【Objective】In poverty-stricken areas of China, potato is a dominant crop that may help promote food production and get rid of poverty. Due to a limited farming area and intensive potato production therein, mono-cropping is prevailing in those areas. However, long-term mono-cropping may reduce soil microbial community diversity and disturb the balance of soil nutrients in ratio, thus affecting crop growth and yield. Although a large number of studies have demonstrated that rotation is an effective practice to alleviate the impact of mono-cropping on the soil, so far little has been reported on how the rotation of potato with quinoa or maize influences microenvironment of the rhizospheric soil of potato and interactions between soil and the root system. So this study was going to investigate influences of the rotation of potato with quinoa or maize on soil quality and potato growth and its mechanism, so as to provide a theoretical support to remove the obstacle of mono-cropping in agriculture and build a better rotation model for those areas.【Method】In the study, an experiment designed to have three treatments, i.e. Treatment M (mono-cropping), Treatment L (rotation with quinoa), and Treatment Y (rotation with maize), was carried out to explore influences of the above three planting patterns on soil properites and root physiology, root development and plant growth of potato.【Result】Results show: (1) Rotation potato with quinoa or maize reduced soil pH in potato rhizosphere significantly, increased the contents of organic matter, alkalyzable nitrogen and available phosphorus, enhanced activities of soil enzymes, decreased fungi population, increased the number of soil bacteria and actinomycetes, and the ratio of bacteria and fungi (B/F), and improved soil properties and promoted potato growth, which was enbodied to some extent in plant height, stem diameter, shoot dry weight, root dry weight and yield of potato tuber; (2) Rotation of potato with quinoa or maize increased the activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD), peroxidase (POD) and catalase (CAT) in potato root system, decreased the producing rate of O₂^.-and the content of malondialdehyde (MDA), increased the content of osmosis regulating substances. All the findings indicated that the rotation relieved all the stresses of mono-cropping on potato plants; and (3) Rotation of potato with quinoa or maize also increased the total length, surface area, volume, mean diameter and tip number of potato roots significantly. In general, rotation of potato with quinoa or maize promoted the growth and development of potato roots, which corresponded to the improvement of physical, chemical and biological properties of the soil and the development of the shoots of potato as well. 【Conclusion】 Rotation of potatio with quinoa or maize can improve physical, chemica and biological properties of the soil to some extent, enhance antioxidant capacity and osmosis regulating ability of the roots of potato, reduce membrane lipid peroxidation degree, promote growth and development of the roots of potato. These effects of the rotation are also enbodied in increases in plant height, stem diameter and tuber weight. Comparison between the two rotation patterns shows that the rotation of potato with maize is better than that with quinoa in alleviating the adverse impacts of mono-cropping.