Plant Early spring veggies, but don’t forget to save space for round two!
It is so exciting when spring vegetable starts begin to fill the shelves! Beets, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, lettuce, Swiss chard, peas, seed potatoes and shallots are just to name a few. With all these great crops it is easy to fill up your whole garden in one day.
However, we want to remind you to save some space for replanting fast maturing crops (such as lettuce) for a continual harvest. This practice is commonly referred to as “succession planting”, and will help you maximize the harvest season by continually planting new areas of varieties that will ripen sequentially.
Succession Planting Tips
- Some crops, such as potatoes, tomatoes and squash, you only plant once.
- Fast maturing crops such as leafy greens, annual herbs and some root crops are the easiest to keep in production with succession planting. Use the "Suggested Plantings" boxes in the full article to times to plant your crops.
- Crops planted from starts will mature faster than the same crop planted from seed.
- Most seeds require soil temperatures of 50-55ºF to sprout. Starts tolerate slightly cooler soils.
- The increasing day length is another factor influencing the time between plantings: Marvel of Four Seasons Lettuce may take 60 days to mature when planted in March but only 30 days to mature when planted in May.
- It is important to utilize varieties that can withstand lower temperatures and possible frosts at the beginning or end of the season.
- At the start of summer, utilize varieties that are heat tolerant to minimize bolting and bitterness of leafy crops.
- Fall and winter crops such as Brussels sprouts and cabbage are best planted in late June early July from seed or in July and August from starts.
