Is crop rotation necessary for a home vegetable garden? Do organic vegetable crops need to be rotated to be successful? In this video I will answer the question I get most often.. “Do I need to rotate my garden crops?
I’ll also show you the traditional way of crop rotation and a newer easier way to rotate your vegetable crops.
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Hey Guys, I’m Brian from Next Level Gardening
Welcome to our online community! A place to be educated, inspired and hopefully entertained at the same time! A place where you can learn to grow your own food and become a better organic gardener. At the same time, a place to grow the beauty around you and stretch that imagination (that sometimes lies dormant, deep inside) through gardening.
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38 Comments
…I failed my tomatoes this year I planted them in my former garlic beds without adding new soil…yellow and droopy…smallest yield in the last ten years. Thanks for the content always good to see the successes.
When dirt is used to grow whatever & rain & your hose wets it nutrients are pulled out of that dirt and diseased. A wise master gardener once advised>>
At the end of each season dispose of your used growing soil & replace with fresh next season. Dirt is cheap, it is more work that it is
worth to amend the old soil, work it in, break it up, that makes me tired just saying it. REPLACE growing soil each spring.
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One thing to note. If you rotate crops, you do not want to place them anywhere within 10-20 feet of where they were the previous year… preferably even farther. That way any pests, fungi, etc that was left in the old plot cannot easily reach the new location via traveling, spores carried by wind, insect, bird or animal. Also, any biochemicals emitted by the plants in the previous year do not interact with the newer batch of plants… An example of this would be the trees that spread chemicals that suppress the growth of competing species of plants.
WOW Thank you Brian for excellent information. I always wondered what are Brasica. Love the way you teach.❤😊
Great subject! I dutifully planned and rotated my crops for 2 years. After which I too gave that up and just topped with homegrown compost and mulch. Thank you for this video! I really like your book. I have been using companion planting for years. Have had other books but yours is by far the best because you break it all down, including crop rotation and other good gardening info. Plus I ordered the kindle version which allows me to search! Thanks again Brian, really enjoy your channels.
Half the tomatoes I'm harvesting are getting eaten by something. I have know idea what is doing this. Any tips?
Once again Brian, GREAT overview of growing our own food sustainably in healthy soil and having fun and the great satisfaction of watching the processes at the same time. It's all about giving back to the land isn't it? Good to see you enjoying your summer – looks like you all had a great time in Hawaii!! Thanks again for everything on both channels – take care to all 🇨🇦
the best thing i did was put a digester (composter) in the middle of my (subdivision home) back yard vegetable garden. I reduced the smelly garbage can & gained good compost worm poop in garden.
I have a small garden with 3, 8 foot raised beds that are in prime locations. 3 other smaller beds in partial shade in the afternoon. I've been rotating crops going on 3 years. Since I companion plant in these beds, its hard to keep up with rotating potatoes, peas, beans, onions, and cucumbers. I also plant in buckets, tomatoes and cucumbers. I'll be figuring things out for next years garden. Thank you for all of your help! I love this channel and always look forward to your posts!
I water daily with irrigation water by overhead watering and haven't had any issues. I'm in a desert area maybe it's too dry for water to stand on my plants. Possibly it evaporates more quickly. Also doesn't rain coming down, means that that is overhead watering?
My garden is too small to do rotation. I just add fresh composted soil every year.
What about fortifying the soil every year. I'm always adding nutrients.
Great stuff, Brian! Thanks as always. Question: I used grow bags for the first time this year. It's gone really well. I want to empty out the bags and have them dried out and ready for next year. Suggestions on what to do with the soil? I don't want to get rid of all of it. Can I put the soil in some kind of storage container until I follow your instructions to amend it for next year? Open to any thoughts. Thanks again!!
I have 6 raised beds & then an enclosure for the berries & sweet corn. That does NOT get rotated. i add compost & amend soil & mulch. keep critters out. lol. I have several trellises in several beds. Might switch out which beds has what planted. Moved melons this year since i had vine borers in that bed last year. Getting harvest this year.
Short of extending the enclosure to entire garden, any suggestions on dealing with squirrels doing weird things live eating the stems of potatoe plants? Did all my normal amending the soil, had great looking plants & then the rodents started ganwing in the stems! Never had that happen before
Great information in an easy to understand format. Thanks so much!
Maybe if you have acres. If your one foot away i don't know. Then you have to do good things for your soil.
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I dont usually rotate plant growing locations (thinking of the tomato structure!eek!), but this coming spring I will move tomatoes to a different bed after a season of early blight really cost me any successful tomato crop.
Dont the pine shavings blow away? I used some straw that blew all over the back yard last spring.
Thank you Brian for the great information. I really appreciate it.
I’m in Central Florida 9b …. Still in the 90’s daily. Root knot nematodes where I plant tomatoes in my small backyard garden. Would planting in containers help with the nematode issues? Planning to move tomatoes to another area.
