agriculture Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people to ...

, continuous harvest is the availability of a

crop A crop is a plant that can be grown and harvested extensively for profit or subsistence. When the plants of the same kind are cultivated at one place on a large scale, it is called a crop. Most crops are cultivated in agriculture or hydroponic ...

over an extended period during the

growing season A season is a division of the year marked by changes in weather, ecology, and the amount of daylight. The growing season is that portion of the year in which local conditions (i.e. rainfall, temperature, daylight) permit normal plant growth. Whil ...

. Each crop has a

harvest Harvesting is the process of gathering a ripe crop from the fields. Reaping is the cutting of grain or pulse for harvest, typically using a scythe, sickle, or reaper. On smaller farms with minimal mechanization, harvesting is the most labor-i ...

window during which it is ready for picking. Some are harvested by removing the whole plant, for example, cutting a head of

lettuce Lettuce (''Lactuca sativa'') is an annual plant of the family Asteraceae. It is most often grown as a leaf vegetable, but sometimes for its stem and seeds. Lettuce is most often used for salads, although it is also seen in other kinds of food, ...

. Others can be picked over varying periods:

pea The pea is most commonly the small spherical seed or the seed-pod of the flowering plant species ''Pisum sativum''. Each pod contains several peas, which can be green or yellow. Botanically, pea pods are fruit, since they contain seeds and d ...

s and

corn Maize ( ; ''Zea mays'' subsp. ''mays'', from es, maíz after tnq, mahiz), also known as corn (North American and Australian English), is a cereal grain first domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 10,000 years ago. Th ...

may have a window of two

week A week is a unit of time equal to seven days. It is the standard time period used for short cycles of days in most parts of the world. The days are often used to indicate common work days and rest days, as well as days of worship. Weeks are ofte ...

cucumber Cucumber (''Cucumis sativus'') is a widely-cultivated Vine#Horticultural climbing plants, creeping vine plant in the Cucurbitaceae family that bears usually cylindrical Fruit, fruits, which are used as culinary vegetables.

s six or eight,

tomato The tomato is the edible berry of the plant ''Solanum lycopersicum'', commonly known as the tomato plant. The species originated in western South America, Mexico, and Central America. The Mexican Nahuatl word gave rise to the Spanish word ...

es produce until the end of the season. To provide a season-long continuous harvest of a crop with a shorter harvest window,

succession planting In agriculture, succession planting refers to several planting methods that increase crop availability during a growing season by making efficient use of space and timing. There are four basic approaches, that can also be combined: *Two or more cr ...

techniques are used, including multiple plantings at different times, and planting of

cultivars A cultivar is a type of Horticulture, cultivated plant that people have selected for desired phenotypic trait, traits and when Plant propagation, propagated retain those traits. Methods used to propagate cultivars include: division, root and st ...

with different

maturity date Maturity or immaturity may refer to: * Adulthood or age of majority * Maturity model ** Capability Maturity Model, in software engineering, a model representing the degree of formality and optimization of processes in an organization * Development ...

s. In this way, with effective timing, a new planting or variety of a crop is always coming into maturity as a previous one finishes.

References

Ripening indices and harvesting times of different olive cultivars for continuous harvest
''Scientia Horticulturae''.
The effect of new continuous harvest technology of ramie (Boehmeria nivea L. Gaud.) on fiber yield and quality
''Industrial Crops and Products''.
Continuous harvest of marine microalgae using electrolysis: effect of pulse waveform of polarity exchange
''Bioprocess and Biosystems Engineering''.
Evergreen Agriculture: a robust approach to sustainable food security in Africa
''Food Security''.

External links

{{portal, Agriculture
NCAT – National Center for Appropriate Technology

Continuousharvest.com
Crops Harvest