Grow Your Own Magazine

i've got a 8ft x 8ft for root crops and planning for this year and beyond

i'll be growing mostly spuds and carrots in this bed - couple of parsnips, couple of beetroot, maybe couple of swede - but it's mostly the carrots and spuds we want - we're just not keen on other root crops

we love baby carrots so want loads of them - as many as possible - and we want big carrots for the winter
and recommendations for which varieties to go for?
and when to sow to maximise use of the ground?

most of the potatoes we eat are boiled or mashed - ordinary sainsburys whites normally do the job - we'll want some new potatoes in spring and summer - if we want jacket spuds, we'll just use the bigger of the ordinary whites rather than buy big baking potatoes
i've never grown spuds before so any recommendations on which varieties to go for? and when to plant out etc?
is it too late to plant new potatoes?
would rather stick to one variety for the maincrop for now - try others another time

as the bed is almost entirely spuds and carrots, will alternating rows of carrots and spuds help avoid things like carrot root fly? or will the rows still be too close together?

so many questions!

baby carrots - I like Amsterdam Forcing
maincrop - Autumn King

It is actually too early to plant new potatoes, so don't worry. They normally go in around Easter time, end of March/ early April.

new potatoes - I like Red Duke of York
maincrop - Valor or Sante. Good disease resistance, seem to be quite versatile.

I wouldn't alternate rows of potato and carrot - potatoes will need more water and some feeding, carrots prefer is slightly drier. Growing and harvesting potatoes disturbs the ground greatly, and you don't want to upset any carrots! Potatoes won't help with the carrot fly, I'm afraid.

Hope that helps.

thanks - i'm getting there slowly - i wasnt very impressed with the early nantes carrots i grew last year - tasted ok but not very big - will sow some anyway
i'll be out buying the potatoes and various other seeds and things next week ....

I grew some Chantenay Red Cored last year and we had them with Christmas dinner - they were very very tasty and I would recommend them. I sowed the seeds in July but this year will do them earlier for larger roots.

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Happy Gardening,
Shirley

http://www.honeyjukes.co.uk

It's onions that deter carrot root fly (because of their strong smell). They also need similar conditions so you won't have the problems Cutecumber mentions.

For new pots, I can't recommend Vivaldi highly enough. They're new this year from T&M but Jeannine and I have grown them previously from supermarket spuds. Red DOY are great too - I've always found them surprisingly heavy-cropping.

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Resistance is fertile