Anybody like carrots

[digitS']

Years ago in the country home, I decided that carrots could be an important part of my food supply. And, they were!

First season: I planted Nantes, Danvers, Chantenay, and Imperator. They were in 4 rows of equal length and I had 4 times more Nantes than any one of the others. By the bucket, I had more Nantes than the others, combined.

So ... I became a believer but have tried several varieties of the others again and they have generally done okay when I paid attention to what soil they were going in. The Imperator-type DW likes is Sugarsnax. Trying a real big Chantenay ... forget the variety name ... was something of a serious fail. It was mostly with the long season required, I guess. They split - more growing time, more chance of things going wrong. The different Nantes varieties have done just fine but if'n I grow them in the gravel, they'd better be short ... oh yeah, I had problems with Bolero, whatever that one was. The soil nematodes really like those ... yikes!

Steve

 

[thistlebloom]

@digitS' , @thistlebloom , my grandparents used to plant a long row of carrots about 12”-14” wide with 3 rows of carrots. In the late fall grandpa would cover row with a thick layer of straw. Whenever grandma needed some carrots for the evening meal grandpa went out with a pitchfork and raked the straw off and dug a few up. They always ran out in mid February or so, not sure if they would have lasted all the way to May to plant more though maybe not.

Your grandparents lived locally Collector?
Some years we have gotten so much snow that I can't picture me digging down to get carrots. The snow has been over the tops of the cattle panels some years. I would probably just go to Costco...

I have a friend that lived in town (Dalton Gardens) and she said they always left the carrots and potatoes mulched over in the ground and would dig them as needed.

My "delayed harvest" carrots were good into April for sure, maybe May, I didn't keep track.

 

[Collector]

Your grandparents lived locally Collector?
Some

Yes they owned a farm near Rockford Wa. Just a few miles from where we live now. I am sure some years were a bugger to get out to them for sure. These are the same grandparents that had the root barrel also and I do remember one Christmas break when I stayed with them shoveling a trail out to the barrel that was close to as deep as I was tall at the time.

 

[henless]

@Collector - What's a root barrel?

 

[thistlebloom]

Yes they owned a farm near Rockford Wa. Just a few miles from where we live now. I am sure some years were a bugger to get out to them for sure. These are the same grandparents that had the root barrel also and I do remember one Christmas break when I stayed with them shoveling a trail out to the barrel that was close to as deep as I was tall at the time.

I guess the idea is to keep it accessible as the season goes and not wait until you have 4' of snow to decide you have a craving for carrots. My failure to plan ahead has been revealed!

 

[Collector]

@Collector - What's a root barrel?

It is a 55gal drum buried in the ground that you can store root crops in.

 

[flowerbug]

kinda like an outdoor root cellar.

around here we need something like that for any root crops left out because the deer and other critters will find them if they can... one spring i went out to survey the carrots i had left out to regrow and hopefully flower the next year. nope. everyone of them was chewed off down as far into the ground as the critters could get at them.

it was actually interesting as the carrots had not rotted yet so they were there as shiny orange nubs in the clay.

 

[canesisters]

I'd be very interested to see how this played out after a couple seasons.

 

[digitS']

I had a root cellar that I accessed from the woodshed and down a ladder.

It worked great.

Both my concrete walled basement rooms with dirt floors have been a little too warm.

Steve
Edit: except for onions. The sweet onions, at least in the 2nd basement room, last about twice as long as they are supposed to

 

[henless]

@Collector - Thanks. I thought that is what I might be.