This article contains information about crop rotation as well as how to fertilize the beds so as to use what was left behind by the last crop or only apply what is necessary for the next crop.
Crop rotation: breaking the cycle of disease and pests organically in your vegetable garden
Looking for a safe organic way to keep pests and disease under control in your vegetable patch? One of the simplest ways is planting your vegetables based around crop rotation. Crop rotation is all about planting groups of similar vegetables together in a different part of the garden each year. It's important to do this because different crops like different soil conditions. Sweet corn and pumpkin love a rich organic soil, but the same soil conditions would fork carrots and other root crops. Pests and diseases tend to effect vegetable groups and will often remain in the soil for years. But by following a rotation system these pests and diseases can't build up in the soil.
The length of a rotation system can vary from 3 to 8 years. The longer the better. But this can be difficult with the size restrictions of the average backyard. So using a number of resources I've collated a few options for you using a 4, 5 or 6 year rotation system.
4 year rotation
Crop rotation is all about moving vegetable groups from one bed to another each year. Our backyard vegetable patch uses this 4 year rotation system.
The first bed starts off with a mixture of roots crops (carrots, parsnips and beetroot) and vegetables belonging to the allium family (onions, garlic and leeks). The second bed begins with sweet corn and cucurbits (pumpkins, squash, cucumber, zucchini and maybe even some watermelons). By autumn the crops in this bed have usually been harvested so you can grow a quick cover of green manure before the next growing season. The third bed in spring starts with the vegetables that prefer a slightly lower pH (also known as acid lovers) such as tomatoes, capsicums (bell peppers), chillies and eggplants. And the fourth bed can be used to grow legumes (peas and beans) and brassicas (cabbages, broccoli, cauliflower and pak choy). By spring the following year the sweet corn and cucurbits replace the root crops and onions. The tomatoes, bell peppers and eggplants replace the sweet corn and cucurbits (after the green manure has been dug into the bed). The legumes and brassicas replace the tomatoes and their friends. And of course next, the root crops and onions replace the legumes and brassicas. This system continues so that no vegetable group is ever planted in the same place twice over the four year period. Regardless of whether you're using a 4, 5 or 6 year rotation system you can plant leafy salad vegetables like lettuce anytime and anywhere there's a bit of space.
The timing for when you rotate each bed varies depending on the bed and your local conditions. In cool and temperate climates tomatoes and other crops are usually killed off by frosts. But here in subtropical Queensland we rarely ever get frosts (except in the Downs and some parts of western Brisbane out Ipswich way) so we can have a longer growing season. But you'll generally find that all of the beds are usually rotated around autumn in one form or another.
5 year rotation
By now I hope you have a better understanding about how crop rotation works. So I'm not repeating myself I'll simplify the whole 5 year rotation system:
Bed 1.................. Onions, garlic and leeks followed by...
Bed 2 .................Legumes and brassicas followed by...
Bed 3 .................Root crops followed by...
Bed 4 .................Cucurbits and sweet corn followed by...
Bed 5 .................Tomato, capsicums and eggplants....
and then back to the onions.
Over time the soil in your beds will gradually become more acidic which suits the way each vegetable group is rotated. By the time you rotate the tomatoes, eggplants and capsicums into the bed in their fifth year the soil will ideally suit their acidic nature. That doesn't mean you'll have to wait 5 years to get your crops. It just means the soil will suit them even better as the years go by. A few weeks before you get to the end of the season in autumn sprinkle a good handful or two of lime or dolomite into each square metre of your tomato bed. This will sweeten the soil preparing the bed for the lime loving onions, garlic and leeks. The other vegetable families are then rotated behind the onions. The whole process benefits all vegetable types and your soil.
6 year rotation
The 6 year rotation cycle splits the legumes from the brassicas so you plant:
Bed 1 ...............Onions, garlic and leeks followed by...
Bed 2 ..............Legumes followed by...
Bed 3 ..............Brassicas followed by...
