3.5 Crop Rotation

Question 1

Crop Rotation

Answer 1

Dividing Crops into groups for effective management and crop rotation

Allows different crops to be grown on different areas of land each year. Usually on a 4 year (or longer) cycle.

4 bed Groups:
- Potato & Others (courgette, sweetcorn)
hungry and remove a lot of nutrients, Potatoes create shade so keep bed free of weeds for…

• Alliums & Roots
  Poor competitors with weeds. Don’t need a lot of nutrients, which prevents carrot forking
• Legumes
  Fixes nitrogen, build up fertility in soil
• Brassicas & Salad
  Groos feeders. Nitrogen hungry plants and deplete soil of nutrients so compost is added after Brassicas group for potato group.

Question 2

Crop Rotation Pro/Cons

Answer 2

Pro:

• Reduction in build up of specific pests and disease eg. clubroot
• Crops can benefit from previous crop, eg. legumes fixing nitrogen into soil benefits Brassicas.
• Shading with big crops, prevents many weeds, benefits poor competitor plants such as roots.

Cons:

• difficult to implement on a small scale
• only effective against specific soil borne P&D not mobile or general P&D
• impractical for domestic cultivation as preferences for certain vegetables make it impractical.