Crop Rotation Query

[rustylady]

the root bed has a couch grass infestation I can't get on top of, so I don't want to plant any below-soil veg in it so I can mulch heavily to keep the couch under control.

Kaiya, I don't think mulching will help much with the couch grass. You really need to dig it out.

If there is a lot of grass on the surface you could cover with thick cardboard after cutting the grass to ground level, but you will still need to dig the roots out after the top growth has died back.

[Kaiya]

Unfortunately digging it out hasn't worked - it's an area of soil adjacent to the main allotment path, which is where it's coming from. I've repeatedly dug it up but doing so sacrifices the crop that is in there, and it comes right back again within 1-2 weeks. Which means effectively I have a bed I can't use, as no crop can be dug around to the extent needed every few weeks to keep on top of the blasted stuff. So the new plan is repeated cardboard mulching and using the bed for a few large plants so repeating the mulch is easier and gaps it can get up through are fewer. Or possibly I may use fabric for a year.

[Alison]

Then roots follow brassicas, not potatoes.

Manure - then potatoes, then legumes, then brassicas, then roots then manure again. If manure is what you are using.

That's pretty much what I do (although don't really manure, use a lot of home made compost and green manures / comfrey etc). I have organised things so that I get about the right amount of what we want to use into a series of beds (plus the tunnel) and find that keeping it organised like this makes it easier for me to keep up with where I'm supposed to be. If I go more random then I lose track although I do shove salad crops and squashes in anywhere I can find the space

[Feral007]

We have our own manure here, but it was a bit too popular with the kelpies when I put it on the garden. Plus when we take it from the paddock it is missing out on it's fertilizer. So I'm doing the manure tea.

I suspect that the kelpies will like the smell of it too, but if there's nothing to chew on I'm hoping they'll get over it? My father used to use the manure tea growing all his veg when we were kids, so I'm going to see if it's as good as or better than transferring the horse scones from the paddock.

[zazen999]

That's pretty much what I do (although don't really manure, use a lot of home made compost and green manures / comfrey etc). I have organised things so that I get about the right amount of what we want to use into a series of beds (plus the tunnel) and find that keeping it organised like this makes it easier for me to keep up with where I'm supposed to be. If I go more random then I lose track although I do shove salad crops and squashes in anywhere I can find the space

I don't manure either - I meant that if the OP wants to, that's the time to manure it.

[thegreatcob]

if can't get rid of couch grass you are not using the correct organic or chemical herbicides to do the job.
there several chemical and organic herbicides that will kill couch grass.
there is also the methods that smother it with weed fabric or plastic tarps or sheet to smother it.
If you want gone you need to use stronger method that will cost money digging is not an effective method; it just temporary knocks it down.

[thegreatcob]

as for crop rotation I use and 8 crop rotation system
legumes,roots,squash,potatoes,corn, cabbage,peas and tomatoes.

[Telford Grower]

Thanks for the advice everyone. Looks like the root of my problem was the rotation plan!

[Two_Sheds]

couch grass infestation I can't get on top of... digging it out hasn't worked - it's an area of soil adjacent to the main allotment path, which is where it's coming from.

I have the same problem, with couch coming in from the plot next door.

I've planted a barrier of comfrey plants between the couch and my beds, but of course it comes up in everything all the time. Every year I dig up my comfreys, pull the couch roots out, then replant the comfrey. It's tedious.

Oh, I also have my newspaper/cardboard mulch around the comfrey plants, which shades out the less aggressive weeds, but has little effect on the couch, which will just happily travel underground until it finds light, and pop up there. It's all through my strawberry bed now *sigh*

I think it would be easier to dig over the neighbouring plot myself, and get it all out with a fork: at the moment it gets rotavated twice a year

If you want gone you need to use stronger method that will cost money digging is not an effective method

This is not going to work unless she can tackle the cause (the neighbouring plot) as well as her own

Couch travels for miles underground, and spread on the wind with its seeds too.

[Kaiya]

Yep, it's coming from the main path of the allotments (i.e. not a path on my plot - the path that belongs to the allotment site itself). Same story as TS but I definitely can't dig up the path, nor would I want to! I don't want to use herbicides, and I can't apply them to a grass path anyway as anything that kills couch will kill the grass path too. Gonna go for my smothering plan; my aim isn't to eradicate as that's unrealistic, just to make sure my crops have the edge. That's my approach to most pests and weeds.

Although thegreatcob appears to have been banned? How odd.

[Two_Sheds]

thegreatcob appears to have been banned? How odd.

There would be a good reason: the mods are very fair.

[Kaiya]

I don't doubt it!