18+ Easy Companion Planting Tips for Peppers (2024)

Companion planting serves many purposes. Benefits range from attracting beneficial insects, saving space in the garden, and providing nutrients for other plants. Companion planting peppers is something that most gardeners look into at one point on their gardening journey.

If you’re growing a spicy jalapeno chilli or sweet bell pepper, there are dozens of plants that work well with peppers. Companion planting for peppers has significant advantages.

Knowing what to plant with peppers is one thing, but don’t forget that there is another list of plants that are unsafe for them. As you work your way through this list of veggies safe for your pepper plants, you’ll discover how abundant your options are.

Before You Start Companion Planting for Peppers

Branching out and working with new plants helps your vegetable garden produce abundantly and brings flowers with vivid color and beauty for you to admire.

If you’ve been wondering what to plant with peppers, this list of companion plants is everything you’ve been looking for.

A good companion is essential for any plant to survive and thrive. Aside from their growth and fruiting during the growing season, plants remain relatively idle.

They are rooted in a single environment and compete with other plants for space, nutrients, and resources. While some safely share the spotlight, others bully each other and cause major damage.

Companion planting peppers requires a lot of care. You don’t want one plant to die because you didn’t understand how to companion plant. The layout of your vegetable garden is critical.

Try not to plant huge patches or rows to avoid attracting pests. Interplant flowers and herbs near veggies to act as a barrier to the fruits of your labor. The additional scents and colors also confuse pests while attracting other beneficial pollinators to your beds.

What to Plant with Peppers

There are dozens of prospects to choose from when trying companion planting for peppers.

Browse through this list to find a great companion plant and discover how each one helps support the health of all kinds of peppers, including bell peppers, banana peppers, and cayenne peppers in the garden.

Companion Planting Peppers with Chives

Chives are one of the best insect and aphid deterrents for pepper plants. While they help keep predators away, people believe that chives also improve the flavor of other veggies and increases the yield.

Chives are perennial plants that come back every year, so you don’t have to replant them, and they are handy as an herb to cook with in the kitchen.

Planting Leeks with Peppers

Leeks might not be as popular as their garlic and onion family members, but they taste incredible and make a great companion.

Leeks don’t take up much room and are perfect for squeezing into empty spots in your beds. They repel insects like carrot flies that munch on and lay eggs near plants.

Radishes as Companions

One of the best things about radishes is that they’re effortless to grow. Beginners and advanced gardeners both have success with these plants because they mature in under four weeks.

Growing radishes near your peppers is smart because you can use space efficiently. Two plant harvests in the space of one is ideal for every grower.

If you’re not interested in planting radishes, try growing turnips or kohlrabi. These root vegetables are similar to radishes in their benefits. They have a more mellow flavor but a similar texture that is delicious, both raw and roasted.

How Beans Benefit Soil

Beans are another smart choice when companion planting peppers. Bush beans and pole beans fix nitrogen levels that are too low and help feed nearby plants.

They have a growth habit that helps crowd out competing weeds, and it blocks wind and provides shade as well.

Advantages of Tomato Plants

We recommend not planting tomato plants and peppers after one another each year. However, growing them in the same bed and rotating them to another bed for the following season is okay.

Tomato plants help shade the soil. This additional shade protects peppers from blistering in the hot sun and helps the earth retain moisture.

Oregano as Companion Herbs

Herbs are essential in gardens and add loads of flavor to food. When planting oregano with peppers, it doesn’t compete for space because it covers bare soil.

Oregano is one of the best plants for utilizing space. The pungent smells also help protect the peppers from harmful insects looking for a meal.

Marjoram in the Garden

Marjoram is another low growing herb that utilizes all of your garden space and doesn’t compete for nutrients that the peppers use. Marjoram tends to improve the neighboring vegetable’s flavor and is even better when added to a recipe.

Parsnips and Peppers

Parsnips aren’t always found in gardens. People tend to look over them because their preferred root vegetable is potatoes.

Parsnips are delicious in their way and should be used more often. Parsnips crowd out weeds that start to grow beneath the soil level and keep the ground shaded so that the summer heat doesn’t cause too much damage.

Why You Need to Plant Geraniums in the Garden

Geraniums are popular for our flower beds, but we don’t often think of growing them next to our vegetables. Geraniums add soft white, pink, red, and green colors to the yard.

They are excellent at repelling cabbage worms, spider mites, and Japanese beetles that force gardeners to apply insecticides that most people try to avoid.

French Marigolds as Natural Repellents

French marigolds fill your property with bright pops of reds, yellows, and oranges, and they make great ground cherry companion plants. They are an incredibly hardy flower and work even harder to keep pests away from your pepper plants.

Nematodes, aphids, whiteflies, and slugs are all critters that tend to stay away from these flowers. Grow marigolds to deter bugs on pepper plants and many other veggies in your garden areas.

Planting Petunias Near Peppers

Petunias have stunning colors, unique shapes, and interesting textures. While their beauty is a sight to behold, it’s even better that they effectively repel leafhoppers, asparagus beetles, tomato worms, and aphids. Petunias are easy to care for and thrive in outdoor gardens.

Why Plant Nasturtium?

Nasturtium is an edible flower. There are over 80 species, and you can choose between planting perennials or annuals.

Nasturtiums are eye-catching flowers and attract beneficial insects while repelling squash bugs, bean beetles, whiteflies, aphids, and other common garden pests.

