Last Updated on October 9, 2026

Succession Planting Chart: How Often to Sow Each Crop

Sow fast crops like radishes, lettuce, spinach and turnips again every 7 to 14 days, most other quick crops every 2 to 3 weeks, and beets and carrots every 3 to 4 weeks. Keep going until the crop’s last sowing date, which you count back from your first fall frost: about 5 weeks ahead for radishes, arugula and spinach, about 9 weeks for beets and carrots, and about 12 weeks for bush beans.

Succession planting means sowing a little of a crop at a time, instead of all of it at once, so the harvest comes in steady batches. University of Georgia Extension says two weeks is a good planting interval for most crops. The chart below gives each crop’s own interval from an extension service, plus the spring start and the last fall sowing from the Plan My Garden planner, counted in weeks from your frost dates so it works anywhere.

Succession planting chart

Read across: the first planting goes in during the spring window, you sow again at the interval shown, and you stop at the last sowing. Crop names link to that crop’s square-foot spacing page; per-square numbers are from my square foot gardening chart.

Bed notes: Radish, sow a new square each time you harvest one. Spinach, two squares every two weeks in spring is plenty. Lettuce, four squares every two weeks keeps a steady supply without a glut. Beets, water later sowings so they come up (Illinois Extension). Carrots, summer sowings may need sprinkling and a little shade on seedlings (Illinois Extension). Bush beans, pick every two days once they start. Cilantro, sow a square or two at a time. Sweet corn, plant a block, not a single row. Peas, pick daily. For cool-season seed sown in summer heat, Oregon State Extension suggests soaking the spot a few days ahead, covering it with a board, light tarp or cardboard, planting, watering, putting the cover back, and lifting it as soon as you see green.

Intervals: Utah State University Extension (radishes, carrots), Cornell Cooperative Extension, WVU Extension, Illinois Extension (lettuce, snap beans, beets, turnips, kohlrabi, corn, collards), Oregon State University Extension, NC State Extension and UGA Extension. Spring windows, days to maturity and last sowings: the Plan My Garden planner. Bed notes: my crop pages, plus Illinois Extension for beets and carrots and University of Minnesota Extension for corn blocks.

The planner’s spring windows are the same ones on my seed starting calendar by last frost date. Where a crop shows a transplant window, the planner starts the spring planting indoors and sets it out in that window.

What staggered sowing looks like

That is the whole idea. If you plant all your carrot seed at once, Oregon State University Extension points out, you get a few short weeks of a lot of carrots. Spread the same seed out and you pick fresh ones all season.

How to succession plant, step by step

1. Decide how much of a crop you want at one time. University of Maryland Extension’s method is to set the total space you want for a crop, then plant a portion of it every two weeks. My lettuce page suggests four squares per sowing, and my spinach page two.
2. Make the first planting in the spring window. Use the chart’s planner column, counted from your last frost date.
3. Sow again at the interval. Mark the next sowing on a calendar the day you plant. Corn is the exception: Illinois Extension times the next planting by the last one, when its seedlings have three to four leaves.
4. Replant each square as you clear it. My fall planting guide puts it simply: as you harvest one crop, replant the space with another. Add compost between plantings; Oregon State says that keeps soil you plant again and again healthy.
5. Stop at the last sowing. By the planner’s count, later sowings are unlikely to mature before frost.

Two things to expect. Maryland Extension notes early sowings start slowly in cold soil while later ones grow and mature faster, which often brings a glut at the height of the season, so be ready to freeze or can the extra. The same page suggests setting transplants into spots you clear mid-season, even for crops you normally direct sow, because seedlings struggle next to established plants and a transplant gains you several weeks.

How the last sowing is counted

The last sowing column comes from the planner’s fall schedule. It counts back from your first fall frost by the crop’s days to maturity plus 14 days, because crops grow more slowly in the cooler, shorter days of fall. University of Maryland Extension uses the same 14-day allowance, which it calls the Short-Day Factor, for fall planting.

