Succession Planting

May 2, 2023

The benefit of succession planting is the guarantee you’ll continually produce a supply of the “easy crops”. It’s great for gardeners who want to grow and harvest continuously throughout the season.

The concept of succession planting can be broken down into three main techniques to ensure your success.

Pull Some, Plant Some

As soon as plants are ready to harvest pull them out and replant. It’s as simple as that: harvest (pull the bolted plants). Then aerate the soil and replenish nutrients by forking in some compost or Ancient Soil and planting another plant.

Remember The Sun

When planting in the heat of summer, it's important to keep the soil surface consistently moist. If the soil were to dry out, you may run into the risk of newly sprouted seeds dying and having to start the process again.

A general rule is that seeds planted outdoors in late summer should be sown twice as deep as when you planted them in the spring.

Planting The Right Crops

Plants that thrive in cool weather include lettuce, spinach and arugula, carrots, beets, broccoli, Swiss chard, kale, and all kinds of Asian greens, and these plants are perfect to choose when succession planting. They do very well at the end of the harvest season when temperatures may drop more than some plants are happy with.

Make sure to also choose disease-resistant varieties that mature quickly. You don’t want to do all this work for nothing!

I made this chart below as an easy reference guide. Remember to plan out your harvest cycle so when you harvest you can go ahead and throw in what works best. Start with the crops that need a longer maturity level to ensure that they reach maturity before the first frost date.

Sow Every 1-2 Weeks

Plant Up To

Baby Lettuce

4 weeks before first frost

Radish

4 weeks before first frost

Salad Mix

4 weeks before first frost

Spinach

6 weeks before first frost

Bok Choy

6 weeks before first frost

Full Head Lettuce

8 weeks before first frost

Bush Beans

8 weeks before first frost

Peas

8 weeks before first frost

Sow Every 2 Weeks

Plant Up To

Arugula

6 weeks before first frost

Turnip

6 weeks before first frost

Beets

8 weeks before first frost

Rutabaga

10 weeks before first frost

Corn

10 weeks before first frost

Sow Every 3-4 Weeks

Plant Up To

Kale

6 weeks before first frost

Collard Green

6 weeks before first frost

Carrots

8 weeks before first frost

Cucumbers

10 weeks before first frost

Sow Every 4-6 Weeks

Plant Up To

Summer Squash

8 weeks before first frost

Swiss Chard

10 weeks before first frost

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Pull Some, Plant Some

Remember The Sun