With limited space available in my little garden there is no way I can grow carrots in quantity, so I am striving for quality instead. Because of the circumstances, I pulled these particular carrots a bit sooner than I had planned to do, but in retrospect I'm glad I did, because they seem to me to be pretty much perfect. Leaving them to get big would not necessarily have been a good move.
These ones are of the variety "Darina", grown from seeds swapped with a friend in the Czech Republic (Hello, Dominika!). As you can see, they have come out really well - lovely and clean and with one exception, regularly-shaped.
For those of you interested in such things, the seeds for these carrots were sown on April 5th. I sowed five short rows, one each of Darina, Autumn King, Nantes, Rotin and James Scarlet intermediate.
Since then they have been growing in a raised bed, under a protective covering of Enviromesh:
Nowadays I wouldn't attempt to grow maincrop carrots without the aid of Enviromesh. It is just so effective at keeping off the Carrot Root Fly, which can devastate a crop in next to no time. These carrots of mine have no signs at all of damage.
I'm hoping that my five varieties will all mature at different times, giving me a small but very delicious crop over quite a long period. And I hope they are all as good as these first ones!
Those carrots look perfect! I just seeded my 2nd batch yesterday. The first ones, which went in near the end of May, are just starting to size up.
ReplyDeleteIs it an optical illusion or are they as deep as the bed itself?
ReplyDeleteMust be an illusion, Tim. I think the carrots are about half the depth of the bed (which is approx. 35cm)
DeleteI've been 'broadcast' sowing my carrot seeds for the last 4 or 5 years and find the carrots grow just as big as row sown ones, with the added advantages that you get many more in the same space and they don't really need to be thinned out.
ReplyDeleteThe reason I use rows is that I like to know which varieties are which, so that I can grow the good ones again.
DeleteThat's easily achieved by dividing the area into zones - I use bamboo canes laid on the surface.
DeleteMy seven year old has been harvesting (pinching) my carrots for a couple of weeks now! I just find carrot leaves poking out the compost caddy and a bowl of muddy water as evidence.
ReplyDeleteI don't think investing in enviromesh is worth it at this stage of our gardening career (2 rows of carrots) and not while a seven year old is rummaging daily under the cat/bird netting for "not too skinny ones". :-)
Karen
(Scotland)
Well, I don't know... Maybe Enviromesh deters 7-YOs as well as Carrot Root Fly (especially if it is well pegged-down!)?
DeleteWe use environesh for more than just carrots :-)
DeleteThis year we had trouble getting out carrots going. I'm not sure whether it was poor germination or when they did germinate the first lot were ravaged by slugs. I sowed a second lot but the dry weather has meant that they are progressing slowly. We have also bought a packet of quick growing carrots to pop into one of our growing bags so I'm hoping that we will eventually have carrots to harvest,
ReplyDeleteI am using the "damp hessian" technique on one of my tubs of carrots. It keeps the soil uniformly moist, aiding germination. you do have to keep lifting it to look underneath though.
DeleteThink it's been a funny year for carrots - or at least it has been for me and my neighbouring allotment holders. 2 or even 3 sowings have been needed by most of us! We're not far from you either (Pontefract) so perhaps the local weather's been exactly wrong for germinating carrots?
DeleteLovely looking carrots, you do seem to be getting quality pickings this year. So your plan for quality over quantity is certainly working :-)
ReplyDelete