Non Brassica Rotation Plan Advice Needed

[battledub]

HI

I received an allotment last year and have spent most of my time clearing and building raised beds ect so i am new to allotments and this year is my first growing season.
i have x 3 beds for my permanent crops and i have.. x 8 16 ft x 4ft Raised beds all of which have been dug over, covered for the winter ,deweeded and ready to go

I am currently trying to create a Four year crop Rotation plan

i have done some research through websites and i have managed to cobble together a individual crop rotation plan loosly based on the examples i have seen about.
I am not a fan of Brassicas and plan to grow none. the plan i have cobbled together is like this

                year 1             year 2            year 3               year 4

plot 1      potatoes           legumes           onions                roots
               followed by        followed by      followed by        followed by
               no treatment     manure            no treatment      manure

plot 2      legumes            onions              roots                  potatoes
               followed by      followed by        followed by        followed by
               manure            no Treatment     Manure              manure

plot 3      onions              Roots                potatoes            Legumes
               followed by      followed by       followed by         followed by
               No Treatment   Manure             No treatment      manure

Plot 4      Roots                Potatoes          legumes              Onions
              followed by        followed by      followed by          followed by
              manure              no treatment    manure               No treatment

this rotation plan would be mirrored again so it would be like zone 1 x 4 beds zone 2 x 4 beds

I am a complte novice to this so any advice this would be great. 
qs/Thoughts     are the Plant groups in the right order?.      Are the treatments following the seasons growing correct such as manure and in the right places? Is there any such treatments i have forgotten or could add? i suppose i would not need lime as i have no brassicas to grow?

many thanks for reading this .

[battledub]

[pumkinlover]

I think that you would be advised to add lime because by adding manure every two years you will be acidifying the soil. Most veg do not like an acid soil.
Adding lime when you grow brassicas is usual because it fits in their requirements but is also a part of the overall soil conditioning programme.
Good luck with your new plot! ps do you  not like brassicas!?

[Digeroo]

Hi welcome to A4A.  Your plan looks good to me.

I grew veg in my garden for many years without brassicas.  I simply made sure that plants from the same family did not occupy the same space for three/four years.  I grew a lot of courgettes, tomatoes, carrots and beans.

The liming will depend on your soil.  For me any watering is chock full of lime, so it gets enough, more of a problem keeping the tapwater off the raspberries.

I am beginning to warm to brassicas, as I do like broccoli (calabrese) and Purple sprouting but still cannot stand cabbage.  I was told at school I would grow to like it and nearly 60 years later I still hate it.

[Jayb]

Hi and welcome to the forum 
Sounds like you have put in lots of hard work getting your plot ready for the season 

[galina]

Welcome to A4A. 

Looks like you have made a really good start.  Just a few observations.  Have you checked your soil ph?  It needs doing and ph testers or testing kits are not expensive.  Most soils in the UK are slightly acidic which most vegetables like, but some are alkaline (like ours).

There are a lot of brassica that may not be obvious as brassica - for example rocket, chinese leaves, mizuna, radish etc.  In your division I see no space for greens like chard or lettuce and courgettes or winter squashes.  Maybe you don't like growing/eating them, but if you do, they need quite a bit of space.  Do you want to allocate a quarter of your growing space to onions?  There are chives, welsh onions and others which are not part of the crop rotation and need a permanent spot, perhaps in a herb bed?   

Have you thought about harvesting times?  Without lettuce and other salad greens you will have to wait a long time before you can harvest anything from your plot this year and there will be very little from the plot during next winter.  If you added leeks, squashes and various salad stuff (including oriental greens, which are mostly brassica), you'd extend your harvesting times.  Winter squashes can be stored for many months too. 

Wish you a good season and hope your plans go well.

[battledub]

Hi welcome to A4A.  Your plan looks good to me.

I grew veg in my garden for many years without brassicas.  I simply made sure that plants from the same family did not occupy the same space for three/four years.  I grew a lot of courgettes, tomatoes, carrots and beans.

The liming will depend on your soil.  For me any watering is chock full of lime, so it gets enough, more of a problem keeping the tapwater off the raspberries.

I am beginning to warm to brassicas, as I do like broccoli (calabrese) and Purple sprouting but still cannot stand cabbage.  I was told at school I would grow to like it and nearly 60 years later I still hate it.

