Turnips and swedes - crop rotation

[Sheepish]

I am suddenly confused...

I picked up my copy of 'The Vegetable and Herb Expert' to check the finer points of soil prep for turnips and saw them and swedes described as brassicas. The crop rotation plan I had from another book last year put them with root crops. Is there a significant difference between which group they're included in?

At the moment I have some space left where I had runner and broad beans last year. WIll the turnips benefit from being planted there? The alternative, which I was intending, is to have them where last year's spuds were.

[zazen999]

They are brassicas...and should be rotated with them if you are rotating....turnips grow really quickly though and I've found they don't really suffer much from disease so they could go anywhere - but swedes can be in a long time so I tend to keep those with the cabbages.

[Snadger]

Along with Kohl rhabi, mustard and wallflowers they are all brassica's and need an alkali soil. They also suffer from all the brassica pests and diseases!

[Alison]

As already said they are both brassicas but don't look like them when they're on your plate as you eat the root bit rather than the leaves. If you look at the leaves though you can see that they're related to the cabbages and kales of this world. I too however have noticed that they're included with carrots etc in quite a few books which I believe it based on a how they grow rotation rather than a family rotation which more of us follow. The theory being that if you grow things one year for leaf, one year for root etc there are certain advantages, this ignores the fact that a particular family is susceptible to certain disease and has the possibility of build up in the soil.

Back to your original question, I'd put them in the ex bean plot and then make sure that you don't grow any other brassicas there next year, perhaps go for carrots or something there before spuds the year after.

[Sheepish]

Thanks for the help.

As it happens I have managed to kill off quite a few cabbage seedlings so there's more space going spare in the brassica section than I originally expected. I'll have enough space to fit in the swedes at one end and have planted a row of turnips to intercrop between where the sprouts will go when they're ready. Just need to rotate accordingly in future years.

[Snadger]

......................I too however have noticed that they're included with carrots etc in quite a few books which I believe it based on a how they grow rotation rather than a family rotation which more of us follow.................

Any book that lists them as anything other than brassica's are giving false information and a note to the Editor would not go amiss!
Brassica's are one of the most troublesome crops to grow and the brassica family is probably the biggest we as gardeners will use, so we need CORRECT information at the start!

[Sheepish]

The book was Gardening Through the Year by Ian Spence, a present a couple of Christmases ago. To be fair it didn't actually say they were or weren't brassicas, it just included them in a rotation group with carrots, potatoes and celeriac as opposed to cabbage, colis and sprouts.

[Alison]

Any book that lists them as anything other than brassica's are giving false information and a note to the Editor would not go amiss!
Brassica's are one of the most troublesome crops to grow and the brassica family is probably the biggest we as gardeners will use, so we need CORRECT information at the start!

Which the biggest family you grow will depend on personal taste, my biggest problem is getting enough space for spuds but I know other people who devote unfeasibily large areas to peas.

The book was Gardening Through the Year by Ian Spence, a present a couple of Christmases ago. To be fair it didn't actually say they were or weren't brassicas, it just included them in a rotation group with carrots, potatoes and celeriac as opposed to cabbage, colis and sprouts.

That's the same as I've noticed, it's an interpretation thing and whilst I much prefer to grow all my brassicas together there is a school of thought that you should grow all root vegs together although this would obviously soon become a problem if you have club root present on yours site.