Is it safe to follow kohl rabi and turnips with more brassicas?

[Snoop Puss]

Hi guys,

I've worked out my rotation for this year, but as ever I don't have quite enough room for my brassicas. Kohl rabi and turnips aren't in the ground for all that long and I was wondering about whether it's OK to follow them with another brassica (kale) or whether it would be better to intercrop them in the gaps between my Brussels sprouts plants and cabbages while the sprout plants are still small, leaving the ground for the kale from the start?

If the second option is the better idea, at what point should I stop this intercropping? When the sprout plants are 30 cms or so tall, for example?

Hope I've explained this OK...

[Bigmallly]

I have dedicated Brassica beds Snoop so my Spring Cabbage will be replaced with Summer ones & Caulis, then Winter ones or maybe Sprouts so it's a risk I am willing to take as they are in a purpose built tunnel.

[Snoop Puss]

Thanks, Bigmallly. Sounds like you're in a similar situation to me, with dedicated beds.

[lottie dolly]

seems it's the new idea,and i will follow,saves all that hastle of moveing framework ext,maybe it has something to do with the modern straines of types ??.

[Penellype]

The idea of crop rotation is to avoid the buildup of pests and diseases and to avoid one particular type of plant from repeatedly taking the same combination nutrients from the soil. The standard 4 year rotation was designed to involve a year of clover (and possibly also one of turnips or beets) in which the field remained fallow and was then grazed by animals. The clover was then ploughed in along with the animal manure to fertilize the land. The need for this is eliminated if you have sufficient compost or manure to feed the soil.

The disease issue is more relevant, but many of the worst diseases such as club root or onion white rot last a lot more than 4 years anyway. Providing that your brassica plants were healthy and not covered in pests I don't think there would be much issue with following kohlrabi and turnips with kale. Whether it is a good idea to repeatedly grow the same crops in the same soil year on year is another matter, but as long as you avoid repeating a crop where there has been a problem with disease or pests (which often pupate in the soil) it would probably be ok.

[Snoop Puss]

Thanks, Penellype. I have a four-year rotation plan and, as far as I can tell, there are no signs of club root. So, all systems go! Thanks everyone.

[Snadger]

I have to disagree with you all on this one.

As one who has lived with clubroot on another plot, and eventually got rid of it by good husbandry, there is no way I am taking any chances with my present plot. Its just not worth it.

The two crops that I think HAVE to be rotated are brassicas and potatoes. Legumes and to some extent alliums I would possibly chance in the same bed each year, but not brassicas and potatoes.

Thats my two penneth!

[Snoop Puss]

Hi Snadger, just to be clear, I have three beds this year to give over to brassicas. Next year those beds will be occupied by a different family. I am lucky in that I don't need to grow any particular family in the same place two years running.

I operate on a four-year rotation plan. So my idea is to grow kohl rabi and turnips - which aren't in the ground for very long, relatively speaking - in the spring and early summer and then follow them with kale for the rest of the growing season.

[Penellype]

Fair comment, Snadger. However, just growing brassicas in the same soil each year won't give it clubroot, unless you import the disease on infected plants. If you do that, its not going to matter what you grew there last year.

I agree about potatoes. Most people get blight at some point, and as blight overwinters on infected live potato tissue, planting potatoes where there may be some potatoes that were missed from last year's harvest is just asking for trouble.

[Snadger]

Its not just the disease element that would worry me. I know some people practice an annual rotation rather than true rotation, but surely you are asking a bit much of an area of land to provide the same nutrients twice in succession?

All manner of bugs will be attracted to early brassicas laying there eggs in the soil and the pupae could attack and decimate the later crop.

[Snadger]

Hi Snadger, just to be clear, I have three beds this year to give over to brassicas. Next year those beds will be occupied by a different family. I am lucky in that I don't need to grow any particular family in the same place two years running.

I operate on a four-year rotation plan. So my idea is to grow kohl rabi and turnips - which aren't in the ground for very long, relatively speaking - in the spring and early summer and then follow them with kale for the rest of the growing season.

I know where you are coming from Snoop Puss and far be it from me to contradict your methods

Horses for courses I suppose, we each must do what we think is right for us.

[Penellype]

From the nutrients point of view I would feed the soil with compost or similar before replanting. On the occasions when I have followed one brassica crop with another in the same year I haven't noticed an increase in pests, although I do grow my brassicas under fine insect mesh rather than just butterfly netting.

[burnie]

I'm guessing this means planting in the "same" year in ground that didn't have brassicas in the previous year. Well I've put winter cabbage behind summer golden acre primo and had no problems. Keep everything clean and I'm sure you will be ok.

[Snadger]

Not convinced, but each to there own!

[lottie dolly]

I just wonder if,the reason plants like brassica get a problem,is also down to not enough feed/manure ext,so if keeping in the same place and giveing them more each year,has just the same effect as rotating,this is purely my brain having a think.