bhapimama
Humboldt County, California
Posts: 46
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| Posted: Mon Apr 18, 2011 7:19 pm Post subject: crop rotation - how important? |
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This is my 2nd year doing a backyard vegie garden (not counting a feeble attempt a couple of years ago). I have two raised beds 4'x5' each and two in-ground plots 10'x15' and 6'x12'. One thing I learned during my "feeble attempt" a couple years ago when my tomato plants perished, was that it was possibly due to a virus in the soil. I grew tomatos in one of the raised beds last year and they did great. I've been reading that it is important to rotate the crops and I'm wondering if I should be doing that. I'm reluctant to do the tomatos outside of the raised beds and there are strawberries in the other one. Last year I grew pumpkins, zucchini, cucumbers, green beans, lettuce and sunflowers successfully (in addition to the tomatos and strawberries)- this year, I would like to try onions, potatos and carrots as well. Any input is welcome!
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marlingardener
Central Texas, zone 8
Posts: 2388
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| Posted: Mon Apr 18, 2011 8:45 pm Post subject: |
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Welcome to the forum, and welcome back to gardening! Crop rotation in a vegetable garden isn't terribly important. It's nice to be able to rotate planting spots, but not absolutely necessary as long as you practice sanitation (removing dead/diseased plants, using mulch to keep dirt off leaves, cleaning up at the end of the season). That's the good news.
The bad news is that if your tomatoes suffered from a soil-borne disease (blight?) you shouldn't plant tomatoes in that spot again. The nasties that cause the disease are long-lived and will attack again if given a chance.
If your tomatoes did well in a raised bed, it will be safe to plant there again. Just add enough nutrients to compensate for what your tomatoes "ate" last year.
You'll have a great garden, and enjoy a lot of delicious vegetables (and strawberries!).
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Sjoerd
West - Friesland
Posts: 7024
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| Posted: Mon Apr 18, 2011 8:53 pm Post subject: |
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Hello Bhapimama--
Personally I believe that crop rotation is not only a good choice, I believe it to be 'a must' if you have interest in maintaining the best possible soil quality and plant health.
There are many aspects to think of when it comes to crop rotation, but the thing to have in mind is to rotate your crops in terms of crop sorts (Families), not just individual plant types.
An example: If you grow broccoli in a plot DO NOT follow that with cauliflower the following year. You see, cauliflower and broccoli are in the same family--brassicas (Brassicaceae).
So when you rotate, plant say, beans in the plot where the broccoli was. Beans are a totally different family, see?
Then the next year you can plant say, corn where the beans were...see how it goes?
Next you could plant for instance, beets where the corn was.
After this you could probably plant some form of brassica in that plot now...or stretch it out one more year and plant perhaps parsnips.
It is good to hear that you can get a decent crop of toms in your raised beds. I have to grow mine in a greenhouse because of phytophthora.
It looks like you grow a nice variety of veg...so when rotating, just pay attention to the Family of the different veggies. This will insure that your soil does not become "worn out", or depleted of mineral levels...and not give diseases that effect certain crops the chance to survive in the soil and infect the next generation of this same type of crop the following year.
Examples of families:
Solanaceae....potatoes,toms,aubergines
Brassicaceae/Cruciferae....cabbages, broccoli,turnips
Fabaceae/Leguminosae....beans,peas
Umbelliferae....carrots, parsnips,parsley
Cucurbitaceae....cucumbers, courgettes,celery
Alliaceae....onions,garlic,shallots
Good luck!
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Last edited by Sjoerd on Tue Apr 19, 2011 9:19 am; edited 1 time in total
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Jewell
 Regular Plants Contributor
Puget Sound Region of the Pacific NW (Washington State, US)
Posts: 1731
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| Posted: Tue Apr 19, 2011 4:32 am Post subject: |
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Sorry, I am a die hard crop rotator. Always try to rotate crops for the best crops with the least amount of problems from pests and to avoid chemical fertilizers. Legumes (peas, beans, etc.) make nitrogen from the soil available to other plants. Different plants have different needs and do different things to the soil. Here is one site to get you started http://yourorganicgardeningblog.com/your-vegetable-garden-crop-rotation/ I am sure there are a lot more sites out there if you want to explore farther.
