Topic: carrots

[adrianhumph]

Hi all, :D, just wanted to tell you that I pulled up the first of my carrots today, ;D They are straight & true with no signs of carrot fly problems. Other people on the lottie say it can be a problem there. I used scirroco from dobies, they say they are resistant to carrot fly & i guess they are right. They were sown on the 25th April.
                  Adrian.

[Tenuse]

Yum yum! I wish I could grow carrots - my soil is like potter's clay though  :-\

Ten x

[derbex]

Tenuse, I grow Parmex, they're round(ish) -still taste like real carrots though we had some last night.

Jeremy

[busy_lizzie]

Congratulations Adrian, That is fantastic!  My greatest challenge has been to grow carrots, which seem so difficult to chit and grow to fruitition, thanks to the dratted carrot fly.

Gave up hope last year, but this year after about three attempts have managed to get some up. My husband is growing his in between his onions as carrot fly don't seem to like them.

Thanks for the advice on the variety of seed you are using - which is worth bearing in mind for next season.  :) busy_lizzie  

[Peter H]

I use both Nantes for the short and St Valery for long carrots, i cant grow them in the soil at the allotment but i do grow them in the greenhouse and have no bother with the carrot fly.

Peter

[Tenuse]

round carrots! Now there's a thought......

Ten x

[Mrs Ava]

Wahay!  Good for you Adrian!!  Never had probs growing carrots in the garden, but boy am I having trouble on the allotment!  Just won't germinate - don't know if it is naff seed or the birds or the ground, but finally I have 6 rows, although they are real patchy!  Will infill with radishes I think!

Our site secretary has given up growing her own carrots as she doesn't think they are any better than shop bought!  :o  Personally, I don't think you can beat a crunchy earthy carrot, straight from the ground and into your gob at 8am in the morning! (closely followed by a radish, raspberry, rocket flowers and an alpine strawb!  Breakfast doesn't get any better than that!)  :P

[Peter H]

Is it too late to plant the round type in a greenhouse now ?

Peter

[Wicker]

Nothing like fresh juicy carrots!  Our soil was pretty heavy/clay but we dig sand in where we grow the carrots, this is their third year in those beds so next year it will be change position or else dig in a few bags of top soil to refresh I think.  Lovely carrots this year, no carrot fly as kept covered from sowing to harvest - our site seems to get a lot of the dreaded fly if we don't.

[carrot-cruncher]

 I intersowed my carrots with leeks, onions & parsnips just to confuse that dratted fly as the other lottie holders had advised me that the fly was a keen visitor to the area.   So far everything in the bed is coming along a treat.

However just in case the lottie crop got destroyed or attacked I sowed some short stumped carrots in an old tin bath ifilled with a bag of bog-standard compost in my back yard & they're doing absolutely excellant.  

Can't wait to see what either crop tastes like

cc

[busy_lizzie]

Got a tip from one of our lottie members.  He sows his carrots in a couple of old plastic dustbins.  Fills them up every year with fresh soil, can move them around his plot  and they are nearly three feet from the ground, so no carrot fly problems.  He has just passed this tip onto me, and says he has never failed.  Saw them at his plot and what good looking carrots he had.   :D busy_lizzie  

[Palustris]

We had the carrot for Dinner today.

[Andy H]

Yeah some things work on the plot and other are much better in a tub at home, carrots and spring onions and raddishes are perfect at home in tubs,standard potting compo or stuff from the bin that I sieved, perfect.crispy crunchy carrots and perfect round golf ball raddishes with not a blemish.

[alit]

My lottie neighbour grows his carrots in mounds of soil.  We have heavy clay and he just makes rows of mounds and sows on the top of the mound and he has wonderful straight carrots, lots of them and no carrot fly.

[ALAN HOWELL]

I cover mine with fleece from start to finish,no probs with fly at all......Alan

[tim]

Not your actual exhibition stuff, but a first try with a raised bed.
Lesson for next year - WATER the things! But they seem to have enjoyed it, nevertheless. = Tim

[Jesse]

Tim your raised bed doesn't look very big, roughly what are the dimensions? Thinking about growing carrots next year because there's a friendly donkey on the way to and from my daughters nursery school and we have to give the donkey two carrots on each of the three days a week that we walk to nursery, it would be great for Jessica to pull a carrot from the garden herself, perhaps I could actually get her to have one too rather than feeding them all to the donkey. Can anyone recommend a dead easy variety to grow, something that will withstand a little neglect and mature quickly.

[Ceri]

"something that will withstand a little neglect and mature quickly"

now that's the kind of children you want, let alone carrots!

[tim]

Size? 4'x4'. 7 rows of carrots - quite a lot of carrots?

Quick? Can't do better than Amsterdam Forcing or Early Nantes. = Tim

[Andy H]

Mine are in an old safeways tub about 2x1` with bin liner in it,loads of great crunchy carrots.
Trying to get picture on here? ???