July in the south is pretty intense. July and August are months I am jealous of those of you who live along bodies of water or are further north. I’m incredibly grateful for the long growing season, but we all have our challenges, here in the Texas and Oklahoma area, we are dealing with intense heat.
2025 has been an intense year for some of my favorite garden influencers. I was astonished when I saw some of them who live in North and South Carolina hit over 100 degree weather before good ol’ Texas did. I feel for many of you because I know you all aren’t used to dealing with it, but it’s a regular reality for 60-100 days of our growing season.
If you are new to gardening you picked a great time! If you can handle the heat outside, this can be a great way to get your foot in the door with a few popular and fast growing seeds. If you are curious to what seeds you can start now, scroll down to the succession sowing to get an idea of what grows in your area that you can still plant.
I will provide some affiliated links that will allow me to earn a small commission if you decide you want to make a similar decision as I did and purchase some of these great products (Win Win!)
Table of Contents
What is Succession Sowing
Succession sowing or succession planting is the practice of putting out seeds or plants out gradually or in waves instead of putting all of your plants out all at once. This serves multiple purposes including managing your harvests, being prepared for failing crops, extending your overall harvest window, and saves valuable space which is so important for most of you who are reading this. Overall by succession sowing, you are growing and working smarter and not harder.
Benefits of Different types of Succession Sowing
Regardless if you are in the heat of summer or in the cool north, succession sowing is a great thing to do and practice in July. If you are just getting started with your garden, you can pick up here! Depending on where you live will determine whether you can start another round of squash because those dastardly squash vine borers got your zucchini again, perhaps you will want to focus on quick growing crops like radishes, peas, and bush beans.
Managing Harvests: Same Crop & Staggered Timelines
One of the main perks is that for a lot of crops that are harvested all at once (think radishes, lettuce, cabbages, broccoli), you don’t have dozens of them lying around waiting for them to be eaten or processed. 20 heads of lettuce looks great in a picture, but unless you’re having a large dinner party, it might be overwhelming and might cause some food waste.
Managing Harvets: Staggering Maturity
Sure you could absolutely stagger planting some of your favorite vegetables and plant new ones every few weeks. However, if you are like me and have other things you have to do and you may not have that time later on. Instead, you can also experiment with the same type of plant but those that have different maturity dates.
For example, carrots have some varieties like Amsterdam and Little Finger that only take 50-60 days which can be great when planted along side others like Danvers or Nantes which take 65-75 days and then Chantenay that can take 75-85 days or even more. Yes they are all carrots, but this way you have a steady harvest and not all oat once.
Other vegetables that can do this is sweet corn, onions, potatoes, broccoli, cabbage, and cucumbers. Check the chart below of various maturing varieties.
Fighting Pest and Disease Pressure: Relay Planting
Succession sowing can also have another added benefit in the summer time. With there being so many vegetables that will either mature much quicker, go to bolt sooner (I don’t even bother planting Bok Choi during the summer), or will succumb to disease or pest pressure, I like to always have some coming up so if one plant ends up being pulled out, a new one goes in shortly after.
I also use relay planting for my determinate tomatoes. In the heat of summer, determinate tomatoes have multiple issues. One is that they produce all of their crop at once, so whatever comes after will be minimal. Another is that even whatever suckers might be on the plants and able to produce, here in the south it get’s too hot where the pollen will not correctly fertilize, and will be too sticky to produce fruit. It is much better for me to plant more young seedlings in July to go out in mid/late August so we can get more crops before our first frost.
I routinely relay crops for all of my squash plants, especially summer squash, cucumbers, bush beans and tomatoes.
Saving Space
In our garden, we have less than 300 square feet of space. With a few raised beds of true garden space, and not all of that in full sun, we work our space hard to keep it active. Keeping our space fully active is much easier when we have different crops maturing at different times but largely in the same space. Also known as interplanting, you can get more out of your space by planting small rows of radishes, for example in between rows of carrots since they will be harvested and removed by the time carrots need the space to mature.
This can also be done with other slow growing crops such as tomatoes, peppers, and placing faster growing vegetables like lettuce, radishes, or herbs in between them so you can get more harvest out of a bed you wouldn’t have used otherwise.
This interplanting technique has been done for hundreds of years in the Americas with the three sisters planting. The indigenous people of North America planted corn alongside beans and squash as they all worked together to provide structure, shade, and nutrients for each other.
