soil treatment/crop rotation

[miller]

hi,

I have only been gardening a few years, and I have a few questions if you all don't mind.

I have grown approximately 40 varieties of heirloom tomatoes each of the past 2 years, a little over 100 plants in total each year. I have grown them in the same 4 rows of my garden, black plastic mulch, drip irrigation. Is it time to grow them in a different patch of soil? I have read about certain nutrients being depleted in the soil after a few yeas of growing the same crop in the same area.

Also, is there any soil treatment I can use, or anything anyone would recommend adding to the soil? I have planted winter rye the past 2 years as a cover crop, and then tilled it under in the spring. I normally don't use any fertilizer or anything either.

Just wondering what I can do to maximize my crop.

Thanks in advance,
Miller.

[Pharmerphil]

Definately time to plant your tomatoes elsewhere, You have been very fortunate if you have not encountered numerous problems, soil borne disease, nematode and insect, for Lack of Crop Rotation.
You should always rotate your crops.
Don't Plant "like crops" (potatoes, peppers or eggplant) where you've had your tomatoes. either. rotate your crops in an orderly manner,

Ummm, not like I did, but then, I am back on track now, mine happened when year after year, I added more garden to grow additional crops, and then...well anyway... :rolleyes: There is a thread here somewhere about s Garden Mistakes..I never posted, didn't think Jere had the server space! :D

A good rotation is lets say from side to side, around clockwise, counter clockwise, keeping like crops from being BACK in the same spot for 3 years.

Groupings are:

Tomatoes, potatoes, eggplant,peppers

Broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, chinese cabbage, cauliflower, collard, lettuce, mustard, radish, rutabaga, spinach swiss chard, turnip

Beet, carrot, garlic, sweet potato, parsnips

Cucumber, Gourd, Melons, cantaloupe, Pumpkin, Squash

[40lb farmer]

soil depletion can -and does- occur even with crop rotation. your ethics aside, eventually you or someone else will have to add stuff to yur dirt.

if you have only a small patch (1/2 acre) you can rotate your crops around and get about seven years of harvest before depletion problems occur. you can beat simple depletion by covering your fields with mulch in the winter. i have used ground up trees, road trimming truck hauls of biomass, manuer and fertilizer (including blended wildflower pollen).

manuere should only be applied once ever three or four years. the pollen probably once every seven. truck biomass every winter followed by a good 18" deep rototilling in the fall and again in the spring with a broadcast spreader of 10-10-10 once around the tilling.

[rjzatyko@yahoo.com]

hi, i am no whiz at gardening,but i sort of disagree with the crop rotation speil,all sort of fruit trees & flower trees,the berrys which are a lot, stay in one place and they seem to do good for me,so i am not saying that i am correct in this matter,i just wonder that these people who write these things how much dirt have they got on their hands or under their fingernails if you know what i mean, richard from ky.

[swamp man]

Pharmerphil told ya' right.Aside from soil depletion issues,you should rotate your veggies(especially tomatoes)for the sake of disease prevention.I grow in 4 large raised beds,and one has nothing but bush beans.I just rotate clockwise.I'm gonna' try peanuts this year,so that'll give me one more legume to rotate in.