Simple Crop Rotation for Healthier Plants

Have you noticed that insect pests seem to get worse every year in your garden? Tomato hornworms appear out of nowhere, and swarms of cabbage moths dive and swoop among kale and collard leaves.

Have yields diminished over time, or do your plants seem to have lost that vigor they once had? If you’ve grown the same plant variety in the same place for more than one season, crop rotation could be the answer. Different plant varieties have unique nutrient requirements and insect pests, and planting the same thing in the same place depletes the soil, and allows insect pest populations to become established.  Planting kale after another brassica family plant like collard greens, will encourage the cabbage worm to .

The nutrient requirements of edible varieties are generally based on the part of the plant that is eaten. Plants that produce edible roots, blossoms, leaves and fruits all have unique nutrient requirements at various stages of the plant’s life cycle, and grouping plants with similar traits together allows us to properly rotate them in the garden.

Heavy Feeders
Fruiting and leaf crops including tomatoes, kale, collard, greens, and spinach.

Light Feeders
Root vegetables and onion family crops including beets, carrots, and garlic

Nitrogen Fixing
legumes including beans and peas

While there are more complex ways to rotate crops, the Simple Crop Rotation method is the easiest to follow in the typical backyard garden.  While the most effective crop rotation is to avoid planting the same variety in a bed for at least three years, but this is hard to accomplish in the home garden, and following this simple formula will go a long way toward keeping insect pests guessing, and your garden’s soil fertile.

1. Follow a heavy feeder with a light feeder
2. Follow a light feeder with a nitrogen fixer
3. Follow a nitrogen fixer with a heavy feeder