What is the crop rotation?
the Crop rotation, also called field management, describes the chronological sequence of the cultivation of different types of crops over several years.
also read
- Mixed culture in the vegetable garden: It all depends on the right plan
- This is how you plan your vegetable garden - effectively for a higher yield
- Plan optimally in the vegetable garden with a cultivation plan
The basic idea behind crop rotation is that different vegetable or Grains require different nutrients and, above all, to different degrees. If the same vegetables are grown in the same place for years, they will always draw the same nutrients from the soil. As a result, the soil becomes impoverished and the plant can no longer be adequately nourished. This leads to lower crop yields, susceptibility to diseases and pests and poor soil quality. However, if you grow different plants with different nutrient requirements on a bed every year, you can counteract this.
Why pay attention to the correct crop rotation?
Crop rotation has a positive effect on crop yield, but that's not all. Good crop rotation has even more advantages:
- prevents pests and diseases
- reduces weed growth
- increases soil fertility
- Rooting and thereby loosening of the soil
- Legumes enrich the soil with nitrogen
- Promotion of the microorganisms that promote soil
- Control of nematodes
- it reduces the use of expensive fertilizers
- Prevention of erosion and leaching of nutrients
background
The history of crop rotation
Heavy feeders, weak feeders and green manure
The nutritional requirements of the plants are decisive for the correct crop rotation. A distinction is made between heavy consumers, medium consumers and weak consumers.
- Weak eaters: Such plants, mostly leaf fruits, that require few nutrients such as salads, spinach or herbs or those that provide themselves with nutrients such as legumes such as beans or peas
- Central Eater: Plants with a medium nutritional requirement such as beets, onions or leeks
- Heavy Eater: Plants with a high need for nutrients such as potatoes, tomatoes, pumpkins or cabbages
Green manure
Green manure is grown in order to re-enrich the soil with nutrients after a cultivation cycle of several years. Legumes that enrich the soil with nitrogen are particularly suitable for this, such as:
- clover
- Phacelia
- Sweet peas
- Lupins
- Marigold
- Oil radish
These fruits are not harvested, but mulched and worked into the soil, where they rot and additionally enrich the soil with nutrients.
2 to 5 year cycles for crop rotation
The crop rotation is divided into 2, 3, 4 or 5 years, depending on the model. In agriculture, shorter cycles are often used so as not to have any failures in the main crop. In the vegetable garden, on the other hand, the three- or four-field economy is often favored, which means that heavy eaters are only planted on a bed every three to four years.
Crop rotation in a 4-year cycle
In a 4-year cycle, high-consumption crops are grown on a fresh, nutrient-rich bed in the first year, medium-consumption crops in the second, low-consumption crops in the third and green manure in the fourth. This method is most common in the private vegetable garden.
Table for the crop rotation in the 4-year cycle
| 1. Year (heavy consumers) | 2. Year (mean consumption) | 3. Year | 4. Year (green manure) |
|---|---|---|---|
| potatoes | fennel | French beans | Buckwheat |
| Cabbage | All kinds of beets | peas | clover |
| Cucumber | Salads | Herbs | Phacelia |
| pumpkin | Strawberries | Lettuce | Marigolds |
| rhubarb | garlic | spinach | spinach |
| celery | leek | Summer flowers | Sweet peas |
| tomatoes | Runner beans | Lamb's lettuce | lupine |
| savoy | Onions | Oil radish | |
| Corn | Tagetes |
Youtube
Digression
Mixed culture and crop rotation
The crop rotation in the bedding cycle
But now you might want to grow potatoes and tomatoes every year. You can of course, as long as you don't plant them in the same location. A simple model is the bedding cycle, also called gardening in a square. Here, four beds are cultivated at the same time, one with weak eaters, one with medium eaters, one with heavy eaters and one with green manure. Every year the bed sequence is shifted by one bed so that foundations are grown on the weak-consuming bed becomes, on the Mittelzehrer low-consumption, on the heavy-consumption medium-consumption and on the green manure heavy-consumption Etc.
Here you will find everything clearly illustrated.
Make a cultivation plan
Even if the concept sounds simple, logical and clear, it is advisable to create a plan so that you know exactly where you have planted what. This concept works best when you have three, four or five beds and they rotate alternately, as described in the bedding cycle above. To plan the cultivation in detail, proceed as follows:
- Measure out your beds and make sketches of them on one or more sheets of paper.
- Divide the bed into the appropriate rows that you want to grow. Pay attention to the recommended row spacing.
- Now write in each row what should be grown there. Watch out for good and bad neighbors.
- You can also set the sowing and harvesting times as well as a possible second sowing note.
- In the next year you simply move the sowing one bed to the right so that the crop rotation is given. Correct possibly badly chosen neighbors, which are noticeable in a low harvest yield.
If you combine cleverly, you have less work.
Crop rotation in agriculture
Crop rotation also plays a major role in agriculture, and not just ecological ones. Not only is the main crop changed here regularly, but various crops are also grown within a year. A distinction is made here between summer fruit, winter fruit and catch crop.
- Summer fruit: This is a crop that is sown in spring and harvested in summer. This can be summer cereals as well as beets, potatoes or vegetables.
- Winter fruit: The winter crops are useful plants that are frost-hardy and therefore spend the winter in the field. This can be winter cereals or winter vegetables.
- Catch crop: The catch crop is mostly legumes that are grown between the main crops to improve the soil.
Digression
Catch crop
A wheat producer cannot wait three years before growing wheat in his field again. That is why the cultivation cycles in agriculture are shortened: Instead of growing an intercrop in the third or fourth year, an intercrop is sown after the main crop. The EU provides guidelines according to which no monocultures are grown as catch crops but rather various soil-promoting plants such as clover, peas, mustard, oil radish or Arable grass. These can be used for feeding livestock or worked into the ground afterwards.
frequently asked Questions
Are there also "permanent fruits" that can appear on every bed at any time?
Yes, not all fruits have to migrate. Low eaters can generally stay on the bed as permanent crops and be combined with other plants in alternation. This is particularly helpful with perennial plants such as herbs. Strawberries are also popular as permanent crops.
Does good crop rotation replace any type of fertilizer?
Mostly not. Beds with weak eaters or medium eaters may do without fertilizer, Strong zesty beds should still be fertilized regularly with compost to protect the hungry plants to nourish optimally.
Do I really have to look so closely at the crop rotation?
Most home gardeners invent their own version of crop rotation. If you don't want to jeopardize your harvest in the process, you should above all make sure that you consume heavy feeders vary and, above all, never put the same heavy consumer in the same place in the following year set.
Where do I get the seeds for the cover crop or Green manure?
For intermediate crops you can get ready-made seed mixtures in retail and online shops, which provide soil-improving diversity on your vegetable patch.