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Rotation
The history knows for long time crops rotation. Already mentioned in the
Roman literature, great civilizations of the Nile and Asia Mineur also referred
to ir.
End of the Middle Age until this century, the three-year rotation was practised
by farmers with a rotation: rye or corn of winter, follow-up of oats or
barley of spring then letting the ground rest (fallow) during the third stage.
The fact that suitable rotations make it possible to restore or to maintain the
balance of the ground was actually recognized. In agriculture on a large scale,
as well as in gardens, one must succeed harvests which tire and exhaust
the ground of the cultures not very demanding or even favorable for fertility.
The tendency of conventional agriculture is to make agriculture independent of
the soil : one practises the specialized culture of vegetables or cereals
without rotations or with a rotation reduced while bringing, to obtain raised
outputs, strong quantities of artificial fertilisers, harmful insecticides, etc.
On the other hand in biodynamic agriculture the capacity of output depends
mainly on the good planning of the rotation of crops. Large outputs can be
obtained differently than by specialization and recourses of foreign
substances.
The choice of good rotation depends, on the one hand nature of the soil,
which determines the species of plants that one can cultivate and on the other
hand, of the breeding which plays a part in the choice of the rotation (fodder
crops, straw). Finally a good rotation holds account of the proportion of
natural meadows.
The importance here will be stressed that biodynamic agriculture grants to the
role of the cultures in rotation, and in particular with the role of leguminous
plants. When the green manures and the cover of the ground are hidden, they
provide to the bacteria ground invaluable food and those then release, in great
quantity, all the useful biogenic salts, including nitrogen. Thus biodynamic
agriculture proposes "to let grow the nitrogen" instead of "buying it outside".
The choice of rotation is also determined by the needs for the saving in
company of a farm, like by the local request and the accessibility of
markets.
The succession on the level of the cultivated vegetable species can also hold
account of the developed "vegetable bodies": roots, sheets, flowers, fruits (seeds).
There are plants which follow one another favorably and others which are little
reconciling. If one lets follow these last the ones after the others, one runs
the risk of a fall of output and a development of bad grasses and parasites.
Concurrently to this practice of rotation it is also possible to cultivate
various vegetable species together. Good examples of associated cultures are
known (pea association with cereals (oats, corn and rye) and leguminous plant
sowing under cereals: in truck farming association of carrots and onions, as
well as the beneficial influence of the plantation of certain plants of edge
(e.g. the horseradish at the edge of the cultures of weeded plants and wild
sowings of plants, cornflower in corn of spring, or sainfoin in edge (on the
other hand the poppy causes falls of output) and medicinal like the white tinsel
maker.
Contact
US :
Maison de l'Agriculture
Bio-Dynamique
5 place de la Gare
68000 COLMAR
France
Tél: 00 33 (0)3 89 24 36 41
Fax: 00 33 (0)3 89 24 27 41
www.bio-dynamie.org
to send us an email
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