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Can you plant Jalapenos next to Bell peppers?
Because Bell peppers and Jalapenos have almost similar growing conditions, Jalapenos can grow next to Bell peppers. There are no diseases or infections that both plants having by planting Bell peppers and Jalapenos together.
Also, it will be easier to treat and care for Jalapenos and Bell peppers when they grow together. Because the required fertilizing, watering, and temperature conditions are almost the same.
According to this guide, there are some disadvantages of planting Bell peppers next to Jalapenos. Here is what they say.
Because of peppers are often get attacked by pests and diseases, if a one pepper variety get attacked or infected it can easily spread to the next variety.
Aphids, fleas and leaf hoppers will more likely to do that.
Plant care: Bell pepper vs Jalapenos
Peppers are well-known as a crop, that is caught in diseases more often.
Therefore we need to be aware and careful about pepper plants and we should know how to care for them.
Diseases on Bell peppers and Jalapenos
When we are talking about diseases in Bell peppers and Jalapenos, there are too many of diseases that infected through Fungal, Bacteria and pests.
Let’s jump in to find diseases on Bell pepper vs Jalapeno, one by one.
Bell pepper diseases
When a farmer or gardener growing any kind of pepper, especially including Bell pepper, he/she will be able to see even one disease on their Bell pepper plants.
If not, he/she is very lucky.
Mainly, most common disease on Bell pepper are the foliage diseases. Fungal, rusts, Bacteria and Viruses are caused to occur foliage diseases.
Here are some of the foliage diseases on Bell pepper plants.
- Cercospora leaf spot
- Alternaria leaf spot
- Bacterial leaf spot
These foliage disease conditions on Bell pepper can often be prevented by using a copper mixture.
I suggest you own this kind of cheap copper mixture, which can also be used with many of your plants.
Another most common disease that Bell peppers having is the Aphids insect.
They can live everywhere in the plant with groups of them. And they absorb the essence of the fruits and also from the trunk.
When the Bell pepper plant is critically attacked by Aphids, there are no nutrients left on the plant.
The Garden design suggests some ways that get rid of Aphids n your plants.
Firstly, you can remove Aphids by spraying water on them and collecting them onto a bucket.
You can also use water and soap mixture, essential oil on them. That will kill those Aphids and other unusual pests from your Bell pepper plant.
Also, you can use natural predators such as ladybugs, ground beetles to destroy Aphids from your plants.
Click here to read how to identify and kill Aphids by Garden design.
Three is another common disease on Bell pepper plants called Phytophthora stem rot, which is occurred by fungus in the soil.
The main reason for happen Phytophthora stem rot is planting the pepper plant in a poor draining soil and water pools around the roots, instead of soaking down.
You can avoid Phytophthora stem rot from your Bell pepper plants by planting them on well-draining soil and putting water after the soil has well-drained.
On the other hand Bell pepper plants often get hit by some kinds of pests and insects. Such as;
- Aphids
- Broad mites
- Spider mites
- Western flower thrips
- Greenhouse whiteflies
Jalapeno diseases
Pathogenic diseases and external infections are the two main ways that Jalapeno pepper plants push into a disease.
According to Homeguides SF Gate, there are some common diseases on Jalapeno plants. They are;
- Phytophthora root rot
- Verticillium wilt
- Powdery mildew
- Bacterial spot
The best action you can take when these kinds of pathogenic diseases arise on your Jalapeno plants is to meet the nearest local garden shop, experts.
They will give you the right advice and what you should do in that situation.
Apart from Pathogenic diseases, different Viruses strike against jalapeno peppers.
Cucumber mosaic virus, pepper mottle virus, and potato virus can be known as some of the viruses that often attack Jalapenos.
These Viruses can spread through the plant quickly, and it may difficult to prevent them even from pesticides if their dominance spreads throughout the plant.
As there are not many differences between Bell peppers and Jalapenos, Aphid is one of the most distracting pests for Jalapeno gardening.
They usually attack in the early season and the plant looks died and wilted after an Aphid attack.
Aphids spreading Viruses throughout the plant. That may be caused to sprout deformed leaves and also kill the plant.
Apart from Aphids, many species of beetles and worms are distracting to the growth and yield of a Jalapeno plant.
Such as Flea beetles and Leaf beetles.
These beetles are more likely to munch seedlings on pepper plants. So it’s end up producing unmatured fruits or not producing any fruit.
Therefore you should save your Jalapeno and all the pepper plants from beetles by using insect repelling flower plants, row covers and mulch on them.
Pollinating Bell pepper vs Jalapenos
When consider caring a plant and help them to grow well, giving themselves a room to pollinate is very important.
Because pollinating can produce more fruits in a plants and it can make fruits more flavored than the usual ones.
Therefore let’s see how we can pollinate Bell peppers and Jalapenos. And also what are the differences between Bell pepper and Jalapeno when pollinating.
Pollinating Bell peppers
Naturally, Bell pepper plants are being pollinated by the breeze and insects as usual.
When a breeze shakes the plant branches, sometimes the pollen grains drop from the flowers because of that shock.
Therefore whenever a male pollen grain drops onto a female flower, pollination had happened.
Also insects participating this pollinating process by helping to transport pollen grains from one flower to another through their body.
But sometimes natural pollinating may not be practical to your area. Because of lack of breeze and pollinators.
Therefore it’s better to know, how you can hand pollinate (manually pollinate) Bell peppers.
Hand pollinating Bell pepper
When your Bell pepper plant can’t e pollinated because of lack of pollinators, breeze or due to the high temperature, the pepper plant is getting stress.
