Succession Planting

Succession planting allows you to maximize yield through strategic planting. Gardeners may plant early in the season with cool-season crops and as those crops are harvested, replace them with warm-season crops and return to cool-season crops again in the fall, so that the garden is continually in production. Another option involves planting smaller amounts of one crop, such as beans, every few weeks so that the harvest continues throughout the season. Alternatively, a gardener could plant different varieties of the same crop with different maturity dates, so each variety would ripen at staggered times throughout the season.

Experienced gardeners may mix strategies from each of these options to maximize harvest with a variety of crops depending on their goals for the production season. An example would be planting early crops and replacing them as they are harvested, but also choosing to stagger plantings of a crop or choosing to plant both early and late varieties of a crop.

Benefits of Succession Planting

Planting throughout the entire growing season maximizes the yield of a garden space while allowing production of both cool- and warm-season crops. Planning is essential to maintain a continuous supply of fresh vegetables; lay out the year’s schedule and map the garden, if necessary. Adjust the plan next year if you would like to try something different. Some basic principles to follow:

• Cool-season crops include beets, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, carrots, greens, kale, lettuce (check variety), peas, radishes, spinach, Irish potatoes and turnips. Some of these, such as many varieties of lettuce as peas, cannot tolerate heat. Most are “one and done” crops, meaning that the entire plant is removed at harvest, such as cabbage, carrots and beets. Those, such as peas, that continue to produce will do so for a short period of a few weeks.
• Warm season crops include beans, cantaloupe, corn, eggplant, peppers, squash, sweet potatoes, tomatoes and watermelon. These can be planted after the last expected frost date for your area.
• When cool-season crops are harvested, plant warm-season crops; when warm-season crops are harvested, plant cool-season crops, if you desire to do so. (The exception to this is a short maturing crop, like radishes, which can mature in as little as 25 days, so you may get multiple crops in the cool season.)
• If you are planting the same crop with a staggered harvest date, choose early, mid- and late maturing varieties of the same crop and plant at the same time. This works well with vegetables such as sweet corn, beans, tomatoes and cabbage.
• If you prefer to plant smaller amounts of the same vegetable varieties, stagger plantings seven to 14 days apart to spread the harvest out. As each set of plants finish production, a new set will start producing. This works well for crops such as cabbage, lettuce, onions, radishes and spinach
• Variety is important; once temperature warms, some varieties cannot handle the heat of summer, while others are tolerant. Gardeners may desire to use space for a warm-season crop, such as summer squash, instead or use a heat-tolerant spinach, for instance.

Table 1. Planting Calendar for Garden and Open-Field Vegetable Crops in West Virginia from WV Garden Calendar

If you aren’t interested in preserving your produce, succession planting can help continue the harvest for a longer period throughout the season. For those interested in learning more about canning, WVU Extension has an extensive library of canning videos and publications available.

Determining the Amount to Plant Per Person

The quantity to plant will depend upon the size of your family, whether you intend to preserve any of it and your family’s personal taste preferences. Planning is important. A few well-tended plants in a raised bed will out-produce an entire garden that is abandoned in a drought, so only take on what you can manage and choose vegetables you enjoy. Some produce, such as potatoes and winter squash, will do well in a cool, dry environment for several months. Others can easily be frozen, like corn, beans, Brussels sprouts and peas, or canned, such as tomatoes, pumpkin, cucumbers and beets. Many vegetables have multiple options for long term storage or can be cooked in your favorite soup, sauce or other recipe as another option, which can help save on your winter grocery budget and increase your family’s vegetable consumption.

Table 2. Expected Yield and Amount to Plant Per Person

Jodi Richmond, WVU Extension Agent – Mercer County

References

Planting Times determined from WVU Extension Garden Calendar (2020) WVU Extension

Days to Maturity from 2015 Vegetable Production Guide (2015). Vegetable Varieties Recommended for West Virginia. Dr. Lewis Jett, WVU Extension Commercial Horticulture Specialist

Vegetable Yields and Planting Time Chart adapted from Kansas State University Agriculture Experiment Station and Cooperative Extension Vegetable Garden Planting Guide (1992) Charles Marr, Extension Specialist

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