Crop Rotation: What should follow tomatoes?

[thistlebloom]

I cast a vote for three sisters.

 

[hoodat]

Personally I wouldn't include the onion family as part of a major rotation. The amount of ground I devote to tomatos would grow far more onions than I would ever use. I always just tucked onions into odd corners or grow them in a small patch.

 

[StupidBird]

Um, what should follow tomatoes completely wiped out by that new blight?

 

[wifezilla]

Oooo...good question. I didn't have any blight issues, but it would be good to know what wont be effected by it.

 

[StupidBird]

I even saw the "southern spotted wilt virus" or whatever its called (confirmed by the extension office that sent samples to UGA) on my potatoes. Last year was dreadful on tomatoes and squashes. As in two slicer tomatoes (out of 45 plants) and zero squashes (out of two dozen varied). Zero cukes.

It is airborne to 5 miles or such, per the online info, so moving the garden is impractical.

The sweet potatoes weren't affected.

 

[bid]

So lets do a poll. What would you plant in the old tomato bed?

3 sisters garden or melons?

I vote 3 sisters also. Mainly for the beans.

Um, what should follow tomatoes completely wiped out by that new blight?

I would consider solarization with some plastic to try and kill off remnants of the virus in the soil as a start.

 

[chris09]

So lets do a poll. What would you plant in the old tomato bed?

To be honest I never rotate my Tomatoes.
I know that a lot of people will disagree with that but I have been growing tomatoes in the same spot for going on 4 years and yet seen a problem with it.

Chris

 

[wifezilla]

Looks like most of the votes are for a 3 sisters garden. I think that would work very well. I haven't had any luck growing pumpkins in other parts of the garden, so this may be a good spot to grow them.

For corn, I have some hybrid white pearl sweet corn and also some dutch bantam seeds. For beans I have blue lake pole beans and chinese red noodle beans. For pumpkins, I have Jaridale seeds, Warty pumpkin, and pie pumpkin.

Obviously with with a mix of varieties, seed saving might not be a good idea...then again it could be interesting

 

[StupidBird]

3 sisters it is! Two blocks of sweet corn 2-3 weeks apart, pole beans and butternut squash.
The other area I might try a mix of bush beans and pumpkins, with the bush beans finishing by the time the vines take off.

I will do wider spacing on the corn rows than last year to make picking easier. Maybe two rows close, a wider gap, two rows close sort of thing. Suggestions?

 

[BetterHensandGardens]

Here's a rotation based on plants "needs" for nutrition: http://www.betterhensandgardens.com/2010/04/04/garden-crop-rotation-a-simple-system/
In this system root crops would preferably follow tomatoes. I think using this system has saved me from completely losing my potates and nightshades to potato beetles.