• Succession planting increases the abundance of vegetables.Basket of Garden Vegetables image by Karin Lau from Fotolia.com
  
  Succession planting refers to the practice of planting vegetables at intervals. One technique involves planting the same crop, such as corn, at 2 to 3 week intervals to time maturity over a period of several weeks. Another technique involves growing and harvesting one crop and planting another crop on the same soil. Both techniques provide benefits to the home gardener, although each is practiced for different reasons.
  
  

Efficiency

• Succession planting makes efficient use of your gardening area. Growing two or more crops in the same soil increases productivity and provides more vegetables from the same area. Instead of one crop of peas, the gardener may enjoy both peas and beans from the same planting area.
  
  

Extending the Season

• Gardeners who harvest and remove the first crop of vegetables and replant with another crop use succession gardening to extend the growing season. Crops such as peas grow best in cool weather and can be planted before the last spring frost. They mature early leaving plenty of time to grow warm season crops, such as beans or cucumbers. Replanting peas or other cool season crops such as broccoli or Brussels sprouts from seedlings in midsummer also extends the season well into the fall, as these crops thrive in cool weather.
  
  

Extending Harvest

• Succession gardening of the same crop allows you to harvest over an extended period. When vegetables are planted at 2 to 3 week intervals, crops mature at intervals providing a continuous bounty of fresh vegetables over an extended period. Although this type of succession planting does not reuse the same space in the garden, many gardeners enjoy staggering the maturity of vegetable crops so they can enjoy them for longer periods.
  
  

Eliminating Cross Pollination

• For wind pollinated crops, such as several varieties of corn, succession planting assures they mature at different times, reducing the risks of cross pollination. Although cross pollination is not an issue for most garden vegetables, according to Purdue University, corn is pollinated by wind and will cross pollinate if grown close to another variety of corn. Succession planting is often used to insure corn quality, if isolation is not a viable option.