[boldondig]

I have grown BNS this year through a black plastic mulch - it worked really well and i got a decent crop. Can I just lift the mulch and make new planting pockets for my Squash or do they need to be rotated ?  I am not planning on doing it now - just trying to plan ahead. Thanks.

[angelavdavis]

I don't know any soil borne diseases which would develop from repeat sowing of squashes on the same spot, provided you top up nutrients by adding manure, etc (squashes are greedy feeders), I would have thought it OK.  There are some insects which overwinter in the soil that could pose a problem, but as you are planning on removing the mulch, I recommend you turn the soil to ensure the birds, etc get to the soil and strip out any pupae that may be living in the soil.

I am sure someone else will comment if they know of something different.

[mumofstig]

I always put squash wherever is left after I've moved everything else about   

You'd probably get away with new planting pockets for another year - but I wouldn't keep growing them in the same bed 

[Truffle]

I have been through a selection of books and online while checking out "crop rotation" and and the majority said that squashes do not need to be rotated and can be grown in the same bed every year as they do not harbour soil deseases like club root etc.

Therefore I plan to keep one bed as a permanant squash bed, but as mentioned before, squashes are hungry plants and a good feed/mulch is recommended. 

[syks grower]

Crop rotation is mainly carried out for two reasons

1 to lessen the spread of soil based problems like club root.

2 by growing the same plants in the same spot each year the soil can become exhausted of trace elements which manure alone may not be able to replace .
It has been proved that mon culture such as this does lead to problems in the long term.