But things are looking up this year! 2x20' rows.
Nantes - this row sown 29 May.
Well done, Tim! I've also had my first success with carrots this year, although at least 50% have been forked!
I lost three sowing last year and this year sowed one row of supposedly fly resistant seed next to a row of onions. I covered half the row with fleece and left the other half exposed. Sure enough the exposed were still attacked by carrot fly and when I uncovered the other half, the first time since sowing, they also were affected. However, a neighbour on the site said he has had his first success with carrots and the method he used was to use his spade to form a V shaped trench which he filled with sand from the local beach before sowing his seed on top with a light covering of soil. His carots are perfect and unaffected so of course I will try again next year using this method but I do wonder why this worked. Has anybody any experience of it
Yes - sand's great, but doesn't help with the fly.
I find the fleecing bit interesting - can anyone explain that?
I have never had any success with direct sowing of carrots in the ground. This year my OH says all the sowings I did in pots and containers are all doing brilliantly. (Sods law that I ain't there to taste my own goods at the moment). I may try that sand in the spade V' method next year...... along with the containers too ;)
This year I tried covering the seed in the drills with council "bulk compost", and was astonished when every seed germinated.
Parsnips did the same.
We have bought aphid proof netting, cut it down to 30" high, and sown cane pockets into it. This we use as walls to either shelter young plants, or to wall around carrot beds for "the fly". Taller versions with nets on top form compounds around the brassicas, and stop almost all cabbage whites.
Its not cheap, but it will last for years
Well done on your carrots Tim.
Carrot root fly are attracted when you disturb the carrots when "thinning out".
Any thiniings should be removed well away from the row and earthing up (just like spuds) will help keep the fly at bay too.
If you can sow thinly enough all the better.
Quote from: Fork on August 02, 2008, 21:16:05
Well done on your carrots Tim.
Carrot root fly are attracted when you disturb the carrots when "thinning out".
Any thiniings should be removed well away from the row and earthing up (just like spuds) will help keep the fly at bay too.
If you can sow thinly enough all the better.
i eat all thinnings,i was all ways led to believe that you dont grow carrots in land recently manured?
Carrots sown in recently manured land will "fork"....well some will anyway.
I find that growing carrots near onions, leeks, chives, garlic and marigolds seems to deter the root fly very effectively. Good results so far this year from seeds sown in the open grown, with a liberal addition of sand. Others on our allotment site find that sowing them in troughs or old sinks works well.
Mine are in dustbins.
I will try the v-trench for my carrots and parnips next year but with compost rather than sand, I hope it works for me, also counted up my tomatoes and at the moment I have about 40 nice tomatoes :)
There was a thread earlier this year where someone asked whether it was best to sow carrots in rows or broadcast. The first umpteen replies just answered with one word: "Broadcast!"
I can't grow carrots either. (I blame my London clay, but as others on our site can, I think I may have to take a bit of the blame!) So this year, I sowed one block in rows and the next block broadcast. (From the same packet, half in each bit.) Result: the rows have got carrots & big gaps in about equal quantity; the broadcast area has hundreds of happy carrots!
I expect the carrots in rows will produce larger roots, but at the moment I'm thinning the broadcast area by pulling the largest, to leave the smaller ones to grow on. (So wasteful to pull out the small ones & throw them away!)
I know which method I'll be using next year!
PS: the yield of early carrots from tubs was brilliant too, but they were broadcast as well!
I can't grow them either. Out of half a pack of seeds, I have 4 miniscule ones. Although the ones I put in a container out the garden seem to be doing ok. I too am going to try the sand thing next time. And maybe broadcast some as well. Hell, I'll try anything!
My carrots in the bath are performing much better than the one's in the buckets.
Both are raised and no sign of fly in the bath, but the top growth (and one would suspect the root too) are more lush in the bath.
Everything is in sieved compost. I don't think I'd ever dare to try sowing on my clay.
My guru up on the plot says there is a bad fly problem up there and he keeps pop bottle cloches over his from beginning to end. I keep mine at home where the bath one's were fleeced for ages until I took the brave step of removing it. I sow really thinly in short rows across the bath, and this is the second year of what looks to be a good crop (but then I am only feeding me this year).
I always forget to water mine regularly (which is maybe where the bath wins over the buckets as it takes longer to dry out - both bath and buckets are in a sideless g/h that suffered in the gales).
I've lifted both Parmex and Early Nantes so far and they've been yummy. I've even managed two successional sowings so fingers crossed they'll keep me going a while yet.
;D
i was left lots of bins by a dear chum who went to the great garden in the sky and they are full of carrots now-also tried them on my fairly heavy soil-its the bins everytime now! ;)
kitty
xx
Have had some great carrots this year which I've just finished pulling (or rather 5 year old son has ;D).
After looking at lots of threads here I re-used an old aluminium cold frame with no glass top that was left on the plot by the previous owner. I worked the soil under it well, then put it in place and filled it up about 4-6 more inches high with good soil and OLD PLAY SAND (remember this you mum's out there!). Added a bit of Blood Fish Bone and sowed end of April. Covered the whole thing with fleece until they were established. They have been ace - kept us in carrots for 4 weeks (and we use a lot of them with 3 & 5 year old who eat them raw most days).
I have to say tho, I found last year that doing them in rows 6 inches apart works best for me as the weeds seem to sprout before they do and it makes it hard to weed them if they are broadcast.
I will look at all your methods as I can only grow calorie free invisible carrots.
I have tried two varieties in different locations but I have not had one come up. one of the rows was interspersed with marigold seeds that also failed to grow.
Just my luck!
H B
Have never had much success with carrots either...... for last year's and this years first sowing the parsnips seemed to out-germinate the carrots. Have done a second sowing this year and made an extra extra special effort not to sow deeply and the this has been much better with more seedlings and fewer gaps. Maybe broadcasting encourages more shallow sowing than rows?
Pulled first ones today - four of five were straight, one "pair of legs" Deelicious!
Most of mine got carrot flyed last year, this year I have done no early thinning, no carrot fly so far, but the ones I have pulled from the gound are all forked the ones growing in the kids tidy up tubs are longer and straight, so far so good, he says. :-X ;D ;D ;D
I sowed some early ones in March, I have only a few but they are growing nicely, we don't seem to be bothered by carrot fly here?
Then I sowed a late batch about a month ago and they are a different kettle of fish! They have almost all germinated, and the tops are now about 10cm high! They are an autumn variety, a Colmar (reddish orange), maybe that is the secret. The earlies were Amsterdam and Nantaise but I dunno, they don't seem to work much for me.
I sowed the latest ones in the old broad bean patch, well worked over and raked, sowed them with sand mixed with radish seeds so now they are quite well thinned as I harvested the radishes. And watered them well the first 10 days.