The Planting Lifecycle
Every planting in TilthIQ follows a lifecycle from initial planning through final harvest. Understanding how the lifecycle works helps you get the most out of TilthIQ's tracking, task generation, and rotation history features.
Overview of the Lifecycle
A planting progresses through these statuses:
Planned > Germinating > Sprouted > Hardening Off > Transplanted > In Ground > Harvesting > Done
Not every planting goes through every step. Direct Sow plantings skip Hardening Off and Transplanted. Purchased transplants skip the germination steps entirely.
Adding and Moving Plantings
Click + New Planting from the Plantings list to open the planting wizard. You can also drag and drop any existing planting from one bed spot to another directly on the Plantings page — no need to open the edit form just to relocate a crop.
The Planting Details Page
Click any planting from the Plantings list to open its Details page. Here you will find all the fields that define a planting:
- Plant and Variety — the base plant from the database plus your specific variety name
- Garden Location — the bed spot or container where this planting lives
- Planting Method — Direct Sow, Indoor Start, Transplant, or Cutting/Division
- Status — the current lifecycle stage
- Start Date — when seeds were sown or transplants placed in the ground
- Expected Harvest — auto-calculated from days-to-maturity; can be overridden
- Spacing — distance between plants, pulled from the plant database
- Notes — free-text field for variety notes, observations, or sourcing info
The Enrich from Web Button
The Enrich from Web button uses the Garden AI to look up additional information about your plant variety and auto-fill empty fields like days to germination, days to maturity, typical spacing, height, and growth habit.
This is especially useful when you have added a new or unusual variety that is not well-documented in the existing database.
Note: Enrich from Web requires a Garden Pro or Garden Team subscription.
Rotation Warnings
When you assign or change a planting's garden location, TilthIQ checks the rotation history for that spot. If the same crop rotation family (e.g., Solanaceae, Brassica, Cucurbit) was grown in that location within the past 1 to 3 years, a yellow rotation warning appears.
The warning does not prevent you from saving — it is advisory. Heeding rotation warnings helps prevent the buildup of soil-borne pathogens and encourages better soil nutrient balance over time.
Completing a Planting
When a planting is finished for the season, update its status to Done. This:
- Removes it from the active Plantings view
- Records it in the Crop Rotation History for that location
- Stops generating care tasks
- Marks it as complete on the Crop Plan Timeline
Completed plantings are still viewable in the Plantings list by applying the "Done" status filter.