Can I Grow Hot Peppers with Weed?
I don’t know what it is about growing marijuana and hot pepper plants but there seems to almost always be a connection between the two when you ask a grower of either. Its true, ask someone that smokes weed if they like hot peppers and I am guessing over 75% will always say yes, they do! And vice versa, if you ask people that enjoy eating hot peppers, I will guess that over 50% of them either currently enjoy smoking weed or have enjoyed doing so in the past. I like consuming both quite a bit. I also really enjoy growing both types of plants.
Can you grow hot peppers with weed though? Yes, hot peppers and weed can be grown together during the vegetative stage of the marijuana. The allowance of lighting might not be enough for hot pepper plants during the marijuana’s flowering stage. If possible, have two different grow areas so the hot peppers can keep growing under a longer duration of lighting for maximum pepper growth.
Some peppers need more time under the sun (or grow lights) so you might have to do something to ensure they get the light they desire. Weed plants on the other hand typically have quite short grow times, however there are some situations when a weed plant will take longer to grow, and this is excellent news if you are companion planting especially indoors. In this article I will cover what companion planting is and what to consider with lighting especially if you are growing indoors.
Let’s get to it.
What is Companion Planting When Growing Marijuana?
If you are growing outdoors, you know the dangers of pests and critters that can destroy your crop. If you grow certain other plants with your weed, they can help to keep pests, critters and other things away from your weed plants.
Since this article is about hot peppers and weed plants, we won’t get to in-depth about it. I might write another article just on companion planting. Anyways, some plants you might consider growing with your weed outdoors are garlic, basil, beans, marigolds (yes, the flower) and mint. There are more plants to choose from however, these are the most common for the knowledgeable weed grower.
Hot peppers are also on this list for outdoor growers because they naturally thrive in the hot humid air like a weed plant and they also deter creatures like mice and even deer. It is also reported that their root system is great for protecting against root rot from too much moisture.
Up next we will talk about how the different light stages of growing weed match up nicely with pepper plants and what you need to know.
What makes Hot Peppers and Marijuana a Good Match for Growing Together?
Well, three things mainly, heat, humidity, and light. Lets, go over each one and identify why these things make hot peppers and weed plants good companion plants.
- Heat is important for just about any type of plant to grow but especially hot peppers and weed. If you want to know the exact recommended temperatures to keep your grow tent at for your weed plants, check out my article on the subject HERE.
The fact of the matter though is that both plants require lots of warm temperatures for them to really product the kind of yield you are expecting. Without warm temps your weed plant just won’t produce the biggest and most potent buds they can if the temperature they are receiving is inadequate. The same goes for hot pepper plants. They like hot temps for long periods of times to produce scorching hot peppers.
- Humidity is also super important to achieve the best weed plants and buds possible. To find out more about required humidity levels, make sure to check out the article I just linked to in the section above about Heat. For pepper plants, some varieties might not need much heat but regardless of which ones you grow with your weed plants they will do much better if grown at the same humidity levels of your weed.
- Next up is lighting. Bot hot peppers and weed expect long hours of sunlight or grow lights which is one reason they make excellent companion plants. They both have a vegetative stage and they both have a flowering stage. The flowering stage for hot peppers is when the peppers are growing and the flowering stage for weed plants is when the buds are growing.
The one thing to watch out for is in what type of pepper plant you select, if you try and grow them at the same time from veg to flower. Some pepper plants have a much longer time frame for their flowering or pepper growing stage than it takes for most weed plants to go through their flowering stage.
If you select peppers such as chili, cayenne, or other pepper plants with smaller peppers, the timing should be ‘just right’ as they won’t need as much time to mature like a habanero plant might need.
Whatever you do though, make sure your timing is always regulated for the weed plants. The pepper plants will be more adaptable, and I am guessing that you probably value your weed plants more than a hot pepper plant.
Will Your Weed Plants be Spicy if Grown with Hot Peppers?
This is an interesting question. Honestly, I don’t know. I haven’t experienced this myself but maybe you have. For your marijuana to take on the characteristics of a hot pepper plant, I would expect it would have to be a hybrid plant and not just a neighbouring plant growing in the same garden.
If you wanted the smoke from your cured weed plants to be spicy hot, you could dry out some of your hot peppers and crush them up. Then, add them to your weed to smoke. I personally don’t think I would enjoy that, even though I really like to eat hot spicy foods. Its an idea though. You might really like smoking hot spicy weed.
Conclusion
So, you can see now that growing hot peppers with weed plants is indeed doable. Growing outdoors you obviously won’t have control over the amount of light the plants receive but indoors you do. This means that when growing indoors, consider the amount of time you have both plants under the lights. Myself personally I would be focusing on the weed plant and its requirements and growing the pepper plants based on that.
If you are looking for different companion plants for your weed plants, there are probably all kinds you can choose from. I wrote this article because of my own interest in hot peppers and weed and thought it would be fun for you to read.
Good luck with your garden.
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