First year rotation gone to pot. Is it all set to fail ?

[Minty]

Hi All,

having a massive personal crisis.. I had a rough plan/idea of crop rotation but excitement has got the better of me and of my four beds two have potatoes in so i think they will be OK,but the other 2 are an excited blast of seed growing and manic garden center purchases.

For example bed 1 currently has peas, onion,radish,carrot,french beans, runner beans, sweetcorn, beetroot, lettuce and cukes .

The second bed is a mix of cabbage, calabrese, psb, brussels, swede more onions(and more space to get it wrong).

Cum on do i leave it in or rip it out and start again , tough most seems to be doin OK at the mo.

Feel a bit like Nero waiting for it to all crash down.

A slightly worried, but still tough lad with misspelt tattoos,
Minty

[zazen999]

Doh; it'll be fine.

The only things to really worry about are the spuds and brassicas; so as long as you don't grow them in the same place next year it'll be fine. So, you can alternate the spud beds and I'm sure everything will be ok.

My personal crop rotation ideally is:
spuds, followed by beans followed by brassicas and then onions. But, onions and beans end up going where there is space, so I'm just moving the other two around every year and trying to keep the beans and onions somewhere between them. I'll certainly not lose any sleep if things get put in the wrong place.

Plus, alot of problems are inly built up after a few years anyway; so year 1 shouldn't be any real problem.

[smallblueplanet]

Lol! What zazen999 says - crop rotation is so you don't grow the same things in the same place year after year!

[roadkill]

i wouldnt worry about it as long as you dont plant it in the same place next year as this is when problems can start

[Alice]

Don't worry Minty. In the first year it doesn't matter. Just jeep a note and don't plant the same things in the same place next year. Hope it all works out wonderful for you.

[yoanbob]

hey minty, you'll be fine just learn from this year and be more disiplined next! lol. we all learnt the hard way, its the only way it sticks in my blonde bonce!

[TrulyGreen]

Minty I am really new to all this and my first bed had swede, broad beans, spring onions, carrots, radish, baby leeks and probably some things that I planted in over enthusiasm and can't even remember. The broad beans have taken half the bed and when the leeks were swallowed up by the spread of the swedes I had to move them to containers.....they are still going strong. Next the swede overshadowed the spring onions and carrots and some of the swede just had to go!!
Unfortuately we newbies get so excited about it all that we tend to forget that things get bigger....and bigger...and.....well you get the picture.
Everyone on here is so fab though with advice and I am amazed that so many of my plants are surviving despite my attentions.....I have learned such a lot and keeping notes is really good advice.....good luck with it all.

[Two_Sheds]

I crop-rotate religiously on my first plot, but my 2nd is a work-in-progress, so I am just planting it up as I clear a bit ... nothing is in the 'right' place.
But next year, it will all have been cleared of weeds and dug over, and my crop-rotation plan can start properly.

[Flummery]

I usually take a photo to try and remember where I put stuff. I go by the 'not in the same place two years running' school of crop rotation. Fairly slack but it seems to work. You can get obsessed with this sort of thing and while there's a good scientific reason for it, the basic thing is not to allow problems to build up by over-use of the same area for the same family of veg.

Don't panic, lad - and certainly don't rip anything out - not till it's ready to harvest anyway. Next year, plan a bit. It's ok to leave a gap when planting out - where something of the same group will go when it's ready.

Best of luck.

[vegman]

Crop rotation is good practice for the long term vitality of both soil and crops. However, if sometimes things go a bit out of order it shouldnt really matter.

eg My first earlies are starting to come out now and my sprouting broccoli and kale will be planted in the bed just behind the pots. I know that I wont be able to resist planting the extra plants in some of the space now made vacent by the pots even though next year, the bracciacs will be planted where the pots are !

Keep a record of your beds and rotation sequence. After a couple of years you will soon get to know how to work the system and what the beds will yield. Enjoy it and dont get too serious.