Succession Planting: An Introduction

Succession planting combines clever planning and sowing to maximize growing potential, making the most of each gardening season, from last to first frost. It incorporates various practices depending on your growing goals and harvest expectations. Simply put however, there are two main strategies: to plant the same plants in intervals for continuous harvest or to plant different vegetables in succession. Furthermore, this gardening technique ensures a steady and manageable harvest that’s spread out. If you’re just beginning your gardening journey you may be unfamiliar with this term–and while it does introduce more complexity, we encourage all green thumbs, new or seasoned to explore this method.

Succession Planting the Same Plants

This system works best for vegetables and plants that have shorter-growing seasons and grow well directly from seed. Succession planting the same plants operates best by utilizing intervals. This ensures so your next generation is well on their way before the first bolts or flowers reducing interruption to harvest.

Julie Notes: It’s important to note that in some gardening zones you must consider cool-season crops, ex., many of the leafy greens should only be successively planted in the spring and fall and swapped for other plants in the hotter months. Generally, roots vegetables are additionally considered cool-season crops, however if you purchase a heat-tolerant variety you can continue through the hottest months.

Interval Length	Planting
7-days	Radishes* (regular and french), Spinach, Lettuce, Arugula*
14-days	Basil, Bok Choy*, Dill, Peas
21-days to 4 weeks	Cucumbers, Carrots, Beets, Kale
6-weeks	Zucchini, Summer Squash

Additional Notes

While the interval lengths are a guide they’re not a strict rule and should at the forefront be customized to your calendar. Purchase enough seeds in the Spring to get you through the season as often nurseries and garden centers stop carrying product in the summer months. Start small to not overwhelm yourself or your garden, practising succession planting with 1-2 favourites. Finally, have a good plan of what you’ll do with any extra harvest you can’t immediately consume.

Succession Planting Different Plants

In this method we maximize continuous harvests of different crops playing to their cool/hot weather preferences. In some case you may be able to plant 2-3 successive crops depending on weather conditions and the growing season. While there are several directions and options, the following is an example of succession planting through the 3 seasons:

Spring	Summer	Fall
Spinach (can be started prior to first frost)	Cucumber	Arugula
Beets	Zucchini	Spinach
Lettuce	Peppers	Radish
Onions	Cauliflower	Radish
Peas (can be started prior to first frost)	Summer Squash	Lettuce
Early Season Potatoes (will grow into the summer)	N/A	Leeks (planted mid-late summer)
Kale	Cucumber	Mizuna Greens
Radish	Bush Beans	Broccoli

Important Takeaways

Some seasons you’ll be able to fit 3 successions while in others 2 might be a struggle, it all depends on the weather and the conditions. As mentioned above many items are not readily available past June. Be prepared. Have all the seeds for the entire growing season you require. It can also be beneficial to start your next succession indoors a few weeks prior to the first harvests.

While this post serves as an introduction to succession planting, we do hope to revisit this topic in greater detail and complexity in a future installment of the Wild Blog. We wish all our gardeners a bountiful and beautiful season and harvest. P.s., if you don’t already, be sure to follow us on Pinterest and Instagram.