Understanding the optimal companion plants for peppers can revolutionize your gardening game. Nature may have its share of competitors eager to consume your peppers, but with strategic companion planting, you can tip the scales in your favor and unlock a multitude of benefits.
In this article, we’ll reveal the top companion plants for peppers, and also guide you on those to sidestep. After reading this, you’ll be equipped with an array of choices to enhance your pepper plantation, and come harvest time, the difference will be clear to see!
Join us as we explore the rewarding world of companion plants for peppers and discover their transformative power!
Table of Contents
Good companion plants for peppers
Once you’ve developed a taste for peppers, a lot of foods just seem boring without them. Thankfully, now that you’re hooked on the flavor and growing them in your garden, the right companion plants can really help to ensure that you get the best peppers you can possibly grow.
Depending on what plant you put next to them, you can get a little additional defense from pests, improved soil conditions, and other perks – it’s all a matter of picking and choosing the right companions and that’s where we come in.
We’ll tell you a little about each plant below, including their soil and sunlight preferences, so that you can get started planning a little companion planting experiment of your own. Once we’re done with these, be sure to stick around – as we’ll also tell you which plants are better off kept far away from your peppers. With that said, let’s get this ball rolling!
Kitchen and medicinal herbs
1. Basil
- Botanical name: Ocimum basilicum
- Sun Requirements: Full sun
- Soil Type: Fertile, well-drained, and loamy soil
Both basil and various types of peppers are indispensable in certain dishes and as it turns out, they also get along quite well in your garden. It all comes down to an enemy of peppers and many other plants that basil can deal quite neatly with – thrips!
By planting basil next to your peppers, you can effectively ‘cloak’ them from the thrips, or at the very least make them much harder to find. These little pests REALLY don’t like basil and since it won’t compete with your peppers for resources, then why not ‘buddy them up’ together? You’ll be very happy that you did, come harvest time!
2. Sweet Alyssum
- Botanical name: Lobularia maritima
- Sun Requirements: Full sun to partial shade
- Soil Type: Well-drained soil, pH 6.0 to 7.0
Sweet Alyssum is an herbal option that can defend your peppers, and it will do so from ‘head to toe’, so to speak. What you do is simply plant your Sweet Alyssum around your peppers and as it grows, it’s going to create some useful ground cover that can help to keep weeds away at the base of your peppers.
Once it’s established and starts flowering, it’s going to recruit a security team of useful insects, such as local ladybugs, parasitic wasps, tachinid flies, and lacewings, who will snack on aphids, bud worms, fruit worms, and other bugs that would otherwise have all their focus set on eating your peppers. It’s a pretty pairing, but also quite the practical one, so consider Sweet Alyssum a potential candidate as a ‘pepper pal’ – it’s a combo that works really well!
3. Dill
- Botanical name: Anethum graveolens
- Sun Requirements: Full sun
- Soil Type: Rich, well-drained, and slightly acidic soil or sandy loam
Dill makes for a great companion plant for your peppers that will definitely pay dividends towards their defense. What happens is that your dill will flower and when it does, it’s going to attract a lot of insects that might otherwise plague your peppers, such as aphids, hornworms, and budworms.
That’s not all, however, as those flowers will also attract the useful types of wasps that won’t sting you, but which WILL go after aphids, whiteflies, and other enemies of your peppers in between little snacks of dill flower nectar. If you want to ramp up the defenses for your pepper patch, then consider bringing on the dill – it’s a great little roommate for your peppers to have.
4. White Clover
- Botanical name: Trifolium repens
- Sun Requirements: Full sun to partial shade
- Soil Type: Well-drained clay and silt soils
An old folk-medicine favorite, White clover may be planted with your peppers to good effect if you were planning to grow some in your herb garden anyways! What you do is plant it in between your pepper plants, simply right there in-between the rows, and when it starts growing it’s going to attract beneficial predatory bugs and pollinators.
It also does a neat little trick where it will act as a living mulch and in some studies, it’s performed as well as many commercial herbicides in this regard. As such, it makes a pretty good companion plant if you grow peppers and also herbal medicines in your garden.
Healthy Veggies and Delicious fruits
5. Hot Cherry Peppers
- Botanical name: Capsicum frutescens var. cerasiforme
- Sun Requirements: Full sun
- Soil Type: Moist, well-drained soil
If you’ve got a pepper crop that you are trying to protect, then why not set a trap to help protect it from the bane of their existence – pepper maggot flies! These pests really are the worst, as sometimes you won’t even know that they’ve gotten your peppers until you slice some up for cooking or spicing up a salad.
By planting Hot Cherry Peppers as a companion plant, you’re basically offering those pepper maggot flies a steak instead of a boring, old hamburger, and studies have shown that the Hot Cherry peppers are definitely preferred. So, if you want to protect your peppers, then consider Hot Cherry pepper plants as companions – they won’t improve the soil or deter any pests, but they WILL act as a honeypot for those pesky pepper maggot flies that really WORKS.
