Many summer residents, growing the same crops in the beds year after year, notice that the yield, despite good care, decreases quite quickly. There is nothing surprising here - not every landowner knows about the classification of crop rotations and their necessity. And this is a serious mistake, which may well be worth the harvest. Therefore, it will be very useful to talk about the basic rules - this simple knowledge will always allow you to collect maximum fruits from a small area.
What is crop rotation and why is it needed
Before talking about the classification of crop rotations, it is worth telling what it is in general and for what purpose it is used.
In fact, everything is quite simple. Different cultures need different trace elements to form fruits. Some need more potassium, and others need more phosphorus. Some consume a lot of nitrogen, others a little less, and still others enrich the soil with this valuable trace element.
If every year to grow the same crop on the site, it will constantly draw the same substances. Of course, over the course of several years, the number of trace elements in the soil is sharply reduced. As a result, productivity drops sharply. Partially, the application of fertilizers can solve the problem, but this is associated with unnecessary financial costs. Therefore, it is better to simply know what to plant next year and reasonably alternate crops to get a rich harvest.
By the way, our ancestors knew little about the composition of the soil, did not understand the trace elements. However, at the same time, they always tried to follow the rules of crop rotation - in the people it was called multi-field. Experienced peasants in the presence of a sufficient amount of land chose a system of three fields. On one, for example, ordinary wheat was grown, on the other - winter, and the third remained "under steam", that is, it rested for a year to restore the balance of trace elements.
However, the restoration of the composition is not the only advantage of crop rotation. It has also been noted for a long time that with the long-term cultivation of one culture or even different plants belonging to the same species in the same place, the number of parasites and infectious diseases increases. There is nothing surprising here - for example, if you grow potatoes in one place, then the amount of Colorado potato beetle will increase in the area. And every year the army of pests will increase. If you take a break and grow cucumbers, beets or carrots here for several years, then the Colorado beetles will have nothing to eat and they will have to change their place of residence. The same with infectious diseases. Indeed, very often diseases that pose a danger to some cultures cannot completely harm others.
Therefore, regular and, most importantly, correctly planned, alternation of crops is a reliable way to get rid of many problems and provide yourself with a good harvest.
Tilled
Now it will be useful to talk about the classification of crop rotation. Indeed, to date, agronomy has accumulated a wealth of knowledge about the correct distribution and rotation of crops. Therefore, we give examples of different alternation options. And start with a row crop rotation.
It is observed when it is necessary to cultivate row crops - potatoes, sugar beets, and corn. Their main feature is that each plant needs a relatively large area, that is, there are only a few stems or bushes per square meter. Usually, half of the available area is allocated for row crops - the other annual plants are grown on the second. On one site, you can grow the same plants for up to two years, after which you need to change their places. This type of crop rotation is considered the most intensive.
Grassgrain
Grain grass rotation is very popular when growing various crops sown with continuous sowing. This includes the majority of cereals: wheat, oats, rye and others. Despite the high density of sowing, these plants deplete the soil relatively little.
But still, to restore the supply of trace elements, certain rules must be observed. After three to four years of growing cereals, perennial or annual herbs are grown in this area. As a rule, in the year preceding the return of cereals to the site, the field is plowed along with herbs that have not yet had time to produce seeds. Thanks to this, the soil receives not only rest, but also a good top dressing in the form of leaves and stems of grass. For a year they rot and serve as additional fertilizing for cereals.
Fruit-bearing
Fruit-shifting crop rotation is also often called grain and grassland cultivation. It is considered the most environmentally friendly and useful - it weakly depletes the soil, and it manages to recover due to natural processes - additional fertilizers are not required.
The essence of crop rotation is quite simple. When it is on one site should be grown in shifts as different cultures. For example, you cannot grow legumes or nightshade plants for two years in a row - you need to alternate them. It is also advisable to sow alternately annual and perennial crops. A successful pair consists of row crops and continuous crops, spring and winter crops. With this approach, the soil is weakly depleted, and its phytosanitary condition remains the best.
Grain steam
Crop rotation is the oldest known agricultural worker. According to the sources, it can be judged that it was successfully used in our country and throughout Europe several centuries ago. True, it is suitable only if there is a large area. It is also usually used in arid and not very fertile regions, for example, in the steppe. It was actively used in the Kazakh SSR, where a small amount of rainfall often led to low yields.
