Crop rotation for vegetables

Crop Rotation 101: Tips for Vegetable Gardens

If you grow tomatoes or other crops in the same garden bed year after year, you’re likely to notice an increase in pests and diseases. Break the cycle! Take a moment to learn about the basics of crop rotation. Your plants will thank you with a bigger, healthier harvest.

In the mad rush to get the garden planted in the spring, we forget all about something as important as crop rotation, which helps to slow the spread of garden pests and plant diseases. In the example of tomatoes, simply moving the tomato plants across the garden to where the squashes grew last year is enough to throw off those hornworms!

What Is Crop Rotation?

The concept of crop rotation is simple: It’s the practice of not planting the same crops in the same place in back-to-back years. By not planting the exact same vegetables in the exact same spot every year, you can avoid having pests and diseases continuously build up in the soil. If you move the crop, the pest or disease has no host on which to live. Ideally, rotate a vegetable (or vegetable family) so that it grows in a particular place once out of every 3 to 4 years.

For example, if you planted tomatoes in the same garden bed year after year, they’re more likely to be hit by the same pests or diseases that affected your tomato crop last year. So you’d want to plant them in a different bed in the following year. Then, in that first bed, you’d plant a different sort of crop such as carrots, broccoli, or chard. Finally, in the third year, you could plant tomatoes in their original spot again.

The purpose of crop rotation is not only to avoid pest problems, but to also consider the soil health and the nutrients that different plants need from the soil.

Photo by John Braid/Shutterstock

Crop Rotation Families

The key to successful crop rotation is “all in the family.” Even though tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, and potatoes look nothing alike, they are kissing cousins in the same botanical family, the nightshades (Solanaceae).

Here are the major family groupings:

Alliums: Onions, shallots, leeks, and garlic.
Legumes: Green beans, green peas, southern peas, peanuts, soybeans. All legumes are soil “fixers” and share the benefit of adding nitrogen back to the soil.
Brassicas: Broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, kale, Brussels sprouts, turnip greens, radishes, collards, Chinese cabbage, mustard greens, and collards. Share pest issues and often need to be netted to block cabbage moths. Need nitrogen-rich soil. Plant after the legume (bean) family.
Nightshades: Tomatoes, eggplant, peppers, and potatoes. All heavy feeders which need rich soil. Affected by the same diseases. Never follow tomatoes after potatoes.
Umbellifers: Carrots, parsnips, fennel, parsley, and dill.
Cucurbits: Zucchini and summer quash, cukes, pumpkins and winter squash, melons (watermelon, cantaloupe), and gourds. All heavy feeders that grow best in rich soil.

There are many more families, but some have only one member that we would grow in a home vegetable garden, like corn, okra, or sweet potatoes. In a small garden, you can group some families together, like putting brassicas with legumes and lettuce to make rotations easier.

There are exceptions to crop rotation; perennial vegetables and herbs shouldn’t be moved each year, since they stay in the ground year-round. For example, mint spreads easily and is often best contained to one bed, and asparagus needs to settle into a spot for several years before it’s ready to be harvested.

Lessen Disease and Insect Problems

Members of each family often suffer from the same pests and diseases, so planting a variety of crops from different families is a good way to lessen (or slow down) pest and disease damage.

For example, soil-borne diseases can build up after years of growing the same plants in the same place. Crop rotation might not cure all of your disease problems, but it can make a dent. As for insects, moving crops around can make it harder for overwintering pests to find their first meal come springtime.

Get to the Root of Crop Rotation

Crop rotation also benefits the health of soil, structurally speaking. Plants with different root lengths benefit the soil by aerating it in different ways. Deeply rooted crops such as tomatoes, carrots, or beets break up the soil, creating channels for air and water as they seek out minerals in the subsoil, bringing them up closer to the surface where other plants can use them next year.

Alternate Heavy and Light Feeders

Another aspect of crop rotation is alternating “heavy” feeders (plants that use a lot of nutrients) with “light” feeders (plants that use less nutrients) in order to reduce nutrient demands on your soil.

Heavy feeders, including corn, lettuce, broccoli, tomatoes, and cukes, require a lot of nitrogen to produce their flowers, fruit, and leaves. Give their beds a rest by planting carrots, potatoes, beets, or onions, which don’t need as much.

