Potatoes After Corn
Categories:
CROP-ROTATIONS
When potatoes are grown in the corn belt, a five
years' rotation of corn, potatoes, oats, wheat, and clover, or corn,
potatoes, wheat, clover, and timothy, is one of the best. When a late
potato crop is grown, there is not time for seeding to wheat in cool
latitudes, and the oat crop, or the soybean, fits in best. Farther
south, where the oat crop is less profitable, there usually is time to
go directly to wheat.
The advantage in this rotation is that the fresh manure can be used on
the sod for the corn, and the potato thrives in the rotted remains of
the sod and manure. Corn leaves the soil in good physical condition for
the potato. Commercial fertilizer is used freely for the potato, which
repays fertilization in higher degree than most other staple crops. The
land can be prepared for seeding to wheat and grass with a minimum
amount of labor. The rotation is excellent where there is enough
fertility for the potato, which usually can be by far the most
profitable crop in the entire rotation.