How to rotate your crops for a great harvest

Farmers have known the benefits of three-field crop rotation for centuries. Use the rotation principle in your own vegetable and fruit garden and you'll get a higher yield.

Rotating crops also ensures you won't have to fertilize as much, and it helps to prevent garden pests and fungal diseases. In comparison, if you plant the same varieties in the same spots every year, you'll deplete the soil because the plants will always remove the same nutrients. Sooner or later, those nutrients will run out, and your plants will cease to thrive.

When planning for crop rotation, take into consideration the nutrient requirements of each plant. Some crops grow abundantly and quickly and use up plenty of nutrients; these plants need strong fertilizer. Other plants require fewer nutrients, grow more slowly, and need more moderate fertilizing. Plants with a low nutrient requirement just need a little compost.

• In a vegetable bed, follow a plant that uses lots of nutrients by a moderate nutrient consumer, and finally buy a plant with low nutritional needs in the third year.
• Use a journal to plan crop rotation, noting precisely what, when, and where plantings were done.
• For a well-planned crop rotation sequence, begin planting with vegetables in the cabbage family, followed by legumes, tubers and nightshade plants, and finally by bulb plants.

Cycling your plantings gives the soil a well-needed rest so it can regenerate.

• The more time that passes before you put the same plant in the same location the better: a four-year cycle is ideal.
• Crop rotation often does away with the need for fertilizing, as some plants replace nutrients in the soil that other plants need. The roots of bean and pea plants release plenty of nitrogen when they rot, for example, which encourages growth in cabbage plants in the following year.
• Rotating crops also prevents pests and fungal diseases that spread in the soil. Why? Because the fungus spores and insect larvae can't locate the proper host plants, they die. For that reason, return cucumbers, tomatoes, and peas to the same spots only after two years or more, and onions after three years.
• If a variety of cabbage is afflicted with clubroot, wait seven to eight years before replanting cabbages in the same bed.
• You can even rotate crops in a small garden with just one vegetable bed; simply rotate the plant varieties by rows in subsequent years.