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Wot no carrots?
Scubydoo
Posts: 21
in Fruit & veg
I've never had success with carrots. However, a few months ago, a friend had some young plants left over and gave them to me. I planted them up in potato sacks, and watched as they slowly grew into lovely verdant leafy tops. A couple just started to flower, so I thought its time to start eating fresh lovely carrots! I pulled a couple, and underneath - nothing! Just a normal plant root. Healthy enough plant root - but definitely not a carrot! So, before I start again, because, as it was going 'so well', now I' ve bought seed, what did I do wrong? I planted in potato sacks in compost mixed with sharp sand with added vitax fertiliser. Watered as normal and added a bit of pelleted manureas they grew.
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One thing I don't do with carrots is feed them with anything. They grow in 50/50 gardensoil/sand mix. Never had a problem yet !
Have to agree Scuby- they don't like too much nourishment. When you sow seed it should be in ground that's not had recent improvement. Seems strange when you feel you're helping doesn't it? I used to grow them in little troughs of ordinary compost, didn't do anything special to them and got great little crops. Have to be cruel to be kind is the motto!
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
That carrot looks like a cosmos.
you don't normally transplant carrots. You sow seed and then just thin them.
What do the flowers look like?
carrots that go to seed have white umbels, but by that time there is usually a woody tap root.
Are you 100% sure they are carrots? The form and foliage look very much like love-in-in-a-mist (Nigella) to me. Carrots have a separate stem for each leaf, all of which come from the top of the carrot. Your plant seems to have a single stem with leaves emerging from it at vaying heights - that's exact;ly how nigella grows.
Edit - or Cosmos as FB said - difficult to tell until the buds appear.
BTW, carrots don't transplant well - always best to sow them in-situ. They send down one very long thin root from the seedling which eventually swells into the carrot. This very delicate root invariably breaks if you try and transplant, unless you sow them in root trainers or loo rolls etc.
Should have said, I only sow in situ like the others for the same reasons which have already been mentioned.
Ok. It's now a possibility that I haven't been nurturing carrots after all! The flower is shown below. The stems seem to be one leaf to one stem though. Don't know what colour a carrot flower is but there you have it. Hmm. Wonder if a certain friend of mine is currently having a bit of a giggle!!
Yes I think your friend is having a larf. That looks like a fine specimen of cosmos to me