Do you rotate your beds?

[Hilde]

I was wondering how many here rotated their tomato beds? I am planning to build raised beds next year and was thinking about crop rotation. Those of you who rotate, what intervals do you use for the rotation? Have you experimented with different intervals?

Thanks!

Hilde

[feldon30]

I might do a little bit of rotation, I don't know. I intend to pull my strawberry plants and clean out my 4' x 16' bed #3 and actually move that bed over about 3 feet and then add another 4' x 16' bed for more tomato plants. If I do that, then I will be using the same 2 beds for tomatoes that I used last fall and this spring.

My first 2 beds turned out to not have nearly enough sun to grow tomatoes or peppers, so I have been growing bush beans, potatoes, etc. in those beds.


I think crop rotation is pretty tough unless all your garden beds have equal sunlight and you have extra beds. So I have to count on continuing to improve the soil every year.

[BigdaddyJ]

I grow organically and have been growing tomatoes in the same raised bed for 16 years. Lots of compost. Very few problems. Always a great crop.

My mother has been growing in the same spot for 30 to 35 years. She uses a little of the blue stuff once and awhile. But she also adds bagged compost/manure/humus at planting time. She too has nice crops.

Crop rotation, from where I sit, is meaningless regarding tomatoes if you replenish the soil yearly.

[Tomstrees]

I don't ,,, so I make sure my garden is well taken care of every fall.
Entire compost bin goes in ...

~ Tom

[shelleybean]

When I planned this most recent garden, I did so with the idea that I'd use a four year rotation. All my beds are the same size. I wanted one for the nightshade family, one for legumes, one for cucurbits and one to use as a spring/fall bed for lettuce, the cabbage family, some onions, etc. However, I always find that the nightshade family needs hogs most of the space so I end up doing just a two year rotation. I clean up very well in the fall and add at least three inches of compost each spring. Everything grows well and knock on wood, I have had no trouble with diseases in the soil.

[Adenn1]

I rotated my pole beans and cukes this year...but the toms have to stay where they are to get the best light. No problem so far...like other said...I take care to give back plenty of organic matter...leaves, grass clippings, coffe grounds, etc.

[Ruth_10]

I do, but I have the space to do so. I have my garden plot divided into thirds: one for tomatoes, one for corn, and one for everything else. The tomatoes probably don't need the rotation, but for some of the other stuff, like corn, which is a heavy feeder, it doesn't hurt and might help.

[Hilde]

Thank you so much for all of your responses! It is really interesting to see what you do and what results you get! I guess the important thing is to make the best out of the space you have, clean up well every fall, and add compost and other goodies to the soil every year.

Hilde

[QAGuy]

I rotate by turning the dirt over!

That's about it.

And you're right. A good cleanup, add compost and stuff
and you should do fine.

Commercial growers grow in the same plots year after year.
Why shouldn't we?

[dice]

"Commercial growers grow in the same plots year after year.
Why shouldn't we?"

Fusarium, Verticillium, and Nematodes.

Those are all soil-borne diseases that build up
in the soil when you grow tomatoes over and
over again in the same place. Commercial growers
use disease-tolerant cultivars for just this reason.
And many of them do rotate locations when they
have the space to do so.

That said, crop rotation is a technique of disease
mitigation that depends on having the space to do
it. If you don't have the space, you make do with
whatever survives to produce mature fruit despite
whatever soil-borne diseases may be present.

Growing disease-repressing winter cover crops
is one good thing that can be done, in addition
to amending the soil every year with compost
et al. Some cultivars of winter rye are known
to be inimical to nematodes, for example.
I don't know whether any well-known cover crop
species or cultivars are unfriendly to fusarium
or verticillium fungi. One may need some organic
soil inoculant that supplies organisms that either
prey on or outcompete fusarium and verticillium
to control them.

Many of those beneficial soil organisms are probably
found in compost, which would account for why
amending with compost (and/or with composted
manure) every year tends to reduce disease problems
despite growing the same crop over and over again
in the same garden beds.

[the999bbq]

I have 9 equally sized miniplots (6x4m), one of them has the (movable) plastic tunnel greenhouse so even that rotates along with the rest (2 times 4 = 8 + 1) with pathways in between (so 3x3). So that makes a four year rotation scheme : potatoes, legumes, kales, onion/carrots/.. classical I think (where legumes fix nitrogen in the ground for the kales - and where you lower the amount of feeding through the cycle of 4; onions/carrot gets no feeding and has to do with what's left from the other three generations) but without a waiting bed (most gardeners don't have a plot that they leave resting for a year - or don't want too ;-) ) The greenhouse rotates in between the two sets of four...

My grandmother declared me a lunatic when three other strong guys and I moved the greenhouse : "You with all your modern techniques ..." ;-) It's harder to do with a Victorian style glass greenhouse built on a stone wall but I specifically choose for a movable 6x4 tunnel for that reason. (disadvantage for the tunnel being condensation)

[shelleybean]

My grandparents have farmed all their lives and they say they just alternate between corn and soybeans and they have not had any problems. They move their personal garden around their property each year, as well.

[tomatoguy]

I have 12 ten foot long sign posts supporting the tomato cages in my garden. The cages can be oriented to any of 4 directions in relation to the posts. That gives me a 4 year cycle of rotation before I have to re-plant on the same side of the posts. In my containers, about half contain tomatoes and the rest have onions, radishes, etc. I alternate tomatoes with non-tomatoes in the containers.

mater

[bigbubbacain]

I only have 2 beds: 6x25. I try to rotate between the two, but if I get too needy and decide to plant them both up with tomatoes, I like to do a soil drench with Physan 20. It's completely dissipated in about 10 days and knocks out most of my soil borne disease issues. Before planting, I add lots of compost, one of the mycorrhizae products and a streptomyces product called Actinovate. These seem to help my plants stay healthy, but there are no guarantees. This is all probably overkill, but my disease problems have gone down drastically and I already have 5 gallons of blanched fruits in my freezer waiting to be turned into picante sauce at the end of summer. I feel so darn lucky!

[Miss_Mudcat]

I rotate in this order: 1) Alliums followed by 2) Legumes followed by 3) Brassicas followed by 4) Root Crops followed by 5) Cucurbits followed by 6) Capsicans followed by Alliums and on it goes. I have read that tomatoes actually like being grown on the same soil, and I believe I will try that in one of my raised beds next season.