Crop Rotation Involving Nightshades

Bump

Something to think about during garden planning.

I'd be interested if there's any research and to see if the crop rotation thing is really driven by agribusiness mono-culture farming.

Growing up, our neighbors had a 30x50 garden, tomatoes and bell peppers took half the garden, they planted in the same rows every year, every year from the time I remember starting about age 5 until I left after college.

Other than standard garden issues, no crop issues.  Old school, they'd plant, harvest, mulch, manure, etc, winter the garden and repeat.

Theophrastus was writing about crop rotation in 3rd century BC. It was part of the Open Field system of Medieval Europe. The British Agricultural revolution of the 16th century AD had a basis on expanding the concepts or crop rotation.

I was speaking to some organic market farmers the other day. They were so happy to at last be on their own land, instead of short term leases, so they could start using crop rotations to improve their land.

Crop rotation is not only about a build up of disease by planting nightshade crops in the same place all the time, though if there is blight around, rotation is part of the how to deal with it. Right now I am trying to keep a garlic rot in check through careful bulb prep and by rotation. I hope I do not have to quit growing garlic for a few years like I did when a blight got going in my potatoes many years ago.