To add nitrogen naturally, plant legumes such as peas or beans, as they accumulate nitrogen-fixing bacteria on their roots. In the fall, don’t pull these plants up; clip them off and let the roots decay in the soil. They will leave behind nitrogen that is accessible to next year’s plants.

See our video demonstrating how to rotate your vegetables.

Planning Crop Rotation in Your Garden

Depending on the size of your garden, you can plan rotations that cover 3, 4, 5, 6 or more years, with 3 years being the minimum recommended.

As noted above, the best way to rotate annual vegetables is to group them by their plant family, since they are susceptible to the same pests and diseases and also have similar maintenance requirements. For instance, all plants in the cabbage family are best grown together, as this makes it easier to net them against cabbage moths and birds—and there’s no risk of accidentally passing on crop-specific soil-dwelling pests and diseases to the next crop.

A handy way to set crop order is to give each plant family a shade relating to the colors of the rainbow, as shown below. Using this order of rotation is optional, but it helps to make sure that the soil is in the correct condition for the following crop. The numbers listed in the diagram tell you

Working from the inside of the rainbow out, you can see which plants belong together and which should come next in each bed. The rotation starts with lilacs and blues—onion family plants and peas/beans—which are commonly grown together as they both like soil enriched with compost and take up little space. Once you’ve harvested your onions and leeks from your first bed, the next crop in that spot would be cabbages, cauliflower and broccoli and so on, for the first seven categories.
Plants in the Miscellaneous (grey) category are useful for plugging gaps in your beds, as they don’t tend to suffer badly from particular soil-borne pests and diseases, and can be fit in anywhere you have room, although it’s still a good idea to move them around from year to year as much as possible (particularly sweet corn, which can suffer from rootworm).

Rotating small gardens can be more challenging, given lack of space, but it’s still important. See our Four-Bed Crop Rotation Plan for Small Gardens.

Keeping a Record

Crop rotation is not as complicated as it sounds, but it can be hard to keep track of. Don’t rely on memory alone, particularly if you are growing different amounts of a variety of crops!

Just roughly sketch your garden and write down what you have planted where and by plant family. (It can also be helpful to keep a list of the variety names.)

Even Easier: Online Tool!

This is where the online Garden Planner really shows its usefulness. Rather than having to remember a complete planning history of which vegetables were grown where over the past 3 to 5 years, and which family each vegetable belongs to, the tool just takes care of that for you.

Each plant icon is color-coded similar to the chart above so that you can quickly see at a glance which family it belongs to. When you plan a new season, it remembers what you have planted before and shows a red warning signal if you should avoid planting a vegetable in the area.

Try out the Vegetable Garden Planner (for PC & Mac). It’s free for 7 days so you can understand its amazing benefits.

Bottom-line: The simplest rule is to grow your crops in different areas. Crop rotation is the best preventative medicine you can give to your garden!

A simple garden plan will be your best friend next year when it comes time to decide where those tomatoes should go.

The Vegetable Gardener’s Guide to Crop Rotation

There are ways to improve soil health, control diseases and manage pests without applying heavy amounts of fertilizer or pesticides. For gardeners committed to growing several years into the future, crop rotation is one method to utilize.

Crop rotation, a practice widely utilized by farmers, is exactly how it sounds. It involves rotating the planting location of your fruits and vegetables across a sequence of growing seasons. How it works requires an explanation: Plants add just as many nutrients to the soil as they take from it. Rotating the location of crops allows for different nutrients to be distributed throughout your garden from year to year, helping to balance the structure of the soil.

Certain plants can introduce diseases that are soil borne. Even after that crop is harvested, they can remain in the soil. But by removing plants that host certain pests or can introduce a possibility for attracting pathogens the following season, you can help break the cycle and avoid infecting new plants of the same family or variety. Moving crops around can also make it more difficult for overwintering pests to find food when the ground thaws.

[RELATED: A Guide To Homemade Mulch]

It’s important to note that crop rotation is not a one-size-fits-all solution for boosting soil quality or ridding a garden of its diseases and pests. It’s most effective when used in combination with other applications. But there is growing evidence to support that crop rotation helps with soil health and crop yields.

Not sure how to start? Have questions? Not to worry. Follow this guide for an easy transition into the basics of crop rotation.

Organize Your Plants Into Categories

Divide your plants into groups related to their nutrient requirements and outputs. There are differing views on how exactly to do this. We suggest organizing your crops in one of two ways: by category or by plant family.

