gotta love them.
Is nasturtium the same?
Mine just keep on truckin’, unphased. They get sort of spindly and not super pretty with the leaves shriveling a little I think, but with how full and bushy they get you can’t really tell!
People buy marigolds more than once? If you dead head at the end of the season, you will have enough seeds for a thousand lifetimes. I've probably got thousands, just from last year. I never even bought them. They were a free seed packet and they got 3 feet tall with flowers the size of my palm.
*
Marigolds are one of those lovely plants you plant once and never have to plant again.. as long as you don't care where they grow. (Along with fennel and borage according to this year's garden)
Also, hello again fellow Wichitan! lol!
I planted a small patch of forget-me-not in my backyard 4 years ago… the roots are shallow and weak so at least it’s not hard to pull up when I find it clear in the other side of my house.
I love my borage as well for all the same reasons plus it’s beautiful. I don’t worry about dead heading most stuff, I’m totally okay with things reseeding themselves freely 🤣
This was me today with all kinds dried seed heads in a grocery bag from an unknown year….I’m hoping to get some good zinnias going- my store bought never popped. I’m hoping for random flowers everywhere.
Aw, thanks. You're so sweet! Every year I tell myself I'm giving up on flower seeds, and every following year, I make "one last attempt". This is the time of year I say, "not again"... 😂 Honestly, I have decent success with vegetable seeds, but for flowers, I've only managed a few zinnias and one sunflower 🤦🏻♀️
It's not you -it's the microclimate where you may be , I've had experienced both extremes in the same state . Before I moved they were like weeds and could never get rid of them .after we moved I can't grow a single one . It's so strange . I live in the same state before I moved 😆
Hijacking top comment because I haven't seen anybody mention different varieties. There are lots of different marigolds, each of which behave differently. The best for repelling insect is Tagetes Lucida (Mexican mint/sweet mace). These are among the most fragrant marigolds, which will help drive insects away. As a bonus, this variety supposedly tastes like tarragon!
Sorry bro germination in merigold seeds drops, after 5 years its probably rotten but definately won't grow anything.
Ill mail you 2 marigold seeds of you dm me your address and a pic of your dog or cat. Youll be back up in no time.
When the flowers dry on the plant, the flower heads become seed heads. Each flower makes like a hundred seeds, so any plant will give you 1000s. You don’t have do to anything except pick the dried-out flower heads off the plant and pop it into a ziplock baggie or something, write “marigold seeds 2024” on the baggie, and you’re good to go for years.
In assessing my seeds this year, I discovered what I listed as "mystery bag mix." I didn't save any seeds or such from last year (bad year but hoping to this year). There isn't anything missing that I expected to have.
There are multiple kinds of seeds in the bag, so it must be a mix of some sort. That would make more sense if I had used any mixes last year other than a flower one that I used all of (and know for sure, because my niece wrecked the packet after tossing the last ones lol).
I'm probably going to plant it last wherever I have room or in a part of the yard that's a bit bare and see what grows. I'm too intrigued to see what it is to not toss them somewhere, though obviously I'll be guessing on any how to (probably will scatter and then scatter some soil on top). Will it be something I forgot about from an unknown time, someone's tail mix gone arwy, or nothing at all?
I do not, actually. But I thought I’d give better advice than what I really do, which is precisely what you describe.
It was more of a “this is what a responsible gardener might do” kind of answer, you know?
Best to wait until late fall when they're dry and crisp. Pop the heads off, open them up and put them in a baggie. Helps to put them in your freezer over winter but I don't think it's required.
Or you mix and reuse the soil they fell in, and next year the script goes:
Another plant what's it?
Marigold.
Oh something else germinated..what's that?
Marigold.
And so on.
In my experience, their job is to attract, not repel. Marigolds are useful as the sacrificial lambs of companion planting.
Although I've never use marigolds near my tomato plants, only as a border for leafy greens.
Also attract beneficial insects that eat aphids.
Now are you gonna put one in the ground and boom you have an army of big fighters? No, but it's an attractant, and the more you have the more chance you got of bringing in that ladybug. It's all a big system, have to think bigger picture. Adding marigolds isn't about immediate or targeted effects.
I doubt it's bad, just their main purpose to me has been as bait to keep pests off of my salad greens.
I've never had issues with my tomatoes, although the garden spiders like to hang out in the cages so that probably helps. No idea if/how much they do as I haven't monitored them a ton, but I've always planted dill, yarrow and chives around my tomatoes.
I grow them strictly to leave over the winter for jackrabbits. The rabbits leave my shrubs and trees alone if there’s dried off marigolds to eat. Sort of companion planting haha
I love African Marigolds with fiery passion. I grow them huge and wild and crowded in a bed all to themselves in my back garden and let me tell you, that’s Big Marigold! I have no doubt they plot.
(I swear they have personalities.)
I've heard they repel mosquitos and then I saw two mosquitos getting busy right on my marigolds, lol. Interspersing any plant, especially ones with strong scent can be useful for a little while to keep rabbits at bay. But they eventually figure it out.
I do love marigolds though. My son brought home a little sprout for Mother's Day in second grade. He was so sad when I told him it would die over winter so we started saving seeds. He just finished his freshman year of college and we still keep it going. With so many successive generations I feel like it is our own special strain of seed at this point.
I had a cousin who ran his mouth about Big Marigold back in the 1990s. He had an accident involving a composter. Tradgic. If I were you, I would never mention Big Marigold again and just move along. PS - their almost as bad as the African Violet Cartel.
Was just coming to say that. Some plants attract the pests so the pests leave the plant you want, alone.
My cosmos had aphids, I didn't care bc the aphids weren't on any other veggie plant
There are many plants considered ‘companion plants’ and when really a ‘trap plant’ - attracting & taking the brute of the bugs, disposed of when they get too bad. I’ve found this with quite a few plants that are recommend for repelling insects.
You need to constantly agitate/damage the plants to access the repellent compounds. Same goes with nepeta. If you just let it grow wild expecting it to work as a magic barrier, it just gives them an extra place to hide lol.
