Rotating crops/nutrition for Zucchini

The first year I grew zucchini in 7 prepared spots in my yard, the plants grew large and produced many fruit. I used the same 7 spots for zucchini in subsequent 2nd and 3rd years. Each year, the plants didn't grow as large and they all produced less fruit as the previous . I have not significantly changed watering volume or schedule on any year.

In the Winter, I mix in about a half shovel of steer manure and a shovel of mango mulch. When I plant in late Spring, I shake into the planting hole 1/2 handful of EB Stone sure start. As the plants grow I fertilize weekly with General Organics CAMG+ and every 2 weeks I dust around the base of each plant a couple tablespoons of EB stone tomato & vegetable fertilizer.

Am I missing a nutrient or should I plant something different (rotate crop) in these spots every other year. If I need to rotate the crop, what food producing plant would be good? Would tomatoes be a good rotation crop for zucchini?

thanks for any advice - mike

You might be having nematode problems. Squahes and cucurbits are in the category of plants that attract root knot nematodes. So are solanaceous crops such as tomatoes, peppers and eggplants. Okra is another attractant. You are coastal and root knot nematodes are a coastal problem. I dealt with it for years on the right coast. If you are planting in a coastal region with that problem, and recognize declining productivity, you should consider root knot nematodes and be religious about rotation. Check roots on your zucchini for symptoms. Rotate regardless. Commercial growers use fumagants & organic growers that I've known solarize.

Are you asking about a fall replacement crop (which was answered in a previous post) or one for next summer? Almost every summer vegetable i can think of offhand falls into the above category with the exception of corn and chard.

This message was edited Aug 6, 2023 6:50 PM

re: Are you asking about a fall replacement crop?

No, I was asking about next year. I grow tomatoes in one area of the yard and zucchini in another. Would switching growing locations for these be an adequate rotation? That is, next year, plant zucchini where the tomatoes grew and the tomatoes where the zucchini grew this year?

I guess I need to look up what root knot nematode damage looks like.

And now I know "Rotation is simply the practice of not growing a susceptible host in the same site for more than one year."

and since both are susceptible, my suggested rotation would not be adequate.

This message was edited Aug 6, 2023 8:32 PM

I'm growing zucchini and straightneck this year but can only grow squash every three years. In this region squash vine borer moths destroy squash by laying eggs on the stems that hatch and bore into the plant. The moth is signaled when the plant begins flowering. After destroying the plant they overwinter in the soil. Adult moths will return the following year in search of squash. They are the major squash crop pest in this region. I've tried planting early or late, injecting stems with organics and row covers which require hand pollinating plants. Nothing organic works but rotation. The squash is pest free this season and had a record run so it's squash every which way here. I'll sometimes try for a second consecutive season and maybe get a few squash but then there they are again.

So one reason to rotate crops is to minimize pest susceptibility. What about for soil nutrition. I've hear you can't plant some crops year over year in the same location because the plant uses up certain nutrients and repeated plantings leave the plant starved.

If there is there such a thing, how do I sort out what would be a good alternate to put missing nutrients back in the soil so that I could plant what I really want.

Is this sometimes referred to as planting cover crops?

As a hypothetical example, I understand squash are heavy feeders. Maybe they use up significant nutrients so that squash planted the following year would be nutrient starved. How would I determine what to plant on alternate years so that the every other year squash would be happy. Of course, maybe just fertilizing every year would be adequate and I wouldn't need to rotate squash for nutrition deficiency.

I'm trying to better understand which food producing plants require crop rotation and why. Maybe there are food producing plants I can plant every year in the same spots that don't require rotation.

thanks for any comment. - mike