Crop rotation in the deep south

15 years ago

Hi, folks. I posted this question on the potager forum, but didn't get alot (and conflicting) of info.

In my area, I can plant three crops a year: early spring, summer, and fall. With this level of cropping, I cannot possibly wait three years to plant tomatoes (or anything else) in the same place.

If I rotate crops between seasons, will this suffice? In other words, can I plant in the same block: greens, then tomatoes, then beans in the fall, and then start the rotation over again the next year? I definitely plan to either add compost or a cover crop in between crops, since I am planting intensively in raised beds.

I have read a great deal on the internet and there really doesn't seem to be much agreement on the whole issue of rotations. What do you think?

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Comments (5)

heather38
15 years ago
I have read alot on square foot and they seem to think that this is surficient! but thats prepared soil ect, my feeling are you can either suck it and see! or do what my Pops did, which is, you must have a place to access the plants if this is soil, put boards down so you minimise the compacting of the soil, and next year you use your walk way as the garden and the garden as the walk way, its not quite the 4 years but with the differnt plants it may help? but if you are in a narrow space up against a fence with fixed path, the only alternative I think is to use containers? but if this is all you want to grow, containers will may do it and replace the medium yearly, a little expensive but maybe worth it? hope this help you alittle? it frustrating not to get replies I know, but I find conficting replies really useful as they make me think and normally I have a gut feeling that one will work better for me than another (mainly cos I am lazy I take the path of least resistance! haha!) or a mixture/compromise of the info, as I said if you don't really know what to do, try it out this year and next record plants up yield, pest ect and if yield down significatly next year, try something else.
wally_1936
15 years ago
The only problem I can see is if an infestation occurs. Different plants need different things from the soil and these sometimes do cause a problem, if it weakens the next plant then the bugs can tell it is time to eat that plant as they are mostly drawn to sickly plants. Those are the only reasons I can see for rotation. You can always side dress to help feed those plants and maybe avoid future problems. If you are using companion planting this sometimes off sets the need to rotate. I do know that if corn is planted in the same place all the time you will end up with smut, which the Indians did eat also. I think just trying and see how everything turns out. If you run into a problem keep a record to check back on from time to time and see your results. You will learn more yourself than most of us will be of any help for you, experience is always the best teacher.
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Crop rotation is primarily a commercial grower issue rather than a home gardener issue and for home gardeners who use raised beds it is even less of an issue than those who garden in-ground. Obviously when one has the space to easily rotate crops, great. But the vast majority of small home gardeners simply cannot do it and successfully grow in the same locations for many years. The way to eliminate the need for it is good soil maintenance and that is easy to do with raised beds by simply incorporating good amounts of fresh quality compost and other organic matter annually or twice a year. When you take into consideration that the majority of the common garden diseases are not soil-borne but air borne fungus.then the need for complex crop rotation is lowered even more. For example, if we have one bed with all tomatoes/peppers, and another with beans/peas, we can really only rotate between the two. Is this sufficient? What if we end up with more than one bed of tomatoes/peppers? First beans and peas have different seasons so one example would be peas can be followed by peppers or tomatoes. East-West beds will always give you better sun exposure than north south UNLESS you have trees or buildings in the way. And another easy to do solution is to simply avoid planting all of one crop in the same bed. For example, nothing says all the tomatoes have to be in one bed rather than 1 row in each and while beans won't like all the nutrients that tomatoes need, neither do peppers. So a better understanding of the individual crop needs can allow for a better distribution of the crops than you have pictured above. Dave
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Starting last year, I tried doing crop rotation. But after thinking about things this year, I've decided I'll make an effort, but not freak out about it too much, unless there is a special circumstance. My garden is only 200 sq. feet, not counting paths. (I wish it could be bigger, but I'm not willing to cut down forest.) I inter-crop, and with decent soil, roots go pretty far. I figure that roots of plants of various families could probably be found in most places in my garden. I would imagine that this makes the soil depletion issue not so much of an issue. To boot, I add lots of compost, turn in tons of compostables in the fall, use fish emulsion as a spot treatment, and use organic fertilizers. I live in southern New Hampshire, and here in New England late blight was pretty impossible to avoid last year. I held it off with compost tea, but eventually my toms got it like all my neighbors'. Since late blight overwinters, I did my best to move the toms for this year. The Extension told me a few feet away was probably enough because I didn't grow potatoes last year. Gardeningscomplicated, sounds like I should look at the Jeavons book. Sounds like it would make me feel better about my method.
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I don't do anything that remotely resembles true crop rotation and I never have, and I haven't had any trouble. It can be really hard for home gardeners to rotate crops anyhow, due to there being limited space. I used to try to move crops around more than I do now, but I found I'd rather leave tomato plants or corn or peppers in an area where they grow well. I do add lots of compost and other forms of organic matter and I think that makes a difference. One reason to rotate would be so the same macronutrients and micronutrients aren't continually used up (say, by planting a heavy giver crop in a bed one year and then a heavy feeder in that bed the next year), but if you continue enriching your soil every year, you're making up for what the previous year's crop took out of it. And, keep in mind, that I haven't ever had the kinds of diseases that reside in the soil to an extent that they become a problem. If I had an ongoing problem with something like fusarium wilt in my garden soil, I expect I'd have to try to rotate crops properly. As long as you replenish the nutrients that are used up by the crops every year and as long as you don't see a trend of having the same problem in the same place every year, I suspect you can grow forever without really rotating---at least in our climate. Soil-dwelling pests that overwinter in the soil could be another good reason to rotate so you're moving something like squash from the place where it grew last year to a new spot so you aren't planting right into an area where squash bugs might be overwintering. Realistically speaking, though, if squash bugs are anywhere near your garden, they're going to find the squash plants even if you move them to a different bed every year.
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Not to speak for Wendy, and while I completely agree with the statements above explaining that rotation is first, and foremost, about disease prevention (especially soil-borne disease,) there are a few examples where rotation can be utilized in pest prevention strategies. Again - this time with the specifics of cabbage 'worms' on brassicas - rotation has absolutely no effect in prevention. However, one pest that does attack brassicas (some types more than others) is flea beetles. If you had a lot of flea beetle damage, AND wish to apply row covers to protect against serious infestations (especially since flea beetles are difficult to control using a product as safe as Bt,) rotating plant varieties that are prone to flea beetle damage to a garden space that didn't have as serious a flea beetle infestation in the prior year, then installing the row cover immediately, can help in pest control in that instance. Another similar example is with SVB. However, even though there are such instances when rotation can be used IN CONJUNCTION with other pest control techniques to foil serious infestations, the principle remains intact... rotation is for disease prevention first; nutrient availability and fixation second; and a distant third is the few cases where specific pests over-winter in soil and you're going to use certain other pest control techniques along with rotation. Perhaps a fourth reason for rotation (and some may rate this higher) is in soil friability where a deep-dug crop prepares formally shallow ground because of the digging required for harvest of the first crop. Jerusalem Artichoke (sunchokes) is an example where some people plant it in the first year of 'new ground', and after harvest another crop is planted in the turned soil - of course, because sunchokes are perennials, there's always the issue of not getting all the tubers and watching them come up in the second year with the crop rotated into the space.
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digdirt2
15 years ago
Yes you will get conflicting answers on the concept of rotation no matter where you ask or read. ;) Because the conflicting opinions both have documented research to support their positions.