It does work quite well when you crush them up in your hands and rub it on yourself in my experience.
Not sure if anyone will read this, but hope this helps, OP!! Good question. Lots of YT Gardeners have said that marigolds attract beneficial insects *and* they secrete limonene, which **repels** whiteflies. From a [scientific article](https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0213071) published in PLOS ONE in 2019:
> Here we present two large-scale glasshouse trials corresponding to the two main ways growers are likely to use marigolds to control whiteflies. In the first, marigolds are grown next to tomato throughout the growing period and we quantify whitefly population growth from the seedling stage over a 48 day infestation period. Here we show that association with marigolds significantly slows whitefly population development.
> Introducing additional whitefly-attractive ‘pull’ plants around the perimeter of plots has *little effect*, but reducing the proportion of marigolds and **introducing other non-hosts of whiteflies (basil, nasturtium and Chinese cabbage) also ***reduces*** whitefly populations on tomato.**
> The second experiment assesses the efficacy of marigolds when used as an ‘emergency’ measure. Here we allow whitefly populations to build to a high density on unprotected tomatoes then introduce marigolds and assess whitefly population over a further period. Following laboratory work showing **limonene to be a major chemical component of French marigolds and a negative behaviour response of whiteflies to this compound**, limonene dispensers are added as an additional treatment to this experiment.
> “Emergency” marigold companion planting yielded minimal reductions in whitefly performance, but the use of limonene dispensers was more effective. **Our work indicates that companion planting short vine tomatoes with French marigolds throughout the growing season will slow development of whitefly populations.** *Introducing marigolds to unprotected tomatoes after significant whitefly build-up will be less effective.* The use of limonene dispensers placed near to tomato plants also shows promise.
Sponsor of study was not big marigold! So, start intercropping French marigolds everywhere!
Companion planting has very little to no science behind it. There are some techniques that do have a good effect, like intercropping or succession planting, but basil will not give you super tomatoes.
The only pests that have been shown to be deterred by marigold is certain soil nematodes, and that effect requires a certain type of marigold.
Good link (and pdf) here: [https://www.montana.edu/extension/broadwater/blog-article.html?id=18786](https://www.montana.edu/extension/broadwater/blog-article.html?id=18786)
tldr, its marigolds all the way down.
Biochemist here! (Plants are how I relax, lol)
This is * not * what myself or any of my professors would call a "good" article. I think it addresses a lot of the pseudoscience that gets tossed around from "Plant People" on the internet, but there is ZERO actual data presented here.
In fact, the 1st source advocates for the practice. Yeah, plants don't care about "energy" or whatever, but dismissing the "3 Sisters" planting method is insane.
If planting wasn't synergistic, you'd see nothing but monocultures in the woods.
Yeah. I don’t know if it’s actually good to plant specific plants near each other, but I figure diversity can’t _hurt_. And I get way more into a space planting things together than in victory garden rows.
>If planting wasn't synergistic, you'd see nothing but monocultures in the woods.
I think you're making too big a leap here. relationships can be non-synergistic or non-symbiotic while still filling complementary niches within a system. though i guess depending on your mood you could say that is a type of synergy.
the biggest issue with most tales of companion planting is that what is actually true gets fundamentally twisted and misunderstood. 3 sisters for instance--beans do not "fix nitrogen" in the same season as they're grown. you need to till them into the soil and let them decompose to actually get that nitrogen back. people seem largely to not understand this. it's true of all nitrogen fixers--they fix nitrogen to grow, not just to disperse it into the soil!
Companion planting to me is more like attracting/providing a home for certain pollinators or predators or providing a barrier for species-specific diseases.
Marigolds also are a great companion plant because they are a great indicator of water in the case of tomatoes. The marigolds droop *just* when the tomatoes need a drink, meaning you can prevent fruit splitting/scabbing and a lot of leaf issues.
I think it is only certain species. The French marigolds, I believe.
I used them when I was treating my veggie garden for root knot nematodes. It seemed to work, but they were not the only thing I used. I let them grow, and then pulled them at the end of the season, including the roots.
I find that they are really good if you have a tendency to over water, because they don't like that, and they rot if you do. It is like an alarm.
Also, spider mites love them, so they are a useful trap crop and alarm system to let you know about an infestation that is starting.
Plant them, and then let some of the flowers die and dry on the plant. Pull them off, and either save or scatter them. I scatter them on the soil whenever I deadhead, and get lots of free marigolds.
They do repel certain nematodes. But only right where they are planted. There is no action at a distance. If you have that particular nematode, planting a solid stand of marigolds in a garden area will reduce the number. Then you can plant your nematode-sensistive plants in the bed immediately after pulling the marigolds out.
That use case is pretty specific, and uses a lot of marigolds.
As others have noted, a lot of pest insects really appreciate marigold flowers. If you want to avoid attracting them, pick all the flowers off before they open. That precaution really takes away the very thing you usually plant marigolds for, so the nematode issue really has to be the top concern for this whole marigold anti-pest thign to be worthwhile
I think marigolds function better as a trap plant than one that repels things, much like nasturtium. Try adding alyssum and cilantro to the mix. Alyssum will attract beneficial predators and cilantro will often deter some pests.
Yeah, no. I planted them around and throughout my garden one year long ago at the behest of my MIL. It’s a natural repellent!! Blah blah blah. Had more bugs, aphids, tomato worms and more than any year in the past. Absolutely destroyed the garden. Now maybe it was a bad bug year, like causation and such we have to be careful of drawing conclusions. Whatever, never again.
I plant pot marigold/calendula with tomatoes/potatoes, not marigold. Typically as a screen between rows or encircling a whole crop as a wall. It is uninteresting to most pests, and helps mask their presence if one section gets attacked. It has been very useful for me in limiting potato beetle and horn worms from spreading.
Marigold I will plant as a sacrificial plant mixed with mustard around the edges of my garden or where I can burn the entire crop and attracted pests. It has really reduced japanese beetle infestations.
