Rotation of vegetables, which means growing them in a different place
from one year to the next
It's commonly
prescribed as being that you should leave a three year interval between
growing plants of same family like say brassicas or alliums
Before you grow them again, so that's then called a four year rotation
Actually comes from 18th century farming. I'm not convinced how applicable that is to modern gardening
But I don't really know for sure. And so that's why I'm running a little trial here. Just comparing to see where
For example, this is the fifth year in a row of growing cabbages in the same place
it's a little I'm a little bit vague on the precise number just because
at the very start of this trial I didn't actually have beds quite like this, but it's
More or less actually the sixth year in the same place but to be more correct
it's the fifth year and in beds like this and
We made a video about this in
2016 3 years ago and
If you're interested to compare do have a look at that one this is going forwards a bit. And so
What has actually happened here, say in this cabbage bed is each year we grow broad beans in the winter
through the winter
Sow in November planted December harvested 13th of June and that's when these were planted
So we do a final harvest of the broad beans 30th of June in this case
2019
Clear the plants. We cut them off at the roots and plant cabbages, which were sown a month before that
This is filderkraut. There's a red cabbage there and a different white one
and basically we've been doing that sequence broad beans cabbage broad beans cabbage for five years in this strip and
Draw your own conclusion really but for me, I'm not yet seeing any deterioration of quality
If you have Club root if you're an unlucky enough to have Club root in
Often British allotments have that, then you do need to rotate cabbage
otherwise
Maybe not so much. I'm not saying it's good not to rotate, but I'm just
Like to show this as an example for those of you who maybe like to eat lots of cabbage, you know
You don't want to wait for years between planting each lot of Brassica of cabbage, whatever so
This is a positive indication here and a bit the same for the leeks where?
This line we do potatoes as first crop so they go in the ground in in this case this year
it was the 12th of April and
They were harvested on the 11th of July. That was Charlotte potatoes
so that's been happening every year and this year the fifth year in a row potatoes we got
48 kilos was actually the highest
Total of the 5 years so far
Which mainly reflects that we have very good weather this spring for potatoes and we gave them one watering just before harvest
that swelled the tubers a bit, but basically a really nice harvest and
This is now the fifth year in the row of leeks following so it's potatoes leeks potatoes leeks
fifth year in a row there a
Little bit of rust on the leaves, but actually no more than in other parts of the garden where I'm growing the same leeks
But in different places not rotating over so I've got that comparison to make as well
These are still a little bit small mainly because they went in quite late. They were sown on the fifth of April
planted here 11th of July and
you know they've got a bit of time still to grow
The ground is fairly moist, leeks like a lot of water, So
We will keep these water the potatoes left and pretty dry
But yeah so far so good. I would say for year 5
And if we move up over here, there's two more lines. I can show you a similar story
So these two lines
This one was squash until just a few days ago Kuri winter squash
So that's lovely dark red ones that make a hard skin that you can store for the winter
And basically they they were ripe and their leaves had died off. So we harvested
20 kilos of squash and that was the sixth year in a row of squash in this same place
Not bad 20 kilos we have had as much as 55 actually from this area just six plants
So this year's harvest was down
The pattern of weather didn't suit their timing of growth quite so well
But I have been wondering actually a little bit. I will do it for one more year. I'm beginning to question that
growing squash in the same place for that many years, but we'll see I mustn't jump to a conclusion because
This strip next to me
When we were here years ago, and it was a year when we'd had a dry summer and
It was really for that reason more than anything
I think the beans weren't looking so brilliant and I was thinking you know
I wasn't sure what was causing it but with the benefit of hindsight
It was definitely the dry weather and we hadn't watered much whereas this year
We have watered a bit more actually and this is the seventh year in a row of
growing climbing beans, Borlottis and runner beans
for seed in the same place
Seven years in a row. These beans have been here every summer planted May harvested through September, October and
This year year seven. I haven't got the harvest totals yet
But the bean plants to me actually look pretty much as healthy as I've ever seen they look fantastic
all of this ground we are treating in the same way compost wise we
After the autumn harvest we spread compost on the surface. It's all no dig
actually with one exception because a little trial strip there, but basically it's no dig with all the organic matter on top and
compost no other feeds or fertilizers, so it's just no dig with compost and
Whether that plays a part in the health of these plants that could be you know, if you were digging disturbing ground
For me that is a massive damaging thing to do and I think it's one reason why
My gardens generally the plants are very healthy
People often comment on that I get a lot of lovely comments like on Instagram, you know, what are those vegetables?
It just looks so blooming and glossy and shiny and full of color
So this this trial into no rotation, you know
If you did it with digging it might give a slightly different result and be not so good I think
but if you really want what rotation is about is
maintaining soil health and vitality
Reflected in plant growth and vitality and
in the case of
classical rotation theory it's worrying about whether you get a buildup of
Pests and disease from using the same bit of soil every year for the same plant
And yeah, I would just say from what I'm seeing so far seven years six years five years
There's a limit to how far that you need to worry about that
It's not all nonsense
But on the other hand if you if you have a piece of ground and you you not growing many crops
And you can't fit in a four year rotation. Like I would say, don't worry about it too much
My idea would be to leave one year
Between plants of the same family. I think that's safety first if you like
but it even if you couldn't do even that well, maybe try
continuous cropping