Crop Rotation Explained: Everyone Can Grow a Garden (2023) #3
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- Опубліковано 22 вер 2024
- Garden writer Susan Mulvihill takes the mystery out of crop rotation and explains why it can help you grow healthier vegetable plants - even in the smallest of gardens! From Susan's in the Garden, SusansintheGarden.com.
Susan gardens in Spokane, Wash. While most of this region is in hardiness zone 6, her garden is in a microclimate, making it zone 5b.
Susan's newest book, The Vegetable Garden Problem Solver Handbook, will be released in Feb. 2023. If you pre-order it, forward your order confirmation to Susan@SusansintheGarden.com and she will forward her bonus content called "12 Vegetable Crops You Should Add to Your Garden!" Here is a pre-order link for the book on Amazon: amzn.to/3uIMA0A. And here is additional information on the book, on Susan's website: www.susansinth....
You can order a signed copy of Susan's book, The Vegetable Garden Pest Handbook, directly from her by sending an email to Susan@SusansintheGarden.com. Or you can order it on Amazon: (amzn.to/3Jh6aXS). Publication date: April 2021.
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When you started talking about tomatoes in a small garden I thought, "Thanks a lot, Susan, guess I can crumple up my garden plan & throw it away." Last year I grew tomatoes in grow bags. At the end of the season I extended my one long & narrow raised bed, and my 2023 plan calls for tomatoes in the new area...but I emptied my grow bags' soil out into that section of the garden, so it grew tomatoes last year! Then I realized I didn't have any problems last year with disease or pests, and I topped it with at least 2" of compost & finished off with leaves, so I think my garden plan will stand. WHEW!
Exactly! I qualified that by saying this applies IF you had disease issues. So you are good to go!
Thank you!
Thanks Susan, great video. I too practice crop rotation with the exception of avoiding the family members some. Your chart will help greatly for reference when I am planning my garden. I already did my 2023 but will now need to make some adjustments. This year I have gone one step further with my plans by making a master of the layout also and for each year I listed what went into that bed for a quicker reference.
Very educational! Thank you. 😊
Glad it was helpful!
Very informative. How does one properly sterilize a pot?
I fill my wheelbarrow about halfway with water and add about 10 percent of that amount with bleach. I let my containers soak in it for 30 minutes, then use a brush to scrub off any old potting soil, etc., then rinse them and let them dry in the sun. It sounds tedious, but the process goes pretty quickly.
Great video!
Oh, and if you use grow bags, should you not use the same grow bag for tomatoes, say, every year?
I would sterilize them the best you can using the method I described in my other response.
Thank you for the crop rotation video. Are there any general rules as to which plant families should follow other plant families in a crop rotation (for example, if I planted Nightshades in one bed last year, is there a logical plant family to plant there this year)? Thank you for the very helpful information.
Hi, Dave. I'm glad the video was helpful. The only thing I can think of at the moment is that it's good to follow legumes (beans, peas) with crops that really benefit from nitrogen (i.e., Brassicas/cabbage family crops). That's because legumes are nitrogen-fixing crops so there will be nodules from their roots remaining in the soil to benefit other crops.
Hi Susan!! I’m so excited to find your channel-I live in the Spokane WA area as well. Was wondering if you’ve ever “winter sown” tomatoes or peppers. I love the idea but I’m afraid to trust the process for these more delicate plants.
Hi there. Nice to meet you! No, we don't winter-sow tomatoes or peppers because it's important to get them going somewhere between April 1-15 (with a transplanting date of May 21-30). It will take a while for the outdoor soil temperature to reach 70 degrees, which is the ideal for good tomato and pepper seed germination. So I feel that indoor sowing works best for these types of crops.
Hello Susan-Thank you for this video. I absolutely appreciated your explanation and how clear and detailed you are. I have a question-I grow a balcony garden as I live in an apartment. How would you clean the containers to ensure they are clean and disinfected but not contaminate the soil/potential food? Also during off season-I have winter/snow where I live, I have been putting my soil in bins and amending with bokashi compost to prepare the soil for planting time. I have not segregated the containers with specific plant families in the bins-I have put a tarp down and put all the soil on top before placing in containers. I am suspecting that I should keep the bins separate according to plant families ignorer to prevent pests and diseases. Am I correct? Thank you for your wisdom. Just subscribed and looked on your website. Excited to learn more.
