Crop Rotation

The general principles of crop rotation have been used by farmers for centuries. They discovered that rotating the crop they grew in a specific place brought a number of benefits.

There are two main reasons why rotating where you grow a crop each year can be beneficial.

Crops require varying levels of nutrients, which are generally dictated by their type and group. If you only ever grown one type of crop on a patch of ground ,the soil can become depleted in certain nutrients. Therefore the quality of produce will deterorate over time, without chemical intervention.

In addition many pests and diseases are species specific. Therefore if you grow the same crop in a single patch each year, the pests and diseases in the soil can rapidly increase in numbers. Making them very difficult to control. This is particularily a problem with diseases like Club Root, which affects Brassicas such as Cabbages and Broccoli. As well as pests such as Cutworm which attacks Potatoes . Both can become epidemic and almost impossible to irradicate. For more on Pests & Diseases please see our dedicated section on the subject.

Below is a chart to use as a guide on how to divide up the groups.

It's therefore advisable to rotate your crops every year. To acheive this vegetables are broadly grouped into four according to the family they belong to. Generally the groups are split into, Roots, Brassicas, Vegetables and Alliums. There are several documented variations of this including a 3 year rotation that groups the Alliums with the Vegetables. But generally as long as the Roots and Brassicas have their own group, and the rotation you use is at least three years you should see the benefits.

 

To make things easier to rotate each year, consider spliting your vegetable growing area into four and using each area for a specific group. Then each year rotate the crops clockwise, that way you can easily identify every year where a crop should be planted where. This takes the guess work out of trying to remember what you planted in each bed for the last few years!