growing carrots

[teengrower]

hi hope am not upseting anyone by startin this thread if i am let me know im growing carrots but for next what the best container to grow them in as i cant plant into the ground and what do you feed them

[Two_Sheds]

Plenty of info on older threads, if you have a browse around

In a nutshell:

1) container needs to be deeper than the length of a fully grown carrot
2) you don't feed carrots

[Sanjo]

Teengrower, if you are desperate to grow carrots but don't have room in the ground then yes they can be container grown and the size of the container should tell you what size carrots to choose. Some are round like little balls so the container doesn't need to be so deep. I have baby carrots growing in ordinary plastic garden troughs but the carrots are only about 3" long. The problem with containers though is the watering and drying out of the compost. Good luck

[Caro]

Hi Teengrower,

Do go for it! As everone else has said, the container only needs to be as deep as the carrots you plan to grow. But - remember to make sure there are drainage holes in the container, if you convert something not originally intended for plants.

[Bren In Pots]

I grow my carrots in those 25ltr trade paint pots you can usually find them in skips

[shirlthegirl43]

If you sow them in buckets (I use the flower buckets from Morrisons), plant the seeds at the 'final distance apart' which is given on the back of the packet. If you sow some now they should be ready for Christmas dinner

[teengrower]

would the frost not kill them off and i was thinking of plastic boxes as containers cause there square so i can grow in rows and i was going to drill my drainage holes then screw on two pieces of baton to raise container off the ground which should provide excellent drainage

[shirlthegirl43]

I don't usually have to worry about frost here before January but I bung the buckets in the greenhouse or close to the house to keep them warmer.

It would be a help if you put in your profile where you live - a rough area is plenty - it makes it easier to calculate what growing in your location is like.

[shirlthegirl43]

Your plastic box idea sounds good. You could wrap newspaper and bubble wrap round them if frost is forecast

[Caro]

Plastic boxes would work great. But if you are looking for a cheaper solution (unless you have a good supply of cheap plastic boxes) then many supermarkets sell off the buckets their flowers are delivered in (hence shirlthegirl's reference to Morrisons flower buckets). They usually price them something like 90p for 8 buckets or, occasionally if you have to ask for them as there are none out, then they often give them to you for free.

[teengrower]

i live in co antrim northern ireland inland so not close to the sea so can expierience severe frosts would insulating fleece around the box protect from frost or setting box into an unheated garage at night do any good

[mrscorpio]

Hi
Im growing carrots for the first time this year. I am using an old water butt which i cut in half.
I filled it with about 18 inches of soil so leaving about 9 inches of space to the lip.
I covered the top with fleece to keep the bugs off until the carrot tops grew so big I had to remove the fleece.
I pulled a couple of carrots the over day and had them grated on my salad. They are not fully grown yet, but they do need thinning out.