Specialty Containers and Crop Rotation?
Bruce (Vancouver Island)
5 years ago
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Planning for crop rotation
Comments (9)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...See MoreCrop rotation in the deep south
Comments (5)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....See MoreHow do you rotate crops in a home garden?
Comments (23)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....See MoreRotating crops in small raised beds?
Comments (7)azkayla, Crop rotation can help prevent diseases - the most-cited reason for it, but also helps condition soil. The constant addition of compost does a lot for returning organic matter to the soil in a SFG, but some nutrients in compost are not as easily broken down, and some are broken down better by specific plants. BER, as you indicate, is caused by a lack of uptake of calcium, sometimes because of inadequate watering, sometimes because of depleted calcium, and sometimes because the calcium present is not available to the root system because it is not broken down or is in the presence or absence of specific nutrients. Although I haven't studied the specific mechanics involved in detail, I do know that different species of plant act as dynamic accumulators for different micronutrients. The crop rotation cycle of solanum, root crop, legume exposes the organic material to many different types of dynamic accumulation, and could (I say probably does) serve to condition the soil in many different ways, adding to soil nutrient availability. The presence of mycorrhizal fungi also play a role in proper nutrient uptake. That being said, how I do crop rotation in my tomato beds (I've only got a single place that works for toms, too) is toms all summer, then a carrot or other root planting in autumn. In spring, peas go in as soon as the ground is workable, and by the time toms need the trellis, the peas are dying back. I don't know if this is truly helpful, but I don't think it hurts! (See my other post on myccorhyzal fungi, maybe there will be interesting conversations there!)...See Moredigdirt2
5 years agoJohn D Zn6a PIT Pa
5 years agoJohn D Zn6a PIT Pa
5 years agogardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)
5 years agoBruce (Vancouver Island)
5 years agoJohn D Zn6a PIT Pa
5 years agoJohn D Zn6a PIT Pa
5 years agoBruce (Vancouver Island)
5 years agoJohn D Zn6a PIT Pa
5 years ago- Bruce (Vancouver Island) thanked daninthedirt (USDA 9a, HZ9, CentTX, Sunset z30, Cfa)
Bruce (Vancouver Island)
5 years ago
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daninthedirt (USDA 9a, HZ9, CentTX, Sunset z30, Cfa)