Planning garden to allow for crop rotation

So I'm at the very beginning of my SFG journey.  The end goal is three 4x4 boxes, probably on the ground (although I have a bad back, so I may raise them as Mel suggests in ANSFG).  This will take at least 3 years, I'm only going to make one box at most this year.  To allow for crop rotation I'm thinking all three should be 12" deep, otherwise I'm going to be limited in my choices of where I can put e.g. long carrots.  Is that right?  What have others done about this?  I'm thinking, if all our boxes should be 12" deep then why does Mel talk so much about 6" ones -- am I misunderstanding something?

Not everybody raises root vegetables. In any event, the real limitation for rotation is that so many plants are from the same plant families (brassicas and legumes predominate) and that the taller plants need to be in the back. Lettuces are short, so are pretty much always in the front. Cauliflower is tall, so is almost always in the back.

An additional "problem" for you (like me) is that you can grow things all year round. So that makes it harder to know in advance when you'll be harvesting a tall plant up front in order to allow light in further back. That is, you have a mix of plant heights at any given time.

For myself, I rotate plants when I can, but use whatever squares I have.

OhioGardener wrote:

KiwiSFGnewbie wrote: To allow for crop rotation I'm thinking all three should be 12" deep, otherwise I'm going to be limited in my choices of where I can put e.g. long carrots.  Is that right?  What have others done about this? 

Not necessary to have the beds 12" (although all of mine 18" high). You can use Top Hats on the squares where you will be planting the carrots, Daikons, etc.

https://squarefoot.forumotion.com/t22982-sfg-top-hats

Wow, what a fabulous idea!!    But what do you do with the extra soil (sorry, MM) once the carrots are out?  Or does the top hat just stay in place and you put some other long thing in the square?

Mark, I get what you're saying...but I read somewhere about having 4 beds and moving the plant types between them each year, very simple and 'mechanical'.  I think 3 beds will produce about right for me eventually, so I was thinking of 3/4 of a bed for each 'stage'.  Is this not really practical?

With SFG, crop rotation is not important.  We keep feeding the MM and plants with more and more compost each time we plant.

The exception is if there is a soil disease where certain plants can't be replanted there for 2 or 3 years.  That is very rare.

Table top beds are wonderful for bad backs.  Mine are 2' tall and it is actually a pleasure to walk around them, touching this plant and that plant.  It also means the plants are tall enough to see when they get a disease or a pest.

My top hats were only 3 1/2 " tall, giving a total height of 9 1/2 to 10" depth of MM.  That's plenty for most root crops.  There are half-length carrot and parsnip varieties.  You can remove the top hats and spread out the MM or put the MM in a pot for an invasive herb like mints or oregano (for year around gardening climates).  Put a piece of weed fabric in the bottom to keep in the MM.

Note: photo taken before drip lines and grid replaced.

i think you all are confusing three to four different issues
that should discussed   separately . 

crop rotation, succession cropping, top hatting
and shading from taller. 

crop rotation, except disease vectors it is not really in
needed square for garden as sanderson mentioned 
because you are adding compost before replanting.

As for tall  plant shading others behind. 
there are way to use this to grow cool loving crops in 
 hotter temp  or to control day length so crops do not 
bolt because that sensitivity. 
succession cropping is more of how square
 foot gardening does to shift crops around over time. 
 

I would love discuss these topics  more but some of them
could get quite technical both in biology and geometry.
solar angles on horizon   volumes  they create in shadows.
But we would be getting in to some serious calculus and
4 dimensional physics that would be tough to discuss
do to the limitations of forum software.

sanderson wrote:With SFG, crop rotation is not important.  We keep feeding the MM and plants with more and more compost each time we plant.

The exception is if there is a soil disease where certain plants can't be replanted there for 2 or 3 years.  That is very rare.

Table top beds are wonderful for bad backs.  Mine are 2' tall and it is actually a pleasure to walk around them, touching this plant and that plant.  It also means the plants are tall enough to see when they get a disease or a pest.

My top hats were only 3 1/2 " tall, giving a total height of 9 1/2 to 10" depth of MM.  That's plenty for most root crops.  There are half-length carrot and parsnip varieties.  You can remove the top hats and spread out the MM or put the MM in a pot for an invasive herb like mints or oregano (for year around gardening climates).  Put a piece of weed fabric in the bottom to keep in the MM.

OK, so I can stop worrying about rotation, that's great  

Can I ask how high the tops of your gardens are off the ground?  With my lack of experience I'm struggling to get my head around the necessary dimensions of things.  Wondering about maybe just putting the first box on the ground and seeing how I go, after all there is so little work required with SFG perhaps I'll be fine.  My back is seriously touchy, though.  But I wonder about the effect of not having worms be able to do their thing in the boxes.  Although I did think about buying some!

Your boxes look gorgeous -- I'm guessing you oiled the wood?

My beds are 2' high, which is a good compromise.  I can sit on my purple throne to plant or thin and stand to tend and harvest.  I'm 73, only 5'3", and had an L5-S1 synovial cyst removed last summer, so it was serendipitous that the beds were already table tops.  The 2' height was chosen for lumber economy.  Four (4) legs can be cut from an 8' piece.  For beds with 8"x8"x16" cement block supports and 2"x8" lumber for beds, plus 3/4" plywood or double "cementy" cement board bottoms, they are also around 2' tall.  I've been experimenting with different designs and materials since 2014.



Regarding worms, I used to have worm tubes or hotels in the beds for kitchen scrapes to feed the little red wiggler composting worms. (Eisenia fetida)  You may not have that species or it may not be allowed, but common garden worms also work in the beds.  You only need a few (or 2) for breeding.  A young member was the first person to post the design of large PVC pipes with a few holes, topped with caps or lids, to feed the worms.  Stay away from those jumping worms!  "Jumping worms (Amynthas spp.) are an invasive species native to eastern Asia."

Thank you so much for all of this!  It's really inspiring seeing how you have it all laid out, and the details are really helpful.  I made a stand for a bicycle trailer years ago out of PVC pipe and loved the worm tubes post, I noticed it yesterday.  And good to know that wooden legs will hold up the weight, I had been wondering if I'd need to fill in two sides for strength.  Thinking perhaps mine should be higher, so I can sit straight on (I slipped discs L5-S1 and S1-S2 eight years ago) but if your wooden legs work then it should be fine at a greater height.

I've saved your photo so I can refer back to it

Does everyone pretty much end up needing to have worms in their boxes?  I was wondering if perhaps they're not necessary given what an ideal growing medium MM is.

KiwiSFGnewbie wrote: I made a stand for a bicycle trailer years ago out of PVC pipe and loved the worm tubes post,

Not to digress too much, but what is a stand for a bicycle trailer? I've got bicycle trailer (was a Burley) that my daughter I put a nominally useful flatbed in.

KiwiSFGnewbie wrote:. . . Does everyone pretty much end up needing to have worms in their boxes?  I was wondering if perhaps they're not necessary given what an ideal growing medium MM is.

Regarding worms in beds set on the ground, "Build it and they will come."

Oh, I'm sure they will   But I was more wondering, how necessary it really is in SFG?  If I do tabletop boxes then I'd have to buy the worms and would rather not if I don't have to!

markqz wrote:

KiwiSFGnewbie wrote: I made a stand for a bicycle trailer years ago out of PVC pipe and loved the worm tubes post,

Not to digress too much, but what is a stand for a bicycle trailer? I've got bicycle trailer (was a Burley) that my daughter I put a nominally useful flatbed in.

Have PM'd you