Putting crop rotation into perspective

Crop rotation is a contentious topic and lots of regard it as a sort of legislation that shouldn’t be transgressed. But what is likely to be rotation programme for one farmer could also be disastrous for one more, even when they’re in the identical space.

For occasion, one farmer could comply with a cabbage crop with beetroot, that are completely unrelated crops. This feels like good process and positively could be. However, this farmer’s neighbour could comply with the identical programme and expertise issues if there’s cyst eelworm within the soil, which infects each crops.

The backside line is that understanding a crop rotation programme includes much more than alternating completely different crops. Pests and ailments additionally should be thought of.

You might, as an illustration, have a carrot crop and comply with it with beans, then Swiss chard, which quantities to a root crop adopted by a legume after which a leaf crop.

All are fully unrelated, however all host root knot eelworm (Meloidogyne spp). By the time the Swiss chard is planted, the eelworm inhabitants might have constructed as much as the purpose the place the Swiss chard is a failure.

Diseases
Diseases must also be a consideration. With crops of the cabbage household, if you happen to’ve had an issue with blackleg fungus, for instance, it’s safer to attend two years earlier than planting a Brassica once more. If there was no blackleg, you could possibly comply with a lot sooner.

Certain ailments that might be an issue for a follow-up crop could be countered by the season. My boss as soon as requested that I plant an out-of-season crop of cabbages. Although the crop was successful, there was numerous black rot on the outer leaves.

I needed to comply with up instantly with one other crop of cabbages, and there have been some residual leaves with black rot lesions nonetheless within the land when the following cabbages had been planted.

However, I did this figuring out that the season the brand new crop was to develop in wouldn’t permit the black rot to turn out to be an issue.

Ramifications
You have to contemplate all of the ramifications when planning a crop rotation programme. In some circumstances, you possibly can practise monoculture if the soil circumstances are very beneficial. I’ve constructed up the soil in my tomato tunnels and have been planting tomatoes in the identical soil for about twenty years.

Initially, earlier than the soil was improved, the crops would die from eelworm. A good friend as soon as informed me he had a consumer who solely produced lettuce, and used the identical soil for this crop each time. He had constructed up his natural content material and used vermicompost.

I’m not advocating monoculture, however you need to contemplate the potential hazards of rotation and never lose out simply because it doesn’t slot in together with your notion of crop rotation necessities.

Eelworm is among the main causes for crop rotation, and you need to all the time study the roots of a crop after harvest to find out if there’s eelworm and, if that’s the case, verify the extent of the infestation; this may make it easier to determine which follow-up crops to plant.

Bill Kerr is a vegetable specialist and a breeder of a spread of greens.