Today’s video is about why I haven’t been following crop rotation in my kitchen garden for years, and outlines why in most cases, I think it is a waste of time for gardeners to implement due to the complexity and limitations it brings.
Charles Dowding’s Crop Rotation Trial: https://youtu.be/I6Sy9lfcu3k
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45 Comments
Great video what winter crops can I still sow now ?
companion planting mitigates the need for rotation
I don’t do it because I don’t mono crop anything
i would never have thought about crop rotation in a garden, cos i'd be topping up the raised beds with fresh compost..
Wow! Hi. Huw
I agree it's not that important. Particularly if your garden is healthy. If not you may benefit from some strategic moves.
I would say that, if you grow a big field of corn, potatoes or cereal, crop rotation is very important.
For small gardens and raised beds, it makes no sense
At first I have my doubts when Huw said it’s boiling hot day. But then seeing him sweating like crazy near the end, I believe him 😂. Southeast Asia would like to welcome you to the hot club.
On reason I heard to rotate was for pests e.g. vine bore, mexican bean beetle.
I wouldn't recommend following beans wit potatoes as mentuoned in the video as the extra nitrogen will cause lots of leaf growth and not much root growth
Good to know! I love when gardeners smile from seeing a plant. That comfrey was huge indeed!
Totally agree. We have to work with what we have and break some rules.
I used to rotate my crops – had drawings of where everything was planted and then switched it the following year. Only had 4 years to plan out.
This year however has been anything but usual. Historical May high average temperatures is 17C. We've been in the 30s for over 2 weeks and no end in sight. Moving my lettuce to inside with led grow lights and going to grow lots of tomatoes and squash outside. Crossing fingers, no drought like 2 years ago.
If you practice polyculture then crop rotation is not needed.
It has been dry in UK for over a month … & no rain on the forecast. It is very unusual for Wales not have have any rain tbh. Wales has been hotter than the med …
Bit of a gardening nightmare.
The nasturtiums in the poly tunnel are very impressive !
there's a thing on the internet about planting beans/peas and onions/leeks together it says not to is this false
Absolutely yes!. Three years in my unique garden and I learned already that, the best garden is that where the gardener is observing all the time. Yes, that´s me. The novice gardener that perhaps understood the attribute of gardening as getting involve in Nature. Let it then to teach us!!! if is in my back yard, that´s my legacy then to my children. Love your work man
Thank you, Huw for this video. I too have a small garden and love to grow garlic and onions. Everything I’ve read recommends that garlic never be grown in the same area after 3 years. I find myself somewhat struggling to find a different bed to plant in come October for my garlic. Can you clear this up as I’ve found it to be confusing. Thank you.
I'm doing crop rotation at the moment since my garden is new, I don't have enough compost yet to do no dig and our season is so short that you can't do much succession planting. 5 months is a maximum for cold hardy plants to grow at all, three months usually for tender plants. A night ago we had a freeze that probably just killed all the currant and bilberry flowers… But one day my garden will be a thriving no dig paradise that has a fabulous soil that keeps my plants healthy, crop rotation or not 🥳
I don't do crop rotation in my garden because I always have a multitude of plant types in each bed. I focus more on other needs such as sunshine/warmth, wind protection, shade etc and top up my beds with compost/bokashi each year where needed. 🙂 Works very well for me 😊
That comfrey! Holy crap, mine only gets to be about shin high.
I also don't bother with crop rotation, other than planting whatever I'm in the mood for. I'll also plant legumes to regenerate soil. Red Ripper cowpeas are doing great now that it's getting hot where I live.
Why is it every time I watch your videos, I have this urge to drop everything and run out to my garden! 😊
This is my first year planting a full garden of food (I've grown in containers before) and while I was doing my no-dig/permaculture research, I remember thinking that surely if you're succession planting, there's not much point in worrying about crop rotation. I have a succession plan for this year and I might swap my beds around next year (switch my onion/garlic/tomato bed with my bean/pea bed etc) but apart from that, I don't see the point in complicating it. If I encounter any problems next year or the year after, I'll deal with them then but until then, what's good enough for Charlie D is good enough for me 😀
do you have any advice on ants all of my 5 raised beds have them. How do i get rid of them .
