Winter rotation headache

[Staddy Lassy]

Hello - new member here in need of some help please.
Have read through lots of the posts and can't find quite the right thread so am hoping someone out there can ease my muddled mind!

Two years ago we took over half an allotment plot, a long thin strip. It had well established fruit bushes, raspberry canes and rhubarb even a cherry tree but the blackbird beats us to it and it's too large to net, so the remaining area we organised as four growing areas.
There seems to be several versions of crop rotation, all subtly different but the one we plumped on was
Potatoes – Legumes – Brassicas – Roots
However, we also considered Potatoes – Legumes – Roots – Brassicas
What I cannot get my head around is that for the potatoes you should manure the bed the autumn before planting, but how can I do this when the bed which should next be used for potatoes either has the Brassicas still in it which hate manure or still have my leeks in it, both well into February this year. Likewise I can’t plant the onions/garlic in the autumn if they are following the brassicas.
On these lines it would be easier to put the potatoes where the legumes had been as they are finished early, but then the nitrogen that they grab in their roots is beneficial for the brassicas.
I think and re-think my ideas but just keep going round in circles HELP PLEASE!

[Two_Sheds]

I've never used (horse) manure in me life. I don't lime the brassicas either.


Keep it simple in your first year, don't get tied up in rotational knots. Just try to follow one crop family with a different one.

My 3 bed rotation is

- legumes
- brassicas
- roots

I now have alliums and spuds in their own permanent beds because of white rot & scab problems

[Bigmallly]

Welcome to the vine SL, I don't think it is that Brassicas don't like manure so long as it is applied the previous autumn. This link explains better, check out the soil details section. All of my beds have had a good amount of manure put on last autumn, I'll just scatter a touch of lime around the Brassicas at planting time.

Growing cabbage - instructions, growing tips, advice, pictures

[zazen999]

I keep it simple!

I rotate the potatoes; and everything else goes in where it goes in as long as the same family doesn't follow the same family I'm ok.

A simple guide from Garden Organic can be found here

Don't get too hung up on it though - the main thing to remember is that you are rotating to prevent disease so make sure you know what family each crop you are growing sits in. And never follow like with like.

I'd stick with your first plan to be honest, manure then pots then legumes then lime then brassicas then roots [but remember swede is a brassica] and then manure and start again...

I also don't use manure any more [used it once, and it was contaminated so check your sources] - but I have heavy clay and it does hold it's nutrients well. So I use other things to open the soil up like sand and sawdust as a mulch [when I can get hold of any].

One thing Andy [the Head Gardener at Ryton] told me, was decide on a plan and stick with it.

[taff]

I think you just manure the autumn before if you're digging your plot over and then putting almost fresh manure on, to break down everything in the frost.
If you're using well-rotted stuff, it can go on two weeks or so before you plant.

[VirginVegGrower]

My brassicas follow my legumes. My onions follow my brassicas. My potatoes follow my onions. My legumes follow my potatoes. My squashes, salad, sweetcorn go in when o/w onions, garlic and first early potatoes come out. Does that make sense? I dig deep sit trenches which I fill with kitchen peelings for my bean/pea bed. Once they are out my brassicas go in. They don't get manure, just rotting compost under the soil. My potato and onion beds are manured (chicken in my case). So it kind of works for me. Every time I have an empty patch that I can't manure, I sow green manure.

I think I've written this correctly...am doing so from memory and trying to visualize my beds.

[Matt94]

sorry i cant tell from your post whether you've still got the fruit on your plot or whether you've dug them up. If youve still got the fruit bushes hang CD's off of them, this will hopefully dazzle the birds and prevent them eating your fruit!

[Bigmallly]

but remember swede is a brassica

Glad you mentioned that Zaz, I was gonna put it in the root bed.

[zazen999]

Glad you mentioned that Zaz, I was gonna put it in the root bed.

So is rocket - and mizuna. And other round seeded 'lettuce' type crops.

[Alison]

So is rocket - and mizuna. And other round seeded 'lettuce' type crops.

But rocket etc isn't in the ground long so (as with radish) is grown outside of my rotation wherever it might fit (physically) at the time . Swedes and turnips though grown with the brassicas as part of my potato - legumes - brassicas - roots & onion rotation. As with other people above, other things get crow barred in somewhat . Have different rotation in polytunnel though as less families grown but do make sure toms not grown in same bed two times in a row and are intersperced with sweet potatoes, peas or whatever to minimise how often I need to dig the soil out.