Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Growing => Grow Your Own => Topic started by: ricky on September 29, 2011, 10:43
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hi all can i grow potatoes in the same plot next year , most people tell me the ground has to be rested for a year but i know people that have been using the same plot year after year for growing spuds ,if i put loads of cow manure on to the plot and let it over winter would this not regenerate the soil enough to grow potatoes in the plot again its hard to know what to do.
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If you feed it up, they will grow. The problem is that if you keep growing the same crop in the same area then diseases specific to those plants will build up in the soil.
Rotation is as much about controlling disease as about allowing the soil to recover.
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I would grow in another part of the plot. If you do that you will see emerge the "volunteers" from the previous year's spud crop. These are the spuds missed when you dug them up. These can quickly go manky and maybe spread disease to your new crop if you grow it there two years on the trot. If you grow on the same bit twice in succession you can't spot the previous year's volunteers unless they have a different flower colour
I wouldn't do it personally :)
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Me neither.
Very poor garden hygiene practice.
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Same here. We never grow them in the same spot 2 years in a row regardless of how much manure we spread over the area. Never equate manure with disease sanitation.
Potato diseases may seem benign, but they'll suddenly explode when you least expect it.
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I am keen to avoid that explosion and never grow potatoes in the same ground the next year (four year rotator, me :D )
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I would always advise rotation and the longer the better (space permitting), to avoid any build up of p&d.
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no no no no no no it is best to rotate good luck
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The big danger is eelworm. This will gradually build up in the soil and go un-noticed. Eventually the roots are affected and crops become poor. A three year rotation keeps the numbers stable and is the minimum gap. Once eelworm gets bad a break of 6 or more years is needed to reduce the numbers.
The exception is early potatoes. If they are lifted before the eelworm have time to lay eggs then there is no reason why they cannot be grown in the same place every year. This does not mean that if you grow an early variety it is OK. It means potatoes planted early and lifted by, say, late May/early June.