Crop rotation is an annual change of plantings carried out on the same plot.It is based on the fact that, year after year, vegetables that are related or attacked by the same diseases are not grown on one site.
Species from the same botanical family can be grown on the same site after three or preferably four years at the earliest.This also applies to tomatoes, because although they tolerate cultivation in one place quite well, they can be attacked by fungal spores living in the soil.
The use of an appropriate crop rotation protects crops against pests and diseases, and prevents the sterilization of the substrate. Crop rotation is easier to use when the vegetable garden has four beds for the annual crop change.
Vegetable nutrition
Some vegetables need more food to grow, others less.In order to optimally use the nutrients contained in the soil, plants are divided into 3 groups.This is the second basis for crop rotation. Thanks to the transitions from plants with high fertilization needs, such as cabbage, cauliflower, pumpkin and zucchini, to plants with low fertilization needs, such as lettuce, beans and peas, the food stored in the ground is better utilized.
The cultivation cycle begins with the autumn feeding with compost or manure. We feed the most voracious vegetable beds the most, while the remaining stands are fertilized less appropriately. In the fourth row we sow green manure.If the crop rotation is carried out on one bed, we start the cycle with vegetables that require a strong supply.In the following years of cultivation, we change according to the established key.
One flower bed in a four-year crop rotation
In the first year, we grow vegetables with high nutritional needs, including mainly brassica. In the second year, we grow plants with medium nutritional needs on the same plot.
Leek and potatoes can be grown in both the first and second group of plants.Fruit vegetables such as tomatoes and eggplants grow quite well in a well-fed and deeply fluffed cabbage medium.
Plants with low nutritional needs are grown in the third year. They do not require power, because they produce a harvest quite quickly.Legumes, such as beans, supply the soil with nitrogen.Here and there you can also grow lettuce and herbs
So in the second year, the most voracious plants are taken by those with moderate appetite, and in the third year by those with a moderate appetite. Later, the bed should rest under papilionaceous plants, such as clover, vetch, alfalfa and lupine. Green fertilizer improves soil structure and produces humus, thanks to which the soil retains water and nutrients better.Thanks to plants for green manure, the soil is less weeded and does not erode.
The division into groups is not absolute, and the boundaries are sometimes fluid.For example, potatoes or leeks can be assigned to vegetables with high and medium nutritional needs.The type of substrate and the size of fruit produced by the selected variety are decisive here. In organic horticulture, biodynamic crop rotation is practiced.
In the first year leaf vegetables such as lettuce, spinach, cabbage, cauliflower are grown, in the second root vegetables such as carrot, parsley, garlic, onion, leek, celery, potato, radish, in the third fruit fruit, such as cucumber, tomato, pepper, strawberry, beans, peas, and in the fourth - floral ones, incl. herbs.
