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Succession Planting: How to Harvest All Season

How to stagger sowings of fast crops so you pick fresh lettuce, beans, and radishes for months, not days.

Succession planting is the fix for the classic garden problem of feast and famine: forty heads of lettuce all ready the same week, then nothing. Instead of one big sowing, you sow a little, often. The result is a steady supply over months rather than a glut and a gap.

How it works

Pick a fast crop and sow a small batch every one to two weeks through its season. As one batch is harvested, the next is coming up behind it. Lettuce, radishes, bush beans, and carrots are ideal. Slow, single-harvest crops are not worth it.

Know when to stop

Every crop needs a certain number of days to mature. Count that many days back from your first fall frost, and that is your last useful sowing date. Sow after it and the crop runs out of season before it is ready. This is the kind of date Dibble tracks for you automatically, so you get a reminder to make each sowing and a note when the window is closing.

A simple rhythm: sow a short row of salad greens every two weeks from early spring until the heat of summer, then start again as it cools in late summer.

Common questions

What is succession planting?

Instead of sowing a whole crop at once, you sow small batches every week or two. That spreads the harvest over a long stretch rather than dumping it all in a single week.

Which crops suit it best?

Fast, pick-and-come-again crops: lettuce and salad greens, radishes, bush beans, carrots, spinach, and cilantro. Long-season crops like tomatoes are not worth succeeding.

When do I stop?

Count back from your first fall frost by the crop's days to maturity. If a sowing cannot mature before then, it is your last one for the year.


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