Crop rotation

[padlock]

How important is crop rotation?
In my garden i got a small area in the ground for veg... maybe about five foot square.... the rest is raised beds. The bit thats in the ground is SERIOUSLY stony!!! Its just impossible to get all the stones out. I grew tatties (sorry i'm scottish i mean potatoes ) in there last year which turned out ok but i dont know if the ground would be ok to grow anything else. Would it be ok just to grow tatties in there again this year?

[mor]

Crop rotation is when you grow different types of plants/crops in the same field over a period of time.

Plant like tomato have a high need of potassium, growing tomato in the same area for a long period of time will mean the level of potassiums goes down, so the important of the rotations is to help the soil nutrients since many crops/plants have different needs.

crop rotations helps with pest and diseases, some plants draw more pest and disease than other.

its alos help with high yields in a way when there is good soil less disease .

hope this helps.

[Hammer]

It is pretty important, but if you have no choice you could put spuds in there again, just be careful of disease, especially Blight, but you can spray against it as a precaution, you don,t need to do that until late June.
Could you just dig out what stones you can and turn that area into a raised bed, simply by putting a frame around it a putting another 6 inches or so of soil in there ?

Regards Hammer

[padlock]

Ye i guess i could just turn that area into a raised bed i never thought of that. The only thing being is its ina corner and if i raise it i'll have to trample all over it as i cant work around it the same as my other raised beds.
What is blight? and how could i protect my tatties from it if i did decide to put them in the same area of ground again?
Cheers for yer help Hammer

[realfood]

Blight spores( a wind borne disease) will not normally overwinter in the ground. However, there are several other pests and diseases that will overwinter in the soil. Rotation cuts down the chance of these becoming too serious.

[vegetable-gardener]

Crop rotation is important especially when you have a small garden, because diseases can and will kill many plants espcially blight. Blight can also kill tomatoes. Cabbage don't mind stoney soil.

Like 'hammer' said make a raised bed out of it and put more soil on top add compost and grass clippings and you'll be able to grow many things.