When to delete, retire or re-establish a block

A block's Actions menu offers three ways to deal with a block that is changing: Delete, Retire and Re-establish. They look alike, but they answer different questions, and picking the wrong one either loses history or leaves a block counted that is no longer in the ground.

The question to ask is: was this block ever really in the ground, and is anything recorded on it?

A block is a planting, not a piece of land

In Intecrop a block is one planting: a crop and cultivar put into the ground on a date, with its area, spacings and number of plants. It is in the ground from its Date established until its Date retired, and every application, block record and harvest on it belongs to that planting.

The number on the block (A1, say) is only a name. When the vines in A1 are pulled and the ground is planted again, that is a new planting, so it is a new block, even if it gets the same number. The old block keeps the history of the old planting, and the new block starts its own.

That is why there are three actions and not one.

Delete: the block should never have existed

Use Delete for a block that was a mistake: entered twice, or created while setting up the farm for ground that was never planted.

Delete removes the block for good, along with its growth stages and harvests. It cannot be undone. Because an auditor may need to see what was applied to a block, Delete refuses a block that is on any application or has any block record: the delete fails and the block stays as it was. If that happens, the block was real, and you want Retire. The delete confirmation says the same. A harvest or growth stage does not stop a delete: they go with the block.

Retire: the block has come out of the ground

Use Retire when the planting is over: the vines were pulled, the orchard was removed, the land is lying fallow or going to something you do not record in Intecrop.

The block stays, with everything recorded on it. From the Date retired on, it is no longer in the ground, so it stops counting in later seasons. In the seasons it was in the ground, its reports and exports read exactly as before. The date may not be in the future, and it has to come after the block's last block record and every application it is on, drafts included.

There is one case where retiring deletes instead: when nothing at all has been recorded on the block (no application, no block record, no harvest) and you retire it in the same season it was established. Such a block never counted in any season, so there is nothing to keep. The retire form warns you before you save.

Re-establish: the same ground has been planted again

Use Re-establish when the old planting comes out and a new one goes in its place, usually with a new cultivar. One save retires the old block and creates a new block with the same number, filled in from the old one so you only change what changed. Unlike Retire, it always keeps the old block, even one with nothing recorded on it.

Nothing moves to the new block. The old block keeps its applications, records, growth stages and harvests, and the new block starts empty. That keeps each planting's history separate: a report on last season's A1 is about the old vines, and this season's is about the new ones.

If you have already retired the old block, Re-establish is no longer offered. Create the new block from the Blocks page with New and the same number. Nothing is filled in for you that way, but the two plantings' histories are kept apart just the same.

Edit: nothing came out of the ground

None of the three is right when the planting itself has not changed and only a detail was entered wrong: the area, the spacings, the cultivar you picked by mistake. Use Edit for that. A block has one set of details for its whole life, so an edit applies to past seasons as well. That is what you want for a correction, and not what you want for a replanting.

In short

For the steps, see Retire a block, and plant it again.