Crop rotation of vegetable crops: what to plant after what, how to plan crops correctly

Every summer resident knows well that if for several years in a row they plant the same crops in the same place, then even with seemingly identical conditions of care, they become more frail every year and fruit worse. This phenomenon is caused by soil depletion, which, in turn, is due to a number of factors.

The importance of good crop planning

The first is that pathogens and all kinds of pests accumulate in the soil. For example, potatoes are known to be a favorite delicacy. Colorado beetles. If the plantation of this crop does not change its location for several years, there is no need for the pest to migrate in search of food - after wintering it immediately finds itself in favorable conditions and immediately starts to destroy the plant. In addition to the Colorado potato beetle, planting potatoes contribute to the accumulation of late blight pathogens and click larvae and moth larvae in the soil.

With other cultures, the situation develops in the same way. On a plot planted with the same crop, the number of those pests will increase year by year.which are dangerous for her and, accordingly, it will be more and more difficult for the plant to withstand such an invasion. Particularly affected by this factor are cabbage, tomatoes, cucumbers, celery, beans, lettuce. The second is an increase in the concentration of harmful substances secreted by the roots of a particular culture (the so-called colins) and which are toxic to the culture itself. Some plants are very sensitive to the effects of such poisons (for example, beetroot and spinach), others are more resistant (carrots, pumpkin, radishes, parsley), and others barely react to colins (legumes, leeks, corn). In addition, different plants emit different amounts of such harmful substances, for example, especially a lot of them in the soil after cucumbers, carrots and cabbage.

The third is the depletion of nutrients in the soil.Each culture has its own set of nutrients necessary for normal development. It is clear that it is their plant and will try to extract from the soil. For example, if cabbage needs potassium very much, then after its planting, this element in the soil will remain less and less, while, say, after radish, potassium reserves are not depleted so rapidly.

It is easy to understand that the situation can be corrected by alternating between cultures planted on the site from year to year. This procedure is called crop rotation and is a science in its entirety. However, if there is no time to engage in complex theoretical training, it is enough to learn a few basic rules, and the harvest in your area will always be equally abundant.

Rule number 1

One after another, it is impossible to plant not only the same culture for several years in a row, but also close relatives (representatives of the same species), since they usually have common pests, react to toxins in the same way and consume the same composition of trace elements.

Rule number 2

The average period during which the earth should rest after a certain culture is two years. (one year is usually not enough for full recovery), but for some plants this period is much longer. So, carrots, cucumbers, parsley, beets should not return to their former place for at least 4 years, and in relation to cabbage it is better to withstand all 7 years! These periods can be increased, but it is undesirable to reduce.

Rule number 3

Plants tend not only to consume trace elements from the soil, but also to enrich it with certain useful substances and properties. therefore Correct crop rotation can allow not only to preserve the elements that are especially necessary for the plant, but also to improve the soil composition and structure without additional procedures. For example, legumes loosen the soil and enrich it with many minerals. Melon and buckwheat saturate the soil with calcium, datura-grass - with phosphorus, tobacco - with potassium, dioecious nettle - with iron. Knowing these simple rules and taking into account the need of different types of crops for various microelements, it is easy to plan crops for several years ahead. By the way, the specified properties of the listed cultures can be used more fully, laying them in the compost after harvesting.

The same rule applies to pests. There are cultures that are not only resistant to certain diseases, but also deterring their pathogens. For example, aphids do not tolerate plants such as garlic or tobacco. Thyme is afraid of the Colorado potato beetle. If you plant such orderlies after plants exposed to these pests, there is a good opportunity to expel them from the site, freeing it for planting in subsequent years.

Rule number 4

The need for plants in the nutritional elements varies. It is impossible to plant one after another too demanding on the composition of the soil culture. It is more correct to plant legumes after such a crop or to apply the necessary fertilizer layer.

Thus, the correct alternation of crops will allow you to avoid unilateral depletion of the same elements in the soil, increasing the concentration of certain types of pests and pathogenic bacteria in it, as well as uneven load on the soil of the same root system of plants.

Another reason that makes it necessary to rotate crops on the plot is weed control. There are plants that are sensitive to this neighborhood (for example, garlic, onions, carrots, parsley,parsnips), they are best planted after those crops that leave behind a minimum amount of weeds. These plants include tomatoes, peas, potatoes, cabbage.

