Succession Planting: Never Feast or Famine Again
One of the most common beginner mistakes is sowing an entire packet of lettuce at once and then having 30 heads ready simultaneously — far more than any family can eat. Succession planting solves this by staggering sowings for a continuous harvest.
Best Crops for Succession Planting
- Lettuce and salad greens: Sow every 2-3 weeks from early spring to early fall
- Radishes: Every 2 weeks from spring through fall — ready in just 25-30 days
- Bush beans: Every 3 weeks from last frost until mid-summer
- Cilantro: Every 3 weeks — it bolts fast in heat so frequent sowings are essential
- Spinach: Every 2-3 weeks in spring and again in fall (skip the hot summer months)
- Carrots: Every 3-4 weeks from spring to mid-summer
How to Plan Successions
Calculate the days to maturity for each crop and your desired harvest window. If lettuce takes 45 days and you want fresh lettuce every week, plant a small batch every 7-10 days. Use a calendar or Seedtojar to set reminders.
Relay Planting
Another form of succession: as one crop finishes, immediately replant the space with another. Spring peas can be followed by summer beans, which can be followed by fall kale. This approach maximizes production from every square foot.
Interplanting
Sow fast-maturing crops between slow-growing ones. Radishes between rows of carrots, lettuce around tomato transplants. The quick crops are harvested before the slow crops need the space, effectively doubling your output.
Seedtojar's calendar feature tracks succession planting schedules and notifies you when it is time for the next sowing, so you always have fresh produce coming along.