Pathetic Carrots

[peacegarden2024]

sound like bad batch seed

[Marb67]

This is how I grow carrots and it works extremely well for me. My garden is shady - my carrot cage is against an east facing wall with a large leylandii hedge on the east side. The carrots don't mind a bit of shade.



Variety - any Nantes type. The slightly stump rooted carrots suit this method. The photo is one of the Sweet Candle, about 5 inches long (slightly smaller than average). You need a large pot or bucket about a foot deep (I use 30 litre buckets) and some insect mesh.

Sieve enough compost to fill the bucket. I use last year's potato compost with a handful of bfb added. Sieving reduces the number of forked roots.
Sow the seeds in April about 1 inch apart in all directions - this means you won't need to thin them. Tweezers are helpful if you find picking up the seeds individually difficult. Cover with a thin layer of the sieved compost. I cover the bucket with a square of insect mesh tied on with string, but that is more to deter cats than carrot fly.

Always keep carrots well watered - they will not germinate if they get dry. As soon as they germinate move them under a cover made of insect mesh to keep out carrot fly. They will live under the cover until they are harvested. The cover needs to be about 2ft higher than the bucket. You can make individual covers for buckets by folding over a piece of insect mesh and sewing it into a sack shape big enough to fit over the rim of the bucket. I support it on 3 or 4 canes in the bucket and secure the bottom with string woven into the mesh with a darning needle and secured with a toggle like you get on a coat. You can then pull the string tight around the bucket. (This works well for individual brassicas in buckets too).

Do not expect quick results with carrots. Unless you are growing baby carrots they usually take 4-5 months to get to a reasonable size.

Only just read this thanks. Ill try it next year.

[Marb67]

Cant be a bad batch as they all germinated perfectly fine. Something else has happened.

[Nicos]

My guess is slugs…darned slugs or snails. Doesn’t take them long