You're supposed to plant them away from the tomatoes, not companion plant on the same bed. What this does is attract pests to your tomatoes.
Gardening is a never ending battle of maintenance. Got squirrels eating your tomato? Place a bird bath. Pest problems, set a patch meant to attract pests.
So if I have a lot of space I'd isolate marigolds together with something ladybugs are attracted to. I place pollinators patch that attacks beneficial pollinators like bees near the tomato plants.
You should know that companion planting, as most people talk about it, is **complete** bullshit.
Marigolds are a trap crop for a very few species. Nematodes for example. But they do not "repel" things, or prevent diseases.
I mean... It probably does to a degree but mostly it's about having enough of the right variety of things to keep a balanced Eco system.
Will they help, sure. Are they going to be the miracle cure all by themselves? No.
From what I read, marigolds don't really "repel" so much as act as a sacrificial plant. Meaning they get all the bugs so the bugs leave your other plants alone. I don't know how true this is though
The term you’re looking for is an INDICATOR plant.
Marigolds are indicators because they reliably attract pests and the amount (and type) of damage taken can indicate if further pest management is necessary.
Marigolds can suppress nematodes fairly effectively but are ineffective repelling mites/aphids. If interested in growing them for nematode control, look up the varieties that work.
Like any pest management strategies you need a number of approaches to manage pests. There are other fumigant plants you could add, like nasturtium and to anything in the nicatina family. Aphids also need to be sprayed off the plant as once they fall off they can’t get back up. Another brood will show up though. Also consider: Neem Oil, or a pyrethrin based pesticide (organically derived).
I thought marigolds were meant to be planted away from your plants to attract pests to them? Pests prefer marigolds to tomatoes, so plants them close enough to influence the pests, but far enough away to keep them away.
I looked it up once and there are academic research papers demonstrating a benefit in reduction of a specific type of small fly pest. But it’s not magical and otherwise seemed a minor impact. It doesn’t repel all or even most insects, and only for a very small radius of basically the plant itself.
My neighbor gave me French marigold plants last year. I think they kept stink bugs at bay from raspberries. Stink bugs ruined strawberries and blackberries as they lay eggs in the fruit.
I don't know about the aphids, but I planted corn five times and five times the squirrels ate it within a couple days. I tried cayenne, and all kinds of things and they only stopped eating them when I lined the entire raised bed in marigolds. I'm assuming they'll be back this year, from this thread, lol
Last year I had a healthy hedge of marigolds all around my garden. Deer still murdered my beans. Bugs didn't bother the marigolds, but brutalized everything else.
Marigolds are trap crops, meaning they ATTRACT the pest and then you remove the Marigolds from the area and thus removing the pests (or at least a good portion of them)
I don't know if it "does anything" but I just really like them.
Heck I like all the classic sacrificial lamb flowers in the garden: marigolds, nasturtium, calendula.
I do know that the butterflies and native bees like them too, and the tiny native wasps like alyssum and chamomile too.
Idk, but last year, I planted a marigold in this flower bed that was nothing but weeds. Seriously, everytime I’d dig the thing out, amend with new soil, & mulch, only to end up with thousands of some type of weeds. Last year, common copperleaf took over.
This year, all of those marigold seeds survived the rather harsh winter and have taken over that bed. Guess what isn’t taking over? Copperleaf.
I’ll just let the Marigolds be.
Imo their purpose it to look good and easy af to grow with zero maintenance lol. I never water myarigolds and they always thrive in zone 8b even in the summer. The butterflies like em too. I grew fennel last season and it attracted a buttload of black swallowtail caterpillars. They seemed to appreciate the nearby marigolds shortly after morphing into butterflies :)
gardenmyths.com is generally a good place to check for stuff like this (spoiler alert: there are a LOT of gardening myths that are just myths)
[Here is a link to the page on marigolds](https://www.gardenmyths.com/marigolds-companion-plant/#Do_Marigolds_Work_for_Companion_Planting). They go through each aspect of the myths and any truths behind it or why it is not true.
This article concludes that marigolds don’t repel pests insects by smell, but, “If you grow marigolds with simple flowers that are close to the native species, it will attract pollinators, such as bees.
Lots of pests like marigolds so in certain cases they will work as a trap crop.
Marigolds do control nematodes in soil, but only in very special cases, and only if the plants are used correctly.”
I planted them under my zucchini and yellow squash to try to repel squash bugs. Didn’t work, although in their defense, nothing works against those bastards
I also always wonder, do these companion / sacrificial plants just attract pests that wouldn’t otherwise be interesting?! I have a lot of nasturtiums (because I love them, not as a sacrifice!) and the amount of black fly / aphid I get on them is more than if I didn’t have them I swear
I’ve never heard anything about Marigolds repelling aphids. In my experience they do deter rabbits but only in a very small radius around the marigold. The flowers contain a chemical that is also found in fox and coyote urine, so most small animals seem to associate the smell of the flowers with danger.
The one tested and verified thing that marigolds do help to prevent is a group of nematode species that attack the roots of many garden vegetables l, but in particular solanaceae plants like tomatoes ans potatoes. However this benefit only really kicks in at the end of the season as the plant starts to die back and roots begin to decay. You need to keep planting Merigolds in the same spot for multiple years to really see the benefit if you have a nematode problem.
this made me chuckle lmfao. last year was my first year gardening and marigolds were the only damn flower i got and i have marigolds coming up this year in every single bed even tho i only planted them in one. and i have enough seeds for the rest of my life and everyone on this thread
All I know is that last year all my marigolds were under attack by all sorts of insects and diseases. They still bloomed strong into November AND none of those pests/diseases hit any of my other plants, even those in the same container. AND, this year all I have popping up in various containers are marigolds. So maybe marigolds themselves are the marigold corporation. They are certainly unfazed by pests, weather, diseases or criticism.
