If you're going to practise crop rotation (we are) does it matter which crop types follow which ? we're at the end of our first season/year and I'm trying to plan next years planting. I have several books but only one says the order is important, Carol Klein says " just remember to follow legumes with roots"
What's the general consensus? :-\
Thanks.
Roots follow Legumes becuase they leave nitrogen in the soil from the roots... beyond that it varies but heavy feeders like Brassicas and Spuds like manure but roots don't so the legumes follow them and then the roots. :-\
in an ideal world there is an ideal rotation pattern. legumes following roots because the legumes leave something good in the soil (its early and i cant remember what it is - nitrogen maybe) which the roots crops will benefit from. there are other followings that benfit too such as crops that need to go into un manured space etc. sorry i am not explaining it very well, my books are not to hand, but in the real world it is sufficient on a small scale to just make sure that potatoes, aliums and brassicas are planted in different places each year to avoid build up of disease. if you want to start off on the best foot i would recommend reading joy larkcoms joy of vegetables i think she gives a good explaination. ;)
you beat me to it there saddad. :D
We have divided our plots roughly into 3. At our age we tend to forget what was where if we just mixed everything. It has worked so far. We don't sick rigidly to it if we are short of space. Salad crops tend to get put where they will fit.
Sorry Sarah!
Sounds perfectly reasonable to me Shirlton! ;D
This my system (if you could call it a system) and it works for me;
http://www.thegardenersalmanac.co.uk/Data/Crop%20rotation/Crop%20rotation.htm (http://www.thegardenersalmanac.co.uk/Data/Crop%20rotation/Crop%20rotation.htm)
Well TeeGee. I have bookmarked your page to print it later. We have lots of new plot holders at our site so I think it will be useful. It more or less covers everything in each group. I sometimes get the veg in the wrong group. Will keep a copy in my seed box for reference.
I was told that brassicas should follow spuds. It works well for me tho the earth needs to be trod down a bit