Crop Rotation - 6 year system

[Andy Hamilton]

Just found that there is a spare half plot on my allotment site and we are thinking of taking it on. As there has been a bit of a problem with blight we were thinking of having a 6 year rotation system.

Anyone do this already?

[Annpan]

6 year

what are the breaks in a 6 year rotation?


I am just instigating a 4 year rotaion here

Potatoes
Roots (including onions)
Legumes (+ lettuce)
brassicas

Tell me now if I am doing something wrong.... or has anyone got a better system

[Andy Hamilton]

Nothing wrong sounds like a good system. I was thinking of having one bed with green manure and one with misc. Although still debating what to have, the real reason is that blight takes around 6 years to get out of the soil. So just a minimisation of diseases plan.

[frozenthunderbolt]

my first impulsive responce was to say green crop it in mustard as that helps reduce blight.
However I have no idea where that notion came from . . . too many books to search to confirm or deny so it may well just be my mind wandering

[Peggy Sue]

Why not use this half plot for non-potatoes for 6 years and just grow your spuds on the other plot, then you can slide them into a rotation there after then?

We have 2 plots of which one was all potaotes last year til we took it in June, then the other was quarter potatoes and a quater was deadly nightshade so that leave a quarter for spuds this year and a quarter for spuds next year after which we can plan a more sensible rotation

Does leave me with the dilema of where to plant the tomatoes, which shouldn't be by spuds but I seem to be between the devil & the deep blue...

The only 6 year plan I saw was to take account of wanting more space for spuds so the plot didn't actually get 6 years rest for spuds but did from Cabbages

[ina]

I suppose it depends on how many potatoes you want to grow, how long a rotation you can get going... My best laid rotation plans tend to go haywire halfway through the year, as things just need to get in somewhere!

Anyway, no tatties for me this year, apart from a few containers.

[Millymollymandy]

I have 5 beds in my veg patch so have a 5 year rotation.

However there is always something that won't fit in in the 'right' place so quite often I have to squeeze something in somewhere where it was say 2 years ago!

But main things like spuds are part of the 5 year rotation.

[Andy Hamilton]

Perhaps keep to a five year plan might be just as easy.

Mustard is a brassica so have to watch that in a rotation system and deadly nightshade is the same family as toms and pots so have to be careful there too