6. Radishes
- Botanical name: Raphanus sativus
- Sun Requirements: Full sun
- Soil Type: Sandy, well-drained, and light soils
If you love radishes, then you might consider growing them with your peppers as these two will get along like gangbusters. As your radishes grow low to the ground, while your peppers are substantially taller, these two won’t be competing for sunlight and if you plant the radishes first, they bring an extra perk to the table by luring away flea beetles that an adult pepper can endure, but which might decimate a younger crop.
It’s another ‘trap plant’ scenario that works out well and with all of the space you’ll save interplanting those radishes with your peppers, you can add another favorite crop to your garden. It’s a win-win pairing!
7. Garlic
- Botanical name: Allium sativum
- Sun Requirements: Full sun
- Soil Type: Loamy and well-drained, with lots of organic matter
Garlic and peppers have always been the best of friends in the culinary world, but they also get along great as companions in your garden. While you probably know already that garlic keeps away a lot of pests, with this particular pairing we’re out to deter a specific kind – Green Peach aphids.
These pests simply love munching on peppers and they have a nasty habit of bringing diseases to the party that can really ruin your pepper crop with a quickness. By planting garlic close by, you’ll repel those peach and pepper loving pests and with a little luck, they won’t even know that your peppers are there at ALL!
8. Beans
- Botanical name: Phaseolus vulgaris L.
- Sun Requirements: Full sun
- Soil Type: Well-drained clay loam
Planting beans with peppers can work well, provided that you set up a little trellising with an eye for making sure they don’t shade your pepper plants too much. Beans need a lot of nitrogen, and so do your peppers, but by planting them together you’ll actually need a little less fertilizer. That’s because the beans will bring some of their own!
Beans have a symbiotic relationship with certain bacteria in the soil, where they will feed nutrients to that bacterium, which in turn will generate nitrogen for the beans. This will be to the benefit of both plants, and since you would be giving them nitrogen-rich fertilizer separately you’ll be able to use a little less when you’re growing them together since the beans will be ‘chipping in’ and they’re both in the same spot!
9. Cucumbers
- Botanical name: Cucumis sativus
- Sun Requirements: Full sun
- Soil Type: Fertile, loose, and well-drained soil
Our next good companion for your peppers is a favorite for salad lovers and picklers alike – cucumbers! When planted with your peppers, cucumbers will pull a ‘triple-duty’ to earn their keep, as their low growth means that they’ll keep the soil shaded and moist, while also keeping out weeds, and giving young pepper plants a little shade until they’re big enough to fully tolerate all that sun.
It’s a nice little pairing and as an added bonus, the peppers will chip-in to help keep mites and a handful of other pests out of their happily-shared communal space.
10. Carrots
- Botanical name: Daucus carota subsp. sativus
- Sun Requirements: Full sun
- Soil Type: Sandy loam
Planting carrots to keep your peppers company is a good idea. Not only will you save a little space, but these two will not compete for resources, as they will draw nutrients from different levels of the soil. Carrots are going to be tunneling down much deeper than your peppers will and as a little added bonus, ladybug and other beneficial insects that populate a carrot’s greenery aboveground.
These bugs will occasionally visit your peppers to munch on some of its pests and both plants will be all the better for it. Give it a try and you’ll see for yourself – it’s a handy space saver with a little twist that you’ll appreciate at harvest time!
Ornamental additions
11. Sunflowers
- Botanical name: Helianthus
- Sun Requirements: Full sun
- Soil Type: Well-drained, sandy loam soil
Sunflowers are a cheerful addition to any garden but when you plant them with your peppers, then they’ll also pitch-in a little ‘pollination and protection’. While everyone knows that these big, bright flowers will look good pollinators, Sunflowers pack an extra protective perk in the form of a secondary secretion that they put out even before they bloom
This discretion is a nectar that comes from the undersides of the sunflower and it will attract lots of beneficial bugs who like the taste of it, so consider planting sunflowers with your peppers and you’ll see for yourself – they’ll brighten up the spot and even pull some security duty on the side!
12. Nasturtiums
- Botanical name: Tropaeolum majus
- Sun Requirements: Full sun
- Soil Type: Fertile, well-drained soil
Nasturtium flowers are bright, orange beauties, but that isn’t all that they’ll bring to the table if you plant them with your peppers. You see, 100% of Nasturtium is edible, for you, me, and those pesky aphids that keep eating your peppers!
So, just plant a little Nasturtium nearby and you’ll succeed in turning up the aesthetics and also in luring those aphids away with something that they find a little tastier. As a companion planting option, Nasturtium definitely packs a few perks!
13. Zinnia
- Botanical name: Zinnia sp
- Sun Requirements: Full sun
- Soil Type: Fertile, well-draining, and slightly acidic soil (loamy is best)
Fancy a little color to provide some pretty contrast for your peppers? If so, then Zinnias might just be the companion plants that you’re looking for. With flowers that come in yellow, purple, orange, white, green, and pink, you’ve got a lot of choices for upping the aesthetics and you’ll also attract pollinators in the process.
