How to Succession Plant for Continuous Harvest
Re-sow salad greens and quick crops on a schedule: count back from first frost using days-to-harvest plus your re-sow interval.
Published by ThriveThyme
succession planting continuous harvest fall planting first frost sow schedule
How to Succession Plant for Continuous Harvest
Succession planting means sowing the same crop more than once so harvests overlap instead of arriving in one glut. Use your first frost date, the crop's days-to-harvest, and a re-sow interval—not a national calendar.
Open the Succession Desk calculator to turn those numbers into upcoming sow dates.
The Formula
1. Set or confirm your first frost date in My Garden. 2. Note days-to-harvest for the crop (catalog value on plant pages such as lettuce or radish). 3. Last useful sow ≈ first frost − days-to-harvest (add a small buffer only for crops that tolerate light frost). 4. From today until that last sow, repeat every interval (for example lettuce every 10–14 days).
Details and buffers: Last succession sow before frost. Interval table: Succession planting intervals for common crops.
What Works Best
Fast, cut-and-come-again, or short-season crops: lettuce, spinach, arugula, radish, bush bean, beet, carrot, cilantro, bok choy, kale, Swiss chard. Long single-fruit crops (most tomatoes) are poorer succession candidates outdoors.
What Not to Do
- Do not invent a frost date—use My Garden or a nearby Extension/station average.
- Do not keep sowing frost-tender beans after the last useful sow.
- Do not treat zone alone as a sow calendar; frost timing varies inside a zone.
Next Steps
Run Succession Desk, check What to plant now, then order packets via Seeds Now links on the hub when you need seed.
Sources
- Home-garden Extension guidance on succession sowing and counting back from average first frost
- Catalog days-to-harvest as planning estimates, not guarantees for your yard