Carrots - Grow Your Own Wants Your Advice!

[Crazy Chickie]

Forgot to say, carrots I grew last year were Autunm King 2, Market Gardener, Red Giant and Amsterdam Forcing 3-Sprint, all of which grew really well. Just sowed them straight in the ground and I was bad and manured the ground earlier in the year, but then I quite like pulling up the odd weird shaped, multi pronged carrot. Next/this year I'm going to try Ingot and Purple Dragon aswell, see how they grow. I agree with Jennie that thinnings are yummy in salads, n I like them in stirfrys or tossed in butter with sweetpeas too.

[Elaine]

I put all my used growbag compost in the ground where the carrots are to be grown and sift out any large stones. I also plant them in a square with chives all around the edge, havn't seen a carrot fly yet.

[Earthbabe]

had a lot of probs with carrots early this year. I think this was down to variety as the late august/early september sown Autumn King have done brilliantly are standing well in the ground and taste fab.

My dad suggested taking a spade down a line waggling it back and forth to form a "v" shaped trench, fill it with a mix of compost and sand and sow into that. Worked a treat on the late carrots, hardly any fanging and our ground is quite stony. Works well for parsnips too.

[wellie]

Weird.... seem to have lost the reply I posted... Never mind. Here goes again!
WAFFLER: Little black keel slugs living in the soil will be the problem you experienced with disappearing carrot seedlings. I lost a square metre of Early Nantes in exactly the same way last summer......

I love to grow Amsterdam Sweetheart, finger sized carrots because they are just SO sweet-tasting, and look stunning on the plate, or used for dunking into a yummy summer dip....

[NOG]

Early Nantes but do not manure the soil when you plant them. If you do you will get more than one root.

If you have heavy soil dig a trench and add a mixture of sand and compost and plant into that. Not forgetting to mulch over the tops of any carrots that grow above the soil level to prevent discoloration.

Or as I intend to do this year fill a dust bin with spent potting compost and plant in to that. It should help with Carrot Root fly. who are not surposed to be able to fly more than 30 inches of the ground.

[SueA]

A couple of years ago I grew a beautiful crop of 'Early Nantes' carrots in my raised 'square foot' bed in 3 1ft squares which I hid amongst the ones containing shallots & onions to disguise the scent & hopefully put off the carrot fly. I sowed the seeds thinly & well spaced apart, directly into the bed which I had topped up with homemade & bought in compost. I had no trouble with carrot fly as I didn't have to thin them out very much either (I think if you thin out in the evening & throw the thinnings away it's supposed to help also). This year I tried to grow some in a pot & was a complete failure! As soon as the seedlings came up they disappeared, I think slugs or snails must have eaten them so the carrot fly didn't get a chance!

[supersprout]

Like Snadger, I've never had much success with carrots, discovering Parmex and Paris Market this year was a godsend. This year, following Nick Hamilton's advice from Barnsdale Gardens, I'll be sowing in clusters, in modules, every week from March to late August and planting them four to six weeks or so later. At least something is going in regularly, and those little carrots are like sweets, maturing very young. This year succession sowing of a few varieities of beet, carrot, lettuce and All Year Round cauli is going to figure large!

[Nicos]

Tip....To avoid carrot root fly, I like to grow any early variety of carrot under fleece with chives, onions, spring onions or garlic nearby to mask the scent, and pick the carrots whilst young, juicy and tender.

[vicki lorraine]

It is also good to pinch out the seedlings rather than pull them to prevent releasing too much scent which attracts the fly.
To avoid weeds growing up before the carrots get a chance, i like to sow the seeds direct into the ground and water well, then i cover the row with a plank of wood. As it takes a couple of weeks for the seed to germinate it prevents the germination of weeds. Remember to check the seeds regularly. This method also prevents the seed row from drying out too quickly in the sun. Once the carrot seeds have germinated remove the plank and grow as normal.

[Snadger]

In the Northeast the leek reigns supreme but 2007 is the year I convert my inherited brick built leek trench to growing carrots!

It is approximately 2'6" deep, 4'0" wide and 15'0" long, just the right size for a standard piece of enviromesh!
The prevoius occupant of the lottie grew the customary Leeks in it and I grew some large onions in it last year. I have now dug out the screened topsoil to see what I am dealing with and discovered it was only 1'0" deep.

I have since been informed the previous occupant took the top 1'0" of soil with him!

I have shifted the topsoil from half the trench and piled it on the other half. Filled the empty half with a rootzone mix of 50% screened topsoil and 50%Horticultural sand (sand with an even grain size) to a depth of 1'0" giiving a finished depth of 2'0" when the topsoil is returned. I then dig out the other side topsoil and pile it on top of completed first half, add the rootzone mix and return the topsoil.

As I have already stated the trench walls are 2'6" high so the topsoil will be 6" below the top edge. I can then drape the enviromesh over the brickwork and it will be clear of the carrot seedlings for a while. Once they have grown to six inches I will put a wooden board frame around trench and re-drape enviromesh.

If the theory of the carrot fly flying at low level is correct, the brick wall alone will act as a barrier, but if it doesn't work the enviromesh will be the second line of defence.

A lot of my carrots split last year because of the drought conditions, and the trench soil will be very free draining, so I have a plan to combat this as well!

I intend cutting slots with my spade where my carrot rows will be and filling these slots with a mixture of compost taken from growbags, mixed with water retention granules. This should give the carrots a good start and make sure they don't go short of water.

I will also sow the seed very thinly because I want to avoid thinning them out so as not to give the 'fly' the scent and so as not to disturb the roots.

Nothing too bold in my variety choice Early Nantes taste really nice and Autumn king should store well.

The trench filling-in is nearly complete now and because the topsoil has been well mucked over the years the only feed I will give will be a sprinkling of bonemeal in February/March. I will judge the carrots growth during the growing season and if I feel they need it, I could give them a liquid feed!

One last innovation may be to interplant with Tagetes!

This is all very experimental for me, but based on well tried practices, so wish me luck!

[pigletwillie]

I cant see how you can fail Snadger with that plan of attack. It sounds like carrot heaven to me.

My carrots will be making do with double height raised beds covered with the same enviromesh. My beds are filled with 12 year old manure with atexture like velvet. Carrots always do well in it. Like you Snadger its drought that I fear will make life difficult.

[nick the grief]

Sounds like sacrilege to me, still what do you expect from a closet Mackem

[Snadger]

Sounds like sacrilege to me, still what do you expect from a closet Mackem

Spoken like a true closet Geordie Nic!

[andrewo]

For those with us with limited spaces, can I suggest that you grow varieties, such as, French Frame Lisa. They are quick and round, ideal for troughs and window boxes. A good cropper. Prepare any container from 6' to 10' deep with a 50/50 mix of sand and compost, add a handful of leafmould or mushroom compost to help soil conditions.

You can grow normal carrots in buckets too with the same mix, smaller crops with both ways but then no problem with a glut in storage, as they are quickly eaten when ready!

I always feed with comfrey and nettle brew or liquid manure.

[Norm]

I like nantes, so I grow them in a mix of last seasons growbags(75%) and sharp sand(25%) in halved blue plastic water butts and stick a clove of garlic in the middle. Never seen a carrot fly !As for the height CF fly off the ground, they've been found over wintering in the tops of trees about 30 feet off the ground.