Crop rotation
Crop rotation for potatoes
The short answer
Leave at least four years between potato crops in a bed, and keep tomatoes out of those beds too. That is the RHS advice for reducing blight risk. If potato cyst nematode (eelworm) is already in the bed, the RHS suggests five to six years at least.
Potatoes are the crop rotation was most clearly made for. The reason is mostly a pest you can't see, and the disease everyone worries about behaves differently from how it is often described.
Which crops count
Potato and tomato family (Solanaceae)
Aubergine, Bell Pepper, Chilli, Potato, Tomato, and 9 more entries in Vercro's catalogue.
In Vercro's rotation check: High: Vercro marks same-family crops to wait for about a year after this family.
What lasts in the soil, and for how long
| Problem | How long it can last | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Potato cyst nematode (eelworm) eggs | Up to ten years in some soils | RHS, potato cyst nematodes |
| Potato blight | Mainly carried over in potatoes left in the ground; soil-borne resting spores not yet found in the UK | RHS, potato blight |
| Violet root rot | Several years without a host | AHDB |
What rotation can and can't do
Eelworm is where rotation earns its keep. The RHS says populations build up when potatoes or tomatoes are grown often in the same soil, and that long rotations starve them out. Resistant varieties help too; the RHS names several.
Blight is mostly not a soil problem. The RHS says the great majority of garden infections come from spores blown in from other gardens and crops, and that blight overwinters mainly in infected tubers left in the ground. Rotation helps a little; lifting every tuber helps more. The RHS still recommends at least four years, partly against the chance of soil-borne spores that have not yet been found here.
Where it fits in a rotation
In the RHS three-year plan, potatoes follow brassicas and are followed by peas, beans, onions and roots. Tomatoes belong with potatoes; the RHS says peppers and aubergines, the same family, can go anywhere. See three and four bed plans.
Worth knowing
Tomatoes count
Same family and same eelworm. The RHS says not to use old potato soil for tomatoes, including in a greenhouse.Lift every tuber
Volunteers the next year carry blight over and undo the rotation.Resistant varieties
The RHS lists varieties with resistance to one or both eelworm species. Worth it on an infested plot.Peppers and aubergines
Same family, but the RHS says they can be grown anywhere in the rotation.
What Vercro checks, and what it doesn't
Vercro records which beds held potatoes and tomatoes. When you plan one of those families into a bed that had it within about a year, the rotation check says so and gives the reason, and can name a free bed where the family hasn't grown.
No three-year chart
Vercro checks a bed's own history when you plan it, and can name a free bed where a family hasn't grown. It won't plan next year's rotation for you, and it doesn't draw a fixed multi-year chart, because a year of garden records can't support one.
Frequently asked questions
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.
- Potato cyst nematodes, Royal Horticultural Society. Read 19 September 2026.
- Potato and tomato blight, Royal Horticultural Society. Read 19 September 2026.
- Crop rotation, Royal Horticultural Society. Read 19 September 2026.
- Violet root rot, AHDB. Read 19 September 2026.
Know where the potatoes were
Vercro keeps each bed’s history, so the question "where did the potatoes go two years ago?" has an answer.