African Leafy Vegetables Farm : Rotation necessary ?

Dear all,

In the coming raining season I will start a small commercial production of several african leafy vegetables :
- Amaranth
- Sweet Potatoes Leaves
- Cassava Leaves
- Beans Leaves

as well as :
- Baobab Leaves
- Moringa Leaves
- Artemisia Leaves

I have a 2000 square meters area that i dedicate to intensive leafy vegetables production and Artemisia. It will be divided in three parts of approximately 600m2 :
- 1 Part of Amaranth Leaves Production
- 1 Part of Sweet Potatoes Leaves Production
- 1 part of Artemisia Production

My question was the following, Do you think it will be necessary to have a rotation ?
Is it necessary to insert some nitrogen fixing plants at some point in the rotation ? or
Can I just constantly rotate between those three crops knowing that I'll have several Nitrogin Fixing Trees (Leucaena, A.Albida, Gliricidia) in the near areas ?

Many thanks.

Good day Eli,
Rotating crops keeps some insect populations down and nutrients being replenished in the soil.

If it were me, I'd rotate the crop and if space allows, grow a cover crop in the off season. or grow one cover crop and rotate the beds. The beans will likely fix some nitrogen in the soil, just depends on their specific type of bean being grown.

Please keep us posted.

I agree with Sena. I think rotation is a great strategy for managing fertility and confusing pests. Polyculture can also work for both considerations, but I find rotation is more manageable for medium to large growing

Thank you for the answers.

I think I will put in place a rotation :
- Artemisia
- Amaranth
- Sweet Potatoes
- Beans

and see how it evolves :p

I'll let you know :p

Hi Eli,

You won't need to rotate sweet potatoes if you're just growing them for leaves. They're perennial! I use them for ground cover, and as long as they're watered through the dry season, you never have to replant.

I'm curious, how do you prepare your baobab leaves? Also, consider mulukhiya; they're great combined with amaranth.

What kind of bean are you growing? I've found lab-lab to be a really tasty leaf crop.

Have fun!

Hi Nathanael,

True, sweet potatoes leaves are a perrenial, but isn't there no risks at not rotating the area where I grow it ? Might the soil not be exhausted at some point ?

Hi Eli,
That's true,  sweet potatoes will be pulling nutrients from the soil. They will also be adding nutrients by the growth and decay of some tubers. Crop rotation does help replenish nutrients in the soil and helps to keep pests populations low. Do you think pests will be an issue?
In our climate sweet potatoes are more of annual.  I don't have experience growing sweet potatoes in the same place year after year. So I can't really speak for that. However in our perennial beds, like the asparagus and strawberries, we grow annual crops/flowers to help with the soil. We also add mulch and compost annually to help keep the soil healthy.