Add a planting

Open the planting window

Click Add planting(s) at the top right of the Game Plan. You can also click a week on a crop’s row, or the + next to the crop’s name: the window then opens on that crop and that week.

Choose the crop

Type the first letters of the crop, pick it in the list, then click Continue.

Describe the planting

In Planting Details, choose the Cultivar, the Planting method (seeded in the bed, transplanted from your nursery, transplanted from bought plants, or grown in containers) and the Location type: field, greenhouse or a type of tunnel. Enter the Planting amount in beds or in length.

The other values come from your Charts for this crop and cultivar: days to maturity, spacing, time in the nursery, yield. Change any of them here and the change is for this planting only. If the crop has no chart yet for this method, Heirloom offers to save your values as its chart when you create the planting.

Set the dates

Enter the Field planting date, the day the crop goes into the bed. Heirloom adds the Days to maturity to give the First harvest, then the Harvest window. For a transplant, it counts back the Days in nursery to give the Nursery start date. When you open the window from the button, Heirloom proposes the start of the crop’s season for your climate, or your last spring frost.

To plan from the harvest, lock the First harvest with the lock next to it: for a first market or the first week of your baskets. When you then change the days to maturity, Heirloom moves the planting date and keeps the harvest where you want it.

Let Heirloom adjust the days to maturity to your climate

Turn on Use climate-adjusted DTM (marked BETA). Heirloom then sets the days to maturity from your farm’s weather history and the week you plant: in Stanbridge East, carrots sown in early May take 63 days, the same carrots sown in June about 51. The days and the First harvest update as soon as you change the Field planting date.

This is what keeps a plan honest: early and late plantings get the extra days they really need, so your harvest weeks, your tasks and your nursery space match what the field will do. See Use climate-adjusted days to maturity in a planting.

Check the nursery

For a transplant, the Nursery tab holds the container, the seeds per cell, the seeds safety margin and any potting up. Heirloom works out how many transplants and seeds you need. Row Spacing holds the number of rows and the spacing, with a drawing of the bed.

Check the harvest and revenue

In Harvest And Revenues, check the harvest unit, the yield per bed length and the price. The panel on the left adds it all up: Total Amount, Total Average Yield and Total Average Revenue for this planting.

Place it on your beds

In the Crop Map tab, choose a block, then Select starting bed. Blocks that match the location type are listed first, under Recommended, and Show availability shows which beds are free for these weeks. You can also leave it for later and place it on the Crop Map.

Create the planting

Click Create. The planting appears on its crop’s row, and its tasks are created: see How plantings create your tasks. To grow the same crop again every few weeks, plan a succession.