The broad leafed flowers of zinnias pull in helpful bees and other beneficial insects right to them, and since the Zinnias won’t be competing much with your peppers then you’ve got a pretty good pairing, indeed!
14. Tithonia
- Botanical name: Tithonia
- Sun Requirements: Full sun
- Soil Type: Poor to average soil is fine, must be well-draining
Like Zinnias, Tithonia flowers make a great companion for peppers that can bring in the pollinators and really get some much-deserved attention directed at your garden. With striking red or bright orange flowers, depending on the variety you choose, you’ve got a pretty pairing that will keep the pollinators and garden-spectators coming to your garden again and again!
Bad Companion plants for peppers
Now that we’ve covered the ‘garden good guys’ when it comes to companion planting with your peppers, it’s time to take a look at the ‘fair-weather friends’ of the bunch. Each of the plants we’ll list below are considered to be poor companions for your peppers and we’ll tell you a little about why that is the case so that you can avoid trouble.
We present to you, our official ‘bad companions for peppers’!
1. Cabbage
Cabbages make poor partners for your peppers for two main reasons. First, cabbage likes its soil a little less on the acidic side, which your acid-happy peppers really won’t appreciate. The second reason, however, is cabbage worms. As the name suggests, cabbage is definitely their favorite thing to snack on, but they also go for a little variety every now and again in the form of cucumbers, watermelons, potatoes, spinach, and yes, peppers! That’s just the small list, too, but in any case you’ll want to keep cabbage far away from your pepper plants – the requirements are incompatible and the pest risk certainly doesn’t help.
2. Fennel
Fennel is another bad companion for your peppers, mostly because it’s a hungry little herb that loves the same ‘foods’ as the pepper plant does. As such, if you plant these two side-by-side, then a resource war is going to happen, and both plants will be all the worse for it.
You’ll be much happier if you keep your fennel far away!
3. Apricots
While apricots will grow with peppers, it’s not a pairing that we can recommend and we’ll tell you why. It all comes down to a fungus called Verticillium dahliae. This is responsible for verticillium wilt and if you plant an apricot tree near your peppers, then you’ll have a much greater risk of this fungus taking hold and ruining your apricots!
As such, keep these two as far away as possible in your garden – this pairing is TROUBLE, especially for young apricot trees.
4. Strawberries
In another unfortunate case of fungus-friendly companion planting, strawberries and peppers should not be mixed in your garden. The soft, yummy berries are prone to a number of diseases and susceptible to verticillium wilt, just like apricots. So, scratch strawberries off the list for companion planting with peppers – you won’t like what happens when they’re too close together in your garden!
5. Corn
While corn gets along pretty well with a lot of different plants, peppers are not included in the ‘Corn Club’. The problem has to do with corn’s ‘eating habits’ – it needs a lot of resources and has no problem hogging them and starving your pepper plants. What’s more, army worms and corn worms will come-a-callin’ and your starving peppers won’t stand a chance in their sickened state.
FAQs
We’ve just about reached our time limit for today, but before we pack things up and head our merry way, we’ve compiled a few frequently asked questions on companion planting with peppers that we think you’ll find useful. Let’s take a peek!
Will peppers make companion plants spicy?
While some plants can definitely affect the flavor of others when planted together, you won’t need to worry about your peppers spicing up its companions. Plants that have an effect on the flavors of their neighbors are doing it at the root level, while peppers get their spiciness from capsaicin in the actual fruits.
That said, planting basil, French marigolds, or lovage next to your peppers is said to improve the flavor. While we can’t attest to that with firsthand experience, it’s definitely something to investigate on your own. After all, a lot of ‘old gardening tales’ sure seem to be true, and better peppers are worth a little ‘gardening gambling’ just in case!
Can I plant brassicas with my peppers?
No, brassicas are not suitable companion plants for your peppers. The biggest problem is that they are a huge target for pests, but peppers also like a little acidic bite to their soil and your brassicas really won’t like this. It’s better to just keep them on their own side of the garden so that they can have the best soil for their own needs.
Can you grow peppers and chilies or other pepper-types together as companions?
You can, provided that you’ve got about 18 inches of space stem-to-stem between them, but aside from making harvest a little more convenient, there won’t be a lot in the way of perks unless you separate them with some good companion plant choices that will help protect them from pests.
Otherwise, from a pest perspective, you’re basically just laying out a pepper-feast!
In Conclusion
In today’s article we’ve explored some of the best companion plants for peppers and while we don’t have enough space to cover ALL of them, we hope that this sampling will help you to get started. Companion planting is a lot of fun and when you set up a few strategies ‘Nature-style’ by clever pairings then you’ll see exactly how rewarding it can be.
Once you get the hang of making symbiotic couples, then you can always play around with 4 or 4 plant combinations and take your gardening to a whole new level. It’s all about learning Nature’s little gardening tips and then daring to try some on your own.
Thanks so much for visiting and until next time, we wish you ‘Happy Gardening’ and all our best!
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