best carrot fertlizer

[tracie]

Hi All,

I am preparing my large carrot box for next year. It is full of leaf mould, I will add some sand a bit later in the winter to be washed into the mix.

I know I canot use manure but what fertlizer can I use that will not fork the carrots because leaf mould does not have much nitrogen.

Any ideas,

Thanks

Tracie

[vegpatchmum]

I'm sure somebody more knowledgeable will be along directly but have you grown beans this year and if so could you use some of the soil/compost they were growing in? I grow 50% of my beans in tubs and dig the spent compost into my beds at the end of the season.

VPM
x

[AdeTheSpade]

In my large pot that I use for growing carrots, I used an organic liquid fertiliser for vegetables which seemed to work fine for me.

[Johnboy]

Hi Tracie,
What a sensible question. Certainly if planted into a manured situation forking is most likely to occur but so many people are under the impression that Carrots do not need nourishment and are sadly disappointed with their results. I have no experience in growing in containers but I did an experiment with manure a few years back.
The previous autumn I laid manure over the bed where the carrots were to grow and allowed the worms to take in what they could and when the bed had to be prepared and the carrots sown I took off everything the worms had not taken in over the winter and had a wonderful crop of carrots that year. I also sieve my soil as part of the preparation for growing carrots.
Apart from the experiments my soil is fairly fertile and I now generally sow the seed and come the end of June they need a bit of a feed. I make some liquid feed up with buckets of FYM in water and then strain off and then dilute by adding the same quantity of water so about 50% dilution and simply water down the rows. (half a bucket of solution with half a bucket of water added)
I use pelleted seed because it is so easy to handle especially for people with arthritic hands and I obtain these seeds from Moles Seeds. Moles do several different kinds of vegetable seeds in pellet form which are very good. The pelleted seeds are only encased in clay and are brightly coloured as an aid to sowing there is no pesticides added.
What people forget is that carrots, like every other plant, need nourishment.
The organic fertilzer mentioned by Ade The Spade sounds just the job for you because I doubt that you have piles of FYM at your disposal.
May your carrots be large and tasty!
JB.

[tracie]

Hi Johnboy,

thanks for your reply, I have some well rotted manure so that is an option. Any idea's about growmore, fish blood and bone or seaweed ectract.

I am cautious as to what I use because I do not want to lose the whole grop due to forking.

Thanks

Tracie

[Geoff]

I use FBB and Superphosphate. I fork over deeply to loosen and remove stones then rake in a fairly light dressing of FBB and Superphosphate, sow in 3" wide strips a foot apart and cover with a mixture of sieved leafmould and sharp sand. Problem this year has been splitting, presumably caused by wet.

[solway cropper]

I now grow all my carrots in containers and never get forking because the growing medium is finely sieved. It's not so much manure that causes forking but the root hitting an obstruction. Obviously fresh manure has lumps in it and that is usually what causes the problem. JB is quite right about raking off what hasn't been incorporated and also sieving the soil.

I would sieve your leaf mould and also add some sharp sand to the mix. My carrots are fed on BFB in the mix and liquid seaweed feed every few weeks.

[Johnboy]

Hi Solway Cropper,
Manure will burn the young tap root of a carrot and the carrot as a defensive action will send out several secondary roots which attempt to grow to maturity and a stone will cause the same action from the carrot.
I sieve my ground because although I have a deep layer of good and fertile topsoil it overlays some mudstone and limestone which is forever sending up flakes of rock which is actually worse than stones.
I generally fetch out a 'V' groove and fill with second hand potting or seeding compost water thoroughly and then sow the seeds and cover again with previously use medium.
I have arthritis in my hands and I find that pelleted seed is so much easier for me to use.
I buy the pelleted seed from Moles Seeds who are an extremely reliable company to deal with. Quantities of pelleted seeds are not that great remembering that Moles are Commercial Merchants.
A good fine tilth helps later on when the annual weeds invade the crop.
My entire carrot bed is kept under anti white fly netting from seeding to harvest. Had had some difficulties with Springtails a while back but otherwise really good clean crops have been achieved.
JB.

[glallotments]

We grow our carrots in a shallow trench of compost too.

As we grow under enviromesh and don't want to have to keep removing this for weeding purposes, last year we laid down weed control membrane into which we cut channels. We sowed the carrot seed in the channels and this certainly kept the weeds to a minimum.

We had been worried that slugs would congregate under the fabric but this didn't happen in spite of the soggy conditions. We will be repeating this next year and are trying out weed control with other crops.

We also use FB&B.

No longer being a fan of manure we are now trying green manure which seems to be working.

[tracie]

I Have alweays fancied using green manure but never been brave enough to have a go.

Does it grow back once you have dug it in? and how long does it take to rot down into the soil.

Thanks

Tracie

[glallotments]

I Have alweays fancied using green manure but never been brave enough to have a go.

Does it grow back once you have dug it in? and how long does it take to rot down into the soil.

Thanks

Tracie

We've only planted it this year and so far have only dug phacelia back in which was very well behaved - the top growth was strimmed off and composted and we didn't let it flower as apparently it is a prolific seeder. It was dug in and brassicas planted in the bed to follow it - the brassicas are growing really well.

[Monika]

I tend to use grazing (Hungarian) rye as green manure and let it grow to full size (about 18 inches) and then dig it in. You may have to "knock back" a few plants because they come up again, but on the whole it just rots down. Phacelia is also good and I always leave a few plants to flower and self-seed. Insects love the flowers. too.

I have tried field beans, but the bean seeds are eaten by our bank voles and field mice before they germinate.

At the moment, our whole vegetable garden at home (as opposed to the allotment) is covered by tall grazing rye because I don't grow any winter vegetables there. This will stay there until early spring and then be dug in. I don't use red clover, lucerne etc because I think they would not survive the winter or take up the ground too long, but I may be wrong.

I would certainly recommend using green manure!

[glallotments]

[quote="Monika"] Phacelia is also good and I always leave a few plants to flower and self-seed. Insects love the flowers. too.

/quote]

Just so you don't think we're mean - we have some phacelia in a flower area and the bees enjoy it there - they love it! We just don't let it flower in the vegetable beds.

[Johnboy]

As a Green Manure I prefer Scarlet Clover and although they say that it will self seed so be wary I left a large patch two years ago for seed and I picked the heads a buggered about getting the seeds out which is quite difficult but when sown last year not a one germinated!
Sue,
By cutting down the Phacelia and composting the tops you are in effect taking the very bit that will give you the nutrients in the soil the following season. Certainly it is best cut down, with a strimmer if you really have to, but I find that a bagging hook using two passes is ideal and makes the Phacelia easier to incorporate into the soil. Certainly there will be the occasional regrowth but looking at it logically you would get the same from distributing your compost because the seeds are unlikely to succumb to the biodegrading action in the compost heap.
JB.

[Monika]

Johnboy, at what time of the year do you sow red clover? I have always shied away from it because I sow the green manure in September/October after the potatoes are harvested. Would red clover germinate then and produce enough top growth before the cold weather sets in?