0:00There's so many things that you have to think about when you're planning out your garden space, your farm space. And another thing that it's important to

0:08throw into the mix is crop rotation and rotating crops so you're not growing the same thing in the same plot year after

0:16year, month after month. So, we're going to talk about crop rotation a little bit, some of the dos and and don'ts maybe of, you know, successful crop

0:24rotation. So, um, what's the the key points for doing this, right?

0:31Well, I would say the the key point is just to mix crops up as much as

0:37possible. Um, and I would just refer you to Elliot Coleman's, the new organic

0:43grower. He has written the definitive chapter on crop rotation.

0:52any other person I've read talking about crop rotation quotes from from this chapter. So

1:00I think this is like I say the the seinal work on crop rotation and of

1:08course he goes through all the the benefits of crop rotation. He says it's

1:13the single most um important um practice on the small farm. H.

1:23But the challenge is with winter growing that you only have a few families to

1:34uh to work with. So, you know, he he lists

1:41a table of all the botanical families that you grow in your vegetable garden.

1:48And of course, some of them are are just warm weather crops like the solenacas,

1:54the the peppers and tomatoes and um the poacier is the corn and cucurbidacier is all your your squashes and cucumbers.

2:08So those are all warm weather um families.

2:14And so you're we basically grow from I think I counted four families. The APAC which is your carrots, celery, parsley,

2:26parsnips.

2:28Asteracier which is your lettucees. Brasicacia which is all of your your brasacas and

2:37your Asian greens. um chennipotaca which is your spinach, swiss chard and

2:44beets and then a little bit of the lilyacier which is your aliums your you know we

2:54grow like um bunching onions scallions in the winter but largely you're growing

3:02from from the apaca asteracier and brasic KCA and Chennipotia.

3:11So the the challenge is as you read this crop rotation chapter,

3:19he he classifies the families as either beneficial or detrimental.

3:26And the way I like to think of it, the beneficial crops leave the soil better than they found it, whereas the

3:34detrimental crops um leave the soil worse than they found it.

3:41So of those four categories, asteracier, which is your lettucees,

3:49is the only beneficial crop that doesn't leave the soil poorer than it found it.

3:58So that's a good thing actually because lettuce is what you're growing the most of and then the other ones are considered detrimental.

4:10So, all that to say, what we try to do,

4:14and Elliot talks about this in the winter harvest handbook, basically the idea that you can't do these elaborate

4:22crop rotations, but just try to rotate as much as you can. So, we try to always

4:30um follow a detrimental family crop with a beneficial one. So,

4:39if we've grown spinach somewhere, we're going to follow it with lettuce. Or if we've grown brasacas somewhere,

4:47we're going to follow it with lettuce. So,

4:52I don't know. That's that's kind of where we're at with crop rotation. Just keep track of what was grown there

5:00previously for the last two or three crops and try to not repeat it.

5:06Yeah. Excuse me. So, do you have like a master rotation plan that that everything's kind of planned out, you

5:14know, a year or at least months in advance as to where things are going or is it more of a kind of on the-fly uh figure it out as you go? I mean, it's a little bit of both in that, you know,

5:26with our green houses and with our outdoor space, we do have a master rotation, but then within that,

5:36um, there's, you know, like Yeah, there there's definitely some of

5:45just Okay, well that we had lettuce here, so let's plant um brassicas here next. Yeah.

5:52So, we just have a sheet where we keep track of what was grown, you know, like for the season. Okay. You know, on our

6:02intensive plots, we started with with brasacas, go to lettuce, come back with

6:10um well, in the summer, the good thing is you've got more beneficial crops. You know, your your beans and stuff are

6:19beneficial. your cucurbits are considered beneficial.

6:24So, you know, in the summer we can mix it up more. Um, so the biggest challenge is the winter.

6:32Okay.

6:32Well, I think that's a a good highle overview of um the the importance of

6:39crop rotation. Now, when we say detrimental crops, some people might take that and and think, oh, maybe we

6:47don't want to grow detrimental or whatever, but it's not necessarily that it's causing, you know, detriment like that you can't overcome. It just means

6:55it's taking more nutrients out of the soil that you have to replace uh next time you plant in it. So, it's just, you

7:03know, one one factor in all of the planning that goes into farming. And you know, if you grow a detrimental crop,

7:11you just have to replenish the soil a little bit more after you take it out, right? Yeah. Exactly. Yeah.

7:18Yeah. It's just detrimental to, I guess you could say, soil health. So, you have to work a little harder um after a detrimental crop to to,

7:31you know, build the soil back, replenish the soil a little bit. Yeah.

7:35So, it's just good to keep those things in mind and not just continue growing,

7:42you know, like brassacas in the same place because you you will eventually end up with issues. Yeah. Yep. All

7:49righty. Well, that's a brief overview of the importance of crop rotation and some pointers. Definitely, Dad's always bringing resources so you got some

7:57homework on on books to read. And uh hope that this has been helpful. If you have questions you would like us to discuss in a future video, please

8:05comment those or respond to this email and uh we may discuss them next time. Until next time, happy growing.

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