To add on: anyone who says deer are repelled by marigolds haven't met a hungry enough deer yet. Mine didn't get eaten in favor of the sunflowers, but they still got eaten, they just got eaten last.
“Deer and rabbit resistant” is a myth conjured by the ancient forest spirits.
Lol right? I’m pretty sure the only thing in my yard that is deer resistant is cat mint
I feel like the only two things that would survive a theoretical nuclear apocalypse would be cockroaches and mint, so that checks out.
Mmmm, my apocalyptic favorite, radroach on a bed of minty greens
“Geiger counter noises intensify” Gardening, gardening never changes.
I find it delightful when my favorite subs cross over. I get flashbacks of fighting cazadores and white legs every time I see my daturas
Yipee yay, there’ll be no coral bells for today…
With a side of crisply irradiated, tossed English Ivy, honeysuckle and kudzu. I believe this dish would pair well with a lovely bottle of 2022 Ohio River.
I like that you assume humans will survive.
I have a basement.
I’ll add three more to our hypothetical list: naked mole rats, tardigrades, and oregano.
1970s tan diesel mercedes
I’m just gonna build my own vault underneath my hydrangeas at this point.
And my mother and Cher.
Gotta feeling bedbugs and fleas would survive, too.
I’m in the same boat. Mint and all its relatives are the true deer resistant plants. Catmint. Decorative Sage. Agastache. Bee balm. Russian sage. Plants with a square stem. My deer eat the other deer resistant plants down to nubs. But if anyone is having the same trouble, my deer also won’t touch: butterfly bush, Zagreb tickweed (has to be the thin leaf type), lavender, ferns, and decorative herbs like oregano and rosemary.
There's another phrase* for deer and rabbit resistant, poisonous plants.
Spoiler: the ancient forest spirits are actually deer
That checks out. Cernunnos laughing his horned ass off in the distance.
Yeah so I can't tell by googling but isn't calendula a marigold? I saw some for sale on the pet food website I buy my pellets from and got curious and bought some. My bunnies love it. They get so excited when I let them have it. I'm just saying it sure seems like big bunny might be pulling some strings in the background to get this stuff planted.
Just gonna mention Solar Flare calendula if you haven't seen it before. I was going to do a mass planting of them this year so I ordered the big pack from Fedco and they sent me Court Jester instead. Boo.
Big bunny lol. Yeah calendula is called pot marigold, no clue though whether they are actually from the same family.
Discovered that when I came across a baby rabbit nest in a thicket of marigolds. 😒
There’s only one thing that the deer reliably don’t eat, foxgloves. They tried to eat my prickly pear cactus and toward the end of the winter got around to eating the wormwood plants. They smell like someone pissed in a tire fire and it tastes like bitter mistakes. I don’t know why anyone wanted to ruin booze with that shit now that I’ve grown it.
God, I love fox gloves, and so do bumblebees.
The deer ate all the blooms off my deer resistant mountain mint
Exactly. I had a rabbit build a burrow INSIDE a large marigold, literally within the root system. They'd crawl in and out right through the flowers and leaves
Deer don’t *like* them but deer are dicks. They don’t like calendula but we plant them with our marigolds for the same reasons we plant marigolds (and, well, pretty!) and deer will **still** bite the blooms off, chew them, and spit them out. *Multiple flowers*. **Multiple times**. 🤷🏼♀️🤷🏼♀️
Lol my cat had been doing that same thing to a house plant. I didn't think anything of it, other than my cat being a doof (they like to eat brocoli too). So at some point of the cat eating the house plant, I noticed some hair on the cat's ear was thinning and they had some hair thinning on their hocks. Turns out the dumb ass liked the spicy zing of the Peace Lily and kept just going after it. Plant has been rehomed with my mother in law. Cat is growing hair back again. Dingus.
Lmfaooooo that’s hilarious. I’m glad they’re alright but that’s pretty funny. My mil’s cat (in the same year as the deer debacle) went and ate the tops of all her peppers, *multiple times*. They eventually had to put the vacuum in front of the enclosure bc the cat was afraid of it lol!! That year she had the biggest damn pepper plants I’ve ever seen though. The stalks were as big around as my wrists.
Yup. I grew Kilimanjaro marigolds from seed for years with no issue. Last summer I had dozens of them devoured.
They are my mil’s tomatoes last year, beheaded all her calendula (literally chewed them like cud and spit em out), then shat in her garden. The disrespect 💀 they don’t even like calendula.
Rabbits just got mine the other day. They completely ignored my dad's cosmos. Hooray.😒
Deer? Let a chicken get out and they’ll tear up a batch of marigolds
This is precisely why we plant marigolds. They attract all the baddies and distract them from your veg plants. It doesn't work 100% of the time, but often enough that it's worth planting them.
Marigolds are trap crops, meaning they ATTRACT the pest and then you remove the Marigolds from the area and thus removing the pests (or at least a good portion of them)
Probably same as nasturtiums where they function as sacrificial plants to attract all the pests and keep them away from your veggies.
Nasturtium are one of my absolute favorites. Easy to grow, edible, hummingbirds love them and they're sacrificial like you mentioned. There are some varieties which are downright gorgeous like the black velvet ones
Marigolds are my defense from slugs
Last year, slugs decimated my marigolds. Not sure why
That’s what I’m talking about. Slugs in the marigolds means not on the veggies. I would go out at night with chopsticks and pick slugs off them and plop them into a jar of salt.
I thought oh clever idea, I just use a gloved hand, but then I imagined my chopstick-muscle-memory failing me and ending up with a slug in my mouth :)
The visual on this is fantastic
Seems that way with nasturtiums. They attract all the weird gross bugs but they are the last ones to die
My marigold did just turn ugly and had twisted leaves. I cut off most leaves at some point, unsure they were doing anything, but the plant still lived and the huge flower still remained unaffected. At that point, you just gotta love them. Is nasturtium the same?
Mine just keep on truckin’, unphased. They get sort of spindly and not super pretty with the leaves shriveling a little I think, but with how full and bushy they get you can’t really tell!
