I GREW A CARROT!!!!!

[Smiles Jr.]

OK Bay! Now I'm really jealous! I'm never going to speak to you again I couldn't grow a carrot if my life depended on it. Your salad looks scrumptious.

 

[hoodat]

Hooray, Carrots hate me too! Its either I get a few or none at all. I finally got a huge harvest of about 50 carrots last year, and I will continue to buy Nantes carrots from now on. The only one that ever did ANY good in all these years. Your purple carrot is sure AWESOME though.

Nantes half long is always my best carrot also. It adapts itself to any conditions within reason and isn't as likely to fork as the longer ones. I also like the ball carrots that lok like orange beets. Harvested young they are really great whole in stew.
The biggest problem with carrots is germination. The seeds have to be on top of, or barely under, the soil and need to be kept moist for a couple of weeks. Let them dry out for even a day or two and you will lose most of the seeds. Damp newspaper over them will help but you have to look under it every day and get it off as soon as the seed germinates. Another way is to use a nurse crop which can be harvested quickly, leaving the carrots room to grow.Spinach or loose leaf lettuce are both good and the seed for them is cheap. Just mix your carrot and nurse crop seeds and scatter them on top of loose soil, then rake them in lightly with an iron rake. The nurse crop will germinate before the carrots, giving the carrots some shade as they come in. When the carrots get big enough, harvest the nurse crop to give them room.

 

[ninnymary]

It's funny how there are a lot of us who have trouble growing carrots. Mine didn't come up last year. The year before that they did well. I don't think I did anything different. I was going to give up on them this year but now I think I won't. Thank you for inspiring me!

Mary

 

[hoodat]

A lot of it depends on the timing of the rainfall. If you get nice gentle rains for a few days they will usually come up fine. If you get too heavy a rain the seed will wash away but you may find them coming up in odd places after that. If it stays dry the seed will try to germinate, then die off. An odd thing about carrots is that even though the tops look tender they can stand growing in weeds pretty well.

 

[digitS']

I think Hoodat has given you super ideas for getting a carrot outta the patch! (Altho' I didn't know that about the weeds.) Nantes varieties are my choices too for carrots that have good production and less problems.

. . . Now you get to figure out what went right this time so you can do it again...and again . . .

That I think is an essential way to be a successful gardener!

Steve

 

[MontyJ]

Hooray, Carrots hate me too! Its either I get a few or none at all. I finally got a huge harvest of about 50 carrots last year, and I will continue to buy Nantes carrots from now on. The only one that ever did ANY good in all these years. Your purple carrot is sure AWESOME though.

Nantes half long is always my best carrot also. It adapts itself to any conditions within reason and isn't as likely to fork as the longer ones. I also like the ball carrots that lok like orange beets. Harvested young they are really great whole in stew.
The biggest problem with carrots is germination. The seeds have to be on top of, or barely under, the soil and need to be kept moist for a couple of weeks. Let them dry out for even a day or two and you will lose most of the seeds. Damp newspaper over them will help but you have to look under it every day and get it off as soon as the seed germinates. Another way is to use a nurse crop which can be harvested quickly, leaving the carrots room to grow.Spinach or loose leaf lettuce are both good and the seed for them is cheap. Just mix your carrot and nurse crop seeds and scatter them on top of loose soil, then rake them in lightly with an iron rake. The nurse crop will germinate before the carrots, giving the carrots some shade as they come in. When the carrots get big enough, harvest the nurse crop to give them room.

Amazing how different climates across the country can cause such diversity in even simple garden crops. I never have any trouble with carrots, but celery and leeks... I love the nursemaid crop idea! Another way to grow carrots (and this would work well with the nurse crop idea, is to plant rows 2 feet wide. I prepare the planting area by spreading sifted peat moss over it then scatter the seeds over the entire 2 foot wide row then rake it gently and water. The peat tends to help hold moisture around the seeds and also helps keep them from washing away when it rains. I can't prove it, but I think that because the carrot seeds are so small, they get washed down through the peat to the soil. Thinning can be a pain if you seed too heavily though.

 

[momofdrew]

I have always had trouble with carrots some years I dont get any, other times I have good tops but the roots split and nothing is edable, and once in a while I get wonderfully sweet carrots... but I always try every year...

 

[majorcatfish]

good for you and a nice looking salad too boot. one thing missing ribs!!!!!

NOT!! I cooked BBQ pork ribs too! And turnips, collard greens and purple hull peas! Garden yummies!!

well dang... double good for you!!!! , was planning on smoking a couple boston butts sunday, but that got changed today have to go into work and pull a motor from a shot blaster and work on the boilers chemical feed system.
after seeing your carrot just might find space to grow few this year...

 

[Smart Red]

Carrots need lots of moisture to germinate well. I plant my carrots in a block rather than in rows. First I make sure the soil is moist either by sowing after a rain or by watering. Then I scatter the carrot seeds over the planting area and cover lightly. Finally, I put a plywood over the area that is held about 3 inches off the soil surface. This way the seeds are kept cool and moist and they are less likely to be affected by drying winds.

Works for me.

Love, Smart Red

 

[Gardening with Rabbits]

I read somewhere to sprinkle the seed on the ground and cover with hay. I did that last year and had a lot of carrots.