longest carrot, tastiest tomato

[dirtyfingernails]

OK, I know you're all going to go "what?!" but my brother in law has challenged me to a competition, and as he's beaten me for the last 2 years (he had the largest pumpkin, I had none, he had the tastiest tomato year before, and yes, I actually didn't grow any that year) and it all adds to the enjoyment....

So I could do with some advice please on:

longest carrot - any ideas on what variety to grow? I've already had advice on how to do it off lottie neighbours (so far idea is to grow them in a tube/drainpipe, with sandy soil, with compost/manure at the bottom and only water from the bottom to encourage the roots to go down) - but any other advice is welcomed.

Tastiest tomato - so far I've got marmande, gardeners delight, romano and alicante germinated - any other suggestions?

thanks!

[dirtyfingernails]

[Merry Tiller]

Don't know much about long carrots, I'm on stony clay, but for tasty toms I'd go for Sungella and Pink Brandywine, some of the Russian black ones are very good too.
Shame you're not near Bedfordshire, I've got a couple of spare Tschernomor plants :(

[supersprout]

Tomato Black Prince, Purple Russian and San Marzano - yum! ;D

[amphibian]

Japanese Black Trifele are yummy.

[Curryandchips]

Carrot? My largest carrots last year were Autumn King, but if it is actual length you are after ...
I am growing Flakkee as well this year so I can see how they compare ...
St Valery are also reported to give good length.

As long as the competition remains within the 'fun' category   :D

[supersprout]

Hi dirtyfingernails, TeeGee has posted his champion carrot method :o at
http://www.allotments4all.co.uk/joomla/component/option,com_smf/Itemid,57/topic,19416.0/topicseen,topicseen
A fiver says da bro-in-law don't get to hear about it ;) 8)

[dirtyfingernails]

fantasic - thanks everyone! will send you a pic of the results

[weedin project]

Dirtyfingernails

If all else fails you could throw your brother-in-law the question of exactly what his underlying epistemological assumptions in the measurement of the competition are.

He faces a dilemma in that he has set one quantitative challenge - how long, which is measureable - and one qualitative challenge - how tasty, which is a matter of opinion.

You can get a result on the carrot no problem - use a tape measure.
You can only ever draw the tomato competition because you can both always argue that to your taste buds your own tomato is tastiest.

How sad and pedantic was that reply????????????

[dirtyfingernails]

no that's been sorted - we have a big family party every summer and there's going to be a blind taste test by a panel of judges (who can probably be bribed with wine or sweets depending on their age if I'm worried)!