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This is positively farming media.
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Well, welcome back my gardening friends, to another episode of
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Just Grow Something. I am so glad that you are here.
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If you are new here, welcome. I am your host, Karen Velez, and
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my mission is to make you a better gardener and a better
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eater. Not by just teaching the how of
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gardening, but also the why behind it.
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And today is no exception. We're talking late summer
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succession planting. I think succession planting gets
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a lot of attention in the early part of the season when we're
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sort of fresh and the garden is new and we're not beat down by
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like weather or pests or diseases or the endless pulling
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of weeds. But we often tend to forget
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about it toward the hottest part of the year when we're feeling
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worn out and the garden's looking a little worn out.
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And This is why having a garden plan that goes from the spring
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all the way through into the fall, that is detailed out and
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maybe even, you know, it has notes into the winter because
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it's laid out for us and it doesn't require thought, just
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effort. Succession planting really is a
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really valuable technique for us to ensure a continuous harvest
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throughout the entire summer and then into the fall.
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By staggering plantings of certain crops, we can extend the
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growing. Season and maximize our yields.
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So today we'll talk about some important things we need to
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know, specifically about summer succession planting, what crops
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are most suitable to a late succession, timing techniques,
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and how to use intercropping with your succession planting to
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make the most of the space that you have.
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Let's dig in. Hey, I'm Karen and I started
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gardening 18 years ago in a small corner of my suburban
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backyard when we moved to A5 acre homestead.
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I expanded that garden to half an acre and I found such joy and
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purpose in feeding my family and friends.
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This newfound love for digging in the dirt and providing for
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others prompted my husband and I to grow our small homestead into
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a 40 acre market farm. When I went back to school to
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get my degree in horticulture, I discovered there is so much.
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Power in food. And I want to share everything
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I've learned with as many people as possible.
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On this podcast we explore crop information, soil health.
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Pests and diseases. Plant nutrition, our own
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nutrition, and so much more in the world of food and gardening.
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So grab your garden. Journal and a cup of coffee and
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get ready. To just grow something before we
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jump into summer successions, it is not too late to sign up for
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my Fall Garden Challenge. The first emails went out Monday
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and we will continue with those emails for five straight days.
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Don't worry if you're late signing up.
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I will get them to you right away and you will start in the
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same place as everyone else. Just go to
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justgrowsomethingpodcast.com/fall to get signed up.
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I will put a link to that in the show description.
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It is absolutely free and is designed to take you from zero
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to finished in just five days. So I think first we need to
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understand the concept of succession planting, right?
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Succession planting is either direct sewing or transplanting
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new crops at regular intervals throughout the growing season.
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So as one crop is harvested or it reaches the end of its life
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cycle, the next match is already ready to take its place.
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So this keeps the garden productive and means that we get
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a continuous supply. We have a steady harvest all
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season long. Now this of course is going to
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change throughout the season and we often think of spring as a
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really good time for multiple successions because you know,
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these are cool season, usually pretty fast maturing crops,
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things like radishes and leafy greens.
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Those who just make themselves very easily conducive to
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planting multiple successions. But summer crops can also be
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planted successfully, and this is actually often a really good
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idea in terms of things like insect pressure or if we have
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short harvest windows. Or maybe we have issues with
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uncooperative weather or just like a desire to get the
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absolute most out of our summer season.
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So of course not all crops are going to be suitable for summer
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succession plantings. Mostly we want to focus on those
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fast maturing vegetables that can be harvested relatively
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quickly and that are well suited for multiple plantings during a
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warm season. So.
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The most common summer crops are often green beans.
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In some areas that's only early and late successions.
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Sometimes, especially here, it's too hot and they don't do well
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in the middle of the summer. But things like summer squashes
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like zucchini and yellow squash, and certain varieties of
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cucumbers, we in this area specifically do a lot of
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succession plantings with squashes and cucumbers because
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we have such problems with squash vine bores and cucumber
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beetles and squash bugs at that take out our plants fairly
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quickly. So we've found that doing
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succession plantings actually ensures that we continue to get
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a harvest all season. We can also plant sweet corn in
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succession to be sure that we're harvesting pretty regularly for
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fresh use and then maybe having some left for freezing or
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canning. But even determinate tomatoes
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can be grown in succession, so determinate tomatoes generally
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have a pretty short number of days to maturity and then
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they're done. So if you start new ones after
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you have planted the first ones, you will have plants that you
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can put in the ground to overlap as far as the maturity dates are
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concerned. So determinate tomatoes are
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generally easier to maintain. You don't have to prune as much
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or at all really, and they're easy to stake and keep
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contained. So if you don't have a ton of
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room for tomatoes. You can plant one or two,
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determinate tomatoes and get lots of tomatoes all at once
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over the course of a couple of weeks, and at the same time
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you're harvesting off of those You can plant a couple more that
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will mature later on and then once that first set is done you
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can pull the plants and make room for other things.