Hi its good to know i am not the only one out there not going brassicas lol.  i do like some brassicas such as broccoli, cauliflower however as i only have a 5 rod plot i decided it was not worthwhile and to focus on carrots leeks etc i could freeze and salad style crops as i eat a hell of a lot of the stuff in the summer, although i knew water is chemically treated i was not aware water contains lime so I'm reaching for the Google button now lol , certainly more food for thought 

[battledub]

Welcome to A4A. 

Looks like you have made a really good start.  Just a few observations.  Have you checked your soil pH?  It needs doing and pH testers or testing kits are not expensive.  Most soils in the UK are slightly acidic which most vegetables like, but some are alkaline (like ours).

There are a lot of brassica that may not be obvious as brassica - for example rocket, chinese leaves, mizuna, radish etc.  In your division I see no space for greens like chard or lettuce and courgettes or winter squashes.  Maybe you don't like growing/eating them, but if you do, they need quite a bit of space.  Do you want to allocate a quarter of your growing space to onions?  There are chives, welsh onions and others which are not part of the crop rotation and need a permanent spot, perhaps in a herb bed?   

Have you thought about harvesting times?  Without lettuce and other salad greens you will have to wait a long time before you can harvest anything from your plot this year and there will be very little from the plot during next winter.  If you added leeks, squashes and various salad stuff (including oriental greens, which are mostly brassica), you'd extend your harvesting times.  Winter squashes can be stored for many months too. 

Wish you a good season and hope your plans go well.

[

Hello Galina, Thank you For your observations.

I must confess i have not Tested my soil PH nor had i thought of it so i will be buying a soil test kit soon 

The soil at my site seems light clay-ish?.. and seems fertile, i was guessing it would do well the first year as it is a newly created allotment area not used before. on further thoughts manuring every single bed at the start of the winter may of pushed up the pH levels which might not be so good for my first root crop wile good for others whoops!.

I own a very large greenhouse which i managed to get secondhand and install on the site during my building phase last summer and now have greenhouse beds so i will be growing a lot of my salad crops such as lettuce and tomatoes in there i figured i would squeeze any extras such as lettuce into any beds that have space left outside

the 1/4  dedicated to 'onions' written in my rotation plan is actually meant to be the onion family and i can see how it reads now! lol. I intend to grow plenty of leeks to freeze and eat throughout the year and a small section of that '1/4' will contain a few onion. i do have further beds not mention on the rotation plan for permanent crops

I have not thought about harvesting times as such yet I planned on figuring out a workable basic rotation plan for the main beds get it checked over for advice before moving on to the next stage which would be a harvest plan built on to the rotation plan (i hope that makes sense) as i will be pushing for maximum crops within each rotation category for that year such as early/ main potatoes within the same bed until the winter treatment time.

thank you for your reply and i hope mine reads well any furthers thoughts/ suggestions would be most welcome 

[battledub]

I think that you would be advised to add lime because by adding manure every two years you will be acidifying the soil. Most veg do not like an acid soil.
Adding lime when you grow brassicas is usual because it fits in their requirements but is also a part of the overall soil conditioning programme.
Good luck with your new plot! ps do you  not like brassicas!?

Hi thank you for the warm welcome

Good point! i just assumed because i was not growing brassicas i could avoid liming it, i had not thought of the ph levels from manure. could you relook at my chart  advise how often i should lime and where? i see it would depend on the ph test results at the end of the season? however trying to create a rough plan to pin in my shed and remind me to do things for the future ;-) many thanks

[galina]

A sowing and harvesting calendar is here.  It isn't the one I tried to find, but good enough for some ideas:
http://www.nickys-nursery.co.uk/seeds/pages/vegetable-calendar.htm

[Digeroo]

If you like broccoli it can be very worthwhile even in a small plot.  Look for varieties which produce sideshoots after the first head, so the same few plants will crop all summer if you never let them flower and keep feeding them. You can also double the bed up and grow peas as well.    Cauliflower is more fickle so I do not bother.   

If you are short of space remember up.  Climbing beans, climbing squash,  etc.   As soon as something comes out something else can go in.  Though that can confuse the rotation plans.