Allotments 4 All

for those who think they cannot grow carrots there is always the option of tubs and boxes etc but I was reading in a gardening magazine the other day about using a growbag - instead of laying it flat you stand it on its thin edge so it is still long but the width becomes its height/depth - make a slit in the top and sprinkle in your carrots seeds - seems obvious really but thought it might be of use to some as a top tip  ;D also gives you the opportunity to raise the bag off the ground and away from the carrot root fly levels

Good idea-I suppose you could grow other veg that need a deep pot  in one as well-parsnips,leeks etc?

yep, spend more on the grow-bag than the price of the few carrots you could grow in it, even if you purchased them from M&S!!

Yes but these won't be just carrots they will be 'growbag grown carrots'

You can't put a price on home grown carrots... and you could always grow odd ones like Red Elephant or Purple Haze....

Quote from: tonybloke on April 02, 2010, 17:48:33
yep, spend more on the grow-bag than the price of the few carrots you could grow in it, even if you purchased them from M&S!!

Great point - its easy to get carried away with buying stuff for veg patch when you could buy all the veg for less!

Doesn't stop me though   ;D

I think its a bit expensive as well  but there is nothing stopping you expanding on the idea by mixing the grow bag with riddled soil and sharp sand of equal amounts and using bigger bags

Quote from: tonybloke on April 02, 2010, 17:48:33
yep, spend more on the grow-bag than the price of the few carrots you could grow in it, even if you purchased them from M&S!!

I'll let you know  ;D but considering nettos are selling growbags really cheaply and all you'd have to do is top the bags up and re-use or you could even make your own if plenty of homemade compost available I'd still say worth it in the long run especially for those who find growing them a problem (which I don't but I like to have extras) - you'd certainly get more than a few over the coming growing season  :P

I'm no expert but I tried this last year and the result was feeble to say the least.  I hope you have more luck than me.

I suppose carrots from a growbag might taste fresher than shop ones, but there's not that much difference between growbag soil and the commercial soils that grow carrots easily.

You've never really tasted carrots until you've tasted them from heavy clay.

Yes they may be forked (unless you start them in the same kind of sand-filled slit trench you'd use to root blackcurrants - it's that easy).

But so what? Maybe 30% harder to clean but 200% of the flavour...

Quote from: Glenburnie on April 03, 2010, 17:44:57
I'm no expert but I tried this last year and the result was feeble to say the least.  I hope you have more luck than me.

Did you find it compacted to much?

Neil

Can I just say that I am intrigued by all these growbag ideas, as I don't know what a growbag is. They don't seem to do them at all here in France, at least I have never seen one in a graden centre. I just grow everything in the ground? I guess they are useful in Britain where you need so many things under glass. Here if it doesn't go out, people just don't grow it...

Quote from: antipodes on April 13, 2010, 13:16:09
Can I just say that I am intrigued by all these growbag ideas, as I don't know what a growbag is. They don't seem to do them at all here in France, at least I have never seen one in a graden centre. I just grow everything in the ground? I guess they are useful in Britain where you need so many things under glass. Here if it doesn't go out, people just don't grow it...

A growbag is just a smallish bag of soil/compost that is often purchased for growing tomatoes.  You simply cut holes in the bag and pop your plant in.  The drawback for growing anything is that they need watering.... a lot! 
I wouldn't bother doing carrots this way as the cost (effort and £) outweighs the benefit IMO.

I do use grow bag material because it is very cheap for bulking out tubs. And it does work if I put the grow bag material into three large tubs then use them for tomatoes providing they are given a lot of tomato feed. They seem to be 70% fine wood chips.

Carrots are such a cheap vegetable to buy I can never understand the urge to even bother to grow them. The shape of grow bags is all wrong too long and flat. And how on earth any one supports them on end is beyond me.

Sow carrots seeds in ordinary soil at the end of may and cover with fleece supported on canes so that the carrot fly can not get to them.

cheapness of veg you could say that about many - not worth growing cos they can be bought cheaply - but growing your own brings in quality, taste, variety choice etc - the whole point is growing the carrots in the bag on its side not flat, working great for me so far until i can sow and grow in the land later when warmer