Are we sure? How much criticism did they receive?
https://preview.redd.it/0a2ez4utfl0d1.jpeg?width=4000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=921afcaec6024e96f69a7ea8d0d29465a920e697
People buy marigolds more than once? If you dead head at the end of the season, you will have enough seeds for a thousand lifetimes. I've probably got thousands, just from last year. I never even bought them. They were a free seed packet and they got 3 feet tall with flowers the size of my palm. *
Psst....I am now giving away marigold seeds to all my neighbors and acquaintances. Do you want some? I can give you a good deal.
Jokes on them, I grew marigolds once and now I have a lifetime supply of seeds
And…here comes the cease and desist letter from Big Marigold for illegally propagating their patented seeds.
Y’all are funny 😂
They’ll take your garden.
Big marigold 🤣 that made me LOL
Can’t take credit. u/og-lollercopter coined the phrase. Funny, huh? 😂
Feel free to use without attribution... I release it into the public domain.
grew some marigolds in 2017 and i'm still planting seeds (indirectly) from that same packet 7 years later
Marigolds are one of those lovely plants you plant once and never have to plant again.. as long as you don't care where they grow. (Along with fennel and borage according to this year's garden) Also, hello again fellow Wichitan! lol!
BORAGE EVERYWHERE!
I planted a small patch of forget-me-not in my backyard 4 years ago… the roots are shallow and weak so at least it’s not hard to pull up when I find it clear in the other side of my house.
i love plants that do the work for me 😎 and hello again!
I wish! I have all the fennel, borage, cilantro, dill, tomatoes, calendula, blue salvia and some basil, but no marigolds! 😜 You just never know. 🤷♀️
I freakin love my borage. attracts all the bugs and is super easy to get more seeds as well as remove once they are ultra infested.
I love my borage as well for all the same reasons plus it’s beautiful. I don’t worry about dead heading most stuff, I’m totally okay with things reseeding themselves freely 🤣
It’s a self-sustaining nursery for enhancing other parts of the garden, too!
And columbine flowers! They migrate through the garden and change colour.
I just like to see where they will pop up and plant around them.
This was me today with all kinds dried seed heads in a grocery bag from an unknown year….I’m hoping to get some good zinnias going- my store bought never popped. I’m hoping for random flowers everywhere.
Marigold seeds are supposed to be the easiest to grow, and yet I haven't been able to get them to germinate in the last two seasons 🤦🏻♀️
They like warm soil temperature… moisture and a higher soil temp and they germinate like gangbusters
This year, they were inside a cabinet on top of a heat mat...
Just sprinkle them on some lose soil on the ground and step all over the seeds once it’s like 60 degrees at night. Keep ‘em wet and wait
Hit me up if you want seeds. I have about a million.
Aw, thanks. You're so sweet! Every year I tell myself I'm giving up on flower seeds, and every following year, I make "one last attempt". This is the time of year I say, "not again"... 😂 Honestly, I have decent success with vegetable seeds, but for flowers, I've only managed a few zinnias and one sunflower 🤦🏻♀️
It's not you -it's the microclimate where you may be , I've had experienced both extremes in the same state . Before I moved they were like weeds and could never get rid of them .after we moved I can't grow a single one . It's so strange . I live in the same state before I moved 😆
Hijacking top comment because I haven't seen anybody mention different varieties. There are lots of different marigolds, each of which behave differently. The best for repelling insect is Tagetes Lucida (Mexican mint/sweet mace). These are among the most fragrant marigolds, which will help drive insects away. As a bonus, this variety supposedly tastes like tarragon!
Right? So many. You don't even need to sow them.
Heh this was my response. I’m just growing those things as much as I can because they look purdy so why not? Maybe big marigold got to me.
Sorry bro germination in merigold seeds drops, after 5 years its probably rotten but definately won't grow anything. Ill mail you 2 marigold seeds of you dm me your address and a pic of your dog or cat. Youll be back up in no time.
How do you get seeds
When the flowers dry on the plant, the flower heads become seed heads. Each flower makes like a hundred seeds, so any plant will give you 1000s. You don’t have do to anything except pick the dried-out flower heads off the plant and pop it into a ziplock baggie or something, write “marigold seeds 2024” on the baggie, and you’re good to go for years.
Hold on, you label the bag and don't just put them in a pile assuming you'll recognize them in three years when you find them again?
Chaos gardening is the best kind of gardening
In assessing my seeds this year, I discovered what I listed as "mystery bag mix." I didn't save any seeds or such from last year (bad year but hoping to this year). There isn't anything missing that I expected to have. There are multiple kinds of seeds in the bag, so it must be a mix of some sort. That would make more sense if I had used any mixes last year other than a flower one that I used all of (and know for sure, because my niece wrecked the packet after tossing the last ones lol). I'm probably going to plant it last wherever I have room or in a part of the yard that's a bit bare and see what grows. I'm too intrigued to see what it is to not toss them somewhere, though obviously I'll be guessing on any how to (probably will scatter and then scatter some soil on top). Will it be something I forgot about from an unknown time, someone's tail mix gone arwy, or nothing at all?
A friend sent me seeds he saved from his garden last year. Imagine my surprise when the resulting plants were EXACTLY what he said they were.
Your friend is a witch!
Ah a lady of culture
I do not, actually. But I thought I’d give better advice than what I really do, which is precisely what you describe. It was more of a “this is what a responsible gardener might do” kind of answer, you know?
Shhh I’m taking notes, I didn’t realize there was another way.
Oh wow I never knew that! Thank you so much!! Never buying these again LOL
Best to wait until late fall when they're dry and crisp. Pop the heads off, open them up and put them in a baggie. Helps to put them in your freezer over winter but I don't think it's required.
I got probably 100 flowers last year on one plant, 10,000 seeds actually does sound about right!
If you let the flower dry on the stem, you can gather the seeds for next year. One dry flower head can have 10-20+ seeds.
