Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Growing => Grow Your Own => The Show Bench => Topic started by: Jamie Butterworth on September 12, 2010, 16:56
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Im planning on entering a local show next year and one of the vegies i wanted to enter are carrots, I have seen people building high raised beds about 3 foot by 3 foot and filled with sand and bored holes in to dill with compost to sow the carrots in. Is this any good or just a waste of money?
Plus can anyone recomend a variety?
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My child wants to grow competition carrots having seen those today. You may have competition so unfortunately I can't/won't help you out with this thread!!!!!!! :tongue2: :D
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I look forward to te challenge :D :D
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This is the variety that i will be growing - abaco :D :D
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They look like a real stumpy variety so it will be interesting to see how they do.
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Yeah, they are a stump root variety, i was getting some advice from joe maiden this morning about them, he was telling me to grow them in the raised beds filled with sand and then holes bored then filled with sieved compost. Will definetley be giving it a go :D
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hi jamie i remember vegmandan doing a bit on this not sure weather he mentioned the variety he used though
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Thanks for the tip off mate :D
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How you grow them depends on your soil. If, like me , you have a deep light soil then growing them in the ground is OK.
The soil may have had manure the year before but do not add any organic matter this time.
Dig it over in the Autumn. Push a fork down as far as you can to break up any hard layer.
In the Spring add some potato fertiliser, high potash, and just loosen the surface with a fork. You may have to hoe it first to get rid of any weeds. I have 8 foot wide beds and can reach to do this without walking on the soil. One advantage of being tall.
Standing on a board sow the seed in a shallow drill as thinly as you can. Cover it and then tamp firmly down along the row with the back of a rake to ensure that the seeds have good contact with the soil. If it is dry I run water along the drill with a can before I sow. No rose on it so that the water only goes in the drill.
When the seedlings are big enough to see hoe along either side to remove weeds and, standing on a board, thin the carrots to about an inch apart, removing any weeds as you go.
The biggest enemy is carrot fly. At this point make a tent with enviromesh. Keep this in place at all times. Only remove it briefly when you need to weed.
You can do further thinnings but I find it is not needed.
I have won my local show for the past 3 years with Red Intermediate form Suttons.
You can get very fond of your carrots but sometimes they are naughy.