Harvest calendar: what ripens when?
Every crop has its window. The harvest calendar shows month by month what is ready to pick – and which young plants you need to set out in time. Choose a month below.
Straight to the month
What ripens in each month – choose a month to see all the matching young plants.
Harvest calendar for vegetables, lettuce, herbs and fruit
When something ripens depends on three things: the crop, the planting date and the weather. The calendar gives the window in which each crop is usually ready in Central Europe. Early plantings move it forward, late ones back – a week either way is normal.
Lettuce and leafy greens are ready five to eight weeks after planting. Cabbage, celeriac and leek need half a year. Mix the two and you harvest from early summer into winter.
From planting to harvest
Rules of thumb for young plants with a root ball: lettuce and Asian greens 5–8 weeks, kohlrabi 8–10, broccoli and cauliflower 10–14, white and red cabbage 16–20, celeriac and leek 20–26 weeks. If you want a harvest on a set date, count backwards.
After the harvest comes the next one
A cleared bed rarely stays empty. Early lettuce can be followed by kohlrabi and bush beans, potatoes lifted in July by Chinese cabbage and pak choi, the last summer crop in September by lamb's lettuce, spinach and winter purslane. The same patch then yields two or three times a year.
Tips for a long harvest
- Plant in successions: a few lettuces every two to three weeks instead of all at once.
- Pick leafy greens in the morning – they keep longer.
- Do not leave kohlrabi and radish standing too long; they turn woody.
- Keep picking beans, courgettes and cucumbers regularly to keep the plant producing.
- Cut herbs before they flower, when the aroma is strongest.
Get started
You will find the matching young plants under All plants. What to sow and plant when is in the sowing calendar.
