What To Plant
After Peppers
When the last peppers have blushed to red, gold, or chocolate and the plants begin to tire, it’s time to give the soil a break from the nightshade family.
The Best Crops To Plant After Peppers
(The Quick Answer)
Peppers, like tomatoes, are heavy feeders and can leave behind disease spores and pests that thrive on repetition.
The healthiest next step is to bring in beans, carrots, onions, garlic, or brassicas - plants that offer the soil a new rhythm and a fresh start.
Avoid: Tomatoes, eggplants, potatoes (the pepper’s kin) as well as other heavy feeders that draw from the same nutrient stores.
Why These Work
Rotating away from nightshades interrupts pest and disease cycles while rebalancing soil nutrients.
Peppers feed heavily on nitrogen and potassium, but they don’t fix or replenish anything on their own.
Following them with legumes returns nitrogen; roots and alliums take less from the soil pantry; brassicas use remaining fertility without perpetuating disease pressure.
Not sure which crop is right for following after your peppers?
Let’s look more closely at the best options, why they work, and how to know when each one is the right choice.
Seeds are promises for the future, neatly tucked into paper.
Best Options to Grow After Peppers
(The Detailed Answers)
Bush Beans (or Peas in cool shoulder seasons)
Why it works: Legumes are the soil’s quiet philanthropists, pulling nitrogen from thin air and tucking it back into the ground. They break the nightshade disease cycle and leave the soil richer than they found it.
Best when: You’ve got 50–60 frost-free days left, and the soil drains well enough for quick root establishment.
Consider: Inoculate seed for better nodulation, pick often, and don’t be surprised if the beans arrive in generous handfuls you didn’t see coming.
Carrots (or Beets)
Why it works: Root crops slip in where sprawling peppers once sprawled, taking little from the soil pantry and leaving the upper layers to rest.
Best when: You have 55–75 days before frost, and your soil is loose, stone-free, and willing to let roots stretch deep.
Consider: Skip fresh manure unless you like your carrots forked and whimsical; steady moisture will keep them straight and sweet.
Onions or Garlic
Why it works: Alliums step in as tidy, slow-growing sentinels, outlasting frost and breaking disease cycles. They ask little in the way of nutrients but stand guard against trouble.
Best when: You can plant in late summer or early fall; garlic loves a good overwintering, onions can carry through into spring.
Consider: Rotate alliums annually to sidestep white rot; mulch well for a steady, slow season.
Fall Brassicas (Broccoli, Cabbage, Kale)
Why it works: Brassicas drink deeply from the fertile soil peppers leave behind, and they’re happy to race the shortening days.
Best when: You can transplant starts 6–10 weeks before frost; they’re cool-weather creatures who sweeten with a touch of chill.
Consider: Netting will deter the cabbage moth’s children; steady water keeps them tender.
Cover Crops (Oats + Peas, or Winter Rye + Hairy Vetch)
Why it works: When it’s too late for another “main event,” a cover crop dresses the soil in green over winter, feeding the underground life while protecting against erosion.
Best when: You’ve run out of growing season but want spring-ready soil.
Consider: Know your chosen mix’s temperament - oats die back with frost for easy spring prep, rye demands a formal ending with a crimp or cut.
More Unusual Companions
Daikon Radish: A deep taproot aerator and weed smotherer, it drills into compacted spots while feeding microbes when it dies back.
Cilantro (Fall-Sown): Bolts quickly in heat, but in cool autumn weather, it lingers sweet and green, and draws beneficial insects in spring if allowed to flower.
Fava Beans: Slow and steady nitrogen fixers that double as an edible winter crop in mild climates.
Asian Greens (Tatsoi, Mizuna): Fast-growing cool-season greens for a quick crop before frost.
What to Avoid After Peppers (and Why)
A Second
Pepper Crop:
Feels familiar, but it’s a shortcut to tired soil and repeat blight.
Tomatoes/Eggplants/
Potatoes:
They share the same family tree and with it, the same disease baggage and pest invitations.
Bed Reset & Prep
✅ Pull pepper plants and any fallen fruits.
✅ Compost healthy plant material and burn any with disease.
✅ Loosen soil with a garden fork; don’t invert layers.
✅ Spread ½–1 inch compost; re-level.
✅ If following with brassicas, side-dress with a balanced organic fertilizer.
✅ Mulch lightly and water in to settle the microbial dust.
Growing food is more than just growing food.
It’s partnership. A quiet rhythm shared between you, the plants, and the soil, deepening with each season.
All About Timing Cheatsheet
If it's:
Late summer: Direct-sow bush beans, carrots, or beets; transplant fall brassicas.
Early Fall: Sow oats/peas or rye/vetch and close the curtain for winter.
Cool climates: Favor garlic or overwinter onions.
Warm climates: Squeeze in a bean crop, then follow with leafy greens or brassicas before frost.
The seed remembers the hand that sowed it.
What are Some Resources For Learning More About Seed Saving?
Books Worth Keeping on Your Shelf
Seed to Seed by Suzanne Ashworth: A foundational classic, incredibly thorough with species-specific seed-saving techniques. Best for when you’re ready to dive deeper.
The Seed Garden: The Art and Practice of Seed Saving by Seed Savers Exchange: Beautifully laid out and beginner-accessible. Offers clear charts and growing tips for over 75 crops.
Vegetable Gardener’s Bible by Edward C. Smith: Not just about seeds, this one helps you build a thriving garden from soil to harvest, so your seed saving has something to grow in.
Gaia’s Garden by Toby Hemenway: For the permaculture-inclined. Helps you see your garden as a living ecosystem — one that’s perfect for long-term seed stewardship.
Seed Sources & Swaps
Seed Savers Exchange: A nonprofit preserving heirloom seeds with a rich catalog and gardener-to-gardener swap network.
Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds: Stunning catalogs and rare varieties. Great for gardeners who love color, flavor, and plant diversity.
Local Seed Libraries: Check your county extension office or library -many have seasonal swaps or borrowing programs.
Online Seed Swaps & Facebook Groups: Search “[Your State] Gardeners” or “Heirloom Seed Swap” on Facebook for regional communities.
Bethany’s Tip: Don’t feel like you need everything right away. One book, one envelope, and one seed head is enough to begin.
Go Forth & Grow...
Peppers bring a fire and brightness to the garden, each one ripening like a small celebration.
They remind us that boldness has its season, but the soil always asks for balance again.
Whether you harvested handfuls or only a few, your peppers carried the warmth of long days into your kitchen.
This pepper guide is just the beginning. Use it to discover the gentle crops that follow... a softer rhythm, a steadier beat for your soil.
Grow, balance, return.
This guide was created with dirt under my fingernails, late nights, and a lot of care. No ads, no paywalls, just a simple offering for fellow growers.
If it helped you, inspired you, or made crop rotation feel just a LITTLE less mysterious (or even just if you enjoyed your ads-free time) there are two simple ways to say thanks:
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Created by Bethany Archer, lifelong gardener and founder of Grow & Gather Life.