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I grow carrots in raised planters. The planters are actually a composting system consisting of square sections about 6" deep. The idea seems to be to put the first section or two down, put in your garden waste and stick the lid on. You can add further sections as more waste comes in. I put three sections together to make a planter about 1'6" deep and filled it almost to the top with growing medium, and this seems to deter the carrot fly, and also the slugs, at least until the crop is well established.
I sowed the first of these more or less broadcast rather than in rows back in the spring. I have taken the odd carrot or two since then, and recently decided to clear out the lot. It was a mixed bag. There were a number of mature carrots of good length and size, and the remainder ranged between short and thin, short, tiny, pretty well the whole gamut between seedling and mature root.
What has happened? I can think of three possibilities. One, the long roots germinated first and the others later. If that was the case, had I had taken only the long roots the shorter ones would have gone on to develop into something larger.
A second possibility is that they all germinated more or less at the same time, but some failed to develop and remained at the seedling stage presumably due to overcrowding. If so, would this be a state of dormancy? If the larger roots only were pulled, would the smaller ones suddenly think hey, there's more room here, let's fill out a bit?
It might also be some combination of the two, i.e. some of the undersize roots germinated with the long roots but failed to develop, others simply waited in the soil and germinated later in the year.
Can anyone throw any light on this? Is it worth making the effort to remove only long roots and leave the shorter roots in situ, or are the short roots unlikely to develop any further? Also, it is difficult to remove a large root without affecting the surrounding soil, so if the smaller roots are displaced can they be put back to develop successfully?
All advice gratefully received!
Thank you.
Rob
I sowed the first of these more or less broadcast rather than in rows back in the spring. I have taken the odd carrot or two since then, and recently decided to clear out the lot. It was a mixed bag. There were a number of mature carrots of good length and size, and the remainder ranged between short and thin, short, tiny, pretty well the whole gamut between seedling and mature root.
What has happened? I can think of three possibilities. One, the long roots germinated first and the others later. If that was the case, had I had taken only the long roots the shorter ones would have gone on to develop into something larger.
A second possibility is that they all germinated more or less at the same time, but some failed to develop and remained at the seedling stage presumably due to overcrowding. If so, would this be a state of dormancy? If the larger roots only were pulled, would the smaller ones suddenly think hey, there's more room here, let's fill out a bit?
It might also be some combination of the two, i.e. some of the undersize roots germinated with the long roots but failed to develop, others simply waited in the soil and germinated later in the year.
Can anyone throw any light on this? Is it worth making the effort to remove only long roots and leave the shorter roots in situ, or are the short roots unlikely to develop any further? Also, it is difficult to remove a large root without affecting the surrounding soil, so if the smaller roots are displaced can they be put back to develop successfully?
All advice gratefully received!
Thank you.
Rob
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