Cropping Systems

This week is going to be about cropping systems tillage and crop establishment

Many fields are dominated by one or two crops which are grown continuously. If we want to design a sustainable cropping system, it is important to rotate different crops.

As mentioned before in this blog, I believe that good soil practices and soil fertility are essential to grow productive crops. To maintain a healthy soil, compost or manure can be used to replenish the soil with minerals and to feed beneficial microorganisms. Another way of maintaining soil nutrients is rotating crops. Crop rotation is beneficial for weed control, diseases and insect control and other effects, like nitrogen fixation.

One issue of conventional agriculture is the extensive use of agrochemicals. Crop rotation will lower the need for pesticides and fertilizers. Once the soil biota is able to work at its optimum, beneficial fungi and bacteria can increase soil fertility. Further, the use of nitrogen will decrease if nitrogen-fixating crops are used during crop rotation. (Lis-Balchin, 2003)

 

Figure 1 Crop Rotation (Growing Crazy Acres, 2015)

Plants can support each other, that’s why polycultures can be very beneficial. Polycultures increase the tolerance to stress and help to make better use of environmental resources.

Lavender grows very well with the cabbage family since the aroma deters cabbage worms. Further, Lavender repels slugs and moths which means that lavender can be planted next to plants who suffer from this (Schermerhorn, n.a.).

A disadvantage of polycultures is, that harvesting might be more complicated. Machinery has to be adjusted or harvesting has to be done by hand. If you grow a broadleaf and a grass crop together, it might be more difficult to find suitable pesticides, if they have to be used.

The most commercial lavender farms are planting lavender in monocultures but lavender can also be planted in an intercropping system. 

References

Growing Crazy Acres. (2015, October 18). Crop Rotation Guide. Retrieved from Growin crazy acres: https://growincrazyacres.com/crop-rotation-guide/

Lis-Balchin, M. (2003). Organic fertilizer. In M. L. Balchin, Lavender: The Genus Lavandula. CRC Press. Retrieved from https://books.google.nl/books?id=TmvkY60iESkC&pg=PA232&lpg=PA232&dq=crop+rotation+lavender&source=bl&ots=Qd7CJk49cQ&sig=jKMDNLifZ1EO4ALpHLm-6LRa5Ck&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiz9_C_vv_XAhWN2KQKHZHdCaMQ6AEIjgEwFQ#v=onepage&q=crop%20rotation%20lavender&f=false

Schermerhorn, N. (n.a.). Companion Plantation. Retrieved from Lavender Hills Farm: http://www.gloucesterva.info/Portals/0/mg/documents/HelpDesk/GardenSheets/CompanionPlanting.pdf