Planting a hook breaks the standard rotational cycle, usually to capitalize on high commodity prices or to exhaust a specific weed bank before a fallow period. Agronomists generally advise against it because it accelerates nutrient depletion and allows species-specific pathogens and pests to multiply in the soil.
Heard on the job
We ran corn on that bottom ground last year, but with the current basis we're going to make it a hook and plant corn again.
Related terms
Crop rotation
The practice of planting different types of crops sequentially on the same plot of land.
Fallow
Cultivated land that is deliberately left unplanted for one or more growing seasons to recover its fertility.
Monoculture
The practice of growing a single crop species over a wide area for consecutive seasons.