Crop rotation

Three and four bed crop rotation plans

The short answer

A four bed rotation moves four groups one bed along each year, so each bed goes peas and beans, then brassicas, then potatoes, then onions and roots. A three bed rotation goes potatoes, then peas, beans, onions and roots, then brassicas. Both are the RHS's published plans. Courgettes, squash, salads and sweetcorn fit wherever there is room.

The two classic rotation plans, laid out year by year, with where they come from and what they can and can't protect against.

The four bed plan

Read down a column to follow one bed through four years. Each group moves one bed to the left each year.

RHS four-year rotation: each bed moves from peas and beans to brassicas to potatoes to onions and roots.
Year	Bed A	Bed B	Bed C	Bed D
Year 1	Peas and beans	Brassicas	Potatoes	Onions and roots
Year 2	Brassicas	Potatoes	Onions and roots	Peas and beans
Year 3	Potatoes	Onions and roots	Peas and beans	Brassicas
Year 4	Onions and roots	Peas and beans	Brassicas	Potatoes

RHS four-year rotation: each bed moves from peas and beans to brassicas to potatoes to onions and roots.

The three bed plan

Onions and roots share a year with peas and beans. Brassicas still follow peas and beans.

RHS three-year rotation: each bed moves from potatoes to peas, beans, onions and roots to brassicas.
Year	Bed A	Bed B	Bed C
Year 1	Potatoes	Peas, beans, onions and roots	Brassicas
Year 2	Peas, beans, onions and roots	Brassicas	Potatoes
Year 3	Brassicas	Potatoes	Peas, beans, onions and roots

RHS three-year rotation: each bed moves from potatoes to peas, beans, onions and roots to brassicas.

What goes in each group

RHS rotation groups
Group	Crops (RHS)	Family, botanically
Peas and beans	Peas, broad beans, French and runner beans	Pea and bean family
Brassicas	Brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, kale, kohl rabi, oriental greens, radish, swede, turnips	Cabbage family
Potatoes	Potato, tomato (peppers and aubergines can go anywhere)	Potato and tomato family
Onions	Onion, garlic, shallot, leek	Onion family
Roots	Beetroot, carrot, celeriac, celery, Florence fennel, parsley, parsnip	Mostly the carrot family; beetroot is the beet family

Groups from the RHS crop rotation guide. Note that “roots” is a gardening group, not a family: swede, turnip and radish are roots you eat but brassicas botanically. See plant families.

What a fixed plan protects against, and what it can't

A regular cycle keeps each family away from its old bed for three or four years. The RHS presents that as a way to avoid pests and diseases building up. It is not long enough to clear the worst of them once they are in the soil:

How long soil problems last compared with a rotation
Problem	Family	Can last	Source
Clubroot	Cabbage family	Up to 20 years	RHS
White rot	Onion family	At least 15 years	RHS
Potato cyst nematode	Potato family	Up to 10 years	RHS
Violet root rot	Carrot and beet, and potatoes	Several years	AHDB

Rotation is prevention, not a cure

The RHS says white rot's long survival makes rotation impractical once it is present, and clubroot needs liming, drainage and resistant varieties on infected ground. A plan keeps clean beds clean.

When the plan meets a real plot

Beds aren’t equal
Few plots divide into equal beds. The plan works by area just as well: what matters is that each family moves on.
Crops overlap years
Garlic goes in in October; winter brassicas hold a bed until spring. A calendar year rarely lines up with a bed’s year.
Succession blurs it
A bed can take two crops in a year. The what to plant after tool checks the second one against the first.
Very small gardens
The RHS says rotation suits all but very small vegetable gardens. On a tiny plot, simply avoid the same family in the same spot too often.

What Vercro checks, and what it doesn't

Vercro doesn't draw a fixed four-year chart. It keeps each bed's actual history, and when you plan a bed it checks the family that grew there within about a year and can name a free bed where the family hasn't grown. It won't plan next year's rotation for you.

That suits plots where beds don't follow the plan exactly, which is most of them: the check works from what happened, not what the chart said should happen.

Frequently asked questions

What is a four bed crop rotation?

Four groups (peas and beans, brassicas, potatoes, onions and roots) each move one bed along every year, so each group returns to a bed every fourth year. The RHS lays out this plan and a three-year version.

Is a three or four year rotation better?

Four years gives each group a longer gap, which matters most for potatoes (the RHS advises at least four years against blight). Three years suits a plot with three roughly equal areas. Neither clears a disease that is already in the soil.

Which crops don’t need rotating?

The RHS says cucurbits (courgettes, pumpkins, squash, cucumbers), salads (lettuce, endive, chicory) and sweetcorn can be grown wherever convenient, avoiding the same place too often. Perennials such as rhubarb and asparagus need a permanent bed.

Keep going

Where this comes from

Crop windows, growing times and plant families come from Vercro's own curated crop catalogue, the same data the Vercro app uses. Where a published source says something different, we show both rather than choosing the convenient one. Reviewed 19 September 2026.

Crop rotation, Royal Horticultural Society. Read 19 September 2026.
Club root, Royal Horticultural Society. Read 19 September 2026.
Onion white rot, Royal Horticultural Society. Read 19 September 2026.
Potato cyst nematodes, Royal Horticultural Society. Read 19 September 2026.
Violet root rot, AHDB. Read 19 September 2026.

Work from what grew, not from the chart

Vercro keeps each bed's history as you use it, so when you plan a bed you are working from records, not memory.

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