July 1, 2024

28 thoughts on “VIDEO: Why Crop Rotation Isn’t Necessary For Home Gardeners

  1. Thank you! I've been stressing that point and just rebuilt all my beds and made an arch trellis walkway for vining plants and was afraid I'd have to move it every year.

  2. Good information here, sir, but you need to S L O W down, Luke. It will make it easier for us to follow what you are saying if you speak a bit more slowly, Thanks.

  3. I fully agree with you. I grow my potatoes in the same bed..I have done it for 7 years. I just throw cheap bags of organic compost into the old soil, mix it up and everything is good to go.

  4. What size garden are you defining as a home garden? 1,000 sq. Ft.? What about pests like root knot nematodes that primarily only cause problems for okra and tomatoes? Would you likely increase their population by not rotating those crops?

  5. It is a great concept for someone with the time (and especially the means), to be able to afford a house with a backyard for personal gardening. Please don't get me wrong; I very much enjoy your videos. However, IMO, the real problem is overpopulation, and a number of people who cannot be sustained in this country, and world, by personal gardening, forcing it to be done on a massive scale. Every time I see people having more kids they, and the planet cannot support, I cringe because this is the real crux of the problem. However, this subject is taboo in this country, so no one wants to talk about that aspect. Kudos, Sir, to teaching people how to be self-sustainable when they are in a position to do so, but not everyone in this country can. And meanwhile, people keep having 4, 5, 6, kids they cannot afford to raise.

  6. Thank you. Your exposition justified a suspicion I've had for some time i.e., crop rotation on a small scale is pointless when compost and blood & bone is used regularly. My own observations over many years bear out what you say. Some regard to companion planting does not go astray. Decades ago I boarded with a sheep farmer for a while. His home garden went like this: disc half an acre with the tractor. Mix all the seed of different types together in a big bowl. Broadcast seed by the handful thus – one for the house, one for the butterflies and one for the feral goats. The vegetables were brilliant and nobody minded brushing a few caterpillars off the outer leaves. A few sacksful of rakings from beneath the shearing shed slats also helped big time. Col, NZ

  7. Wow. What a good video. Lots of stress relieved. I looked into crop rotation and we don't always hit all.thr categories of rotation. We would miss out on growing our favorite things.

  8. You're such a good communicator, Luke… like the doctor of dirt! My parents threw some Elephant Garlic into the backyard back in the Eighties, and it still happily volunteers each year.

  9. I think you had good points about pests and diseases. As for amending the soil, you're essentially adding fertilizer; I wouldn't consider it super sustainable. Crop rotations in a garden could still provide a nutrient management benefit, e.g. planting beans and then next crop a heavy nitrogen feeder.

    I agree it's typically unnecessary, but if you're trying to not amend anything it could have a good use.

  10. Hi Luke,
    I have also heard of using cattle panel for tomatoes. I’m sure there are other “methods of “staking” tomatoes. Have you done a comparative analysis between different methods of staking tomatoes? LyNette R from Golden, CO

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