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Harvest to Table

A practical guide to food in the garden and market

Planning Succession Crops

Filed under: Gardening Tips, Tagged as: ,

Succession planting will allow you to plant several times throughout the growing season for a continuous supply of fresh vegetables.

 

To plan succession crops you must know two things:

• The number of weeks of growing season in your garden. The length of the growing season is the number weeks between the last frost in spring and the first frost in autumn. The local cooperative extension office can tell you the length of the growing season in your location or you can ask an experienced gardener at a nearby garden center.

• The number of weeks each crop you wish to grow requires to germinate, grow, and reach harvestable size. The chart below will help you make these calculations. Note the number of weeks a particular crop require in the garden can vary by variety--for example, some varieties of corn require more days to reach harvest than others.

 

So here is your succession cropping planning formula:

 

Number of days to harvest for Crop 1 + Number of days to harvest for Crop 2 = Total number of days in the garden. You can add Crop 3 as long as the total continues to be less than the number of days in the growing season.

One more note, growing seasons can be extended on either end by a few weeks with the use of season extenders: cloches, plastic tunnels, and cold frames. Season extenders keep the growing temperatures right for crops.

 

Here are some successions that would fill the same garden space for 7 to 8 months:

• Cabbage→ Green Onions→ Spinach

• Carrot→ Beets→ Peppers

• Lettuce → Peas → Turnips

• Radish → Corn → Winter Squash

• Snap Beans → Broccoli

• Kale → Cucumbers

• Melons → Pumpkins → Beets

• Broad Beans → Cauliflower

• Potatoes → Broccoli

• Spinach → Sweet Potatoes

• Asparagus → Summer Squash

• Green Onions → Garlic

• Corn → Rutabagas

• Chard → Melons → Endive

 

Use the following chart to help plan you garden successions. Note the harvest period can extend over several weeks, for example baby carrots are harvested well before mature carrots, and the number of weeks to maturity can vary by crop variety.

  

Vegetable

Weeks to maturity

Weeks in extended harvest period

Possible number of successions in 8 months

Plants per person each planting

Asparagus

seed: 4 yrs

root: 1 yr

8

1

5

Artichoke

perennial

8

1

1

Arugula

6

2-4

4

5

Beans, snap

8

6-10

2

15

Beans, shell

8-9

6-10

1-2

20

Beans, dried

9+

2

1

20

Beets

8-9

3-6

4

15

Broccoli

8-9

6

2

5

Brussels sprouts

11-13

6-10

1

2

Cabbage

9-16

4

2

2-3

Carrots

9-11

9-11

3

50

Cauliflower

8-12

2

2

1

Celery

12-16

11

2

5

Chard, Swiss

7-8

6-20

2

3

Chinese cabbage

7-12

4

3-4

5

Collards

12

8-16

2

5

Corn salad (mâche)

8-11

1-2

8

10

Corn, sweet

9-13

1

3

10-15

Cucumber

7-10

8

2

3

Eggplant

10-11

10

1

3

Escarole-endive

6-7

6

3

6

Florence fennel

9-13

6

3

10

Garlic

17-44

4

2

1-3

Horseradish

26

12-15

1

1

Kale

8-9

6-15

2

5

Kohlrabi

7-8

2

2

6

Leeks

19

6-15

1

10-25

Lettuce, leaf

6-12

3-6

4

8

Melons

12-17

6-10

1

3

Mustard greens

5-6

6-12

3

5

New Zealand spinach

10

6-12

1

3

Okra

7-8

6-12

1

5

Onions, bulb

14-17

6

1

20

Onions, bunching

8-17

6-12

1

20

Parsnips

15

6-15

1

12

Peas (snap and shell)

8-11

4-8

2

30-50

Peanuts

14-21

2-3

1

5-10

Peppers (sweet)

9-12

8-12

1

3

Peppers (hot)

9-11

8-12

1

1

Potatoes (Irish)

9-17

2-3

2

5

Pumpkins

14-16

4-6

1

1

Radicchio

12

5

1

10

Radish

3-9

1-2

8

12

Rutabaga

13

3-6

1

5

Salsify

17

6-15

1

12

Scallions

17-26

10-12

2

20-25

Shallots

9-17

4-6

2

3

Spinach

6-7

3-6

4

10

Squash, summer

7-10

6-12

2

1-2

Squash, winter

11-17

2-4

1

2

Sunchoke

17

8-16

1

4

Sunflower

10-11

2

1

2

Sweet potatoes

13-34

4-8

1

5

Tomatillos

17

6-15

1

1-2

Tomatoes

8-13

6-15

1

3

Turnips

5-10

2-4

2

3-5

Turnip greens

5

2-6

4

2-3

Watermelon

10-13

6-10

1

1

Zucchini

7-9

6-12

2

1

 

Related Articles:

Succession Planting

Quick Maturing Vegetable Crops  

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Posted by Stephen Albert on June 29, 2009 under: Gardening Tips , Tagged as: ,
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