Rotation

[Bren]

What follows what in a 3 year rotation, is there any set rules?, Brassicas, legumes, and roots. I know the roots are potatoes, carrots,parsnip and beetroot, brassacas are cabbages, cauliflower,sprouts, legumes are peas and beans, not sure where onions, shallots,leeks and sweetcorn fit in these are the veg. I grow with the tomatoes in the greenhouse with lettuce in a raised bed, squashes are in a separate bed.
At the moment I do rotate at a hit and miss fashion but would like to get into a proper routine.
Bren

[Mike Vogel]

In a 3-year rotation the alliums go either with roots or with the beans. Follow beans with brassicas and then roots.

The problem with this method is that certain crops in the same group need different soil preparation. For example, it is not a good idea to manure the autumn before carrots and parsnips, but it is before spuds and celeriac or celery.

And where do you put your outdoor toms? They are the same family as spuds, but in the trad. 3-year rotation they are often put with beans.

If I did a 3-year rotation I would put in the leeks where you've dug up your early spuds and grow tomatoes with the beans, risking blight from where the spuds were last year. Planting out toms after early spuds is an idea, because the earlies probably won't have the blight before you've dug them up.

It's a nightmare if you worry about it. That's why I use a 7-year rotation on an allotment consisting of 2 10-pole plots and a little bit more.

If you use {raised} beds, you will avoid some of the problems, because you can then plan your rotation for each bed separately.

The rotation on any one particular bed on my plot would be:

Spuds [followed by leeks where they are earlies]
Garlic [+ onions but we don't eat onion]
Beans
brassicas
toms
roots
squashes, marrows etc.

with lots of green manure at times when the bed is otherwise idle. Salad crops and Coriander fit in when beds are waiting for a later crop or have finished an early harvest.

Bewarethough. The spuds [and maybe the brassicas] take upo a lot more space than the others, so will eventually overtake the tomatoes, which means the danger of blight again. But so far i've avoidedthis by using the extra bit on my plot for spuds in due course but not for tomatoes.

Hope this helps, but I'm no authority; I've just adapted what I've read to my particular circumstances.

[Mike Vogel]

I forgot to mention that sweetcorn goes with roots, but wants good manuring previously. So I will put mine with the beans.

[Bren]

Mike Vogel, Thanks for the reply I will sort myself out now, I have 2 by 10 pole plots but most of one is covered with black plastic to keep weeding down to what I can cope with, my son and daughter come and do a bit when they can some weekends but as they both work full time and live about 1/2 hour drive away its not always easy for them.

I uncover a portion of one each year to grow the squashes in and if I need an extra bit for potatoes, the runner beans are in a perament place as my late husband put up metal poles to support them.

Bren

[oldherbaceous]

Dear Bren, i must have looked at hundreds of different crop rotation write-ups, and none of them ever look the same as what i'm going to grow amount wise, and even this differs from year to year.
So as long as you follow a few of the basic rules, you will be fine.

[Nature's Babe]

Using no dig, no compaction, and mulch method I just move crops around mixed planting, try not to plant in the same place consecutively, and fertility, soil texture and depth continues to improve, roots are left in the soil to feed later crops. Beds need to be arranged so you can reach into the middle, no walking on beds.

[Mike Vogel]

That's more or less where I am now, Nature's Babe. If I get myself organised properly I ought to fill up spaces in the beds by undercropping, but I never remember to do this when I go to the plot. You can never sow too much lettuce; whatever you don't eat can be made into soup, as long as the lettuce hasn't bolted.

And OH is right; there's no need to worry unduly about the exact order of things.

Sorry you don't live near me, Bren; then we could take turns helping each other on our plots, as we have about the same amount of space to deal with.

[Johnboy]

If it helps at all, I have taken Climbing Beans out of the rotation altogether and have had a designated 'Bean Bed' for the last 15 years or so with no difficulty with disease or any other problems. I grow Dwarf French Beans in the Tunnels only for early season crops and also another sowing for late season picking. These get moved around 12ft down the tunnel on every sowing using half tunnel widths rows.
(Tunnels 60ft x 30ft)
I found it difficult to site Beans in the rotation because they need good light and orientation which was not always possible in the rotation.
JB.

[Bren]

Yes Mike we could share that would have been nice, my hours on the plot are usually 10am-2pm I don't like been down there much later as its a big site and lots of empty plots, sometimes I am the only one at my end I don't like that in case I have a fall and nobody about.

OH & Mike you say don't worry ok I will follow a few basic rules but worry is my middle name, my daughter is always telling me not to worry about things.

I grow Dahlias and Chrysanths and other flowers on some of the spare plot.
Bren

[Bren]

There is a booklet in with the March issue of K/G which gives a 4 year rotation chart and tells you where other vegetables can be fitted in.

Bren

[Monika]

We've done the same with the runner beans and climbing French beans as you, Johnboy. Because our allotment is so exposed and windy, we have had to build a very strong bean frame (or "eagle trap" as our grandchildren used to call it) which we couldn't possibly move every year. So we have grown the beans (and sweet peas) in the same place for at least 10 years without problem. But I do dig out a deep trench every autumn, fill it with half-composted kitchen scraps, then close the trench in early spring and top it with manure before planting the beans in June.

We were worried about the rotation at first, but it obviously works without for some vegetables.

[Johnboy]

Hi Monika,
I'm glad to know that I am not the only one to have realised that Runner Beans cause a problem even on a place the size of mine. To get them situated to give the ideal conditions is not really achievable in the general run of rotation every year. They have so many needs. I have mine planted so that at the really hottest time of the day they are lightly sheltered by a large Birch Tree which allows dappled light through which means that dehydration is cut to a minimum. The wind here at times is fearful and I too have a really strong frame constructed from 10ft Bamboo poles and braced to accept what nature sends it.
Where Dwarf Beans are concerned because they are self fertile they are ideal for growing in the tunnels and they give both early and late crops from different sowings I hasten to add.
JB.