Skip 2 years between growing crops of the same type. (grain, legume, root, greens, etc.)

Cereal crops and non-cereal crops have extremely different diseases that they are susceptible to, so switch back and forth as much as possible.

The most disease susceptible non cereal (broadleaf) crops are dry beans, sunflower, and squash. Try not to grow these crops back to back. Plant resistant varieties, use clean culture, do not overwater, never water these crops from overhead, keep squash vines off the ground, etc.

Beet, turnip, leek, garlic, okra, onion, flax, and alfalfa are the most disease resistant of the non-cereal crops. Use these crops or grain between beans, sunflower, and squash. Beet and the onion family are especially good at resisting the type of white mold that can infect beans, sunflower, and squash.

Sorghum and oats are the more disease resistant of the grains.

Because of airborn fungal disease and insect migration, rotations should occassionally skip large distances. Crops should not just move to the adjacent field or plot every year.

Remove diseased plants and diseased parts.

Practice clean culture in the field and under trees and vines. Thoroughly tilling residue into the soil and watering will speed decomposition and reduce mold. Be sure to wait at least 2 weeks before planting the next crop.

Do not practice clean culture in beneficial perennial plant plots. Many beneficial insects pupate in the soil and they tend to do it around beneficial perennials.

To control mold, grow mold resistant varieties, plant peas extremely early, do not water from overhead, do not overwater, till residue thoroughly into the soil, keep squash vines off the ground, keep a grass family member in the rotation, etc.

To prevent insects, plant brassica only in the fall (except turnip greens).

A grain cover crop can ruin a rotation if grain is already grown in the rotation. Grass as a mulch can also ruin a rotation that has a member of the grass family. Instead, use tree leaves, wood chips, duck weed, etc.

Try not to plant crops which are heavy feeders of the same nutrient in the same place consecutively.

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It is important to have a medium sized kitchen garden where animals are never allowed during the growing season and it is far from fresh animal manure. This is the garden which is safe to eat raw from.

1. SPRING - inoculated green beans
   FALL - collards, kale
          weeds will feed mycorrhizal fungus
   LATE WINTER - work in manure and wood chips if enough time
2. VERY EARLY SPRING - seven top turnip greens
   LATE SPRING - okra
   LATE FALL - barley for mycorrhizal fungi
   LATE WINTER - work in manure and wood chips if enough time
3. EARLY SPRING - chicory, carrot, red beet, sugar beet, 
                  parsnip, salsify.
                  heirloom varieties that allow harvest as needed
   AFTER EACH HARVEST - non grass / non legume cover 
          cold hearty flowers such as 
          sweet alyssum, calendula, cornflower, foxglove, 
          larkspur, pansy, stocks, viola, or dianthus
   FALL - harvest chicory greens
   LATE WINTER - work in manure and wood chips if enough time
4. VERY EARLY SPRING - inoculated green peas
   LATE SPRING - inoculated pigeon pea, cow pea, or mung
                 for mycorrhizal fungus and nitrogen
                 shallow till 2 weeks before next planting
   EARLY FALL - collards, kale
                weeds will feed mycorrhizal fungus
   LATE WINTER - work in manure and wood chips
5. SPRING - sorghum (or transplant upland rice)
   FALL - plant winter rye and inoculated fava
6. EARLY SPRING - allow rye to bloom
                  and then chop or roll and use as mulch
   LATE SPRING - transplant squash, grow on trellis
   LATE FALL - barley for mycorrhizal fungi
               plant garlic, replant biennials for seed
7. SPRING - transplant onion, leek
            beneficial flowers
            allow garlic and onion to bulb 
            allow biennials to seed
   FALL - plant barley for mycorrhizal fungi and cover
   LATE WINTER - work in manure and wood chips

At least 2 years between each crop type, except the cover crops. The cover crops are not allowed to mature and build up disease. You may need to work in wood chips or rock potash at the end of year 3 to improve potassium levels.

4 out of 7 years, the beds will produce a high calcium / magnesium crop.

The turnips come after the brassica in the fall, which is a violation of normal rotation rules. Turnip is one of the few crops that is so disease resistant, it can take it.

This rotation provides folates and vitamin K sources year round: asparagus in early spring, nettle and dandelion and turnip greens in the spring, peas in the late spring, okra in summer, chicory in the fall, collards in late fall, leek and kale in early winter, Siberian kale in late winter, and onions and beet root in late winter early spring. Another advantage of this rotation is that most of the late spring / early summer crops tend to be fairly hail resistant. Hail and high wind are most likely in the late spring and early summer.

Barley can be used in northern regions as a cover crop since the winters are cold enough to kill it and prevent regrowth.

A vegetable garden should only be big enough to grow what you will eat yourself and therefore can be substantially manually cultivated, mulched, and harvested. A manually maintained garden is more efficient than a commercial source if most of the crops are those for which it is very difficult to harvest mechanically or there is a high value of freshness advantage or a yield advantage. Most of the crops listed fit into these categories. Some are included to round out the rotation and provide complete self sufficiency. The long term health of societies is improved when each individual personally maintains a fresh local source of raw greens.

Rice must be mulched or seriously cultivated to control weeds. Flooding is not required. Adequate moisture is required during grain formation to maximize yield.

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Since many of these crops will be used as animal feed and large quantities will be required, they need to be grown with as much mechanical efficiency as possible. Growing these as part of a local community is really the most efficient method. A certain size is required before the cost of machinery can be long term sustainable. Or they can be grown in small amounts merely to maintain the skills and seeds so the process can be quickly expanded during times of shortages.

1. SPRING - inoculated soybean
   AFTER FIRST FREEZE - winter wheat
2. SUMMER - harvest wheat
   FALL - collards, kale
          weeds will feed mycorrhizal fungus
3. SPRING - carrot, beet, onion
            even maturing varieties
   FALL - marigold
4. SPRING - inoculated white bean
5. VERY EARLY SPRING - oats, barley
   SPRING - sorghum
   FALL - collards, kale
          weeds will feed mycorrhizal fungus
   WINTER - work in rock phosphate, potash, greensand, 
            bloodmeal or inject blood into the soil.
6. SPRING - sunflower
7. SPRING - flax or hemp
   FALL - buckwheat

2 years between each crop type.

The most vulnerable broadleafs, sunflower and legumes, are only one year apart.

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These rotations are not intended for commercial agriculture. Commercial agriculture demands adherance to the local environmental limitations much more strictly.

Extra time and expense to overcome local restrictions can be justified for self sufficiency because these crops are consumed locally with little or no distribution costs or marketing concerns. Where rain is common in the fall, sunflowers may need to be manually harvested and hung to dry in a barn. Roots may also need to be manually harvested if rains occur at harvest time. White beans may be perfect nutritionally, but may have purley cosmetic stains that prevent them from being commercially viable, etc.

North Dakota State University
SARE - Crop Rotation
Oregon State University
University of Connecticut IPM
ATTRA Cover Crops
Rodale Institute - hairy vetch winter cover