Perfect common sense!!
How do I deter rats eating my seedlings?
I don't rotate crops. My garden has spots of high sun and high shade. The amount of light is what decides my garden plan.
I totally agree my friend this is what I tell people all the time!!… Interplanting and Crop Diversity is far more important than Crop Rotation which is not even necessary on a home garden scale…. nature never crop rotates!!!… your videos are beautifully cinematic Huw!
Crop rotation is also good if you are doing large scale growing. Monocropping is drastically dangerous to the soil if done year after year, because there is no diversity of nutrients within the soil that allows the crops to thrive, thanks for the upload!
I plant with such a high, mixed diversity I don’t worry about it.
Have grown fruit and veg in same spaces in our garden for 40 years and never had an issue. As long as fertlise each year it is fine. Otherwise its a total waste of time. Different for farmers etc but in a small/medium garden why bother? Its also totally impractical usually.
I'd add allium leaf miner to that list of problematic pests. I lost 4 beds of onions to them last year. This year I covered them with Enviromesh to keep the flies off. I didn't realise they have a 2 stage growth cycle so planted onions in the same beds. Luckily I don't have any sign of them this year but I feel like I dodged a bullet.
Curious…How HOT and humid IS it where you live? I live in East Texas…Just got rain in the very early morning. It is miserable outside because we have full sun and humidity. 🥵 Needless to say, I am dreading going into the garden today! 😑
So glad you addressed this topic of crop rotation!! Thanks! It certainly cleared some things up for me! 🤩
I don't think crop rotation has ever been practical for the home gardener. For large ag mono-culture crop rotation would be very necessary, but not for the small home garden poly-culture.
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Thank you, I was literally just wondering whether I should rotate my beds this year as I head out to plant the corn and pumpkins. I really didn't want to change where they were last year so this helped to make the decision easier!
I'm experimenting this year by growing purslane in the one veggie bed I have as a living mulch. It's yummy and a nitrogen fixer. I may end up regretting it but that's okay
Is Verry good you garden,,I'm from Indonesian organic farming
My first year gardening I just had containers and there wasn't quite enough sun for much to reach harvest other than a few beans. This is the second year, and I built a raised bed in full sun and intended to follow Huw's book Veg in One bed. I got ideas from it, but ran out of time and wanted to use the seeds I already had (which didn't exactly match the book). Then one day I felt too overwhelmed by time constraints to follow any guidelines about spacing, proper timing of specific crops, or proper companion planting but felt I needed to get seeds in the ground without delay. So now, in one 8' by 4' bed, I have sunflowers, spaghetti squash, butternut squash, corn, onions, cantaloupe, zinnias, alyssum, marigold, beets, carrots, radishes, Swiss chard, lettuce, peas, and beans. Everything's way too close together, crowded and messy, but still doing okay so far. The idea of worrying about crop rotation is pretty alien to me! I've already enjoyed eating the radishes, chard, and lettuce. If anything else actually makes it I'll be pleasantly surprised. I'm just hoping for the best and trying to learn from it.
Nature uses a form of crop rotation, only the rotations can take decades, even centuries. I guess Mother Nature doesn't follow YouTube.
🍃 I live in the caribbean and use crop rotation, the purpose is to rest and feed the soil. Your video has good points and ideas. Thank you for sharing. Oh nice knees…
I farm an acre market garden style. I have never even considered crop rotation. I've planted broccoli in the same two 100 ft rows for five years straight and never lost a plant.
So glad to see this video. This is essentially the wisdom that I have arrived at after years of suburban, raised bed gardening. If I am topping off and amending my soil every year, I don't really need to worry about what has been in tge space the previous season. Great thoughts!
Totaly agree with you here. I think it is far more important to raise healthy plants in a polyculture.
How Huw yes since I saw Charles I grow potatoes in same place well early ones followed by leeks every year. Have always grown peas and climbing beans in the same place every year. Everything else fits in where there is a space I don’t think of rotation since Charles. My dad would say not good as he was the best traditional gardener I have known and my mum. 👍🙋🏻