Bed 4 ..............Root crops followed by...
Bed 5 ..............Cucurbits and sweet corn followed by...
Bed 6...............Tomato, capsicums and eggplants....
and then back to the onions.
The same principles for the 5 year rotation system apply to the 6 year rotation system. As with the 4 and 5 year systems you can plant lettuce, parsley, spinach and silverbeet wherever you have a little bit of spare space after harvesting.
When you're making your beds you can apply a heavy organic mixture of homemade and mushroom compost, old manure, blood and bone and dolomite to beds 2, 3, 5 and 6.
Bed 1 should only get dolomite and compost. This way your root crops won't fork from heavily manured soil and your bulbs (like garlic, onions and leeks) won't go mouldy or form poorly.
But what about potatoes?
OK, crop rotation sounds like a good idea, but what about if I want to plant potatoes? This is where you need to start really planning things.
I love potatoes. They're technically from the same family as tomatoes. But I would never have enough room in my tomato bed to fit potatoes in there too. There are only two ways I've found you can get around this (OK three, but the third one is exceptionally tricky).
Crop rotation: breaking the cycle of disease and pests organically in your vegetable garden
Looking for a safe organic way to keep pests and disease under control in your vegetable patch? One of the simplest ways is planting your vegetables based around crop rotation. Crop rotation is all about planting groups of similar vegetables together in a different part of the garden each year. It's important to do this because different crops like different soil conditions. Sweet corn and pumpkin love a rich organic soil, but the same soil conditions would fork carrots and other root crops. Pests and diseases tend to effect vegetable groups and will often remain in the soil for years. But by following a rotation system these pests and diseases can't build up in the soil.
The length of a rotation system can vary from 3 to 8 years. The longer the better. But this can be difficult with the size restrictions of the average backyard. So using a number of resources I've collated a few options for you using a 4, 5 or 6 year rotation system.
4 year rotation
Crop rotation is all about moving vegetable groups from one bed to another each year. Our backyard vegetable patch uses this 4 year rotation system.
The first bed starts off with a mixture of roots crops (carrots, parsnips and beetroot) and vegetables belonging to the allium family (onions, garlic and leeks). The second bed begins with sweet corn and cucurbits (pumpkins, squash, cucumber, zucchini and maybe even some watermelons). By autumn the crops in this bed have usually been harvested so you can grow a quick cover of green manure before the next growing season. The third bed in spring starts with the vegetables that prefer a slightly lower pH (also known as acid lovers) such as tomatoes, capsicums (bell peppers), chillies and eggplants. And the fourth bed can be used to grow legumes (peas and beans) and brassicas (cabbages, broccoli, cauliflower and pak choy). By spring the following year the sweet corn and cucurbits replace the root crops and onions. The tomatoes, bell peppers and eggplants replace the sweet corn and cucurbits (after the green manure has been dug into the bed). The legumes and brassicas replace the tomatoes and their friends. And of course next, the root crops and onions replace the legumes and brassicas. This system continues so that no vegetable group is ever planted in the same place twice over the four year period. Regardless of whether you're using a 4, 5 or 6 year rotation system you can plant leafy salad vegetables like lettuce anytime and anywhere there's a bit of space.
The timing for when you rotate each bed varies depending on the bed and your local conditions. In cool and temperate climates tomatoes and other crops are usually killed off by frosts. But here in subtropical Queensland we rarely ever get frosts (except in the Downs and some parts of western Brisbane out Ipswich way) so we can have a longer growing season. But you'll generally find that all of the beds are usually rotated around autumn in one form or another.
5 year rotation
By now I hope you have a better understanding about how crop rotation works. So I'm not repeating myself I'll simplify the whole 5 year rotation system:
Bed 1.................. Onions, garlic and leeks followed by...
Bed 2 .................Legumes and brassicas followed by...
Bed 3 .................Root crops followed by...
Bed 4 .................Cucurbits and sweet corn followed by...
