1In vegetable crop rotations, nitrogen fixation and carry-over is also important, though it plays second fiddle to pest management concerns. The well-known market gardener, Eliot Coleman, recommends an 8-year rotation as shown in Figure 4.
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The rationale for Coleman’s 8-year rotation follows. Since he gardens in the Northeast, some of the details reflect those constraints.
Potatoes follow sweet corn…because research has shown corn to be one of the preceding crops that most benefit the yield of potatoes.
Sweet Corn follows the cabbage family because, in contrast to many other crops, corn shows no yield decline when following a crop of brassicas. Secondly, the cabbage family can be undersown to a leguminous green manure which, when turned under the following spring, provides the most ideal growing conditions for sweet corn.
The Cabbage Family follows peas because the pea crop is finished and the ground is cleared [early] allowing a vigorous green manure crop to be established.
Peas follow tomatoes because they need an early seed bed, and tomatoes can be undersown to a non-winter-hardy green manure crop that provides soil protection over winter with no decomposition and regrowth problems in the spring.
Tomatoes follow beans in the rotation because this places them 4 years away from their close cousin, the potato.
Beans follow root crops because they are not known to be subject to the detrimental effect that certain root crops such as carrots and beets may exert in the following year.
Root Crops follow squash (and potatoes) because those two are good “cleaning” crops (they can be kept weed-free relatively easily), thus there are fewer weeds to contend with in the root crops, which are among the most difficult to keep cleanly cultivated. Second, squash has been shown to be a beneficial preceding crop for roots.
Squash is grown after potatoes in order to have the two “cleaning” crops back to back prior to the root crops, thus reducing weed problems in the root crops (19).
1http://attra.ncat.org/attra-pub/organiccrop/tools2.html
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ReplyDeleteThanks for your advice. I didn't rotate my tomatoes one year because I changed my crop rotationcrop rotation plans and ended up with a bad case of blight. Won't do that again. (Plus I read not to compost store-bought tomatoes because they can spread blight. So I stopped doing that, just in case.) Generally, I rotate my raised beds like this (but I still tweak things now and then, and add other minor crops to these main ones): Year 1 is cukes and cabbage family. Year 2 is tomatoes/peppers. Year 3 is legumes. Year 4 is zucchini. Year 5 is tomatoes/peppers. Year 6 is garlic/onions. Year 7 is compost and letting the bed rest (a biblical concept). I try to keep two years between planting plants in same spot. It's still a work in progress. But it's fun work.
I like the way you listed your rotation. It made it seem simpler! Thank you!
DeleteI also let my garden rest during the seventh year and what a difference in the soil the following year! It was lovely loam, and I live in predominately clay soil. I want to incorporate crop rotation this year in hopes it will produce a larger harvest. Seems very sensible!
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