[Sideshoot]

Next year will be my first full year of growing on an allotment, i have my jap sets,  garlic and p sprouting broc. in at at the moment.
The art im talking about is as you harvest one crop having another ready to plant out in its place, so the allotment is continually growing things all year round.
Are there any veg that people always plant out in succesion, not sure if im explaining this right lol
If any of you understand what im getting at i'd love some advice, i was thinking that some veg could be 'paired' up in such a way that you know as you pick one and empty the bed the next one is ready to be planted out etc.

[mumofstig]

early potatoes and then leeks &/or kale, early peas then Autumn cabbages works for me 

[savbo]

follow-on planting and systematic rotation (as in John's 4 or 5 year) are tricky things to balance... taking MoS's example, in fixed rotations potatoes are usually followed by legumes or brassica rather than onion family...

 for maximum productivity you're right to go for follow-on but it will require good planning and/or record-keeping so ensure you get plenty of time between similar crops...

for example, peas followed by autumn cabbage... where are the rest of your brassicas going to go?

I'm still at stage of fixed rotation and empty beds while I get my head round it all

sav

[BabbyAnn]

Sometimes a bed needs a rest, or you could grow a green manure instead and dig it in 

[mumofstig]

My rotation plan involves making sure I don't follow a crop with one from the same family - doesn't matter what it is 

I only have a small plot and don't grow many of the traditional crops eg PSB, carrots, or maincrop onions, (there's white rot )  -  this way of rotating works for me.

To my mind if I grow earlies and then leeks- I can then grow early peas in the next year. 3 crops instead of 2 The potato bed after the maincrops gets to rest over winter and so does the one with the sweetcorn and squash in.
As long as you feed generously and add compost  it seems to work just fine 

[angelavdavis]

Like MoS, my plot isn't a huge size, so I tend to ensure that I don't plant the same crop in close succession to avoid disease. 

I also leave one or two rows per bed to intercrop - either with later sowings of the same plant (such as beans) to lengthen cropping time, or grow salads and short cropping vegetables such as beetroot, radishes, baby turnips and spinach.  I tend to start most crops off in modules to reduce the impact of slug damage. 

I think it is very easy to confuse yourself over rotation of crops.  I now have a total of 11 beds which I rotate but as mentioned I don't get myself in a tiz about it too much.

I am just about to remove my runner and french beans, clear the squash bed, sweetcorn bed and clear the disappointing psb plants which never produced anything (but are 6 foot high!)  I plan to rest the psb and sweetcorn beds - perhaps plant with green manure, but the bean bed will be used for garlic and the squash bed with overwintering onions.  My sprouts, cabbages and caulis are already in, as are the psb (here's hoping it is actually productive).

[BabbyAnn]

and clear the disappointing psb plants which never produced anything (but are 6 foot high!) 

psb = purple sprouting broccoli?  They produce the broccoli sprouts in spring

[Growster...]

Angela, I noticed you said that your PSB never did anything.

We're in a similar state too, but they've been in the ground since the spring, and got huge...

But, only yesterday, I saw the first shoots coming out where they should!

Can you hang fire a few more days, because this year has been ridiculous for normal growing procedures?

PSB is the worst plant for planning, and often the best cropping when you don't need it, as you probably know, but I reckon this year it is going one stage further and may just perform well beyond expectations - especially as yours are so well advanced!

[angelavdavis]

Hi Growster,

Thanks for this.  I am annoyed - I have 6 foot high brocolli trees that have produced zilch!  I overwintered them - they have almost been in for a year!  I was expecting them to do something in spring (I remember writing something in my calendar about hoping these would take over when I removed the earlier crop in March!).  

Some plants did go straight to seed in May when we had the warm weather but these were removed and I left the others.  I have done everything I could think of - they were covered against cabbage white butterflies, washed down to clear off the whitefly, fed initially with nitrogen feed and then with tomato feed.  They were mulched well to prevent weed growth, watered regularly...  They are in a prime bed, so I have hated watching them all summer long taking up precious space with no rewards!

Good to hear you have a similar issue.  I have the runner bean/french bean, squash and sweetcorn beds to clear as well as the psb bed, so I will leave the psb until I have done the other beds (which will take a while as I have to take it slow when clearing else my back packs up!).  Glad you are now spotting some life in yours - I live in hope!

[Madame Cholet]

I've got about 20 small beds and am aiming to plant just something different from the last crop, Fixed plans are to ridged for me I don't grow potatoes and some things I want more of than others and other beds I intercrop too. I use a plan and pencil things in then change my mind