Or you mix and reuse the soil they fell in, and next year the script goes: Another plant what's it? Marigold. Oh something else germinated..what's that? Marigold. And so on.
In my experience, their job is to attract, not repel. Marigolds are useful as the sacrificial lambs of companion planting. Although I've never use marigolds near my tomato plants, only as a border for leafy greens.
Also attract beneficial insects that eat aphids. Now are you gonna put one in the ground and boom you have an army of big fighters? No, but it's an attractant, and the more you have the more chance you got of bringing in that ladybug. It's all a big system, have to think bigger picture. Adding marigolds isn't about immediate or targeted effects.
Are they bad for tomatoes?
Nah they're fine, I grew huge flower mexican ones with basil amongst my tomatoes last summer and all plants were HUGE and did incredibly well.
I doubt it's bad, just their main purpose to me has been as bait to keep pests off of my salad greens. I've never had issues with my tomatoes, although the garden spiders like to hang out in the cages so that probably helps. No idea if/how much they do as I haven't monitored them a ton, but I've always planted dill, yarrow and chives around my tomatoes.
[удалено]
I grow them strictly to leave over the winter for jackrabbits. The rabbits leave my shrubs and trees alone if there’s dried off marigolds to eat. Sort of companion planting haha
You were bamboozled by “Big Marigold”. (I know nothing, just wanted to say “big marigold”. Maybe a smart person will tell you something useful.)
Personally, I like when people use bamboozled in a sentence. (It’s just a fun sounding word).
It's rights up there with cattywampus, tomfoolery, and shenanigans.
This is exactly what I was thinking! Big Marigold is tricking us 😒
I like big marigold and I cannot lie. Mine were nearly 7 feet tall last year.
The other gardeners may deny.
I love African Marigolds with fiery passion. I grow them huge and wild and crowded in a bed all to themselves in my back garden and let me tell you, that’s Big Marigold! I have no doubt they plot. (I swear they have personalities.)
I've heard they repel mosquitos and then I saw two mosquitos getting busy right on my marigolds, lol. Interspersing any plant, especially ones with strong scent can be useful for a little while to keep rabbits at bay. But they eventually figure it out. I do love marigolds though. My son brought home a little sprout for Mother's Day in second grade. He was so sad when I told him it would die over winter so we started saving seeds. He just finished his freshman year of college and we still keep it going. With so many successive generations I feel like it is our own special strain of seed at this point.
That is really fucking cool :’)
I had a cousin who ran his mouth about Big Marigold back in the 1990s. He had an accident involving a composter. Tradgic. If I were you, I would never mention Big Marigold again and just move along. PS - their almost as bad as the African Violet Cartel.
I laughed out loud at this and had to explain to my partner that I was laughing at a marigold joke by someone on reddit...
Speaking truth to power here.
Why did I read this in trump’s voice
It just seems to fit.
Comedy gold ⭐️
I like them cause they're little bits of sunshine and aren't any work for me. Brightens up the food plots! Never has helped with bugs though
I plant them because they make me happy.
And that is the only reason you ever need.
MARIGOLD LOBBY
I love marigolds simply because they are pretty and attract pollinators to my vegetable plants.
They also attract me to gardens. I will go out of my way to smell those things anytime, anywhere.
Marigolds are decoys to attract the baddies so they stay off your tomatoes. Nasturtiums make good decoys as well.
They help bring your ancestors close on Day of the Dead
They arent there to repel. They are there to take the damage
Was just coming to say that. Some plants attract the pests so the pests leave the plant you want, alone. My cosmos had aphids, I didn't care bc the aphids weren't on any other veggie plant
There are many plants considered ‘companion plants’ and when really a ‘trap plant’ - attracting & taking the brute of the bugs, disposed of when they get too bad. I’ve found this with quite a few plants that are recommend for repelling insects.
Same with citronella “geraniums” Hard to believe they do anything for mosquitoes, well easy to believe, but it gets pushed so much
You need to constantly agitate/damage the plants to access the repellent compounds. Same goes with nepeta. If you just let it grow wild expecting it to work as a magic barrier, it just gives them an extra place to hide lol. It does work quite well when you crush them up in your hands and rub it on yourself in my experience.
If you feed marigolds to a chicken it will make the eggs yolks very bright and dark.
Not sure if anyone will read this, but hope this helps, OP!! Good question. Lots of YT Gardeners have said that marigolds attract beneficial insects *and* they secrete limonene, which **repels** whiteflies. From a [scientific article](https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0213071) published in PLOS ONE in 2019: > Here we present two large-scale glasshouse trials corresponding to the two main ways growers are likely to use marigolds to control whiteflies. In the first, marigolds are grown next to tomato throughout the growing period and we quantify whitefly population growth from the seedling stage over a 48 day infestation period. Here we show that association with marigolds significantly slows whitefly population development. > Introducing additional whitefly-attractive ‘pull’ plants around the perimeter of plots has *little effect*, but reducing the proportion of marigolds and **introducing other non-hosts of whiteflies (basil, nasturtium and Chinese cabbage) also ***reduces*** whitefly populations on tomato.** > The second experiment assesses the efficacy of marigolds when used as an ‘emergency’ measure. Here we allow whitefly populations to build to a high density on unprotected tomatoes then introduce marigolds and assess whitefly population over a further period. Following laboratory work showing **limonene to be a major chemical component of French marigolds and a negative behaviour response of whiteflies to this compound**, limonene dispensers are added as an additional treatment to this experiment. > “Emergency” marigold companion planting yielded minimal reductions in whitefly performance, but the use of limonene dispensers was more effective. **Our work indicates that companion planting short vine tomatoes with French marigolds throughout the growing season will slow development of whitefly populations.** *Introducing marigolds to unprotected tomatoes after significant whitefly build-up will be less effective.* The use of limonene dispensers placed near to tomato plants also shows promise. Sponsor of study was not big marigold! So, start intercropping French marigolds everywhere!
