Pokeweed

Question

I have tomato plants near the pokeweed. Two have strange curling of the leaves. What plants don’t do well near pokeweed and will its poison be in my tomatos?

Answer 1

Pokeweed is going to heavily compete with your tomatoes for water and nutrients. And it may shade the tomatoes at some point. These are my biggest concerns. Pokeweed “soil” isn’t toxic; one has to ingest pokeweed plant parts to suffer ill effects. Pokeweed develops a very dense colony quickly by underground lateral roots that send up new plants. At this point it is difficult to eradicate the plant since the roots go deep and wide. Each bit of root left behind will send up a baby plant.