Kitchen Garden Forum

I tried to find the thread where I posted this problem, remember these ?

Mostly every carrot I pulled was bent, some had bizarre shapes like in the photo. This year all the carrots I have pulled so far are lovely and straight.

Same raised bed with the same stones, this time I sowed direct rather than thinning and re-planting from a trough that I had started them in. I won't do that again and i'm very pleased I didn't have to remove all the stones before I could grow carrot.

Oh-yes, didn't someone suggest the problem was that I had sowed them first in potting compost then planted them on in stony soil.

This season is a result, am I past the carrot fly danger yet or do I have to hurry up and eat them before the flies get to them ?

Afternoon Richard, i do indeed remember those carrots, just about every knot you could ever want.

Glad this season is turning out some decent carrots for you.

oldherbaceous wrote:Afternoon Richard, i do indeed remember those carrots, just about every knot you could ever want.

Amazing for me to have achieved something so artistic, maybe architectural. I haven't photographed this years crop because i'm sure you know what straight carrots look like, believe-me, straight doesn't taste any better but it is more convenient.

Can you imagine trying to get that gnarly one out of the ground without to much disturbance for the neighbours.

Oh, and thank you for for being a gentleman.

Oh it might be great to get straight ones - but you don't get the same giggle as you do when you find a 'rude' one!

Westi

Oh yes I remember them well

As for carrot root fly, I'd say that you're not out the woods yet where those pests are concerned As I understand it they come in two waves, the first is generally over by end of May and the second begins in late August! This year, with the late start to spring etc, I wouldn't be sure of anything.

VPM
x

I did have have a few naughty ones, I shared them with people that I had more confidence in their sense of humour.

Thats not to say I doubt the sense of humour of the forum people, just that i'm still learning.

One of the naughty ones didn't leave much to the imagination.

That raised bed is producing nice carrot but the onions are half the size of the onions in the cow-poo bed. In fact the spring sown red onion sets in the carrot bed are more like less than a quarter size of those in the other bed.

A good marker is the companion-sown flowers, the flowers in the carrot bed are minute compared to the giant swathes elsewhere that has had the cow-poo treatment. Presumably the carrot would have failed if I had increased the nutrient though it mystifies me why everywhere I read to plant onion with carrot. Right now i'm hammering the onion with comfrey in the hope the onion might catch up.

I hope Molly doesn't suss-out where the carrots are.

Thanks VPM, i'll make a fleece tunnel over my carrot in the morning.

I am keeping my protective fleece and netting on them as long as I can. Having used the anti-carrotfly nematodes this year as well, I am really hoping they won't be affected. So far, so good. A few are forked (nothing like as lovely as yours, Richard!), but most are straight and clean.

Monika wrote:A few are forked (nothing like as lovely as yours, Richard!), but most are straight and clean.

They weren't all as clean as the one in the photo Monika, the ones I lifted early were OK. The later ones had holes in them and some were dreadfully soft and slimy.

With the benefit of last years experience behind me i'll lift the lot as soon as I get a sign. It's what I did with the onions that presumably had 'White-rot'. Only two or three were affected in each row but I prefer small onions or carrot to rotten ones.

Four horse-fly bites today , i'm scratching like a dog with fleas.

You can have fun with Potatoes too - may I introduce you to Charlotte?



By the way - can you bake First Earlies? These four Rocket weigh 3½ lbs.

Don't know about Rocket as a baker - at a guess I would say probably not.
The one early that does bake well after maturity is 'Winston'. An excellent early variety that also boils well.
Well worth growing
John

Oh-hell, now you have me making far too many plans for the amount of work I can produce on a day-to-day basis. It's just as well she discouraged me from keeping chickens.

As well as my greenhouse project I would love to grow potato, I don't eat much potato because they are so taste-variable even within a species and I end up binning them.

I just do not like most potato and the marking on Jersey Royals is a bit over the top in my opinion. I just bought some Jersey Royal but I bet I bin them. I tried some French salad potato from Lidle, didn't like them either.

I do like Charlotte and Pink Fir Apple for salad though for boiling/roasting it's a gamble.

Certainly it's been worth growing carrot, don't you just love to pull them when they are small and sweet.

And straight.

Thanks for the photo of charlotte, very impressive and reminded me of what was going on in a sheep pen were our local sheep farmer was offering some young rams to another farmer. They actually grab them by the balls to check for weight and size. When I was a lad they used to call that, "Goosing".

Geoff, the Charlotte you've got there reminds me of a plumber I once had in to do some work... you could have parked your bike....

Apologies to anyone still eating their tea.