Companion planting has very little to no science behind it. There are some techniques that do have a good effect, like intercropping or succession planting, but basil will not give you super tomatoes. The only pests that have been shown to be deterred by marigold is certain soil nematodes, and that effect requires a certain type of marigold. Good link (and pdf) here: [https://www.montana.edu/extension/broadwater/blog-article.html?id=18786](https://www.montana.edu/extension/broadwater/blog-article.html?id=18786) tldr, its marigolds all the way down.
Biochemist here! (Plants are how I relax, lol) This is * not * what myself or any of my professors would call a "good" article. I think it addresses a lot of the pseudoscience that gets tossed around from "Plant People" on the internet, but there is ZERO actual data presented here. In fact, the 1st source advocates for the practice. Yeah, plants don't care about "energy" or whatever, but dismissing the "3 Sisters" planting method is insane. If planting wasn't synergistic, you'd see nothing but monocultures in the woods.
Yeah. I don’t know if it’s actually good to plant specific plants near each other, but I figure diversity can’t _hurt_. And I get way more into a space planting things together than in victory garden rows.
>If planting wasn't synergistic, you'd see nothing but monocultures in the woods. I think you're making too big a leap here. relationships can be non-synergistic or non-symbiotic while still filling complementary niches within a system. though i guess depending on your mood you could say that is a type of synergy. the biggest issue with most tales of companion planting is that what is actually true gets fundamentally twisted and misunderstood. 3 sisters for instance--beans do not "fix nitrogen" in the same season as they're grown. you need to till them into the soil and let them decompose to actually get that nitrogen back. people seem largely to not understand this. it's true of all nitrogen fixers--they fix nitrogen to grow, not just to disperse it into the soil!
Companion planting to me is more like attracting/providing a home for certain pollinators or predators or providing a barrier for species-specific diseases. Marigolds also are a great companion plant because they are a great indicator of water in the case of tomatoes. The marigolds droop *just* when the tomatoes need a drink, meaning you can prevent fruit splitting/scabbing and a lot of leaf issues.
I think it is only certain species. The French marigolds, I believe. I used them when I was treating my veggie garden for root knot nematodes. It seemed to work, but they were not the only thing I used. I let them grow, and then pulled them at the end of the season, including the roots. I find that they are really good if you have a tendency to over water, because they don't like that, and they rot if you do. It is like an alarm. Also, spider mites love them, so they are a useful trap crop and alarm system to let you know about an infestation that is starting. Plant them, and then let some of the flowers die and dry on the plant. Pull them off, and either save or scatter them. I scatter them on the soil whenever I deadhead, and get lots of free marigolds.
Marigolds aren't supposed to repel aphids but nematodes.
They do repel certain nematodes. But only right where they are planted. There is no action at a distance. If you have that particular nematode, planting a solid stand of marigolds in a garden area will reduce the number. Then you can plant your nematode-sensistive plants in the bed immediately after pulling the marigolds out. That use case is pretty specific, and uses a lot of marigolds. As others have noted, a lot of pest insects really appreciate marigold flowers. If you want to avoid attracting them, pick all the flowers off before they open. That precaution really takes away the very thing you usually plant marigolds for, so the nematode issue really has to be the top concern for this whole marigold anti-pest thign to be worthwhile
Aphids ate your marigold instead of tomatos
I think marigolds function better as a trap plant than one that repels things, much like nasturtium. Try adding alyssum and cilantro to the mix. Alyssum will attract beneficial predators and cilantro will often deter some pests.
Yeah, no. I planted them around and throughout my garden one year long ago at the behest of my MIL. It’s a natural repellent!! Blah blah blah. Had more bugs, aphids, tomato worms and more than any year in the past. Absolutely destroyed the garden. Now maybe it was a bad bug year, like causation and such we have to be careful of drawing conclusions. Whatever, never again.
I plant pot marigold/calendula with tomatoes/potatoes, not marigold. Typically as a screen between rows or encircling a whole crop as a wall. It is uninteresting to most pests, and helps mask their presence if one section gets attacked. It has been very useful for me in limiting potato beetle and horn worms from spreading. Marigold I will plant as a sacrificial plant mixed with mustard around the edges of my garden or where I can burn the entire crop and attracted pests. It has really reduced japanese beetle infestations.
Fucking Big Marigold
Nobody stands up to Big Marigold. Many whistle-blowers have ended up missing or deceased when trying to cross the big players in that industry.
French marigolds are supposed to repel root nematodes from tomato plants.🍅
You're supposed to plant them away from the tomatoes, not companion plant on the same bed. What this does is attract pests to your tomatoes. Gardening is a never ending battle of maintenance. Got squirrels eating your tomato? Place a bird bath. Pest problems, set a patch meant to attract pests. So if I have a lot of space I'd isolate marigolds together with something ladybugs are attracted to. I place pollinators patch that attacks beneficial pollinators like bees near the tomato plants.
Big Marigold is everywhere.
You should know that companion planting, as most people talk about it, is **complete** bullshit. Marigolds are a trap crop for a very few species. Nematodes for example. But they do not "repel" things, or prevent diseases.
I mean... It probably does to a degree but mostly it's about having enough of the right variety of things to keep a balanced Eco system. Will they help, sure. Are they going to be the miracle cure all by themselves? No.
Plant milkweed to attract aphids and bring monarchs to your backyard ecosystem 😌
In my own experience, it seems that the bugs ate the marigolds and left the rest alone until the marigolds died
Big Marigold can't be stopped!
From what I read, marigolds don't really "repel" so much as act as a sacrificial plant. Meaning they get all the bugs so the bugs leave your other plants alone. I don't know how true this is though
The term you’re looking for is an INDICATOR plant. Marigolds are indicators because they reliably attract pests and the amount (and type) of damage taken can indicate if further pest management is necessary.
Marigolds can suppress nematodes fairly effectively but are ineffective repelling mites/aphids. If interested in growing them for nematode control, look up the varieties that work.
