What can be planted next year after tomatoes?
Many people prefer to spend the weekend in the country or in a country house. Some go there just to take a break from the bustle and enjoy nature, others prefer to dig in the garden and grow crops with their own hands. One of the most popular activities among gardeners is the cultivation of tomatoes. People who are not very versed in gardening are surprised that they are not recommended to be planted in the same place. But in fact it is.
Crop rotation rules
Crop rotation is such an agrotechnical technique as the alternation of different crops during planting. This is done in order to get a rich and high-quality harvest, and not to deplete the land. However, not all vegetables can be planted in beds where tomatoes have grown before.
Every gardener knows that any plant attracts both harmful insects and various diseases. But it can also affect the condition of the soil in different ways. In addition, different vegetable crops require certain fertilizers.
And if you plant a crop in the same place for several years in a row, then the land will become poorer: useful substances will leave it, and this will affect the harvest. This problem is solved by introducing the necessary mineral elements into the soil. And it is also very important to know that you can plant tomatoes in place next year so that the earth can “rest”. It is necessary to consider all the rules of crop rotation.
- If you do not swap vegetable crops, then the land under them will become poorer, and this will badly affect the subsequent harvest. In addition, the same plants, such as nightshade or legumes, are susceptible to the same diseases. For example, tomatoes and potatoes can be affected by late blight.
- Since fungal spores are in the ground for a long time, it is necessary to do preventive work as soon as the tomatoes have been planted. Of course, this takes a lot of time and will entail unnecessary costs. By the way, the result in the end can be disappointing. Therefore, it is better to postpone the option of tilling the soil and plants as a last resort.
- If you correctly carry out crop rotation, then even without the use of additional fertilizers, you can provide any crop with the necessary nutrients. And also it saves plants from various diseases and insects.
- Change of crops should take place annually. An exception may be plants such as potatoes or corn. They can be grown in the same place for several years in a row, and this will not affect either the yield or the appearance of the plants.
- If root crops were planted before, then fruit crops can be planted in their place. That is, when planting, plants should alternate, in which roots and tops bear fruit.
- Plants that need a lot of fertilizer should be planted after those that don't. For example, after tomatoes, experienced gardeners try to plant crops that do not need active fertilizer.
- It is imperative to improve the soil. This can be done with plants such as onions and garlic. We must try to ensure that they are consistently planted on each plot of the garden.Thus, the whole garden will be more "healthy", and growing a rich crop will not be a problem.
- In order to monitor the correct harvest in the garden, it is necessary to keep a planting log, where it is alternately noted in which zone which plants are planted, and how well they bear fruit there.
- In addition to all this, you need to ensure that the vegetables "get along" with the "neighbors". Flowers and herbs are often planted next to tomatoes, for example.
When is it time to change location?
Tomatoes love loamy soil, which warms up quite easily and quickly. And also it should be loose. To do this, tomatoes need to be weeded often. By all rules, such plants must be transplanted to a new place every season. However, not every gardener does this. Some of them resort to little tricks to keep a rich harvest.
- They remove the top layer of earth and shift it to where the radish will grow. This benefits all plants, and the harvest is rich. At the same time, instead of the removed layer of earth, humus is added to this area, where tomatoes had previously grown, which will become an excellent fertilizer for tomatoes.
- Apply nitrogen fertilizers to saturate the soil.
- And also often make the right selection of "neighbors". To do this, either legumes or any fragrant greens are planted next to the tomatoes. In this case, plants growing nearby have a good effect on tomatoes, and do not provoke the appearance of various diseases.
- Some gardeners use the Kizima method. That is, they plant tomatoes in cellophane, while forming a rather deep root.
- In autumn, mustard crops can be planted in place of tomatoes. But this should be done only after all tomato bushes have been removed and burned.
However, you can use all these life hacks for no more than three years. After this time, the land will become very poor, and this will affect the harvest. Therefore, further it is still necessary to think about crop rotation. First of all, because with a deficiency of nutrients, there will be few inflorescences, and the fruits themselves will also become small. With prolonged use of one place for planting tomato bushes, they can be affected by a disease such as phytophthora.
Therefore, you should not ignore all this, since as a result you can be completely without a crop.
What to grow after tomatoes?
After growing tomatoes in the same place, the acidity in the soil changes. True, at first it is quite small. After them, you can plant those plants that can nourish the earth with nitrogen. For example, it can be peas or beans.
And you can also plant cabbage, which is not at all afraid of diseases that are dangerous for a crop such as a tomato, as well as nitrogen deficiency in the soil. The cabbage crop in this case will be quite large. The very next year after the cabbage was harvested, tomatoes can be planted in the same place. In this case, gardeners will get a fairly rich harvest.
And also in the place where the tomatoes grew, you can plant cucumbers that are not afraid of phytophthora. However, they love quality soil, so in order to grow them, you need to fertilize the soil well. Fertilizers for this purpose are suitable for any.
Perfect in the place where tomatoes used to grow, vegetables such as zucchini or squash will also feel great. They will give a good harvest and will be good substitutes for tomatoes.
You can plant in the garden and popular root crops. These include beets, radishes or radishes, which have fairly deep rhizomes.In addition, these vegetables feed on those nutrients that tomatoes cannot get to, so the harvest will be excellent, even though the soil has become much poorer.
You can also plant carrots, but after tomatoes it does not grow very well. Therefore, in order to achieve great success in its cultivation, it is necessary to apply mineral fertilizers to the soil at least twice a season.
As already mentioned, crops such as garlic or onions grow well in place of tomatoes. Not only do they not need a large amount of nutrients, but they are also plants that disinfect the soil. And after them it will be possible to plant almost anything in the garden.
