What Should You Plant After Tomato Season Is Over

Mary Gonzales:

Hey everybody, it’s Mary with Nelson Nursery & Water Gardens, and tomatoes are a wonderful spring vegetable crop. But did you know that once our nighttime temperatures get up into the eighties, they’re not really going to produce the fruit anymore? So, what do you do with that space?

Well, why don’t you swap out for a vegetable that’s going to produce for you all summer long, like an okra? Okra are really great. They love the heat. They’re going to be able to handle those hot temperatures. You can also do a melon. These will creep out over there, produce a big, fat melon for you. These are going to require a little bit more water, because obviously it’s creating a big, juicy melon.

If you want to kind of skip as much time watering, you can do smaller size peppers. The tabasco pepper thrives in the heat, produces tons of little peppers, and I’ve found, with a little neglect, they’re a little bit spicier. You can grow some larger size more bell-type peppers like the Carmen pepper, or hit up some native type ones like the chiltepin, which in my family we call these bird eyes, because they look like little bird’s eyes. And those will pack a punch for you. These will produce for you all summer long, and while you’re waiting for that fall crop of tomatoes to get there, you’re getting production out of that vegetable garden you put so much hard work into.