Using Crop Rotation In Your Organic Garden - For Healthy Plants & Higher Yields

Using Crop Rotation In Your Organic Garden - For Healthy Plants & Higher Yields
By Julie Williams

Crop rotation is the age old practice of rotating plants to different growing areas in your vegetable garden. Plants that belong to the same family are rotated or moved each season. This aids plants with their nutrient needs and helps avoid pest and disease problems.

Giving a little extra thought at your planning stage by including a crop rotation system will save you time, money and effort. You will need to spend less on organic fertilizers if you incorporate soil-building cover crops along with nitrogen fixing plants. By using crop rotation you will prevent many pest and disease issues that you would have needed to find solutions for.

Say you decide to grow potatoes in the same plot each season. As you lovingly water your potatoes (or it rains) the nutrients are slowly leached from the soil. Your potatoes have specific nutrient requirements. Once they have used all available nutrients you will start to notice problems such as poor yields or pest infestation.

Each season, as you grow your potatoes in the same plot, they will have less disease resistance and will be inferior quality and yield.

This is why there was a potato famine in Ireland many years ago. A single variety of potato was grown year in - year out and eventually grew weaker and prone to disease.

When you use a well thought out crop rotation system you will enjoy heavier yields and healthier plants and soil.

Below is an example of a good crop rotation:-

* Year 1 - Grow legumes (peas, beans - broad, runner or French) or a cover crop ex. rye
* Year 2 - grow brassicas (cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, swede, turnip, brussels sprouts)
* Year 3 - grow tomatoes
* Year 4 - grow alliums (onions, leeks, spring onions, bunching onions, chives, garlic)
* Year 5 - grow root vegetables (carrots, parsnip, potatoes, beetroot)

Then you can start your crop rotation system again. Of course you can interplant with other vegetables that haven't been mentioned here to further improve on your system.

By combining companion planting with crop rotation you are going to see even greater results in your organic food garden and greatly reducing pest and disease problems.

Different crops have different soil and nutrient requirements. By changing your crops from year to year, you minimise any deficiencies and allow the soil to replenish. Also, when you alternate between deep-rooted plants and fibrous-rooted plants you improve soil structure.

Hi, I am an avid organic gardener and am known by my friends as the recycling queen. I live on a small country property in South Australia. It is my mission to encourage as many people as possible to start organic gardening. This will improve both our individual lives and the wellbeing of our personal and global environments. Beginners to Organic Gardening take a look here. For more organic gardening info click here.

Happy gardening, healthy living...
Julie Williams
http://www.1stoporganicgardening.com

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