We have had carrots earlier in the season but these were sown in a trough of compost and started off in a cold greenhouse. This weekend we decided to see what our outdoor sown carrots had produced. We were pleased with this first digging!
We sowed four different varieties of carrot - Autumn King 2, Early Nantes 2, Yellowstone and Flakkee. We have grown the first three varieties before so we decided to try Flakkee. The catalogue description said this was an easy to grow, main crop variety, producing large, thick roots, having very good colour and flavour. We had some for dinner and certainly were not disappointed. As you can see from the one being held it certainly has produced thick roots too despite the fact that we don't thin out our carrot seedlings. So all in all the catalogue description was fair.
Our soil is heavy clay which can make carrot growing challenging but in spite of being warned when we first took a plot that, "You'll not grow carrots on this site!" we have had good success using a method that works for us. Click here if you're interested in more detail of how we grow our carrots.
We grow carrots under enviromesh to protect from carrot fly and in the past have had to remove this to weed but this year we only weeded once when the carrots were quite tiny.
We read in one of our gardening magazines that once carrots got growing they could hold their own with any weed growth. Anything to cut down on weeding sounded like a good idea and the covering of enviromesh means that weeds are out of sight and out of mind so we just let the carrots get on with it after this initial weeding and it seems to have worked.
Our carrots will stay in the ground until they're needed. We find that if we dig them to store they seem not to keep as well as if they are left in the ground and covered with straw. Click here to see how we store them over winter.
If all the other carrots are as good as these they should keep us well provided for over winter.
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I have tried Flakkee for the first time too. They are not as big as yours, but are the biggest among 4 varieties I'm growing.
ReplyDeleteAnd it's very true that carrots can grow in weedy soil. Last year I didn’t weed at all and I got some nice carrots.
Hi vrtlarica - I was looking at your carrot as you were looking at mine!! The one in my photo may be the biggest we'll get!
ReplyDeleteNow you're just teasing me...
ReplyDelete...but thanks for the link
Think positively Mal - you too will have large carrots next year!
ReplyDeleteAm jealous! I sowed 3 decent rows of Resistafly this year & have got precisely 4 carrots out of it in total! It was a new packet of seeds too. No idea what I did wrong. Oh well, there's always next year I suppose....( mutter, grumble).
ReplyDeleteThat's really disappointing Mrs J maybe they should be renamed Resistagrow.
ReplyDeleteWoah! Judgement day for the carrots?! I was a little scared by that title :) They look utterly fab and I am rather jealous as ours aren't doing well this year at all and I look forward to pulling a carrot, especially a big one.
ReplyDeleteHi Carrie - That wasn't my tidgy hand either - I think the carrot fairy must live on our plot from what other people are saying!
ReplyDeleteCarrot cake all round then? :D
ReplyDeleteI have had success with my carrots too this year so I am very happy for both of us...I was interested to find you didn't thin out your carrots....I didn't mine this year and have found it to be my best crop ever!!
ReplyDeletePity I can't send you a piece Craig
ReplyDeleteI'm really glad that the carrots turned out for you Tanya - do you think we have hit upon the secret of growing carrots successfully - no thinnning? We haven't thinned out carrots for a whle now - only accidentally when weeding!Vrtlarica did you thin yours? What about the rest of you?
For carrot sowing this year I did what the US gardeners do - I made seed mats. I am very happy with this method and I already have made seed mats for winter sowing of carrots, parsnips and parsley root.
ReplyDeleteHere I have a picture showing nice carrot rows I get with seed mats.
http://vrtlarica.blogspot.com/2010/06/garden-in-june-vrt-u-lipnju.html
Just to say: Last year I didn’t thin them and I got nice carrots only where they had enough space for growing.
ReplyDeleteThanks vrtlarica - so that theory has been squashed! There is space between the rows of our carrots so the roots can push out sideways though.
ReplyDeleteI keep meaning to try carrots in containers. Just too bone idle I guess. One year I will!
ReplyDeleteHi VH We only grew a few but they gave us some early carrots and so were worth it.
ReplyDelete