Crop Rotation?

[nickolas]

Can anyone point me in the direction of a good Crop Rotation chart or book please. Also what is a good crop to grow over winter in a first time bed that has had potatoes (straw method)as its first crop?

[applestar]

I asked a similar question a while back. Here's the thread:
https://www.helpfulgardener.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=28648

You might want to try SEARCH THE FORUM in the toolbar at the top of the page. This site is a treasure trove of archived information, but, sometimes, you do have to do a little creative digging.

I remember quite a few covercrop discussions as well. I wonder if I can find them....?

[applestar]

Since you're in Australia, this one might be informative too:
https://www.helpfulgardener.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=27513

About 1/3 of the way down on the third page of that thread, this is what I said:

You sure you want to follow me along here?

It turns out that when you're thinking about fall crops, you need to think about the winter cover crops/winter crops (what to plant, where to plant).

... and if you want to think about winter cover crops/winter crops, you need to think about what you'll be planting in that bed next spring and summer.

following me?

(...and so on)

I suspect you are thinking along those lines right now?

[!potatoes!]

new bed, never had anything aside from potatoes in it? have you amended it at all? potatoes should kind of be near the end of the rotation sequence - which starts with legumes or something else N-fixing/or that you can turn to mulch, then classically a heavy feeder (like corn) to take advantage of the N from the legumes, then something not-too-needy like potatoes to scavenge the nutrients the corn missed. if you haven't done much to amend the bed, I'd think you should be going for beans, peas, or some other nitrogen-fixer next.

[nickolas]

new bed, never had anything aside from potatoes in it? have you amended it at all? potatoes should kind of be near the end of the rotation sequence - which starts with legumes or something else N-fixing/or that you can turn to mulch, then classically a heavy feeder (like corn) to take advantage of the N from the legumes, then something not-too-needy like potatoes to scavenge the nutrients the corn missed. if you haven't done much to amend the bed, I'd think you should be going for beans, peas, or some other nitrogen-fixer next.

I planted the potatoes in straw to try and brake up my clay soil a bit. I am only going to have the place were the potato bed is until late-winter to early-spring(August-September) so it only matters to me what I grow in the bed over winter.