Re: Crop rotation

quiltbea 3/9/2013, 8:20 pm

pollinator.....Thanks for the article. Very helpful.

didomach 3/11/2013, 12:24 pm

So if I plant the corn in the north squares, and in the fall/winter plant some other flowers, etc, the corn soil has rotation. Though it seems as if corn is growing for two seasons.

didomach 3/11/2013, 12:27 pm

I plan to build a box for tomatoes, long and skinny with a string-trellis overhead. But if, when the tomatoes are done, I plant something else in those squares, do I have to move tomatoes to another box? Or do I plant every-other square this year, and the alternate squares next year?

I read somewhere that Mel recommends using a long narrow box for tomatoes. I am awaiting the arrival of our New SFG book, so I'm planning my garden blind, so to speak. Or perhaps I should just keep all my boxes square, and build a movable trellis to hoist above the tomato vines.

Any help?

**walshevak** 3/12/2013, 12:55 pm

Welcome. I just realized you are located in Turkey. I spent a few weeks in Ankara and did a tour to Cappidocia. Love the country.

I'm trying to remember the seasons. I was there during Sep the first time and in June the second. What are your frost dates and do you get a really frozen winter or just a few nights below freezing?

I believe you can get a summer crop of tomatos and then plant a winter crop of lettuce. kale, spinach or other cool weather greens in the box for rotation. Cool weather peas might be a good choice as they they grow up the trellis strings as well. A greenhouse cover over the greens would probably keep cool weather crops growing except for the really short sunlight days.

Kay

Hoggar 4/4/2013, 1:45 pm

didomach wrote:
I did have another question, and I hope "Hoggar" that you can tell me how you rotate using this structure... and I posted it under Garden plans https://squarefoot.forumotion.com/t14796-regarding-tomato-boxes-rotation. Thx

Sorry it took so long to reply Dido.
I don't rotate my tomato crop it goes in the same box every year I just add compost and mix the box. As long as there are no disease issues I'm good to go. If I start having disease problems I will just Solarize the box and it is good to go the next season.

**camprn** 6/12/2013, 10:29 pm

Not necessary in the SFG, but in the event of disease or pests in the soil, such as SVB I like to move things around. Here is a link to some more information about rotating crops.

www.gardeningpatch.com/vegetable/crop-rotation.aspx

WriterCPA 6/18/2013, 12:19 am

This is my year for ambition. I've never put in fall plantings before.

3) My fall plan calls for planting some broccoli and cabbage, more lettuce, iffy on the spinach. Maybe some late beets. Better ideas?

1) In the fall do I put new plantings of lettuce and spinach in the same places or try to do some kind of rotation. (I rotate the entire garden annually.) -- I planted late and my lettuce and spinach got caught by the blast of heat in mid May-- the spinach is spindly with stalks without ever producing usable leaves, although the lettuce is now making an effort (or maybe just holding on -- just pull it out?) - go figure.

2) What can I grow in the lettuce and spinach spaces for the next 2 months before I put in fall crops around August 15. Bush beans? transplanted herbs from the garden center? Not more radishes! I have enough and I'm not that big a radish fan? Try different radishes?

cheyannarach 6/18/2013, 1:23 pm

Bunching onions, beets, turnips, and beans you should be able toget a harvest from over the next two months! You could also look into planting shallots and Egyptian walking onions AFTER the fall harvest! Happy planting!!

cheyannarach 6/18/2013, 1:24 pm

I forgot, I try to rotate my crops every planting (but if you can't it's not the end of the world)!

WriterCPA 6/18/2013, 3:42 pm

Thanks Cheyanne.

FamilyGardening 2/27/2014, 2:39 am

found a new video on crop rotation, its presented easy to understand Very Happy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EcPgvHPsXhI&list=UU07PYjpZ-BWlxLBC4T1lOhg&feature=c4-overview

he is using row gardening as an example but im sure we can apply the same principles with SFG if your interested in crop rotation

happy gardening
rose

lzalvis 6/16/2014, 10:52 pm

I just found this thread by searching, as I'd recently posted a problem about my carrots not producing. Their first year in their box was *amazing* - but each season since (3 seasons) I've gotten less and less production from the carrots. Someone said that I should not replant root crops in the same box repeatedly, as was suggestd above. Makes sense to me.
I fill whole 4x4 boxes with one single kind of veggie, so I will begin to rotate crops.

