Topic: onions

[jock_edin]

can I plant my onion sets and seeds on the ground I am lifting leeks??
Or are these of the same family and require moving on this rotation thing. (still cant get the head round that one.} Is there a system in lay mans / simple words to work rotation on limited ground.

[Robert_Brenchley]

I've done it the other way round, but I wouldn't recommend planting onions to follow other alliums due to their vulnerability to white rot. Leeks don't seem to suffer, but I wouldn't promise that the fungus isn't feeding on them to some degree. Once you get white rot on a plot you can't get rid of it, so be careful.

[Tee Gee]

can I plant my onion sets and seeds on the ground I am lifting leeks??

There is nothing to say you can't.

However! If your leeks were diseased, rust for instance, then you would be better not planting in the same spot!

Rotation is primarily a system to prevent disease transmission from the previous crop.

Plus some genus pull certain nutrients from the ground so to plant the same family in the same spot may result in it not having any of the required nutrients it needs as these were used up the previous season.

Is there a system in lay mans / simple words to work rotation on limited ground.

Size & rotation should not be an issue! All you need to do is is mentally divide your plot into three and rotate these around annually.

Where you might have a problem is; if your plot is really small and you grow a lot of brassicas, rather than say salad crops or legumes.

Brassicas take up a lot of space so if half your plot is down to brassica growing and you have split your plot into three then the brassicas may encroach on to an area that grew brassicas the previous year (I hope that makes sense!)

Here is a link that might explain it better; http://www.thegardenersalmanac.co.uk/Data/Crop%20rotation/Crop%20rotation.htm