Rotating By Category

This is best for those who want a beginner option or are working with a smaller space. It involves four categories:

Legumes
Beans, peas, peanuts, lentils, green peas, chickpeas and soybeans.

Roots
Carrots, turnips, onions, beets, radishes and garlic.

Crops that bear fruit
Cucumbers, tomatoes, squash, eggplant, peppers, melons and corn. And a special addition: potatoes. (Potatoes are an exception in this category because they are susceptible to the same diseases as tomatoes, which is why they’ve been added to the fruiting group. If you have problems with potato blight, you will need to separate them out and ensure that you don’t have them follow each other in your rotation.)

Crops grown for leaves or flowers
Leafy greens such as kale and Swiss chard, lettuce, broccoli, cabbage, spinach, Brussels sprouts and herbs.

Rotating By Plant Family

If you’d like to venture out into more specialized territory, we’ve offered a further breakdown by plant family. This is feasible for gardeners with larger spaces or those who have the time to do the research on specific crop nutrient absorption and outputs.

Alliums
Chives, garlic, leeks, onions

Cucurbits
Cucumbers, melons, pumpkins, squash

Brassicas
Broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, kale, kohlrabi, radishes, rutabagas, turnips

Legumes
Beans, peas, peanuts

Poaceae (grasses)
Corn

Goosefoot
Beet, spinach, swiss chard

Nightshades
Eggplant, peppers, potatoes, tomatoes

Umbellifers
Carrots, celery, dill, fennel, parsley, parsnips

Map It All Out

Before you get planting, it’s important to understand how your growing space can be used. First, make a list of the crops you’re keen to put into the ground. Then you’re going to want to draw up a diagram of your garden, containers or bed to scale and section off how much space you want to allocate for each crop. Divvy up each area based on crop category.

If you’ve chosen to group your vegetables in the four categories (legumes, roots, crops that bear fruit and crops grown for leaves and flowers) and have a smaller plot of land, you can section it off into quarters. If you’re going the plant family route, divide it into family groups, although they do not have to be equal in size; base it off of the amount in each group you’re planting. We also suggest reviewing our guide to companion planting if you’re sectioning off one area for planting. It will help you determine which crops should and shouldn’t be placed beside each other.

[RELATED: A Guide to Companion Planting for Your Vegetables]

It’s best to avoid slotting plants in locations where you had crops in the same group or family the year before. The further you plant a crop from its previous location, the better. Growers who have the flexibility to dig out a few smaller beds instead of using one large one should consider doing so. This will help separate your groups and allow for smoother, contained rotations that minimize risk of disease spreading or lingering in the soil.

Similarly, raised beds have the advantage of having a physical barrier between different crop families. For those with smaller spaces, using pots or planters is another option to isolate crops and provide additional space for rotation.

Plan Your Crop Rotation Direction

A full crop rotation cycle lasts three to four years. Do not plant an area with crops from the same plant family or group before that cycle is up. Follow these rotation guides, based on your initial categorization of them.

By kirpmun, Shutterstock.

Guide for Rotating By Category

For those who choose to follow groupings by legume, leaf plants, fruiting plants and roots, there’s a formula you can follow for your rotation, which is essentially centered around your legumes as nitrogen producers.

Leaf bearers should take the place of legume crops. This is because leafy crops need nitrogen and legumes are nitrogen fixers.

Your fruiting plants should take the place of your leaf plants. This is because their nitrogen needs are minor and too much can prevent them from producing fruit. The leaf crops should have sucked up enough nitrogen so this won’t be a problem.

Your root plants should take the place of your fruit plants. They need even less nitrogen.

Legumes follow root crops. This is to start the cycle all over again. Legumes also benefit from root crops because they prefer looser soil and root crops will have broken up the soil.

Guide for Rotating By Plant Family

If you decide to branch out and separate your crops based on family, it’s best to understand your crop’s nutrient needs. In addition to a few tips, we’ve indicated certain crops that feed heavily on nutrients versus lightly. It’s suggested that you follow your heavy feeders with light feeders. Nutrient builders or nitrogen fixers can then follow to replenish the soil.

Here are a few tips:

Brassicas are nitrogen hungry, so they can follow your nitrogen fixers, i.e. legumes.

Onions fare well in firmer soil left by those in the brassica family.