Yeah, I agree with everything you said here. Maybe for megafarms, it is a good idea. For most homes with a small area to garden on, it is not a desirable or practical solution. I do even question if it is needed at all. I lived on an orange grove with hundred year old trees that produced bountiful harvests. That alone, seems to suggest that under most circumstances, it is not needed.
I do not think you are making good points, so my thought to your question is no. There are different ways to deal with pests, and diseases. The last time I tried growing food my plants got surrounded by pests, but this time my plants are not surrounded by pests. I have not had a chance to experience reusing old soil when I grow my plants. I use new soil each time I decide to grow something.
I think depending on how you want to grow then you could either spend a few minutes, or hours, or maybe an entire day outside with whatever you want to grow to make sure they are >>> safe <<< from pests, and hopefully growing healthy.
My tomato beds got REALLY BAD root know nematodes when I grew them in the same spot for several years. I learned my lesson the hard way.
The most difficult is when you use companion planting, then different types are in the same area. Hard to rotate and I gave up.
If a pest surfaces in spring in ome one raised bed, they'll just head over to my next bed where I rotated so makes no difference 🤷🏼♀️
I'm glad someone says it the way it works in reality and not by the text book. I have a small enclosed garden. To try to rotate a plant away from where it didn't do well last year is like moving it from the kitchen to the dining room.
What works best for me is learning what to plant and when. Brassicas have to be fall because cabbage moths decimate a spring planting. I do a lot of bug surveillence and when the Mexican bean beetle overwhelms the string beans, i cut them down and toss the bush towards the chickens who love to peck those bright yellow larvae off the bush. I dont try to plant everything at once, and can get in succession planting if one type gets overwhelmed. Learn to work around what nature throws at you. If you try to be the perfect gardener you will have more failures than successes.
I have a rectangular garden which lent itself to a four year rotation. I used to have a big problem with blight in my tomatoes so always rotated, just barely keeping ahead of the blight. Covid hit, Youtube came into my life along with Brian. I sucked in Brian’s shows on raised beds and tomato frames. I built raised beds and tomato frames. My blight problem disappeared. Not wanting to trust growing in the same area, I continued to rotate the tomatoes, yes, rotating my frames. Big job. With the beds, I started experimenting with interplanting. I’ve had good results and not so good result with the interplanting. Every year, I experiment and every year, some plants do well and others not so well. I’m sure weather has a hand in the successes. Next year, I’m going to keep the tomatoes where they are and see how it goes. I haven’t had a good squash season in three years. Scratching my head on that one, Ha, ha. Thank you Brian for your insights to gardening. I have your book, having harvested great information. Great show!! Thank you.
I just purchased your book. I can't wait to start reading it.
Thanks Brian. 🌺💚🙃
Would it make sense to change out the crop that you have now and start with a new crop next year with out hurting the garden
I have a small garden, but I always move things around each year. Bed 1 has beets, spinach & peas. Bed 2 has Cherry tomatoes, peppers & I generally experiment with the 3rd option. Each year I switch beds & positions in each bed.
I do use grass clippings as mulch, and I always put anything i don't use from the garden (excess beet leaves, peelings, pea plant leaves) back on top as mulch. Plus I do fresh compost in the spring.
For next year's project I hope to add a rain barrel & switch to drip irrigation.
Hello, that was great information. Didn't know some of the things as i am new to gardening so i really liked this video! Have a wonderful day.
????? Can I plant another round of potatoes after I harvest potatoes in my container . and I only got 12 medium small potatoes out of a 15 gallon container. Ty
There is no need to rotate crops for a home gardener. Add compost, the appropriate natural fertilizers for what you're growing, do a cover crop if you'd like. I've been growing potatoes in the same in-ground bed for five years now. No issues.
Have been a hose-waterer for years. This is the 1st year it became laborious. Thinking that next year drip needs to be added.
Have watched lots of videos but still do not really understand all the connections (and how to do them / what tools to have.
My fear is spending $$ and not being able to make it work. I’m one of those people who is so mechanically un-inclined that I have discarded things before just because I gave up on assembly. And instructions these days are usually so poorly written that if you can’t read between the lines they are useless.
I wish I could find something plug and play for a particular bed size.
When I first started, I rotated beds religiously – had a dozen 4×20 raised beds, all in full sun. Not sure if it was really necessary. Now I have much smaller beds, not all in full sun, and am much pickier about what I grow. I also do a lot of interplanting/companion planting with a mix of vegetables, flowers and herbs in almost every bed, so figuring out any kind of rotation would make my head hurt. I think healthy soil and a diverse garden area are the keys to plant health. I do usually plant my garlic in the fall down the center of many of the beds, which is my way of initiating some kind of pest control from the get go and then go from there.