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Coppice
SE-OH USAian
Posts: 300
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| Posted: Tue Apr 19, 2011 10:41 am Post subject: |
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Crop rotation where it is possible is probably a good idea. I will grant Ruth Stout didn't think so.
What she did do is used a very well fed garden with a very liberal mulch to reduce splash-back soil born disease.
Sometimes you garden with what ya' got.
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Danjensen
Z5a Montreal
Posts: 339
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| Posted: Tue Apr 19, 2011 11:41 am Post subject: |
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as the others have said crop rotation is a must.
BUT, if you find that sunlight or other factors prevent you from rotating your toms. there are certain plants that have less soil based diseases or pests.
So with your 4 beds you could do crop rotation with 3 of the beds and leave one raised bed as a permanent tomato bed. if you want to give the soil a break you can always grow the toms in compost bags on top of the soil.
the other option i have read, is you can always rotate the soil. but that sounds like too much wheelbarrow work to me.
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Growingpains
Michigan
Posts: 161
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| Posted: Tue Apr 19, 2011 6:27 pm Post subject: Crop Rotation |
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After reading, I probably should not plant my potatoes where I had tomatoes last year. I do know planting garlic where the potatoes grew is a good idea. Now, finding a spot where I didn't have a tomato last year may present a problem. I have one large tomato patch and then I stick plants here and there and everywhere. Just cannot put a tomato plant on the compost heap.
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Growingpains
Michigan
Posts: 161
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| Posted: Fri Apr 22, 2011 12:25 am Post subject: Crop Rotation |
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I bought seed potatoes today, both Yukon Gold and Pontiac Red. I fully intend to try one small patch just the way Ruth Stout did and hope for success.
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carolyn keiper
northern ohio
Posts: 2644
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| Posted: Fri Apr 22, 2011 2:40 am Post subject: |
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While I agree that it is important to rotate your crops, sometimes it isn't possible to actually not grow the same family in the same spot, we have found that tomatoes do react well to spraying with liquid copper. This is organic, also. It seems to suppress the blight or make the plant more resistant to the disease. We spray after most rains or approximately every two weeks through August. We keep a 2 gal pressure sprayer for the copper and leave any excess in the sprayer until the next time.
Some varieties are more resistant to the disease than others, as with most crops. If disease seems to be a problem, grow those that are more resistant.
In some areas nematodes are a problem and some crops seem to support the organism more than others, so you'll want to avoid growing succeptible crops successively.
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TheBip
Indianapolis, IN
Posts: 1041
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| Posted: Fri Apr 22, 2011 3:27 am Post subject: |
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In the book Carrots Love Tomatoes, it says "Unlike most other vegetables, tomatoes prefer to grow in the same place year after year, and this is alright, unless you have a disease problem, in which case plant your tomatoes in a new area."
Just thought Id throw that in...I dont really grow veggies (except Im gonna try this year!) so I dont do rotation...
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Coppice
SE-OH USAian
Posts: 300
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| Posted: Fri Apr 22, 2011 12:29 pm Post subject: |
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Soil born disease can be a monster problem! Rotation can be of some help to that.
Rotation is also good to reduce some pest insect problems.
Frankly many gardeners don't have the space to do a seven year rotation. IE growing solanum family plants in 'that' space only once every seven years.
The benefit from alternate year planting is not enough to remove all soil born disease. It might help, some, but not all.
It is probably also good to reduce soil becoming depleated of micro nutrients. IE different plants feed differently from soil.
Does making rotation a demand of the guy with a small back yard--er does it give him or her the tools to get another cop in? I'm not so sure it does.
I suspect the small yard guy is obliged to over compost and heavily mulch what they got. Cause its what they got.
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Pricklypear
Southern Arizona
Posts: 175
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| Posted: Tue Apr 26, 2011 10:12 pm Post subject: |
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Crop rotation? I try but I only have so much space so I don't worry about it to much. For example I can rotate tomatoes every other year but that's it.
I have in-ground and raised beds. I compost everything I can and really put effort into soil maintenance.
I plant green manures. I use whatever extra seed I have for this: collards, kale, mustard, beans anything. But, I'm planting winter rye in every vacant bed this fall. I didn't realize now much material rye could generate until my neighbor turned a shovel full of it to show me all the root matter. Wow.
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