Crop rotation means growing a particular family of plants for one growing season, using a different family of plants for the next season, and so on. Why does this need to be done ? For a lot of growers, this is not something they are aware of; so read on.
A quick reason as to why you should do drop rotation (for details, you will need to read the next post). Monoculture (growing the same crop in the same spot for many seasons) used to cause problems such as failure of plants, either due to disease, or due to poor growth. Why does this happen ? Typically, plants from the same species like the same sort of nutrients from the soil, and continue to use up these nutrients as the seasons go by (and it is an expert grower who can supply the exact same nutrients on a regular basis). The problem is that specific nutrients are lost the one that the crop likes. How do you rectify this ? You make a good attempt to do this through the practice of crop rotation (Crop rotation is when you switch the type of plant grown on a piece of land over seasons). This problem of nutrients is especially problematic when it comes to nitrogen use. And there are plants that cause the problem, and there are plants that solve the problem (by adding nitrogen to the soil). If you rotate between plants that need nitrogen and plants that add nitrogen, your land will always be healthy. Another health (healthy for your plants) benefit for rotating plants is to reduce the chance of disease getting worse. If the same crops are grown, then the disease gets more stronger, more concentrated, and some of the disease will become resistant to the disease killers you may be employing. By changing the plants, the disease will not get a chance to become more concentrated, since a different plant most likely will not get affected by the same disease.
Why worry about nitrogen ?
Nitrogen is one of the major nutrients required for the healthy growth of plants. Lack of nitrogen will lead the plant to not grow properly, including stunted growth, poor fruits, and so on. Plants which are most susceptible to nitrogen shortages include leafy vegetables such as broccoli and spinach. The leaves will be pale, smaller than normal and possible blotched with reddish or purple tints. Typically, however, All vegetable gardens are prone to nitrogen shortages because of the demands of food plants.

For those people who are able to successfully create a compost pile, there is nothing like it; however for those who are not able to or fail in this attempt, there can be numerous reasons. Following are some tips on failure causes as well as what to do:

Drainage: Good drainage is essential. One solution for this is to have the base of the bin somewhat open so that excess water can flow out. This gap will also allow more microbes and insects to move in and out.

Accelerators: To get a pile started faster, use something called a compost accelerator. This is material that should be high in nitrogen – ideal things are human urine, blood meal, alfalfa meal, compost from a previously completed pile, manure, all these made good accelerators.

Water: Water in a pile is critical. A lot of failures to form compost happens when either the pile is dry or too wet. The definition of the desired level of water in a pile is: “Looks moist like a sponse that has been wrung-out”, but this is not something that is easily measured. You need to have some understanding of the water levels of some of the ingredients of a pile. Some of the materials contain much water than seems evident.
Fresh materials such as grass, fresh leaves, vegetable wastes, manure, hay, kitchen scraps, etc contain far more water than seems evident. Fallen and dry leaves are browns that contain lower amounts of water. If you pile seems too wet, then you need to turn it out, mix it and add some brown materials that have less water. On the other hand, if the pile seems to heat up too much and then stops, then you need to add water.

Nitrogen content: Not enough nitrogen will lead to the pile stopping. You need to add items that have high nitrogen content – fresh green material such as grass, wastes, fresh green leaves, etc have a lot of nitrogen.

Newsprint: People have been warned of newspapers containing toxic or non-biodegradable materials, but that has reduced significantly. Shredded newsprint is useful for the compost.

Shredding: Shredding means that you have smaller particles in the compost, which means more surface area for the microbes to work through, and a faster pile.

Soil: Add some finely dispersed soil in the pile, since the soil comes with a lot of microbes and worms that are very important for the compost pile.

Areration: Aeration in this case means that the pile gets a lot of air (oxygen). The pile needs to be loosened with a fork so that air gets to the different parts of the pile. In addition, you can push bars down to the bottom of the pile so that air gets to inside the pile.

Measure the temperature: Keep a soil temperature to measure the temperature of the pile at frequent intervals. When the temperature of the pile falls to below 40 degress Celsius, then turn the pile. The temperature should be between 50 and 60 degrees Celsius.

Using manure: Manure can form an important part of any compost pile. Use manure from any animal that is not a carnivore. Avoid using manure from commercial farms since the animals are fed a mixture of antibiotics.

Odours: If you compost pile has an unpleasant odor, then it is either too tightly packed, over-watered or has too much nitrogen. You should add some materials high in carbon content such as grass clippings, straw to the pile.

