Johnlee1933
I wouldn't worry too much about letting the ground rest This is mainly for large producers .Rotation keeps down disease , black shank is one of them .
I do know that if I sow a field of good hay and rotate it after two years the soil will be a whole lot easier to work and will raise a better crop .
Roots from certain legumes will break the soil adding natural nitrogen , air and bust the soil layer down deep . Most Legumes roots will grow as deep down in the soil as they are tall sometimes more .
However A neighbor has raised tobacco in the same field for 10 years now . He has limited space to grow tobacco . His crop doesn't grow nearly as good as it did in the first few years .
Comercial tobacco seeds have been developed to withstand certain diseases from bad practices of farming . Black shank is one example , Tobacco has been developed to with stand typ 1 and 2 black shank . Some fields are now getting to the point where black shank resistant tobacco doesn't work .
With a smaller tobacco plotlike you have , you can add compost and manage the plant nutrients better than a 20 acre field .
Here is a copy / paste from wikipedia
Root nodules occur on the roots of plants (primarily Fabaceae) that associate with symbiotic nitrogen-fixing bacteria. Under nitrogen-limiting conditions, capable plants form a symbiotic relationship with a host-specific strain of bacteria known as rhizobia. This process has evolved multiple times within the Fabaceae, as well as in other species found within the Rosid clade.[1]
Within legume nodules, nitrogen gas from the atmosphere is converted into ammonia, which is then assimilated into amino acids (the building blocks of proteins), nucleotides (the building blocks of DNA and RNA as well as the important energy molecule ATP), and other cellular constituents such as vitamins, flavones, and hormones. Their ability to fix gaseous nitrogen makes legumes an ideal agricultural organism as their requirement for nitrogen fertilizer is reduced. Indeed high nitrogen content blocks nodule development as there is no benefit for the plant of forming the symbiosis. The energy for splitting the nitrogen gas in the nodule comes from sugar that is translocated from the leaf (a product of photosynthesis). Malate as a breakdown product of sucrose is the direct carbon source for the bacteroid. Nitrogen fixation in the nodule is very oxygen sensitive. Legume nodules harbor an iron containing protein called leghaemoglobin, closely related to animal myoglobin, to facilitate the conversion of nitrogen gas to ammonia.
Larry,
What do we poor devils with a very small unchangeable plot do? Quit growing for two years? I've heard about "gassing" for nematodes and a lot of other stuff I don't think I can afford. I'm pretty sure I can't afford two years of waiting. This will be my third year on one 9 X 12 plot and the first year on another, 8 X 14.
Any help is welcome. Thanks,
John