How to Use This Manual

This manual can be used in several ways. First, it can be used simply as a reference. For example, one can check for possible pest or soil problems that may occur in a cropping sequence, or determine how long to leave a field out of a particular crop to avoid pest problems. Second, the manual can be used to see how experienced growers think about crop rotations, and how they manage particular crop sequences on their farms. Reading about what researchers have discovered about how crop rotation affects soil and pests will further increase one’s understanding of crop rotations. Finally, the manual provides a method for systematically planning the crop rotations on a farm.