Why Crop Rotation is a Waste of Time 

I hope you enjoy this one. Here are the timecodes mentioned for easy navigation after watching the video: 0:43 - Time requirements of growing food and excuses 1:46 - Crop rotation purpose and refresh of what it is 3:05 - Gardening techniques have progressed over the years 3:53 - Why crop rotation is needed 5:01 - The important link between succession planting and rotation 6:25 - Observe and interact, inspired by nature 8:17 - Lack of flexibility of rotating 8:41 - My version of crop rotation 9:34 - How I deal with a plant disease 10:44 - Garden examples 1 11:58 - Garden examples 2 12:49 - Weather's impact on yearly yields 13:14 - Importance of creativity

My stepdad’s mother grew the most delicious tomatoes in the same spot for decades. She added egg shells and other stuff to it all the time. I think crop rotation mostly applies to large farms.

I'm always planting everything everywhere, so i end up doing crop rotation just by accident

I have some crops that have their “favorite “ spot in the garden where I know they do well. I’ll move things around occasionally but I often let the plants tell me where they want to grow🌱💚 Gardening satisfies both sides of the brain, some science some art❤️

Cheers Huw. I never bother with the concept of crop rotation. I have hugelkultur beds that I built about three years ago that are now producing wonderfully. I let plants self seed and what comes up comes up when it's ready to do so and the resulting plants are strong and healthy. I also don't bother with monocultures, i.e. several rows of leeks for example. My garden is a massive mix of different plants in different places, all scattered amongst each other with no particular 'structure' in place. It's wild actually. This also helps confuse pests as they can't necessarily find the plant they're happy chewing amongst the myriad of other plants. Works for me :)

What a very sensible video! I find it impossible to stick to a traditional rotation for the reasons you describe. It is so much more fun to pop more plants in wherever there is space, whenever they are available. And gardening has to be fun, not a chore!

I’m sooo very happy to have found the no dig method... I actually stopped gardening because I couldn’t stand to destroy all the worms and bugs by tilling my beds ... and back then we didn’t garden until our beds were tilled... 😢 Thank you for sharing this... my garden is once again going in this year 🥳💃🏻

Oh, wow, thank you! My 90 year old neighbour told me it's not nessesary to change the beds for strawberries. Almost everyone tells that you have to change every 2 years. I love your videos. 💞 Greatings from Austria.

I love your method of crop rotation, that's my style as well. Gardening shouldn't be over-complicated, it's an art.

Just gold brother, building soil health 'FEED THE SOIL NOT THE PLANTS" is the future of organic gardening in my eyes! All the best from Australia Marty Ware

I move crops around, but I don't follow crop rotation rules. I think the biggest thing that keeps people from starting a garden is the multitude of must do and must not do rules that are preached as universal.

Happy soil, involved, observant, and happy gardener= happy outcomes. Great stuff. Thanks.

Hey mate, this is the first video of yours I watched and I really love how it's structured. I commented to my wife that I thought that quality of your video, the angles etc were of the same calibre as the content on the Lifestyle channel. Long story short, keep up the great work.

Absolutely brilliant! Thank you. It's so refreshing to hear someone explain why the 'rules' can be broken. I am relatively new to gardening with the intention of feeding my family (four people) but it has always bothered me that within the gardening community there were hard rules that must be followed yet those rules didn't feel right to me when I was harvesting delicious tasting and healthy looking foods, by breaking those rules. Watching gardeners on the telly on a Saturday morning did more to put me off gardening than they ever did in getting me motivated to garden but learning from your channel here fills me with inspiration and I am not only motivated to try my hand at growing new varieties and greater numbers but I am truly excited to do so! Thank you, Wendy, Australia

Thank you Huw for another great video. I learnt the basics of fruit and veg gardening from my Grandad in the 50s - no raised beds, very little rotation, but lots of cow manure and compost. We all used to do double digging but I stopped when it was said on 'The Victorian Kitchen Garden' that it was invented by head gardeners to keep journeymen busy in the Winter. I am able to make about 20 cu. yds. of compost each year which largely goes on the vegetable patch but I cannot get manure these days. One problem I seem to have is that I don't see many worms and I can't really explain that. Enough rambling.

I started my veggie garden in August 2021 by digging up the grass, South Africa has tough grass. I am expanding my garden by the dig up method and have 1 patch that I am putting kitchen scraps into the poor sandy soil and have seen earth worms are now present in that space. I planted 6 trees, 3 in my back yard and 3 in the front so as they grow and mature I will eventually have mulch from the leaves that drop. I am amazed at how much I have harvested from the time I started. The first patch is going to be enlarged with more grass removal and compost put on top. It's a worth while challenge that give me organic veggies.

