Funny Carrots (last years crop)

[MrC]

Last year our carrots came up looking really funny.

We didn't really pick them as baby carrots.

We also thinned them by 'moving', rather than just 'removing'.

I read that this may have happened due to irregular watering - but we did try to keep this regular.

Also that the soil may have been too firm, or gritty causing the carrots to split/divide their growth.

Would welcome any advice as to how we can prevent this - not that it really matters that much - they take longer to prepare, but we were eating them into February and they tasted fine!

[Bigmallly]

Manure will cause carrots to fork, as will stoney soil. You can grow them in sand or really sandy compost.

[Potstubsdustbins]

I grow my carrots in containers. I riddle MPC and mix in some sharp sand 60/40. This seems to work OK.

Colin

[Two_Sheds]

We also thinned them by 'moving', rather than just 'removing'.

I'm curious about that ~ do you mean you transplanted them?


(if you did, this disturbs the tap root - which is what a carrot/parsnip is - and will have caused the deformity)

[Nicos]

I'd go with the 'the soil is too rich' aspect as the main cause -( as well as the above possibilities)

[zazen999]

How to prevent it:

My carrot and p*****p patch is the only one I religiously dig over, to loosen the soil, add home made compost to a foot deep, remove any large stones, sow as many as you actually want in that patch, sow in a block not a row, and cover with very fine netting from sowing to harvest. Weed twice, once when the seedlings are about 3 inches high and once when they are about 8 inches high, and do this weeding late in the evening and cover them back up as soon as you have done it!

[di]

Zaz, do you make a frame of sorts or just drape the netting over them?

[zazen999]

I use canes with knobs on [sometimes yoghurt pots, sometime tennis balls] at each corner and then just drape and weigh down with bricks, stones, water filled milk bottles etc. I do have a couple of u shaped canes as well. And if it's a big patch, the blue tube fitted over short canes. Anything really.

[di]

^ ^ ^ Thank you. x

[Nicos]

I use fleece instead of netting. Seems to hold the moisture in a bit more as well as the inviting smell ( to any passing carrot fly)

[Two_Sheds]

Whatever I use, the carrot fly still gets in

Later sowings have fared better, and the quick/early ones have less damage than the Purple Haze and Autumn King. I pulled loads of carrots this year, but virtually all are unusable

I think I'll do fewer, better. I'm going to grow them at school in a raised bed with voile stapled over the top. Possibly no weeding (the beds are fairly weed-free now anyway)

[MrC]

I'm curious about that ~ do you mean you transplanted them?

Yep (well my better half did)!

So - riddle, mix in some sharp sand and don't transplant them seems to be the main pointers for this year!

Thanks all