Preparing for Fall
We have been maximizing our space and harvesting window while fighting against garden pests, but you can also prepare for fall. If you have spent plants and maybe you are just tired of squash bugs and powdery mildew towards the end of summer, you can also begin to transition to more fall plants. Instead of heat resistant varieties, you can begin planting more cool tolerant plants.
You can start planting your broccoli, cabbage, or spinach inside if you are worried it will begin to bolt. Take a look at my Seed Starting For a Bountiful Season if you need ideas for your seed starting setup.
Succession Sowing in Zones 7-10
Whether you are in Texas, California or Florida, or somewhere else in zones 8-10, you have a long growing season. While we get the joy of being able to grow things for a long time, we can also get hot and humid July Sun.
I have not had much luck with indeterminate tomatoes, but I just started a new round of determinate tomatoes as they will likely quit producing on me here in the next month or two due to extreme heat we get.
To keep things fresh because of the heat, humidity, pest and disease pressure, I routinely replant most of my vegetables. These include determinate tomatoes, cucumbers, beans, lettuce, chard, squash, and small melons. If you haven’t planted any okra yet, this is a great time to do it if you have at least 60 days left before your first frost, and ideally if you have a lot more heat coming your way.
This year, my go to seeds are:
Clemson Spineless Okra: Very productive and not as many harsh spines. Pick early when pods are 3-4 inches. They make for fantastic pickles, fried or okra.
Tomatoes: Roma VF: This was a new variety for me this year, but I was looking for a variety that can handle the heat and humidity. VF stands for Verticillium wilt and Fusarium Wilt, two very common fungal born illnesses our tomatoes seem to get pretty regularly. Dryer weather will still be better, but we have had our largest tomato harvest yet as part of this variety.
Tomato: Celebrity: My other go to tomato this year. Great slicer and incredibly consistent for slicer variety of tomatoes. It has not been as great with hot and humid, but I was able to get a great mid/early summer harvest, and I planted more for a late harvest too. Non heirloom, will not reproduce true.
Butternut Squash: These have been pretty resistant to squash bugs and squash vine borers so they are naturally a favorite. While it is a winter squash, all that means is that they store well in winter. If you might not get your first frost until after Thanksgiving, you can still plant these if you have given up on your summer squash.
Looking for more things to plant or not seeing your favorite veggies here? Check the next section since you are lucky enough to grow those in addition to the list above.
Succession Sowing for Zones 5-7
These are the zones that my grandparents often grew up growing vegetables in before the USDA shifted the zones down. If you might get your first frost around mid October to mid November, you have about 70-100 or so days until your first average frost date. Thankfully you still have time to get an incredible harvest leading up to it!
We will worry about frost protection later as we get closer, but for succession sowing, these are my favorite varieties for warm summer months but quick enough to get a harvest.
Swiss Chard: My favorite go to green for salads or meals. Spinach and lettuce bolts way too quickly in this heat so this is my favorite dark green. With beautiful colors in this variety, it’s stunning on the plate and is pretty resistant to pests, such as aphids, unlike many varieties of kale. I start these every month or so for baby greens and will let some get large to over winter to go in delicious soups and sautés.
Zucchini: Also known as Courgettes, I am always succession sowing these guys as fighting squash bugs are a pain in the rear! I start a couple of these every 3 weeks or so just in case the pest pressure becomes too much. With only 60 days to maturity, you can start these now for a first crop or do what I’m doing and fighting the bugs and plant another.
Boston Pickling Cucumbers: Very productive and produce medium size cucumbers that are great in salads or as pickles. I plant these every 3 weeks to a month to ensure that any that might get too big or succumb to powdery mildew, a backup is waiting.
Succession Sowing for Zones 3-5
You have about 50-80 days left until your first frost. Thankfully you still have some time to get some good harvests in and while it can still get pretty warm in some areas (you aren’t lucky enough to escape some 80-90 degree days I know!), we will look at some heat tolerant varieties so our warmer zoned friends can look on and enjoy some plant options as well.
Lettuce: This is my favorite lettuce seed. It handles most seasons pretty well, and unless you have 100+ degrees days it should be pretty slow to bolt. I keep mine in the shade behind the Swiss Chard, but unfortunately it does still bolt in super high temps. Because of their inclination to bolt, I sow every 3 weeks.
