What are your carrot growing tips?

[ponyexpress]

Thinning carrots when they are big enough to be eaten is a discovery to me, I think I’ll make a try. In my garden I mix my seeds with very fine sand to have a sparse growth, then I wait till adult leaves grow before pulling out extra seedlings. I can plant them in empty spaces or an extra line, their growth will be stopped for a week but they will catch up with the first batch later. Waiting for adult leaves is important as snails and slugs will then stop eating them.

I thought carrots don't like to have their roots disturbed and that you'll get forked carrots. Have you found that to be the case? Or perhaps you're very careful to make sure you get the tap root in straight as possible.

This year, 6 pots with 4 being long and two early short ones. The long ones Baltimore, Candysnax, Rainbow, and Sugarsnax. The shorties are Adelaide and Short And Sweet. Last year there were Sugarsnax which went down 12" and made a 90º turn for another 3: or 4". The pots are set several inches into the soil so the tap roots follow the water through the drainage holes.

I see that you have a bunch of carrot varieties. Are all of them sweet raw and cooked? I'm finding that some of the carrots I pulled are kind of bitter raw. Maybe they're past their prime? Is it possible to leave a carrot in the ground for too long?

As regards the weeds, my Dad had a trick that works well - get a bag of weed-free commercial compost, use it to line your furrows and cover your seed. Your carrots or other crop come up without competition. He came up with this because of the huge weed seed bank in his ground, and it works really well.

I used this tip twice this weekend. Once for my grow bags where I fill the bags with soil/sand mixture and then have a 2" layer top of potting soil. I also did a row in my raised bed where I made a furrow that was filled with potting soil. I planted parsnips 2-3 weeks ago in a grow bag with this technique and they came up beautifully with no weeds. Wow, that was awesome!

I water the seeded bed and cover it with old burlap bags I keep wet for about a week, I have to take them out as soon as growth begins. I can use ferns as well , they let enough light reach young plants while keeping the soil damp.

I would like to learn more about your techniques. Where do you get burlap bags? On the web, I found this place which offers 3" wide burlap, 100 ft long for $17. http://burlapsupply.com/3-inch-10-oz-bu ... 10100.html

Is this sufficient? I guess you want a single layer to shade the ground to keep it wet?

I also never heard of using ferns. Can you explain how you use ferns to cover your carrots? I have plenty of ferns in the woods behind my house.

[loulac]

I found burlap bags in old farms where they are no longer used to store wheat. How many layers ? it depends on the temperature of your garden (region, exposition to the sun). 2 or 3 layers seem to be OK. From day five onwards check germination twice a day and take out the bags as soon as the seeds start germinating (usually a week in my place).
I wouldn't try to buy burlap as you can get plenty of ferns. I suggest a layer about 3 inches thick, enough to protect seeds from sunlight. More water will be needed than for burlap (evaporation). Checking germination will be less imperative. Ferns will make good compost later.
And last but not least : protection. Seeds can be carried away by ants, tiny seedlings can be eaten by insects and snails. Spraying the soil after seeding and then after germination is advisable.

I forgot to say that my transplanted carrots are never forked...

[Paquebot]

Pony, 5 of the 6 that I grow are sweet both raw and cooked. Baltimore is great but not as good as Candysnax or Sugarsnax. We seldom eat carrot raw but I can a lot of them alone, with peas, and in V-8+ juice. I did just pull several small Candysnax and they were not as bitter as a Baltimore last week.

Medium in Candysnax and Sugarsnax pots have settled down to 12". Pulled one of each which had a wide shoulder. Candysnax was 12" long with a hook at the end. Sugarsnax also 12" but end broke off. They have reached the bottom and turned 90º and still going!

Martin

[ponyexpress]

It’s time for an update. I thinned one of my Sugarsnax carrots. Wow, impressed with how long they are! Here it is next to Bolero and Nantes. Sugarsnax was planted around the first week of August so they are not fully mature yet.

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Here is a picture of the grow bags containing my parsnips, and two for carrots. The other carrot variety is Bolero. This is my first attempt using grow bags for root crops. If you look to the left, you’ll see my raised bed that has almost all carrots and a little pot with my Amish Bottle Onions.

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[Paquebot]

Sugarsnax advertised at 10" to 12" and it will do it if given the proper growing conditions. My main carrot pots are about 15" deep and the "snax" pair can reach the bottom. May look for some deeper pots for next year and see just what they can do. Stashed 21 pails of old horse manure today so there will be plenty of food to keep them happy.

Martin

[ponyexpress]

I was in my garden and I saw a vole running near my carrots. Dang, he discovered my bed of carrots. Will need to set traps out again.

I decided to pull all of my carrots including the Sugarsnax variety. They came out nicely. They are thick as my index finger and quite long.

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Here is what they look like in the grow bag. I had trouble pulling the carrots out of the bag, the greens would break off. Had to roll the bag a little on the ground and push it in a little bit to free up the carrots.

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[bower]

They sure are long and straight!

