Growing brassicas on the same soil
Musicmike
Posts: 1
I inherited a large wire cage when I took over my allotment and as there are lots of pigeons happy to relive me of my newly planted brassicas I decided to grow them in the cage.
My question is, can I continue the grow them there year after year and if so how do I need to teat the soil?
0
Posts
Grow them there every 4th year. You could grow broad beans or peas on the alternate years.
To stop cabbage whites laying eggs on cabbages, the mesh needs to be minute, They can get through small mesh, you need really fine stuff.
I rotate my crops every three years I believe that by growing the same crop in one place year after year you will deplete nutrients and build up pests and disease.
I've been trying to get my head around crop rotation for this year so have read a lot recently. Making sense of it all you either want to rotate on 3 or 4 year plans. In brief I've ended up with:
Year 1: Heavily Manure - Plant with spuds
Year 2: Lime - Plant with beans a peas
Year 3: Compost dressing - Brassicas
Year 4: No soil treatment - Roots
It's not definitive and there are tons of variations and no right or wrongs really, but that is my template. I doubt I will stick to it rigidly, but as a basic principle of what plants want which soil treatment and how to avoid growing similar crops in the same plot of land each year, I think it will work for me.
Putting into the perspective of your question of how to prep the soil for brassicas, it is still rich with manure from two years before, it has seen lime but not recently and it has had beans and peas previously to fix nitrogen.
The big problem is in the first year you don't have the advantages of years before, so it will take a while to get it all going and some compromises will be needed.
Gemma do you garden on acid soil if not why do you need to lime every 4 years?
No I'm on clay Barry, I just adjusted it to be a general template. I will do a soil test, but I doubt I will personally need to lime every four years, unless the manure adds some acidity to the soil.
Yes you can do more damage by adding lime than good if it isn't needed and I wouldn't think that clay would need lime.