"George.com" wrote in message
...
"terryc" wrote in message
news
terry
The real problem is that multiple plantings of the same crop(famil) in
the same plot allows pests/dieseases to buld up in that spot. so
spelling the ground from that family lets them starve away.
all you can really do is rotate different plots in turn from that family
until the family fad fades {:-).
this is the problem - trying to do that!! i'm a bit disorganised & have
trouble planning in advance (i can plan at the time though... um...). hence
my question! i keep reading a 3 or preferably 4 year rotation is best - i
suppose i am wondering if i can get away with 2 in some patches.. or perhaps
only a short break for some of the brassica. it might just be my perpetual
reading of english gardening books - maybe they overstate the probability of
club root.(?).
george
I guess I would need 4 large
garden beds for that.
i have 6 & it's not working out in an organised manner ;-)
A mate who is an organic grower told me not to be anal about rotation,
given the size of my back yard vege garden. Mr Yates points out that in
temperate climates there is a natural rotation between hot season & cool
season crops.
well, this is good news on both counts. that applies with my potato/tomato
problem - there's always going to be breaks over winter & so far i can keep
them moving around. more concerned about the brassica, where i'm growing
many kinds & hence, there is always brassica in the beds, & not enough room
to limit them to specific beds.
You can't follow egg plant with tomatos or follow tomatos with potatos. He
also suggests gardens packed with organic matter, humus, compost etc help
minimise build up of problems in garden beds (maybe the microbal activity
in the humus combats negative soil deseases etc). Feeding the garden with
poop or compost each year also minimises the need to sow nitrogen fixing
or nutrient scavaging green manures.
That said, I reckon green manures are quite an interesting topic &
something I am starting to get my head around. The beans are an experiment
with nitrogen fixers (I don't eat beans). The mustard was an experiment
with keep the bed covered over winter & stopping nutrients leaching. I
guess if you are going to fallow a garden for a season or 2 a green manure
makes sense for a number of reasons. The organic grower mates suggested
with nitrogen fixers also putting in something that will use the nitrogen,
maybe a grass. A 1/2 clover & grass mix on a garden bed will get the
clover producing nitrogen and also have a crop that utilises the nitrogen,
thereby encouraging the clover to produce more nitrogen. When the crop is
killed and mulched you get double the amount of nitrogen being returned to
the soil (what the clover produced & what the grass took up).
love the idea of green manures. it's not happening in my existing garden as
the garden is always full! (although i put the pea & bean plants back on
when they're pulled out...)
i've sown field peas in some new beds, which WOULD be going well, but that
the *$^#$!!!! wallaby eats it. (as well as everything else - what's going to
be left to rotate? ;-) trying to add bulk & nitrogen. have put net & mesh
all about - undoubtedly i'll end up catching the wallaby by accident as he
continues to eat the pea plants g
i understand the mustard family are excellent because they grow very well,
are very bulky & have a reputation as a fumigant as well (?). also wallabies
don't seem to like mustard so much g (he never eats the mizuna).
ta!
kylie