Peas and beans like deep, well-dug soil left over from potatoes.

Roots break up the soil, so you can follow them with potatoes, which need to grow in a deeper cavity in the soil.

Corn, tomatoes and cabbage are typically “heavy feeders.” Follow heavy feeders with legume crops to rebuild the soil.

Crops from the Umbelliferae (carrot) family are “light to medium feeders” and can follow any other group.

“Light feeders” include those in the lettuce, onion, squash-family plants as well as potatoes, most bulbs or root vegetables.

Take Stock for Future Years

So you don’t have to go through the trouble of trying to remember what was grown where over the past few years, we suggest keeping your garden maps. It will also help to make note of any pest problems you’ve had in certain areas with specific crops. This tool with University of Minnesota Extension will help you find out what the problem is if you’re unsure.

[RELATED: How to Test Your Soil]

There are also several digital tools you can use that will provide you with a few pointers for the upcoming season and also track or build a log of what you’ve planted before. This Vegetable Garden Planner is one example. Tomappo is another option for European gardeners—the app even provides personalized assistance in rotations.

If you’re planting in the ground, we recommend conducting a soil test every one to three years. This will help inform any additional soil needs for your plants. We also have a guide for soil testing if you’re unfamiliar with the process.

Rotation of vegetable crops in the garden

How to maintain soil fertility without using a lot of fertilizer? It is enough to alternate the planting of crops, taking into account the rules of crop rotation. Plants of one species consume nutrients from the earth, impoverishing the soil. And oversaturate it with certain trace elements. By changing crops according to the needs of each species, yields can be increased.

What is crop rotation and why is it needed

In essence, crop rotation is the annual planting of different plants on the same soil. But it is not enough just to change one variety of tomatoes to another or zucchini to cucumbers. For crop rotation to be effective, crop types should be rotated according to the needs of each of them.

The peculiarity of plants to bear fruit well after crops of another species grew in their place, people turned even before the emergence of a scientific justification for crop rotation. Sowing legumes and planting carrots on the same land the following year, they collected a richer harvest than if they regularly planted the same crop in one place.
Why does the regular planting of plants of the same species lead to a deterioration in soil fertility? The earth is not just impoverished. Many weeds appear on it, the quality of the crop deteriorates, it is actively damaged by pests and diseases.

For productivity, it matters:

+ Structural features of crops. The different size and structure of root systems leads to the fact that plants of different species extract nutrients from the upper and lower layers of the soil.
+ Consumption of chemicals. Plants belonging to different species have different requirements for trace elements. The longer the same crops are planted on the site, the lower the nutrient content in the soil.
+ Presence of plant residues. Due to the difference in plant residues, the possibility of development of water and wind erosion of the soil is excluded.
+ Infestation of crops. Every horticultural crop has a frequent companion weed and crop-damaging pests. For example, changing grain crops to legumes can reduce weed infestation and increase plant resistance to diseases and pests.
With proper crop rotation, the soil is replenished with useful substances, its physical and biological properties improve. Due to which you can get a better crop using a minimum amount of fertilizer.

Orchard rotation rules

Conventionally, crops are combined into groups depending on how they affect the soil. The first thing to do is to take into account the features of the "predecessors" - plants that grew on the site last year (or planted in the garden as an "intermediate" crop).

Perennial leguminous grasses or a mixture of legumes with cereals should be planted on significantly depleted soils. Increase soil fertility especially well:
✓ oats;
✓ clover;
✓ alfalfa;
✓ sainfoin.

After perennial “predecessors” have grown in the garden for two years, potatoes, corn, beets, and carrots can be planted on the ground. Under the condition of minimal top dressing, the yield will remain at a high level up to 3-4 years.
Almost all legumes are used as precursors for other crops. Peas, vetch, lupins increase the volumetric green mass, shading the ground and preventing the growth of weeds. In addition, legumes release nitrogen into the soil and retain it in the upper layers.
When sowing plants, one should take into account the fact that even outwardly dissimilar plants can belong to the same species. For example, tomatoes and potatoes are nightshade. After a tomato next year, potatoes cannot be planted, the crop can be destroyed by late blight. It is advisable to think over a crop rotation scheme for several years ahead. For example, the proposed planting system would be effective:
first year: carrots, cucumbers or potatoes;
second year: tomatoes, peppers;
third year: zucchini, herbs, onions, garlic;
fourth year: potatoes, beets;
fifth year: green manure, legumes, perennial cereals.

