carrots in compost

[grasser]

hi
im gonna grow carrots in a container , should i use soil or compost ,or a mixture , ive read that they dont like compost but prefer to get advise off one of your expereinced gardeners
hope someone can help


many thanks to anyone who can
JOHN

[squashysu]

hi John,

i have mine in compost in tubs and they seem to be doing ok, i hope someone comes along with an answer for you, sorry i cant help much

SS

[Capsid]

Just don't use fresh compost from your compost bin.

[JO,JO]

apparently they dont like well manured soil?

[Paulottie]

Carrots grow best in a sandy loam. A loam based compost or a seed sowing mixture is fine. multi purpose with horticultural sand. and/or screened topsoil. add blood fish and bone evenly when you mix. They are grown on the fens think of the rich deep soil there.

The reason they fork is that they will grow toward pockets of nutrients and freshly manured ground doesn't have an even distribution. Home made compost is very different to commercial 'compost' which is normally mainly peat ( or coconut fibre these days)

To make your own... the ultimate mixture might include stacked turfs(fibrous topsoil), leaf mould, sand( not too stoney...scratches roots), composted seaweed and/or river silt. maybe a bit of soot/ woodash and often with peat. And really well mixed. Not all the ingredients are easy to come by though. Recipes are normally the sort of thing secretly passed down through generations of show masters!...but I think you get the idea

[grasser]

THANKS to you all . ill mix multi purp compost with my topsoil .and put it through a riddle ,+hope thats ok
john

[Alice]

Hello Grasser, when I grow carrots in containers I use the compost from a Growbag and they do well in that. Good luck with the project.