Bed 5 .................Tomato, capsicums and eggplants....
and then back to the onions.
Over time the soil in your beds will gradually become more acidic which suits the way each vegetable group is rotated. By the time you rotate the tomatoes, eggplants and capsicums into the bed in their fifth year the soil will ideally suit their acidic nature. That doesn't mean you'll have to wait 5 years to get your crops. It just means the soil will suit them even better as the years go by. A few weeks before you get to the end of the season in autumn sprinkle a good handful or two of lime or dolomite into each square metre of your tomato bed. This will sweeten the soil preparing the bed for the lime loving onions, garlic and leeks. The other vegetable families are then rotated behind the onions. The whole process benefits all vegetable types and your soil.
6 year rotation
The 6 year rotation cycle splits the legumes from the brassicas so you plant:
Bed 1 ...............Onions, garlic and leeks followed by...
Bed 2 ..............Legumes followed by...
Bed 3 ..............Brassicas followed by...
Bed 4 ..............Root crops followed by...
Bed 5 ..............Cucurbits and sweet corn followed by...
Bed 6...............Tomato, capsicums and eggplants....
and then back to the onions.
The same principles for the 5 year rotation system apply to the 6 year rotation system. As with the 4 and 5 year systems you can plant lettuce, parsley, spinach and silverbeet wherever you have a little bit of spare space after harvesting.
When you're making your beds you can apply a heavy organic mixture of homemade and mushroom compost, old manure, blood and bone and dolomite to beds 2, 3, 5 and 6.
Bed 1 should only get dolomite and compost. This way your root crops won't fork from heavily manured soil and your bulbs (like garlic, onions and leeks) won't go mouldy or form poorly.
But what about potatoes?
OK, crop rotation sounds like a good idea, but what about if I want to plant potatoes? This is where you need to start really planning things.
I love potatoes. They're technically from the same family as tomatoes. But I would never have enough room in my tomato bed to fit potatoes in there too. There are only two ways I've found you can get around this (OK three, but the third one is exceptionally tricky).
- Make more space. I physically find somewhere else in the garden to grow my potatoes. But don't forget, the same rules apply. You can't plant potatoes (or tomatoes) there for at least four years, unless you want to risk getting disease in your soil.
3Bring the two together. I've never done this, but I've heard of some over enthusiastic gardeners who graft tomato plants onto the base of a potato plant. Result: potatoes under the ground with tomatoes growing on the same plant above ground. I don't know if this is just an urban myth. But if you've had success then please post it here.
- Raised Beds
- (There's some old formatting I cant get rid of so sorry about the numbering 3,4&5)
- A raised bed can be anything created from what we have or what we can scrounge - Example:- old boards like weather boards or bricks built up about 15cm (6 inches), to large container beds with earth or brick foundations 2 or 3 feet up from the ground such as bath tubs, or corrugated iron sided raised beds which are accessible by people in wheel chairs, the frail and elderly. Raised beds also enable you to rotate your crops, so if you have six beds, you'd only plant the same vegetable in that bed once every six year. Crop rotation is a system where you plant up each bed in a block of the same or similar vegetables, such as leeks, onions, garlic, shallots and chives together, or squash, cucumbers, corn, pumpkin and zucchinis together, then the following year, move them all to the next bed. The rotation usually goes something like this:
- leeks, onions, garlic, shallots and chives - add lime and compost
- legumes (the bean and pea family) - will use up the remaining lime from the previous year and add compost and nitrogen to the soil
- leaf vegetables like lettuce, brassicas (the cabbage family), silver beet and spinach - add nitrogen such as blood and bone or aged manures and compost
- root vegetables - carrots, parsnips, turnips, radishes etc - add compost
- squash, cucumbers, corn, pumpkin and zucchinis - add a little aged manure, compost and potash
- tomatoes, eggplants, capsicums (peppers) and chilli - add compost and potash
- leeks, onions, garlic, shallots and chives - add lime and compost
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