Possible precursors of potatoes, tomatoes, peppers include those plants that deeply loosen the soil and prevent the appearance of diseases characteristic of nightshade. Before cruciferous crops, it is imperative to plant crops that are resistant to damage by cabbage fly, clubroot, fusarium.

Plant compatibility chart

To increase productivity, when building a planting scheme, you should choose plants that combine well with each other.

The following combinations will help to increase resistance to diseases and pests:

✓ Carrots are planted along with onions or garlic. The smell of umbrella flies repels the carrot fly, which allows you to save the crop much better.

✓ With eggplant, it is better to plant annual greens or onions. Such a neighborhood will eliminate the appearance of onion flies, spider mites. Eggplant does not tolerate fennel well, it is better to plant this plant at the other end of the plot.
✓ Peas go well with a large number of crops: cabbage, corn, potatoes, lettuce, carrots. Legumes provide these plants with additional nitrogen, improving green growth.
✓ melon grows best in the neighborhood of corn. The extensive root system of corn helps the melon retain moisture in the upper layers of the soil. Due to this, the ripening of melons is improved.
✓ Cucumbers do not tolerate neighborhood with tomatoes and radishes. It is better to sow peas next to them or plant cabbage. These crops prefer increased watering, high humidity, which can be arranged even indoors.

Compatible plants can not just be sown side by side, in different beds. To increase the yield of potatoes and reduce the number of the Colorado potato beetle on the site, the bean is planted directly between the potato kale. Greens are also sown: between the rows of beets, cucumbers.

Greenhouse rotation

On the open field, crop rotation is most often carried out within the framework of one year, designed for one crop. Due to the high heat-saving functions of polycarbonate greenhouses, the change of plants of various types can be accommodated in a narrower time frame. This is achieved due to the different duration of the growing season for crops. Radishes, dill, spinach have a short growing season, they can be eaten earlier than a month after sowing. Cucumbers and zucchini are characterized by an average ripening period. Peppers, tomatoes, eggplants ripen the longest.

Rotation of crops in a polycarbonate greenhouse can be done as follows:

✓ green manure is sown in the greenhouse for the winter: vetch, chickpeas;

✓ in early spring, greenhouses sow radishes, lettuce, cabbage seedlings, onions on a feather in protected beds;
✓ after cruciferous plants are removed from the beds, you can plant tomatoes, peppers, eggplants or cucumbers in their place;
✓ in autumn, radish, radish, daikon are sown in the place freed from cucumbers.

Be sure to take into account which predecessors were in the garden. Cucumbers grow better after radishes, cabbage. And tomatoes and peppers should be planted on the soil after onions and peas.
So that the areas in the greenhouse are not empty, you can organize a mutually beneficial neighborhood for crops. Plants with a short growing season are planted along the edge of cucumber beds: dill, spinach, Beijing cabbage. They are just removed during the period of active growth of cucumber foliage, which avoids shading of the shoots. Parsley, onion and basil can be sown between the rows of tomatoes and peppers.

Thanks to well-thought-out crop rotation, it is possible to increase the yield of greenhouse crops without the use of chemicals.
The main thing to remember is that even with regular rotation of crops, the greenhouse soil needs to be replaced or updated after 5-6 years of use. Soil fertility affects the volume of the crop, and then you need to protect the rich seedlings from adverse weather conditions. The best assistant in this business is the greenhouses of the Volia company! Arched, lancet, in the shape of a house, from a profile and a pipe with a removable and solid roof - you can buy greenhouses in Moscow in various shapes and sizes to protect any country crops from the vagaries of nature. Favorable factory prices for all products!

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Crop rotation, or what to plant in the garden after that

You need to alternate garden crops on the site wisely, because it’s not enough just to swap them, you also need to know the sequence and crop rotation system.

When growing the same crop in one place for several years in a row, the soil is depleted, pathogens accumulate in it, and pests, out of habit, “gather” to their favorite vegetables. You can correct the situation if you plant plants in other beds in the new season. However, not everything is as simple as it might seem at first glance.

What is crop rotation and why should it be observed

In simple terms, crop rotation is the alternation of garden crops on the plot. Scientists identify 3 main reasons why it should be observed:

the soil is less clogged with weeds, less pathogens and pests settle in it;
with proper crop rotation, the optimal structure of the upper soil layer is maintained, in which garden crops grow;
land with a deliberate crop rotation is not depleted, but, on the contrary, is replenished with the necessary nutrients.

