Topic: A month later.....

[Digeroo]

I have not been to my plot for more than four weeks.  The weeds have been growing big time!!!
I thought I left it in reasonable order but it now looks terrible.  Trying now to cover with black plastic or manure.  Spring greens have grown quite a lot and look bonny.  Russian kale has grown too.   

I managed to cart four barrows of manure which was nicely warm and full of worms so I am very pleased with it.  Both warm and worms seems to mean no contamination.    I am hoping to fill another couple of compost bins and spread some around my blackcurrant bushes.  Hopefully there will be some breaks in the rain, and I can nip out and muck spread before it gets cold again.  Except with the rain, it might not be possible to squelch around the manure pile.  The bins I filled a couple of months ago now need topping up.

The lake by the road to the plot has less water, so pleased with todays rainfall.  It is an indicator of the level of the water table.  If it does not rise quite a lot we are in for trouble next summer.    I reckon we need a couple of feet of rain.   

The deer have been busy and the rye I sowed as green manure has been well and truly chewed.    They have also been at the chard and the crimson clover. 

I let some carrots go to seed and cannot believe how many have germinated.  I am talking thousands here.  It is so frustrating, when they are so shy when you want them to come up.

Someone left a wormery some years ago and it has not been used since, so I think I am going to adopt it.  My compost bin at home is chock full of tiger worms so I have plenty to start it going.   I have already taken a bucket full, to start on my compost bins of manure.  Though they attract the moles.

But now I am scuppered because the accelerator on my car broke off.  It is going to take days to get the part and have it fixed.  It seems to be plastic, now I am paranoid that the brake  pedal will break as well.   So no trips to lottie and no much spreading.

[Beersmith]

I let some carrots go to seed and cannot believe how many have germinated.  I am talking thousands here.  It is so frustrating, when they are so shy when you want them to come up.

This comment caught my eye. Could you confirm that these simply self seeded? I mean just naturally scattered and laying on the soil surface.

The reason is that for some years I have been coming to the opinion that it is easy to sow small seeds too deeply. This season I will be trying to get them no more than 1/8 th of an inch down and may even risk a few simply sprinkled on the surface. I usually create a thin drill of vermiculite and sow carrots into that as I think it provides a buffer against cold and tends to hold a bit of moisture that helps during a dry spring.

I am always looking to make carrot germination more reliable, not least because some of my favourites are F1 types and come in packets that may only contain 150 seeds.  That may sound a lot, but across a 15 ft row it is only 10 per foot so you don't need many misses to produce a very sparse row.

[Tee Gee]

I am always looking to make carrot germination more reliable

This last couple of seasons I have been using 'taped' seeds for the same reason and for hopefully less thinning which I hoped would keep the carrot fly away.

The last two seasons I have sown "Sweet Candle" in tapes and the germination has been as good if not better than I have had in the past with loose seeds. I also grew them in the greenhouse border which deterred the Carrot fly but sadly I was a bit disappointed  with the size. I have a gut feeling this might have been down to being grown under cover and perhaps my watering regime was not as good as it could have been.

So I got the germination,the cleanliness (no carrot fly damage) but sadly not the size perhaps you could consider this option who knows you might get better results than I did!

Now that I do not have an allotment I am going to try the same outdoors but in troughs so that I can get  get better graded compost in them i.e. I will riddle it!

[Beersmith]

Tee Gee

We both seem to be scoring about 2 out of 3. I have defeated carrot fly using barrier methods, and once germinated get carrots of ample size, but still struggle with germination some seasons.

[ancellsfarmer]

Tee Gee

We both seem to be scoring about 2 out of 3. I have defeated carrot fly using barrier methods, and once germinated get carrots of ample size, but still struggle with germination some seasons.

Try and use fresh seed. The self -sowing reported is of the freshest available. I find Realseeds have an excellent germination rate, I believe their scale gives fresh seed. Also, try sowing your carrots thinly by using a 3"wide drill. If spaced sufficiently, you will not need to thin them, again defeating the dreaded fly by not stirring up the flavour/scent.

[johhnyco15]

i grow all my carrots in tubs each tub holds around 50 ltrs of compost i put tubs upon a bench no carrot fly good size clean carrots every time win win