Which crop group system to use?

PhoneGuru

I'm a little confused.

I have two books which I trust - but one bit is confusing.

The Vegetable and Herb Expert has a 3 year rotation system in it, Roots, Brassicas and Others. It has potatoes included in Roots, but has Leeks and Onions / garlics etc included in Others.

The River Cottage Handbook has a 4 year system which is basically Others, Brassicas, Roots and Onions, Potatoes. This system has "roots and onions" in the same grouping, and has Potatoes not included as a "root" but given their own bed.

Which one to trust? What is the most reliable. Would prefer the simplest so was thinking along the lines of: Roots + Onions, Brassicas, Others.

Lotus-eater

You will find you have to treat crop rotation as a bit up for massaging.

You may not want to grow enough of one thing to fill up a whole quarter rotation.

As long a rotation as you can manage is best, is the simplest way of putting it. But if you don't want to waste space on potatoes, then grow something else instead.
I use, potatoes, brassicas, roots, alliums and beans/peas. So a five way rotation, but of course I have plenty of others to fit in as well. Squashes take up alot of space, so do sweetcorn, lettuce fit in anywhere there is space.
In effect I never follow the rotation properly, the type of crops I grow, just don't fit in, but I do the best I can to never follow year on year in the same place and I'm always dead careful with brassicas to give them as long as possible between each crop.
I also have the problem of white rot, so my alliums can't go in half of my beds and some of my beds are completely shaded in winter, so can't be used very well for over wintering crops.

It's bloody complicated and I gave up straining my brain too much about it in the winter, years ago.

Zazen999

It's dead easy. [Sorry LE].

IF you think of a - the reason that you rotate being to stop disease and b - the amount of crops that you will need.

Potatoes and onions have different pests and disease; so they don't have to be rotated together.

Usually, the amount of potatoes that you grow will need quite alot of space, so rotate them separately to anything else.

Second to potatoes, which often get blight or eelworm [the main reasons for crop rotation] the next biggie to rotate is Brassicas as they get; well; everything plus clubroot and cabbage root fly which can stay in your soil for years.

Thus, the Hessayon method is simplest as it separates out these and leave 'others' for you to mess about with yourself.

However, if you have [say] 8 beds, you could separate out the rotation to 8 veg types and grow like that...it's all about the space you have to grow in.

Personally, although I understand and recommend it with everyone I work with, I just keep it simple and rotate my potatoes and brassicas; the rest gets popped in as and when all around the plot. Mainly because I vary the amounts and like to dot things around rather than grow in strict straight rows.

Winged_one

I do a 5 crop rotation - PLBOR
People Love Bunches of Roses
translates to
Potatoes Legumes (peas and beans) Brassicas Onions Roots

Squashes, salads and sweetcorn all fit into gaps where-ever needed in the system. So far, it's worked OK for me, but I have reasonable space.

jeferey

I do a 4 year system over 8 raised beds on my allotment. I tend to have 2 beds for potatoes, one for peas, another for broad beans, one for sweetcorn and butternut squash (sprawling underneath), one for brassicas, one for onions and the last one for carrots.
I also have another allotment where I do more potatoes, carrots, beetroot, onions, runner beans, leeks, pumpkins, courgettes, etc. and move these around on a four year cycle too.

bethesda

PhoneGuru wrote: »

"roots and onions" .

hugh's gone for this option as planting onions and carrots together can deter carrot root fly etc


both ideas are good - you have to work out for yourself what you want to do though as hugh's example is run using organic methods while the expert's books aren't.

PhoneGuru

Thanks for the advice everyone, I can see the advantages of all. I guess best to do what seems right for my patch. I've noticed the expert books comment "if you can't stick to a strict rotation best to plant overground veg one year, and underground veg the other" or somehting to that extent - dont have the book with me.

I have 1 plot and the other is useless, so right now I'm on 1 plot plus pots. I've found the early and second early spuds do very well in pots. But I guess I would have to change the compost next year if I don't want to risk diseases etc. Oh well, will just crack on and see what happens :-)