Crop Rotation

[carolineholding]

So this is my first year of growing stuff, and one of the things i've found bewildering is crop rotation. I'm using a four bed system, I have a brassica bed, a legumes bed, a tomatoes (etc) bed and then a roots and onions bed.

The thing is i'm not sure when you should rotate. This mainly, in fact almost entirely applies to the roots and onions bed, I'm finding it tricky squeezing all these crops into one bed and especially when they're often quite speedy -like nantes carrots.

What I did this summer for instance was planted autumn carrots in the place were the shallots had been in about July and then popped salad onions in after the summer carrots.

Not sure quite how I managed to avoid carrot fly -my attempt at a barrier was pants, but I did.

Would be interested to know what everyone else does, do most people sow one crop in one place for the year and then leave the soil to recover until next year?

thanks!

[zazen999]

What was tricky about doing that?

I crop rotate the spuds and everything else, I just don't follow like with like. But I go on families [so onions are alliums and carrots are umbelliferae,] rather than lumping all roots together. And some people don't realise that swedes and turnips are also brassicas so need to be included in the brassica rotation - if that's what you are going to do.

[carolineholding]

sorry, I'm not being very clear, what I'm worrying about is i have rows of say carrots and onions inter-planted and then when I pull up the carrots and onions I'm planted more onions where the carrots were and more carrots were the onions where, but in fact because the two families are sharing the same bed the new row of carrots is very close to the old row of carrots.

I was hoping that the smell of the onions and the carrots would disguise each other but I reckon because this is my first year growing food I may have gotten off lightly in regard to pests, but i'm not sure. Do other people swap round crops in this?

[zazen999]

That's fine!

Nothing to worry about there.

[Two_Sheds]

leave the soil to recover until next year?

Soil doesn't "recover" by being left bare, in fact it's likely to erode in the winds & rain, as topsoil is washed away. In extreme cases you get desertification.

You can certainly leave a bed empty of crops, but it needs to be covered with something: a green manure, a different crop, manure if that's your bag, or even just a layer of cardboard.

[Two_Sheds]

one of the things i've found bewildering is crop rotation.

You're not alone:

http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gra...ery_67999.html

http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gra...-do_67229.html

http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gra...her_66858.html

At its simplest, you just (as Zaz said) avoid following like with like, although in practise this isn't always possible. Don't get too hung up on it.

[Two_Sheds]

I crop rotate the spuds

Now I don't rotate my spuds, because my alkaline soil gives them scab ~ I grow them in a permanent bed which has had the soil removed and replaced with garden compost and heaps of leafmould.

Learn the rules, then bend 'em

[carolineholding]

thanks for all the links! no I'm not rotating my spuds either, I've grown them in manure in sacks/tyres and then moved the manure to the flower beds. I grew food without a garden for a long time, and am finding some container growing habits hard to break!

[vikkib]

*snip*

Don't get too hung up on it.

I need to keep this in mind more!

When I first got my plot I was very much in the 'I'll just bung stuff in and see how it goes' frame of mind but I think everyone else's anxiety about rotating is catching!

My main problem is the things I want to grow most of are definitely in the 'other' group (i.e. not brass or roots). I love garlic, leeks, tomatoes, corn, beans, squash, peppers, courgettes etc. and although I love growing spuds (not this year!) am less keen on roots etc.

You know it's bad when you wake up at 3am thinking... 'but the gaaaarlic... won't somebody think of the garlic?!'

[Kaiya]

I'm the opposite - I had a neat, anally retentive system planned - a 6 bed rotation of potatoes, sweetcorn/squash, legumes, brassicas, alliums, umbellifers, all with plans about when to manure, when not to manure etc. But since I utterly fail at umbellifers, couch invaded the end bed making it unsuitable for some things, I don't like eating most legumes and brassicas, the potatoes weren't worth the space given to them and we want more space for sweetcorn and alliums, so it's all gone merrily to pot and I'm simply following the 'don't follow like with like' guideline

However I would say I had immense fun planning it all, even though the plan left the planet a while back now. I like planning.

[horticultural_hobbit]

Did toy with the idea of crop rotation. Now it's a case of thinking about where I've planted things and not putting the same thing there. Crop rotation has its proponents and opponents. I'd go with the knowing the rules and then bending them

[PyreneesPlot]

I found the things I worried about in the UK like carrot, onion and cabbage root fly are not a problem here so far, so abandoned my rotation several times. I now just try to keep the family groups separate except when I don't!

[Snadger]

I think people get mixed up with 'true crop rotation' and 'annual crop rotation'. I practice true crop rotation and never follow like with like (usually) In annual crop rotation you can follow like with like during a single year. although it seems a bit pointless to me as the second crop of the same family will have to survive on the depleted nutrients that the first crop has taken out and will also suffer from any pest or disease build up from the first crop.

You have to remember also that crop rotation was devised for farmers with large areas planted with a single crop. Us gardeners/allotmenteers don't really need to be so anal about crop rotation and its not the end of the world if we don't always stick to the rules.
Common sense must prevail and just try not to grow the same type of crops on the same land continually.

'Seemples' really!