Succession Planting & A Steady Harvest, Not One Glut

Succession (or relay) planting is sowing the same crop in several small batches spaced a week or two apart, instead of all at once. Each batch matures a little after the last, so you pick a steady supply over many weeks rather than facing one enormous glut you can't use before it spoils. It's the standard trick for kitchen-garden vegetables and cut flowers.

Number of sowings = ⌊supply period ÷ interval⌋ + 1. If you want fresh produce for 8 weeks and sow every 2 weeks, that's ⌊8 ÷ 2⌋ + 1 = 5 sowings. The first batch starts the supply and each later batch extends it by one interval, so you always need one more sowing than the number of intervals.

Match the interval to how fast the crop matures and how long picking lasts. Fast salad crops like lettuce, radish and rocket suit 7–14 day intervals; slower crops like beans or beetroot suit 2–3 weeks. A shorter interval gives a smoother supply but needs more sowings, plots and labour — pick the rhythm you can actually keep up.

If you split one plot evenly, area per sowing = total area ÷ number of sowings. So a 30 m² bed across 5 sowings is 6 m² each. Dividing the space keeps every batch a sensible size to harvest before the next comes in, rather than over-committing the whole bed to a single planting.

Stop in time for the last batch to mature before the season closes — frost for warm-season crops, or heat that bolts cool-season crops. Count back the crop's days-to-maturity from your first frost or hot spell; the last useful sowing date is that point minus the growing time. The tool stops scheduling once the supply period ends.

Yes — it's how growers keep a continuous supply of stems for bouquets and markets. Single-stem crops like sunflowers and stocks are sown every 1–2 weeks so a fresh flush opens each week. Cut-and-come-again types like zinnias and cosmos need fewer sowings because one planting keeps producing for weeks.

Yes — the same interval logic schedules staggered field plantings so a processor or market gets even weekly deliveries instead of one harvest peak. Enter the weeks you want to supply and your planting interval, and it lays out the dates to drill each block so maturity is spread across the window.

Crops sown later in spring often catch up because warmer soil speeds growth, so batches can mature closer together than the interval suggests. Tighten the interval slightly in the cool early season and widen it as it warms, and re-check against actual harvest dates — succession planting is a plan you adjust by observation.

A single sowing matures all at once, giving a brief glut you can't eat, sell or store, followed by weeks with nothing. Staggered sowings convert that spike into a steady stream, smoothing your supply, your kitchen and your labour, and reducing waste from produce that passes its best before you reach it.

They're a solid schedule to work to. Real maturity shifts with weather, soil temperature, variety and how you manage the crop, so treat the dates as targets and keep records of actual sowing and picking. Adjust the next round's interval from what you observe — succession planting is steering toward a steady supply, not exact prediction.