Carrots a complete failure this year! Out of 2x5m rows that were sown about 8 1/2 weeks ago literally only 5 plants have germinated!
I'm seriously thinking about hoeing the whole lot up this weekend and starting again... last year was a bit of a carrot bonanza, so I don't think that the site is particularly unsuitable.
I've been keeping a fairly close eye on them to date (watched pot syndrome, perhaps?) so it isn't a case that they have germinated and promptly been whipped out by the birds, but if I sow again I'll fleece 'em just to be sure...
Not too late to start again, is it?
Depending upon variety, you can sow till November!
Ive sowed Autumn King diretly into the ground and had marginal success, i did fleece them to stop carrot root fly, and netted them, just to be on the saf side . Did you sow this years crop in the same bed as last years crop?
good, I think my mind is made up then!
No, I've rotated the crops about, so the onions + carrots are in the bed that had spuds in them last year, and the spuds in the old onion & carrot bed.
Leaves me with a bit of a problem next year, but I think I'll put the onions + carrots in the last bed to be rotated, and the spuds back where they were last year.
(I plant 2 rows of carrots in between 2x2rows of onions)
Up to yet I have had bad results with my carrots, I am putting it down to the cold weather at night time, does anyone else agree.
:-\
I think that you are right Richard - not one of my two rows has appeared. I'm going to hoe them out this weekend.
I reckon it`s the cold-first sowings were a complete flop as well.
Stephan
We are onto our 2ND attempt. First lot about 3 carrots germinated. Second lot put in about 2 weeks ago are just starting to show. This is our first year, only took the allotment on in Feb. Much to learn!!!!
Think I will try the compost drill as explained on another thread by sandersj89 I think.
Snap!
First two rows of carrots show about 7 individuals.
Out of 56 parsnip stations sown (3x seeds/station)... I can't find a single one. And the whole bed was swathed in enviromesh as soon as I'd sown them. Is it too late to give the parsnips another go?
We had very wet & cold weather for some weeks after I'd sown them, so it's possible they all rotted away. Similarly the spring onions show only about a 5% germination rate, there's hardly a one to be seen. The only thing that's come up are the broad beans (after a 6 week wait).
:(
Same here....about 6 carrots showing...gonna sow more next week....Alan
i am not sure what the parsnip seedlings are supposed to look like either....
cant find them, anyways, between a whle lot of weeds that have come up.
maybe another sowing is in order - together with some more scorzonera of which only 1(!!) seedling has come up (from two short rows)
thanks, makes me feel a little better knowing that others are in the same predicament.
I'm also relieved that this didn't happen last year (my first full year with the lottie) - last year's success has meant that I'm not likely to give up as "just one of those things", so I'll persevere with this one.
Richard S,
You will find as you go on that you get no two years the same in this game, what does good one year does not always do the same the next.
:-\
same here with the carrots, out of one row only four have appeared, hit and miss with the parsnips aswell, and my leeks have done absolutley nothing!! >:( I sowed some carrots in with my toms in GH, supposed to give juicier fruits, they havent come up yet, did them about 4 weeks ago. and they're nantes earlies.
I think I'm a lucky first timer, I have carrots growing in toilet roll centres planted out also sowed seeds direct in drills of compost and they are an inch high ;D the ground is so hard they may turn out as funny pictures for the watershed :o ;D
Having never grown carrots before, my first attempt this year is with small round ones. Germination rate seems 75%. How would I know if they get carrot fly ??? What does it look like?
Quote from: ani on May 19, 2005, 17:34:37
Having never grown carrots before, my first attempt this year is with small round ones. Germination rate seems 75%. How would I know if they get carrot fly ??? What does it look like?
Tie a wall of fleece around them at least 2ft high that should keep the beggers out ;D
Quote         You will find as you go on that you get no two years the same in this game, what does good one year does not always do the same the next.
What you say is true up to a point but you'll find that with a few years experience you will know what happens when and why and results will become far more consistent as you learn, of course the weather can put the kybosh on the whole thing and we're all back to square one ::)
our initial early (march) sowings only a few came up so i tried pre-germinating some carrot seed (sugarsnax) on kitchen roll in a dish putting this is a propagator until germinating then very carefully sowed one seed every inch or so in a 12ft row had every one came up though still very slow to grow as pretty cold here
a bit fiddly but i did it as a test to see what would happen and it worked for me
later sowings i.e. April and better still may have better results.
damm crappy spring so far!