What then plant

So, we found out that crop rotation is a necessary and rather economical method, which allows preserving the fertility of the soil and ensuring a uniformly high yield. But since the need for different crops for microelements, fertilizers and other conditions is different, knowledge of common rules and principles does not always allow to correctly determine which plants to alternate in which sequence in their area.

What then plant in the beds, you can learn from the numerous tables designed by agronomists and amateurs. For those who do not want to study the theory and are looking for simple answers to questions on specific crops - below are some tips on what vegetables can be planted after which.

What can be planted after cabbage

Cabbage is exposed to a variety of pests and diseases, therefore, answering the question of what to plant after cabbage next year, any gardener will say with confidence: only not cabbage, even if we are talking about its other forms! This is the worst option that can be imagined, but if there is no other, the soil must be very well composted.

Cabbage as a predecessor is not suitable for crops such as radish, rutabaga and turnips, because these plants are the favorite food for the same pests.

Ideal to plant onions or garlic after cabbage. Carrots, celery, potatoes, beets, cucumbers, tomatoes are also allowed. With these vegetables, cabbage, in addition, gets along well next door, as in this case it is less damaged by diseases and harmful insects.But next to the tomatoes, beans, parsley and tomatoes, cabbage in front, you should not plant. Potatoes, radishes, cucumbers, carrots, peas, onions, garlic, as well as annual herbs are considered to be good predecessors of cabbage.

What to plant after garlic

Garlic, as well as onions, is not recommended to be planted for a long time in the same place, as well as alternate with each other. What can be planted after garlic in the garden, so it is potatoes, especially early ripe. A valid option is also tomatoes, cucumbers, legumes, beets, or cabbage.

But it is best to plant annual herbs after garlic and onions, which aim to restore the soil for later use, replenish its mineral reserve and destroy weeds. Mustard, phacelia, some varieties of green peas, rye, and rape do well in this role.

What to plant after cucumbers

Cucumbers are more demanding on the composition of the soil than many other crops. The soil before planting is usually especially carefully fertilized with both organic and mineral fertilizers. From this it follows that planting after cucumbers in the next year should be something less fastidious.For example, cabbage, which also needs fertile soil, is absolutely not suitable for these purposes. Feel good on the site where they grew cucumbers, various root vegetables - beets, radishes, turnips, carrots, parsley, celery. In order to improve the composition of the soil after the cucumbers, it is possible to plant legumes and only then use other vegetable crops, for example, onions, potatoes, tomatoes, corn, lettuce.

What to plant after strawberries

Strawberries tend to greatly deplete the soil, so immediately after transplanting (and it is better to do it every four years) the bed where it grew, you need to carefully feed with mineral and organic fertilizers.Make it better right in the fall, thoroughly digging the soil after making it additives.

Strawberries in particular consume nitrogen, so it’s best to plant beans, peas and other legumes after it — they, as mentioned, enrich the soil with this element.

Antifungal and phytoncidal properties of garlic make it a good helper for cleaning the soil from pests left in it after strawberries. At the same time with garlic, parsley, celery and other fragrant greens can be planted here to get rid of slugs.

Actually, on this planting options for the next year after the strawberries are limited. But after the above crops, you can plant any vegetables - cucumbers, tomatoes, zucchini, pumpkin, etc.

It is good to arrange a flower garden on the site of a former strawberry bed. Perennial peonies, daffodils, tulips and violets will help the soil recover from the berries that have depleted it.

What to plant after potatoes

Potatoes, unlike strawberries, consume a lot of potassium and phosphorus, so the soil after harvesting tubers lacks precisely these elements.You can make up for the loss with mineral fertilizers, and you can plant annual herbs that generate potassium and phosphorus. This role can fulfill the dope-grass, mustard, oats, peas, rapeseed, fatsely.

If it is not possible to completely free the plot after potatoes for a whole year, you can plant a pumpkin on it. Other crops require prior fertilization to restore fertility in the soil. However, as mentioned above, tomatoes, eggplants and other solanaceous cultures cannot be planted after potatoes. The same applies to pepper.

Potato predecessors successfully make the same pumpkin, zucchini, cucumbers, cabbage, onions.