That’s when you have to hand pollinate your Bell pepper plant. Let’s see how you can hand pollinate Bell pepper, which is so simple.
The easiest way that you could hand pollinate Bell pepper is by gently shaking out the plant. It will be a successful and productive hand-pollinating method 99 times out of 100.
Cause we need only one pollen to be fallen into another flower out of its thousands of pollen grains. Therefore there is a good probability.
According to Gardeningknowhow, around 12 AM to 3 PM is the best time to hand pollinate. Because around this time period, there are more pollen grains on the flowers.
Another way that you could hand pollinate Bell pepper is by using a little painting brush or a cotton swab.
First, gently brush the flower around to collect pollen onto your paintbrush or cotton swab. If you found it difficult, just soak the brush or cotton swab with water and try again.
Now rub the collected pollen grains on the stigma of another flower. Stigma is that white-colored part protruding from the Bell pepper flower.
This is a comparison guide of Bell pepper vs Jalapeno, let’s see if there are any differences between Bell pepper pollinating and Jalapeno pollinating.
Pollinating Jalapeno
Jalapeno is a self-pollinating plant which contains both male and female flowers in each plant.
Therefore Jalapeno is also could be pollinated using the wind and insects easily. So there is no difference between Bell pepper and Jalapeno natural pollination.
But if you find that natural pollination isn’t working your Jalapeno plant, you have to try hand pollination.
Hand pollinating Jalapeno
There are no differences between Bell pepper and Jalapeno when we get into hand pollinating too.
The easiest way that you can hand pollinate the Jalapeno plant is by shaking the plant from the stem. It will be efficient because of both male and female flowers blooming in Jalapeno plants.
Unless shaking the plant, you can also do hand-pollinating Jalapeno using a paintbrush or cotton swab. All you have to do is collecting pollens onto the paintbrush or cotton swab from a male flower and rub them into the stigma of a female flower.
Bell pepper and Jalapeno pollinating problems
If your Bell pepper plants or Jalapeno pepper plants are not bloomed enough flowers and no signs of a fruit set, the main reason is you may have used more Nitrogen on your plant for too long.
Maybe your garden soil contains more Nitrogen than usual.
If that the case, switch to organic fertilizers like compost, compost tea, and fish emulsion. Reduce the amount of Nitrogen you use with your pepper plant.
Also both Bell peppers and Jalapenos don’t provide fruit whenever the temperature drops below 65 F or greater than 85 F.
Therefore, even they have well-pollinated you can’t see any fruits if the plant isn’t getting the required temperature.
So using protectors like shade clothes will help us to avoid heat waves in the hottest part of the day.
High productive growing tips for Bell peppers and Jalapenos
Here are some actions that you can take to boost the growth of Bell pepper and Jalapeno plants.
Let’s get into it!
To encourage growing peppers faster in cold weather, you can use a black plastic layer on the soil, right down of the plant.
By using a black plastic layer the soil temperature can raise from 3 to 5 degrees of Fahrenheit. And it could affect the soil as deep as 3 – 6 inches deeper.
If your growing season is short, consider planting your pepper plants 7 weeks before the last frost date.
You can saw both Bell pepper and Jalapeno seeds in a tray and keep them indoors. So whenever the frost has finished, you can transplant Bell peppers and Jalapenos.
That’s a good option to make a pepper plant productive in a short growing season.
Also, using manure tea and the fish emulsion is giving quick growth to Bell pepper plants and Jalapenos.
What to plant: Bell peppers or jalapeno
Above, you and I compared many qualities and requirements between Bell pepper plant vs Jalapeno plant.
Let’s gonna find out by considering all of the above factors, what to plant in your garden. Bell pepper or Jalapeno?
As we could find out, the qualities and requirements of both Bell peppers and Jalapenos are almost the same.
So I thought to answer this question differently. Because it’s a hard nut to crack.
I ran a poll on Facebook, among the experienced gardeners that love growing every pepper variety. And I asked them “Bell pepper or jalapeno? What is the best to plant?”
Here is what I exactly founded!
I got the biggest numbers that I ever had in a Facebook poll.
Among 507 people, 305 have voted for Bell pepper and said that Bell pepper is better than Jalapenos.
The rest of the 292 people who have been voted for the Jalapeno plant said Jalapeno is better than Bell pepper for planting in the garden.
Even Bell pepper has take the lead, the lead is just 13 votes. Therefore we shouldn’t be hurry to take a decision.
Meanwhile, about a hundred people commented that they will be likely to grow both Bell peppers and Jalapenos at the same time in their garden.
When I asked, what is the reason that 305 people think Bell pepper is better than Jalapenos, most of them said that they gave their answers based on the size of the fruit and the weight of the yield.
But they have already realized that there is no difference between the growing conditions of the Bell pepper plant and the Jalapeno plant.
Here is the important case.
From the people who voted for Jalapenos, many of them said that the main reason to choose Jalapeno is, Jalapeno providing a bigger yield than Bell peppers.
Surprisingly, some of the Bell pepper voters also agree with that!
Therefore considering the information we gathered from the survey, we can figure out what to plant from Bell pepper or Jalapeno.
As there is nothing difference between Bell pepper vs Jalapeno growing conditions, growing both Bell peppers and Jalapeno plants at once is the best answer to, what is better to plant from Bell pepper and Jalapeno.
Growing both plants at once will help each other to grow well, and also make the fruit more flavored.
If you are hoping for more pepper produce, growing Jalapeno peppers in your garden would be the best option.
Although the size of the Jalapeno is smaller than Bell pepper, they produce more fruits than Bell peppers at a specific time.