Crop Rotation Query

**zazen999** · 20-09-2012, 01:33 PM

What is in each of your 4 groups?

**WillyNelson** · 20-09-2012, 03:47 PM

This is why I don't do a traditional crop rotation, but one based on timings.

Potatoes are my first group. Heavily manured in the Autumn and planted in the spring.
After the last potatoes are dug up in Aug/Sept the ground is prepped for overwintering onions & garlic to be planted in Oct/Nov.
When the garlic come out in Jun/July it is followed by winter veg; cabbages, calebrese, kale, etc.
Winter veg is replaced in the spring by squash interplanted with sweetcorn. Beetroot, parsnips, leeks & late carrots also go in here as some will stay in until after xmas.
Last in the cycle comes beans, peas, and any 'quick' summer crops like lettuce & carrots.

I do get a couple of empty places but 5 different sets of crops in 4 years from each plot.

**chris** · 20-09-2012, 03:48 PM

As long as the manure is very well rotted then it doesn't matter as to how you're going to manure it?

**northepaul** · 20-09-2012, 04:58 PM

The problem is that if you put manure on the brassicas, isnt it abit acidic? I know cabbages etc like it abit alkaline.

**chris** · 20-09-2012, 06:31 PM

Sorry, I meant that unless they're intercropping/plating with spuds, then once the brassicas are out of the bed then well rotted manure can be added and then spuds planted

**Telford Grower** · 20-09-2012, 06:35 PM

Manure will be well rotted so sounds like best just to wait until spring before digging in...one less thing to do before Christmas

**chris** · 20-09-2012, 07:07 PM

(It's what I've been doing anyway, and it works for me..

)

Though this year, I'm trying green manure - 3 beds of it, the others will be manured as before and I'll compare the notes.

**Telford Grower** · 20-09-2012, 09:51 PM

My 4 patch rotation is 1. Spuds 2. Legumes, corn + squash 3. Brassicas and 4. Roots, onions + garlic.

**zazen999** · 20-09-2012, 10:45 PM

Originally posted by Telford Grower View Post

My 4 patch rotation is 1. Spuds 2. Legumes, corn + squash 3. Brassicas and 4. Roots, onions + garlic.

Then roots follow brassicas, not potatoes.

Manure - then potatoes, then legumes, then brassicas, then roots then manure again. If manure is what you are using.

**Vince G** · 20-09-2012, 11:39 PM

Our allotment is divided into 6 plots and the rotation order is as follows:

Potatoes, Miscellaneous, Legumes, Brassicas, Alliums, Umbellifers (roots)

The miscellaneous group includes bits and bobs like sweetcorn, fennel, squash, courgettes and spinach.

So my pots will be going where the roots are at present. I don't manure every year, just whatever compost and green manure I have. However I will muck heavily where my pots are going because it won't have been mucked the previous year as it will have grown roots.

**zazen999** · 21-09-2012, 07:03 AM

I just rotate the potatoes, everything else gets grown where there is space at the time - my one rule is 'never follow with the same family'. So if I take out onions; something else goes in it's place that isn't an allium.

**Two_Sheds** · 21-09-2012, 07:58 AM

Originally posted by Telford Grower View Post

I need to dig in manure in the autumn

Do you?

I've never used farmyard manure in my life, and I've been growing lovely veggies for 17 years now

**zazen999** · 21-09-2012, 08:02 AM

Originally posted by Two_Sheds View Post

Do you?

I've never used farmyard manure in my life, and I've been growing lovely veggies for 17 years now

I used it once, and we all know what happened then!

Never again.

**Kaiya** · 21-09-2012, 02:37 PM

Originally posted by Vince G View Post

Our allotment is divided into 6 plots and the rotation order is as follows:

Potatoes, Miscellaneous, Legumes, Brassicas, Alliums, Umbellifers (roots)

The miscellaneous group includes bits and bobs like sweetcorn, fennel, squash, courgettes and spinach.

I did plan crop rotation using the same 6 plot plan but it's gone to pot now because what is currently the root bed has a couch grass infestation I can't get on top of, so I don't want to plant any below-soil veg in it so I can mulch heavily to keep the couch under control. Plus I have six equal sized beds and an unequal desire to eat sweetcorn and onions. Plus I'm unlikely to have the plot for 5 more years - if I haven't got my own house with a garden dedicated entirely to vegetable growing by then I'll be very disappointed. I use manure weeds and grass as mulches for the beds as I can't easily get straw, and I've given up growing umbellifers (who are really the only ones who care about the manure level) so my new plan is mulch everything equally, avoid planting things in the same place two years in a row, plant lots of sweetcorn, aliums, squash and french beans as I adore them, and plant huge shady plants over the blasted couch.

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