[Paquebot]

I get the same results with Sugarsnax wen grown in deep pots and only old horse manure. Candysnax is another which will give the same long carrots. They both cam be sowed thicker than many others.

Martin

[fluffy_gumbo]

I feel guilty thinning out anything so I followed this Youtube tutorial of making a cornstarch or flour goo, cool it down completely, then put your carrot seeds in that and pipe it into your rows. The thick consistency of the goo will help separate the seeds out a bit better. This method actually worked great for me last year albeit maybe a bit more work upfront, but then saves you about 90% of the thinning efforts.

But I got lazy this year and just got pelleted seeds

[GoDawgs]

Here is what they look like in the grow bag. I had trouble pulling the carrots out of the bag, the greens would break off. Had to roll the bag a little on the ground and push it in a little bit to free up the carrots.
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I read about a little trick that helps in pulling carrots with weak tops that break off a lot. Of course, it also works for carrots with good sturdy too. You grab the tops right at the crown of the carrot, push the carrot down an inch or two and then it pulls right out. I've had good luck doing it that way. I guess the pushing breaks some of those fine roots enough to free up the carrot a bit.

[ponyexpress]

I read about a little trick that helps in pulling carrots with weak tops that break off a lot. Of course, it also works for carrots with good sturdy too. You grab the tops right at the crown of the carrot, push the carrot down an inch or two and then it pulls right out. I've had good luck doing it that way. I guess the pushing breaks some of those fine roots enough to free up the carrot a bit.

Good tip! It's vaguely familiar but I can't recall where I have done this before. I know I have done this for some other vegetable or thing but I can't recall. Definitely not for carrots because I was not successful until this year. Hmmmm.

[Paquebot]

Prepped my 2021 carrot pots today. Three are about 9 gallons and the other two are 7. The medium in each was already almost 100% used horse manure. They were dumped into a wheelbarrow and mixed with 10 gallons of unused old manure. They will settle a little over winter and topped off in the spring. Won't have to wait for a long dry spell to work soil. The pots will be ready to receive seeds the first warm day of sprinig.

Martin

[Amateurinawe]

[mention]Paquebot[/mention] sounds great, love to know and see how this turns out

[Amateurinawe]

Just to add some context to the above. We all love carrots in the family, and to be honest they are as cheap as chips in the supermarket. But, and it is a big but, they do not have the taste, colour of texture as home grown. Supermarket carrots destined for stew, but home grown carrots, peeled, sliced, julienned, raw , cooked, garnished, chipped, fried, roasted, or grated along with onion and potatoes into a rosti - gotta love these home grown babies. So hoping you got some magic tips for growing super carrots.

[MsCowpea]

Martin (Paquebot), Will you fertilize your carrot containers of old horse manure during the season? Or add anything to the pots before
seeding the carrots? Do you just broadcast the seeds and then cover? Do you thin them in pots so they are spaced apart? Thanks for additional info.

[Paquebot]

No other fertilizer is ever needed. The horse manure is more than sufficient. Being aged is important so that the salts are leached out. If fresh, there may be forked roots.

The seeds are broadcast thinly all over the surface and then covered with ¼" of the medium. If they come up too thick, I do not thin. So far they have done quite well at self-thinning or survival of the fittest. Some small ones were left after most were pulled and they matured later.

The pots for next year are ready to receive seeds. I did make one change by working about an inch of sand into each. It's probably not needed in that loose medium but may make it easier for the seedlings to go deep quicker.

Martin

[MsCowpea]

Thanks for additional information. I will try your mix.

[Paquebot]

Think of it this way. If I use a pot which is 16" deep and the mix is 50% "new" old horse manure, it is the equal to tilling 8" of that into your garden. That's why an entire pot may be solid carrots with no space between. And, they will eat it!

Martin

[lee53011]

For me, the thing that made the biggest difference was finding the right variety for my conditions. I only grow Flakkee carrots now. I do not till, I just plant the seeds 16 per square foot in my raised beds. No special soil or anything. They grow nice and straight, about 2" across the top and 8"-10" long. Other varieties forked, or were stunted. I won't even bother planting anything else now.

[GoDawgs]

Today was carrot sowing day. I'm not doing a lot, just 12' for fresh eating. Yeah, carrots are cheap at the store but it's nice to have some right there in the garden when you need them. At some point in time, someone posted about having trouble handling carrot seed as it's so small so I thought I'd document a tip I posted somewhere in here a while ago.

Sometimes it's hard to drop that small seed in the furrow without sowing too thickly. Thinning later is a pain so I like to try not to over-seed in the first place. Several years ago I read an article on soaking carrot seed as it not only shortens germination time but also makes them easier to handle. And so it does.

I start by soaking the seed overnight. Shot glasses make a dandy soaker:



The next day, dump the seeds into a fine mesh strainer and blot the bottom with a paper towel:



Finally, tap the seeds out of the strainer onto a paper towel and blot them one more time. Be careful when you lift the blotting towel because there will some seeds sticking to it that need to be scraped back down to the pile. They're now a lot fatter and more manageable!



Hope this helps anyone else whose fingers aren't slim and nimble anymore!