Crop rotation in tomatoes: what to plant afterwards

Can you always plant tomatoes in the same bed? What plants can be planted after tomatoes? We answer all questions about crop rotation in tomatoes.

In many greenhouses and flower beds, the popular tomato plants grow in the same place year after year. Unlike most legumes like beans (Phaseolus vulgaris) and peas (Pisum sativum) it does not seem to harm the tomatoes at first to be in the same bed over and over again. And yet, crop rotation in tomatoes has decisive advantages for your plants and the soil below.

Benefits of rotating tomatoes

Rotating tomatoes always makes sense, because the heavily draining plants demand a lot of nutrients from the soil. And the spread of diseases into the next tomato year hardly takes place in this way. The crop rotation should not only extend to tomatoes, but to all members of the nightshade family. It is advisable to use potatoes (

Solanum tuberosum), Physalis (Physalis peruviana), Paprika (Capsicum annuum) and eggplant (Solanum melongena) to renounce. They are often just as susceptible to tomato diseases and all of them require large amounts of nutrients.

By changing the plant families in the bed, you not only promote the diversity of soil organisms, but also make life difficult for many pathogens at the same time. A regular and balanced crop rotation for tomatoes means that the use of pesticides is often simply superfluous. The often specialized microorganisms can then no longer find any nourishment or simply cannot attack the new plant at all and so eventually disappear by themselves. At the same time, you secure fertile soil for the years to come and, at the same time, cultivate your garden a little closer to nature with a crop rotation after the tomatoes. You can find more tips on how to do this in our special article Soil improvementthat will help you maintain fertile garden soil.

Crop rotation in tomatoes

The soil and the plants benefit enormously from a crop rotation after the tomatoes. We have summarized for you below what you have to pay attention to in terms of the location and the subsequent crops.

Do you have to change location with tomatoes?

Basically, you should change the location of tomatoes regularly. So-called soil fatigue often occurs over the years, because the heavily draining tomatoes leach out the nutrient reserves of their substrate on one side. As already described, however, crop rotation can maintain and even increase soil fertility. On the other hand, some fungal diseases persist in the soil for years and infect them several times, even if tomatoes are only on the site again after three or four years. As a result, the yield often drops, the plants tend to have deficiency symptoms or become sick quickly.

If you can't imagine your own bed without the tomato and if you don't have an alternative location, you should take a few tips to heart for the next crop. Tomatoes are heavy eaters, which means they need a lot of nutrients in order to grow and bear a lot of fruit. In order to ensure the supply of nutrients, compost or slow-acting mainly organic fertilizers like ours should be used at least every spring before planting Plantura organic tomato fertilizer be worked into the earth.

In the case of diseases, however, you have to take a closer look, because some pathogens stay in the soil for several years and constantly re-infect their host plants. They are therefore also referred to as being grounded. This includes the velvet spot disease (Cladosporium fulvum), which forms whitish-gray spots on the underside of the leaves and causes whole plants to die off in a short time. Also the Tomato late blight and brown rot (Phytophthora infestans), the Gray mold (Botrytis cinerea) and other fungal diseases overwinter as spores in the soil. Infected parts of the plant must therefore under no circumstances remain in place, but must be removed as soon as possible. There are already strains that are resistant to some of the diseases and that also grow well on infected soils. Also root-eating Nematodes-Species can survive winter in the ground, but with the help of the Marigold (Tagetes sp.) or Marigold (Calendula officinalis) simply expelled, because these separate substances that the roundworms do not get. Our special article tells you how to use your Protect tomatoes from disease can.

What comes after tomatoes in the crop rotation

After tomatoes and other heavy eaters like Pumpkins (Cucurbita sp.) you give the soil and its inhabitants a break and plant plants with lower nutrient requirements in the bed than autumn crops even in the same year. Many leafy vegetables like Salads (Lactuca sativa), spinach (Spinacia oleracea), but also radish (Raphanus sativus var. sativus). Over the season, the soil can slowly build up a reservoir of nutrients again, but you can still harvest a lot of vegetables. In the years after that, heavily draining plants can be planted again, but these should not belong to the nightshade family. For example, good follow-up crops are recommended Sweet potatoes (Ipomoea batata), Sweet corn (Zea mays) or Beans.

If you are also interested in which plants can be cultivated together with tomatoes, you will find everything on the subject in our special article “Mixed cultivation of tomatoes“.