Once you have defined your grow locations and added your crop types, you are ready to combine them and create a planting! A planting represents just that - an instance of a crop type in a particular location. You'll add data points like the day the seeds were started, when the seedlings were planted, when you expect to harvest, and how much you might expect from this specific instance of the crop. Once you have the crop in the location, you'll then be able to work with the planting individually to record treatments, nutrients, harvests, and other details specifically for it. It's it own historical record of this crop being in this location during that time, and everything that you need to track for it!
The planting process can be initiated from multiple different areas of the system and in a few different ways. Many of them generally function the same way; once you know one you'll find the others to be nearly identical. The choice is up to you, all of them get you generally the same result in the end.
- Create the Planting from the Crop Type or My Crops page - You can navigate to My Crops, and then create a planting directly from the main dashboard. You can also select a specific crop type and create plantings or it there too. This option is great if you want to start with the "what", and add it to the "where".
- Create the Planting from the Grow Location - If you'd rather start with the location itself and add plantings to it, you can navigate to Grow Locations and select the location. This also provides a handy drag and drop feature when planting in beds, which displays all your crop types to easily drag into a a specific sublocation/bed.
- From your Crop Plan - You'll also find a Add Planting action at the top of your Crop Plan. So if you'd like to see the big picture of what you have planned and where it will be grown as you decide what to plant next, check out the crop plan and make some decisions for what's next!
- Using Quick Add - The Quick Add menu in the upper right gives you a shortcut to quickly add a planting from the main Farmbrite dashboard, or really any page in the software. You'll choose both the crop type and the location using this method.
- Use the Calculated Plantings tool -If you want to work backwards from a date and harvest requirement, you can use the Calculate Plantings tool to input how much you need, and what date you need it. This could be very useful if you have to fulfil a specific order for a specific date, like CSA commitments or a large wholesale invoices.
- Bulk Plant your crop to make multiple plantings at once - You can plant the same crop type in multiple locations using the Bulk Planting tool. This let's you define all the areas you grow the crop at one time, making it easy to plant more than 1 bed or field in one action.
- Duplicate an existing planting - If you've created plantings already, you'll find an action to "Create Similar" on them to make copies. You can add new dates and change data for them, but you'll start with the same as the existing planting. You find this under the actions menu (3 dots) on an individual planting.
Adding a Planting
No matter which method you choose above, the underlying function is the same - you're creating a new planting of a crop type in a location, and you'll need to define some basics for it. Many of these fields will be preloaded based on the characteristics you have supplied in your Crop Type, but you can edit them on the individually planting to account for unique attributes that may differ from others like soil quality, sunlight, container size, and more. There are many options here and we'll highlight a few of them below.
- Number of Plantings - Immediately right at the top, you'll be able to define if you'd like this to be a succession planting. If you change this to be greater than 1, you are creating repeated plantings in the same location. If you choose this you'll be able to define a "rest period" of days between plantings as well. This feature should only be used if you'd like to create multiple separate plantings of this crop in this location, occurring one after the other spanning a longer date range.
- Planting Details - You can add details like dates, spacing, and the amount planted here. You might see different options based on the crop type and grow location format, but overall you'll define when you start the seeds and when you put them in the ground. You'll also define the plant spacing and row spacing, which will be used to determine how many of this crop can fit into the grow location you selected. You're the boss though, so if you want to override that amount and overplant it ( or underplant!), go for it! There is also an option to connect task templates and series to this planting too, letting you ensure all the work you have planned for it gets completed. Tip: Wondering why the planting date is defaulting to next year? Double check your frost dates, as Farmbrite recognizes if the planting can't get to maturity prior to your first frost.
- Harvest Plan - When do you plan to harvest this planting, and how much do you think you will harvest? The prepopulated data is automatically calculated based on the Days to Maturity and Estimated Yield fields. Change what you know this grow location is particularly nutrient rich based on previous plantings and it will produce more in a shorter period of time.
- Seed Details - Since the seed packet details can vary for each planting, you'll optionally provide information about lot numbers and seed origins here. If you are starting the seeds in trays, you can also define the number of cells per tray and seeds per hold to get an accurate count of how many trays you might need to start this planting.
- Custom Fields - Need to track other things on this planting that we did not outline above? You can create custom fields to track any additional data you need.
In the example below, we are creating a broccoli planting in Bed 04 of our Backlot field. We're filling the 300 sqft. with 133 plants. This was automatically calculated based on the spacing (18x18) and the area available for that bed. We are starting them on April 10th, which was determined by the "Start Before Last Frost" value in our Broccoli Crop type, set at 5 weeks. Our last frost can happen through mid-may here at the Farmbrite HQ in Colorado, USA, so we're not planting this outside until May 16th. You'll see us use the task template series for 11 common planting tasks that will need to be done, including things like watering, checking for pests, and applying amendments. We'll expect to see a harvest of 250 pounds on July 25, again determined by the expected yield and days to maturity for the broccoli crop type. We then supply seed origins and tray details, where Farmbrite automatically calculates the number of trays we will need. This also utilizes the expected loss rate on the crop type to account for seedlings that might not make it to the planting date. We bypassed the custom fields on this planting, and then saved to create it. Note that because we are currently in Winter 2025-2026, the planting is being displayed on the Future Plantings tab for this grow location as it we are in the planning phase right now and it is not time to sprout those seeds yet!
Now that you have the basics down, we encourage you to explore the other articles in this section to learn more about additional features and unique scenarios. You might take a look at how to treat your plantings, or harvest them when they are ready.
Reach out if you have any questions or need any help!