[AnnieB]

Trouble is everything can and will have pest, diseases, viruses and whatever else in. That veg patch is not a nice clean sterile environment.

If you want as clean as possible then dig up the garden, cover in cement and build a hydroponics system on it. Will not be bug free but a lot cleaner then using soil etc.

Consider worms: They drag down leaves and produce worm poo. So a fair bit of the nutrient you use in that seemingly better soil is rotting leaves and worm poo. So I suspect that dumping a container of compost on is not really a virus laden pot of death. Reading around here it seems that many viruses appear to be transmitted by buying things to grow, onions seem a common one.

Rotation is talked about but it was for bigger areas then an allotment, perhaps 4 allotments side by side it may be useful on. If you have one allotment I guess that you actually walk from one end of your allotment to the other. If so then you have spread anything at one end to the other. Do you use the same fork to dig at one end and the other = disease spread.

[Kirpi]

I agree. I'll still keep to a strict six year rotation though. Silly isn't it!

[pdblake]

I reuse if I can, but rotate crops, just like with beds. It's what we all do with soil isn't it?

Once it's really had enough it gets used as conditioner.

[brokenglass]

I tip the spent compost onto the beds just vacated by the Potatoes that way the crop rotation works as , most, of the compost comes from the Tomatoes and they are the same family as Potatoes

[Annen]

I used last years carrot compost for this years potatoes in a bag, and continued to dump used compost as I went along, on the potato bag in the corner of the greenhouse.  It was very handy and I didn't need to earth up as the bag was filling as the potatoes grew. I haven't got any potatoes yet, but they have flowered and look healthy, so I am hoping it has worked.

[RookieJim]

I've been thinking about what to do with my compost, too, as all my potatoes are either growing in bags or buckets.

I was thinking of incorporating it into the soil on my beds later in the year as we are on very heaving clay?

It's looking like I'm gonna have so much to get rid off  :blink:

Jim