Carrots

I just haven't been that regular lately - well you'd think with the amount of fibre in my diet from our home grown produce..... well it's not about what you're thinking, that's not the problem! It's just that in "selling season" (Spring and Autumn - when all the garden shows are on) I just don't get enough time to write a regular blog. In fact my blogging capabilities rise and fall commensurate with the amount of time I spend away from home talking to fellow gardeners and, hopefully, selling them a quality tool or two......So, todays blog short and sweet is on......carrots!

My favourite carrot story concerns one Brian Craswell who won 25 million Euro in the English lotto. When asked what he would do with his winnings he said, "I've been trying to grow carrots ever since I've been there (his allotment) and have never had any success. What I'm going to do now is bring in a professional and sort that out." Now there's a man with his priorities in order - no red lamborghinis, no, just long, healthy carrots!

The biggest problem in growing carrots is getting them to germinate. Carrot seed is very fine and it's hard to keep the soil moist so the fledgling plants can push their way to surface.

I use an old cooking oil container complete with spout. I pour in a packet of carrot seed followed by a packet of radish seed (the small, "breakfast" types), followed by a handful of seed raising mix. After shaking the contents, I "pour" my mix out in rows about  10 - 15cm apart. It's then a matter of watering at least once a day, even twice a day when it's hot.

The seed raising mix provides a fine water holding tilth that the germinated carrots can push through. The radish will germinate earlier and will help to mark out the rows as well as breaking up the soil for the carrots. This way you get a crop of radish, followed by baby carrots when your rows are thinned out before eventually reaping a month or two of regular carrot harvests.

Some of my keen gardening friends prefer to just cover their rows of freshly sown carrot seed (mixed in either seed raising mix or sand) with timber boards, to limit evaporation, after around a week they start checking under the timber, when they see evidence of germination they're removed.

I have been very busy (I refer you back to my problems with regularity) so much so, that I have even tried planting out a punnet of carrot seedlings. The result from this experiment are in and I must say that you do get a lot of carrot seedlings to the punnet without the waste from needing to thin out carrots grown from seed. Yet, I can't say the flavour was as good as from seed and there is, alas, no choice of varieties, no "Purple Dragon, no "Chantenay."

Oh to win lotto and grow more carrots in a plethora of colours,shapes and sizes.....wishful thinking?

Yes! 

Paul "the extreme gardener"