I have a short growing season, and limited amount of space; I want to stagger harvest to maximize space and extend season. Basically I'll be planting two varieties at the same time, that have different maturing times; it will be a difference of about 3-4 weeks with harvesting. With successive planting, you sow; once the veggie reaches a certain stage of maturity you plant again every few days week(s). Is it necessary to do successive planting when I'm planting two varieties at the same time that mature at different times? One will be early season, the other variety will be mid/late season. This isn't about one specific veggie, I'll be doing this with most veggies in general.
We have intended to do this, but most often mother nature makes everything ready at about the same time . So, the mature dates on the packets are a guess a best. Either use the same variety and sow at several week intervals or try a later variety and see how it works for you. Get a jump start on planting things, such as tomatoes and peppers, using wall o waters. The plant doesn't appear to grow much while the W o W's are on them, but they are producing some excellent roots, which you will not see directly, only that the plant grows exceedingly well, once it warms up out side. Good luck and welcome to the forum. Introduce yourself on the welcome page. tell us all about yourself. we seem to be a very curious bunch.
staggering Planting 2 varieties with different days to maturity works good for corn. A 70 day and a 100 day can grow near each other and not cross, which might be a problem if it were 2, 70 day corns.
Regarding the wall o'water, I know they can be used to start tomato transplants early. Can you use them to start other warm weather transplants early (peppers and eggplant)? I was also wondering if you could use the wall o'water for direct sowing warm weather crops outside early (squash, melons, okra, cukes, and beans). Regarding the staggering harvest, I know that you can use it for corn, but can it be used for the crops I mentioned too? Also, when you do successive harvest, how soon after you plant the first seed, do you plant the next one? I realize this will depend upon how many DTM. However in general, do you wait until whatever veggie you're planting is halfway thru it's maturity (if it takes 60 days, do you plant again at 30....this is just an example).
Veggie seed packets usually have information on them about staggering plantings for continuous harvest and they recommend each successive planting be about 2-3 weeks apart. If you have a particularly short growing season I wouldn't wait 30 days between plantings, the second crop might not have sufficient time to reach maturity. Knowing when the date of first frost is for your particular area and how many days the plants need to reach maturity you should be able to calculate back to come up with the maximum number of days/weeks between plantings. The wall of water I know nothing about so I can't help you there.
We use the wall o waters for tomatoes and peppers. They can be used for eggplants, also. I haven't used them for melons, okra or cukes, but you could give it a try. I wouldn't recommend them for things such as row crops. this would take way too many to do this. The other option you could use is to lay a sheet of black plastic mulch where you intend to plant rows, to warm up the soil a little quicker than bare ground. Either pin it to the ground with landscaping pegs or dig a trench around the plastic and cover the edges of the plastic and let it warm up. As for successive sowing, count back (on the calender) from the date on the packet that is the maturity date and plant according to when you are hoping for it to be ready. Or every couple weeks, plant another patch/row. Weather plays a large part in how long it actually takes for the fruit to mature. the warmer it is the quicker the growth. the cooler/cloudier the longer to mature. You may even see that the first planting takes as long to mature as the second planting due to the soil and ambient air temperatures. Hope this helps some.
planting Whatever you try with the successions, keep good notes with dates, variety weather, fert, water etc in case the first year isn't perfect you can fine-tune it later. Every garden is just a little different. Good luck! :-D
With tomatoes as long as you use an indeterminate variety, they will not all ripen at the same time. I have found that some things actually make no difference if you stagger them or not. As long as the weather is right they will still overlap at harvest and most will come off about the same time. Okra and corn ar that way as well as most beans/peas. But your location can make a difference as well as soil temp !!