What to plant after tomatoes

We decided that after the tomatoes can not plant eggplants, potatoes and peppers. As with other cultures, after tomatoes it is ideal to plant annuals that will fill the soil with missing elements. If for such a luxury there is no possibility - it does not matter! Peas, beans and other legumes will help fill the lack of nitrogen in the soil, cabbage will also feel good on the garden where tomatoes grew, because the pests of these crops are different.There are no contraindications for planting cucumbers, zucchini, pumpkins, carrots, beets, green salads, onions, garlic. In addition, tomatoes - this is the little, after which you can plant carrots.

What to plant after beets

The choice of what can be planted after the beets for the next year is quite large. Potatoes, tomatoes and other nightshade are suitable for this purpose, but before such planting the soil must be carefully fed with humus or peat. You can also plant garlic and onions. A good option is carrots. By the way, the predecessors of carrots in the garden, in addition to beets and tomatoes mentioned above, are also cucumbers, onions, garlic and cabbage.

The above cultures work in the reverse order, that is, in relation to the fact, after which it is better to plant beets. To listed in this list you can add cabbage, cucumbers, zucchini, pumpkin, beans, lettuce, parsley, dill, celery.

What can be planted after pepper

The root system of sweet pepper is in the upper layers of the soil, so after it is best to plant crops with deeper roots. It can be root vegetables (radishes, radishes, beets, carrots), except potatoes, as well as onions, garlic, cucumbers, beans and greens.

You can not plant after the pepper any culture of the family nightshade. You can plant the sweet peppers after peas, zucchini, pumpkins, cabbage, beets, celery.

What can be planted after peas

Pea, as mentioned above, is a good predecessor for many cultures. Thus, the ability of this plant to enrich the soil with nitrogen is particularly favorable for the yield of potatoes, tomatoes, eggplants, pepper, beets, carrots, radishes, cucumbers, zucchini, squash, pumpkins, melons, as well as various types of cabbage.

However, pea has one unpleasant feature: it is very susceptible to fungal diseases and root rot, especially in conditions of high humidity. Therefore, if on the site grew a culture affected by such a disease, neither peas nor other legumes should be planted in this place next year. Spores of such diseases can persist in the soil for 5-6 years, so the whole period of the bed is better to use under less susceptible to these diseases culture.

What to plant afterwards: table of vegetable crop predecessors during planting

With respect to the desirable and undesirable precursors of specific vegetable crops, there are a huge number of general and specific rules,summarized for clarity in various tables. You can check with them whenever you plan the corresponding rotations.

For example, you can group the crop rotation rules as follows:

Culture	Good predecessor	Possible predecessor	Bad predecessor
Potatoes	Legumes, cucumbers, cabbage	Carrots, beets, onions	Solanaceae (tomatoes, eggplants, peppers)
Garlic, onion	Potatoes, carrots, legumes, cucumbers	Cabbage, tomatoes, beets	Onions, garlic, pepper, physalis
Tomatoes	Cabbage (especially cauliflower), carrots, onions, cucumbers, greens	Beet	Any solanaceous, Physalis
Pumpkin (cucumbers, zucchini, squash, pumpkin)	Legumes, solanaceous (potatoes, tomatoes), cabbage, onions	Beet greens	Any pumpkin
Legumes (peas, beans, beans)	Strawberries, cucumber, potatoes, cabbage,	Tomatoes	Perennial herbs
Carrot	Onions, cucumber	Radish, beet, cabbage
Greenery	Cabbage, cucumbers	Legumes, potatoes, tomatoes, onions	Carrots, parsnips, celery
Eggplant	Legumes, turnips, swede, cucumber, cabbage, onions, melons	Beet	Solanaceae
Pepper	Turnip, carrot, cucumber, cabbage, rutabagus, legumes,	Onion garlic	Solanaceae, pumpkin
Beet	Potato, cucumber, onion	Legumes, Tomatoes	Carrot
Cabbage	Legumes, Solanaceae, Onions, Garlic	Salad, corn	Pumpkin, rutabaga, carrots, turnips, radishes, turnips

Thus, referring to such clues, you can always clarify, after which, for example, plant onions or sow the beds on which the tomatoes grew.

However, correctly determining the predecessors of vegetables during planting will help not only the tables, but also firmly learned rules.

But after that you can plant carrots and other root vegetables, so it is after garlic or onions. Also, root crops grow well after greens and vice versa.

