The 9 Best Companion Plants For Peppers

Companion planting is a term with multiple meanings. Companion plants for ornamentals such as hydrangeas are selected for aesthetic purposes. In fruit and vegetable gardens, we select companion plants based on their services to neighboring plants.

The pepper companion plants featured here play various roles in the garden community, enhancing pepper yields through pest reduction, weed management, and soil enhancement.

How Companion Plants Work

The idea of companion planting is not modern and many practices have been handed down from previous generations. However, it is only recently that science-based studies have investigated the effectiveness of these strategies. Some have proven successful, while others don’t stand up to strict testing. This knowledge has helped enhance the adoption of proven methods, and increased our understanding of why and how they work.

We can broadly group companion plants based on the services they provide. Some deter pests through chemical compounds in their foliage, while others are highly attractive to certain pests and effectively “trap” them, thereby protecting the main crop. Other companion plants enhance the growing environment by shading the soil to reduce moisture loss, reducing weed growth, and adding nutrients to the soil. Finally, some plants are highly attractive to pollinators and other beneficial insects while others, such as herbs, repel insects. All these services promote a healthier, more productive growing environment for peppers.

When selecting companion plants to grow among peppers, consider the common pest challenges you face in the garden and match these to trap crops or pest deterrents. Regardless of where you live, adding flowering resources to attract beneficial insects goes a long way toward reducing garden pests. Finally, growing legumes to naturally fertilize soil is an age-old practice and one that can save you money. Try treating the garden as an interconnected system, rather than isolated rows, to develop a vigorous plant community.

Serving as Trap Crops

Plants may not strike you as a pest management tool, but they can be used to great effect in managing common garden pests. One of the main ways companion plants are used to manage pests is through trap cropping.

Trap crops are plants that attract pests away from a crop or ornamental plant because they are more desirable or attractive to the pest. Planting a trap crop is most worthwhile for pests that are copious and destructive in most years.

Here are a few trap crops to plant with peppers:

Hot Cherry Peppers

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• Botanical Name: Capsicum annuum
• Sun exposure: Full sun
• Soil type: Well-drained, affluent
• Soil pH: Slightly acidic (6.0-6.8)

Hot cherry peppers are planted as a trap crop around the perimeter of bell pepper plants to draw pepper maggots away from the main crop. Hot cherry peppers are more attractive to maggot flies than bell peppers, making them an ideal trap crop. Hot cherry peppers are planted in tardy spring, after the threat of frost has passed.

Maggot flies are common along the East Coast, and west to Texas. Adult pepper maggot flies lay their eggs on the developing fruits, which are damaged by maggot feeding once the eggs hatch.

Radishes

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• Botanical Name: Raphanus sativus var. radicula
• Sun exposure: Full sun
• Soil type: Rich, wet, well-drained sandy loam
• Soil pH: Slightly acidic to neutral (6.5-7.0)

Radish plants serve as a trap crop for flea beetles, which are a problem for peppers, eggplants, and tomatoes. These petite black beetles chew holes in leaves and stunt the plants.

Radishes are a preferred host for flea beetles. Because they are planted in early spring, as soon as soil can be worked, much earlier than peppers, they offer an copious food source for flea beetles when pepper plants are juvenile and vulnerable.

Nasturtium

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• Botanical Name: Tropaeolum majus
• Sun exposure: Full sun
• Soil type: Sandy or loamy, well-drained, not too fertile soil
• Soil pH: Slightly acidic to neutral (6.1-7.8)

In tardy spring, after the last frost, plant nasturtiums as a ground cover between vegetable rows to serve as a trap crop and living mulch. Aphids are highly attracted to nasturtiums, which draw them away for crop plants. While you may see the aphids grow to vast numbers on the nasturtium plants, they are also serving as a nursery for natural enemies—the predators that feed on aphids.

An abundance of predators will lend a hand manage aphids throughout the garden. In addition to these services, nasturtiums also make a great groundcover, helping to conserve soil moisture, and their flowers attract pollinators.

Deterring Pests

Another companion planting strategy is to interplant crops with plants that produce volatile chemicals such as mighty odors that confuse pests. Pests employ olfactory cues produced by plant roots, stems, foliage, and flowers to find host plants. Strong-smelling companion plants mask the scent of crops so pests cannot find them. Other companion plant odors simply repel pests.

Here are plants that act as pest deterrents among your peppers:

Onions And Garlic

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• Botanical Name: Allium spp.
• Sun exposure: Full sun
• Soil type: Loamy, well-drained
• Soil pH: Slightly acidic to neutral (6.0-7.0)

The petite green peach aphid, which may look yellow or green in summer, feeds on a wide range of vegetable plants and is responsible for transmitting numerous plant diseases, including viruses. Interplanting garlic, onion, and other members of the onion (scallions and chives) among peppers is a uncomplicated way to deter green peach aphids. This strategy worked for any crop targeted by green peach aphids.

Onions and garlic are planted in fall or early spring, as soon as soil can be worked.

