The Importance of Crop Rotation
Whether you grow you veg on an allotment or in the back garden you need to follow a rotation. If you grow the same items in the same place year after year you will get a build up of viruses, pests and diseases specific to that crop. Different crops also use different nutrients and trace elements from the soil so another reason that you need to rotate the crops.
There are many systems for rotations that are designed to ensure that the next crop utilizes nutrients left by the previous one. It is not a hard and fast rule and if you can’t rotate everything all the time and need to double up… don’t worry – it is not the end of the world!! Just remember that Potatoes and Brassicas (cabbage family) are fussy so try to keep them off the same ground year after year.
Some Principles of Crop Rotation
Try to keep crops from the same family together as they generally require the same upkeep and feeding.
I am using the following 4 year rotation on my new plot..
1 potatoes (add compost and manure + BFB or gen fertilizer) No Lime
2 legumes + brassicas (test if lime req. for brassicas)
3 curcubita (squash family) + sweet corn (add BFB or gen fertilizer)
4 roots / onions (+ BFB or gen fertilizer)
You need to have the largest possible gap between potatoes being planted in the same place… and this also goes for Brassicas.
Brassicas like lime and potatoes don’t so you need to plant Potatoes before brassicas and test whether you need to add lime before planting the Brassicas.
I follow with Curcubita and sweet corn as an intermediate filler..
Root crops such as carrots and parsnips don’t like being manured as it causes them to split and fork. Onions and leeks need a good dose of compost and manure though..
I have this diagram on my desk and use it to plan my plot.. I have a sketch of my plot to scale showing what is going to be planted where and colour coded so it is easy to see what to follow with. I’m a bit of a geek when it comes to planning the plot so a lot of changed are made to suit conditions from start of the planning to actual planting. But still always using the colour coded rotations.. I then save the yearly plan and use it to plan the following rotations..
You can change the 4 year into a 3 year simply by combining 2 and 3 together as one.
1 potatoes
2 legumes + brassicas + curcubita
3 roots / onions
