This manual provides an in-depth review of the applications of crop rotation-including improving soil quality and health, and managing pests, diseases, and weeds. Consulting with expert organic farmers, the authors share rotation strategies that can be applied under various field conditions and with a wide range of crops.
Crop Rotation on Organic Farms will be most applicable for the Northeastern United States and Eastern Canada, but will also be useful in other parts of the U.S., Canada, and even Europe.
Published by the Natural Resource, Agriculture and Engineering Service (NRAES) and funded in part by SARE, the book includes instructions for making rotation planning maps and discusses the transition to organic farming. Other features include chapters about physical and biological processes in crop rotation, sample crop sequences, a planning procedure for rotating crops, and guidelines for intercropping.
Table of Contents
- Acknowledgements
- About the Authors
- Introduction
- How Expert Organic Farmers Manage Crop Rotations
- Physical and Biological Processes In Crop Production
- Crop Sequences from Expert Farmers' Fields
- A Crop Rotation Planning Procedure
- Crop Rotation During the Transition from Conventional to Organic Agriculture
- Guidelines for Intercropping
- Interplanting Crops with Partially Overlapping Growing Seasons
- Intercropping Legumes with Nonlegumes
- Using Tall Crops to Reduce Drought or Heat Stress of Shorter Crops
- Using Intercropping to Disrupt Host Finding by Some Host-Specific Insect Pests
- How Intercrops Affect Populations of Beneficial Parasitoids and Pest Predators
- Using Trap Crops to Reduce Pests
- A Glossary of Intercropping Terms
- APPENDIX 1: Characteristics of Crops Commonly Grown in the Northeastern United States
- APPENDIX 2: Crop Sequence Problems and Opportunities
- APPENDIX 3: Sources of Inoculum for Crop Diseases in the Northeastern United States
- APPENDIX 4: Characteristics of Common Agricultural Weeds Relevant to Crop Rotation
- APPENDIX 5: Crop Disease Pathogens Hosted by Common Agricultural Weeds
- APPENDIX 6: Linking a Field Map and Spreadsheet in Microsoft Excel
- References
- About NRAES