Well, I do not know if you veggie growers all practice crop rotation in your gardens or not. If you do or are thinking about doing it, then here is a little diagram that hopefully will be helpful to you in terms of what follows what. It is basic and meant as a general guide for you to follow. Of course you can fine tune it, but it was put together with the thought in mind of what ought to follow what, and what is risky to follow/precede what. My rotation is close to this, but changes slightly year to year because of how I have my garden constructed. Having said that though; I personally believe that it is important to be aware of soil and plant health and with this in mind, to practice some form of crop rotation. I rotate my external beds like you see in the diagram; in the greenhouse however, I do not rotate crops, I rotate the soil. That is to say, I remove and replace the soil in the greenhouse each year. The little diagram guide:
Good stuff. I do rotate my crops with the exception of tomato plants (they're always going to go along the fence) and the peas are always going to grow up onto the frame I made but otherwise I do rotate the crops. I gave up a few years ago growing anything in the brassica family. We have club root here and you just can't plant them anywhere close to the same soil for a few years so I solved the problem by not planting them. Broccoli never did grow huge heads for me nor did cauliflower but I do miss the cabbage. Good chart Sjoerd.
Yep, I do move my crops around, although I am not as organised as you sjoerd. Being a tad ditzy and disorganised I don’t follow a strict rotation as the area I will want to plant my Japanese onions in will still have a crop of brassicas in, or I will have forgotten that my onions should be going there, and I sow a quick crop of salads. but I do move crops on so things don’t grow in the same place two years in a row.
I am planting potatoes in the same place they were two years ago. Also, I am planting new areas with potatoes as the first crop. Rotation for me is that I don´t plant onions garlic leek etc in the sameplace for 4 years. I crop intensly my veggie patches with one crop succeeding the next. For instance, my winter lettuces already have Tomatoes and strawberries planted directly in place in the tunnels so as I harvest the lettuces, the toms and strawberries get more sunlight. The bonus is that my strawberries in the tunnels are starting their fruits, while the unprotected strawberries are barely waking up.(I need to keep opening and closing my tunnels to ensure a good pollenization.) I have about 100 strawberry plants that will give me early strawberries. Winter crops succeed my summer crops.
I have enjoyed reading these rotation accounts. It is so interesting to read how other folks do things. As my crops finish, I immediately plant that plot with green manure crops and begin making plans for the soil for the fall and winter. We do not often re-plant plots with a second wave of crops because our season is simply too short. Green manure is about it.
