Winter Carrots are filling the ‘hungry gap’ we have in May, when the winter veg have finished and the new plantings are still immature. The carrots we planted in early winter are just coming into their own.
winter-carrots
The winter carrots taste delicious. The foliage is still very healthy.
WinterCarrotFoilage
The problem is they are in the way. The bed is needed to plant some veg for late summer – so we are giving some away.
springcabbage-Gwen's
Our neighbour has an oversupply of spring cabbage, hence we are doing a swap! Not only are the winter carrots filling the May gap, they are also fostering neighbourly relations!
How to grow carrots in the vegetable garden:
fresh-carrots
- carrots like a sunny spot
- dig soil in autumn & break soil down to fine, crumbly seedbed before sowing
carrot-bed
- sow outdoors from March to August – if in March cover with cloche
- sow every 3 weeks for a continuous suppy
- sow thinly – mix seed with sand to make it easier
- sow in rows 1.5cm deep with 30cm between rows
thinning-carrot-row
- thin seedlings, when large enough to handle, so 6 cm apart
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- keep well watered
- pull weeds as they appear
- pull carrots when they are large enough, as required
nandor-carrot
Carrots---Nairobi
Carrots are hardy enough to start sowing the seed right now.
- the soil must be dry
- if it is wet, cover the soil for a week or two to keep the rain off
- carrot seed can be sown directly into the ground outside & does not need any protection
Click this link to buy carrot seed to sow now.
SweetheartCarrots
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We have grown the Carrot variety : Créme de Lite F1 Hybrid in a raised bed.
This carrot prefers:
- well-drained
- moist
- rich
- cool conditions.
yellow-carrots
The carrots were:
- sown at 4 weekly intervals
- in May and June
- harvested since July
- also pulled on Christmas Day, as shown in the photo
Carrot variety: Créme de Lite is:
- delicious
- creamy skinned
- with long tapering roots
- juicy & sweet
- good cooked, remaining firm
- full of nutrients and vitamins, including vitamins C, E, K and folate as well as lutein, an antioxidant
carrots-for-Christmas
Click the link to buy some Carrot Créme de Lite seed.
The Carrot variety: Créme de Lite F1 Hybrid is an exceptional carrot, well worth growing. What carrot varieties have you grown?
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Carrot Nantes Frubund is the first genuine autumn sowing carrot, exceptionally early and cold resistant.
The seed for Carrot Nantes Frubund can be sown up to the end of October. The advantage of an autumn sowing carrot is that it will be ready to pull early in the spring.
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Nairobi-Carrots-growing
It is difficult, if not impossible, to grow carrots on heavy soil in the vegetable garden. It is hard to produce a seed bed, with very small soil crumbs, suitable to enable the carrot seed to germinate. When it rains the soil goes like concrete, and then when it dries out, it cracks.
On our heavy soil we have incorporated coarse sand to make it more friable. The sand particles help to keep the clay particles apart. You need a lot of coarse sand to have any effect. You need so much that it is not really practical.
Adding a lot of organic matter does not solve the problem, because you need to add so much to have any effect.
Carrots have always been grown on sandy soils, or sandy-loams. But gardeners with heavy soil could try growing carrots in a container – which can be filled with the perfect growing medium!
Containers make it possible to grow carrots on heavy soil in the vegetable garden.
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The F1 carrot variety Nandor is first class and produces high quality carrots.
Nandor carrots are:
- very uniform and stumpy
- with a clean, smooth skin
- a deep orange colour
- cylindrical roots 15 – 18 cm long and 2.5 – 4 cm in diameter
- strong in the top
- easy to pull out of the ground
nandor-carrots
Nandor carrots taste sweet and have a wonderful flavour. They are very good cooked or eaten raw in salads.
carrot-Nandor
Nandor is resistant to carrot fly, and so far, they have not been infected.
The latin name of carrot is Daucus carota. Nandor is a popular variety of carrot.
Growing carrots in containers is one way to avoid carrot fly.
Carrot fly travel close to the ground, and a barrier 2 foot high will interrupt their flight path, forcing the fly to take another route. If carrots are planted in a container at least 2 foot off the ground, the carrot flies will just zoom past the side of the container, and not bother the carrots growing inside.
carrot-rootfly-damage
Choose carrots from the Nantes or Amsterdam groups for containers.
- Nantes are sweet, round carrots that grow to around 6 inches long.
- Amsterdam carrots are small and thin, growing no more than 3 inches long.
Carrot fly ruins carrots, so using containers to avoid the pest is worthwhile.
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It is difficult to grow straight carrots in heavy or stony soil. Carrots grow best on light stone free soil, such as sand, loam and peat soils, where there is no restriction on the tap root growing straight down and therefore producing a perfect, straight carrot.
carrot-nandor
* Caroline has posted a comment about growing straight carrots:
I heard that a good way to stop carrots from ‘forking’ in rocky soil is to use the end of the rake or something long and cylindrical to make a deep narrow hole, fill it with lovely fine compost and sow the seed directly on top of the compost. Even with a bit of soil movement this should still help you have relatively normal shaped carrots.
* alternatively, on stony soils a narrow slit trench could be made with a spade & filled with sand or peat. The slit can be about 2″ wide at the top. Carrot seeds are sown in this strip so there is no restriction on tap root development.
* grow medium rooted varieties instead of long rooted carrots
* Ben has added a comment about the problems of adding manure to carrot land:
It’s also important not to plant carrots in soil that has had slow release fertilizer added or clumps of manure. The carrot root can come into contact with it and fork from the extra nutrients.
* Nancy has added a comment :
These are great tips — I watched a gardening show this weekend which showed how to grow HUGE carrots in tubing of some sort…it looked much like PVC pipe used for plumbing. They were gigantic and, of course, very straight. 
It is possible to grow straight carrots by creating the correct environment for carrots.