If you plant different crops in the same place every year, the soil will heal and its nutrients will be used more rationally. The thing is that some plants consume useful elements from the top layer of soil, while others - from the bottom. In addition, these substances are consumed in different quantities.

In addition, the roots of many plants release toxins. Usually cultures from the same family are sensitive to them. This is especially noticeable in beds with beets, carrots and spinach. If you plant these vegetables in the same place for several years in a row, each subsequent crop is usually worse than the previous one, since toxins inhibit the development of plants. Proper crop rotation neutralizes this effect, healing the soil.

Legumes, corn, and leeks are the least sensitive to precursor toxins.

Even if the roots of plants almost do not emit toxins during the growing season, in the future, plant residues - stems and foliage can do this. Therefore, the tops of plants such as cucumbers, peppers, carrots, horseradish, cabbage, sunflowers, as well as numerous weeds at the end of the season are recommended to be removed from the beds and laid in compost heaps. On the basis of green waste, you can prepare organic top dressings (infusions and decoctions), as well as pest control products.

How to rotate plants correctly

In order to properly rotate plantings and draw up a rational crop rotation scheme, it is important to know which family a particular plant belongs to. Because representatives of the same family, as a rule, suffer from the same diseases and are attacked by the same pests. For example, root rot pathogens often lurk in the soil after lettuce and root celery. Cabbage can be attacked by a cabbage fly, sometimes heads of cabbage are affected by keel, after which it is undesirable to plant a vegetable in this place for about 6 years. Thus, it is impossible, for example, to sow dill instead of carrots. These crops belong to the same family - Celery.

Interestingly, crop rotation should be observed not only when growing vegetables, as many mistakenly believe. If you think that flowers and medicinal plants cannot be "relatives" of vegetables, then you are mistaken. How else can they! For example, tulips and slime onions are almost brothers. So, if you have broken a bed in place of a flower bed, this does not mean at all that vegetables will grow well on it. It is important to choose the right culture-followers.

Especially for you, we have compiled a table of belonging of various crops to families.

Family	Culture
Aster (composite)	Artichoke, aster, dahlia, calendula, kosmeya, daisy, oat root, dandelion, tansy, sunflower, rudbeckia, lettuce, lettuce chicory, scorzonera, yarrow, chrysanthemum, zinnia, string, tarragon, echinacea
Legumes	Beans, vetch, peas, lupins, soybeans, beans, lentils
Buckwheat	Buckwheat, rhubarb, sorrel
Cabbage (cruciferous)	Rutabaga, daikon, cabbage (white, brussels, chinese, kohlrabi, red, beijing, savoy, cauliflower), katran, watercress, levkoy, leaf mustard, lobo, radish, radish, turnip, horseradish
Onion (lily)	Begonias, onions (batun, fragrant, multi-tiered, leek, onion, rocambole, slime, shallot, chives), lilies, tulips, wild garlic, garlic
Gauze	Ornamental quinoa, chard, beetroot, spinach.
Nightshade	Eggplant, belladonna, potato, nightshade, pepper, petunia, tobacco, tomato, physalis.
Celery (umbrella)	Anise, chervil, coriander (cilantro), carrot, parsnip, parsley, celery, cumin, dill, fennel.
Pumpkin	Watermelon, mad cucumber, melon, squash, crookneck, lagenaria, luffa, melotria, momordica, cucumber, squash, stepping stone, tladianta, cyclantera, chayote, echinocystis.
Lamiaceae	Basil, hyssop, marjoram, lemon balm, peppermint, savory.

Vegetable crop compatibility

If you want to plant the maximum number of different crops in one garden, you also need to consider their compatibility with other plants. Some "capricious" vegetables do not get along well with their neighbors, while tolerant crops, on the contrary, have a positive effect on "roommates".

For example, carrots and onions are an example of perfect coexistence in the garden. The most dangerous pests of these crops are carrot and onion flies. But the carrot fly does not tolerate the smell of onions, and the onion fly does not tolerate the smell of carrots. Therefore, plants from such a tandem perfectly protect each other from insect attacks.

Nutrient requirements of plants

Determining whether plants belong to the same family is only half the battle. Another important factor to consider in crop rotation is the need for plant nutrients.

