Plan crop rotation early for best results
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During the middle of winter, when forward planning benefits spring activities and summer harvests, gardeners and home growers may decide to plan their cropping rotation before planting season starts.
The idea behind disease prevention by crop rotation is to break the reproductive cycle of the disease. The cycle for many disease organisms is to attach the crop in the summer, survive the winter as spores in the soil or in plant litter, then attack the new planting the following year. So, if you plant the same crop in the same spot year after year, the pathogen populations can continue to build and the disease will become an increasingly serious problem. You can break the cycle by moving the susceptible plant to another spot. Over time, many pathogens die, and then it is safe to plant the original crop in that spot again.
The first step in planning crop rotation is to make a list of the crops you intend to plant. Most diseases tend to attack plants within the same botanical family, so group your crops together in these botanical groups.
The second step is to divide your garden into the same number of sections as the number of plant families you will have. It works best if all the sections are the same size to ensure each section of soil is rotated from year to year.
Step three is to assign a plant family to each section, making notes of the assignment on a permanent map of your garden. It is difficult to remember the order of rotation after two or three years without permanent records
In each subsequent year, move each plant family to the next section in the garden, always following the same order.
If you have six groups of plants, five years will pass before the same crop is planted in the same section of ground. A cycle of at least four years is most effective.
Crop rotation works best for controlling soil borne diseases that attack only a few species of plants.
Most of the diseases caused by soil borne fungi are particularly easy to control this way. Added bonuses of crop rotation include control of certain insect pests and prevention of nutrient depletion in the soil in particular spots in your garden.
