Succession planting is a popular farming and gardening method which gets maximum harvest from limited space by immediately filling empty spaces with new seedlings or seeds. Succession planting Increases your harvest and is part of our biodiversity planting method.
Biodiversity and succession planting
First learn how to use the biodiversity planting method – not placing the same veggie types next to each other. Then add succession planting to your garden plan to increase your harvest by filling empty spaces as you harvest individual new plants throughout the season.
You need a planting calendar for your climate zone which will tell you when to plant and harvest. We provide a Planting Calendar Guide for the great Chicago area (Climate Zones 5b and 6a) since most Deep Roots gardeners are in the Chicago area. Ask your local state university agricultural extension for a planting calendar.
Fill empty spaces with a fresh seedling or plant seeds if there is enough space and enough sun.
Don’t fill an empty space with the same crop that was previously in that spot. This is important for some crops more than others.
Some crops can be planted more than once because they tolerate a range of temperatures and they need a shorter number of days to maturity. (See below a list of crops with short days to maturity.)
Replace crops that slow down production in mid-season by planting fresh young seedlings or new seeds.
Most root crops can only grow from seeds like beets, carrots, radishes. Other crops are healthier if grown from seeds like peas and beans. Carrots are harder to grow since their seeds are very tiny.
You can grow your own new seedlings from seeds in small pots outdoors or directly in your raised bed.
If you prefer growing from purchased seedlings check with your garden center when they will re-stock seedlings. Buy them young and healthy immediately after delivered to the store.
Buy seedlings before you have empty spots to make sure you have them when you need them.
Immediately re-pot purchased seedlings into 5” to 8” diameter pots filled with a mixture of our compost and worm castings so their roots can expand while you wait for empty spots. Keep the soil constantly moist.
Try NOT to buy seedlings that are unhealthy – “root bound” (tangled roots around the root ball), yellowing leaves and tiny fruit.
Benefits of fast maturing crops
The veggies with the “shortest days to maturity” have the least problems with pests and diseases. If you like planting veggies from seed outdoors or are a beginner and want to grow from seed for the first time, we encourage you to try our favorite veggie varieties that come to maturity quickly and can be harvested sooner. (See our list below)
Fast maturing crops have advantages for beginner gardeners. You don't have to wait long for results. If you wait the normal days to maturity for these crops your garden is more vulnerable to pests and diseases. It also frees up space to replant more diverse crops. We have a chance to start more new plants which we call “accelerating” the garden.
Below are examples of 9 fast growing veggies to grow from seed that you can order from seed catalogs online. High Mowing sells all organic seeds and Baker Creek includes unusual mostly organic selections. Order early since seed stock sometimes sell out. If you can’t find the varieties in our list, pick other ones with similar days to maturity. We normally don’t recommend garden supply companies, but in this case there are far too many seed companies, and we want you to start out with the highest quality.
Veggies with short days to maturity
Find seeds that have similar days to maturity as the ones listed below. Learn more about planting seeds in our 2 blog posts.
Beet: (40 days to maturity)
Fast maturing, scaled-down, but fully formed and full-flavored beet. Regular seed, not pelletedBroccolini: (33 days to maturity)
Fast maturing spring harvest mini-broccoli called “broccolini”Carrot: (34 days to maturity)
Baby carrot at early harvest can be left in the soil for another month for full-size harvest.Swiss Chard: (55 days to maturity)
Rainbow chard selection, develops all-season, just keep picking.Green Onion: (50 days to maturity)
A short season scallion.Lettuce: (54 days to maturity)
Butterhead lettuce type.Pea: (51 days to maturity)
A fast maturing sweet spring pea.Radish: (21 days to maturity)
Fastest of all crops.Spinach: (30 days to maturity)
Reliable early crop, full-leaved spinach.
Plant in FALL for spring germination
Plant garlic cloves and spinach seeds in fall for early spring germination. Plant garlic cloves in mid-October for a July harvest. Although the easiest time to plant spinach seeds is mid-November, you can also plant them in March when the ground thaws. Get larger spinach plants and bigger harvests when planting seeds in fall. The spinach seedlings don’t mind a little snow in March. Harvest spinach before warm weather starts which will cause it to go to seed (called ”bolting”) which makes the leaves bitter. Spinach is fully harvested on May 21 or earlier.
April planting and harvesting tips
If you plant spinach seeds in fall you will have lots of spinach seedlings by April. Gradually harvest the spinach by picking big leaves first. With the first sign of ”bolting” cut down all the spinach plants carefully on a dry sunny day. Do NOT pull up by the roots. Cut the stem at the soil level. Shake off any soil. Replant the area with your next crops – NOT more spinach.
Sensitivity to cold varies between spring crops. Crops that CAN NOT take a “hard freeze” (below 32 degrees for many hours) are lettuce, broccolini, radishes, carrots, Swiss chard, kale, leeks, green onions and more. If you plant around April 25 be prepared for a possible hard-freeze below 32 degrees by having “floating row cover” on hand. It’s a light-weight white fabric that boosts the temperature and lets in sun and water. Buy it online.
Plant new lettuce seeds every 2 weeks so your new crop is ready when the old crop has been harvested. Plant beets on April 21 all at once and begin harvesting in 60 days. Plant peas all at once on April 15 to harvest in early June. Check the planting calendar about planting from seeds or seedlings.