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This also often leaves less chance for like diseases to take
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hold if you are in a high risk area for tomato diseases.
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So since those determinate tomatoes are only going to be in
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place for, I don't know, maybe 6570 days and then they're going
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to be done, you have a better chance of getting them to
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maturity and getting a harvest out of them and then just
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planting A succession. So you know, crops that are
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suitable for summer successions don't necessarily have to be
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those really fast maturing ones. That's a big difference between
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a summer succession and say a spring or fall one.
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Of course, timing is going to be crucial.
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For a successful summer succession planting, even more
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so, I think, than for a spring or even a fall garden.
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So you're going to want to plan your planting schedule based on
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the average temperatures and weather conditions during the
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summer for your area. You know, a lot of the time it's
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pretty easy to give a blanket statement of, Oh well, you know,
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spring successions, those things like radishes and leafy greens.
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Our general recommendations for most areas, but your summer
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successions are going to vary depending on where you are.
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So, for example, many of our southern US gardeners have to
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plant green bean successions very early and then delay their
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late green beans until very late summer, almost fall because the
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heat Midsummer is just too much for those beans to be able to be
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productive, but conversely to that.
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Our more northern growers in the US may be able to do multiple
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successions all through the summer, so they have no break in
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the harvest. But those growers likely have a
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shorter growing season overall, which means you guys will have
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to pay attention to the number of actual frost free days that
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you have in your area and make sure that that last summer
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planting isn't done so late that the temperatures are starting to
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get too cool for them to be able to be productive.
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So the way that we do this. Is by making a planting calendar
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to keep track of when we are supposed to sow or transplant
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each one of these crops during the summer and then to keep
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track of the specific maturity dates of the crops that we're
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sowing. So you know, yes, vast maturing
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crops are going to be the best candidates for this.
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If you're doing successive plantings, especially if you
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have really extreme summer conditions on one side or the
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other, you're really not going to plan on multiple plantings.
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Of something like an heirloom tomato that takes like 80 days
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to get to maturity and then we'll actually continue to keep
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producing all the way until fall.
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That's not what we're talking about here.
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We're talking about things that generally are one and done or
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you know, only can be harvested off of for a couple of weeks and
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then those plants have reached maturity and they're just not
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useful anymore. So they can be pulled out and
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can be replaced by something else.
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When we come back, I will go over some techniques for summer
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successions, including successions that are planted all
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at once and how to use intercropping to expand the
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garden right after this. So there are three different
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ways that we can do succession planting.
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The first one is direct soaking, so for things like green beans.
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You would want to sow small batches of those seeds every
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couple of weeks while the weather is conducive, and again
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paying attention to how fast those are going to get to
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maturity and what your late summer weather is going to be
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like now for things like. Zucchini or yellow squash or
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cucumbers that have longer harvest periods but you know are
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going to be taken out by insect pests or disease like we do
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here. Then you can delay sowing those
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seeds to maybe every four weeks. So this is how we make sure we
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have those crops all summer long.
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No matter what the pest problem is, we will do an initial
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planting in the spring. That's usually transplants that
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will go into the ground. Sometimes it's directly from
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seed. But if I do them from
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transplants, I can go ahead and sow seeds directly at the same
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time that I'm planting those transplants.
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And that way I know about a month later I'm going to have
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more mature plants that are coming on the heels of the first
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batch. And then since the summer heat
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has worn that soil and there is no need for me to start them
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indoors. I can come back in again 4 weeks
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later and just pop those seeds in the ground and germination
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only takes a couple of days and then I have gotten 3 successive
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plantings of zucchini or yellow squash or cucumbers or all three
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and insured myself a continuous harvest.
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Now the 2nd way to do this is with doing transplants.
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So you can do this with those other ones like zucchini or
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yellow squash. But really what I'm thinking
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about things are here are things that prefer to be started early
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or indoors. So things like those determinate
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tomatoes or maybe broccoli or other brassicas if you're in an
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area that has fairly cool summers and you can do
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successive plantings of cauliflower, broccoli, cabbage,
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that sort of thing. You will need to start the new
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seedlings indoors, start them in batches, and then transplant
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them as space becomes available in the garden according to the
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calendar that you've created and based on the weather.
