Topic: growing carrots

[plot ten]

I've decided to make a carrot bed cos I'm fed up of obscene looking carrots now i know they're grown in sand but is it just sand or do you need to make compost filled holes in it like the people who grow for showing do. can anyone help

[manicscousers]

our beds are filled with
a layer of leaf mould on the bottom,then seived ,very well rotted muck (7yr old), then potting compost on top..the potting compost seems to help the seedlings take hold then the other stuff feeds them, never grown them in sand  :)

[saddad]

I use an old cold frame, filled with spent compost from last years toms etc and domestic compost. a sprinkle of sand in the drills can help with germination. I think a cover of fleece does a better job, stops the soil capping... and keeps out the dreaded fly... here's a few I prepared earlier... grown in the frame


and here's some I grew in the normal soil overwinter, photo jan 07


 ;D

[inski]

I've failed miserably with carrots in the past, mainly because of carrot fly. This year I am going to try the method of a fellow plot holder. He stands lengths of drain pipe upright and fairly well spaced, and then fills with a mixture of compost and sand. Seeds sown directly in the top of the pipes and thinned to only one seedling for each pipe. He grows a variety called Autumn Giants, and the sample he gave me was over a foot long, lasted for two meals for me and my wife, and was the tastiest carrot I have ever had!

[kt.]

Mine always failed miserably when sown directly in the ground. This year I grew them in 18inch deep containers. Seemed to work fine. Had lush green tops with decent sized carrots. I put a thin layer of well rotted 4 year old manure in the base about 3 inches deep. 1ft of sieved lottie soil with 3-4 inches deep of multipurpose compost. Because the containers were on a pallet, I missed the dreaded carrot fly ;)