Basil

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• Botanical Name: Ocimum basilicum
• Sun exposure: Full sun
• Soil type: Rich, well-drained, loamy or sandy loam
• Soil pH: Slightly acidic to neutral (6.0–7.5)

If you’ve ever brushed up against a basil plant in the garden, you know they have a strong aroma. This scent can be used to mask the smell of peppers as well as tomatoes. It deters thrips and other garden pests from finding your crop. Basil is also known to deter aphids, spider mites, and whiteflies.

Basil, just like peppers, is sensitive to icy; it grows best in temperatures above 65°F.

Attracting Beneficial Insects

Nature supplies its own form of pest control through predators and parasitoids. The latter include non-stinging wasps, flies, and other insects that develop on or in a host, eventually killing it.

In natural systems, pests seldom reach outbreak levels because predators, parasitoids, and disease organisms (collectively called natural enemies) keep populations in check. However, gardens are highly disturbed, and these natural modes of pest management are often disrupted.

By planting nectar-rich flowers, which predators and parasitoids feed on along with pests, you encourage natural enemies, as well as pollinators. The size of the flower parts impacts what type of insect visitors utilize the flowers.

Dill

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• Botanical Name: Anethum graveolens
• Sun exposure: Full sun
• Soil type: Rich, wet, well-drained
• Soil pH: Slightly acidic (5.5-6.7)

If you don’t cut all your dill but let it bloom, its golden umbels will be packed with petite, nectar-rich flowers. These attract a variety of beneficial insects including parasitoid wasps, lacewings, and syrphid flies, all of which feed on aphids, whiteflies, insects eggs, and other garden pests.

Dill is also host to the attractive black swallowtail butterfly. Despite all this insect activity, it is a productive herb that provides enough for your kitchen and the butterfly caterpillars. Dill can be planted any time during the growing season, starting in tardy spring after the threat of frost has passed.

Cilantro

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• Botanical Name: Coriandrum sativum
• Sun exposure: Full sun
• Soil type: Rich, well-drained
• Soil pH: Slightly acidic (6.2-6.8)

Cilantro prefers frosty temperatures and is best planted in spring and fall. It tends to bolt or set flowers when temperatures rise. To attract beneficial insects, this is exactly what we want–flowers! Like dill, the petite nectaries in cilantro flowerheads attract parasitoids, ladybeetles, lacewings, and syrphid flies that feed on petite, soft-bodied garden pests.

Improving The Soil

It may sound counterintuitive to grow plants as a means of reducing weed competition, but many living mulches are used for this purpose. The plants that are selected as groundcover beneath crops tend to develop root systems that complement, rather than compete with the main crop.

Some living mulches, such as nasturtiums, conserve soil moisture. Others do more than that, they also protect against soil erosion and add nutrients to the soil. Companion plants in the bean or legume family further aid plants by feeding the soil. These plants turn nitrogen from the air into forms that neighboring plants can utilize, that’s why they are also called nitrogen fixers.

These are two legumes to interplant with peppers:

Cowpeas

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• Botanical Name: Vigna unguiculata
• Sun exposure: Full sun
• Soil type: Rich, well-drained
• Soil pH: Slightly acidic (5.5-6.5)

Cowpeas have different names depending on their employ. Those that produce edible seeds are commonly called black-eyed peas or crowder peas. Varieties grown for forage are often called field peas. Both types make a good groundcover or living mulch to reduce weeds and fix nitrogen in the soil.

Plant cowpeas in tardy spring, after the threat of frost has passed. Note that cowpeas potentially the germination of nearby seeds so only employ them alongside transplants or established plants.

White Clover

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• Botanical Name: Trifolium repens
• Sun exposure: Partial sun
• Soil type: Rich, well-drained
• Soil pH: Slightly acidic to neutral (6.0-7.0)

White clover is a popular plant to employ as a living mulch because it is so effortless to grow and serves various purposes. Like cowpeas, clovers fix nitrogen in the soil, making the nutrient available to peppers and other crops.

The copious flowers of clover also attract a diversity of beneficial insects, including native bee species. Clover plants is planted in the fall, tardy winter, or early spring. It tolerates frosty temperatures and helps stabilize soil during the colder seasons.

What Not To Plant With Peppers

There are a few garden crops that you should not plant with peppers. These include:

• Brassicas such as cauliflower, broccoli, cabbage, and kale do not make good neighbors for pepper plants. In addition to space and airy considerations, they compete for similar nutrients in the soil and attract the same pests, such as flea beetles.
• Fennel plants are allelopathic; they produce chemicals that inhibit the growth of neighboring plants. Grow them in a separate part of your garden, away from peppers and any other crops.
• Corn is an unsuitable companion plant for peppers due to its towering size. Peppers are sun-hungry plants that need as many hours of sunlight as they can get to thrive and at some point during the day, the corn will cast shade on the shorter pepper plants.
• Pole beans and vining peas grown on a trellis should not be planted with peppers for the same reason as corn; they deprive the pepper plants of sunlight.