How Does Succession Planting Work?

Succession planting involves staggering your planting by only sowing a portion every two to three weeks. This will maximise the harvest from your garden as instead of your entire crop maturing at the one time, resulting in a surplus of produce followed by a sparseness, there will be a steady stream of crops maturing over the season.

Succession planting is best undertaken with fast growing veges such as:

• Radish - quick growing varieties mature in as little as three weeks, making radishes great plants to grow in succession. Longer growing varieties can also be planted at the same time as quick growing varieties to achieve a staggered harvest. The harvest window for radishes is short, with roots becoming tough and woody in a few days past ideal harvest, so staggered maturity times can help to combat this.

• Lettuce - maturing to full size in as little as six weeks over the summer months, the secret to having a constant supply of lush lettuce leaves is planting successively. As lettuce can go to seed quickly in the warmer weather, it’s recommended you sow every two weeks and harvest regularly.

• Cucumber - while cucumber plants repeatedly produce over the season, pests or diseases such as mildew can be a factor. Succession planting allows one or two plants to be productive at all times, with planting once a month or so recommended.

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• Gardening