VEGETABLE CROPS.

Waipa Post, Volume 48, Issue 3468, 19 May 1934, Page 3

VEGETABLE CROPS.

NEED FOR ROTATION. Most gardeners rest content in having dug the soil deeply and manured it well, then sown the best seeds that they can buy, but there is another matter to which attention should be given, quite as important as digging and manuring, and that is rotation cropping. Practically each type of vegetable requires different nourishment. Where a plot is planted with the same kind of crop year after year the particular form of nourishment required by that crop becomes exhausted; each succeeding year the produce of the crop becomes less and because the plants are not receiving the nourishment they should they arc less vigorous and therefore more susceptible to attacks from disease and insect pests.

It is almbst impossible to lay down any hard and fast rule with regard to the rotation cf crops. It is not absolutely necessary for any particular crop to follow the other; on the other hand, crops which are of the same family should not follow one another.. For instance, all kinds of cabbage belong to the Brassica family, so that Savoy should not be followed by cauliflowers, or spring cabbage by broccoli. Here, then, as a rough guide, is a system which fulfils the above requirements. Spring cabbages may be planted in the bed from' which onions have been harvested; early peas may follow celery; potatoes should be planted after cabbages, and cabbages after potatoes. If your vegetable crops are planned on these lines, you will be well repaid by the quality and increased quantity of the produce.