Topic: Carrots/Parsnips in Compost Drills

[sandersj89]

I shall keep my fingers crossed for you all too. I hope it works.

We sowed a small row of Early Nantes, or rather my 3 year old did in her section of the Lottie, using the same method. She asked this morning if they would be up yet!!!!

Jerry

[cheddarpaul]

Erm a silly ish question from a newbie - whats a drill? I have got some carrots to put in this week  - my plot has been rotovated, raked and dont look half bad. What do I need to do for the carrots?
I also have some spring onions, lettuce and savoy cabbage I want to put in - any advice on that lot?

Please remember - make no assumptions, I know NOTHING... but am dead keen to learn!

[aquilegia]

Paul - a drill is a very shallow trench (ie - an inch at most usually!) for sowing in. Like a ploughed furrow in a field, but on a much smaller scale.

Don't know about the others, but lettuce should be sown on the surface of the soil and then after a few hours covered with a very thin layer (a few MMs) of soil. Don't forget to protect from slugs. And it doesn't like it hot, so sow somewhere cool. and keep moist.

[cheddarpaul]

Thank you aquilegia - will probably do the lettuce first.

[moonbells]

Tim my fleece has been held down with everything I can get my hands on.  I have pegs but they aren;t the trident ones and the fleece just gets ripped off them.    Even my ground cover fleece held down with pegs keeps getting blown away and then I have to hunt round for the pegs.  I think I'll just have to lay the fleece flat on the carrots rather than trying to create a tunnel (wind tunnel that is)

Wardy I'd suggest using broom handles or lengths of wood. If you wrap the edges of the fleece/mesh/netting/old net curtain round the wood and then use wire to secure it at points along it (poking the wire through the fleece to be sure) then you can just lift the fleece up when you want to weed underneath but it'll stay put when the wind blows. Diagram needed -  <scribble>

I know from recent bitter experience however that you have to be sure to wire the wood securely - twist it with pliers if possible or it slips out and bye bye fleece.  (and in my case, bye bye early spuds...) Diagram works for both small cloches and big ones - I eventually found that a combination of a Geoff Hamilton water pipe type with 2.2m pipe lengths (15-20cm stuck in ground at either end) and 2.2m width B&Q fleece works rather well.  I guess you could also peg the broom handles down to stop them shuffling.

Back to the main topic, I'm glad others are doing compost drills for carrots as it really works. I did it last year with *really* deep trenches to prevent forking (drill some 6" deep) and got brilliant results. I'm sure I've gone on about it here somewhere! This year's carrots (Nantes) were started off in March under a plastic cloche and are now a good 5" high, having progressed to enviromesh.  Just sowed first lot of maincrops (Autumn King) and am wondering if I dare pop a row of unfleeced Fly Away as a test somewhere else in the plot.  Will do next sowing in a couple of weeks.

moonbells

[RobinOfTheHood]

Did you use the compost 'out of the bag' or did you sieve it first?

[sandersj89]

Did you use the compost 'out of the bag' or did you sieve it first?

Straight out of the bag, just break up any lumps with my hands.

Jerry

[sandersj89]

Moonbells.

Great diagram. Similar to the fleece tunnels I use but no broom handle for me but string over the top and half bricks or clods of earth along the edges to hold it down.

Re Flyaway, I grew it last year with some protection but not fleece all season. The roots were large and long with very little sign of carrot fly but the flavour was not as good as Autumn King.

This year I am growing AK and Nantes again as usual but also trying Carson and Sytan. Both said to have some resistance to fly. They will be under fleece as well to be on the safe side.

Jerry

[moonbells]

Moonbells.

Great diagram. Similar to the fleece tunnels I use but no broom handle for me but string over the top and half bricks or clods of earth along the edges to hold it down.

Re Flyaway, I grew it last year with some protection but not fleece all season. The roots were large and long with very little sign of carrot fly but the flavour was not as good as Autumn King.

This year I am growing AK and Nantes again as usual but also trying Carson and Sytan. Both said to have some resistance to fly. They will be under fleece as well to be on the safe side.

Jerry

Thanks Jerry.  I have also got Resistafly so shall play with comparisons... but AK is the nicest one I've found so far which grows well at my lotties. Goodness knows it took a few years to crack germination and forking, but it was worth it.  But has ruined my entire family for supermarket carrots, even organic ones, as the taste is just so much weaker!

Yes, the fleece cloche itself is the pretty standard GH design - it was just my battle on how to get the fleece to stay put that I wanted to demonstrate. Pegs just seem to blow straight out of the ground still attached to the fleece, giving me a large flag! I tried flints along the edge of the potato fleece and the wind flipped them off! So far it's not managed to lose the broom handles: if they do lift up, they just drop back again with fleece still attached.

moonbells

[Svea]

houston, we have parsnips ;D

under close inspection the weed bed/seed bed has revealed my parsnip seedlings, so i have just spent half an hour picking all the little weeds off so i can see the crop :)

very pleased. but must say: will definately try the compost drills in the future. in fact, i have already done so. you see, my clay soil gets hard and brittle on top when it dries out - forming a crust. i am forever worrying that my seedlings will have too mard a time pushing through....anyways, i have now sown rocket, kohlrabi, spinach, lettuce etc etc in shallow drills and covered with compost rather than the original soil - and would you know it! plenty of germination happening all over the place :D

i had one plot holder ask what 'the black stuff' was - so i explained. he thought it was a good idea - but noone else seems to have thought of it. also shows exactly where you have sown and where you would expect things to come up.

much happier now :)
svea

[Justy]

carrot lift off too!  They are barely visible and only half a dozen per row but they are definately through!!    I forgot to cover them in fleece though - is it too late or still worth doing?

[Lazybones]

Oh now I am very jealous.  I have nada coming through yet   >:(  Well done.

[Svea]

forgot to say: it's been one month exactly since i put them in! sown 24th april - i was fooled by the mild weather then - anyways, must make note as to germination times. half of the seedlings have their first true leaf now (so i could regocnise them) the other half just starting on the first true. :)

[sandersj89]

carrot lift off too!  They are barely visible and only half a dozen per row but they are definately through!!    I forgot to cover them in fleece though - is it too late or still worth doing?

No, get the fleece on now as the fly will be doing it's business soon.

Jerry

[Mrs Ava]

Well, I copied ya Jerry, did the compost seed drills, covered religiously with fleece, and nothing, not for weeks, then today, had a little peek, and whatdyaknow, about a trillion carrots all over the place!  Why all over, well, the first few rows I did directly in the ground and as they didn't germinate, assumed they were gonna's, raked the bed and resowed in fresh drills.  Of course, the lot appear to be coming up! Carrot soup anyone!?!?!??!  :P

[sandersj89]

May all your carrots be straight and fork free!

;-)

Jerry

[Justy]

I will just take carrots - fork free is next years challenge!