Fertiliser for carrots

[Josh]

Hi there I'm very new to growing and I'm gonna start some early carrots in February in a planting bag what fertiliser should I add to the compost a friend of mine said that a organic potato fertiliser would be fine but how should I add it ? Thank you for your time josh.

[muddled]

Hello josh and welcome,

I don't fertilise for carrots at all. My understanding is the less nutrients in the soil, the further the root grows in search of them....which results in big, juicy carrots. The old boys on my allotment grow huge great carrots in pure sand.

Having said that, I saw a bag of fertiliser in the garden centre specifically for spuds and roots which I thought was a bit bonkers. Surely spuds are gross feeders and carrots aren't?

Still not going to be feeding mine though.

[Kristen]

Allotmentdiary (on YouTube) uses a fertiliser on his container grown show carrots. Can't remember what it is, but should be easy to find one of his videos on growing carrots for show.

[Bill HH]

Welcome Josh,
I find the whole carrot thing very confusing. It seems the convetional wisdom is not to fertilse, and yet I recently saw a you tube vid where an irish guy grows prize winning carrots in pure horse manure!

My instinct tells me they must need some food to grow. Perhaps you should split your crop one without any fertilser and one with . Then let us know.

[crannman]

was thinking of putting sand in my raised beds have riddled my soil fine but still have problems with carrots trying chicken manure too

[Bill HH]

Firstly I am not a carrot expert but I have grown some very good carrots over the years using MPC and some fish blood and bone meal..

This growing in sand, to me is not going to work, there is no food in sand its ground up rock and shell, so what does the carrot live on? if people mean mixing sand with compost/ soil thats another thing, the sand may well drain the soil etc. When you see the experts grow in sand they are using the sand to support pipes that they then remove and fill the holes with their compost mixes (which contain fertiliser). The carrot follows the mix and avoids the sand (a sure sign they dont relish eating sand) giving a long straight carrot.
I am quite happy to be corrected on this.

[lottie dolly]

Have heard about the sand myself,but agree with Bill,if memory serves me correct,the idea of sand/compost/soil mix is,i believe,is that not only is the ground freer draining,but also finer for the roots to grow without the interferance of stones ext,i to stand to be corrected by an expert.

tried to do links ,
if peeps go into advanced search,type in carrots sand,then clic on posts only,it comes up with very useful info,

[crannman]

yes i will be mixing sand in with my soil to help with growing i remember seeing a program on farming the soil they grow in is very fine and sandy out norfolk way i think

[lottie dolly]

What type of sand is used

[Jonnyt]

I've previously thought that half MPC and half sharp sand is the way to go but I've only personally used MPC to good affect in containers,

[crannman]

sharp sand was my choice

[Josh]

What about a multi purpose liquid feed ?

[Spunky]

How about mixing half spent compost with half new and using rock dust as a fertiliser to add the extra gubbons

[Jay-ell]

I thought that you don't fertilise carrots to avoid excessive nitrogen which causes forking. If you use something with a low nitrogen content but high phosphorus levels (e.g. bone meal) would this help grow bigger roots without forking?

[Bill HH]

How about mixing half spent compost with half new and using rock dust as a fertiliser to add the extra gubbons

But there is no more food value in rock dust than there is in a paving slab.It is for the minerals people use it which in my opinion are either already in the soil or availabe in much cheaper ways.