Use a 10% bleach solution to scrub out the containers (1 part bleach to 9 parts water). Then let the container dry and you're all set. Oh my, regarding the soil, that isn't something I've had to deal with since I don't grow a lot of vegetables in containers. However, the main thing you want to keep in mind is that if you had a disease issue with a container planting, you definitely do NOT want to reuse that soil. If you feel you have a particularly worrisome insect problem where you believe the insects will overwinter in the soil, I would discard that as well. (and believe me, I don't say that lightly because I don't like to waste anything! Also, each year, you will want to amend the soil with nutrients based on what you'll be growing in the current year. For example, if you're growing leafy greens, you'll want to add a source of nitrogen to the soil. If you're growing something that needs to bloom and set fruit (i.e., tomatoes, peppers, melons, squash, eggplants), you'll want to add something like bonemeal which is high in phosphorous (the middle number on fertilizer packages). The same (high phosphorus) applies to growing root crops. Here's a link to a garden column I wrote about the nutrients vegetable plants require: www.susansinthegarden.com/2020/07/july-19-column-fertilizer-in-the-garden/. Take care... and thank you for subscribing!
Susan should i still be stirring my compost pile in the winter, here in Ohio?
Hi, Sharon. I typically just leave my compost pile alone during the winter... mainly because it's usually covered with snow and everything is frozen! I would imagine your weather is similar to ours, so there's really no need. Wait until things thaw out in the spring.
@@SusansInTheGarden thank you so much
@@SusansInTheGarden yesterday it was in the 50s so I added coffee grounds and table veggie scraps, and some chicken manure, to it and was able to turn somewhat and then we had a nice rain on it last night.
Should heat up some will take temp tomorrow.
@@sharonallen805 Wow, 50 degrees?! That's crazy for January. I neglected to say that you certainly can continue adding things to the pile during the winter. It's just too challenging to turn it, etc. this time of year. Take care.
you show peppers where asparagus was.. that seems strange to uproot the asparagus. Why is that important with this plant?
That wasn't our choice. The gophers have eaten the majority of our asparagus roots. Little buggers! We have about 3 plants left, so Bill is going to interplant them with some of his pepper starts when the time comes.
Sorry to hear the gophers are hungry for your asparagus. We have had asparagus for years & have never had a problem but since we live on a farm we have outside cats & they probably keep gophers away by hunting them. Lorraine
@@daviddeininger2938 Hi, Lorraine. It's the weirdest thing because there's no visible gopher activity anywhere the garden, but the little stinkers tunnel underground from who knows where and chews on the roots without us being the wiser!
Susan red no purple!!! lol.
Thank you for this informative video. I always have a problem with my green beans getting maybe just one black dot on my bean, no one seems to know what it is locally. I have rotated my crops yearly and have changed the variety of bean.
Would you have any idea? I have checked this out in your book, but not sure if it a virus or insect. ????
Hi, Sharon. I don't get your red no purple comment! (maybe it's too early in the morning?) Anyway, do you have a photo of the problem? It sounds like a disease to me but it's interesting that you get a single black dot on the bean pods (or is it on the beans inside the pods?). No symptoms on the leaves or stems? In my newest book, The Vegetable Garden Problem Solver Handbook, I cover all of the most commonly-encountered vegetable plant diseases. If you do have a photo of the problem, please email me at Susan@SusansintheGarden.com so I can take a look.
@@SusansInTheGarden you always have.purple on and today u have red blouse on today.
I don't have a photo, but this year I will take one and email you. I hope u can help me it drives me crazy Capt.Jack is not working on it. So it could very well be a disease or virus. Thank you for helping.
@@sharonallen805 Ohhhh! Too funny. Gotta keep you guessing!
@@sharonallen805 Yes, I'd be very happy to help with ID and am quite curious to take a look.