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Carrots - what's the secret?!

TootlesTootles Posts: 1,469
in Fruit & veg

Evening all,

Please may I ask about carrots? I pulled some today, and whilst they are 'OK' they wouldn't win any prizes. I planted them in late spring. 

I want to enter them into the village show next year. What's the trick to getting good carrots? I know to grow them in gritty soil to get straight ones. They just seem to take so long to get to my kind of average size. I've been growing in a deep raised bed. Is it about the feed and watering? 

Thanks muchly 

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Posts

  • TootlesTootles Posts: 1,469

    Thanks Verdun. I'll give your method a go. how far apart do you tend to sow them? I think I might be guilty of over crowding a little.

  • LoganLogan Posts: 2,532
    Tootles I've seen people using sand to fill in the holes to plant the seeds in, for spacing look on the seed packet it should say,the bigger the carrot the wider it should beimage
  • TootlesTootles Posts: 1,469

    Thanks again.

    Does it help if they are in a sunny patch or do they do ok with some shade? My growing patches are to the rear of my house and it doesn't get a lot of sun until later on in the year.... perhaps that's the issue too. 

     

  • LoganLogan Posts: 2,532
    Verdun I will have a goimage
  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,140

    And you need to choose the correct variety for your purpose. 

    There are 'early' varieties which you harvest early as smaller carrots and 'maincrop' varieties which you leave in the ground to grow large and harvest in the autumn/winter.


    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • Mel MMel M Posts: 347

    Over watering will give smaller carrots with lots of top growth. Only water if the soil is dry.

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