Richard, would you consider growing the mini-varieties of carrots? I'm not sure why, but I seem to have 100% success with those.
As Merry Tiller said, the weather (this year to be true) has been disastrous for carrots et. al..
I ain't got nothing in except spuds & the main crop ain't up yet. Frosts have been a burden, but I think things are a changin'. I'll be out trying to break down my concrete clay & seed a few things.
Always be patient.
The only thing I got in are onions and shallots. Holding back with my outdoor sowings of my main vege crops due t o the cold, frosty, changable weather. Hopefully by May 25 the weather would have got its act sorted out and realised it was going to be summer soon. Where has spring gone? I think it has Spring.
When the weather picks up there wil be a sowing bonanza. Hopefully with some nice warm weather and a bit of water everything with germanate within a week and we will be back on scedule.
My early carrots have also been very patchy. I always grow most of my Autumn King by sowing seed first week of July and always have had very good germination. It is not long before I am pulling small thinings. The carrots fill in as quick as I pull out the small ones. I leave them in the ground over the winter and often have carrots right through the winter and this year pulled the last ones in March. I tend to grow most this way now as my spring germination is often bad.
Thank Goodness! ::) I thought it was me that just could not do carrots being a new to this allotment lark. But I am pleased with salad crops, onions, cabbage, sprouts, broccoli,peas, broad beans, strawberries, both early and main potatoes,(just a little touch of frost on one or two) but my runner beans have not liked the cold even with fleece round them, but I have some more coming on in the cold frame so will try again.
Because I am sharing a plot with somebody else I quickly ran out of space so I have been going round one or two friends on the site asking if I can dig their weeds and use the space just for this year. They thought it was a good idea, better than weeds or carpet.
Rosemary
Oh I forgot the celeriac
Umm-going to open a thread.
Good idea that rose.mary! I think sometimes a whole plot is too big for some folks and a half would be ideal. My lotty neighbour was saying to me the other day that her lotty was too much for her but "no-one wants half a plot". Yes they do!!!!! Some people have no garden at all and would love just a quarter if they could get their hands on one. I think lotty societies should look at this and let people share plots. :)
Mine does in a fairly big way, but then the plots are double size with hedges, and not many people manage to cultivate the whole thing anyway.
Our allotment has pretty big plots too - it seems that most of the larger plots are shared. I share my plot and we still haven't quite managed to cultivate it all (though this is due to taking it on as a complete wilderness and we hope to get it completely cultivated by next season).
I am also very glad that my carrot failure is a common problem to many of us. I planted early nantes and samurai and got a very small number germinating. I had put it down to the exceptionally cold weather this spring. My spring onions were also very poor. My runner beans and sweetcorn are also finding germination difficult, though they were sown only a few weeks ago and hopefully the weather is going to pick up (i.e. hopefully I won't have to put the heating on in my house in the evening!). Peas did pretty well though.
Nobody on my site seems to be able to grow carrots successfully; I don't know why. I've tried several times, and they just don't grow.
Went down to the allotment this evening, just before a thunder storm, and guess what? I have 2 carrots coming through under the fleece. Yippee! 8)
Rosemary
Just checked our second sowing, seems like about 50-60 carrots popping up. Fingers crossed.
My 1st year also and 1st lot of carrots sown in April were a no-show. Subsequent sowings have all been fine and are well away now. Just the cold spring methinks. :)
Hi Richards,
Although I live a good way north of Twickenham, I am in Lancashire, I never sow my carrots before about the first week in May, I have tried many times earlier but the soil is too cold in april. I do cover them in fleece until the end of June. We are troubled by carrot root fly and the fleece really does prevent this pest. I have tried Thompson & Morgans 'fly away' for the first time this year but have still put fleece over as the weather has been really bad in our area. Carrots can be sown until the end of June and where you live probably first week in July. Just do as I do sow more in the gaps and you will have a good succession from July through to October. I love to see my vegtable in full growth and I know fleece doesn't really look very nice, however, it prevents pests, frost and birds destroying my crops, by July its off and I look at my beatyful vegetable garden with anticipation of my first home grown dinner.
Regards Contessa.