Determination Of The Structure Of Crops And Crop Rotations

2024 Author: Sebastian Paterson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:47

On summer cottages, desolation sometimes reigns, except for weeds there is almost nothing. On separate garden plots, the owners dig out small beds for individual crops.

Another 25% of the plots belong to those where half of the plot is occupied by a garden, and the other is traditional farming. Only the remaining 25% of dacha farms are dominated by real traditional or intensive farming. Each gardener can determine for himself the degree of development of farming systems in his garden using the data in the table.

All farming is divided into three groups: primitive, intensive and high.

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Only with a high level of agriculture is it possible to successfully master the adaptive landscape system without preconditions for cultivating the soil. In primitive agriculture, a preliminary 3-5-year soil cultivation is required; additional material resources must be attracted to cultivate the soil.

The system of crop rotation is the very reserve that does not require costs, it is extremely effective, provided that the structure of the sown areas is optimally arranged. When constructing crop rotation schemes, the following principles must be observed: specialization, fertility, compatibility, compaction, economic and biological feasibility.

A well-established crop rotation is a very necessary acquisition in any gardening. It is he who allows you to carry out a regular change of crops of various biological groups, place plants according to the best predecessors, guarantee high-quality performance of all agrotechnical works and in optimal terms, correctly apply fertilizers and receive many other benefits.

Crop rotation is understood as the alternation of crops in time (that is, by years) and in space (over the territory of horticulture). The theoretical and scientific basis of crop rotation is the correct alternation of crops through the annual change of plants in each field. Now, short rotational - four- or five-field crop rotations are mainly used.

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The advantage of any crop rotation is the rational change of crops when the best conditions are created for the growth and development of various plants. At the same time, the soil is actively freed from disease-causing principles, the fight against weeds is more effective, soil fertility increases and is used more rationally. The biological activity of the soil also increases: nitrifying, cellulose decomposing, CO2 is more intensively released from the soil and the air nutrition of plants is improved. As a result, the yield of crops in crop rotation is higher than with their permanent cultivation. The resulting products are of higher quality.

Crop rotation should take into account the family's needs for vegetables, therefore, its development begins with determining the list of necessary crops, their quantity. Crop rotation is specialized depending on the preferences of the gardener, on his desire to grow certain plants. Therefore, the leading crops in the crop rotation can be potatoes, strawberries or various vegetables. If the need for potatoes is greatest, then a potato crop rotation is being developed, that is, potatoes will occupy an entire crop rotation field.

As an example, we will give a scheme of crop rotation in this case. It will be as follows:

• Spring cereals or annual grasses with over-sowing of perennial grasses, where cereals and annual grasses are harvested as green manure crops.
• Perennial grasses - one year.
• Perennial grasses - second year.
• Potatoes.
• Various vegetable crops.

If, for example, strawberries are the leading crop on your site, then its crop rotation will be built according to the following scheme:

• Onions, garlic, green and other early ripening crops, after harvesting which strawberries are planted in August.
• Strawberries are one year old.
• Strawberries are second year.
• Root vegetables, cabbage and other late-ripening crops.

In the event that a family needs small quantities of both potatoes and strawberries, they can be placed in the same field with the following crop rotation in the crop rotation:

• Strawberries, potatoes -1 year.
• Strawberries are the second year and the potatoes are early, and after harvesting them there, on August 20, winter rye is sown as green manure, the green mass of rye is then embedded in the soil in early spring.
• Beets, carrots, root vegetables, cabbage and other late crops.
• Onions, garlic, radishes, lettuce, green, spicy, medicinal and other early crops, after which strawberries are planted there on August 10-20.

Crop rotations, where green manure and intermediate crops are provided, allow increasing the productivity of arable land, reducing weed fields and the spread of diseases, enriching the soil with organic matter and increasing fertility.

The crop rotation must ensure a positive balance of organic matter in the soil. This is most easily obtained in crop rotations with green manure crops and perennial grasses.

