Squash beds

[pjb]

Does my squash bed need to be rotated like other beds or can I keep it where it is and just add more manure etc.. each season (for winter squash only), thanks.

[pjb]

[chriscross1966]

The cucrbits in general don't have any specific soil-based pests (most cucurbit pests won't survive the winter outdoors)in this country so you can leave the bed in one place if you wish but I would put it in the rotation with everything else as a seperate block of its own (with courgettes, gherkins and cucmbers)

1: It will end up badly imbalanced in terms of soil nutrients.
2: Due to its lack of pests it's an excellent gapping crop to space out your rotation by an extra year... handy if you're fighting somethign like white rot or clubroot.
3: Some of them are just about the simplest things to grow once they're established needing almost no maintenance beyond the occasional help with pollination.
4 I'd put them in the rotation after brassicas and before onions or beans....

That leaves a general rotation of
Potatoes (manure+BFB), brassicas (lime+BFB), squash (lots of manure and BFB), onions (chicken pellets and BFB), beans+peas (compost), roots (maybe some bonemeal)...... If you grow enough odd stuff that you end up with another set in the rotation then stick it in after the brassicas, if you want to grow two sets of squash then put one in after brassicas adn one in before potatoes, the ide is to keep the lime for the brassicas as far away from the spuds as possible

chrisc