rotating crops

[marypboland]

Hi, I have a fruitful garden of 5 raised beds, each 5' by 15'. One bed lies just along the South side of my yellow metal barn and is thus very warm. This is where I have grown tomatoes. Then I grow beans in the next bed north, and greens, then potatoes as main crops in the two remaining beds to the north. Three foot aisles separate the beds. (Of course i intercrop, early lettuce in the tomato bed before tomatoes go out etc)

But I am always reading or hearing about the value of rotating your crops. Well I hate to have to do that as the way I'm doing it I'm taking advantage of microclimates. And here in a dry climate at 6500 ft I don't seem to have a pest problem except for slugs and some bugs that attack seedlings early but sluggo and a bit of diatomacious earth deals with those problems.

Can I go on as I am doing or will I run into big trouble if I don't rotate? (Beds by the way are rich as I have lots of horse and chicken manure and composted veggie waste, also use alfalfa pellets as a mulch-fertilizer)

 

[thistlebloom]

Well Mary, I'd say if it aint broke, don't fix it! Thats just my opinion of course .One thing is a for sure, and that is don't rotate your potatoes and tomatoes (or any nightshades ) into the same spots. And BTW, welcome here!

 

[Collector]

I think if you are replenishing the soil every year you should be okay.
PS welcome to the forum!

 

[patandchickens]

IMO with what you're growing your main concern would be blight. If you don't have much in the way of blight in your area, and I would guess you probably don't??, then I think it's perfectly reasonable to not rotate, if you think that the consequences of rotating would be worse than the at-this-point-purely-theoretical risks of not doing it.

THe problems of not-rotating are by far worse if your plants are stressed by poor soil or drought; it sounds like you are giving them a very *good* growing environment so that usually makes them a lot better able to fight off, or just put up with, pests and diseases.

I think the rotate-your-veg-garden-crops thing is often oversold, FWIW. Yeah, if you have PROBLEMS (either in your garden, or just you know there are some serious stay-in-the-soil things common in your area), then it is smart prevention; but there are many many cases where it is not necessary, and really it's not uncommon for it to not be POSSIBLE. Either because you're not planting things in equal proportions (e.g. someone whose garden is 75% solenaceous plants is just not going to be able to rotate much, unless they can afford to leave areas fallow) or because, as in your situations, not everything can be planted in all parts of the garden due to environmental conditions.

So I say, in the absence of real worries, don't sweat it if you can't do it

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[vfem]

I rotate for disease control & once I plant some beans I like to get some corn or a nitrogen devourer into that space the following year. Helps with how much compost I add each time too.

But I think long as you keep adding good natural materials to break down in your beds each year to feed your plants, and you don't have disease break outs... you should be fine!