Squash Vs Zucchini: Which Is Better To Plant With Peppers
When creating a flourishing vegetable garden in a small space, gardeners are often faced with tough choices. Choosing the right companion plants that will thrive next to your peppers is essential because plants just cannot afford bad neighbors. One such difficult choice is picking between squash and zucchini when planting next to peppers. While both squash and zucchini belong to the plant family Cucurbitaceae, these "vegetables" are botanically fruits, and they have different growth habits, which matters a lot when it comes to choosing a companion plant for peppers.
Peppers need full sun, at least six to eight hours of direct sunlight for good flowering and fruit set. So, if you plant squash next to them, you could block sunlight as squash grows, forming sprawling vines. Zucchini, on the other hand, while also a type of summer squash, has a much more compact growth form. It is also non-vining, which makes it ideal to plant next to peppers in small gardens. For most home gardens, zucchini is almost always the better choice to plant with peppers.
Why zucchini is a better choice
If zucchini and squash belong to the same family, they must share a lot in common, right? So how much of a difference do their distinct growth habits actually make? Well, as it turns out, a lot. Squash not only blocks sunlight with its vining habit, it can also reduce airflow and trap moisture around other plants. This creates ideal growth conditions for many plant diseases such as powdery mildew, which affects all peppers, squash, and zucchini.
Zucchini, on the other hand, with its more contained growth, allows for more airflow, which decreases the chances of plants being attacked by fungal diseases. In addition, the low growth habit of zucchini can also act like a living mulch, which can reduce the number of weeds in your vegetable garden and help retain moisture in the soil. And, if you know anything about peppers, they need a lot of water, so having a mulch will definitely help.
Planting zucchini alongside peppers
When it comes to planting alongside peppers, whether it is zucchini or any other vegetable, you need to understand how to correctly map out and space your garden veggie plants. You must get the spacing between plants right, or even the compact companion plants might start competing for space and nutrients with your peppers. There needs to be at least 18 to 24 inches between zucchini and peppers to avoid overcrowding. Get this right, and your pepper plants will thank you with its flowers, which are large, open, and bright yellow.
Zucchinis produce pollen and nectar, which attracts bees that play a very vital role in pollinating pepper plants. Lastly, when adding zucchini as companion plants, you can choose to go with the traditional row-style garden layout. However, if you opt for the block layout, it can increase the yield of your peppers up to 15 fold. Also, if you can plant your peppers and zucchini in raised beds, it leads to higher yields and lower weed pressure.