Organic Crop Rotation Basic Guide

The crop rotation how to plan our garden crops in succession to get the most performance. We differentiated between a crop rotation and an alternative crop and we gave you an example with a family rotation.

As we promised the other day, we are going to give you another type of crop rotation that you can follow in your garden. Rotation due to nutrient requirements. Here we go.

What is promised is debt. And here goes the crop rotation for demands . The first thing to know is what we mean by the requirement of a plant and which are the most and least demanding.

We consider a demanding plant that which requires a significant amount of nutrients from the soil.

Getting drastic, they eat up the reserves of the soil and to achieve good results we must give them to them.

And on the opposite side we have the undemanding. I think no further explanation is needed. Let’s see what they are:

CROP ROTATION WITH HIGH DEMANDS

These are the ones we have mentioned that literally “eat” the ground. They need a lot of manure or compost so if you don’t have it, you can get it because they are going to ask you for it.

In any case, they also accept less decomposed compost phases than other crops, so you have a little margin to be calm.

In this category we mainly include nightshades (tomato, pepper, aubergine, potato) and cucurbits (melon, watermelon, pumpkin, zucchini), but we also have cases such as corn, cauliflower or cabbages. For you to remember, in general they are the plants from which we take advantage of their fruit.

CROP ROTATION WITH MEDIUM DEMAND

We consider these those that give good results planting them after a demanding crop without adding additional compost. In this bag we can put the lettuces in general, the endives, the chard and the leeks.

For some crops considered of medium demand we can add very decomposed parts of compost (mulch or worm castings) to achieve the best results although not adding anything can still be given. This group includes carrots, radishes and beets.

Carrot cultivation

Beet cultivation

Growing radishes

  

LOW-DEMAND CROP ROTATION

We believe that you do not require presentation. It’s clear, right? They will give us joy without having to add absolutely no compost. What’s more, we can even harm them if there is too much!

So now you know. Nothing, nothing at all, they settle for little.

Normally in this group we have the crops from which we eat the roots. Onion and garlic for example. And in the most grateful group we have the legumes that not only do not ask, but also give.

That’s right, they synthesize atmospheric nitrogen , betting it on the ground. So imagine the amount of compost needed. None!

CROP ROTATION WITH MINIMAL DEMAND

These are already the best. We could include legumes but it is that these take the cake. They contribute much more to the soil than they require. They are what we call green manures. We will talk about them another day.

Today we only list them. Clover, vetches, spreads, forage beans and some grasses such as barley, oats and rye.

Once the most common crops have been classified by their level of demand, we will plan our crop rotation.

Suppose we divide our garden into 4 parts. Well, the distribution of our crop rotation by requirements would be:

PLOT 1 : INTENDED FOR THE MOST DEMANDING

  • Solanaceae
  • Cucurbits

PLOT 2 : INTENDED FOR THOSE OF MEDIUM DEMAND

  • Composite
  • Quenopodiaceae

PLOT 3: DESTINED TO OTHERS OF MEDIUM DEMAND (THOSE THAT NEED A LITTLE CONTRIBUTION OF VERY DECOMPOSED COMPOST)

  • Lilyaus
  • Umbrellas

PLOT 4: INTENDED FOR THOSE WITH LOW DEMAND

  • Cruciferous
  • Legumes
What we have to do is rotate and go from more demanding to less demanding so that the crops from plot 2 go to plot 1, those from plot 3 to plot 2, those from 4 to 3, and those from 1 to 4.
As I write it, I realize that an image would be better. Here’s an example proposed by Mariano Bueno, in his book Practical Manual of the Ecological Garden.

 

Remember that multi-year crops will be out of this rotation. A fifth plot is proposed to plant for example, strawberry, artichoke and asparagus.

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