How large is your garden? In small home gardens, more often than not, there isn't enough space for rotation to be effective. Also...I'm not sure if I'm reading your rotations correctly.

I think that flies in the face of most of the conventional wisdom about crop rotation. The author may be basing this on nutritional needs, thinking that, for example, broccoli will deplete the soil of different nutrients than rutabagas, because different plant structures are involved in production of the crop.

But, this ignores the fact that rotation is done primarily to reduce pathogen populations. If you plant broccoli in a spot and it gets any of the several diseases that brassicas can get, like club root or black root, and then plant cabbage there the next year, you're just asking for the cabbage to get the same disease.

So, personally, I would avoid this type of rotation.

But, it's not always possible in small-scale production. Those of us growing in backyards can't always rotate the same way farmers with hundreds of acres at their disposal can.

So, if you can't rotate or don't want to, you can make sure you ammend the soil to mitigate nutritional issues, be very vigilant in your disease and insect control, and grow varieties with the best genetic resistance to diseases.

Genetic resistance is, IMO, the most important part of the equation. I lost my entire 2006 cucumber crop, most of my 2007 cucumber crop, to a new strain of downy mildew which was reportedly brought north by the remnants of several hurricanes, including Katrina, from the Carribean in 2005 (whether that is true or not I can't say, but it got here somehow). In 2008, I searched out the most resistant cucumber strains I could find, and I had much better success despite a crappy climate. While I certainly can't PROVE it was the genetics of the new cucumber varieties I had bought, I certainly BELIEVE that is the reason why my crop did much better last year.

Here are a bunch of previous discussions on crop rotation linked below. You could browse through all of them for tips.

In your previous post on this question Stephen outlined in detail the various ways of rotating crops and the reasons behind each approach. You might want to review it again.

And as mentioned in that previous discussion and reiterated above by reign, most home gardeners don't have the space to rotate effectively, much less allow for a 3 year cycle between repeats. Crop rotation is vital in commercial and large productions but isn't really all that applicable to the average home garden. And with adequate soil amendment during and after the season, it isn't really necessary either. A good dose of compost beats a 3 year rotation plan hands down!

Dave

Here is a link that might be useful: Crop rotation discussions

Thanks for the input denninmi. I have a LOT of different cultivars of most of the stuff I'm growing, so I'm hoping that diversity will help mitigate any disease spread. Also plan on spacing out plants quite a bit which I hope will help a bit. I've picked disease resistant varieties when I had the chance but also picked many different heirlooms as well for variety.

Do you rotate Denninmi? If so, how do go about doing it?

Well, I try to, Canukistani, but the simple truth is, I'm not very organized about it. Usually, it involves me walking out to one of my garden areas with a packet of seeds or flat of transplants and saying to myself, "well, I planted those THERE last year, so I'll plant them over HERE this year."

Not very complex, but it does seem to work.

And yes, despite all of my statements above about disease resistence, I grow tons of heirlooms that aren't resistant. I guess I should clarify by saying that I always plant a LOT of resistant varieties for my main crop of something important that I can't like without, like tomatos, and then fill in with lesser quantities of the heirlooms. That way, I know that I won't be totally sunk if some dreaded disease strikes in a big way.