Two year rotation for Alliums/Brassicas

[Snadger]

The main part of my plot I have devided up into a four keyhole bed rotation.

I'm usually not anal about rotation but try not to follow like with like.

My plan is for a winter crop rotation on two beds. My winter crops mainly consist of spring cabbage and red and white japanese onion sets. I have two beds roughly 12 foot by 4 foot wide. I have outlined these red on my plan.



Because the beds are the same size I can make blue debri netting covers that will easily move from one bed to the other on alternate years.
Spring cabbage are usually sown in July and should be still usable the following July. I can also take alternate plants as spring greens.
Japanese onion sets are usually planted in September and mature in July just in time for the spring cabbage plants to go out in August.

By mucking one bed each year and liming the other my dual rotation should work a treat and not interfere with my main cropping plan for the rest of the plot.

This is a way of seperating my main winter crops and still rotate them. Other brassicas including kales and swedes will be in the other rotation with maincrop onions and leeks.

[Bigmallly]

Good thinking Batman............personally I would do away with Onions & replace them with Leeks. It's pure personal choice but I find Leeks easier to prepare in the kitchen & take up less space in the ground so you gets more for your money. In fact next year I plan to ditch Onions altogether & just grow Leeks as the pro's outweigh the cons.

[Deano's "Diggin It"]

See! Personal preferance comes into play here, I couldn't be without onions, as we use "Huggins" of em! and find leeks a bit of a faff!

Get your concept "Wholeheartedly" But would fear only having a 2 year cycle, would induce the possibilities of "Pink Root" n "Club Root" which to be honest, if I ever got, would be "Gutted" as it then takes that many years to eradicate!

But wish you all the best with it "Snadge"

[Snadger]

See! Personal preferance comes into play here, I couldn't be without onions, as we use "Huggins" of em! and find leeks a bit of a faff!

Get your concept "Wholeheartedly" But would fear only having a 2 year cycle, would induce the possibilities of "Pink Root" n "Club Root" which to be honest, if I ever got, would be "Gutted" as it then takes that many years to eradicate!

But wish you all the best with it "Snadge"

Good point Deano. I agree with you wholeheartedly about the onions as well.........they are staying!
Exhibition onion growers have been using monoculture with good success for ages. White rot is usually brought in with poor quality onion sets and it wouldn't matter where they were planted they would infect the soil.
I have studied clubroot extensively as i useed to have it on a my old plot. I managed to get rid of it there and with liming prior to planting I hope to be ok with Spring Cabbage once every two years. Clubroot isn't so active in the colder months anyway, as the fungus needs a bit of warmth to multiply.

I'll give it a test run for a couple of years and see how i get on.

I will still be growing leeks but they will be in my summer allium bed along with spring planted onions etc.

[ESBkevin]

Have a poke on Yootoob, Charles Dowding did a no dig experiment and had the same crop in the same place 4 years running. He gives results by annual weight over a dug bed, no dig bed and no dig bed with different compost iirc.
He intentionally kept the same vegetable in the same spot to see if the heavy composted no dig beds could sustain the plants year on year. Essentially the answer was you can do that and the healthy plants tend to be more resistant to disease and slightly exceeded the other beds in weight produced although that was marginal.

[Greenleaves]

No onions BM

Perhaps because of the amount of growing space I have my rotation is a bit traditional at 4 years for brassicas and onions. Other crops I don't rotate, sweetcorn, beetroot, legumes.

Back to BM's comment on leeks, I appreciate the concept but think onions are far more versatile and can't imagine eating a ploughman's with sliced leek but the beauty of our endeavour is choice

[Snadger]

Have a poke on Yootoob, Charles Dowding did a no dig experiment and had the same crop in the same place 4 years running. He gives results by annual weight over a dug bed, no dig bed and no dig bed with different compost iirc.
He intentionally kept the same vegetable in the same spot to see if the heavy composted no dig beds could sustain the plants year on year. Essentially the answer was you can do that and the healthy plants tend to be more resistant to disease and slightly exceeded the other beds in weight produced although that was marginal.

I have practiced no-dig on my old plot for years with great success. This one is a little bit different because of the scrap, glass,plastic bags,carpet and gawd knows what else!
On my other plot I dug it once only. On this plot I will dig certain areas, but may get away with just mucking or liming other dependant on how much rubbish is buried!

[lottie dolly]

Just a little observation and thoughts from other threads,just think HOW well a weed grows in all things waste,plus waste can act as a mulch holding onto moisture,as long as water and food come along,that is until they met by weed killer,just be carefull with the fingers around glass,