When you step into your garden beds to harvest peppers for salsa or padrón peppers for grilling, all the gardening work is worth it! Packed with antioxidants and other health benefits, this popular summer plant adds color and flavor to homemade meals. Peppers like full sun, but in cooler climates, peppers can be planted in pots in a greenhouse or indoors near a sunny window. Growing peppers in pots is a great option when you don't have the conditions to grow a full crop of peppers outdoors. Finding the perfect companion pepper plants will maximize garden space and help you grow and harvest beautiful pepper plants.
When planted with the right companions, bell peppers have a much better chance of success. Making planting companion plants a priority will achieve the best overall results for your pepper plants. The right companion plant attracts beneficial insects, fights diseases and pests, suppresses weeds, attracts pollinators like bees for healthy growth and contributes to the overall success of your entire garden. Choosing the right companion plants for growing peppers near can even improve their taste.
Let's talk a little more about the idea of companion planting and how it can add to your success in growing pepper plants.
What is accompanying planting?
Good pepper companion plants can improve your garden. Source: EatandLiveGreen
The idea of accompanying planting has been around for a long time and is a fan favorite among gardeners. Now more scientific studies are showing the success of paying attention to companion plants for a flowering, species-rich garden. Planting the right companions close together will keep pests out, increase the yield of your growing season, and install more bees and pollinators to create a healthy ecosystem in your vegetable garden. This process is sometimes called intercropping.
With thoughtful accompanying planting, you can work with nature to create a harmonious garden for flowers, vegetables, herbs, insects and wildlife. For example, nasturtiums can lure aphids or cabbage worms away from other plants, in an idea called trap cropping, in which you sacrifice the nasturtiums to the aphids or cabbage worms to keep other gardeners healthy. Alternatively, if you want to control certain diseases and unwanted guests like aphids, you can bring a vegetable, flower or herb to attract beneficial insects like predatory wasps or ladybugs. For example, the cosmos attracts ladybugs to eat aphids, so they make a great companion plant!
Plenty of plants make great companions for a variety of vegetables. The marigold with its strong scent is one of the most popular ways to scare off uninvited garden guests. Basil and garlic are other popular companions. Onions can keep snails, mites and maggots away from their neighbors.
Another great use for planting in the garden is when using one plant to improve soil health for another plant. Beans and other legumes, for example, can fix nitrogen for other nitrogen-hungry plants in the soil.
Plants like corn can act as a trellis for grapevines, or taller plants can provide shade, while ground cover can suppress weeds by acting as living mulch.
Another benefit of companion planting is the improvement in taste. This has less science to back it up, but marigold and basil plants are considered flavor enhancers for various vegetables.
Accompanying planting or catch crop cultivation, as it is called in agriculture, is a well thought-out and preventive way of creating a healthy vegetable garden! Now let's go into some specifics on how this method can help you grow healthy pepper plants in your garden.
Good companion pepper plants
Cayenne pepper gets an improved taste from the accompanying basil. Source: m01229
Let's check out the best flowers, herbs, and vegetables to plant near peppers. By increasing the diversity of plants in your garden and taking into account the role of each plant, you can attract beneficial insects and pollinators, thus promoting a healthy pepper plant.
Although pepper plants need full sun, their roots like to stay a little cooler, so adding ground cover for companions like oregano, rosemary, or parsley can create a vibrant mulch, in addition to maximizing space. If accompanied by peppers, you can also grow leafy greens such as lettuce, spinach, and Swiss chard, which will enjoy the shady location when planted under the pepper plants. This also helps keep weeds out. Both pumpkin and cucumber are great companion plants for peppers because they grow deep in the ground and shade the soil and shallow roots of the peppers.
Planting low growing plants can also help reduce the weeds around the pepper plants in your garden. Think about putting some root crops like radish or beets under your peppers to control weeds. They will also be shaded by the peppers, creating a great environment for these shade-loving companion plants. Parsnips and carrots are other options for companion pepper plants that thrive in the shade of peppers. When carrots are allowed to bloom, they attract lacewings.
Flowers can attract bees and other pollinators, as well as beneficial insects, which increases your pepper yield and the quality of the fruit. Blooming basil has been shown to improve the quality and quantity of paprika production. Another benefit of planting basil near your peppers is that masking them can confuse some pests. Planting basil in your garden can help keep thrips away from your peppers, as they emit a chemical that makes it difficult for pests to find the peppers that attract them. A basil plant also deterred spider mites and mosquitoes from the garden.