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And this is the other thing that's kind of important to pay
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attention to. Don't make yourself a plan and
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then just stick to it without taking it into consideration
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what is going on around you. So, for example, I'm supposed to
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be planting A succession of collard greens this week.
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But the temperatures are supposed to be in the one
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hundreds plus Fahrenheit, so that is not conducive for any
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type of transplanting. So I'm going to hold off, I'm
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going to leave them in their pots until it cools off a little
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next week and then plant them then now a few weeks after that,
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I'll be moving on to fall planting.
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And there's another younger batch of collards that will
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follow the final summer succession.
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And so there is a little bit of a fine line sometimes between.
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Whether it's a summer succession or a fall crop, and the way that
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I sort of delineate that is, is late summer successions are
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intended to be harvested well before your first frost comes in
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or your daylight hours start to drop.
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This is truly something that you are trying to get planted during
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the summer, harvested during the late summer or very early fall,
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and the whole reason for it is to just sort of extend the
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summer season. To me, a fall crop really is
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intended to be just that. It's grown through the fall,
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it's harvested late in the fall, it very well may be prepared for
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overwintering, and so it's not something that I'm going to
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plant multiples of usually, unless it is one of those very,
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very fast maturing things like the leafy greens.
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But even then I don't do a whole lot of succession planting in
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the fall. I'd use successive varieties,
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which is sort of the 3rd way that you can do succession
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planting. So some crops have varieties
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with varying maturity dates, so lettuces oftentimes will have
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some that are ready within 35 to 40 days, and then there's other
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ones that are more of the head type lettuces that may take 55
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to 60 days. You can choose different
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varieties to stagger the harvest times based on how long it takes
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them to get to maturity. And you don't have to worry
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about starting successive plants or remembering when to plant
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them all. You just start them all at once,
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plant them all at the same time, and then let them mature at
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their own pace and harvest as they come ready.
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This is a great tactic that cuts down on the workload a little
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bit. Generally use this as a sort of
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spring slash summer combo when it comes to my cabbages.
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So there are my TR cabbages which are the small mini heads
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that mature very, very quickly. And then I will generally plant
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at least two to three other varieties that will come to
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maturity all throughout the late spring into the summer and even
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into the very, very late summer. So I still have two varieties of
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cabbages that are still forming their heads that have been in
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those beds since the early spring.
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As a matter of fact, I think some of them have been in the
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beds since the beginning of March.
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And they are just now coming to maturity.
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So using successive varieties allows you to kind of cut down
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on your workload, get everything planted all at once and then be
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able to harvest in succession. And as those things are
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harvested and pulled out of the garden, then you can replace
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them with something else. So using those successive
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varieties or any type of a succession planting is a really
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good way to sort of make the most of your garden space.
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But one other way to do this is with intercropping.
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So intercropping involves planting 2 or more crops
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together that have different growth habits.
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So in the summertime, if you have things that are growing
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tall, then you can intercrop things that grow short.
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In between or on the outer edges of those to make the most use of
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your space. Not only does this get you sort
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of more crops for the space that you have, but it also is keeping
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your soil covered, which of course is going to help with
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shading out the soil and making sure that it stays cooler, which
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is helping the plant growth. It's also taking advantage, the
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best advantage of your water usage, but it's very important
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with intercropping and just with successive planting in general
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to make sure that you are maintaining good soil fertility.
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This is why I prefer to use organic mulches where I can
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because they are going to breakdown over the season and
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that we're going to help to amend that soil as they're doing
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their job in trapping in the moisture and keeping the weeds
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at Bay. But after each crop is
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harvested, you can also go ahead and just amend the soil with
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some more compost or some sort of organic matter and let it sit
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there. You don't even really have to
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work this in, just let it sit there and it's going to help to
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replenish the nutrients for the next crop you do.
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Also, with success in planting, want to make sure that you are
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giving the plants adequate water especially.
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When you have young seedlings and we are in the really, really
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hot summer months. So again, our mulch is going to
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come in really clutch in that instance to help retain that
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soil moisture in addition to reducing the weed growth which
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can compete with your new plantings and compete for the
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water and it's going to help to really maintain that soil
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moisture. So just pay attention to your
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watering and your mulching. Because you're putting so many
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plants in, you want to make sure that the demand that that is
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creating on your soil is taken into consideration and you keep
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that fertility and that that soil moisture level up.
