[suejin]

I've been reviewing methods of crop rotation and have noticed that you advocate a different 4 year rotation to the RHS.  They advocate potatoes, followed by onions and roots, followed by legumes, followed by brassicas.  The RHS system seems to be more practical than your recommendation of potatoes, followed by legumes, followed by brassicas, followed by onions and roots, because I'd be planting roots into well dug and broken up soil after the spuds.  Is there any reason why your method differs from the RHS method?

[aelf]

I follow the latter - spuds, legumes, brassicas then roots. As I manure the spud rotation using the contents of my compost bins and some well rotted horse muck, the soil is very rich and the spuds love it. But it is too rich for roots the following year and they would grow short n fat and forked. Following spuds with legumes puts nitrogen back into the soil and the legumes use up some of the remaining goodness from the compost. The brassicas go in the next year and benefit from the nitrogen and the remaining goodness from the compost. Last, the roots and onions go into a (relatively) poor soil which suits them well and they grow long roots. I do feed the soil with chicken manure and liquid comfrey on the root rotation to give it a boost and also liquid feed the brassicas. This system works for me very well.

[suejin]

That makes good sense.  However, wouldn't the spuds take enough out of the soil, they're very greedy, and isn't chicken manure also too rich for roots?  I use it too, but keep it well away from roots.  I also follow legumes with brassicas to take advantage of the nitrogen, and I also use liquid comfrey for various veg, especially the brassicas.

[aelf]

yes, the spuds are greedy, but as the soil is very rich at the start, they don't take all the goodness out. as for the chicken pellets, I spread them thinly just after I have dug the ground around Jan, a good month before I plant out so that it is absorbed into the soil well before the roots are sown.

[Kristen]

I think one of the issues to consider is space.

I need twice as many units of space for Spuds and Brassicas as I do for Legumes (I don't grow peas), Roots, Onions + Leeks and Sweetcorn. I also have some cut flowers.

So I have split my plot into two halves, and have different rotations in each.

Left side:

Legumes
Brassicas
Roots
Onions / Leeks

Right side: (two more beds than on the left side)

Potatoes (3 year rotation, natch!)
Brassicas (adjacent, therefore, to the ones in the left bed)
Sweet Corn

Potatoes
Gladioli
Sweet Peas

My layout probably no help to you, but I think the space-per-crop-type is an issue.

Also what follows on within the season, and how best to handle crop rotation for that?

I have plenty of space, so I can be fussy about putting crops in the correct place and just fallow / green-manure vacant areas.

Lots of people put Leeks after Early spuds - because, timewise, they follow each other nicely. There are similar issues when other crops are cleared.