Perfectly on soil tired of tomatoes, any legumes will grow. The fact is that they themselves are unpretentious, so for their growth they do not need a huge amount of useful substances. Therefore, after tomatoes, you can safely plant beans, soybeans or peas. And you can also grow even peanuts on this site. All these plants will give an excellent harvest, at the same time improve the quality of the soil. In a short time, they will saturate it not only with nitrogen, but also with other organic substances.
And also in place of tomatoes, you can plant any greens, for example, parsley or celery, dill or lettuce. They will grow well in this place, while decorating the garden.
Plants such as peppers or carrots can be planted next to tomatoes. They will not only give a good harvest, but will also become excellent neighbors for tomatoes. And also do not forget about the plants that protect tomatoes from various pests. These include flowers or even herbs such as calendula, nasturtium, basil, as well as ordinary marigolds.With their aromas, they repel pests and are therefore so important in vegetable gardens.
Tomatoes, in turn, also have a good effect on gooseberry bushes, scaring away pests such as sawfly or moth from them with the aroma emanating from the stems. Therefore, you can plant them next to such bushes.
After a crop rotation, you can plant tomatoes in their original place in the second or third year, depending on which crop served as a substitute.
What crops should be avoided?
Each of the gardeners tries to achieve the largest and most diverse crop. To do this, it is worth learning as much as possible not only about those plants that get along well with each other, but also about those that should not be planted in your garden.
Gardeners who want to get a big crop of tomatoes should avoid nightshade crops. This is primarily eggplant, potatoes, as well as physalis. All these plants belong to the same family, and therefore have the same diseases. When the new season begins, the plants may be attacked by both the Colorado potato beetle and the wireworm.
In addition, they greatly deplete the soil and, planting them in place of tomatoes, you should not expect a good harvest of vegetables. And you also need to know that the neighborhood of any nightshade can harm the berries. For example, strawberries that grow next to nightshades produce the worst crop. In addition, it can be eaten by the Colorado potato beetle.
It is not recommended to plant any gourds after tomatoes, as their roots are on the same level as the rhizomes of tomatoes. Therefore, they will have nothing to eat, because tomatoes will take away all the useful substances at this depth in a year.However, if there is very little space in the garden, and there is no other place for tomatoes, then this situation can be beaten.
In the fall, when the season ends, green manure can be planted in place of tomatoes, that is, any green plants. Mustard sprouts are considered the best of them. It not only improves the quality of the earth, but also perfectly disinfects the soil. To do this, the sown mustard must be left to grow until spring.
When it gets warm outside, the earth needs to be dug up. After that, in the same place, you can safely plant tomatoes or gourds.
Tips & Tricks
When growing tomatoes, you should listen to the advice of experienced gardeners. This will help you avoid many mistakes. After all, if you correctly carry out crop rotation, then you can provide the plant with the substances necessary for it without fertilizing. And also it will help to avoid diseases inherent in nightshade crops.
So, after the end of the harvest, it is imperative to remove all the bushes from the garden and burn them. This will help to avoid contamination of the soil with various fungal diseases.
To avoid a fall in the crop at one planting site, it is necessary to apply fertilizers very competently, as well as actively fight pests. If you do not change the types of planted plants, then these problems cannot be avoided.
But active control of insects, fertilization still helps. And in this case, the harvest, in spite of everything, turns out to be large and, indeed, pleases its owners.
Since tomatoes feed mainly through the roots, in order for each next crop to be good, one important point must be remembered. Plants should have different rhizome lengths. Tomatoes that were grown in seedlings have a very short root system.This means that nutrients are taken from the upper layers of the soil. Therefore, for the next season, it is necessary to plant such plants in this place that have longer roots. It can be radishes or beets, for example.
Since tomatoes need phosphorus and nitrogen, the soil must be treated with fertilizers that contain these elements.
Not every region can plant tomatoes in open ground. Therefore, in such places they are most often grown in greenhouses. On the one hand, this is very good, because tomatoes ripen faster. But there is also a minus: it is very difficult to change the place for growing tomatoes. However, even under such conditions, crop rotation is possible. To do this, as in an ordinary garden, at the end of the season it is necessary to plant green manure. Legumes or mustard are best suited for this purpose. They will help correct the acidity of the soil. In the spring, two weeks before planting, you will need to mow them. In the future, they will serve for mulching the soil.
Since most of the advice of specialists on crop rotation rules is only recommendations, it would be better if each gardener himself checks everything in practice. This will be the most correct decision.
So, in choosing subsequent crops for planting in vegetable gardens, it is always better to rely on your experience, gradually learning the characteristics of the soil and your favorite tomato varieties.
After all, the future harvest also largely depends on the characteristics of the soil and on the climatic conditions in which the site is located. In one area, onions grow well, and garlic does not grow well, but somewhere - on the contrary. Yes, and different varieties of tomatoes react differently to certain climatic conditions. All these small details should be taken into account when planting plants.
Many experienced experts recommend keeping a table of planting all crops on the site. To do this, you need to divide it into zones. Each column in the table will correspond to one or another zone, where the year and the crop that is planted there will be marked. Such record keeping will help to correctly calculate the planting sites for all plants in the garden. It will also provide an opportunity to correctly and slowly think through the crop rotation of all crops. Over time, it will be possible to get the maximum yield from all types of plants.
In general, it is not difficult to master the simple rules of crop rotation. It is enough to remember the list of those plants that grow well on soil that has become impoverished after growing tomatoes, and those that, on the contrary, should not be planted there. This knowledge and a couple of years of practice will help even a novice gardener to achieve significant success in his business over time.
For information on what can be planted after tomatoes, see the next video.