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So the one thing that I could think of that might be a little
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bit of a drawback to successive planting is managing the pests
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and the diseases. Because you have crops that are
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in place for an extended period of time and they are the same
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types of crops going in the same space over and over again, we
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really need to be vigilant about paying attention to the pests
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and managing the disease. So inspecting your plants
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regularly for any signs of trouble and taking the
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appropriate measures right away is going to be important.
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But again, intercropping here is going to help with that.
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So we've talked about it before. When you plant multiple
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varieties or multiple species together in a garden bed, it's
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going to help to confuse or mask the chemical signal that most
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insect pests use in order to find their ideal target.
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So if you're planting onions in between your cabbages and then
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you're planting, you know, flowers or sweet alyssum or or
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lettuces or something on the outside of that cabbage.
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You have three different species or more that are all planted
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together and they are helping to confuse those things.
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The same thing sort of goes for the diseases, although to a
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lesser extent. So that is just a matter of
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trying to not plant things together that are all
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susceptible to the same types of diseases.
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Now sometimes you can't help it. I mean with us here in the early
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part of the summer when it's still very, very humid and it
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hasn't really dried out a whole lot.
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We are very susceptible to a lot of fungal diseases and it really
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doesn't matter what it is and I'm planting together something
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is going to get something. So that's just when it, it
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really becomes, you know, incumbent on the gardener to
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inspect their plants pretty regularly and just make sure
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that we're doing what we can to to keep the pests and the
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diseases at Bay. And of course, finally, what
00:19:28
goes along with all of this is keeping a garden journal.
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So this is, if this is new to you, if this is something that
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maybe you've done in the spring but you've not done in the
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summer, or you haven't done succession planting at all, this
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is just one more reason to keep a garden journal to record.
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Your efforts and note the dates of the plantings.
00:19:49
And you know how quickly they matured, because, again, things
00:19:53
often tend to mature a little bit more quickly in that warm
00:19:57
summer soil and that warm sun than they might early or later
00:20:00
in the season. So how well did the harvests go?
00:20:04
Did you get as much out of the first planting as you did the
00:20:07
third planting? Any observations for why you
00:20:10
think that might have happened? This information is going to be
00:20:13
valuable for planning your future seasons.
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And just improving your gardening skills overall and it
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will give you an idea of what performed best in your garden
00:20:21
and what didn't. So you can change things up the
00:20:24
next season and maybe try a different variety, maybe one
00:20:27
that matures more quickly or maybe one that grows more
00:20:29
slowly. Whatever it is, it is very
00:20:32
difficult year after year to try to keep these things just in our
00:20:35
heads. So I mean, take it from me, I'm
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turning 50 this year. My memory is not like it used to
00:20:39
be. So keeping a garden journal is
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definitely something that is important and is going to help
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to improve the garden year after year.
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Now of course, if you didn't create a garden plan at the
00:20:52
beginning of the season and you don't have anything planned for
00:20:56
a succession gardening, it is not too late in the summer for
00:21:00
you to go ahead and try to do this.
00:21:02
It's just a matter of going out and looking at what you have
00:21:05
that is currently growing and see if there is anything that is
00:21:08
coming to the end of its lifespan that you would like to
00:21:10
repeat again for the summer and determining whether or not you
00:21:15
have enough time to be able to do that before you start moving
00:21:18
into the fall garden. So at this stage of the game, if
00:21:21
you were to plant something that say is a 40 day or 45 day plant
00:21:27
like a zucchini, you would absolutely have time.
00:21:31
To get plenty of harvest off of it before we start moving into
00:21:35
the fall and things start to slow down.
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So there's there's no harm in going out there right now and
00:21:41
saying, OK, I didn't plan for this, but what can I do so by
00:21:44
incorporating succession planting into your gardening
00:21:48
practices. You can totally extend your
00:21:51
harvest throughout the summer and still be able to have room
00:21:55
in the garden and your, you know, make the most of your
00:21:58
garden space and your resources when you start moving into the
00:22:01
fall. I hope that has inspired you to
00:22:07
get out into the garden and check out what you might be able
00:22:09
to squeeze in before we get into fall plantings.
00:22:13
I really hope that you do have some time and some success in
00:22:16
this. Until next time, my gardening
00:22:18
friends. Keep on cultivating that dream
00:22:19
garden and we'll talk again soon.
00:22:21
You just finished another. Episode of the Just.
00:22:23
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00:22:26
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00:22:27
Growsomethingpodcast.com where you can find all the episodes,
00:22:31
show notes, articles, courses, newsletter, sign up and more.
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I'd also love for you to. Head to Facebook and join our
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gardening community in the Just Grow Something Gardening Friends
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Facebook group. Until next time, my gardening
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friends keep learning and keep growing.