Crop rotation is a great way to maintain healthy soil and reduce pests and diseases in an organic vegetable garden. Discover the benefits of crop rotation and how to implement it in your vegetable garden.
Growing the same crop in the same location year after year makes crops an easy target for pests and diseases. Vegetables in related plant families use similar nutrients and are vulnerable to the same insects and pathogens.
Although we often see large farms growing the same crops for commercial use every year, we also see these fields being sprayed with chemical fertilizers, insecticides, fungicides, spectrocides and herbicides.
Crop rotation involves shifting the growing location of plant families in the garden each season. Planting different crop families year after year in different areas depletes soil nutrients and prevents the accumulation of crop-specific pests and diseases from one season to the next.
What is crop rotation?
Crop rotation involves changing the location where botanically related families are grown each year, so that no two crops are planted in the same place. This allows the soil to regenerate and prevents pests and diseases from infecting the plants year after year.
Most vegetables can be grouped into botanically related plant families. Plants belonging to the same family are often susceptible to the same insect pests and diseases and have similar nutrient requirements.
Growing families of crops in different locations from year to year helps reduce pest damage, limit the development of vegetable diseases and manage soil fertility.
For example, tomatoes are very susceptible to early blight and worms. These diseases and pest eggs can overwinter in garden soil and attack young tomato plants next spring if they are planted in the same location.
It takes about three years for tomato-specific diseases and pests to die out.
Prednosti plodoreda
Planting crops in different locations in the garden each year helps keep your garden soil healthy. It breaks the cycle of pests and diseases, supports the natural regeneration of nutrients and improves soil structure.
Pest control
Crops belonging to the same family are often susceptible to similar pests. Most pests feed on your plants and then drop into the ground to hibernate or lay eggs.
If the plants are grown in the same location the following year, these pests can feed on the crop again and can even increase in numbers.
Growing your crops in different locations each year prevents pests from finding your plants early in the season. Using crop rotation will help keep the number of insect pests down.
Benefits of crop rotation in the vegetable garden
Disease prevention
Many disease-causing organisms or pathogens can attack certain plant families during the winter in the soil. Growing vegetables in the same botanical family in the same area of the garden year after year provides pathogens with a constant source of plant hosts to infect. Over time, diseases accumulate and increase damage to plants.
Moving that crop family to a different location in the garden each season will cause many disease pathogens to starve and die.
Regeneration of nutrients in the soil
The type of vegetables grown in a certain area of the garden directly affects the fertility of the soil in that area. Each family of vegetables is unique in the type and amount of nutrients they extract from the soil.
Planting the same crop family in the same location year after year depletes the soil of certain nutrients. Rotating different plant families will allow nutrients to be replenished.
All crops take something from the soil, but some plants also improve the quality of the soil. Planting certain crops as part of the rotation process can change the fertility and structure of the soil.
Peas, legumes and clover are useful for increasing nitrogen in the garden soil and are excellent for use as a winter cover crop. When plants finish growing and bloom in the soil, they provide organic matter as they decompose, helping the soil to regenerate and replenish nutrients.
Crop rotation balances the loss of various nutrients in the soil and allows time for the nutrients to replenish.
Improving soil structure
Plant roots help improve soil structure by allowing air and water to penetrate. If you plant shallow-rooted leafy greens in the same place year after year, only the top layer will remain fragile.
Soil structure can be improved by alternating deep-rooted and shallow-rooted plants as part of the rotation process. Planting deep-rooting plants, such as corn, carrots, daikon radishes, and turnips, prevents soil compaction. Deep-rooted crops can also draw up nutrients, making them available for shallow-rooted crops the following year.
For a healthy garden: A basic three-year crop rotation plan
Three-year rule for crop rotation
Crop rotation doesn’t have to be complicated. The basic concept is to plant everything in a different location of the garden than where it grew last year. A simple three-year crop rotation plan gives the soil time to regenerate.
Rotate crops every year so that vegetables in the same family are not grown in the same place for three years. This will allow enough time for soil-borne pathogens and plant-specific pest eggs to die, and for the garden soil to be healthy enough to support planted crops.
How to plan crop rotation in a small garden
Create a garden planting map each year that shows where everything is planted in the garden.
Sketching a garden plan on paper or a computer also provides a record of what was in each area from year to year. So you don’t have to rely on memory or accidentally plant something in the same vegetable family in the same location within three years.
Always refer to the previous year’s garden plan to ensure you are not planting related crops in the same location.
Example of a crop rotation plan for 6 families of vegetables
Family Alliaceae: includes vegetables that grow from bulbs, including chives, garlic, leeks, onions, scallions.
Amaranthaceae family: leafy green vegetables including arugula, beets, kale, lettuce, spinach, Swiss chard, and watercress.
Brassicaceae family: includes vegetables such as broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, cucumbers, kohlrabi, radishes and turnips.
Cucurbitaceae family: also called gourds or squash family, and includes cucumbers, melons, pumpkins, squash, and watermelon.
Fabaceae family: includes all legumes, including peas, beans, soybeans, lentils, alfalfa, and clover.
Solanaceae family: also known as nightshade plants, and includes eggplants, peppers, potatoes and tomatoes.
Group the plants by family and plant them in the same beds, so that later it is easy to move them as a group to another bed next year.
Other vegetables such as corn, carrots and herbs are cultivated where there is room, but try not to plant them in the same places two years in a row.
If you don’t have raised beds, you can easily rotate crops by moving everything up three rows in the garden. This will provide enough distance to prevent pathogens and plant-specific pests from migrating to your favorite garden plants.
Crop rotation doesn’t have to be complicated. There is only one instruction to follow: do not plant vegetables in the same family in the same location for three years.
Simply rearrange the garden layout plan each year to plant everything in a different location than where it grew last year. Always check the plant family before replanting a crop to ensure you are not planting related crops in the same location.
Do you rotate your crops from year to year? We’d love to hear your tips in the comments.
Source: Grow a Good Life
Source: www.agromedia.rs
