Understanding crop rotation

[boggybranch]

Do you want to know if you can plant "abc" where you planted "xyz" last year?

http://resources.cas.psu.edu/ipm/POP/croprotat.pdf

 

[DawnSuiter]

 

[ducks4you]

?????? :/
GREAT article--already downloaded and printed and read and digested. NOW...on to some..........................peas!!!!

 

[DawnSuiter]

well...
I just don't know/think I can DO all that!!!???!!! I'll just have to digest the information and see.

but I already planned to put my sweet potatoes back where they were last year, some bell peppers and definitely the corn!!! although I grow other stuff in between in these places.. still...

that pdf makes me panick

 

[ducks4you]

Oh, THAT'S it! I think that you should try not to plant the same thing in the same place, year after year after year after year after year...you get it.
Just don't do it NEXT year, and I think you'll be okay.

 

[lesa]

Take a deep breath- remember gardening is fun!!!

 

[jojo54]

Here's an article from Mother Earth on crop rotation.

http://www.motherearthnews.com/Organic-Gardening/Crop-Rotations-Plant-Nutrients-Healthy-Soil.aspx

I always have tried to rotate my crops and do companion planting and years ago read the book "Carrots Love Tomatoes" and used info from that.

 

[digitS']

I . don't . know . . .

Yes, I don't follow potatoes with tomatoes or eggplant. Nothing follows itself - except, maybe onions. And, in the flower garden, asters follow snapdragons and that's about it. Darn asters are so disease prone . . . better not allow them to follow anything that even resembles a daisy.

If you gather every family of plants into a compost pile and then scatter that over the half-acre - what followed what?? Okay, compost isn't quite growing beds.

Mother Earth talks about Eliot Coleman's 8 crop rotation and then finishes the article with 9 families! Sheesh!?! I suppose you could.

The Penn State pdf is actually fairly simple: Tomato/Potato next Squash/Corn next Greens next Legumes next Tomato/Potato next Squash/Corn next Greens next Legumes next Tomato/Potato next Squash/Corn next Greens next Legumes next Tomato/Potato next Squash/Corn next Greens next Legumes next Tomato/Potato . . . i should live so long.

Anyway, 4 elephants holding each other's tail and going around and around.

Oh shoot!! That's 5 elephants. Okay, throw in the Onions . . . lots of onions!

Steve's digits
Jumanji !

 

[DawnSuiter]

Take a deep breath- remember gardening is fun!!!

HA!
I am hoping that will be true for me someday... but has not yet been true. I still don't give up though. This WILL be the 1st year I am really making a "real" effort so lots still to learn!

I will re-evaluate and see what I can avoid for this year and like you said ducks... just not NEXT year for sure

thanks everyone. I like this group here at TEG.. it's like I am getting to know all of you now....

added:
actually, because our main sites are all in various states of soil building, we tend to share them around, moving dirt from one bed to another and round and round we go... so maybe that will help... or maybe that'll just make it all worse... I dunno

 

[ninnymary]

What if you can't rotate because your bed is very small? I have to have my tomatos in the back against the fence so they don't shade anything else! The rest of my greens, I suppose I could swithch them around. But they will probably only move by about 6-7'.

I have been planting my tomatoes in the same spot for about 4 years. Yikes! This years tomatoes are at the other end since I lengthened my bed. So I'm good there for now.

Oh well, I just try to do my best! I hate the "technical" part of gardening! It's hard to have fun with that!

Mary