Bush Beans: I fell in love with these this year. They germinate in less than a week and can produce in about 60 days. Succession sow every two-three weeks to get a steady harvest and then you can preserve the harvest with canning, pickling, or freezing. Stop planting about 6-8 weeks before your first frost. Heirloom so let a few dry in their pod for saving for later.
Radishes: Hot weather friends, you may want to wait again for this one for another month or two. These lovely peppery orbs, while delicious, can go to bolt and be a little woody in our intense heat. For those of you who are expecting it to cool off here in a couple weeks or months, consider planting these every two weeks for a steady harvest that can be ready in about a month. This variety offers many different heirloom seeds for different flavors, colors and shapes.
Cabbages: I was a pokey little puppy getting cabbages in the ground this year and I didn’t do many last year since the squash plants were where I normally like to put cabbages and the Brussel sprouts were also late going in the ground. I do have some late maturing varieties but they should still hold well here as they are good for storage. Consider getting the Red Acre Cabbage if you have issues with cabbage loopers as they do not tend to go for red cabbages quite as much in my experience.
Broccoli & Cauliflower: I tried growing these in the spring last year after we updated our garden. Unfortunately they did not work well for me, but that was largely due to the ight levels. If you are in this zone, this can be a great time to plan for your fall garden by planting them indoors now. This is also true in a few months for our warmer zoned friends if they want to start them as they love cool weather.
Regardless of what zone you’re in, if this heat is beating you down or if you are just getting started for your garden this year, these plants are great options to go in your garden.
Common Mistakes
Now that you know what you want to plant and how much time you have left before your first frost here are some common mistakes that might happen along the way.
Sowing Too Late:
I would rather have plants waiting on me and stalling than not get them out, which is part of the reason why I like to start a lot indoors if I can. I have done that plenty of times with Brussel Sprouts and Cabbages where I sowed too late and ended up getting little to no harvest. Instead, plant inside early and set reminders of when what you want to plant needs to be set out.
Overlapping Maturity Window
This is a better problem to have, too much of a good thing. You have overlapping harvests which means you have too much coming in. This can be a not so good of a thing if you are wanting to use all of your harvest. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, so if you have too many harvests coming in at once, consider what can stay in the ground a little bit longer (maybe radishes and carrots) versus those that absolutely cannot like tomatoes and lettuce. Also consider looking at our recipes for ways to preserve your harvest!
Crowding Plants
I’m terribly guilty of this. I have such limited space, I want to plant all of the things in all of the places and they need to have all of the friends. That means while it’s considered to be a tight fit to put a Brussel sprout plan no more than one per square foot if square foot gardening (and how they really need about 1.5-2 feet), I gave less than 10 inches.
I definitely attribute not having a harvest because they were all competing with each other. Look at your spacing requirements, especially for those that will be harvested at the same time (not radishes and carrots for example), and ensure that they are not competing to maturity against each other.
Not Amending Soil Between Crops
Succession Sowing requires a lot of energy from the soil. Because of this, I am very quick to add more soil and material back into it as we progress through the season. If you zap all of your soil’s nutrients by planting something in the mid summer like tomato’s, cucumbers, or peppers, don’t expect that same bed to perform like it did if you are planting another heavy feeder in that bed like broccoli or cauliflower. Instead add compost to the raised beds and fertilize regularly to help keep the soil fertile.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I know when to stop sowing?
I never like to stop sowing, but if your want to figure out how much time you have start with your first anticipated frost date by going to your favorite search engine and typing first average frost date. From there, either count or ask your search engine again to find out how many days that is from today. Then work backwards to see if there are any varieties that might work within that timeline based on those dates to maturity.
Can I succession plant in containers?
Sure! It of course depends on the size of your containers and what you are wanting to plant. Your best bet will be plants that are smaller and won’t need as much fertilizer. I would expect these to work best for radishes, salad greens, and bush beans. Much larger than cucumbers and they will demand the whole container to themselves.
What crops shouldn’t be succession planted?
Things with an overly long growing season will be difficult to succession plant. Crops like garlic, large melons/watermelon, winter squash, and parsnips all take close to 100 days to mature so you will not be able to put more in their place later in the season. The best bet would to be to plant them earlier in the season (May or June) and have smaller plants in the spring as they are coming up.
Do You Succession Sow?
Did you read this and realize you were already succession sowing? I know I did because I had to if I wanted to get the most out of my space. If you succession so, how do you do it? Same crop and different maturity dates? Staggering their timeline? Leave your feedback below of what you are sowing this July!