Angie from over at Wishing On a Farm left a comment a few days ago, wondering how to improve her carrot crop.
We Always have a Fantastic carrot crop and to be honest, I am not sure why. I don't think we are doing anything special to improve conditions for the carrots to grow.
You can see how long these carrots are by comparing with my gardening glove.
All we use on our food gardens is good ole' well composted animal manure. Our is mostly horse manure, with laying hen and meat bird chicken manure in there as well.
I do know that in order to grow long straight carrots, you have to make sure there are no rocks in your garden bed. If there are, your carrots will grow crooked, as they are forced to make their way around the rocks.
Well, after four years of vegging gardening here, we don't have many rocks left in our garden.
Angie, I can suggest two things....no rocks and LOTS of composted manure or compost. Make sure it is well composted, otherwise your carrots may get hairy.
Also, try this variety of carrots. They are available at Stokes. They are called Royal Chantenay. There is also another kind of Chantenay called Red Top. Both are good! I like the Red Top better.
The carrots grow long and heavy...but they taste so sweet! And when we harvest our carrots, we keep them in buckets of sand down in our cold room. Come January, they still taste as sweet as if they were just pulled from the garden.
And Angie....I have a question for you....I was over looking at your blog. I am curious as to how you made a separate page for all your Meat Bird info....I would love to do that!
If you could email me with the process, I would appreciate it!!!
3 comments:
You are so good with your explanations and so rewarding with your interest in others! You are the best!!
ok, i will try that variety, i have tried a few, the ones that actually sprout grow great, i have no idea where the other seeds run off too! I did buy a carrot planting strip so they would stay put :) My garden is pretty much all compost, not too much dirt in there because it is all hard clay(terrible stuff)I don't know if i over bury the seed, wash them away or they just refuse to cooperate. Now about the pages, go to edit posts on your dashboard,then under the tabs at the top you will see edit pages, click that and make a new page. Easy as can be.I will not give up on those carrots, i started an animal garden (it is the green manure process now) for next year and i WILL get carrots ;) Thanks!
Angie, thanks so much for that new page info, I will give it a try....
don't plant your carrot seeds too deep...and then just put a scant covering of dirt (or better, composted manure) on top.
And sprinkle lightly....the seeds CAN easily be washed away. Good luck and let me know how it grows next year!
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