bitter carrots??

  • 17 Replies
  • 6365 Views
*

mickeyboy

  • Experienced Member
  • ***
  • Location: suffolk
  • 245
bitter carrots??
« on: July 07, 2010, 08:21 »
Hi there, i have planted a good healthy looking couple of rows of early nantes carrots and for the second year now they taste really bitter and to be honest not vey nice!! :( :( 

Can anyone tell me as to why this is as its rather annoying and very dissapointing......

Cheers
Mickeyboy
new to this, so all help and advice is greatly appreciated and well needed!!

*

gillie

  • Senior Member
  • ****
  • Location: Oxfordshire. On top of the Chilterns
  • 884
Re: bitter carrots??
« Reply #1 on: July 07, 2010, 11:40 »
I find that any bitterness in carrots is in the skin.  However you are peeling them - aren't you?

Gillie


*

Goosegirl

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Location: Caton, Lancaster.
  • 8941
Re: bitter carrots??
« Reply #2 on: July 07, 2010, 15:37 »
I'd be interested too as my cheffy OH has noticed this in the past and he peels them and needed to add load of sugar to the water they are cooked in.
I work very hard so don't expect me to think as well.

*

Trillium

  • Guest
Re: bitter carrots??
« Reply #3 on: July 07, 2010, 15:57 »
I know this goes against what all the books tell you, but we always manure our carrot patch - not heavily, but just enough - and we've always had very sweet carrots which are not forked or hairy. In fact, we have people asking if we did add sugar to our carrots, and we never do. By doing this, we find all shop carrots quite bitter in comparison.

Chicken manure is a bit strong so we get aged cow manure for the carrot patch and add some in the fall every year. Rabbit manure would work well also. Carrots, like every other crop, need 'food' to grow and taste good, and manure gives the best results. I can always tell the difference between a chemically fertilized one and a manured one.

*

Goosegirl

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Location: Caton, Lancaster.
  • 8941
Re: bitter carrots??
« Reply #4 on: July 07, 2010, 16:42 »
Trillium - do you lay the manure on the surface or dig it in?
PS - like your "rainy days" saying!

*

Trillium

  • Guest
Re: bitter carrots??
« Reply #5 on: July 07, 2010, 21:00 »
I always rotovate the manure into the ground in fall as it's usually fresh then so has the winter to mellow.  If I didn't, the dogs would always be playing in it  >:( By rotovating or digging it in, there's food for the carrot roots to grow down toward along with moisture. I also add loads of shredded dried leaves every fall to build my clay soil and I'm sure that adds to the flavour as I get worms galore.

*

Spana

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Location: Cornwall
  • 2720
Re: bitter carrots??
« Reply #6 on: July 07, 2010, 21:15 »
Now that is a strange thing. ::)

I grow Early Nantes and they are lovely and sweet.  I never peel them, just scrub with a brush.
I cover my plots with well rotted cow muck in the autumn just like Trillium but unlike Trillium i leave it on the surface until spring and rotovate it in then. :)


[must confess, i can not tell a lie, its OH who does the muck spreading :D I just tell him where to put it :D]

*

sclarke624

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Location: South Coast, Bognor Regis, West Sussex
  • 1856
Re: bitter carrots??
« Reply #7 on: July 07, 2010, 22:11 »
I've given up on carrots for the very same reason.  I even tried leaving them longer as I read something about the sugar forming...........but to no avail.  I'm saying this very quietly but I prefer the shop bought ones.
Sheila
unowho
Guess I'm organic until I ever need to inorganic

*

solway cropper

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Location: North west Cumbria
  • 1361
Re: bitter carrots??
« Reply #8 on: July 07, 2010, 23:18 »
I've grown lots of different varieties and never yet found a bitter one but like some of the others I keep a very fertile soil. The early Nantes this year have been very sweet. Straight from the ground with just the soil rinsed off under the tap they are like crunchy lollipops.  :)

There must be something in your soil that's causing the bitterness.