During a grain-crop rotation, a plot of one year is planted with crops (millet, wheat, rye, oats), and the next year it is left “under steam”, that is, wild herbs grow here, restoring soil fertility.
In some cases, not two phases are distinguished, but three. At the same time, ordinary cereals are grown in the first year, winter crops the next year, and left to “rest” and restore fertility in the third field. This option is the most justified, because it allows you to get rich harvests of cereal crops, and on the other hand, it depletes the soil a little, allowing you to work with it for decades without making expensive fertilizers.
Grain-cultivating
For regions where there is a lot of rainfall and the soil is highly fertile (Chernozemye, forest-steppe, Polesie), crop rotation is the best choice. Despite the active cultivation of various crops, which allows for excellent yield, with the right approach, the soil is weakly depleted.
As the name implies, here on one site you need to alternate cereals and row crops. That is, after wheat, potatoes are grown, then millet, followed by corn and so on. Yes, all cultures absorb an average or a large number of trace elements. But due to the fact that the plants alternate, they absorb a different ratio of nutrients. Therefore, they manage to recover in a few years. Changing the culture is recommended every year.
Grain farming
A special kind of grain-crop rotation of grain-crop rotation is. The same landing pattern is preserved here, but at the same time every third or fifth year the land is left under steam. This crop rotation will be the best choice for the steppe regions of Ukraine and similar conditions. On the one hand, there is a large amount of rainfall, on the other, the land is not as fertile as, for example, in the Tambov and Voronezh regions. Therefore, to restore productivity, it is necessary to give the field "rest" once a few years.
Sideral
Finally, it is very important to know about sideral crop rotation. In order to better understand the issue, you should know what siderats are. These are special plants that are distinguished by their ability to enrich the soil with nitrogen, and also accumulate a large amount of this essential trace element. It is nitrogen that all cultures need to build green mass. This includes stems, branches, leaves. Of course, the larger the green mass, the more actively the process of photosynthesis takes place, allowing plants to accumulate nutrients, which subsequently turn into fruits.
Siderats include alfalfa, legumes, clover, lupine, fenugreek.
It doesn’t matter what crops were grown on the field - green manure rotation will significantly increase yields if you have to work on poor soil. Therefore, most often green manure is grown in place of plants that are the most depleting of the earth. In the selected year, instead of the usual crops, the plot is sown with various siderates. It is important here not to let them give seeds - otherwise next year the sprouts can crush cultivated plants. Therefore, mowing is performed several times during the summer, and the green mass is left on the field. In the autumn, shortly before the first frosts, the site plows. All greenery, both live and mowed, mixes with the ground and begins to actively rot, dramatically increasing the amount of nitrogen and providing a good crop. Quite often, young sprouts appear on the site after this. However, you don’t have to fear about them - after the first frosts they will die and will not have time to leave the seeds.
Who needs to know this?
Quite often, when it comes to the classification of crop rotation, some people are not too interested in this topic, believing that it is important only for agronomists and other agricultural workers whose work is related to crops whose area is measured in hundreds of square kilometers.
In fact, it will be useful to understand this topic in general for every person working on the earth, including summer residents and owners of gardens. Compliance with the simple rules listed above can significantly increase productivity. To do this, you just need to remember that it is undesirable to grow the same culture in one place for several years in a row. For example, at the place where potatoes are usually grown, you can grow cucumbers, beets, radishes, peas, beans. The main thing is not pepper, eggplant and tomatoes, they also belong to the nightshade family. Thanks to this alternation, you will not only get a rich harvest, but also reduce the likelihood of pests and infectious diseases.
Which plants deplete the soil the most
As mentioned above, some plants drain the earth faster, while others - more slowly. Certainly, the leaders in exhaustion include corn, rapeseed, sunflower and winter wheat. First of all, they consume the phosphorus needed for the development of a powerful root system. Corn consumes as much as 37 kilograms of phosphorus per hectare per season. Other crops are inferior to it - for rapeseed this figure is 34 kilograms, for sunflower - 29, and for winter wheat - 28 kilograms.
Of course, you can’t grow these crops for several years in a row in one place - the land will be greatly depleted, which will certainly affect productivity.
Conclusion
On this our article comes to an end. Now you know enough crop rotation and basic types. So, you can easily decide what to plant next year, so as not to encounter plant diseases and low yields.