Other flowers that will benefit your peppers include yarrow, petunias, and alyssum, which deter aphids and attract beneficial insects. Yarrow is easy to grow and brings with it ladybugs, which scare off aphids. Alyssum can make a nice underplanting and also attracts ladybugs, lacewings and parasitic wasps. Chamomile is another underplanting that makes a great pepper companion and stays low to the ground for a vibrant mulch. Sunflowers naturally bring the bees into the garden.
Plants of the allium family are also good companion plants for peppers. Try pairing chives, garlic, onions, shallots, green onions, or leeks with your bell peppers to repel aphids. Garlic also helps repel Japanese bugs, which attack bell peppers in some climates.
Other plants that can help keep your bell peppers healthy include umbel-shaped flowers like dill and cilantro, which attract lacewings to care for the green peach aphid, which is known to attack bell peppers.
When it comes to creating a trap crop, consider radish or pak choi, which will lure the flea beetles away from peppers and save you the damage to your pepper plant! Nasturtium can also be used as a trap for aphids, which are tempted by the pepper, rather than luring them away from the pepper and into the nasturtium.
Legumes like fava beans, runner beans, green beans, and peas can act as nitrogen fixers, adding more nitrogen to the soil for the peppers. Lentils also fix nitrogen by absorbing it from the air and releasing it to the ground.
Another pepper companion to consider is asparagus. Pepper plants have a shallow root system so they don't compete with each other. Maximize space by combining these vegetables in a garden bed. With harvests in different seasons, the peppers can shade the asparagus when their spring harvest is complete.
French marigolds and geraniums are believed to help repel nematodes, which can be a big problem for peppers. Marigolds are also said to help stimulate the growth and production of bell peppers, and fight off many pests such as nematodes, Colorado potato beetles, and pumpkin bugs.
Another flower that will grow well next to your pepper plant is buckwheat, which has long been used as a catch crop. The flowers attract pollinators and beneficial insects. After flowering, cut the buckwheat and lay it on the ground to use as a green mulch that will regenerate the nutrients in the soil and suppress weeds.
In terms of taste, basil, lovage, and French marigold are said to enhance the flavor of peppers.
Some plants can help protect peppers from the wind. These include corn and okra. Corn can also help shade the peppers, which while sun-loving, still need protection on particularly hot days.
Now that you know what grows near peppers, let's look at what to avoid.
What not to plant with peppers
Even mild peppers have advantages when around good companions. Source: Beauty Redefined
Know what to avoid when it comes to companion plants for peppers. Let's look at some of the plants that can negatively affect your peppers.
Leave out all plants in the nightshade family such as tomatoes, eggplant, and potatoes. Move them further away or move them to a different garden area to keep pests from attacking these plants as they will all attract similar pests. All of these plants are susceptible to mosaic virus, late blight, and various forms of leaf spot that can spread quickly between similar plants. Keep them at least a few feet away with other plants in between.
Consider planting different types of peppers separately. There is nothing wrong with planting them close together, but you can have cross-pollination if they are in the same room.
Fennel is not one of the best companion plants for peppers as it tends to stunt the growth of the other plants around it.
None of the plants in the Brassica family are good companions for peppers. These include cabbage, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, napa cabbage, broccoli, and kale. They are heavy feeders, leaching nutrients from the soil that your peppers need. Kohlrabi is another plant in this family that shouldn't be planted near peppers.
This is a bit obvious, but don't put your pepper plant in a vegetable garden with plants that like different conditions. A pepper plant loves slightly acidic soil that is well drained. Pepper plants prefer full sun and hot weather.
frequently asked Questions
Hot peppers like these habaneros also like good neighbors. Source: Garrett Heath
Q: Can you plant tomatoes and peppers together?
A: Yes, you can plant tomatoes and peppers together, but there are a few things to keep in mind. Bell peppers can be planted closer together than tomatoes, which like a little more circulation and air. Tomatoes and peppers also share many of the same pests, as they both belong to the nightshade family. So be careful and watch out for any pests that may be attracted to these two plants. Basil is a great option to plant alongside tomatoes and peppers.
Q: Can you plant peppers and marigolds together?
Answer: yes! Marigolds are incredibly easy to grow and make great pepper companions! Because of their strong scent, as well as their ability to repel nematodes through their roots, marigolds are great pest repellants in the vegetable garden. The French marigold plants are also known to improve the taste of peppers, and since they attract pollinators, they can increase the yield of your pepper plants.
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