Thank you! Nice video! A gentleman I know who runs an organic farm with his family told me this a few years ago. He said that you probably have a few weeds in your beds in the off season and that can serve as a crop rotation. Adding compost presumably puts back the nutrients that may be depleted. I no longer mind the weeds so much because they are easy to remove from the loose soil. In my mind, many of the weeds are like place holders and protect the soil until I'm ready to use the space.

Nice to see someone challenging old school gardening, well done. 👍

My grandad grew pumpkins every year in the same spot and always had dozens of fruit. He also composted and used compost on his garden and as far as i know the only thing that ever affected his crop yield was the occaisonal hail storm or heatwave.

My husband and I have been gardening since 1988, when crop rotation was considered very important. But, that was just copying big farm practices which fed the plants instead of the soil. This was encouraged so big pharma could push their fertilizers….etc. As you say, permaculturist’s ideas today are very progressive in the area of supporting the soil and by so doing our plants benefit. Your thoughts make total sense and have merit. Your soil looks incredible….It should be a a goal for all gardeners to achieve soil just like that. I’m also a fan of Charles Dowding and his no dig methods.

I use the high crop rotation model. When one crop comes out, a new one goes in, following the same basic model as yearly rotation but in shorter time frame. I get three or four crops a year from the same bed. This is possible by top dressing the bed with compost twice a year. Once in early spring once in the fall. I also use low tunnels over my beds to extend the growing season. It is not a no till or no dig garden but it is close because i only harrow or tilth the top inch of the soil when i add compost. This helps preserve the microbioligy in the soil and is less disturbing to my favorite garden residents, earth worms. The high rotation method is great for market gardeners because production is much higher with less lost growing time. I learned it from J. m. forier and curtice stone as well as eliot coleman . Granted this is not traditional crop rotation but it does take the best of both worlds and i have very little problem with disease in my soil. If your soil is full of healthy microbs it helps fight off the bad ones and almost works like an immune system to defend against the bad microbes that cause disease. Love your videos and your garden. It is an inspiration to see other gardeners at work and your beautiful garden. Have a blessed day and happy growing.

We questioned the value of tilling the soil and came up with better ways, makes sense to question crop rotation too. Thanks for the perspective.

Crop rotation is probably still a good idea in larger scale monoculture farming, certainly in the uk In a garden you have far more control over successional planting on a small scale

This channel is pure gold! Glad to have stumbled upon it.

As usual, you make excellent sense. I always look forward to a new video from You, Huw,

I am so Impressed with your simple way of growing your crops and that you haven't taken away fun from farming. Good work!

Been watching your videos for a very long time Huw, and you have got better over the years (like the rest of us) and have just purchased your book so I will be using it for next year, keep it up buddy..

Great video ona really interesting topic. 'Non-rotation' is an approach I have just ended up with over the years,due to my fairly unplanned approach to veg growing. But I find it works for me. Anyway the proof of your approach is in your freakishly abundant garden. It looks amazing - its inspired me for the coming year

I totally agree with you. I tried to use this in my QQI5 organic horticulture project as I could see the holes in the conventional rotation method we were taught. It didn't gain me extra points in fact it lowered my score. No thinking for yourself in the education system. I will be doing similar to you and using companion planting and mixed cropping moving away from mono-cropping as far as possible.

I wish one day to have the garden like this 😍😍😍

Huw, you make a good argument for non-aggressive crop rotation. Point well taken.

holy cow you have a beautiful garden, ive never seen such garden wow

What a joy to my ears. I haven't dug in decades or rotated my crops. I'm a totally intuitive gardener and don't write anything down, or plan and I love it and things grow. Today I went out to sit down and started up a new bed and built a small natural stone wall. So much for sitting down. Last sit down day I built a raised bed wooden edge. I think sitting down is overrated lol.

Hi Huw, I am half and half with agreeing on this one. I find quite a few varieties are happy to be grown in the same place each year particularly the legumes but even those can sometimes leave too much nitrogen in the soil. Where I do agree with moving the crops each year is potatoes, tomatoes with reference to the blight and more importantly brassicas where club root is present. I mistakenly grew brassicas in the same bed two years on the run and the club root in the second year was unbearable. It destroyed the crops. Cheers Nigel 👍🏻

