Several weeks ago I started my successive carrot sowing, a little late but at least there was a good chance of them germinating. Of course there is no sign at all of the little terrors, not even a groan of soil to indicate they are down there.
Picking my dignity up I prepared to sow again, well it is successive sowing so 3 rows every 2 weeks should give me a beautiful, and continuous, carrot crop and than was when the disaster stuck - I have lost the seeds! Thats right not only have I failed to germinate a single seeding but I have somehow failed 2000 others! Surely this is a carrot disaster?
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About Me
- Amy
- Cambridgeshire, United Kingdom
- In 2007 The Souper Allotment was a large nettle patch, sometimes it tries to revert but mostly it is a beautiful area to grow vegetables. Join me on the journey to grow and eat the very best food.
The plot - July 2009
Currently harvesting/eating
- Blackcurrants
- Garlic
- Gooseberries
- Peas
- Salad
- Strawberries
Other places I like
- Allotment Blog
- Allotment Twenty One
- City Bumpkin
- Courgettes and Fennel
- Dave's Allotment
- Earthwoman
- Greenforks
- Growing Our Own
- Hedgewizard
- Malsallotment
- Manor Stables Veg Plot
- My Darlington Allotment
- My Tiny Plot
- Nome grown
- Organic Allotment
- Our patch of earth
- Pumpkin Soup
- Seeded
- Shoestring Garden
- Simon's Allotment
- Soilman's Allotment Blog
- the allotment underground
- The Inelegant Gardener
- The Plot Thickens
- The Smallest Smallholding
- Veg Plot
- Vegetable Kingdom
- Vegmonkey
- Weedy Beanz
Labels
- potatoes
- squash
- carrots
- celeriac
- Garlic
- Asparagus
- Seeds
- courgettes
- sweetcorn
- peas
- tomatoes
- Raspberry Canes
- recipe
- Parsnips
- aubergine
- cucumber
- onions
- Plums
- beetroot
- globe artichoke
- leeks
- pumpkin
- strawberries
- blackcurrants
- cabbage
- fennel
- gooseberries
- rhubarb
- spinach
- Beans
- blackcurrents
- chilli
- digging
- kale
- salad leaves
- Herbs
- Nettles
- Sustainability
- blueberries
- coldframe
- flowers
- general
- ginger
- mispoona
- mizuna
- pak choi
- shallots
- swede
- weeds
- worms
6 comments:
Carrots are said to be one of the easiest veg to grow - I disagree. They take AGES to germinate, and if they eventually do show, they have to contend with the carrot fly! I managed to avoid this menace last year by growing under enivromesh, but even so they never grew very big.
I believe the technical term is carrotastrophe.
I agree with Rachel! I have never had any success with carrots outdoors. They are so fussy - if the soil isn't just right they won't grow and then when they do carrot fly eat them all! We grow them in a deep bed in the greenhouse now with some success but they involve so much work I'd hate to work out how much it actually costs for each carrot we grow! :-)
It may make you feel better to know that everyone on our allotment is having trouble with carrot growing this year. Myself included, I sowed 4 short rows and although some have come up (they took ages)there are lots of gaps where the others never germinated.
One plot holder has had amazing success, hundreds of them in 4 really long rows, but he has built a wooden frame around his carrot bed and covered it with plastic. So the carrots are warm and it's the right height to keep the carrot fly off. The frame is only around them not covering them. It certainly looks as though it works.
I think I need to rethink the carrot strategy for next year! I love the sounds of the carrot frame Maureen, I think I will aspire to be the sort of person who has one :)
Carrots ARE horrendous, aren't they? Germination is tricky, but the usual reasons for failure are sowing seed too deep and not keeping it moist. If you have light soil you need to water the rows every day to make sure they germinate.
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