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I want to grow various different coloured carrots.  Has anyone grown either purple ones or white ones?  What did you think of them?  Any particular varieties you would or wouldn't recommend?

I'm afraid it all boils down to taste - and it's v diffciult to advise on that.

The ones I've tried all grow like ordinary carrots so be adventurous and try a few - as someone on another thread said - If you treat it as a trial and it doesn't give the desired results you can tell everyone that it was only a trial

Phil

I read a Pippa greenwood review of various carrots a month or two ago and I think that she gave purple ones the thumbs down. But it's all down to personal taste - so give it a go.

It is certainly worth trying, if only out of interest. I have only tried yellow ones, not at all cheap, and highly rated, but they were a big disappointment, both on yield and flavour. However, I could well have just been unlucky ...

Curry - do you remember which variety you tried?

Last year, I tried Purple Dragon and Yellowstone. To be honest, I was disappointed with the taste of both of them, so I'm sticking to ordinary carrots this year.

trying out samurai this year - they're red.

Yes Citychick, they were Kinbi F1 from Kings seeds. Cropping was poor, and the usable carrots were either woody or tasteless. In simple terms, considering the price of the seed, very disappointing.

This year I am staying with conventional varieties ...

Flakkee (new for me this year)
Autumn King
Berlicum

If I have any remaining space, I may throw in a packet of cheap seeds from Wilkinsons just for a late crop of young carrots, finger size - in my opinion a gourmet's secret.

Quote from: jennym on April 17, 2006, 20:15:37
Last year, I tried Purple Dragon and Yellowstone. To be honest, I was disappointed with the taste of both of them, so I'm sticking to ordinary carrots this year.

Oh dear, those are the ones I am trying.   :(  I have also got Royal Chanteney and Autumn King so all will not be lost!   :D

i grew the same ones as jenny to, I dint have much luck with the purple dragon but the yellow stone where reasonably nice to be fair very juicey and with a nice taste but nothing stunning
Its probably down to area soils etc (thats not to say Jennys is not as nice) but i did speak to mine on a regular which counts apparently and to the plants also


so thats answers your question and i really need to get some friends !! lol

carl 

We grew white ones a few years ago, and indeed still do.  I take them to work and confuse people with them. 
They do taste & smell like carrots, but somehow the link between what you see and what you taste isn't easy to make.  This especially so when you consider that ours are a French variety and on le pacquet it says they are essentially forage plants - i.e. animal feed :o

This year we've got white, Samurai (red) some Yellowstone, and ordinary orange ones all growing in a row.  I treat them as a successional crop, so if some of them turn out to be failures I'll just leave them out of the next succession.

Quote from: bennettsleg on April 18, 2006, 08:46:10
trying out samurai this year - they're red.

We grew these last year, only thing we did grow while getting the rest of the plots dug and ready for this year.  They were a good crop and have a sweet taste.  I am growing more this year, a worth a try for anyone.  Ideal for a salad

Quote from: carloso on April 19, 2006, 11:31:32
../Its probably down to area soils etc ..

Fair point - I am on very heavy clay here.

:)I have grown both purple and yellow carrots, as well as orange ones, and found them to have an excellent flavour. The purple ones had a more carroty flavour. I shall be growing them again this year.
Yesterday, I lifted the last of my carrots and they are surprisingly good after having spent the winter in the ground.

Quote from: weedin project on April 19, 2006, 12:52:27
.....ours are a French variety and on le pacquet it says they are essentially forage plants - i.e. animal feed :o.....

The French, bless them, are to be thanked for their categorisation of some foods. When the EU was rules on the National Lists of Vegetables (the ones that mean old varieties tend to be displaced by more modern ones - and hence the reason why we have lost many old varieties), the French insisted that parsnips were not veg but fodder.

Hence parsnips are not covered by the EU legislation and good old varieties like Hollow Crown continue!!

Phil

PS If you have French visitors that you want to get rid of, mak sure that you serve parsnips as the vegetable  ;)

Red intermediate I sowed for the first time last year, very good cropper and flavoursome too  :)

Quote from: jennym on April 20, 2006, 20:52:06
Fair point - I am on very heavy clay here.

our plot is quite heavy, we sifted our soil and added sand in the bed, it seem to work very well.

I sowed some 'rainbow' carrots on Sunday.....

Please let 'em grow good, my 2 daughters are extremely excited waiting to see multi-coloured carrots..... ::) ::) ::) ::) ::)

Louisa xx

I grew Jaune Obtuse de Doubs last year and had great success with them, they were sharper tasting than orange carrots and I really enjoyed them.