A Quick Summary of Succession Planting
What is succession planting?
Succession planting is a pretty broad term used to describe planting one crop after another. Sometimes this refers to the same crop, sometimes we are planning to plant different crops. The term succession planting has been used to describe both scenarios on both short and long term scales.
If you are used to planting your garden all at once, at one time, and calling it planted then all of these methods below will provide opportunities to get more out of your garden (no matter the size)
What are the benefits of succession planting?
Extending your harvest of a certain crop that might be harvested all at once (ex:entire heads of lettuce)
Extending your growing season by taking advantage of different seasons (ex: cool and warm)
Extending your harvest of certain crops that have a very small harvest window (ex:cilantro)
Extending your harvest by staggering the harvest windows (ex: different weeks for leaf lettuce harvests)
In all of these examples, harvest extension is the main theme. It is most important to note that all of these harvest extension techniques are possible in even the smallest of gardens, right down to a small pot. In fact, succession planting is even MORE important in small spaces since you do not have space to waste.
All that is required for succession planting is a PLAN.
What to Succession Plant?
Lettuce
Spinach
Arugula
Carrots
Radishes
Onions
Cilantro
Dill
Peas
Beans
However, there are plenty more that you can turn into succession plantings by simply planting at different times to stagger the maturation dates… like potatoes!
Seasonal Successions
This is perhaps the easiest way to start succession planting - simply take advantage of all of your growing seasons! Plant each of your seasons cool to warm to cool, as an example, in succession of one another. Luckily, most of the plants we typically encourage succession planting with are cool season plants making it incredibly easy to plant a cool, warm, cool succession.
Staggered Plantings of the Same Crop for Differing Maturation Times
Having 50 heads of lettuce or 50 carrots to harvest and deal with all at one time is not ideal, so staggering the schedule of when you plant these seeds will allow you to manage the harvest windows and also in the case of greens guarantee a steady supply of salads each week.
Here are two different ways this can be done:
Option 1 - Same area, but different rows. For example, in a single area mark off space for 4 rows of greens. Plant 1 row of greens the first week, and each week after you would plant the next row. This option requires remembering what space you are saving.
Option 2 - Plant new seeds each week but do this in whole containers so that you dont have to worry about remembering what space you need to save for later plantings. Or, if you have multiple raised beds just plant bed 1 the first week, bed 2 the second week, etc.
Interplanting Different Crops
When the summer hits but you still want to plant more greens, opt for planting a few seeds of fast growing small crops like lettuces, arugula, carrots, and radishes underneath nearby growing larger plants like peppers and squash. These quick growing small plants will grow alongside the larger plants for a brief window and will be ready to harvest by the time the larger plants start to really need the whole space.
