[Yana]

After three years including potatoes in my crop rotation plans I've decided that they take up a lot of space, as a family we don't eat all the ones we grow and this year has not been very successful (the weather was a major contributor) and would rather grow other veggies. That's where the problem starts.
In drawing up a crop rotation plan, what would go in the place of potatoes? 

[Salmo]

You would probably just grow more of the things that you like and do eat. Just be carefull that crops like onions and brassicas are not grown too often in the same place.

If you are growing as much as you want you could introduce a green manure into the rotation, something like a ryegrass and clover mix.

[mumofstig]

As Salmo says move the brassicas and onions around the plot. It really doesn't matter where the others go. Easy peasy 

[TerryB]

Other root crops, carrots / parsnips or use the space for beans / squash / sweet corn, so the onions & brassicas will only be in the same ground every third year.

[Yana]

I'm liking the idea of squash as we all lurve that 
And parsnips is good too.
Thanks all. 

[Goosegirl]

As Salmo says move the brassicas and onions around the plot. It really doesn't matter where the others go. Easy peasy 

I agree with Mumofstig about onions and brassicas. Crop rotation is something that some people don't bother with, but you should for brassicas and onions. I leave one bed per year not dug so it is firm and use it for brassicas including swedes. Onions, shallots, leeks maybe, go in another bed. Rotate these two beds to avoid disease. Put root crops in another and the last you could use for sweet corn interplanted with salad stuff, radishes, and peas and/or beans - depends what you like, how much you want of each veg and how much space you have per bed or left over after planting. Peas take up a lot of space but sugar snaps give double value as they can be harvested as snaps or let go a bit and have them as little peas.

[Kirpi]

Following the blight we suffered this year I am thinking along the same lines as you Yana.

More peas and beans, more squashes, more roots.

Potatoes are fairly cheap in the supermarkets especially if you don't eat many anyway and all the above are fairly expensive so it makes complete sense.

an after-thought: tomatoes come from the same family as potatoes - how about some outdoor tomatoes? Far more expensive to buy than potatoes. Mind you they suffer the same blight!

[mumofstig]

Indeed! My outdoor tomatoes went down with blight before the potatoes did 

[Yana]

Ive lost all my outdoor tomatoes to blight as well Mum.
I feel the same way I did the first time my two daughters got nits at school. I threw out their pillows and boiled the life out of the bedding. Guess what? They got them again....... And again. It feels like I have been less than particular about hygiene and cleanliness on the plot to have blight in the tomatoes and have had a rubbish potato crop.
Blight lasts several years so how  do I (apart from burning the foliage) that I don't succumb to it next year?

[Kirpi]

I don't think there's anything you could have done to ensure aganst the blight this year - unless you have left blighted potatoes around the plot or in the compost bin from last year - more likely you got it on the drift of the wind.

I understand that blight doesn't last from one year to another so long as you don't provide it anything to overwinter on, so no blighted potatoes anywhere and best to remove contaminated foliage by burning or removing off the plot.

I don't feel like planting potatoes ever again, but I expect I will next year again!

[Madame Cholet]

I have small beds and just makesure something different goes in the next year I don't gro spuds either don't seem to have enough room. we can get sacks locally for £4 we share them with friends so they are used up faster. I inter crop too so some beds are mixed.

[gavinjconway]

Hi Yana... take a look here what John has put up for all of us to use on the main site. I'd do a 4 year and leave out the spuds making it a modified 3 year..  http://www.allotment-garden.org/grow-your-own/allotments/crop-rotation

[Goosegirl]

I feel the same way I did the first time my two daughters got nits at school. I threw out their pillows and boiled the life out of the bedding. Guess what? They got them again....... And again.

Digressing from the topic, nits only like clean hair so don't worry about hygiene in that situation. Having had blight every year, it has got me thinking that I might just grow a few pots in half of a bed so we use them up before it strikes, and use the rest of the bed for stuff that is best grown at home for the taste, and not so much trouble and waste of time and effort.

[Kirpi]

Having had blight every year, it has got me thinking that I might just grow a few pots in half of a bed so we use them up before it strikes

same here - too much effort for something relatively cheap to buy anyway, when there are more expensive things I could make room for.

[Yana]

I'm alrerady thinking of unusual / different coloured veggies instead of potatoes.
Thanks for the link Gavin, I'll look there over a glass of wine tonight.