June In-Depth How-To:
Increase your vegetable production with Succession Planting
Many beginner gardeners plant their crops in the spring, harvest the vegetables, then clean up the garden and wait till next year to start all over again. It is very easy to get more enjoyment, not to mention more production out of your garden. Try succession planting for a constant supply of fresh produce all summer (and into autumn) long. No matter where you live, you can harvest at least two crops from the same area of the garden during the growing season.
Divide the crops you will be growing into two different categories : cool weather and warm weather crops. Crops that do well in cool weather include: beets, broccoli, cabbage, carrots, celery, kohlrabi, lettuce, parsnips, peas, radish, spinach, mustard greens, kale, turnips and swiss chard. Plant these varieties as early in the growing season as possible for your area of the country. After you have harvested these varieties from the garden, follow up by planting your warm weather vegetables.
Warm weather vegetables include: beans, corn, cucumbers, eggplant, melons, okra, peppers, pumpkins, squash, tomatoes and watermelons. In a few areas of the country, a third planting of the cool weather crops can be planted again in the fall. Below are some examples of succession planting.
In many areas of the southern US, the growing season can be over 230 days.
Start by planting lettuce, spinach or other cool weather crops that can be harvested in 60 to 75 days. Follow that with a planting of beans or cucumbers (these also mature in about 60 to 75 days). This will still leave you with about 70 days for a late planting of root crops, cole crops or greens. Or as a second crop, you can plant corn, tomatoes, melons etc. and still have these mature by the end of the season.
In the northern areas of the country, you also can get two crops out of the same section of the garden. With as little as 150 days in the season, you can plant an early maturing lettuce or radish and follow with a crop of beans. In northern states with a longer growing season, tomatoes, melons, corn, etc. can all be planted after you have harvested the earlier crops of lettuce, spinach and cole crops.
Just remember, in order to plan succession planting, you have to know how many days each variety takes to mature and how long your growing season is. Also, do not plant members of the same family in succession, as this could put a strain on your soil’s resources. More on this aspect of vegetable gardening, known as ‘Crop Rotation’ in a future issue of the Journal.