Gardening.ie

CROP ROTATION

Vegetables shouldn’t be grown in the same spot year after year. If they are then two main problems arise. Firstly, soil-living pests and disease that thrive on the crop will increase in numbers. Secondly, continuous cropping with the same vegetable may lead to the levels of nutrients in the soil to become unbalanced. Therefore a simple crop rotation plan is needed to move the plants around every year. There can be an area in the plot for growing things that don’t need to move like asparagus and rhubarb, but for the rest of the patch a 3-year rotation plan can be drawn out. The main routine is this: Plant a root crop one year then an above ground crop the next then go back to root crop in the third year.

YEAR 1
ROOTS
BRASSICAS
OTHERS


YEAR 2
OTHERS
ROOTS
BRASSICAS

YEAR 3
BRASSICAS
OTHERS
ROOTS

YEAR 4
SAME AS
YEAR 1

Here’s a definition of the categories:

ROOTS: These are crops such as beetroot, carrot, Jerusalem artichoke, parsnip, potato and salsify (a bit like a skinny parsnip) For these crops no manure should be added and the ground doesn’t need to be limed. A general fertilizer could be raked into the soil 2 weeks before planting.

BRASSICAS: These are broccoli, brussel sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, kale, radish, swede and turnip. Some well-rotted manure could be added and the soil can be limed unless you are sure that the soil is already alkaline (a soil testing kit will tell you this)

OTHERS: This area will cover beans, celery, cucumber, leaf beet, leek, lettuce, marrow, onion, peas spinach, sweet corn and tomatoes. In this year loads of well rotted manure can be added and lime if the soil is acid.

What are the problems if crop rootation isn't done every year?

check this out first

http://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profiles12 ... tation.asp

Then have a look at this. It mentions why crop rotation is important

http://www.gardenorganic.org.uk/schools ... tation.pdf


Byeee