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GardeningSG
Horticulture techniques

Crop Rotation

9 October 2023

Gardening skills

Edible gardening

Pest management

Crop rotation is an easy way to keep your plants healthy. Learn why changing your plant types every harvest is the most effective, chemical-free way to manage common garden pests.

Photo of several rows of rectangular raised planter beds full of vegetables in a community garden. There is a gardener in a white shirt sitting at one of the beds tending to the plants.

Crop rotation is the practice of changing crop types every harvest cycle or so. Reducing pest loads is a good practice because different crops will attract different pests. Rotating the type of plant you grow in your garden will stop a single type of pest from overwhelming your crops. This technique is part of cultural control, which in turn is used in integrated pest management.

Crop rotation basics

Pests like leaf miners, whiteflies, and caterpillars are more likely to infest specific types of crops, while more generalist pests like aphids, mealy bugs, and spider mites are likely to remain on and attack unhealthy plants. Changing your plants after every growing season will reduce the food sources of the established pests, and will help you find what thrives in your garden's unique environment.

Crops used for rotation will need to have similar growing requirements, but are different enough such that the same pests are unable to attack every type of crop. For example, a simple crop rotation schedule for an allotment gardener with full sunlight could start with a leafy vegetable like lettuce, swap to a species of bean like butterfly pea, change to herb like chives, and then back to a leafy vegetable.

Short-lived annual plants are best for this practice, with the harvest or eventual death of these plants planned to coincide with a community garden's calendar of events. Because annual plants will eventually die naturally or when harvested, the plot will need to be replanted regardless, giving gardeners opportunities to grow new plants to start the cycle again.

Plants for crop rotation

Choose one plant from each category per growing cycle. Remember to choose plants that fit your environment!

Annual Leafy and Root Vegetables

Fresh green leafy vegetables growing in a garden bed with dark soil.

Beans and other legumes

Close up of two winged beans on a vine surrounded by leaves and some white flowres

Fruiting vegetables

Close up of a tomato vine with ripe red cherry tomatoes.

Herbs and spices

Close-up of bright green mint leaves growing on a dark purple stem.

Annual flowers

Close-up of a yellow sunflower with green leaves against a blurred background of plants and a building.