Never grown carrots - so help needed please :)

[ancee]

Carrots guys. It's my first time, I know they have to have lovely smooth, stone free soil. I do not have this! Can anyone tell me if my idea is mad? I've some long planters, about 20cms high. If I planted carrot seeds in toilet roll tubes and then put them into the planter full to the brim of soil would they grow? I have some F1 carrot bolero seeds from suttons which say they are carrot fly resistant. what do you think?

[veggiechicken]

Apparently bolero grows up to 20 cms so you may need a deeper container (?flower bucket) - or a stump rooted carrot! Carrot Bolero F1 - Detailed item view - Moreveg vegetable seeds most at 50p also herb and flowers

[ancee]

Thanks vc, i'll souce something What about the loo roll tubes, do you think there's any point?

[veggiechicken]

I'm not a great fan of loo roll tubes - I save them but just don't get on with then. I know others start their parsnips in them, so carrots should work too.

[Barking Postlethwaite]

Unless you've got solid rock six inches below the surface it would still be worth trying a few carrots in the soil whatever else you decide to do. The cost of the seed will hardly break the bank. You might be surprised at how well carrots cope; I was amazed last year at how well mine did in a fairly heavy, impenetratable clay. A few stones won't put them off.

[out in the cold]

We had nice tasting carrots last year despite doing just about everything wrong. We grow them to make soup with and such, so flavour is the main thing.

It was Amsterdam we planted, transplanted, dug up, moved, had in stony ground, planted in poo...
I think they will survive being started in loo rolls.

(our were great, they just weren't straight or uniform sizes)

[out in the cold]

I saw these on sale at 2 for 18 quid at my local GC.

They are 20 inch diameter and 19 inches deep.

Would they be any use to you?

Alternatively, do you have a tyre centre close by? If so ask them to keep you 3 or 4 tyres, stack them and fill with compost (I would suggest securing them, using say 3 or 4 stakes). They make great planters for growing carrots. My grandad used to do this

[rustylady]

Carrots guys. It's my first time, I know they have to have lovely smooth, stone free soil. I do not have this! Can anyone tell me if my idea is mad? I've some long planters, about 20cms high. If I planted carrot seeds in toilet roll tubes and then put them into the planter full to the brim of soil would they grow? I have some F1 carrot bolero seeds from suttons which say they are carrot fly resistant. what do you think?

Why do you need the toilet roll tubes?

[horticultural_hobbit]

To sow seeds in, I think, and then to transplant into the dirt.

[horticultural_hobbit]

I tried carrots last year-directly-and failed. Would like to try them again, and might try them in paper pots. Not sure they would cope with the raised beds that are degrading leaf mold and compost.

[rustylady]

To sow seeds in, I think, and then to transplant into the dirt.

But if they're going in a planter (or trough) you might as well sow them direct. And use compost, not garden soil.

[horticultural_hobbit]

Might try it don't mind if they are wonky.

[solway cropper]

I've grown all my carrots in containers for the last few years and they work really well. You can actually tailor the growing medium to suit the crop so I use sieved compost with a bit a sharp sand and BFB and use flower buckets or those big white paint buckets....with drainage holes, of course.

[vikkib]

I'm trying some carrots in flower buckets this year after a debacle with chickweed choked carrot beds a couple of years ago... the ensuing backace following hand weeding for hours on end and the massacre of carrot seedlings put me off trying carrots again until now!

I heard a guy on GQT a few weeks ago who suggested what sounded like a very cunning plan for growing parsnips and I would have thought it would work for carrots too!

He pushes a crowbar into the ground and wiggles it around in a circular motion to make a cone shaped hole.

He then fills the cone shaped hole with a mixture of finely sieved compost and sand and grows his parsnips in that!

He germinates the parsnip seeds on damp kitchen roll first then moves them into fiber pots with the bottoms cut off and then pops these into the compost/sand filled cone.

I would have thought you could just sow a few seeds in each hole and thin down as they come up as carrots aren't as tricky to get to germinate as parsnips or start them in loo rolls and plant those in the holes (just make sure none of the loo roll is above the soil as it then acts like a wick and draws out moisture).

Might be worth a try!

[alldigging]

Was that the nice Mr Flowerdew on GQT? I'm sure I've read that in his book.
It's got to be worth a try.

I've got some buckets of riddled compost that I'm going to mix with some sand and sow carrots in that.