Excellent Technique Rotating Plant Growing for Success Gardening
The vegetables in your garden don’t have the same nutritive needs and their roots don’t need to grow to the same depth in the soil. It is, therefore, necessary to rotate plant growing, practice known as plant rotation. Growing the same plant in the same place tires out the soil over the years and also provokes the development of diseases.
Plant rotation consists of changing, over several years, the types of vegetables grown according to their specific needs. To carry out this practice, you should divide your patch into four different plots in which you will then rotate cultivation.
Plot 1
Plant leaf vegetables such as lettuce, spinach, corn salad or cabbage, and also Solanaceae like potatoes or tomatoes. These vegetables need soil which contains a lot of nutritive elements, nitrogen in particular.
Plot 2
Plant bulb like onions and garlic along with root vegetables like radish, carrots, beetroot or turnips, which all are capable of searching for nitrogen deep in the soil.
Plot 3
Plant grain vegetables like string beans or butter beans, which are capable of enriching the soil in nitrogen. Fruit vegetables like melons and pumpkins may also be grown here.
Plot 4
Leave this plot fallow by planting organic, soil-enriching fertilizers like clover, alfalfa or mustard.
In the second year, but the plants in the first plot into the second plot, the plants in the second plot into the third, the plants in the third into the fourth and the plants in the fourth into the first. The main thing is not to plant the same vegetable in the same plot two years running. You should also dig dung and/or well-decomposed compost into the soil in Spring.
You can plant vivacious vegetables like artichokes, rhubarb or asparagus permanently in a fifth plot.
Crop Rotation Beneficial For Backyard Gardeners
There are many positive sides to crop rotation. Rotating crops among the beds of a backyard garden is an important and interesting practice, and also one that we needed to adopt in our garden.
Read More: How To Turn A Small Space Into A Big Harvest With Vertical Garden
Disease Control
Many diseases and pests tend to affect plants of the same types. Rotating crops reduces the likelihood of diseases that can remain in the soil. For example, tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, and potatoes are in the Solanaceae family and have similar susceptibility to diseases. If a gardener wants to rotate crops, any of the plants in this family should not be planted where other members were grown in the previous season.
Nutrients
Different plants use different amounts of nutrients from the soil. A crop that requires a high amount of a particular nutrient from the soil — for example, spinach’s need for boron — could eventually lower the levels of that nutrient and then not do as well in that area.
The other example most people are somewhat familiar with is how legumes like beans and peas fix nitrogen in the soil. It makes good sense to alternate them with other plants that can take advantage of that nitrogen.
Soil Improvement
Rotating crops can also improve soil structure by alternating deep-rooted plants with shallow-rooted plants. If you’ve already planted your veggies for the year, suggestions to consider rotating your crops are coming a bit late. However, you might need a little time to think about your practices and your willingness to make changes.
If you are considering making changes next year, you can make a map or diagram of what you planted in which spots this year. It’s a good idea to keep those garden plans so you can compare them year to year.
