Can You Plant Bell Peppers & Jalapenos Next to Each Other?

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• If like many home growers, you're raising peppers simply as an annual crop, there is no reason to isolate bell and jalapeno peppers from one another. In fact, the plants have virtually identical growing needs, making it convenient to plant the two pepper types in the same patch. Planting pepper varieties together enables you to prepare one area to create the rich, well-drained soil that both hot and sweet peppers like. The peppers all need to be planted and fertilized at the same time, making setting them in a single garden bed an effective way of caring for the two crops.

Growing Method

• If you opt to grow bell and jalapeno peppers close together, locate a single area that gets full sun, and prepare it by working manure or compost into the top 6 to 8 inches of soil. The best time to direct seed or transplant both pepper types into the garden is about three weeks after the last frost of spring. Bell and jalapeno peppers all need to be about 2 feet apart within their rows, with rows that are 2 to 3 feet apart. For ease of harvest -- and simply remembering which type is which before they begin bearing -- it makes sense to plant each type of pepper in separate rows. If you prefer to alternate bell and jalapeno peppers within each row, however, you won't be negatively affecting the harvest quality of either pepper plant.

Seed-Saving Issues

• For commercial or hobbyist seed-savers, planting sweet and hot peppers together is a poor idea. Natural cross-pollination occurs between the plants, from both wind and flying insects. The cross-pollination doesn't affect the original, parent plants, but will show up in succeeding generations. The most obvious impact will be that the next-generation bell peppers will become hotter, because the gene that makes jalapeno peppers hot is the dominant one. However, jalapenos themselves can potentially suffer as well, losing the unique characteristics that can be obtained only if cross-pollination is limited to other jalapenos.

Solutions

• It's possible to grow both bell and jalapeno peppers during the same growing season, even if you intend to raise future crops from the seeds of the current peppers. To achieve this goal, however, you won't be able to set the two pepper types in close proximity. Instead, grow the two crops at least 50 feet apart. If you can't set them much further apart than 50 feet, it also helps to set them on either side of a non-pepper windbreak plant. Flowering, tall plants are best for this purpose. Extra protection can be arranged by setting insect-proof fabric around the plants, and by hand pollinating the flowers on individual plants with small paintbrushes. Ideally, hot and sweet pepper varieties should be at least 400 feet apart from one another to ensure "pure" seeds.