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Tomato Growing Tips For Pest Control With Crop Rotation

By Kaye Dennan

Republish: EasyPublish™
Published: 10Jun2010
Word count: 613
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When rotating crops one tends to think of the nutritional value of the soil and this is right. It does wonders for the soil to have crops rotated. But there is another benefit of rotating crops and that is that the cycle of the pests and diseases that hit a particular type of plant is broken when their host plant is not there to feed on. This is a tomato growing tip that is not often discussed in relation to control of pests and diseases of tomatoes.

The old saying "the quality of the soil affects the quality of the plants growing above it" is so true.

Pest And Disease Control.

The downside of taking steps to rotate crops to break the cycle is if neighboring plots are not doing the same thing. It means that the diseases and pests will quite probably be prevalent in them and not help the situation at all.

Tomatoes are a member of the nightshade family and therefore to do corrective crop rotation, plants of the same family should not be planted in the soil where tomatoes have been and are going to be planted. This means that potatoes, eggplant, peppers, morning glory and tobacco should be avoided. These members of the same family also deplete the soil of the same nutrients.

Similar Nutrients.

As mentioned earlier, when crop rotation is done correctly the soil is being replenished with nutrients from crops that are not using the same nutrients as the previous crop. Crop rotation may mean that a crop is planted that is purely and simply grown as fertilizer or mulch. For example, hairy vetch is a wonderful crop to plant in between tomato plantings and is an excellent mulch crop for tomatoes, plus it is beneficial to the soil as well.

Crop Rotation Cycle.

A home gardener who is putting compost in his soil on a regular basis will most likely find that a two year cycle is possible with crop rotation, whereas a commercial grower, or someone seeking high volume return, would most likely need to have a three year rotation cycle. They may get away with two years the first time, but after that the soil would deteriorate and it would be quite difficult to bring it back to being a quality soil again.

Even during the period of resting the soil it is best to feed it with organic matter. The more the soil is fed the better the harvest will be from it. It is better to be planting in a soil that has had plenty of organic matter worked through it over a longer period than have a whole heap of organic matter added just prior to planting.

One point to make though is that the crop following a year of growing tomatoes does not necessarily have to be a fallow year, as a home gardener there are other crops that could be planted like beans, peas, carrots, beetroot or lettuces. It does need to be kept in mind though that for each new crop the soil nutrients will need to be adjusted to suit the crop being planted.

So what is organic matter? It is "plant and animal material in the process of decomposing." Sounds lovely doesn't it? Not! But it does do wonders for the soil and that is what we are about when planting tomato plants with the goal in mind of producing a good crop of fresh succulent tomatoes.

For beginner gardeners this information will be invaluable because most have not thought of crop rotation before, but it is these types of tomato growing tips that will help produce a lovely crop of homegrown tomatoes.

Growing tomatoes can be very annoying but when you have read how to plant them and how to maintain them you can reap wonderful sweet tomatoes for months. Learn how to Grow Tomatoes Successfully by signing up to our 10 part FREE mini-course 'Luscious Tomatoes'.

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