May planting and harvesting tips
Frost free dates in Zones 5b and 6a is May 10-15. We used to have a fixed date. But the destabilizing effect of climate change has changed all that. Add to the bed between May 1 and 15 at least 2 or 3 kinds of flowers and 2 or 3 kinds of herbs. They can be placed anywhere in the bed and must include marigolds and basil, but can also include dill, cilantro, parsley, arugula, ginger, nasturtiums, cosmos, sunflowers and calendula flowers. Check the planting calendar for other crops that can also be added in early May.
Put some large perennial herbs like sage and oregano in a large container cloth pot near the bed, but not in the bed. Sage and oregano are perennial in our climate zone 5b and 6a and will return next season if protected over winter with straw. Plant another perennial mint, near the raised bed in a large pot by itself since it is “invasive” (tends to take over all empty spaces).
In the raised beds start planting seeds and seedlings of the rest of the early May crops – tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, cabbage, lettuce, corn, bush beans and pole beans. Near the south side of the bed plant seeds of small crops in clusters (carrots, beets, radishes). Check the planting calendar for which crops must be planted from seed.
Water the soil before you place your tiny seeds. Gently water your seeds with a sprayer nozzle on your hose or watering can. Keep your seeds and seedlings constantly moist. Drip irrigation makes growing from seeds much much easier.
Plant the tiny carrot seeds about an inch apart. Try the “board trick” with tiny carrot seeds. Save watering time by placing a small board over a cluster of carrot seeds to stop evaporation. Carrots don’t need sun to germinate. Check them daily for germination. Remove the board when the first seed germinates. Pick some baby carrots to make room for some of the carrots to grow longer.
Plant in separate large containers or in separate raised beds the larger crops – cucumbers, summer squash, zucchini, winter squash (butternut, acorn, etc), and potatoes. They will take over and need lots of space. Grow them vertically on a trellis whenever possible. The separate pots or raised beds for very large plants need herbs and flowers on edges in spots where they get the most sun.
There is lots of sun in your entire bed until mid-June when the plants are still small and the garden lacks shade. Take advantage of the shade cast by large mature plants later in the season for crops like lettuce that don’t need lots of light and suffer from high heat (like lettuce).
June planting and begin harvesting
By mid-June you can begin to harvest the April plantings. Start your harvest of cherry tomatoes in late June and continue to harvest all season long.
Which plants to harvest in June and which to keep growing? For example, If you are still eating lots of kale and chard, keep these plants in the bed. If you are eating less of a crop, harvest it now and store it for later. As you harvest, fill empty spaces with warm weather salad greens (salad amaranth and New Zealand spinach), culinary herbs, bush beans, radishes, and carrots.
When harvesting leafy greens (kale, swiss chard, spinach, lettuce, collards) harvest the largest outer leaves first to make more room for neighboring plants. Plants NOT in the same biodiversity family group could touch each other since diseases and pests prefer one plant family.
The first exception to the rule of NOT planting the same plant variety as neighbors is spinach in the fall or spring. It’s the only popular leafy green veggie that will grow in cold temperatures.
The second exception to the neighbors rule applies to clusters of small crops like carrots, beets, radishes, green onions, broccolini. Plant seeds in small clusters (8” diameter area) and rows (8” long) of small plants along the southern edge of your bed and containers to maximize sunlight and avoid shadows cast by larger plants.
Plant large plants like zucchini, squash and cucumbers in large cloth or wood containers (about 2 feet in diameter and 15” tall) because these big plants take up too much raised bed space. But, if you have a huge garden with lots of raised beds, dedicate some of the beds to large plants with lots of flowers and herbs around the edges or in small pots around the exterior of the bed. But remember that the small pots will need more attention and frequent watering. Try to set up irrigation for them. Although it’s okay if the huge leaves of vining squash plants overflow onto a deck or lawn it is better to grow vertically in limited space. My butternut squash sprawling on my lawn didn’t hurt the lawn at all. Spray with a OMRI certified fungicide to prevent and manage powdery mildew.
Vining plants like peas, pole beans, and tomatoes need a way to grow vertically. Plant them at the north side of a raised bed or container so they don’t shade the other plants. Learn more about vertical growing in an upcoming post.
August planting for a fall harvest
Some plants that were planted earlier in the season that you have already harvested can actually be planted again - in a “second-round”. Sometimes, if planted in the hotter time of year, harvested in the cool temperatures, the plants are sweeter and more tender.
Timing is key. Start early to think about what comes next after their beautiful summer veggies have been eaten. They should think about what to plant now and when to plant. This is determined by how long it will take before the veggie matures. Getting the timing down to finish one harvest and start growing for another takes time and experience. It is an art. You don’t want to plant a veggie that takes a long time to mature, and risk it failing due to frost.
Weather is unpredictable, especially now during climate change. Any plant that we suggest for August planting could be overwhelmed by an unexpected heat wave. Best to choose veggies that love both hot and cool weather. Plant more than one of each crop – so, if one doesn’t make it – you’ve got some others!
“Grow Your Own Food” blog posts
See the full list of our Grow Your Own Food blog posts. Each post is assigned ”tags” which are under the post title. If you need a quick answer to a gardening question give us a call or send a text to our customer support team – support[at]deep-roots-project.org AND 708-655-5299.
Deep Roots online store
See our online store for details about prices, ordering and delivery of raised beds, planter boxes, microbe-rich compost, worm castings, leaf mulch and more. We don’t sell traditional soil, since we use 100% compost as our growing medium. Our online store has 2 sections – (1) raised beds and planter boxes and (2) compost, worm castings, fertilizer.
Please contact our customer support team before placing an order online so we can assist you with the details and answer your gardening questions. You can pay by credit card in the store or by check.
(708) 655-5299 and support[at]deep-roots-project.org
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