1) In nature, pests’ tend to lay their offspring on a host plant, who will then stay in the soil near the host plant until it’s time to emerge matured. 2) Pests and disease tend to affect plants within the same family. such as the cabbage worm (the mature moth captured in your video actually) for brassicas and blight for nightshades. Things like mosaic virus as well. 3) Different plants require different ratios of nutrients. Unless you’re purchasing compost that has been tested and reports what nutrients are available, it’s fairly hard to discern when things are approaching levels of toxicity/deficiency without indication from the plants. If something is a heavy feeder, leaving it in the same bed for multiple years can cause soil health to degrade over time despite being top-dressed with quality compost. Crop rotation may be a waste of time depending on circumstance, but not broadly speaking. For example, some people would opt out of the black lining you utilize for your cucurbits, which I’m sure helps keep pests from reaching the soil below. Instead, they may go for something like hay/straw which will break down and feed the soil, but leaves it more exposed for pests. I’m not sure on how you treat for pests or how present they are in your garden, but that is another variable where if you avoid chemical intervention then other means to disrupt their lifecycle need to be implemented. Edit: And as another mentioned, crop rotation is for a larger scale operation where practices will obviously defer from smaller plots. Again, going back to circumstance.

Our first year of our allotment. Thanks for your advise about vision, and planning your plot, weather etc. It has made me think again about all the planning for next year, I can't wait. Thanks for your encouragement. Fantastic plot you have We live in Wales too. So intresting about the soil and crop rotation. I have watch two videos already

Okay, Huw, you got me with the title. Thank you for talking me around!

Thank you Huw. Very encouraging. I've always found crop rotation complicated so have never been strict about it. As you say the most important point to consider is the health of the soil & if that can be maintained & improved the plants will be healthy & able to fight off pests & weather problems. I was particularly interested in your tip of growing brassicas in pots for as long as possible, before planting out. Going to try that next year.

Great video and thoughts there Huw!I've recently moved to north Wales where im starting from scratch!So this video is going to be the basis of my future plans.I have an enormous task ahead to build raised beds and create a good soil to grow in ,but im looking forward to a few years down the line when things are how i want them.Keep up the good work and take care.

I love listening to you and Charles, wonderful stuff. I could do with you visiting my garden to sort my fruit out, but if I can find your soft fruit vid again I might be able to sort it myself.

Feels libirating to hear you fall about this. I have an exreamly small space to plant so I have to do it this eau.

Thanks for this video. I've been struggling with finding ways to crop rotate because only part of my garden is sunny summer tomatoes etc do well while the rest is part shade where lettuce appreciate a break (NC zone 7B). In a urban space there is only so much rotation you can do to meet the sun requirements of your veggies.

Sponsorship? Ooohhh... Our boy is famous now! 🤗😎🤗

Thank you! I started vegetable gardening at the beginning of this year, just watching youtube videos, and was baffled at how many crop rotation videos there were. Am starting my fall planting, and your video makes total sense for me. "If it aint broke, dont fix it." I've only have problems with cabbage loopers, and have grown other stuff without problem. I cant imagjne stressing about crop rotation in a small space.. Thank you for your video.

Hi Huw, really enjoyed this video. Over 15years ago I was obsessed with making my own compost with grass clippings, veg scraps & manure, with occasional additions of blood & bone. The garden was doing very well, but as I was winging it, I wasn't confident I was doing the right thing by not practising conventional crop-rotation. We were only a family of 5, so I didn't feel the need to harvest huge amounts at any given time. I gave up actively growing things for years, & yet many things survived. Surely because of the compost used in place of artificial fertilizers pesticides. I've only just started again, with a passion, & i'm so encouraged to hear what you had to say. Thanks, & keep up the good work. Your vegetable plots look amazing.

This is excellent! Thank you! As an aside, we've been learning about St. David of Wales this year, as we named our new baby David. We love leeks, so it works out well ;). Ironically, I think that no-dig is probably the *oldest* school gardening, as "gardening" used to depend totally on the local river overflowing its banks, bringing in new silt, and when the waters receded, they would plant! I really think no-dig (and permaculture, of course) is the best way to honor the natural order of the earth :)

Totally agree, we move stuff around based upon efficiency and need. I had no problem with this in a small garden. I expect even less of a problem in our now large garden

A very productive garden. Hard work indeed. Thank you for your advice and tips. Keep up the agood work.

I think crop rotation makes sense, but you've given me food for thought! Will watch again. It's important we keep open minds & perhaps take a eclectic view to suit our particular situation. Always enjoy your very positive videos. Thank you!

Just watched my first video of yours - this is great - especially starting with a cuppa! I'm in New Zealand and have started my own gardening channel - but I'll have to watch your videos 6 months behind so I keep in the right season :)

I am so glad to hear more explanation on this. I don't have a ton of "wiggle room" in my garden for the old concept of crop rotation. I keep mulching my beds and feeding them with manure and compost and they have thrived. The only problem I have right now are pill bugs (sow bugs).