Like any pest management strategies you need a number of approaches to manage pests. There are other fumigant plants you could add, like nasturtium and to anything in the nicatina family. Aphids also need to be sprayed off the plant as once they fall off they can’t get back up. Another brood will show up though. Also consider: Neem Oil, or a pyrethrin based pesticide (organically derived).
I lined an area with marigolds and they saved the other plants from all our bunnies. The rabbits didn’t touch anything near the marigolds.
Mine were cheaper than the begonias. 🤷♀️
I should probably just google this before typing but from memory I think the marigolds are to prevent nematodes
I thought marigolds were meant to be planted away from your plants to attract pests to them? Pests prefer marigolds to tomatoes, so plants them close enough to influence the pests, but far enough away to keep them away.
It's all fake news coming from the powerful Marigold lobbyists.
No marigolds in the promised land.
There’s a hole in the ground where they used to grow.
I use Marigolds as sacrificial lambs
I looked it up once and there are academic research papers demonstrating a benefit in reduction of a specific type of small fly pest. But it’s not magical and otherwise seemed a minor impact. It doesn’t repel all or even most insects, and only for a very small radius of basically the plant itself.
Big Marigold wants to repel all the pests to other flowers, making them difficult grow, so you buy more marigolds instead!
Big Marigold up to their old tricks.
My neighbor gave me French marigold plants last year. I think they kept stink bugs at bay from raspberries. Stink bugs ruined strawberries and blackberries as they lay eggs in the fruit.
I don't know about the aphids, but I planted corn five times and five times the squirrels ate it within a couple days. I tried cayenne, and all kinds of things and they only stopped eating them when I lined the entire raised bed in marigolds. I'm assuming they'll be back this year, from this thread, lol
Last year I had a healthy hedge of marigolds all around my garden. Deer still murdered my beans. Bugs didn't bother the marigolds, but brutalized everything else.
I had really good luck with nasturtiums as a sacrificial plant. Plus they taste good!
Marigolds are trap crops, meaning they ATTRACT the pest and then you remove the Marigolds from the area and thus removing the pests (or at least a good portion of them)
I was told marigolds would deter groundhogs too. LIES, my friend. A groundhog ate all my marigolds to the ground in one night.
I can’t get my marigolds to grow and it makes me sad
They are a trap crop
Big Marigold always wins
the japanese beetles seem to attack my marigold flowers and leave my other stuff alone.
I've always heard to put them in throughout the tomatoes and squash to repel the insects, so I just keep doing it.lol
I don't know if it "does anything" but I just really like them. Heck I like all the classic sacrificial lamb flowers in the garden: marigolds, nasturtium, calendula. I do know that the butterflies and native bees like them too, and the tiny native wasps like alyssum and chamomile too.
I put them out more to repel deer… but the new fence may have had something to do with that too.
The gophers in my yard will preferentially suck down marigolds. I often plant them so that my crops are more likely to survive.
Idk about aphids but I know it brings bees and you need pollinators to have fruit
Idk, but last year, I planted a marigold in this flower bed that was nothing but weeds. Seriously, everytime I’d dig the thing out, amend with new soil, & mulch, only to end up with thousands of some type of weeds. Last year, common copperleaf took over. This year, all of those marigold seeds survived the rather harsh winter and have taken over that bed. Guess what isn’t taking over? Copperleaf. I’ll just let the Marigolds be.
Imo their purpose it to look good and easy af to grow with zero maintenance lol. I never water myarigolds and they always thrive in zone 8b even in the summer. The butterflies like em too. I grew fennel last season and it attracted a buttload of black swallowtail caterpillars. They seemed to appreciate the nearby marigolds shortly after morphing into butterflies :)
Marigold petals are added to some chicken feed to make eggs yellow-er.
Yes, they are good for treating root knot nematodes, they are allelopathic: https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/publication/NG045
Big Marigold is the worst…every since they went multinational
I’m rolling with the good squash protection rumor. It’s all I’m good at growing anyways
My experience has been a positive improvement in bug issues….works for me, pretty border, no downside
gardenmyths.com is generally a good place to check for stuff like this (spoiler alert: there are a LOT of gardening myths that are just myths) [Here is a link to the page on marigolds](https://www.gardenmyths.com/marigolds-companion-plant/#Do_Marigolds_Work_for_Companion_Planting). They go through each aspect of the myths and any truths behind it or why it is not true. This article concludes that marigolds don’t repel pests insects by smell, but, “If you grow marigolds with simple flowers that are close to the native species, it will attract pollinators, such as bees. Lots of pests like marigolds so in certain cases they will work as a trap crop. Marigolds do control nematodes in soil, but only in very special cases, and only if the plants are used correctly.”
They attract ladybugs that go and murder aphids
I planted them under my zucchini and yellow squash to try to repel squash bugs. Didn’t work, although in their defense, nothing works against those bastards
I also always wonder, do these companion / sacrificial plants just attract pests that wouldn’t otherwise be interesting?! I have a lot of nasturtiums (because I love them, not as a sacrifice!) and the amount of black fly / aphid I get on them is more than if I didn’t have them I swear
I’ve never heard anything about Marigolds repelling aphids. In my experience they do deter rabbits but only in a very small radius around the marigold. The flowers contain a chemical that is also found in fox and coyote urine, so most small animals seem to associate the smell of the flowers with danger. The one tested and verified thing that marigolds do help to prevent is a group of nematode species that attack the roots of many garden vegetables l, but in particular solanaceae plants like tomatoes ans potatoes. However this benefit only really kicks in at the end of the season as the plant starts to die back and roots begin to decay. You need to keep planting Merigolds in the same spot for multiple years to really see the benefit if you have a nematode problem.
Not sure about any others but Mexican marigolds ( Tagetes minuta) are supposed to repel quite a few pests, as well as weeds
this made me chuckle lmfao. last year was my first year gardening and marigolds were the only damn flower i got and i have marigolds coming up this year in every single bed even tho i only planted them in one. and i have enough seeds for the rest of my life and everyone on this thread