Crop rotation is one of the older and most effective strategies fororganic pest controland maintaining goodish soil in your garden . Specifically , it means the planned society of vegetables or fruits in garden bed ; avoiding plant the same craw ( and the same family of crop ) in the same space for a two or three year period ; and knowing what family your edibles belong to to .
The rules of harvest gyration lend oneself to plants in the same kin , like tomatoes and potatoes , as plant families are usually susceptible to the same pests and diseases ( unless a particular variety has been bred for resistance ) .
Many new gardeners become discouraged in the first few seasons when they make the mistake of plantingtomatoes , lettuce , white potato , orcornin the same garden beds year after year . They ca n’t understand why those hornworms , caterpillars , tomato blight , andpowdery mildewkeep ravaging their veg . Where the same vegetables or fruits ( or families of ) are raise in the same patch of soil successively , soil depletion and pest plague usually fall out .
Crop rotation helps to avoid disease
Growing the same crop in the same spot year after year is call Monoculture . Wherever monoculture live , pest and diseasesconcentrate their effort ( it ’s why Big Ag farmers have to utilize heavy applications of pesticides and fertilizers ) . If Verticillium Wilt infects your tomato plant this yr , and you works tomatoes in the same bed next yr , the premature season ’s soil - borne Verticillium will quickly have its way with your tomatoes and will farm even more fungi in the process . But if a crop resistant to Verticillium follows the tomato – likebroccolior mustard , which does n’t mind verticillium at all – the fungi diminish .
The same estimate bear true for diseases such as tomato blight . If your love apple were infect with blight last year , fungal spores from the blight most likely winter in your soil . Planting tomatoes the following twelvemonth in the garden layer furthest from the blight - infested layer will denigrate the chance that your love apple will blame up the disease again .
Crop rotation controls insect pests
Many filth - dwell louse are passably immobile . Take wireworms , for instance . They love to feast onsweet potatoesandcarrots . If you plant those edible in the same arouse seam every year , wireworms will build up up in the grease and in a few time of year you ’ll have a frightful infestation on your hands . But if you succeed carrots or sweet potatoes with a non - root veg like lettuce or spinach plant , the wireworms will lose their nutrient origin and will be incapable of multiplying . Similarly , if aphid infest your broccoli , implant that crop again or any cole crop like brussels sprout orcabbagein the same bed the following year is just inquire for double the plague .
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Crop rotation avoids depleting soil nutrients
Crop rotation has extra benefits . Yields decline if the same vegetables are rise in the same garden beds year after year due to filth nutrient depletion . Additionally , ascendent that immerse to unlike depth each year keep the ground food web active ; legume stir good soil microorganisms , and big , leafy greens are fantabulous at suppressing weeds .
Every industrial plant requires singular sum of nitrogen , daystar , K ( N - phosphorus - K ) and trace minerals . When the same plant makes echo demands of the same patch of soil , the elements it want become depleted and may take years to replace . For this ground , use a soil test for monitoring stage of N - P - K and composting in between crops is recommend for soil wellness .
If your garden is minuscule , perhaps just one raised layer , you’re able to still practice crop gyration . If you ca n’t live without Lycopersicon esculentum every summertime , growtomatoes in containerson the porch for one or two seasons and give your garden seam over to lettuce orbeans .
One rule of thumb : you canplant peasand noodle before or after anything – these legume harvest nitrogen from the air and render it to the dirt , unlike any other household of plants . After harvest , work bean and pea plant vines into the soil to add up organic matter and nitrogen or add thevinesto your compost galvanic pile .
See more info on crop rotation in gardens from the University of Wisconsin .
3-Year Crop Rotation Plan for Vegetable Gardens
If you have three or more garden beds , put each plant life house below a letter : one group to A , one to B , one to C. develop industrial plant from the same family together .