Came here because of duck knowledge. Stayed because of the awesome, passionate and intelligent tips on growing crops. Thanks for sharing your knowledge with us man.

Here in Missouri I grow up to four different vegetables in succession at the same field or patch per year. It works well and provides exactly the kind of adjusted rotation that Mr. Richards talks about. It's called a bio-intensive method as opposed to bio-extensive method of growing crops. The latter one is certainly okay if you have a lot of space which our little farm doesn't have.

Really interesting and inspirational. I'm a new veg gardener and lucky enough to have raised beds but crop rotation principles and crop categorisation has been confusing me. So glad to hear that I can plant brassicas in their bed from last year as I have far too many and also my personal love is seeing seeds germinate in their pots in the greenhouse and prefer potting on to planting out. Great to know there is method behind my preference!

Great video... getting me thinking about or vegetable plot on our farm. I think you made a great case for all the work you save by rotating a little less. Golden!

I'm not convinced. I will stick to rotation, not only for exhausting or pest build, but I have to pull carrots, leaks, garlic, radish and beets, the other crops I don't pull, I just let the roots decay for soil building in the raised beds. I'm 69 and I want to reduce the digging and hauling to the minimum. If my spinach bolts, I twist them out and use them to mulch between the beans. Same for young weeds: I pull and drop them as mulch. Multi species seeding: a mix of carrot, radish and spring onions works well for me as a way to use the bed for multiple harvests. Also seeding winter carrots in spring between the garlic planted in the previous autumn works well. Some damage to the carrots occurs during garlic harvesting, but it works out well. You really forgot about cover crops and their potential in between. At the moment I'm growing my potatoes in bags (still expandng my raised beds), but in future I will grow my taters, with the Ruth Stout method, using the harvested winter rye (cover crop) as a top layer. I'm very hesitant about using dung or compost from outside sources nowadays, not only because of the pyralid potential, but also because of the amount of waste I had to remove from external sourced compost. I add bentonite clay for moisture retention and crushed basalt for mineral depletion to my sandy soil and also mix these into my slow compost heap. Only one flip, never hot enough for full killing of weed seeds and diseases, but the red wrigglers do an amazing job. In a way I'm looking for a compost sytem without external sourcing, most (market) gardeners are addicted to external compost. Nitrogen seems key, rain water, coffee grounds and kitchen/garden waste appear too low for the need, Steves Seaside Allotment channel had a solution: grow some sort of peas and chop them before they will fruit. I'm also adding a lot of shredded paper and cardboard to my compost heap.Weird observation, despite the fact that I mixed in 40 percent of compost in my sandy soil based raised beds, their levels almost don't drop, I even cannot add large amounts of compost. Anyway always great to watch a vid here, thanks Huw, best wishes, greetings from Holland.

excellent video Huw - I am onside with your thinking here (and Charles Dowding's too!)

A well made and informative video. I have been thinking of giving up the growing due to lack of time then weeds increase. Your no dig bed I made has been very productive and has inspired me to go a make another attempt and video the plot thank you

Great videos Huw. Keep up the good work. Thanks from NZ.

Thanks a million for this video. I have long wondered why most of the youtube videos on gardening NEVER TALK ABOUT the interactive processes in the soil. Microorganisms feeding plants and plants feeding microorganisms is the BASIC simbiotic relationship in nature that every gardener needs to understand. Understanding of how the soil works can save us hours and lots of wasted energy, you are right on about that! Good to know this is finally getting out to the public....

Excellent presentation and explanation. Thank you

Top notch tips there m8. You should have a mainstream tv show actually. Saved this to my important playlist, crop rotations are there for good reasons so videos explaining this are very relevant. So yeah, thanks for taking the time to teach.😊👍

Nice someone challenging old school gardening, well done.

I really enjoyed watching you and I really love your garden .I have a little garden in my apartment .I love it and happy

You are so much blessed.Thank you for sharing your knowledge

This is so useful as I have areas of shade which is unsuitable for many veg. I was concerned about not having enough space for rotation with suitable growing conditions. Thanks 😊 top tip!

This creates sooo much relaxation to a newcomer like me! 🙏🏻 Thank you! 🙏🏻

Thanks Huw. Just starting to grow food again after a break. Like the analogy of creativity in the garden. I am going to try macquetting several things like grapes and mulberries. Grapes make a silver liquid which is supposed to have all the enzymes so am trying that too. We have a different climate here so taking that into account. Find your videos informative, thanks for sharing. Alie Marie.