Companion Planting Peppers with Basil

Basil is one of the most loved aromatic herbs. It’s excellent raw or cooked and goes well with pasta, meat, and salad. Companion planting with basil boosts the flavor in nearby veggies. Basil also repels spider mites, thrips, aphids, and mosquitoes.

Is Coriander a Good Companion?

Whether you call it coriander or cilantro, it’s common to wonder if coriander works as a good companion plant for peppers.

Although there aren’t any major advantages or disadvantages from the gardening aspect, your taste buds get something out of the pairing.

Planting coriander, jalapeno peppers, and tomatoes together in the garden means that fresh salsa ingredients are only a short walk away.

What Not to Plant Near Peppers

As mentioned before, some plants don’t get along well with pepper plants. Some of the plants to avoid using next to your peppers are brassicas, otherwise known as cabbage, fennel, Brussels sprouts, and borage.

All of these plants compete for space and nutrients. Some also carry fungal diseases that kill your peppers and make a bad red pepper plant if they become infected.

To be safe, always research the pros and cons that each new species brings to your garden and how those factors affect the other produce.

Caring for Pepper Plants

Peppers are either spicy or sweet, and they come in different colors, shapes, and sizes. Sweet bell peppers are extremely common choices for gardeners because they are so versatile. On the other hand, harvesting cayenne peppers is rewarding if you like a bit of heat to add to chili.

What do Pepper Plants Require to Live?

Pepper plants must have full sun to produce the biggest and healthiest fruiting bodies. Ensure the site you choose is free from too much shade and gets about six hours of direct sunlight every day.

Keep your soil well-draining and nourish it with organic matter from compost or old yard scraps. Peppers enjoy warm soil that’s either slightly loamy or sandy. Ideal soil pH levels remain between 5.5 and 6.5.

Don’t plant peppers near other members of the nightshade family. This family includes potatoes and eggplants. Putting your peppers near them might also expose them to diseases that damage or kill them.

How to Transplant Peppers to the Garden

If you’re planning to put peppers in the garden, you’re either starting them indoors or purchasing them from a garden center and transplanting them outdoors. The cheapest option is to start them from seeds.

For the way to grow peppers from seeds, fill a seed tray or container with potting soil and plant each seed about a quarter of an inch deep. Water the seeds and put a heating pad under the container to keep the temperature around 70°F.

When small leaves appear, move your seedlings to individual pots to encourage them to grow. Harden off your plants roughly ten days before transplanting them outside.

Hardening plants means moving the pots outdoors in increasing increments so that they get used to the outdoor environment. It’s time to transplant your peppers outside once the average nighttime temperatures consistently remain above 60°F.

Dig a shallow trench in your beds and bury each pepper plant’s root ball in the soil. Space each plant from 18 to 24 inches apart. If you live in northern regions, cover the soil with black plastic to keep the ground temperature at or above 65°F.

Water and Fertilization Requirements

The average amount of water that vegetables require per week is one to two inches. This amount varies depending on where you live. In warmer regions or desert climates, watering the peppers every day might be a necessity.

Try to find the balance between soggy and dry soil so that there is consistent moisture for the plant to absorb without drowning it. Adding mulch to the ground is one of the best tips for retaining moisture.

Being careful not to overwater plants is essential, just as not overfertilizing plants is necessary. Fertilize your pepper plants only after the first fruit set appears. After that, fertilizer the peppers only twice per growing season.

Some other tips for giving your peppers and long and healthy life is to weed as much as possible. Weeds suck out nutrition and overcrowd other plants.

Whenever you walk by your beds, make it a habit to pick a few weeds so you stay on top of the chore and it doesn’t become too overwhelming. When weeding, be careful not to disturb the roots of your vegetables, or they might suffer.

Peppers have weight to them, and sometimes the stems aren’t strong enough to support large fruits.

If your plants start to bend, purchase some tomato cages or stages to put around the plants. The stakes give them support to grow upward, and none of the stems snap from the weight.

When Pepper Plants Still have Problems

Sometimes, no matter how many companion plants we use, peppers still find themselves in less-than-ideal situations. Nutrient deficiency, insects, and fungal diseases all pose a risk to peppers.

Try searching the internet for some home remedies, spray, and strategies that help you identify the problem and handle it without chemicals.

Unfortunately, sometimes pesticides and fungicides are necessary to keep pepper plants alive and free from damage. Always follow the written instructions so that your peppers heal properly.

Snacks to Make with Peppers

Bell peppers have a sweeter taste and are a healthy alternative to other snacks. Topping them with cream cheese and seasoning is one recipe that people love, but try cooking them in a fry pan to make a healthy side dish.

Wash and cut your bell peppers into strips. Heat the olive oil in a fry pan over high heat. Add the peppers to the oil and cook them for five minutes until they start to soften and the skins blister.

Reduce the heat to low, and add the garlic, salt, and pepper. Turn the stove off and toss in the vinegar and herbs. Serve the peppers on some toasty bread slices or on their own.

Now that you know what to plant with peppers, you’re going to notice a significant difference in the way your garden works.

You’ll see changes in efficiency, labor, and flavor, and you’ll wonder why it took you so long to research companion planting for peppers in the first place.

If companion planting peppers has helped you utilize every inch of your garden, share this list of plants that are safe to grow near peppers on Facebook and Pinterest.