Allotments 4 All

Our original carrot sowing has been rubbish, about a 20% germination rate.  Is it still ok to sow some more in the coming week?

hope so, I've some seed can be sown through to june  ;D

Not to late at all. Some people don,t sow them till June the theory being the carrot fly has gone. 

I have approximately 0.02% carrots remaining at a guess....I got the germination ok...the slugs were over the moon....I intend to make about another 4 sowings

Fash not - you can sow into the autumn.

Yes - our germination has been dismal. And buy one get one free Carrots are so depressingly cheap?

No complaints so far

We are having to sow both parsnips and carrots again. Must have been the weather. lol. I grew late carrots for storing last year and they did better than the earlies. Sometimes its good to experiment anyway.

I haven't sown mine yet. It will probably be a couple of weeks before I do

On our site - we are on London clay - carrots are quite definitely the most difficult vegetable to grow. Everyone makes at least four sowings before one takes. I've only sown the earlies so far.

I sowed 3 black buckets of Early Nante carrots 4-5 weeks ago and all are about 2" high.  This evening I have sown another 3 buckets of the same.  Three weeks time we will be sowing Valery (A long type carrot),  then in July we will be sowing Autumn King 2. 

I've sown 2 lots of early nantes and 1 of autumn king I think it was and neither of them are showing and it's been over 5 weeks now for the nantes.  :(  Think I'll be sowing some more if I can find the room.

Hmmm... I can see a common theme here!

I also resowed two rows yesterday, they should have been Early Scarlet Horn but only one came up, I put that down to the snow. I redug and hoed the soil, made a new little trench, scattered the seed a bit more thickly this time and then convered the rows with compost. If that amount of molly coddling doesn't get them going I don't know what will.

Maybe I'll pop by tonight and read them a bedtime story  ;)

Jon

My lottie is clay soil is it worth trying to sow some in the ground directly or would a raised bed be better for them?
The seeds Ive got say they can be sown in June so I would have plenty of time to make them a raised bed.
I must admit having read how much trouble carrots seem to be & comparing that to how cheap organic carrots are in the supermarkets Im wondering if they will bw worth all the trouble...but then again I bet home grwon ones taste far superior  ;)

I have not sown any carrots yet. Last year was my first attempt and the crop was a failure. Didn't die just not one sizable carrot from them. I grew them in raised beds protected by a fleece shield. I thought I had done everything the book had said. I have some short pieces of plastic drain pipe and wondered if they would be any good for growing individual carrots. Anyone know? How do the crops fair being grown in buckets??

Well I've had no sightings of carrots on the lottie, in the pot out the back however, which I only sowed last week they are starting to come up already, so I shall be resowing up the lottie I think!

There is no comparison with taste Crystalmoon. I persevered with them for 10 years before I got the nack. The seed bed must be kept damp on clay to prevent capping until they are through.. 5-10 days is best. Can't understand why they didn't take in a raised bed... what is it filled with? Any containers are suitable but depth is best...
;D
We had twelve rows with about 20lb of carrots in each last year... even had to soup some, with coriander...  ;)

Would an old tin bath be good for planting them in? If so, would the plughole give enough drainage, I don't want to punch holes in the bottom of it?

Quote from: cacran on June 05, 2008, 22:18:41
Would an old tin bath be good for planting them in? If so, would the plughole give enough drainage, I don't want to punch holes in the bottom of it?

It would be fine.  You do not have to punch holes in the bottom,  just drill some holes using the correct drill pieces.  You will probably need more than just the plughole though.

Trevor, our site is just round the corner from your's and I am on London clay too, but never have a problem with carrots germinating.

I'm known as the Queen of Carrots on our site, (probably to do with the royal poo:))

Not wishing to be rude but you can't be doing it right.  Make sure the soil has been loosened then do a drill of compost put the seeds in and cover with more compost then give a light water every day for the first week then every other day and I will guarantee your carrots will germinate.  Oh, and don't forget to treat with a slug deterrent

You are more than welcome to come and see my carrots anytime ;D

Sinbad

Oh, by punching holes, I actually meant making any sort of hole in the bottom as I think I might want to use it as a pond at some latter date. That was why I wanted to know if just the plug hole would be enough. what if I put some gravel in the bottom as drainage and a stone over the plug hole, would that be any good???