Neighboring cultures

In addition to answering the question of what to plant after which, it is equally important to know also what to plant with, that is, which crops can and cannot be planted next to. The fact is that plants have an influence on each other, which can be both positive and negative. Knowing the basic rules, you can avoid mistakes and solve many problems that prevent obtaining a stable crop.

For example, as mentioned above, the plant root system releases toxic substances that protect the crop from diseases and pests. At the same time, such poisons can harm neighboring plants, and, conversely, can provide them with additional protection. Thus, the colins secreted by mustard have a beneficial effect on peas, carrots and garlic, but are poorly tolerated by cabbage. Knowing this feature, it is easy to determine with what you can plant peas and do not plant cabbage.

What crops should be planted next door

So, joint planting is an important rule of crop rotation, which allows optimal use of the limited space of the site, as well as improve crop yields. For example, potatoes and beans are great neighbors. He protects her from such a pest as a kernel, and she fills his need for nitrogen and scares the Colorado potato beetle. In addition to the beans, next to the potatoes it is useful to arrange the cabbage, corn, spinach, eggplant, horseradish, carrots, radish, dill, salad. All these plants have a beneficial effect on the potato crop, removing excess moisture from the soil. And onions and garlic, planted nearby,protect potatoes from late blight.

By the way, garlic has a beneficial effect on many cultures, so the options with which to plant it are enough. Strawberries are considered to be classics as these plants are equally useful for each other: garlic protects naughty strawberries from diseases and pests, and the berry contributes to the formation of more cloves in garlic. The same effect on the plant have enzymes secreted by carrots: under their influence, the bulb of garlic becomes larger.

Garlic saves not only vegetable crops, such as tomatoes, beets, cucumbers, carrots, but also gladiolus flowers, carnations, roses, etc. for him, onion flies can save calendula and chicory.

Dill and corn - this is what can be planted next to cucumbers, carrots get along well with peas, the peas themselves - with potatoes, tomatoes and eggplants. Gourds are better to plant separately.

Other rules regarding what to plant in the beds can be presented in the form of a table:

Culture	Good neighbors	Bad neighbors
beans	cucumbers, potatoes, cabbage, lettuce, radishes, beets, tomatoes, eggplants, melons and gourds	peas, garlic, onions
peas	cabbage, lettuce, carrots, radishes	beans, potatoes, garlic, onions, tomatoes
wild strawberry	garlic, onion, lettuce, radish
cucumbers	beans, garlic, cabbage, lettuce, celery, onion, greens	tomatoes, radishes, potatoes, zucchini
potatoes	beans, onion, garlic, cabbage, eggplants, horseradish, carrots, dill, salad	tomatoes, peas, sunflower
cabbage	peas, cucumbers, potatoes, lettuce, radishes, beets	garlic, onion, tomatoes
beet	cucumbers, salad	onions, cabbage
tomatoes	garlic, cabbage, lettuce, leek	peas, cucumbers, potatoes
bow	strawberries, cucumbers, lettuce, carrots, beets	beans, cabbage, tomatoes
pepper	cucumbers, kohlrabi	tomatoes, legumes
zucchini	bean, beet, onion	cucumbers

"Neighbors-enemies"

As can be seen from the above table, in addition to a good neighborhood, there is also a very undesirable neighborhood. As a rule, the plants are “hostile” because of the incompatibility of the substances they release. For example, black walnut has a depressing effect on most vegetables because of the yuglon it produces. Not good are vegetables and to the neighborhood of wormwood.If you plant legumes and onions next to each other, both will develop poorly. With fennel, literally all cultures feel oppressed, so it is better to plant this plant separately from others. Potatoes and cucumbers, tomatoes and strawberries are also poorly compatible. Eggplants and tomatoes do not like the neighborhood of other solanaceous ones, peppers and beets, cabbage and strawberries do not get along nearby.

Sometimes it happens that plants have different effects on each other depending on their quantity. What is called, there is medicine in a spoon, and poison in a cup. In this case, you can arrange the neighborhood of such a culture in small quantities, for example, on the edge of the bed. For example, such an experiment can be carried out with valerian, yarrow or nettle, having landed them in small groups near vegetables.

Thus, it is important for any gardener to know what to plant after which, and proper planning of crops during planting is a way to protect the soil from depletion and help plants naturally support each other for better growth and development.