Rotation requirements began in the commercial industry where it was vital. And it carried over to some home gardeners who had to deal with chronic soil-borne viral diseases and heavily depleted soil. This does not mean that it is required.

Newer research supports the arguments that if you have none of the regional chronic viral diseases in your garden and if your soil is consistently well-amended with fresh compost and nutrients then crop rotation is not required. This works well for the home gardener who often doesn't have room for the complex rotation approach.

So, if you review the many previous discussions here on rotation you'll find that most recommend that IF you can rotate, fine. If you can't rotate, don't worry about it unless you have a chronic disease problem or you don't for some reason maintain the quality of your soil. Because of various constraints, many of us have been growing the the same locations for multiple years. ;)

Dave
shebear
15 years ago
I'm with Dave but I have one more thing for you to think about. I've taken to growing my own plants from seed I've acquired from good clean sources. It takes work but you know how healthy the seedlings are and you don't bring in foreign soil. If you take care of your soil and control what you bring into your garden, I feel you can break quite a few "rules" and have a good harvest all the time.
Donna
Original Author
15 years ago
Thanks, Y'all. This is what I am going to do: tend to my soil, keep things as clean as I can, and cross any bad bridges if I come to them. :)

Crop rotation in the deep south

Comments (5)

heather38

wally_1936

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Crop rotation in the deep south

Comments (5)

heather38

wally_1936

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shebear

DonnaOriginal Author

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