Vegetable crops are most demanding on soil fertility and, which is especially important, in their alternation in crop rotation. With the wrong alternation, they are severely damaged by diseases and pests, their yield decreases and the quality of products deteriorates.

In this case, there is a decrease in the efficiency of the use of fertilizers and an increase in the cost of vegetable products. Therefore, in the garden area, the importance of correct crop rotation is especially great.

Here are the basic requirements for the rotation of vegetable crops in crop rotations:

• In order to avoid the spread of keels and other diseases and pests, it is necessary in one link of the crop rotation to provide for a gap in time of 4-5 years between cabbage and other cabbage crops.
• Beets should be returned to their original place not earlier than after 3-4 years, carrots - after 1-2 years.
• In order to suppress diseases and pests, it is necessary to plan the sowing of perennial, annual grasses and catch crops, and to apply summer semi-steam soil treatment after grasses (annual and perennial) and early vegetables. In crop rotations with a high saturation of cabbage, it is necessary to use more late varieties, which are usually more resistant to keel.
• Of great importance is the introduction of green manure crops into crop rotations as "sanitary" crops.
• Rutabaga and radish cultivated in small areas should be placed in the same field as cabbage.
• The general agrotechnical requirement for the placement of potatoes in crop rotations is to prevent the appearance of diseases and pests of potatoes (cancer, viruses, scab, nematodes, Colorado potato beetle, etc.) and improve the quality of tubers. For these purposes, there should be one gap in time of 3-4 years between plantings.

Each gardener can make his own crop rotation or use our recommendations. The size of the crop rotation fields will depend mainly on the area under which the main crop is planted - potatoes and strawberries. For a family, it is enough to have 0.7-0.9 acres of potatoes and the same amount of strawberries. In this case, these crops will occupy entire crop rotation fields. Consequently, with a five-field crop rotation, the crop rotation area will be equal to 3.5-4.5 ares. The rest of the area is occupied by a house, paths, a garden, a flower garden or out-of-turn areas where green manure plants can be grown.

To do this, in the garden plot, equal in area crop rotation fields are measured in kind, there will be four to five, pegs are firmly hammered at the corners of the fields so that they can withstand the long-term operation of crop rotation, it will be possible to observe the boundaries of the fields and navigate through them during agrotechnical works. The rotation of crops is observed constantly and annually, while the crop rotation can always be seen in kind in the fields in space by the presence of pegs and by keeping annual records in a special journal. Only in this case it will be possible to say that the crop rotation has been mastered and is being constantly observed. No pegs is a "wandering" crop rotation, no log entry is a "no name and no tribe" crop rotation.

But crop rotation is not a dogma, it can be corrected, for example, one can replace some culture with another one of equal value in some years; it is possible to sow two or three others instead of one crop, but at the same time it is impossible to violate the correct rotation of crops. It is impossible: to sow - then not to sow, then to throw the fields - then again and again to revive agriculture; then sowing one crop for several years in a row in one field - then alternating again. The agrotechnology of plant cultivation must not be violated either; it is impossible not to apply fertilizers, it is impossible to apply random doses and ratios of fertilizers, etc. Consequently, crop rotation and all other agrotechnical technologies must be carried out in a timely manner, at the required time and in the required volumes. Only in this case, crop rotations and the adopted farming system will bring both benefits and pleasure.

Then it will be possible to move on to agrochemical issues, determine the fertilizer system, select the doses and ratios of fertilizers for each crop rotation field.

Read all parts of the article about adaptive landscape farming:

• What is adaptive landscape farming

• Components of an adaptive landscape farming system

• Devices and methods in an adaptive landscape farming system

• Summer cottage farming: mapping fields, observing crop rotation

• Determining the structure of crops and crop rotations

• Fertilizer system as a basic element of summer cottage farming

• What fertilizers are needed for various vegetable crops

• Tillage systems

• Technologies of adaptive landscape farming system

• Black and pure fallow