Rotating Vegetables by Family (2024)

FAQs

What are the vegetable families for crop rotation? ›

Related vegetables share disease problems, so a true rotation needs to be between vegetable families. Usually a 3-year rotation is advised, meaning that there will be 2 years of unrelated vegetables in the middle, between related vegetables.

Crop rotation is the practice of planting different crops sequentially on the same plot of land to improve soil health, optimize nutrients in the soil, and combat pest and weed pressure.

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.

Cover crops (grasses, legumes and forbs) recommended for seasonal cover and other conservation purposes include annual ryegrass, oilseed radish, winter cereal rye, and oats used for scavenging unused fertilizer and releasing nutrients back into the soil for the next crop to use.

Each successive year, you would move each group one spot clockwise. So, for example, you would plant your legumes in Area 1 one year, then the next year you'd move them to Area 2 while the leaf crops from Area 4 moved into now-vacant Area 1—and so on.

Good vegetables to rotate in after tomatoes include beans and peas because they naturally fortify soils with nitrogen, and greens, because they are not too demanding.

Sweet corn grows well after carrots. Plant carrots, then sweetcorn, then potatoes. Consider what is known about companion planting. Try to get the best combination of crops which may benefit each other, while minimising combinations that may be detrimental to each other's growth.

Squash Family (Cucurbitaceae): Cucumbers, melons, summer and winter squash, pumpkins, watermelon. These crops are heavy feeders. Plant these crops after members of the grass family. Follow these crops with legumes.

For crop rotation to be effective, do not plant a family in the same area more than once every three to four years. To help with planning, keep a garden log or map as a record of where your vegetables are planted each year. Look to alternate between heavy feeders and light feeders.

Can I plant tomatoes in the same spot every year? ›

Try to plant tomatoes in a different spot every year, rotating through your garden space every three to four years. Planting them in the same place allows disease pathogens that are specific to tomatoes to build up in the soil. By moving them around in the garden each year, you can break up the disease cycle.

Crop rotation improves soil's moisture absorption rates, which reduces freshwater exploitation. It also decreases soil erosion and enhances fertility levels. Overproducing one crop can significantly deplete soil nutrients. Climate change also degrades agricultural lands by altering precipitation patterns.

It recommends that you divide crops into four main groups as follows: Legumes (bush beans, peas, pole beans, broad beans); root vegetables (radish, carrot, potato, onion, garlic, beet, rutabaga, sweet potato, shallots); leafy greens (spinach, chard, kale, cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, spinach); and fruit-bearing( ...

You can rotate crops all you want but if you are not taking proper care of your soil first, your garden will never thrive like you want it to.

Rules for Crop Rotation

Two growing seasons should pass before a plant family returns to soil it has already grown in. Heavy feeders such as brassicas, cucurbits, and solanums should follow light feeders (all others).

Rotating by Crop Groups

The legumes enrich the soil, followed by the leafy vegetables which benefit from the nitrogen boost, then fruiting crops with their lower nutrient needs, then root crops which need even lower nitrogen and phosphorus. And then the process can begin all over again!

It recommends that you divide crops into four main groups as follows: Legumes (bush beans, peas, pole beans, broad beans); root vegetables (radish, carrot, potato, onion, garlic, beet, rutabaga, sweet potato, shallots); leafy greens (spinach, chard, kale, cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, spinach); and fruit-bearing( ...

Four-field rotations

The sequence of four crops (wheat, turnips, barley and clover), included a fodder crop and a grazing crop, allowing livestock to be bred year-round. The four-field crop rotation became a key development in the British Agricultural Revolution.