Intercropping & Catch Cropping 1

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Increase your harvest with intercropping and catch cropping part 1 of 3

By: Richard Bailey, Wallington, Surrey

Although many gardening books refer to both intercropping and catch cropping many growers confuse the two. And why not? After ail it is what you do that matters not what you call it.

Yet it is sometimes useful to keep the two ideas separate. Intercropping is the growing of one crop in between the rows, or plants, of another crop as it grows to maturity. Usually, but not always, the intercrop will mature more rapidly than the main crop. Catch cropping is using ground for a quick crop before the main crop to be grown on a particular space is set out. Catch crops, too, are normally rapid growers.

Crops sown in autumn to be harvested before the main sowing/planting season in spring are not normally considered as catch crops. But, although often slow to mature, they do satisfy the basic definition of using, usefully, ground left empty between crops.

Intercropping General Principles

To take intercropping first may I cite a few examples and use them to discuss some general principles?

Every year I grow parsnips, usually sowing the seed late in March. The first roots (I am talking about roots for the kitchen not the show bench) are lifted in October or November, the last in March. The ground will have been occupied with parsnips for at least six months, or even for a whole year. If I did not intercrop the parsnips I would get only one crop from all that space and all that time. You will often see it suggested that radish seed is sown with parsnips - the radishes germinate quickly to mark the rows and are pulled quickly to allow the parsnips to develop.

As an idea this is fine. But I grow five rows of parsnips each 25 ft (7'/2 m) long. Could I eat that amount of radishes before they bolted? No!

So I sow beetroot in trays in a cold greenhouse in April (sown earlier it would be likely to bolt). When the plants are about 1 in (2 1/2 cm) high I transplant them between the rows of parsnips, which are 9 in (18 cm) apart, and between the parsnips in the rows, which were sown at 6 in (15 cm) stations. The beetroot are ready to harvest from early July onwards and, as they are removed, leave the parsnips ample room to develop.

Or if I do not want that amount of beetroot I would set out kohl rabi or sow salad onions. Both would mature just after midsummer. I have tried carrots but they are not successful - perhaps because the foliage is not able to push through the parsnip leaves.

Most of my onions I grow from sets. Between each row of sets I sow radishes. Starting in March a 10 ft (3 m) row of radish is sown each week between rows of autumn planted onion sets, garlic or shallots. Later the spring planted sets are also intercropped with radish. I find the most satisfactory cultivars for this are the round rooted ones such as 'Cherry Belle', 'Ribella' and 'Saxa' and they are pulled early before the leaves get large enough to interfere with the onions. I continue sowing these summer radishes until mid June. Then from late July onwards I start to sow winter radishes, my favourite being 'Round Black Spanish' - but 'Rose China' is also good. The onion bulbs are lifted carefully to avoid disturbing the radishes!

My last example would be interplanting sprouts - like parsnips these take a lot of space for a long time, but I do need a lot.

Depending upon how far apart I am spacing the sprouts, which depends upon the cultivar, I set two or three 'Little Gem' or 'Tom Thumb' lettuces between the rows and between the plants in each row. Or I would put out three, four, or even five, beetroot or kohl rabi. Or maybe one, possibly two if the sprouts are wide spaced, calabrese, cauliflower or large cos or crisphead lettuce such as 'Winter Density' or 'Saladin'.

This is part one of three:

Increase your harvest with intercropping and catch cropping part 1

Increase your harvest with intercropping and catch cropping part 2

Increase your harvest with intercropping and catch cropping part 3

This article originally appeared in the Members Bulletin, the journal of the National Vegetable Society, which is sent quarterly to members. You can Join the National Vegetable Society here

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