Succession planting means starting a new flat of lettuce or other greens every 2-3 weeks, so that as one crop finishes another is ready and no bed sits empty. Write the dates down, count the sowings the season needs, and lengthen the gap in the dark months when growth slows.
A succession schedule is a written plan of staggered sowings that turns one big harvest into a steady supply.
A Gap In The Bed Is Wasted Sunlight; A Glut Is Wasted Food
If you sow a whole bed of lettuce on one day, it ripens together, bolts together and rots together. Staggered sowings spread the harvest over weeks. In a greenhouse the logic is stronger still: every empty square meter wastes the solar energy the structure collected. The sowing interval of 2-3 weeks is the rule of thumb for fast greens; slower crops want longer gaps.
What You Need
- A calendar, paper or notched sticks, and a place to record what was sown and where
- Seed for several sowings, kept dry and cool — see Seed Storage
- Flats or a seedbed for starting plants while the beds are still occupied
- The days-to-maturity for each crop, from your own records or the seed source
Method: Build The Schedule
Step 1: Count the growing weeks. Count the weeks between the earliest safe sowing and the end of the season.
Step 2: Choose the gap. For greens, use 2-3 weeks. Divide the season’s weeks by the gap to get the number of sowings.
Step 3: Keep the next batch ready. Sow in flats while the current crop is still growing, then transplant when a space opens. This removes the weeks of bare soil.
Step 4: Record and adjust. Note sowing dates and first harvest dates. In dark, cold months crops take longer to mature; stretch the interval to match what the records show.
Step 5: Rotate within the bed. Do not follow a crop with its close relatives; see Crop Rotation.
Worked Example
A 20-week season sown every 2 to 3 weeks. At 2 weeks: 20 / 2 = 10 sowings. At 3 weeks: 20 / 3 = 6.7, so 7 sowings (the seventh falls in week 18). How long each flat can be harvested is an input from your own records, not a fixed value; the count above only tells you how many flats you will start.
Common Mistakes
- Sowing the whole bed at once — it ripens together and spoils.
- Using one gap all year — growth slows in winter, so a 2-week gap in summer stretches to 3 or more in winter.
- Not recording — next year you cannot repeat what worked.
What’s Next
- Learn next: Pest & Disease Management — keeping the crop alive between sowings
- Combine with: Seasonal Planning — fitting sowings to the whole year