Free Crop Rotation Planner for Vegetable Garden Beds
Build a practical 3- or 4-year bed plan from what grew there before, with plant-family conflict warnings and safer alternatives. Add planting dates, print or save the plan, and return later—free and with no signup.
Quick mode needs only your beds, starting year, previous crop families, and desired crops. Detailed history, seasonal phases, frost dates, and succession settings are optional.
Plan from your garden history
Quick planning mode: complete the visible fields and generate. Open details only when useful.
Add 3–4 years of seasonal bed history (recommended)
Enter comma-separated crops. Known crops supply their family; cover-crop families count too.
Draft recovery and named plans use browser local storage. Export JSON for backup.
Private by design: inputs stay on this device except when you choose NASA lookup, which receives only coordinates. No account is required.
Recommended crop rotation
Plan—
Assignments—
Warnings—
Season—
Add history and desired crops, then generate.
Accessible rotation data table
Recommended crops by year, bed, and phase
Year
Bed
Phase
Crop
Family
Assessment
Generate a plan.
Planting schedule
Indoor sowing, planting, and harvest events
Year
Bed
Crop
Family
Event
Date
Harvest end
Season check
Generate a plan.
Vegetable Family and Rotation Reference
Family assignments follow Penn State Extension's plant-family guide. Rotation can help manage shared pests, but weeds may be alternate hosts and rotation cannot guarantee prevention.
Common crops, botanical families, and rotation considerations
Each family returns to its starting bed in year five. Mixed beds may hold several phase crops; record every family.
Example four-family rotation chart
Year
Bed 1
Bed 2
Bed 3
Bed 4
Year 1
Tomato
Bean
Carrot
Broccoli
Year 2
Broccoli
Tomato
Bean
Carrot
Year 3
Carrot
Broccoli
Tomato
Bean
Year 4
Bean
Carrot
Broccoli
Tomato
Practical Crop Rotation Guidance
Three versus four years
Use the longest realistic break. Four beds make three intervening seasons easier; three years is still useful when space is limited. UMN Extension gives a general 3–4 year same-family rule for raised beds.
One bed, unequal beds, and too few beds
Divide one bed into permanent zones. For unequal beds, name zones by capacity and move sprawling crops after generating. If all conflict, choose the longest break, use a container, or skip that family.
Mixed plantings and covers
Spring radish, summer tomato, and autumn spinach create three records. Mustard is Brassicaceae, clover is Fabaceae, buckwheat is Polygonaceae, and rye is Poaceae. UMN Extension notes pea covers can complicate later pea rotations.
Perennials, containers, and weeds
Keep asparagus, rhubarb, strawberries, mint, and permanent herbs in stable zones. Containers can remove a family from bed rotation. Penn State Extension notes related weeds can host the same pests.
What to plant after common crops
After tomatoes or potatoes, avoid Solanaceae where feasible; peppers and aubergines are not a break. After brassicas, avoid brassica vegetables and mustard covers. After onions, avoid garlic, leeks, shallots, and chives. After beans, remember clover, vetch, and peas are legumes.
Crop Rotation Planner FAQ
Should I use a three-year or four-year crop rotation?
Use the longest workable break. Four years makes a three-season gap easier; a three-year or zone-based plan is still useful when space is tight.
What if I have only one or two raised beds?
Divide a bed into stable zones, use containers, and keep histories. If every zone conflicts, the planner labels the least-recent option as unavoidable.
Can one bed contain several crops?
Yes. Add spring, summer, autumn, and cover crops. Every annual family assigned to the bed is included in later checks.
How are perennials handled?
Mark them permanent. They remain visible but are excluded from annual rotation scoring.
Do cover crops count in rotation?
Yes. Mustard is a brassica and clover is a legume, so their families can conflict with vegetables.
How are local frost dates estimated?
With permission, the tool uses device coordinates and NASA POWER daily minimum temperatures for 1991–2020 to calculate median spring and autumn freeze dates. Estimates are editable and are not forecasts.
Are preset dates exact?
No. Family assignments are sourced aids and all dates are editable estimates. Use seed-packet and local extension guidance.
Where are saved plans stored?
Named plans and draft recovery data are stored only in this browser's local storage. JSON export provides a portable backup.
The planner checks every identified family. It prefers three intervening seasons; if none exists, it selects the least-conflicted bed and labels the compromise. It also flags heavy feeders, cover-family conflicts, and the documented Solanaceae/Rosaceae verticillium relationship. These are screening rules, not diagnosis or prevention guarantees.
Source review: August 31, 2026. General temperate-garden coverage. No named horticultural reviewer is claimed. Family guidance is sourced; dates are editable estimates.
