Salad Mix All Summer Long
A guide to Succession Planting in the garden
We’ve all been subjected to the boom and bust of growing salad greens. Too much to harvest all at once, or a lack of lettuce just when you’re craving that refreshing salad crunch. Gardeners everywhere struggle to time their plantings for a continuous, manageable harvest!
Luckily, there’s a simple solution.
The art of succession planting
Succession planting is the practice of growing a crop in intervals throughout the season.
The benefits of planting your salad mix in successions are many! For instance:
Growing a manageable amount to harvest, thus reducing waste.
Being able to harvest continuously throughout the season.
Utilizing space after harvesting other crops from the garden.
Salad mix is pricey! Save money by growing your own.
With a little planning ahead, you can mitigate the boom-bust cycle and enjoy garden-fresh salad all summer long! So, grab your calendar, grab your seeds, and read on…
what to plant
Salad mix vs. head lettuce.
Salad mix is grown by densely planting the seeds of one or more greens, generally lettuces, in a row. These greens are harvested before they reach maturity while they are tender and bite-sized.
Head lettuce can be grown from these same seeds, but is generally started in the greenhouse. The baby plants are transplanted individually into the field. With time and plenty of space, these plants will grow into big, bodacious heads of lettuce.
Choosing a salad mix depends on preference.
If you don’t already have a favorite mix, check out the Salad Mix Offerings from Johnny’s Select Seed to get a sense of what’s out there.
You could also consider mixing different varieties of lettuce seed to make your own mix. And if you want to get really wild, consider tossing in some herbs, mustard greens, or arugula for a punch of flavor! Just make sure that they have similar days to maturity and heat tolerance, both of which should be listed on the seed packet or available online.
When to plant
Salad mix can be planted every two to three weeks.
Begin seeding 4 weeks before last frost of spring (approximately May 18), and continue up until 6 weeks before first frost of fall (approximately September 22). In other words:
Plant your first succession as early as April 20
Plant your last succession as late as August 11
As the days get longer and hotter, consider using heat tolerant varieties.
It’s important to note that most lettuce varieties germinate best between 40F and 75F. Check your seed packets for information about the heat tolerance of your lettuces.
Johnny’s Select Seed has a wide selection of heat tolerant offerings including lettuce and other crops suited for succession planting.
This Summer Fun Salad Mix from Adaptive Seeds is a heat tolerant salad mix that includes a fun selection of new and unusual flavors and textures.
How to plant
Spinach is another great option for succession planting. Be warned, while spinach thrives in cooler temperatures, it is prone to bolting in the heat.
Salad mix is directly seeded, meaning the seeds are sown directly into the garden, as opposed to being transplanted as seedlings from a greenhouse.
Make sure your garden bed is well prepped.
The soil should be moist, free of weeds and large rocks, and well aerated (we recommend using a digging fork). Since lettuce seeds are extremely small, the surface of your bed should be as smooth and level as possible.
For more tips on prepping your garden bed, check out this video from our community gardens team!
Once your bed is ready, use your hand or tool handle to make a shallow trench for your seeds. It needn’t be more than a half-inch deep- the trench mostly helps you maintain the line of the row.
Planting details:
Sow four to six seeds per inch in rows at least two inches apart.
Cover with a very scant (⅛ inch) layer of soil.
Water in using a watering can or low-pressure nozzle.
You should see the first leaves emerge in one to two weeks, depending on the variety. During this time it is imperative to keep your soil moist to prevent your seedling from drying out!
How much to plant
Beyond spacial limitations, your personal salad consumption will determine how much salad mix to plant in each succession. We estimate that, with good germination and spacing, harvesting four to six inches from your row of greens should yield a reasonably sized salad for one.
Consider this equation:
Assuming that you harvest 4-6 inches of greens for each serving of salad…
5 salads per week x 6 inches per salad = 30 inches of salad per week per person
Assuming that each succession provides approximately 2 weeks of harvesting…
30 inches of salad (per week) x 2 weeks = 60 inches of salad per succession per person
Plug your successions into your garden wherever they might fit.
Rows of salad mix can be as close as two inches to each other, so spaces you use for planting could vary greatly. For example, a 60-inch succession could be planted in three 20-inch rows, two 30-inch rows, or five 12-inch rows.
When & how to harvest
Most salad mixes should be ready to harvest within a month of planting.
Details for your specific variety can be found on your seed packet or online. A general rule of thumb: harvest your salad mix when the leaves have reached your preferred size!
Cut and come again.
With careful harvesting, each succession of salad mix should yield two or three cuttings. The harvesting window for optimal size and tenderness will last about two weeks.
To successfully cut and come again, be sure cut the leaves an inch or so above the growth point (the place where all the leaves are growing from). A sharp knife or kitchen scissors are perfect tools for the job. After cutting, your salad will take another two or three weeks to regrow.
And, because everyone has a different way of cleaning their greens, we encourage you to watch our video, To Spin or Not To Spin, to hear staff takes on whether or not they use a salad spinner.
Other crops to grow in succession
Carrots and beets
Delicious fresh and great for storing! We sow three or four successions of each throughout the season.
Radishes and salad turnips
These quick-growing morsels can easily be tucked into pockets of your garden. Note, radishes do best before daytime temperatures average 70F.
Cilantro
Quick to bolt, cilantro is a great candidate for succession planting. It also readily reseeds!
Additional Resources
For even more crop ideas, check out this Succession Planting Guide from Johnny’s Select Seeds. In addition to lists of crops well suited for successions, it includes the average number days to harvest after seeding or transplanting.
Another resource we love is the Vegetable Seed and Transplant Schedule from the Montana State University Extension. It provides a comprehensive list of planting dates for many of your vegetable plants, and indicates crops well suited for succession planting.