Polyculture v. crop rotation

[zazen999]

zazen999
so you don't use any organic sprays to kill insects or unwanted plants.
if you do they are still pesticides and herbicides.
organic sprays can be just as dangerous as the ones created in factory from raw chemicals.

This is not about me. This is about your statement that farmers drenching fields in chemicals is 'totally incorrect'. I am merely pointing out that your assertion needed some clarification.

Edit - FYI - I have just banned DG - not for being rude but because they are a previously banned user signed up under another name.

[Snadger]

To each there own.

Farmers have to earn a living and planting of a field with a single crop in rows and doing whatever is necessary within the law to make sure they get a marketable crop at the end of it is a must.No one can blame farmers for trying to make a living.
I personally grow my stuff in small 'pockets' at the allotment but if I have a crop failure its not the end of the world.
Some crops I have reverted back to rows though. Whereas we can experiment in gardens and allotments, I would imagine that farmers have to do what they know works and will guarantee them a crop.

There is no right and wrong way and we shouldn't be so hard on farmers.

[Linzy]

I very loosely crop rotate. For example ive planted a row of potatoes at the top of the Lottie, these will move to the middle next year then the bottom the year after. I try not to grow the same crop in the same place every year. However between all my rows there are either flowers, or quick cropping things like radish, lettuce and rocket. I try to keep as much ground covered as poss to discourage to many bugs and weeds. Seems to work OK to me. Manure the soil after a greedy crop has been in. Leave a bit for carrots and parsnips with no manure.

[salome2001]

thanks all. interesting... especially the moving rows by 50cm idea. I do net my brassicas as we have squadrons of wood pigeons and they all but destroyed by PSB last year so they do have to go together (apart from kale, which is next to my broad beans as they will probably be gone by the time the kale really kicks in (my "dwarf" curled kale last year got to about 1m high and was still cropping well into March)
Good point TS about replenishing the soil- will give the lottie compost bins a rustle too, rather than just feeding them vast quantities of weeds