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[Gene GeRue <genegerue AT ruralize.com>]

On May 2, 2008, at 8:05 PM, Clansgian AT wmconnect.com wrote:

> Soil borne pathogens on the soil surface can be thwarted by removing  
> lower
> foliage.

And I forgot to add that my, and no doubt many others, practice of  
heavy mulching beneath the plants also stops the splash effect from  
rain.
> Open air space and good organic plants will resit the diseases.  But  
> I see
> little evidence that rotation does all that much good.  I am  
> suspecting that
> crop rotation is yet another one of those things that is necessary in
> agribusiness operations that gets subliminated into the kitchen  
> garden without examining
> very deeply that it is apropos or not.

That may very well be. I believe there are, however, sound reasons for  
garden rotation. Root diseases tend to diminish when deprived of their  
hosts. The roots of some crops till the soil and bring up  
micronutrients. Crop residue may hold disease organisms. Just as I do  
not leave fruit tree prunings lying on the ground under my trees, I  
prefer, when I have time, to compost crop residue. Many crops benefit  
from raising the pH with lime: legumes, brassicas, tomatoes, peppers  
and more. But I would not follow a liming year with potatoes, so as to  
plan against scab, which, while not especially damaging to the tubers,  
causes most of us to peel and therefore waste the product. Yeah, I  
know, just grow more. But I also do the cooking in our family and I  
consider potato peeling a waste of time and nutrients. But potatoes do  
benefit from calcium. I have never figured out how to resolve this  
paradox. I have read that some commercial growers provide calcium  
chloride during the growing season. My mindset is that as long as I  
provide large quantities of mulch and compost, the soil community will  
take care of the rest of it.

For those of you who grow potatoes, do you use the same area for  
potatoes from year to year? To what factors in your garden do you  
attribute greater or lesser incidence of scab? James, you posted that  
you bought a lot of seed potatoes. Did you do that rather than using  
your own because the seed potatoes are certified disease free?

The one factor of which I am certain is that constantly working to  
raise the organic content in my garden is beneficial. The end product  
of adding organic matter above and into the soil is humus, which is  
the final state of plant matter, the state where the soil community is  
happiest. That organic matter also creates oxygen pathways and holds  
moisture during periods of inadequate rain are bonuses. The biggie for  
me is providing optimal conditions for the gazillions of microscopic  
and visible animals living below the surface of my garden beds.