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Old October 17, 2008   #4
carolyn137
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Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Upstate NY, zone 4b/5a
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Tom, the reason that most folks rotate crops is to cut down on build up of disease with those veggies/fruits that share the same diseases.

But in my experience the only ones that do that on a somewhat consistent basis are the Solanums ; tomatoes, potatoes and eggplant along with the Capsicums ( peppers).

Is your planned rotation for the same reason, that is, for infectious disease concerns?

For instance, I can have problems with cukes and disease and while there are a few other Cucurbits that are technically susceptible to the same diseases, such as summer squash, I almost never see the summer squash or other Cucurbits go down with those diseases.

Some folks rotate crops b'c they feel that certain crops take a lot out of the soil but that's easily approached by adding amendments and quite frankly I've never seen that. Many folks think that tomatoes, for instance, are "heavy feeders", but in all the years I've been growing tomatoes I've never seen that either.

So I think it's important to determine just why you want to divide your garden into sections in terms of crop rotation.
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