I got these tips in email, without any attribution. These seemed interesting, so am posting them here; if you have further feedback or more tips, please let me know through comments.

Fish Emulsion (5-0-0) is incapable of damaging roses even if you use too much. If you have a fisherman in the family or as a neighbor? You could safely add 1 or 2 fish heads to each rosebush per year, buried 6 inches deep below dripline.

Epsom salts (Magnesium sulfate) help roses to have good basal growth. Use after soil has warmed, frost is over. 2-3 oz per established tender roses, up to 1/2 cup per hardy shrubs.

Banana Skins: Tomatoes as well as roses love bananas…buried just below surface of soil they provide potassium, calcium, magnesium, sulfur, phosphate, sodium and silica, all of them useful stuff.

Alfalfa: Meal (2 cups) pellets (1 cup) per plant gives N, Ca, Mg, Cu, Zn, P, K, Fe, Mn and Boron. If you have rabbits – use their pellets to enrich soil.

Egg shells: Crushed eggs shells…Lilacs and Tomatoes love calcium….During the fall and winter my crushed egg shells go to my lilacs and during the vegetable growing months they are carried out to my vegetable garden and scattered around the base of my tomato plants.

Coffee For Your Flowers: After your morning coffee, remove the filter and grounds and set them aside to dry. When the grounds are thoroughly dried, scatter them around the garden as an organic plant food. Don’t use too much in one area because coffee grounds tend to raise the acidity of the soil. Use the filter to line the bottom of flowerpots to keep the soil from falling through the drainage holes. I have used them for my rhododendrons, evergreens and some to my roses.

Mulch: Add organic matter to soil- Hay or leaves, straw, or corn cobs ground up, pulverized tree bark, old or rotten sawdust. Add 3″ deep mulch by first of June if summer warm.

There are 25 different rose scents. The healthier your rose is, the more fragrant it will be. As a rule, darker colored roses have more fragrance than lighter ones except that the more petals a rose has the stronger the scent. Heavy petals with velvety sheen are more fragrant than thin ones. There is a connection between color and scent. Red and pink have typical rose scent, Yellow and white have scents of lemon, violet, nasturtium, Orange colored-fruity or clove scents. Some of the most fragrant varieties-Angel Face, Sunsprite, French Lace, Tiffany, Double Delight, Tropicana and Puppy Love.

More and more people these days are composting, and for good reason. Composting is a simple process which offers many benefits. When you turn your garden refuse and kitchen scraps into compost, you are creating fertilizer for your plants and conserving landfill space. Compost will improve your soil, giving it the ability to hold moisture and drain well. Even hard soils will be improved by adding compost.
Composting can be as simple or as complex as you want it to be. Compost bins and tumblers can be purchased or you can make your own, or simply leave your compost materials in a pile without a bin.
To make compost, you’ll need a good mix of “brown” and “green” material. Brown materials are things like dried leaves, coffee grounds, shredded paper and straw. Green materials are grass clippings, fresh garden refuse and kitchen scraps. Add the brown and green ingredients in layers,. Avoid adding bones, meat scraps or dairy products to your compost. These items decompose slowly and will attract animals to your compost pile.
Manure is also a good addition to compost, but manure from meat-eating animals should be avoided. Manure contains a great deal of nitrogen and also beneficial microbes that will help the composting process. Manure makes a great fertilizer, but it
should be composted before adding it to the garden because fresh manure is so strong or “hot” that it will burn tender plants.
A compost pile will heat up and cook more quickly if it is kept moist. Compost should be as moist as a sponge that has been wrung out. Too much or too little moisture will slow the decomposition process. A compost pile that is cooking properly will feel warm or hot inside the pile. If the temperature inside the pile is no warmer than the air temperature, the pile needs more green material and perhaps more moisture.
Air circulation is also important for a compost pile. A compost pile that is regularly mixed or turned will decompose much faster than one that is never turned. But given enough time, even a compost pile that is never turned will eventually decompose.
Concerned about the smell of a compost pile or worried that it will attract rodents? Simply bury fresh materials in the middle of the pile or cover the smelly material with some soil. Burying the material in the pile will add some needed air circulation, and the addition of soil will also include some helpful microbes.
Finished compost will look like good black soil and can be added liberally to your garden. Make your own compost for your garden and you will soon understand why it is called black gold.