Home Vegetable Gardening - Vegetable Crop Rotation

There is another thing to be considered in making each plant do its best, and that is vegetable crop rotation, or the following of any vegetable with a different sort at the next planting.

With some vegetables, such as cabbage, this is almost imperative, and practically all are helped by it. Even onions, which are popularly supposed to be the proving exception to the rule, are healthier, and do as well after some other crop.

Here are the fundamental rules of vegetable crop rotation:

Crops of the same vegetable, or vegetables of the same family (such as turnips and cabbage) should not follow each other.
Vegetables that feed near the surface, like corn, should follow deep-rooting crops.
Vines or leaf crops should follow root crops.
Quick-growing crops should follow those occupying the land all season.

Vegetable crop rotation or Crop sequencing is the practice of growing a series of dissimilar types of crops in the same area in sequential seasons for various benefits such as to avoid the build up of pathogens and pests that often occurs when one species is continuously cropped.

Crop rotation also seeks to balance the fertility demands of various crops to avoid excessive depletion of soil nutrients.

A traditional component of crop rotation is the replenishment of nitrogen through the use of green manure in sequence with cereals and other crops. It is one component of polyculture.

Crop rotation can also improve soil structure and fertility by alternating deep-rooted and shallow-rooted plants.

Source: Wikipedia

These are the principles which should determine the rotations to be followed in individual cases. The proper way to attend to this matter is when making the planting plan. You will then have time to do it properly, and will need to give it no further thought for a year.

H. Baley, Home Vegetable Gardening