Rotation is disease control, not a pretty calendar

Winter vegetables group into families. Brassicas (cabbage and kin), roots and alliums (carrot, beetroot, onion), and solanums (potato) share pests and soil diseases. Repeating a family teaches the problem to wait for you.

Leave at least three planting cycles, preferably four, before a family comes back to the same land when you can. Persistent problems may need even longer. Companion rows can help scouting; they do not replace rotation.

If the same bed fails the same way each year, the family sequence is the first job.

In this series

• Choose the buyer before you choose the crop
• Secure water before the winter bed is sown
• Rotation is disease control, not a pretty calendar
• Uneven water cracks cabbage and forks carrots
• Weed and scout while the plants are still small
• Maturity and shade at harvest set the price