Any co-planted set of vegetables is a guild.
Evidence: settled without a trial - definition.
Salsa Garden
A culinary bundle - grown together for the kitchen, with no interspecies claim made.
Space it needs
At least 3 m². A bed smaller than that does not get this guild quietly substituted for something else — the planner greys it out, says why, and offers the nearest adaptation that does fit.
If your bed is smaller: Salsa Garden (Patio) (1 m²).
Between seasons
Nothing is left living in the bed over winter; the whole planting is re-established.
What it claims
No interspecies mechanism is claimed. It is grouped for a reason, and that reason is written below rather than dressed up as biology.
The honest version
There is no interspecies mechanism here. These plants go in the same bowl.
What is in it
What it costs the ground
Rotation history attaches to the ground, not the bed, so this is what the planner remembers about this patch after the guild comes out.
- Nightshades: full load
- Alliums: partial load
- Carrot Family: partial load
Rules that gate it
A guild deposits family history across its whole footprint.
Mechanism: Soilborne inoculum and overwintering pest stages disperse across the bed. A guild dominated by one family forecloses that ground for that family's rotation interval.
Evidence: confirmed against 2 sources in the research-based literature.
the 2 sources
Same soilborne-persistence basis as other rules here (read 2026-07-11): NC State Extension (Verticillium microsclerotia 'can survive in the soil without a host for up to 10 years'; Septoria/early blight 'overwinter on infected tomato debris and solanaceous weed hosts') and UMN/Ohioline (squash bug overwinters 'as adults in sheltered places ... they fly to growing cucurbit plants'; squash vine borer 'overwinters in the soil as a pupa').
Those sources establish that inoculum and pest stages persist in the ground and are not confined to the exact spot a plant occupied; this rule applies that persistence across the whole guild footprint. The whole-footprint attribution is the corpus's rotation geometry (history attaches to ground, not to the individual plant — see the data model), not a claim from an external source.
remedy
Rotate the whole bed the guild occupied, not just the rows that family grew in.
Self-incompatible species require 2+ genetically distinct plants.
Mechanism: Self-incompatibility alleles prevent fertilization by own pollen.
Evidence: confirmed against 2 sources in the research-based literature.
the 2 sources
Penn State Extension, 'Pollination Requirements for Various Fruits and Nuts', extension.psu.edu/pollination-requirements-for-various-fruits-and-nuts (read 2026-07-11): 'Apple: Cross-pollination is always needed to produce adequate fruit crop'; 'Cherry: Sweet: Most varieties are self-unfruitful'; 'Those fruits listed as self-fertile will set fruit with their own pollen.'
'Pollen-Pistil Interaction in Response to Pollination Variants in Subtropical Japanese Plum (Prunus salicina Lindl.) Varieties', PMC9692414, pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9692414 (read 2026-07-11): 'Japanese plum exhibits gametophytic self-incompatibility (GSI), a prezygotic reproductive barrier where genetically related pollen is rejected by the pistil ... governed by a polymorphic locus (S) ... Self-incompatibility occurs when the same S-allele is expressed in the haploid pollen grain and the diploid pistil.'
remedy
Plant at least two, and where the species needs a second cultivar make them different varieties — two of the same will not pollinate each other.
Succession sowing at 2-3 week intervals extends harvest for short-DTM crops.
Mechanism: Staggered maturity.
Evidence: confirmed against 1 source in the research-based literature.
the source
Penn State Extension Master Gardener (Lancaster Co.), 'Succession Planting', extension.psu.edu/programs/master-gardener/counties/lancaster/idea-gardens/the-raised-bed-garden/succession-planting (read 2026-07-11): 'Succession planting extends the vegetable harvest'; 'Plant one crop, then approximately 2 weeks (or more) later, plant the same crop in another area to have a continual harvest.'
Onion cultivar group must match site latitude.
Mechanism: Bulbing fires when daylength crosses a cultivar's critical threshold (short ~10-12h, intermediate ~12-14h, long ~14-16h). A short-day cultivar grown too far north crosses its low threshold early and bulbs prematurely on small plants, so bulbs stay small. A long-day cultivar grown too far south never reaches its high threshold and fails to bulb. Changeover is around the 35th-38th parallel.
Evidence: confirmed against 2 sources in the research-based literature.
the 2 sources
NC State Extension, 'Bulb Onions', content.ces.ncsu.edu/bulb-onions (read 2026-07-11): 'onions will not form bulbs until daylength reaches the cultivar's critical threshold. Short-day onions bulb at approximately 10-12 hours of daylength ... Intermediate-day onions bulb at approximately 12-14 hours ... Long-day onions bulb at 14-16 hours of daylength.'
Univ. of Illinois Extension (The Humble Gardener), 'Growing Onions in Central Illinois', extension.illinois.edu/blogs/humble-gardener/2018-03-19-growing-onions-central-illinois (read 2026-07-11): 'Long day varieties are for northern growing areas (above the 35th latitude); short-day varieties are for southern. If short-day varieties are grown in our zone, they won't do well. They will not form bulbs of any decent size. And since the long day onions need more daylight, they will not do well' (in the south).
remedy
Resolve cultivar group from plot.origin_geo.lat.