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  • #1

    carrots

    I bought some "quick crop carrot" seeds from Aldi a month or two back and finally got time to sow them yesterday.

    Anyway I was reading the back and it said something along the lines of - if planting in your garden sow in rows. If planting in raised beds plant in 30cm squares with 4 seeds per 7.5cm. I did the square planting as it said but I was totally confused.

    Can anyone tell me why it said to do it this way?

    thanks
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  • #2
    I hope I can explain without needing diagrams! The basic idea is about how much space in the garden each of the plants gets. So with your carrots if you had 30cm between rows you would probably have about 2- 2 1/2cm between plants so around 60/70 cm2 of soil. If you plant on the square at 7-8cm the plant get 50 - 60cm2 of soil but you will get the same yield per plant.

    For between plant spacing on the square you add the between row and between plant spacings together and divide by 2 and knock off a bit! eg 50cm between rows and 20cm between plants is 70 divide by 2 = 35 so about one plant in a 30 cm square.

    If you are interested you need to research spacing in beds compared with in rows ("traditional"). Square foot gardening is a more specialised type of bed planting. I actually plant in hexagons which allows even tighter planting but is still square based really.

    Have a look at this!!!! Companion Plant Spacing . Hope I've been of some help.
    "A life lived in fear is a life half lived."

    PS. I just don't have enough time to say hello to everyone as they join so please take this as a delighted to see you here!

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    • #3
      Square foot gardening is just growing in a raised bed.

      Traditionally you plant in rows, and walk between them. So you sow seeds in each row close to each other because there is lots of room between rows. But if you plant in a bed, 1m wide say, you do not walk on the bed, so no need for rows. You plant in a regular pattern, giving each carrot just enough room. In fact if the soil is very good and deep, you can plant even more closely. Beds allow denser planting, and because you do not walk on the soil, it is less compacted, better draining, and more fertile.

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      • #4
        I just fling a load of seed over the soil in my raised bed, roughly the size of the patch i want, then thin out to the correct spacing. I find carrot germination patchy at best, so sowing individually is not only tedious, but usually ends up with loads of gaps.
        He-Pep!

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        • #5
          Originally posted by ButternutSquash View Post
          Square foot gardening is just growing in a raised bed.
          I don't think it is. I have always understood that it is a very specific system Square foot gardening - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

          Planting in beds uses some of the concepts or vice-versa.
          "A life lived in fear is a life half lived."

          PS. I just don't have enough time to say hello to everyone as they join so please take this as a delighted to see you here!

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          • #6
            Originally posted by bario1 View Post
            I just fling a load of seed over the soil in my raised bed, roughly the size of the patch i want, then thin out to the correct spacing. I find carrot germination patchy at best, so sowing individually is not only tedious, but usually ends up with loads of gaps.
            Carrots - honestly how did they become a mainstay? I don't know anyone who has consistent success with them, even in the tunnel they can be a pain.
            "A life lived in fear is a life half lived."

            PS. I just don't have enough time to say hello to everyone as they join so please take this as a delighted to see you here!

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            • #7
              I seem to have a psychological problem with carrots, I usually estimate how many seeds I need for the space, then mix the seeds with some MPC, that makes it easy to spread evenly. BUT I consistently use too many seeds and end up with a thicket . So this year I planted them in a pattern, two seeds per station (sometimes 3 lol) This has proved much better, its easy to remove the weakest shoots, if in one spot neither come up I just pop in a couple more they soon catch up.
              photo album of my garden in my profile http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gra...my+garden.html

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              • #8
                Originally posted by Bill HH View Post
                I seem to have a psychological problem with carrots, I usually estimate how many seeds I need for the space, then mix the seeds with some MPC, that makes it easy to spread evenly. BUT I consistently use too many seeds and end up with a thicket . So this year I planted them in a pattern, two seeds per station (sometimes 3 lol) This has proved much better, its easy to remove the weakest shoots, if in one spot neither come up I just pop in a couple more they soon catch up.
                That's what I always do with carrots, parsnips, carrots and swede. Works well for any direct sown stuff.

                Some of us live in the past, always talking about back then. Some of us live in the future, always planning what we are going to do. And, then there are those, who neither look behind or ahead, but just enjoy the moment of right now.

                Which one are you and is it how you want to be?

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                • #9
                  Originally posted by marchogaeth View Post
                  I don't think it is. I have always understood that it is a very specific system Square foot gardening - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

                  Planting in beds uses some of the concepts or vice-versa.
                  Well, gardening in beds has been round for far longer, as have the concepts behind SFG, which is really container gardening with a huge container, and huge amounts of hype. ( Not that I am biased. )

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                  • #10
                    Originally posted by marchogaeth View Post
                    Carrots - honestly how did they become a mainstay? I don't know anyone who has consistent success with them, even in the tunnel they can be a pain.
                    What is the problem with them? I used to grow in containers, this year I grew in heavy clay soil, a few split, a few small slug holes, but overall lovely, for the first time I enjoy eating carrots. Maybe I've been lucky?

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                    • #11
                      Originally posted by marchogaeth View Post
                      Carrots - honestly how did they become a mainstay? I don't know anyone who has consistent success with them, even in the tunnel they can be a pain.
                      Interesting, I find them one of the less needy crops, so long as I cover them to avoid carrot fly damage I'm pretty much guaranteed a crop of nice juice roots with no real effort although I suspect my silty but almost entirely stoneless soil helps.

                      Some of us live in the past, always talking about back then. Some of us live in the future, always planning what we are going to do. And, then there are those, who neither look behind or ahead, but just enjoy the moment of right now.

                      Which one are you and is it how you want to be?

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                      • #12
                        I have very mixed success with carrots. I've never had a 'proper' crop, which is a shame as one of the reasons I wanted to grow them is that the children love them, but I find carrots (not kids) don 't keep well so I wanted to be able to pluck them fresh *stops for breath*

                        This year germination was about 1%, so about 10 days ago I prepared a new bed and sowed seeds quite thickly and different varieties. I'm pleased to say germination has been good - hot sun and lots of rain is an unbeatable combo - so I'm optimistic that as long as I look after this lot, and thin them, it could be a good batch. I love young veg with my breakfast (not on the Shreddies - I tend to have a cooked breakfast ) so the thinnings will be useful.
                        Is there anything that isn't made better by half an hour pottering in the veg patch?

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