[symonep]

Before I go ahead and do this I thought I would ask to see if it is a wise move! I am thinking of growing carrots in sections of drain pipe cut to about 10", I will put them all in one container so they are together like a honey comb. My reason for doing this is our weeds are so bad a bed of carrots we had have been taken over so I thought this may be a good idea!
Am I nuts or could this work?


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[arugula]

Are you talking 110 drainpipe? How many carrots would you envisage growing in each?

[Goosegirl]

Try it, but feed them well as they will be closer together than usual. Why not put them straight into your container?

[symonep]

No idea what 110 is but I would grow 1 carrit in each bit of pipe, just wondered if it would cut down on the weeds, will give it a try and let you all know!

[arugula]

4 inch! ish* - normal drain pipe size.

4 and a bit.

[Trillium]

I tried it once in an 8" deep planter and it was a disaster. Unless you grow only the baby finger carrots, you'll not have luck.

[symonep]

I tried it once in an 8" deep planter and it was a disaster. Unless you grow only the baby finger carrots, you'll not have luck.

*  thanks, will have to go back to the drawing board and try it a different way
Thanks

[yorky]

I have got some growing in drainpipes in the hope of getting a good set for our local show. They look to be doing okay in a planting mix of old potting compost and sand. At one carrot per drainpipe I am not sure if it would be worth using this method if you only want carrots for the kitchen.

[Kajazy]

Before I go ahead and do this I thought I would ask to see if it is a wise move! I am thinking of growing carrots in sections of drain pipe cut to about 10", I will put them all in one container so they are together like a honey comb. My reason for doing this is our weeds are so bad a bed of carrots we had have been taken over so I thought this may be a good idea!
Am I nuts or could this work?


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I also have a bit of a weed-ridden bed, but I dug out a trench, quite deep and wide, and re-filled with a sand/soil/compost mix - this was mostly to counteract the heavy stoney clay I have, which makes carrot growing tricky - but had the added benefit of keeping the actual row of carrots/seedlings free of weeds - worth a try?

[the Kergan]

Maybe a silly question and a little out of left field here, but I will shoot from the hip as its always been my style........ Can't you just plant them in neat rows and weed them a couple of times a week?

[symonep]

Maybe a silly question and a little out of left field here, but I will shoot from the hip as its always been my style........ Can't you just plant them in neat rows and weed them a couple of times a week?

but that is far too simple lol. By the time the carrots have sprouted the weeds are too big and the you have to wait for the carrots to get a little bigger to weed effectively by this time the carrot tops are nly an inch or two high and the weeds are 8" high.
Weeds 1- me 0!

[GrannieAnnie]

When my Dad had an allotment, he had loads of weeds.  I know this is a different situation to yours, but what Dad did was to dig out his allotment section by section, down to about 3ft and he lined the bottom with thick plastic.

he then replaced the topsoil and every time the weeds came through, he dug them out, before they set seed, until eventually he got very little weeds.

Perhaps you could do something like that each year, with  a different bit of ground?  I've got a bit of ground behind my big greenhouse, its  3ft by 8ft and I've put sandy soil in it.  It's full of carrots.   I do get some weeds,, but not many, and the carrots are doing really well.

But I think you are wasting space in a container by using the drain pipe.  Just put the sandy soil in the container and plant the carrots in there, which is also what I have.

[symonep]

Thanks Grannieannie that is a really good idea. I think it is more to do with the weather this year as well as we con normally only go down weekends and virtually every weekend it has been raining so the weeds are winning as I can't get there. Will give what you say a try and see if it helps. Thanks

[Trillium]

Carrots are one of the few veg that prefer sandy soil so GrannieAnnie's suggestion should get some nice big carrots for you.

[Growster...]

We're trying carrots in big pots Symon.

We have about 20 pots, about 14" deep, filled with loam and a little compost at the top. The seed is very thinly sown, and the whole lot is plonked on an old table, raised up about 18" off the ground, to deter carrot fly!

They all stand in plastic trays, and they're debris-netted completely as well!

You can see that we're definitely giving the blasted fly a run for its money this year...;0)

Time will tell though...