I recently mentioned the idea of crop rotation to a friend who replied
"I'm leaving crop rotation until I get old" (the friend is, by the way
43 so not super-young). This got me thinking about the different
organic methods of preventing pests and diseases. I use a combination
of methods -
planting guilds,
companion planting and rough use of
permaculture zones.
And I only started to use crop rotation because I had problems with root knot nematode. I have previously launched into over-think and over-plan with
crop rotation - as you'll see here with my
Excel spreadsheet and here, with my
rotation plan. The thing is though, that I do mixed plantings, and don't have areas that are fallow. So now, I really do a very casual version of crop rotation (still referring to my Excel spreadsheet every now and then to remind myself of what plants belong to what families) where the
thinking is something like the captions of the photos below.......
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| Leafy greens and flowers, good choice for main following crops would be root crops, onions, well..I"d probably plant most things, just not more leafy greens.And if it was a heavy feeder, I'd incorporate heaps of compost and manure. |
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| Mmmm tomatoes, same family as potatoes, capsicum, chillies, heavy
feeders, probably plant something that doesn't need much feeding
(carrots, parsnips...or beans) and is not likely to have the same
disease |
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| Root knot nematodes on a tomato plant. Sterilise my equipment and gumboots, don't plant potatoes, tomatoes etc. here for a long time, & plant veggies that are more resistant to the disease (broccoli, spring onions, onions, other brassicas). |
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Do you rotate your crops according to plant families? Or do something different, which works just as well?
6 comments:
Hi Lanie,
It's difficult in a small garden, isn't it? It seems to me (ie, a totally unscientific gardener's hunch) that the tomato/potato/eggplant etc family are the major troublemakers in this vein. The leafy greens are a lot less fussy in this way. So I try to be a very good boy with growing tomatoes/eggplants/chillies etc in a different spot each new season (and that's difficult in a small backyard) and that means I occasionally get stumped when looking for a new, sunny, 'non-compromised' planting spot, and so a large pot is the only answer.
Thanks Jamie. That matches my experience too. The problem that you describe of having to find a non-compromised, sunny spot is my exact problem. I have root knot nematode in the sunniest positions in the garden (unsurprisingly). So, yes, a large pot is a good solution.
I do a 4 year crop rotation in the raised veg patch, but the rest of the garden I inter-plant veg with the ornamentals, and there I vaguely use some crop rotation principles but really its just whatever fits where. But I (luckily) have the luxury of space in just under a quarter acre, so I appreciate that makes it easier to rotate.
Sounds as if you have a good system going Bek. I agree that having a bit more space means that you can rotate more easily. I have to remind myself that I choose to live on such a tiny block! Helps keep my land-size-envy at bay.
I know I should rotate but I can't get my head around it yet. It is definitely tricky in smaller gardens. I just keep digging up wee patches of grass to make way for more veggies and figure I'll work out a system soon... Ha in my old age like your friend (I'm her age too!)
Have tried with herbs but unfortunately living in the innercity means competing with two-storey houses that cast shadows, so finding spots with sun is a problem. One of my problems is a lovely coffee tree which in winter casts shadows on my radicchio patch so I keep lopping the top off it, making for an oddly shaped tree. More about this on my latest blogpost... And yes, large pots sound good too.
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