When selecting crops for subsequent planting, you should be aware that you cannot plant the same bed for several years in a row with crops with a high need for trace elements.

Crops with high nutrient requirements : cabbage, potato, rhubarb, celery, asparagus, pumpkin, spinach.
Crops with average nutrient requirements : eggplant, string beans, melon, kohlrabi, leek, cucumber, radish, beetroot, tomato, horseradish, spinach.
Plants with low nutrient requirements : peas, broad beans, onions, herbs, radishes, lettuce.

The correct crop rotation looks like this: in the first year, the most "gluttonous" crop is grown in the garden, in subsequent years - plants from the second and third groups, in the fourth year they apply fertilizer and again plant a crop with a high nutrient requirement.

Thus, it turns out that each plant should return to its original place no earlier than after 4 years. To do this, it is best to divide the site into small beds, and every year "shift" crops to a neighboring place.

Good forerunners of vegetable crops

Plants feed on those substances that previous crops did not take from the soil. When planning planting, keep in mind what to plant in the garden after.

Culture	Predecessor
Legumes	All types of cabbage, potatoes, cucumber, marrow, pumpkin, onion, garlic, eggplant, pepper
Cabbage, beets	Cucumber, potato, pepper, carrot, bean, pumpkin, eggplant
Potato	Cabbage, cucumber, pumpkin, onion, garlic, carrot
Onion, garlic	Cabbage, potatoes, legumes, greens, radishes
Carrot	Cucumber, potato, cabbage, tomato, legumes
Cucumber, pumpkin, marrow	Cabbage, legumes, onions, garlic, corn
Pepper, eggplant	Cabbage, cucumber, squash, pumpkin, onion, garlic, legumes, carrots
Tomato	Cucumber, carrot, cabbage, onion, beetroot

Green manures for soil improvement

Proponents of organic farming manage to do without mineral fertilizers by properly alternating plants in the beds. After all, there are plants that enrich the soil with useful substances. First of all, we are talking, of course, about green manure - green fertilizers with a powerful root system and rapidly developing green mass. They are sown between the main crops or on empty plots after harvesting, and then mowed and plowed into the ground.

But there are also plants that can produce crops while also improving the quality of the soil. These crops include, for example, legumes (peas, beans, etc.). Nodule bacteria on their roots enrich the soil with nitrogen.

If you plan to use legumes as green manure, it is important that they have time to bloom, as the nodules on their roots are formed during this period.

And perennial legumes with a powerful root system, including, for example, alfalfa, extract nutrients from deep soil layers and share with vegetables whose roots are located near the surface.

To increase the fertility of the soil, do not leave the beds empty. At the time of the "shift change", sow the area with green manure: white mustard, phacelia, rapeseed. You can also make compost from these crops for the plants you plan to plant next season.

Thanks to green manure plants, you can significantly improve the soil and prevent weeds from taking over empty areas.

How to rotate plants on a small plot

Crop rotation is an agricultural concept. However, this does not mean at all that it cannot be carried out in the conditions of a single garden. How else can you! That's just traditional suburban areas are not very suitable for them to be able to deploy vigorous activity. The garden is assigned to them, at best, a fourth part. In such conditions, moving crops from place to place can be problematic. And yet it is possible.

It is worth starting with a site plan and including both large and small properties. It is important to immediately indicate the location relative to the cardinal points in order to assess the degree of illumination of certain parts of the backyard territory. Buildings, tall trees and shrubs can also affect the illumination.

The territory for beds on this plan should be divided into 4 zones and every year "move" plants from a certain group around them in a circle. That is, in the place where crops from the first group grew last year, representatives of the second group should be planted this year, etc. Thus, the plants will return to the previous beds every 4 years.

And this is how the groups of plants for a four-year crop rotation look like:

Group 1 - zucchini, cabbage, cucumbers, pumpkin, squash;

Group 2 - onions, radishes, tomatoes, herbs, garlic;

Group 3 - swede, carrot, radish, beet, parsnip, root parsley;

Group 4 - potatoes.

Next season all these crops should be in the adjacent bed.

Some gardeners practice the so-called small crop rotation, when early ripening varieties of various vegetables are successively planted in one season in one area. In regions with a cold climate, seedlings are used to organize a small crop rotation or each subsequent type of vegetable is planted between rows.