Has anyone given up on carrots?

[curly_kate]

If you really want carrots, build yourself a raised bed. Works like a charm!!

 

[lesa]

Yes- raised bed is the answer! I planted mine in a hill, about a foot deep. They are growing like crazy! Last year, I had carrots stored in the basement in sand-until spring! They won't grow into hard, rocky soil. If you give them, deep, loose soil, you will see success...

 

[wifezilla]

I have a raised bed and something ate all mine

 

[lesa]

That is weird. Nothing touches my carrots. Do you think it was bugs or a furry friend. Is it possible for rabbits or deer to get to your bed? I plant my seeds in very early spring and do nothing until I harvest (unless I thin out). I am in zone 4- not exactly gardening paradise! Don't give up-

 

[ohiofarmgirl]

i even failed at RAISED BED carrots!

i still give up!

 

[obsessed]

I have grown them quite unsuccessfully for a couple of years now but I attribute them to user error. I am still trying. I think it has to do with the slow germination time and their fragileness.

 

[digitS']

I can get greatly improved carrot germination by either buying and sowing pelleted seed or by using cornstarch gel.

One tablespoon cornstarch to one cup of boiling water makes the gel. Then I pour a line of the gel and sprinkle seed sparingly on it. It seems to work as well as the pelleted seed.

Both approaches have the same principle at work - holding moisture for a slow germinating seed. Carrot seed can take 3 weeks to come up in my garden. During all that time, they are about one-quarter of an inch down in very porous ground. Sunshine comes and goes and a couple times a week, I get some water on that soil surface. Not doing something to keep that quarter inch moist usually dooms the carrot seed.

Some have good success placing a board or burlap over the soil surface (DrakeMaiden). If I do that, I forget to look to see if there are any seedlings coming up .

Steve

 

[momofdrew]

I watched an expert organic gardener on tv once and he recommended that you work a lot of fall leaves into the bed you plan on planting your carrots into...it make the soil friable and something in the leaves that the carrots love...also carrot seeds do not like to dry out they need to stay evenly moist for them to germinate

 

[desertgirl]

Wierd. I planted them in good,loose sandy soil. I planted the along side the radishes (they did great!)). And I'm growing everything in a square foot garden, which is technically a raised bed on crack.

I dunno.

But here in the high desert water is far too precious to waste it on another carrot crop. Maybe I'll just hit the farmer's market...:bouquet

 

[trion]

We we on the way to beautiful perfect carrots. I bought an organic rainbow mix so the colors ranged from a deep red to white and every version of orange in between. They are so cool! The first 2 rows I planted were producing carrots about 6 inches long and about an inch wide as of last week. But then something found them. Something digs in the rows and eats the tops of the carrots. They ignore the green but literally dig up the carrot tops and eat part of them. I just finished pulling up my younger two rows of carrots. The critter had found them. I firgure small carrots are better then none and will be freezing them later. I should probably head out with a hoe and see if there are any more edible ones where the green tops were ripped off but nothing dug them up yet. Any idea what might have done that?