Carrots "now"

[Kimbo]

If you have a biggish pot, try filling it with some fresh compost and sowing a few carrot seeds on top and cover with a sprinkling of compost.

Water well and pop into an unheated greenhouse or tunnel or failing that a sheltered part of the garden near to the house (the house will keep the temp up a degree or two) and wait to sprout. Thin out in March and eat finger carrots in April and May. To help keep up the temp you can put a clear polythene bag over the top but do put a couple of small airholes in for ventilation.

Its a gamble but with a mild winter pays off quite handsomely.

Do you think this would work with pots in a mini greenhouse which is up against the side wall of my house?

[smallblueplanet]

Are any particular type of carrots best for pots? How long do they take from sowing to eating?

[supersprout]

Thanks for the nudge piggers Beetroot and carrot sowed here a fortnight ago are ready to go into their greenhouse pot now - time to sow another batch. I stopped sowing carrot in early September - will def. extend to November to get some of your little lovelies! With temperatures and seasons evolving new patterns, new growing possibilities will result from endless experimentation - as the man say ...

Its worth the gamble, if it goes tits up you have only lost a pinch of seed.

sbp - PAULW's Nantes frubund looks interesting. I sow Paris Market or Parmex every ten days or so in the growing season for a quick crop of stumpy carrots, eaten like sweeties. I don't do very well with 'grown-up' carrots - yet

[smallblueplanet]

SS i'm confused - so what is best to do now?

Sow into module then transplant into a pot and put into an unheated greenhouse. We've got some 'mini-veg' Amsterdam Forcing, what do you think?

[supersprout]

Hi sbp

Sounds like a plan I'm not the best with carrots <blush> That's why I sow little and often, and stump rooted varieties - it's a workaround. I'll carry on trying to grow 'proper' carrots til I succeed!

For an early supply, you can sow now:

• scattered direct into a big pot in the greenhouse or
• multi-sown stump-rooted or round varieties in modules then space the modules out in a large greenhouse pot or border

These beetroot and carrot seedlings are ready to go into a big pot in the greenhouse - sown on 11 Jan.

Try different ways and see what suits you? I prefer to start in modules at the moment as I can't get to the greenhouse often. Later on (after frosts) I sow direct AND use modules to 'fill in' with little clusters of baby veg around the plot.

I'm feeling very confused at the moment, even missed GQT

[smallblueplanet]

How do your module sown carrots 'like' being transplanted?

I like those modules - we've not allowed ourselves to spend out that much on them......yet - I can feel a splurge coming on!! (Of course I did buy some more rootrainers 5 & 8cm off ebay, and the self-watering props for our onion seeds )

[supersprout]

How do your module sown carrots 'like' being transplanted?

Shh! Don't let them hear you Mandy! With those long root trainers, they don't seem to notice Straight into a dibber hole (on a Root day if convenient), water in and leave to grow

[smallblueplanet]

[whisper]What depth are your carrot-trainers? and just one per module or multi-sown[/whisper]

[supersprout]

I use these (which pop into a dibber hole) and 3" pots (which fit the holes made by a bulb planter). Not cheap, but they should last forever, and mine are well used!

Trainers are two inches deep, carrots multi-sown (6 seeds per module, usually get 3 or 4 germinating). Some people swear by one seed per trainer; for me it depends on whether it's worth while faffing about with individual seeds. Pigletwillie's banana shallots got one each

[smallblueplanet]

So (hmmm and you think you're having a slow day!) you put 6 seeds in each of the modules, then thinned to one? Then transplanted (shhh!) into 3" pots and then later (using a bulb planter) into the pot or the ground?

Now being nosey what else is growing in your modules beside beetroot and carrots?

[wellie]

I grew Amsterdam Sweetheart 2 last January in deep plastic 'windowbox' tubs, and had a beautiful crop of finger sized VERY sweet carrots early summer for raw cruditee dipping into very garlicky mayo.....!
Nice glass of chilled Pinot Grigio to go with it. Bang on!

[supersprout]

LOL yes I'm having trouble keeping up today sbp, it still feels like 10am Got 10 lb marmalade cooling on the countertop, so not all bad

No, I don't thin the carrots, however many come up, I let them all grow for three weeks or so then transplant.

At this time of year, whilst it's still cold, I'll plant (say) seven plugs - each with around 4 carrot seedlings per plug - into a HUGE pot (12" or larger dia.) in the greenhouse. I make a dibber hole, pop in the plug, and water. If you have a greenhouse border, you could transplant them into that. Or wellie's window box!

Later on in the year they can be transplanted outdoors, wherever there's a space on the plot for a dibber hole! Stump-rooted carrot will push each other apart like beetroot as they grow.

If you visit Barnsdale Gardens, they have multi-sown spring onions, leeks, carrot and beetroot on show in their veg patches.

Nosey? You're welcome, I'm the same! - in the trainers are beetroot Pronto and Burpee's Golden, carrot Parmex and Paris Market, and Hamburg parsley on the right - slower to germinate, so I thought they'd enjoy a head start. They are sown two to a plug, and I'll thin to one if need be.

SSx

Sorry, the 3-inch pots are a red herring <blush> I often use em for big seeds like beans and squash, or to pot on tomatoes, and these little trainers for almost everything else. I'm not very bendable, so having plugs and pots that fit dibber and bulb planter holes (instead of making trowel holes) is a real help

[smallblueplanet]

......If you have a greenhouse border, you could transplant them into that. Or wellie's window box!..

Wellie can get her own carrots!

Thanks SS. Well thats not quite was has happened here - they've gone in 2 seeds to a 10cm rootrainer. Interesting about the carrot/beetroot pushing apart though, we've multi-sown onions and leeks before.

[vicki lorraine]

This is all very inspiring grapes.
\Will be sowing some carrots tomorrow i think.
An unheated greenhouse will be ok will it?

[supersprout]

Glad you're enjoying the carrot convo vl lol.
After a short start on the windowsill, yes - no heating on the plot!
If a really deep frost were forecast, I might put a bit of fleece over the pots for the night