Crop rotation help please

[Curlykale]

I thought I had my crop rotation sorted, but now realise that my plan is flawed.

I have four 'plots' each of which has 4 raised beds.

Last year I grew the following:-

Plot 1 - Potatoes
Plot 2 - Legumes
Plot 3 - Onions and roots (I tried to keep the onion family and roots in separate beds within this plot but they did get a bit jumbled up)
Plot 4 - Brassicas

This year plan A was to move everything up one bed as follows:-

Plot 1 - Legumes
Plot 2 - Onions & roots
Plot 3 - Brassicas
Plot 4 - Potatoes

But now, having read a bit more about it, it seems as though legumes should be followed by brassicas, brassicas should be followed by onions & roots, and onions (& roots?) should be followed by potatoes.

So plan B was going to be like this:-

Plot 1 - Legumes
Plot 2 - Brassicas
Plot 3 - Potatoes
Plot 4 - Onions & roots
then just move them all up one place each year.

However, this means that Plot 3 will have roots in for 3 years on the trot (going from onions & roots (yr 1) to Potatoes (yr 2) to onions & roots again (yr 3)

Also, following this rotation, potatoes would always be followed by more roots.

Should I split the onions and roots up and put the other roots in the same plot as the potatoes?

I know it isn't rocket science, and some people don't follow any crop rotation, but I like to be organised (I live my life by lists ) and I'm feeling dizzy trying to work it out!

Any advice would be great.

[Aberdeenplotter]

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I'm feeling dizzy trying to work it out!

Wow mate, you've got my head spinning as well. My biggest problem is that you are combining onions and roots. Onions are gross feeders and will thrive on loads of FYM being dug in before planting, whereas you shouldn't plant roots where there is fresh manure.

Trying to relate your cropping to my system, I would have the spuds, followed by the brassicas/onions(brassicas also love FYM) followed by the roots followed by the legumes. For me, the legumes could go anywhere within the rotation system and the brassicas/onions could be in front of the spuds but the roots must not go where there is fresh FYM.

[Kristen]

Also, following this rotation, potatoes would always be followed by more roots.

Potatoes are not really Roots in the sense that Parsnips and Carrots etc are.

Potatoes need lots of manure, Parsnips / Carrots none. They are also different "family" members, so don't share the same diseases (Potatoes and Tomatoes share diseases though, so should be in the same rotation)

So no problem following Potatoes with Roots. Moreover, Potatoes take up a lot of space, so having them as a bed on their own probably makes sense.

You may have a problem that some year's of the rotation need more space than others. My rotation has a double-bed for Brassicas, for example.

Probably no help in your case but I have:

Zone 1 - which has 4 beds

Legumes
Brassicas
Roots
Onions

Zone 2 - 5 beds

Potatoes
Sweet peas
Brassicas
Sweetcorn
Gladioli

[zazen999]

It really doesn't matter - just stick to the rotation that you have or change it once and stick to it.

I just rotate the spuds around my plot, and for everything else, i just don't follow like with like.

The reason that potatoes should follow onions and roots is that potatoes are usually manured and as onions are usually grown with roots, and roots don't like too much nitrogen, they go last on the manured patch.

Do you have swedes and turnips in your roots section? As these should be in the brassica section.

I think your Plan B list has your onions and potatoes the wrong way round.

If you stick to:

Potatoes then legumes then brassicas then onions and roots.....rotate your potatoes into their next bed this year and have the other beds following the above - the issue you will have this year is that the onions will be in the same bed 2 years running.

However - another thing to remember is that legumes can go anywhere....and unless you have onion white rot or clubroot; so can onions or brassicas.

I find that if I rotate the spuds; all the other beds can be mixed and matched and things can all be grown in together - so I dig a small 1m square patch for carrots, add some sand and just cover that area with enviromesh - and in the same bed next to that I will pop dwarf beans, and herbs etc, so it's not all roots in that bed. I tend to add a handful of the nutrient that benefits that plant rather than treat a whole bed. And things like squashes go into spare corners and are angled away from the bed - and they grow down the paths so that the fruits stay clean[ish]

[Curlykale]

Thanks so much for all your replies - I think I'll go with Zazen's suggestion and stick to Plan B but swop the potatoes and onions & roots round. Cheers guys

[roadkill]

i have a four bed rotation and it goes like this in bed one

Potatoes ( add manure ) YEAR 1
Legumes YEAR 2
Brassicas (add lime ) YEAR 3
Roots YEAR 4

Not sure if this is the right way but it seems to work well

[Kristen]

Not sure if this is the right way but it seems to work well

Looks good to me

[Snadger]

Mmmmmm.......I've come to believe that proper crop rotation was devised for farmers of old
Personally, as long as I try not to follow like with like everything seems to prosper. I don't have to get bogged down with spreadsheets and worry about when to do this and what follows what.........generally, life becomes a whole lot simpler!

[Flummery]

I am also of the Zazzen/Snadger school of 'Don't follow like with like' rotation. You really can get bogged down. You are supposed to follow legumes which fix nitrogen at their roots by something which wants a good feed, but I'm sure you feed your plot anyway so why fret? Just don't put carrots where you've put manure.

The old tale went that the 4 year farming rotation went - Barley, Barley, Barley, World Cruise!

[Aberdeenplotter]

The old tale went that the 4 year farming rotation went - Barley, Barley, Barley, World Cruise!

I think the equivalent over the pond went something like, Wheat, Wheat Wheat. Wheat happened to my soil that it all blew away?

[Kristen]

I'm am strict about my crop rotation because I fear that a disease, once entrenched, will be hard to get rid of and that different types of plants have different feeding habits - and thus I think that growing four different things, in rotation over 4 years, gives the soil better ability to cope / recover.

But I have also read a school-of-thought that says to grow mono-culture, in the same place, UNTIL you have disease and then you have plenty of other places to grow to avoid that patch altogether.

I'm also in the Spreadsheet camp but only because I want to "tune" my plan; I record when I sowed & harvested, how many plants I grew, and whether it was too much/little and too early/late, and then adjust the plan for next year.

Actually, after four years of doing that there is now no real change to the plan each year, I have the times & amounts "about right". Other folk could probably remember that info from one year to the next, but my memory is shocking for being certain that A happened before B and on date C etc ...