mapspringer 6/27/2014, 3:42 pm

I know for the sake of avoiding potential diseases from the year before, it is advised to use a 3 year rotation for planting tomatoes (plant in 3 different places over 3 years.) Well, looking towards the 2015 garden I don't know how I'm going to do this. I really only have two ideal locations for them, with SFG beds built there, and this is the second year of rotation, meaning (if going by the 3-year plan) I would need to plant in a 3rd location. Has anyone else encountered this "problem", and how did you go about adjusting, or not adjusting? Is it truly that important of a rule to follow?
Thanks---

**camprn** 6/27/2014, 4:10 pm

I typically have not rotated my tomatoes on purpose, but I have not had any disease problems that winter doesn't cure before the next spring. I DO make sure I get plenty of good compost into the bed, for soil health and because tomato plants are heavy feeders.

boffer 6/27/2014, 4:21 pm

When I started SFGing, I pretty much threw all the 'rules' out the window. A person could drive themselves to the funny farm worrying about all the things that 'could' happen. I figure that when a problem develops, I'll worry about it then. I don't put any effort into rotating.

It appears that some regions are more prone to diseases than others, but if you haven't had any diseases, my opinion is to not worry about it. As camp said, amend properly and go for it.

mapspringer 6/27/2014, 4:53 pm

Thanks for the responses. Those are the kinds of tips I like! crop rotation - Crop rotation - Page 6 3170584802

yolos 6/27/2014, 6:28 pm

I am on a three year rotation for everything. I get one or two diseases each year on my tomatoes so I choose to rotate and I have enough room to do this. I do not know how effective our winters are at killing diseases so I am not taking any chances that the diseases are coming from the previous year. I get enough new ones every year.

Marc Iverson 6/27/2014, 7:48 pm

We have a great many diseases here, and those that we don't have already are always liable to be brought in on any random nursery plant directly into our own gardens. The latter possibility strikes me as a great incentive to start one's own plants from seed.

Last year I planted so many beds with tomatoes and tomatillos that, if I wanted to practice crop rotation, I wouldn't have enough space this year for all the tomatoes/tomatillos I'd like to grow. So I got some five-gallon buckets and filled them with MM and stuck the tomatoes and tomatillos in that. They're doing great. Next year I will probably grow something else in them, like cucumbers or pole beans or peas or even squash, keeping the rotation going.

I also scrambled up the hill behind our house and stuck a few in some of the few sunny spots between trees.

**walshevak** 6/28/2014, 1:24 pm

Just my 2 cents. but I consider the fall planting to be rotation 1 and that gives me enough space and trellis to rotate every other year for the rest of the garden. IE, collards/kale in the fall, tomatoes in the summer, peas in the fall, squash or beans the next summer. Of course there is also the lettuces, radishes, peas and such in the spring planting. Plus I add a lot of new compost between plantings and try to bring my beds up to full depth before spring planting. I also keep most of my tomatoes in buckets and dump the buckets into one or two of my beds during the winter and refill them with the MM already in the that bed, rotating the beds I dump into every other year. Hope it keeps working. This is my 2nd year doing that.

Kay

herblover 6/28/2014, 2:40 pm

I don't rotate my tomatoes; they are in the ground on the south side of my house. I have never had disease problems; I do space them well apart from each other (I have 5 plants), attend them faithfully, and add compost in the fall when I pull them up.

Marc Iverson 6/28/2014, 3:10 pm

I've read people at tomatoville.com saying they never change the soil in their buckets, just add fresh compost yearly.

It seems clear that, like much of gardening, so much of this comes down to chance. If you have no diseases, there's little motivation to rotate crops. If you have a ton of diseases, there's every urgent and terrible motivation. Most of our gardens probably fall somewhere along a spectrum that goes from least disease to most. So what one person does may not be a good fit for someone whose level of disease (and bug!) infestation differs.

**camprn** 1/16/2017, 10:55 am

**sanderson** 1/17/2017, 12:02 pm

Gardening year around here in CA. I wish I could rotate but my boxes are scattered around the back yard. Some boxes can not be planted at all during the winter and are late to get the spring sun. Each box is best for certain veggies due to sun exposure and trellising requirements. :-/

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