[Tenhens]

This year we were successful with main crop potatoes - the first time for several years. We covered the area with compost that was mainly chicken waste that was well rotted.

Will I be 'safe' to plant potatoes again next year or should I crop rotate , and if so what should I plant in place.
The area is approx 5 meters wide and had 4 rows of Desiree   

[gavinjconway]

You can plant anything other than potatoes... never plant potatoes in the same bed as last year.. leave it at least 2 more years with other stuff growing.

[Totty]

Not tomatoes either.

Totty

[Tenhens]

Planning to use some of the space for onions, have just been reading another post about this . May have to wait for a dry spell as the ground is rather wet at present.

[gobs]

Planning to use some of the space for onions, have just been reading another post about this . May have to wait for a dry spell as the ground is rather wet at present.

I think that's one good idea, to put some allium kinds in there this year, onions, leeks, garlic. They will do fine through the winter. For next season, as Gav and others  say, I'd refrain from pots and likes. Anything else you want to grow.

[gavinjconway]

Planning to use some of the space for onions, have just been reading another post about this . May have to wait for a dry spell as the ground is rather wet at present.

Onions really need to be in in now.. You can plant into modules now and plant out in a few weeks when they have started to grow and roots are doing well. Dont wait now or it'll be too late.

[Kristen]

My suggestion would be that you devise a crop rotation, so that each "Bed" gets a different crop each year, which gives time for any diseases to die through lack of a suitable host, and for the nutrients required by one crop to be offset by those of the next, and so on.  Also you can manure, or lime, each Bed as part of the rotation to suit the crop.

Typical rotation is either 3 or 4 years, so depends how much space you have.

Biggest problem I have with crop rotation is that I don't need the same amount of space for each crop. I need far more space for Brassicas than I do for, say, onions and leeks.  I'm lucky in that I have plenty of space, so I have 8 beds.  4 are for a conventional 4-year rotation, and the other 4 have cut flowers ... and a second bed of Brassicas.

As an alternative to "Japanese Onions" (which need planting now), you could plant conventional Onions in the early Spring. I sow my onions in January or February in modules, and growing from sets, planted in the Spring, is another option.