What zone are you in?

Hello!

I'm in 6b. I understand that everyones succession planting will vary by region, use/non-use of season extending hoop houses/row covers/etc and may not be applicable to my situation. However, am hoping I'll find some direction along the way : )

get the book "The New Organic Grower" by Eliot Coleman, it has an entire chapter devoted to succession planting including a chart of how far apart the successions need to be according to time of year and crop.

For example, salad mix/cut and come again lettuce is planted at 4 week intervals in the fall but by April you would be planting the same crop about every 4 days.

Ironically, I ordered that book (and a couple of others I found suggested in other posts) at the library yesterday. Should be in from a neighboring town in a few days.

I believe I have my dates/timing pretty well laid out. What I'm having a harder time deciding is what crop to follow with what. Ie. Spring cabbage bed goes into summer squash then back to fall cabbage, etc.

I could give all my info but I doubt it would be helpful to anyone not way up north. Johnny's has great interactive tools to try.

Here is a link that might be useful: Johnny's charts

This is the chart I made up for my area.

I have found Pam Dawling's Sustainable Market
Farming to be the most useful guide to succession planting. She has a lot of information about fine tuning timing. I am learning it can be confusing especially when growing times speed up in the heat.

But are you more curious about the rotation part perhaps? Like which crops do well before and after others? Dawling's book has recommendations for this too but as she says it can be like Vegetable Sudoku finding a spot for everything. I am mostly just trying to keep the plant families 3 crops away from each other, so your cabbage shouldn't cycle back into that bed until after another few crops.

Unfortunately my plan isn't in any easy to share format yet. I do like Coleman's idea of doing the plan on index cards but I just use a pencil and a lot of erasing.

I also like Pam Dawling's book, I think it's the most useful market farming book that I own.

I'm trying to be more organized this year myself, and I've got an enormous headache trying to come up with a plan for the growing season. Johnny's has a number of interactive tools that I'm trying to use, including a Succession Planting Schedule spreadsheet. I'm including a link to the Interactive Tools section of their website.

Here is a link that might be useful: Johnny's Interactive Tools

Yes Dawling's book is the one I keep close by for frequent use. And it inspired me to knuckle down and create the necessary spreadsheets. The Johnnys tools didn't work that well for me but I adapted the ones that go with Crop Planning for Organic Vegetable Growers, another great book. Though i must admit i have been winging it a bit with successions.

You can download the spreadsheets which might make sense even without the book.

Here is a link that might be useful: Crop planning spreadsheets