*

pairofacres

  • Experienced Member
  • ***
  • Location: Cambridgeshire
  • 118
Re: bitter carrots??
« Reply #9 on: July 07, 2010, 23:23 »
No idea why, but I've got early Nantes and they're exactly the same. If you eat them raw, straight out of the ground, the bitter taste really lingers in your mouth. I wonder if they're not properly matured in some way, or lacking something because of the dry conditions?

*

Trillium

  • Guest
Re: bitter carrots??
« Reply #10 on: July 08, 2010, 03:29 »
Yes, dryness does factor into the taste (or lack of). If you're in a dry spell, it does help to give the carrots some water, preferably as late in the day as possible so it has time to sink down. Do this every few days. today I picked some thinnings - Touchon and a hybrid variety that I got free seeds for with John's book. Lovely.
Sandy soils will dry out faster and would need more frequent watering. Also, frost will help sweeten carrots. They need just the first light frost which also chills them for storage.

*

mickeyboy

  • Experienced Member
  • ***
  • Location: suffolk
  • 245
Re: bitter carrots??
« Reply #11 on: July 08, 2010, 15:44 »
it was manured the year before and i always mix a little growmore into the beds before planting. I water regularly as they are in quite sandy soil in 1 metre raised beds so do have a tendancy to dry out. However i also had this problem last year and the year before and i alternate the beds. The carrots look really healthy and are becoming a nice size, but taste horrid!!

Thanks all for the response, but cant seem to find a suitable answer so am tempted just to stop growing them, it is extremly frustrating >:( >:(

*

Spana

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Location: Cornwall
  • 2720
Re: bitter carrots??
« Reply #12 on: July 08, 2010, 15:59 »
It is strange, i cant think why some are bitter.  Is it just Early Nantes :unsure:

I have the same thing with Little Gem lettuce.  Everyone else seems to find them really sweet but they are awful grown here.  So bitter they make your eyes water.  Can grow other lettuces  fine, its just Little Gem.  So like you with the carrots, i just dont grow them ::)

*

SarahB

  • Experienced Member
  • ***
  • Location: Nr Tenterden, Kent
  • 124
Re: bitter carrots??
« Reply #13 on: July 10, 2010, 11:16 »
Had a similar thing with strawberries - fantastic flavour in pots or in loam/clay, but put 'em in a sandy soil and they were really not pleasant.  (This was all the same variety and, in some cases, the same plants!)  Raspberries in the same ground weren't affected, so maybe it depends both on variety and soil type?  Are the people with bitter carrots growing on sandy soil, or in very dry conditions?

*

pairofacres

  • Experienced Member
  • ***
  • Location: Cambridgeshire
  • 118
Re: bitter carrots??
« Reply #14 on: July 10, 2010, 12:47 »
Are the people with bitter carrots growing on sandy soil, or in very dry conditions?

Mine are in sandy Fenland soil, which has a fair amount of silt in it. Conditions here are unbelievably dry this year. We've barely had a decent rain shower since April. Whenever I'm hoeing, I keep finding myself thinking that this must be what it's like growing in the Med!



xx
bitter cucumbers

Started by lazza on Grow Your Own

6 Replies
2615 Views
Last post September 01, 2011, 11:24
by Aunt Sally
xx
bitter cucumber

Started by kezlou on Grow Your Own

28 Replies
7557 Views
Last post August 19, 2008, 00:40
by senrab_nhoj
xx
Bitter courgettes

Started by stompy on Grow Your Own

17 Replies
6006 Views
Last post July 29, 2011, 07:46
by pfg
question
Bitter spinach

Started by chools on Grow Your Own

6 Replies
2055 Views
Last post April 18, 2019, 22:26
by chools
 

Page created in 0.323 seconds with 38 queries.

Powered by SMFPacks Social Login Mod
Powered by SMFPacks SEO Pro Mod |