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Advice on carrots in containers
JamieMcD
Posts: 89
in Fruit & veg
Hi everyone, I have posted on this forum a few times before mainly regarding tomatoes. Anyway, I have been growing carrots in containers and I think I am closing in on being able to harvest them. The variety is early nantes and they were sown approx 23rd february i think. So that gives me roughly 18 weeks since sown. I pulled one earlier and it was a nice wee carrot. I will post a pic. What i am looking to know is will they continue to grow if i leave them longer or is their size limited because i have them in a fairly small pot (i now know better!) but yes, any advice ?
please and thanks, appreciate any help
jamie
0
Posts
If you pull up every other one, the ones left will grow into the gaps. They'll continue to grow as long as the tops stay green and don't flower. Remember that when you start pulling them up you will attract carrot fly very probably, so drop a fine net or fleece over the ones left (unless you already have a barrier in place)
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
hi raisingirl, i have them raised up 4ft or so. was hoping that would be enough to avoid carrot fly, but maybe not....
thanks for the advice, i think i will pull a few out and open up some space. Have you any idea how long it takes before you can harvest the nantes variety ?
thanks jamie
They do say carrot flies only fly up to 3 feet so you may get away with it.
You can harvest carrots as soon as you like really. Its not worth the bother until they are actually identifiable as carrots perhaps, but on the whole the smaller they are the sweeter they are. I've never gone by time, I just have a poke around the tops now and then and when I see something that looks like a carrot, I eat it. Occasionally they get as far as the kitchen
Last edited: 05 July 2017 17:34:47
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
I have started harvesting some of my Nantes now, although I didn't sow them as early as yours. I am also pulling out and composting some of the tiny ones if they're growing too closely together. For eating, I do the same as raisingirl advises: pull out alternate ones and leave the rest to get bigger.