Rubbish with roots

[deathbysnails]

@ twosheds: mmm - blood, fish and bone. lovely! Thanks for the advice. I assume I can just buy this, rather than having to pay a trip to a butcher, a fishmonger and a blender? And it's best to do this when I plant it? Is there any way this would encourage vermin? I'm having probs with rats at the mo (they're under the house now, and they stink)...

@Lynda - you're right, I shall be grateful for what I've achieved so far. after all, it's only my first time growing anything. that said, i have no evidence yet that the potatoes are producing anything more than leaves either!

[zazen999]

I couldn't use blood fish and bone personally; eugh.

I'll stick to the coffee grounds and root veg fertiiser...even if the above is in it I don't want to know.

[Two_Sheds]

Blood Fish & Bone is fine ... it's just a powder (with a funny smell). You sprinkle a little (like seasoning) in the planting hole, water, then backfill the hole with dry soil (so no vermins can smell it and dig it up!)

[bluemoon]

If it's any consolation I can't grow carrots to save my life, though I can manage just about everything else without problem. I have a theory that every gardener has one thing that's a mental block for them and it's usually something simple. My old grandad was a complete gardening genius, but couldn't get sage to germinate, no matter what he did. Last year I did actually manage a few golf-ball type carrots, by growing them in a small raised bed, but the flavour was not to my liking. This year I thought I'd try the same method, but with Chantenays. Result; back to loads of top-growth (which doesn't actually go to waste as the rabbit loves it) but no root formation.

[zazen999]

I went to the lottie this evening and checked the second bed of carrots and onions.

The prep for this soil was to dig it and sieve it, and added some coffee grounds and just added a good few handfuls of compost. The original soil was clay, unworked for years.

The onions were sown into little pots of 3 at a time, and transplanted in May. the carrots were sown direct in pinches of seed at the time of transplanting the onions. the only other action has been to weed out the couch grass/mare's tail etc.

They were pulled tonight. I've attached the photo [taken under flash as it was dark when we got back]. It's a bit dark but you can see the size against the 10p.

Tis amazing what sieving and adding coffee grounds can do to root veg.