[teena]

For four years now we have been trying to grow carrots on our plots with no success at all.  We have tried using an old bath to keep them off the ground, a bed of very, very sandy soil, putting them between rows of onions - all resulting in nowt.
This year we have bought some carrot seeds called Flyaway for next seaon and would like to know if anyone has had any success with these, please. We have used Autumn Kings and Nantes varieties in the past.
Any help would be appreciated. Thanks
ps we have had a bumper crop of curly kale so much that we have been giving it to other plotholders, filled the freezer and we still have some in the ground. no-one else on our site seems to grow it but they are all eating it

[WG.]

What happens to your carrots?

[milkman]

are you saying that you didn't get any carrots germinating at all or that you did but that they were all riddled with root fly?

[milkman]

doh - quick fingers wiggy beat me to it again  :roll:

[WG.]

doh - quick fingers wiggy beat me to it again  :roll:

[teena]

This years some were grown in a bath and were too small in length to even attempt to peel. The ground sown ones were non exsistant. the leaves went a goldy yellow  then went brown. we sort of put it ddown to the awful weather we've had this year  when we dug these up they were black and very tiny too

[muntjac]

taht sounds like the soil is poisoned or where nuked with poison ( roundup ).or the carrots cant get down into the soil  very strange  :roll:

[teena]

we only used the bath this year
we put manure in the bottom then layers of soil and sand then a mix of both sand and soil for the top layer of about 6 inches and we planted autumn king in there - nothing
on the ground we put half a bag of sand in the row and planted nantes -nothing
any ideas???

[muntjac]

dump all the contents of the bath on a hard suface n mix em ,then dump emback in ,, sow autumn king in april may ....dig the ground mix the sand with the soil and a load of shp peat compost ... sow nantes again  

[WG.]

Don't put manure in.  Plant late and plant very thinly.  Keep well weeded & see drainage is adequate.

The open-ground sowing sounds like carrot root fly.  Were there any signs on the carrots themselves, e.g. burrowing or root tip eaten?

[brucesgirl]

We grew Flyaway this year, and we  planted our carrots in alternate rows with onions and spring onions. They were lovely, but as this is the first year we've grown carrots I don't have any comparisons.

[teena]

the carrots from the ground were almost black, very squashy to touch- no substance to them at all. we did ask around the site for advice and were told 'no one can grow carrots on here but to try adding sand'.
i dont see why it should be so hard. the bath ones were about an inch long if that  but did look like carrots. the plots only have a depth of just over a foot before we hit sandstone. would this have an effect?

Thanks for all the messges so far

[milkman]

Here is my methodology which I have copied from another topic:-

My foolproof way to grow carrots is to draw out a v shaped row with a rake, water the bottom of the v if it's dry (ho ho ho) then fill it with multipurpose compost, sow the carrots on the top and then cover with a very thin layer of multipurpose - watch out for the carrots appearing 10 days later. If the weather is damp, try and keep the row dry otherwise no sooner than the carrots appear will they be munched on by slimey slitherly b***ers.

The weeds are slower to grow through the compost so it's easier to spot the carrots  

I keep my carrots covered with viromesh at all times to keep the root fly out.

[sweet nasturtium]

If you put manure in the bottom of the bath it may be possible that as the root's grown down it's hit the manure and decided to call it a day.  Carrots hate manure so I'm told.

But I really wouldn't know what to say about the general problem on your plot.