Decisions. Decisions. Which veg to grow? Home-grown carrots taste so much better than supermarket ones and even keep their flavour after a few days in the fridge. Garden soil and some, but not too much, watering make all the difference.
Unfortunately, success with growing carrots isn’t as easy as you’d think and you do need suitably friable soil. If a root changes direction to avoid a stone or force its way through clay or an unyielding clod, its diameter is halved and you’re guaranteed a wonky specimen. Overly rich soil or unrotted manure also encourages forking.
There’s no shortage of choice in carrots, ranging from traditional orange maincrop Autumn King to little round ones, like Atlas, suitable for pots. And be dazzled by colour: multi-coloured Rainbow collection, or Gold Nugget, Purple Sun and Creampak.
Prepare the ground by marking out and trowelling over a mini trench and use your fingers to find stones and break up any lumps. Work the ground to a depth of at least 8-10cm.
Rake out a shallow drill, leaving a little ridge of fine, dry soil to each side of the mini trench. Then settle the soil with a good soak and thinly sow the seed.
Then, very lightly, just cover the carrots with a little dry soil. The soil beneath is already wet, so the dry covering acts as a mulch and your line of seed isn’t disrupted by a shower of water.
Of course, this all takes time. But think twice before planting out seedlings you’ve grown on in root trainers or toilet roll inners because carrots don’t tolerate any root disturbance. Toilet roll inners are less disruptive than root trainers, but they must be completely covered, leaving no cardboard lip to wick out moisture. Digging out enough holes is a fair faff if you’re growing lots of carrots.
On the other hand, you’d avoid poor germination which is often caused when you sow too early in the spring before the soil has warmed up. You’d also prevent the leprous gaps caused by molluscs feasting on emerging seedlings. A policy of ruthless persecution helps: use slug traps for a few weeks before sowing; sprinkle organic slug pellets; or mount a nightly vigil.
You’ll get decent carrots by resowing any gaps until the end of May.
Once your surviving carrots reach 5cm, push some soil into your mini carrot trench. This prevents the ‘green shoulders’ growing carrots get when exposed to light.
For decent roots, thin seedlings in 2 stages. When plants are 8-10cm tall, thin to 5cm apart, with 2-3cm for baby varieties. Remembering that good carrots will have a final diameter of at least 5cm, thin to 8-10cm apart, 5cm for babies. After each thinning, cover the carrots with a little more soil and weed.
Spread the second thinning over 2-3 weeks and indulge in the tastiest baby carrots.
Success depends on keeping the dread carrot rootfly at bay. These little pests are airborne between May and September. The final hatching of destructive grubs persists in crops right through winter, as I’ve found to my dismay after removing the protection too early.
Prevent the fly from laying eggs on carrots by covering the crop with Enviromesh or fleece cloches. An open-topped 1 metre high barrier is much less effective because these poor flyers can easily be blown up and over. And don’t waste time trying companion planting, a gardening idea that hasn’t yet survived independent scientific scrutiny.
And don’t imagine the rootfly are fooled by different colours. Though you may reduce, but not eliminate, the problem by growing resistant varieties, like Resist-a-fly.
Plant of the week
Perennial wallflower ‘Winter Orchid’. Comes into full bloom early in the spring, releasing its scent in the sun; then flowers off and on until winter. Coppery flowers turn to bright pink complementing both spring and summer colours. Needs well drained, slightly gritty soil for best results.
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