Veg Plans and crop rotation.

[Garden Manager]

the thing is with rotation is when does the year start and end, now is the obvious time but i,v got long term brassicas (psb kale and sprouts) left in the bed spuds will go in and spring greens ready to go in-----well they will have to go in where beans and sweetcorn were only it,s only just dug over, not ideal
i,v got 3 obvious sections which makes it hard to do a 4 year rotation
how do others manage
marg

Doesnt help does it when you have (for example) overwintering brassicas or alliums. Do you risk following them with a summer crop of the same type, or rotate on again for the summer? I had this problem with alliums this time around.

Last year I had my garlic overwintering in half of one bed, added my summer onions and shallots to the other half of the bed. Both were harvested by late summer leaving the bed clear. This year I planted my leeks after my early potatoes and left the other end for my garlic. Obviously the leeks will harvest first leaving the garlic as the only alluim in the bed for a few months.

Now what was I to do with the other half of the bed where the leeks grew? Where were the onions and shallots going to go. Should i risk onions where the leeks were, or start a second 'onion' bed? I decided on the latter. I will pu the summer onions and shallots elsewhere and put a 'neutral' crop such as salads or cucubits (courgetes or cucumbers) where the leeks were.

[Garden Manager]

[GodfreyRob]

Rotation is about maintaining soil fertility as well as avoiding disease. If you grow the same crop in the same bed year after year its going to deplete a particular set of nutrients unless you can replace them. So in that respect if you are going to have semi-permanent crops best figure out what their food needs are and keep topping up the soil.
Most pests/diseases are family specific - so if you know what botanical family a crop is in, use that as your rotation guide.  For example pests/diseases of spuds generally have no effect on beetroot or turnips - roots but in different families.

So its ok to grow root crops on the same plot each year, but not roots from the same family.

Just so happens that my software does checking by family for you 8)