Crop rotation ?????. Continued planting ??. AAARRRRGGGG !

[Minty]

Help please........ I just cant get me ed round it . Searched all previous threads and still the neurons wont click .
OK I understand a 3 year crop rotation, three beds of the three main variates of veg. However if i plant potato/roots and follow that with cabbage to harvest in the following spring can i then plant potatoes and roots again . If that is the case i would be planting the same crop in the same plot for year 1 and 2.
Maybee im looking far too deeply in to it but as next spring will be my first year of planting i really want to get it is right as i can. Thanks Minty

[Alison]

What ever you do Minty, don't get yourself too worked up about it. Ideally you'll do a proper rotation of between 3 and 5 years, BUT many of us don't have the time or space to stick to this perfectly. You should follow root crops with brassicas and then legumes as this will mean that your soil is at it's best and you'll avoid common pests at least to some extent. However, if you don't get it quite right (especially to start with) then don't cut yourself up over it. The purist will frown but I kind of think that you're better off making sure that something is in the ground that you will eat than leaving it bare because you're not wanting the correct crop. Basically, in short, try but don't let it ruin your life. You'll learn an awful lot anyway by trial and error.

[rustylady]

Don't worry too much Minty. As long as you don't grow exactly the same crop for 3 or 4 years running you should have no problems. The main idea is to avoid buildup of disease and/or pests. Having said that, some crops need permanent beds, e.g. asparagus, rhubarb, fruit bushes.

[SarzWix]

However if i plant potato/roots and follow that with cabbage to harvest in the following spring can i then plant potatoes and roots again. If that is the case i would be planting the same crop in the same plot for year 1 and 2.

Personally I wouldn't put potatoes/roots in again - you could either carry on with brassicas like calabrese/broccoli which is a summer to autumn veg or summer cabbages (for coleslaw & salads), or you could use the bed for peas/beans (which you wouldn't be planting out til after the frosts anyway) or you could use the bed for things which don't fit in the rotation at all, like sweetcorn, pumpkins/courgettes/outdoor cucumbers, and salad leaves will fit in gaps between any of the above.

[Two_Sheds]

I've divided my square plot into quarters:
bed one: beans and peas
2: brassicas
3: roots and potatoes
4: onions and garlic

I've taken this advice from the excellent Bob Flowerdew, and it works for me.

[terrier]

Now that we're on the subject, I've grown runner beans and french climers in the same place for the last 2 years so should I now grow them somewhere else? I,ve seen in other plots 'permanent' bean frames.

[Two_Sheds]

Lots of people grow their beans in the same position each year. I gather they don't accumulate disease/pests like other crops do.
I take down my boombams each autumn anyway, otherwise they rot in the soil.

[Sue]

I'm going to have a permanent bean trench in what was my raspberry bed, the ground waterlogs in winter so the raspberries died and can't put anything permanent in there.
And having raised beds, I just mix and match, and try to remember if I've got whole beds planted up not to put that crop there again. But I think if you're sticking a few shallots here and a lettuce there and a cabbage over there, it doesn't matter too much.
Sue

[Alison]

The thing with beans is you usually put a trench of kitchen waste etc in over the winter where the beans will be grown which basically means that although you might be growing in the same place, you're not actually growing in the same soil. If you tried to simply sow the seeds in the same place each year without doing this then you would soon run into problems with nutrient difficiency. Anyway, in this way you can keep have a permanent support framework without the worry. However, you do loose out on getting the benefits of the nitrogen fixing of the beans in your rotation - can get this from peas etc too so may not be a problem, depends on how much of everything you grow. Hope that this makes sense.

[Minty]

Thanks everyone.This has really helped,
Minty

[Snadger]

The thing with beans is you usually put a trench of kitchen waste etc in over the winter where the beans will be grown which basically means that although you might be growing in the same place, you're not actually growing in the same soil. If you tried to simply sow the seeds in the same place each year without doing this then you would soon run into problems with nutrient difficiency. Anyway, in this way you can keep have a permanent support framework without the worry. However, you do loose out on getting the benefits of the nitrogen fixing of the beans in your rotation - can get this from peas etc too so may not be a problem, depends on how much of everything you grow. Hope that this makes sense.

A little trick you could add to this, as first voiced by NTG methinks, is to line your trench with polythene. Any type of polythene will do, old fertiliser bags, clear polythene or anything you can lay your hand on. Puncture a few holes in it with a fork and add you kitchen scraps and cap with soil as Alison says! The only difference is that at the end of the growing season you clear everything out above the polythene to another area and start from fresh the following year in the same area.
Haven't tried this myself as I aint a great lover of runner beans! I grow enough dwarf french beans to fill my freezer instead.
Sounds feasible though and allows you to use permanent support posts!

[Sue]

Hi Snadger
I saw this method being used on the recently issued Allotment DVD's, looked very successful and I want to try it this way, got lots of kitchen waste to go in, just need to get digging.
Sue

[Eden]

hi there, my friend lined her bean trench with cardboard with holes in and her beans drowned. The soil on her allotment is a bit clayey and with all the rain we had this summer the water had nowhere to go, so make sure the water can drain away, we've now dug in plenty of organic stuff and grit and sand so that should help!