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When to pick carrots?
Tomsk
Posts: 204
in Fruit & veg
I planted Jeanette F1 carrots exactly three months ago and the ones that actually grew (not many of the last of three attempted batches of 100 I planted) are starting to poke out of the top of the soil with dark tops but orange roots beneath soil level. The tops are still healthily green
Do I need to pick them at any particular point or can I leave them in the ground all summer until I want them?
Will they just continue to grow bigger or do they reach a certain size and then just sit in the soil without growing any more?
This is my first year growing carrots. I also planted onion seeds but for some reason not one of three attempted batches grew.
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Posts
I think they keep growing Tomsk - as you probably know, most people thin theirs out to eg 5cm apart - they taste sweeter when young, but harder to peel and you need a few more for a portion!
I was still picking my carrots in March this year, but I'd recommend getting through them before that as they lose flavour and start to go woody once the weather starts warming up. There'll be a website somewhere which tells you how long / wide Jeanettes should be and their period to "maturity", against which, pull one up and see how far it is along!
to stop your carrots getting green tops make sure the whole carrot stays under the soil, i learnt that this week on the 'big allotment challenge'