Thank you 🙏 love your show!! It’s very helpful for me because I am new at Gardening 🧑‍🌾

I move stuff around but that's only because I get bored. A bit like moving furniture around to make me feel good. :)

Thank you! Always say that no plant ever read the books. This works, been doing it for many years.

I like your idea Observe and interact That’s what I did to my garden too I’m a beginner it’s only my second year of gardening I let myself sit in the garden for whole day to just observe how the run rise and goes down and which area are shades and which are full sunlight I didn’t even build a raise bed, I just simply put news paper , compost, and wood-chips then I start to grow. :) I like inspiring new ideas

Thank you for the content. Very helpful video to the point. Its very important to frame things in terms of Ecological Succession.

Excellent video Huw!

I don't really crop rotate on purpose but by design. It's done to find the look I prefer, and that changes every year still. Although it's good to know that if I like a design I can keep it in place for a few years, thank you Huw!

Beautiful garden! ♥️

Thanks Huw, very helpful ideas and information 👍

Very thought provoking video.Huw. Always good to challenge the 'old wisdom'. I have had my allotment 3 years now, and have decided to go no-dig (mainly due to Charles Downing). What you have said makes perfect sense. So next year I will try growing certain stalwarts like runner beans in the same spot. But as Muddybootz points out, I have clubroot so I will keep moving the brassicas. Thanks for the video - it has really made me think. Regards Martin.

I’m so glad u recommend no need to rotate because it really is wasting my time! Ty BTW I also am no till

Makes perfect sense to me. Well done.

I only have one garden bed so everything is grown in the same soil. I haven’t had a problem yet but I do tend to change what vegetables I grow

Pleasure as always. Great advice

Great stuff i plant into the previous crop usually before the crop is finished. I grow everything using straw bales. This way keeps a healthy structure where you are constantly have great soil, no digging, very little bending for the oldies as well.

Thank you for sharing Huw

Wise words Huw. I always enjoy your vids.

Just saw one of your earliest vids..very cool, you've come a long way..

Very informative! I was thinking along the lines that if you feed the soil properly the need for crop rotating should decrease.

Actually I was relieved to hear that crop rotation may not be necessary if you do not have any pest problem. Our garden is small and it is hard to move things around every year. Thank you! Ronda Hill

Great video Huw, thank you

Thanks for a great video Huw. I agree with the crop rotation idea. The biggest time I make sure to rotate is when it comes to flea beetles and the brassica plants. I do not want to play into the flea beetle's hand (where they laid eggs). Good job!

Crop rotation in a small garden is almost Impossible, becouse sunshine is not the same on the whole area..

I agree with Huw.. Crop rotation applies to most of the big farms but in home gardens we take care of the growing medium..We are feeding what is most important "the soil or medium".

All my beds are in poly-cultures. I have a very small space to garden and ONE area only where I can grow tomatoes. I'm in year 3 in this one "tomato bed" and this year is so far my best harvest. I also grow a lot of perennials and self-sowing annuals so things tend to stay in the same area. My tomato bed - April I transplanted lettuce, May I transplanted parsley, tomatoes and peppers, June I harvested garlic. When the tomatoes and peppers are through, more garlic and an over wintering root crop.

Great video and thank you for sharing

I love your grow beds your vegetables look very healthy 😉, I plant in the ground and in containers,I love planting also good luck on your next book

Great video of an important topic. I've been succession cropping and being year-to-year rotation agostic since I started growing food in the '90s. Because the first book on gardening I read was the original *Square Foot Gardening,* and that was what the author (Mel Bartholomew) advocated. And I saw the Charles Dowding video a couple years ago, so he's made crop rotation seem even less urgent.

Your veggies look great. well done

Interesting - I also follow Charles Dowding so I'm rather keen on the non-rotation thing. We were growing on a field from scratch - I was told that I'd have a lot of wireworm issues, but I think the no-dig has helped a lot. Yes I have had some damage, but not a lot. Biggest issue is probably down to field/bank voles chomping the maincrop Sarpona - which didn't produce much anyway. They pretty much left the others! Beans were not good - I think herbicide in the bought in compost, so wrote to Dow and they think herbicide too, but mangetout not affected. Weird! I'm a lazy mare at the moment so yes, must get planning better and get those seeds sown! Thank you muchly :D

This was the video that got me hooked on your channel. "Yeah okay this guy knows better than centuries of farmers" was my original thought at the beginning. By the end of it I was beyond interested in permaculture & am building my own permaculture garden.

I do enjoy your no nonsense delivery. I find too many gardeners talk far too much about nothing. I do rotate but I also do no dig. As one who is not that organised with the theory of planting, it is nice to know that I don’t have to worry about crop rotation. Where in Wales are you based and is your allotment open to the public.