Crop Rotation Plan

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Crop Rotation Plan
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Penny Outskirts

Joined: 18 Sep 2005
Posts: 23385
Location: Planet, not on the....

Posted: Mon Nov 08, 10 2:17 pm Post subject: Crop Rotation Plan
I've just been playing with this spreadsheet: Click to download file This is year one, the following year, all the plots move along one, so plot 4 goes to plot 1 and they all shuffles along. Think I've got what should follow what right, but input most very welcome

Bebo

Joined: 21 May 2007
Posts: 12590
Location: East Sussex

Posted: Mon Nov 08, 10 6:59 pm Post subject:

I'd take lettuce and radish out of the rotation and treat them as a catch crop. In particular, I'd sow radish in the row with parsnip. They germinate quickly whilst parsnips are very slow so they act as row markers (so you don't accidentally hoe your parsnip seedlings)and can be harvested well before the parsnips get going. Lettuce I bung in when places are available. For example, if you grow your runners in a row of poles leaning against each other, lettuce will do OK underneath.

Leeks could go in after your early potatoes have been lifted.

You're squeezing a lot into beds 1 to 3 but not many in the root bed (unless you like an awful lot of carrots). Think carefully about the quantities of each thing you want to grow, how much space it takes up and how long it's going to be in the ground.

Penny Outskirts

Joined: 18 Sep 2005
Posts: 23385
Location: Planet, not on the....

Posted: Mon Nov 08, 10 7:37 pm Post subject:
What else in the mixed plot can go in with the roots then Beebs? Onions?

Rusticwood

Joined: 01 Dec 2009
Posts: 2154
Location: All over the South West

Posted: Mon Nov 08, 10 8:05 pm Post subject:
I would put alternated rows of carrots and onions as that is supposed to stop carrot fly

Bebo

Joined: 21 May 2007
Posts: 12590
Location: East Sussex

Posted: Mon Nov 08, 10 8:09 pm Post subject:
I grow my carrots in barrels instead. Very heavy clay here means they fork like nobodies business in the ground.

gil
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 08 Jun 2005
Posts: 18409

Posted: Mon Nov 08, 10 9:01 pm Post subject:

Penny Outskirts wrote:

What else in the mixed plot can go in with the roots then Beebs? Onions?

I can't open your file without crashing the internet, so just some thoughts based on what you said.

I grow alliums and roots together, so garlic and onions, and leeks too, in with the beetroot, carrots, parsnips, spinach beet and chard.

ETA : I also put curcurbits in the potato plot if there is room, as they also need a lot of muck/manure.

Tangent

Joined: 15 Nov 2010
Posts: 3
Location: London

Posted: Mon Nov 15, 10 8:07 pm Post subject: 5 year rotation on an almost no-dig operation

Hi there, I'm new to the board and having been down to the plot to start to prepare my beds for next years rotation I thought I'd post too.

The main crop groups in my 5 year roation are:

First the Solanaceae (usually spuds, chillies, aubergines etc but this year tomatoes are going in as I'm filling up my second plot with spuds for the next two or three years whilst I try to sort out the nightmare clay soil) When the spuds go in this bed my toms go in with the asparagus (I left gaps for them) as they help each other out, and in one fo the greenhouses.

Then the following year the legumes.
Peas and beans. I love young tender runner beans and grow loads of those. Quite fond of fresh peas straigh out of the pods!
Don't pull the roots of your legumes out of the soil. Just cut off the vegetation for the compost bin and leave the roots there as they fix nitrogen into the soil and the next crop likes this.

Then the brassicas
Under enviromesh (this year I'm going to make a tailor made cover for the beds on my sewing machine to slide on to the conduit pipes. The leafy brassicas love the nitrogen left by the legumes and you can also use some liquid fertilizer made from nettles if you want (also high in nitrogen).

THEN the bed gets dug
I dig it over around now
Let the frost get to it
Then dig in a large amount of leafmould before the carrots, selery, celeriac and parsley go in (I would put beetroot with these but I don't like it anymore so stopped growing it)

Then the last year sees the alliums going in
Onions, leeks, garlic, shallots, chives
The alliums have a detrimental effect on the potato eel worm I think but I surface plant mine and have never had any problems with it.

Then back to the toms or spuds.

