Container carrot/leek tips please

[jackyspratty]

Hello all, I have a large builders tub 18" wide and 15" deep and want to have a go at carrots. Can any one advise me on the mix of compost/sand I should use? We just have multi purpose B&Q at the moment. I intend to put some polysteryene in the bottom for drainage, but how much depth of compost against drainage would i need?
Ive read that when doing carrots you should sow direct? Filing the hole with sand before sowing?
I would also like to do leeks in florists buckets too, how many per bucket should I plant? I have some in modules at the moment but they aren't pencel thickness yet.

Is it worth putting some water retaining gel in when doing veg in containers? A friend told me to add a bit of loam based soil to the mix too to aid water retention?

Any advice appreciated. Its a beautiful day and Im itching to rip open those seed packets!

Many thanks x

[Bigmallly]

I don't think the mix is important Donna as I have read that carrots can be grown in sand only. As with water retention, I put broken oasis in my pots.

[Snadger]

John Innes compost grows good carrots. John Innes is a mix of 7 parts good garden loam, 2 parts sand and three parts peat or MPC.

If you have enough MPC and would rather not use loam you could fill the container with MPC and forget the sand. This will still grow good carrots.Or you could form slits in the MPC, add sand and sow into this.

Sand is usually used when growing in loam based compost!

[King Carrot]

I mix apx 1 part sand to 5 parts compost/soil when I fill my carrot trenches - looks about the same ratio as Snager's John Innes above.

[gojiberry]

Carrots grow well in MPC and come out nice and clean when harvesting. Depth of compost depends on carrot type, look on packet for info on length of carrots. 12" should be plenty deep enough though.

Ian