Manure and root crops

[mrpaulbradley]

Being fairly new to growing my own and in my eagerness, I've manured and added compost to most of my beds thinking I was doing the right thing in preparation for planting.
I know realise I'm not meant to grow root veg in this.
It wasn't a great deal and is was well rotted horse dung.
What's the worst that can happen?
Or should I leave well alone.
Any help greatly received.

[Two_Sheds]

The worst is that the richness of the soil will make the roots split and fork

They're still edible, but a pain to prepare for eating

[Florence Fennel]

I made that mistake the first year I grew parsnips - they were so hard to prepare because of being forked and split that I think most of them went into the compost! Could you grow your root crops somewhere else, or in containers?

[Kristen]

Try "ball / globe shaped" carrots this year? Here's an example:
Suttons: Vegetable Seeds, Carrot Rondo Seeds

We use all our parsnips that fork - the fingers are as fat as the bottom 1/3rd would be anyway, and their shoulders are still usable, its only the bit where they actually forked that soil gets wedged into which we have to throw away.

[mrpaulbradley]

Thanks all. The ball carrots sound fun. I think I'll experiment with those but dig up another bed for my other carrots and parsnips. It's good exercise I suppose. Thing is, as my sig block suggests, ive heavy clay soil. I'm assuming a 'soil improver' type compost will be ok. They don't come with much nutrition do they? I think they are just for structure?

[Newton]

If anyone's interested in how to grow some of the Long Show Carrots then I've done a short YouTube video.
I'm no expert but I did have some cracking results last year using this method.
No secret to it whatsoever just a bit of preparation,(filling a barrel with sand) and the right seed (I use Medwyns) and you can get some cracking results.
All the compost mixes are on my blog.
Take a look at the YouTube video link from yesterday's post. I have copied the text from the post but you might have to look back to yesterday.

It shows the soil mix that he uses for growing his mighty exhibition roots and is fascinating to watch......I am no expert but I think clay soil and carrots go together like Charles & Diana

See below
I'm trying to take the myths out of show veg and give everyone the buzz of pulling a 4ft carrot just for a laugh.
P.S Don't laugh at my daft Yorkshire accent.

Link below.

YouTube - Allotment Diary : How to grow Giant Exhibition Long Carrots & Parsnips
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Please have a look at my Veg Growing Diary.

allotment-diary.co.uk

Thanks.