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A Healthy Off The Grid Living: Garden Is A Rotated Garden: Crop Rotation And Record Keeping
Greetings,
A Healthy Garden Is A Rotated Garden: Crop Rotation And Record Keeping
Written by: Leigh M Survival Gardening
Old-timers in the garden will tell you that the best way to maintain healthy soil in your garden is to rotate your crops from one bed to another from year to year. Farmers from generations past knew that this practice would give them healthy soil for their children and their children’s children if the future generations followed in his footsteps.
Practicing crop rotation is like getting back to basics. It is returning to the simple ideals of our forefathers.
They grew their own food and knew that if the soil were to be depleted of its vitality they wouldn’t grow enough foods to provide for their families. By following their example, we can grow more produce in less space and have enough fresh veggies from our gardens to feed our families and share with others in our extended families and the community too.
Reasons For Rotation
There are several reasons to practice crop rotation, among them nutrient balancing, disease prevention, insect control, and nutrient fixing.
Nutrient Balancing – each family of plants requires a different mixture of nutrients. By rotating your crops, you prevent the depletion of the soil and can make targeted choices for adding soil amendments to keep the soil balanced.
Disease Prevention – this is the main reason for rotating crops. Growing the same plant families in a bed year after year causes a build-up of disease organisms; this will eventually result in crop failure. Rotation will keep organisms in check.
Insect Control – rotation of your crops will help reduce infestations of insects in your garden.
Nutrient Fixing – some plants actually fix nutrients into the soil. By rotating them through your garden beds, you can have your soil conditioned organically, and the best news is that this is a free side effect of the rotation process.
Crop families should not be planted in the same bed (or row) for more than three years in a row. This allows for a healthy balance of nutrients, organic matter, and microorganisms. Also, without crop rotation your garden yield will decline by up to 40 percent, mostly due to diseases. Studies from Connecticut, some European countries, and Cornell University have proven this statistic with tomatoes, other nightshades, and legumes.
The Cornell study also went on to show that snap beans grown after corn doubled in production; but when planted after a previous snap bean planting, their production dwindled. The invisible world of the soil-dwelling micro-beings is what benefits the most from rotating your crops.
So keep in mind the needs of each family and the benefits they provide as you plan next season’s plantings. Beans and beets need manganese, whereas tomatoes crave tons of calcium, broad-leafed greens are wonderful for suppressing weeds, and the deep roots of corn are great for breaking up compacted subsoil.
Basic Rotation Schedule
Gardens of all sizes can be rotated. To get started, you can use a simple four-step plan that divides the sections by the portion of the plant that it is grown for: Leaves/Flowers, Fruit, Roots, and Legumes/Cover Crops….More Here
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