Crop rotation is an often talked about gardening technique, but it can be confusing for some.
Essentially, crop rotation refers to the practice of not growing a particular vegetable family in the same bed in subsequent years. This seems pretty straightforward on the surface, but it’s going to depend on how much you want to grow, how many beds you have, and how organised you are.
Rotating our vegetable crops through our beds will benefit the growth of each subsequent crop in two ways: by reducing pest and disease pressures, and by efficiently utilising the nutrient levels in the soil.
If the same vegetable family is grown in the same place year after year, certain diseases can build up and continually affect your crop. A couple of classic examples of this are the Solanaceae family (potato, tomato, capsicum, eggplant, etc.) and the Brassicaceae family (broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, brussels sprouts). Both of these families of vegetables are prone to soil-borne diseases which can dramatically affect the plants’ vitality and therefore your harvests. So moving each of these family of plants on to a new bed each year is fairly important to maintain adequate soil health.
Crop rotation can also assist in managing nutrient levels by swapping the type of vegetable in each bed each year. Heavy-feeding vegetables may be replaced with light-feeding alternatives; vegetables that need certain nutrients can follow vegetables that help provide those nutrients. This aspect of crop rotation is very interesting and somewhat complex for the novice gardener. However, if you are interested in this kind of stuff, please investigate further. It’s well worth the time.
While crop rotation can assist us in efficiently managing our soil nutrient levels, there are a number of other ways we can reintroduce nutrients into our beds. First, we can add our composts, manures or organic fertilisers to the soil in layers or lightly turned in and reapply mulches. Growing a green manure or cover crop will also revitalise the soil and it will also give the entire soil ecosystem time to re-energise.
Green manure and cover crops can be sourced from Australian online seed companies. Be sure to select seeds that are specific to your growing zone and climate. For Melbourne and the Mornington Peninsula you can use blends that include the common crops such as mustards, peas, oats, vetch, fenugreek and clovers.
Other useful additions to your soil that you may want to look into include rock dusts, mycorrhizal powders and liquids, beneficial bacteria products and of course the organic fertilisers with fish and seaweed as their bases. Although there is much benefit from a range of products, it is always preferable to be able to achieve our desired levels of soil nutrition while relying as little as possible on bringing in manufactured products.
If you haven’t yet planted out your cool-season crops, put aside a weekend soon to plant broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, broad beans, leafy greens and garlic.
HAPPY GARDENING!
Drew Cooper, Edible Gardens
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