Pathetic Carrots

[Marb67]

Aaaaaaaand again years and years on I can't get a single carrot harvest after healthy sowing in a seed tray transplanted to the soil. Thin, wispy nothingness. So far I gave tried growing in 3 different gardens with the same results. And no, there was no carrot fly.

I give up

[ameno]

Probably too close to other plants or not enough light. I notice what looks like raspberries in the background there. Those things' roots get everywhere.
I used to try and grow carrots in little patches of soil in semi-shade like you are doing, and never had any luck. Since I started growing them in rows in open ground in full sun, they do far better.

[Marb67]

Those aren't raspberries, they are Crocosmia. The soil is open to sunlight. I just find them impossible to grow. Ditto for radish and beetroot.

[Snoop Puss]

Transplanting carrots supposedly works, but goodness knows for whom. I reckon it's a gardening myth. And a cruel one too, because it just sets us all up for failure and feeling like failures.

Your best bet, Marb, is to sow direct and water gently like a dew every day for about four weeks. If you've had no germination by then, start again.

[Marb67]

I find if I sow direct they have even less chance of surviving due to pests etc. Its been a terrible year for me as so much has failed including no show seeds and many non flowering plants.

[Snoop Puss]

That's a great shame, Marb.

[ameno]

Ditto for radish and beetroot.

Yes, you'll have the exact same problem for those, as I did when I used to try and grow them in a little patch of soil in my not-sunny-enough back garden.

That said, with all three of these crops, variety choice is important. With radish and beetroot, I have found it by far the best to stick to modern F1 hybrids. Older varieties often don't swell well, and produce an abundance of leaves but no roots. Modern varieties always produce decent roots without excess leaf growth.
For carrots, it's not quite that simple, but I have definitely found some varieties never seem to do very well. Nantes varieties are always reliable for me.

Transplanting carrots supposedly works, but goodness knows for whom. I reckon it's a gardening myth. And a cruel one too, because it just sets us all up for failure and feeling like failures.

I've always found that transplanting carrots is perfectly reliable... as long as what you want to grow is corkscrew carrots.
They grow on and the roots swell perfectly well, they just tend not to be a very easy to use shape...

[Florence Fennel]

I never had any success in open ground, but great results in containers, sown direct - perhaps try that?

[Penellype]

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.

[Bren In Pots]

I'm another who grows carrots in buckets.