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Carrots
Longshanks 2
Posts: 16
in Fruit & veg
Does anyone think it would be advisable to pot these carrots on. They're a bit leggy, don't you think? Have they "bolted"?
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Posts
You can't grow carrots in pots, they don't transplant well, should go straight into the garden.
i could suggest you leave those in the pots and pull them up when they are a bit bigger for a salad.
Parsnips too. But beetroot does do well started off in modules.
My Aged Parent does grow them (well I do it for her really) in conatiners, but the containers are big, the carrots are small and the balcony is sunny.
Sow them in the soil, if you can. If you use an early variety (such as Early Nates or Amsterdam Forcing) you should get a crop before the weather turns horrible. And someone tells me that Autumn King carry on growing well into the autumn, which sounds reasonable.
Parsnips can be planted in paper or cardboard tubes (toilet roll type), 3 seeds per tube, pinching out the weaker seedlings. Plant the whole tube when large enough. I have never tried this myself but will next year. This year I made my own seed tapes for carrots with great success. They were a bit slow germinating but then romped away - until carrot fly got them, and they were surrounded by a one and a half metre high vegimesh fence!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Must have had some help from the wind. Next year I am going to try Biofriendly Plant Defence. A friend of mine with a small market garden swears by it.
See, I'd plant those! Get yourself a hole in the soil the size and shape of the pot. The best way to do that is to use a spare to start with. Then take the contents of your pot, in its entirety and plug it in the hole you've just created. Best way to do that is just to squeeze around the pot to loosen the soil and gently tip it upside down to get it out.
All my carrots have been done that way this year and we have had some blimmin nice ones
You don't really have anything to lose by at least trying it
Thanks for all that info chaps but am going to have to wait til next spring comes round to have another stab at it. We've had our quota of sun this year (last Tuesday and today !!)
I've been thinking about this, and I reckon if you start them in a way that you can plant them out without disturbing the roots (peat pots, card pots, paper tubes, roottrainers) carrots probably don't mind being started in 'pots', the trouble is they want to put a very long straight tap root down quickly so you either need very tall pots or to plant them out whilst still very small.
I haven't had a problem with the taste of bolted carrots, they are so hard you can't really get a bite to taste..... the texture will make you spit it out right away