Then it adjusts for frost tolerance, using the same classes as my vegetable frost tolerance chart:

• Hardy crops (arugula, spinach, carrots, turnips, kohlrabi, collards) take a moderate freeze, so the planner lets them finish up to 3 weeks after the frost.
• Semi-hardy crops (radish, lettuce, beets, peas, cilantro, dill) take a light freeze, so they get 1 week.
• Tender crops (beans, corn, cucumbers, squash) do not tolerate frost, so the planner adds a safety margin instead: 1 week for bush beans, 2 for cucumbers and summer squash, 3 for corn.

In short-season areas, the planner may not offer a fall window at all for tender crops like bush beans, corn, cucumbers or squash; the computed date has to fall after July 15 for one of these crops to get a fall planting. Check your own dates on Plan My Garden.

Worked example for lettuce: 45 days to maturity plus 14 is 59 days, minus the 7-day semi-hardy credit, gives 52 days, about 7 weeks before your first fall frost. Transplants already have a few weeks of growth, so the planner sets them out later: 37 days ahead for lettuce. Cornell lands in the same place for arugula, stopping new plantings about a month before the average first frost; the planner says 33 days.

Your own numbers depend on your frost date. Look up your first fall frost date on Plan My Garden and count back the weeks in the chart. My vegetable days to maturity chart has the numbers for 57 crops if you want to do the math for something not listed here.

Other ways to stretch the harvest

WVU Extension also describes following one crop with another: spring cool-season crops give way to warm-season ones, then cool-season crops again for fall. My fall crop planting guide replaces fading summer crops with lettuce, peas, brassicas and root crops.

Crops you plant once

Not every crop on this chart needs repeat sowings. Peas are the middle case: WVU Extension says they keep producing for only a few weeks, so one planting usually covers the season instead of several. My pea guide says to pick every day, because pods left on the vine slow production. The FAQ below covers which other crops need succession planting and which do not.

Quick questions

How often should you succession plant vegetables?

Every two weeks is a good interval for most crops, according to University of Georgia Extension. Fast crops go faster: Utah State University Extension says radishes every 10 days, and Illinois Extension says lettuce every 10 to 14 days. Slower roots go slower: Illinois says beets every 3 to 4 weeks, and Utah State says carrots every 4 weeks, though my own carrot page uses every 3 weeks.

When should you stop succession planting?

Stop at the crop’s last sowing date, counted back from your first fall frost. The Plan My Garden planner counts the crop’s days to maturity plus 14 days for slower fall growth, then adjusts for frost tolerance. That puts the last radish and spinach sowings about 5 weeks before the first frost and the last bush beans about 12 weeks before.

What vegetables are best for succession planting?

Quick crops that you harvest all at once or over a short time: radishes, lettuce, spinach, arugula, turnips, kohlrabi, bush beans, beets, carrots, cilantro, dill and sweet corn. WVU Extension notes that crops like cabbage, carrots and beets are removed whole at harvest, so a steady supply takes repeat sowings.

Do pole beans need succession planting?

No. University of Minnesota Extension says pole beans keep flowering and bearing until frost, so there is no need to succession plant them. Bush beans do need it, every 2 to 4 weeks according to Illinois Extension.

How much should I plant at each sowing?

Plant a portion of the total space you want for that crop each time, the method University of Maryland Extension uses. My lettuce and spinach pages put that in squares: four squares of lettuce every two weeks keeps a steady supply without a glut, and two squares of spinach every two weeks is plenty in spring.

Turn the intervals into dates

Plan My Garden is free to start: enter your zip code and it finds your frost dates, draw your beds, pick lettuce, radishes, beans and everything else you want to grow, and it places each plant at square-foot spacing and builds a planting schedule, with start indoors, transplant and direct sow dates, from your frost dates.

Related: Seed Starting Calendar by Last Frost Date · Vegetable Days to Maturity Chart · Fall Crop Planting