[colinc]

I have now dug up some of my early potatoes what can I put in their places.

[Yorkie]

Leeks if they are ready to go out, salad leaves, dwarf beans, beetroot.

http://www.allotment-garden.org/vegetable/general/sowing-harvest-vegetable-chart.php for more info

[mumofstig]

leeks, dwarf french beans,  autumn/winter carrots, courgettes, squash/pumpkins
turnips, chard, pak choi, salad and stir fry mixes 

[Zippy]

I've always wondered about the idea of following potatoes with leeks as the ground is nice and deep after the potato harvest and just right for leeks.

However, does this not throw out the crop rotation unless you are looking to follow potatoes with next year's onion family?  If not, then onion family  plants are being planted on the same piece of ground twice within a four year rotation - not good where white rot is a concern.

I am following my potato harvest with green mustard green manure crop as this apparently hardens the eel worm cysts (eggs) which helps to keep their numbers down in future years. That then gets hoed off and I winter sow with Winter Tares which gets hoed off in spring ready for Peas and Beans.

[RichardA]

Zippy  whilst I quite agreed that green manures have their uses I consider that leeks, spinach etc can all be eaten which most green manures can not. Rotation is a guide not a rigid rule. I use a five year cycle but some crops especially those with little known problems on my ground do occasionally get put on teh same plot twice in 5 years. That incls sweet corn, marrows, leeks, beans, celery, salad stuff and often a late crop of extra peas etc.
I use green manures from about September onwards but not in the summer.
R

[Zippy]

Fair point Richard but having seen white rot in some areas in my onion sets I wouldn't take the risk of planting leeks where onions will be growing in three years as I want as large a gap between onion crops to minimise this. I run a six year rotation.

[Zippy]

In addition to the above, I may plant a couple of pumkins either end of the harvested potato bed and train the vines along the bed edges while the green manure is busy growing in the bed itself - getting the bed to produce another crop this year while building green manure at the same time.

[RichardA]

Thanks Zippy - it might be tempting fate in saying this but I am very lucky in terms of pests and diseases and such. I garden about an acre at home having bought the orchard of the house next door and I am well away from any other veg gardens. I sometimes think I would like the company an allotment might bring but then again looking at some of the problems some people describe on these pages perhaps I am better on my own.
Incidentally how does your 6 year cycle work// Is it that you treat pumpkins etc as agroup and sweet corn etc as a group where I have a less detailed manure, potato, lime, peas and beans, touch of lime, brassicas, roots, onion family making five, with others fitted in around that but with sweet corn, marrows etc making a 6th group although a bit flexible as to location. I do try to keep some of the winter keepers together so parsnips, leeks etc are not scattered and getting in the way of tidying and digging even though they are stricly from different groups.
All the best
R

[TerryB]

I have never really understood how green manure works into grop rotation but Mustard being a member of the brassica family and Winter Tares a member of the legume family doesn't this mess up rotation just the same as planting leeks after 1st earlies?

[Zippy]

Well the mustard is not in the ground for long enough before it is hoed in so it doesn't have the same effect as growing cabbages or swedes for example to full maturity.

You can grow legumes on the same piece of land year after year and not build up disease as they don't have soil borne diseases or pests to worry about - only air borne.

Leeks on the other hand are of the onion family and growing two lots of onion family plants on the same ground in one four year rotation is surely asking for white rot.