The brassicas love firm soil and the carrots like a fine tilth
I don't like hard work if it isn't actually necessary
So I only dig one rotation bed each year just after the brassicas and before the carrots.

I use a barrier which is quite effective against carrot fly (they don't fly but drift in the wind and never get very high up so a fleece barrier round the bed stops them.

Radishes are of the brassica family so to be ultra safe I'd keep it with the brassicas. They themselves grow so fast that clubroot doesn't effect them but I prefer the brassicas to only ever be in one area once every three years or longer.

I treat the soil differently for each rotation
manure before the spuds
compost before the beans
manure and then much later lime before the brassicas
loads of leafmould for the carrots
and use different green manures or catch crops to fill in the spaces as bare ground is never good

I love spinach and that can go in any or all the rotations.
I sometimes grow sweetcorn but not every year
The cucurbits can move around too

It's all good fun
And the plot looks so different every year

Penny Outskirts

Joined: 18 Sep 2005
Posts: 23385
Location: Planet, not on the....

Posted: Mon Nov 15, 10 8:15 pm Post subject:
Hello, and welcome, That looks like an excellent system. How much land do you have?

arvo

Joined: 04 Dec 2006
Posts: 3321
Location: Somerset

Posted: Mon Nov 15, 10 8:17 pm Post subject:
Hi Tangent, Welcome to the madhouse! We're needing to start thinking about crop rotation for the bed we're going to dig over the winter. (Kids and snow permitting) What do you do with the nettles to make fertilizer? We've got buckets of them, all year.

Bebo

Joined: 21 May 2007
Posts: 12590
Location: East Sussex

Posted: Mon Nov 15, 10 9:01 pm Post subject:
Bung loads of them in a barrel and fill it up with water. Leave. When it's really honking use the liquid to water your plants.

Bernie66

Joined: 14 Jan 2005
Posts: 13967
Location: Eastoft

Posted: Mon Nov 15, 10 9:06 pm Post subject:
Comfrey works in the same way as nettles, it does however smell even more rank so must be better. I use it on tomatoes as I am led to believe that it is high in potash.

Bebo

Joined: 21 May 2007
Posts: 12590
Location: East Sussex

Posted: Mon Nov 15, 10 9:07 pm Post subject:

Bernie66 wrote:

Comfrey works in the same way as nettles, it does however smell even more rank so must be better. I use it on tomatoes as I am led to believe that it is high in potash.

Worse! I can't use the nettle stuff when its really high. Makes me heave.

Bernie66

Joined: 14 Jan 2005
Posts: 13967
Location: Eastoft

Posted: Mon Nov 15, 10 9:10 pm Post subject:
If you put the nettles (or comfrey) in an old pair of tights you can lift it out of the barrel and take them to the compost heap more easily when they have served their purpose.

Tangent

Joined: 15 Nov 2010
Posts: 3
Location: London

Posted: Mon Nov 15, 10 11:46 pm Post subject:

Hi again. Love it here

Lots of people posting.

Not much land. Have two plots. Veg plot is about 17' x 86' and the other plot is slightly smaller. Will be for fruit and herbs and flowers but need some workable soil first.
Reworking all my web sites at the moment. As soon as I get my plans up on my organicplot.co.uk site I'll let you all know.

Nettle feed - as described - fill bucket with nettles - cover them with water - cover (very important!) - leave for about 3 to 4 weeks.

Then strain it into bottles but do water it down before putting it on your plants - 1 part nettle tea to 9 parts water!

Same for comfrey.
The making of them is the same but the nettles make a feed high in N and the comfrey, as said, makes one high in K

The N feed is great for leaf production (good for toms in the early stages and brassicas all year round) and the K rich feed helps the fruits form (to use on the toms once they have flowered.

The smell is BAD. I mean really BAD.

I have smelt something we all hope we will never ever have to see or smell and this is worse!
BUT it is GREAT for the crops

I would like to point out that I am a beginner! Had the plots since 2003 but not had the chance to fully utilise them until now. Read a lot and have some experience. But will have a lot of q's and am very excited to get started this year.

Barefoot Andrew
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 21 Mar 2007
Posts: 22780
Location: In the 17th century

Posted: Tue Nov 16, 10 12:40 am Post subject:
Hello Tangent and welcome. A.

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