Some herbs planted among the vegetables or around the vegetable patch appear to keep pests at bay. For example, basil planted with tomatoes and lettuce may deter insects, and oregano planted with broccoli may repel cabbage flies. You can include green maize and cucurbits at any point in the rotation, but never plant an underground bearing crop in the same soil in consecutive seasons.
Growing tips for a continuous supply The steadier your supply of vegetables, the better your cash flow. So stagger your planting to ensure a continuous supply of the crops. Do this by making smaller plantings at regular intervals for example, every four weeks during the planting season. These can simply be harvested when they are large enough.
Sign in. Log into your account. Privacy Policy. Password recovery. Forgot your password? Get help. Farmer's Weekly. Soil fertility deteriorates, and levels of organic matter are low. Soil structure and water infiltration rates are lower in monoculture systems. Monoculture leads to increased pests, disease incidence and yield loss. Increased level of soil organic matter enhances water and nutrient retention. Better soil structure improves drainage and reduces risks of water-logging during floods.
Improved soil structure means less run off and less top soils lost. In many regions of South Africa wind erosion of top soils is a serious threat, improved soil structure and more organic matter reduces losses. Improved soil structure boosts the supply of soil water during droughts. Crop rotation is used to control weeds and diseases and problem weeds have been found to cause less damage in crop rotation than monoculture systems. Leguminous crops — like soybean, beans, cow peas, ground nuts — in the rotation, fix nitrogen and bind it in the soil thereby increasing fertility and reducing the need for synthetic fertilisers.
It is also not insignificant that crop rotation is a way of mitigating climate change. Reducing the use of synthetic fertilisers leads to reduced greenhouse gas emissions. Crop rotation is one of the easiest ways of maintaining soil productivity.
It is important to consider factors like: Is it a deep or shallow rooted crop e. Is it a broad leafed or narrow leafed plant? What herbicides will be applied, and do they have a long residual period which might cause damage to the follow-up crop in a rotation system?
Ask other farmers which rotations have worked for them. Advantages of Crop Rotation Crop rotation helps to recycle nutrients. The most important example is legumes such as peas, beans, canola and lupin beans. There is a lot of nitrogen in the soil the next year after one of these crops has been planted. Other vegetables that need a lot of nitrogen can then be planted.
Carrots do not need so many nutrients and can be planted two or three seasons after a legume. Crop rotation breaks the life cycle of weeds and pests. Insects prefer certain plants to lay their eggs on or feed on. Insects will therefore lay their eggs on plants if they know there is food for the larva to eat as soon as it hatches. The idea is to alternate rotate crops that are not hosts of a particular plant disease.
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