Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Growing => Grow Your Own => Topic started by: hubballi on November 29, 2012, 14:27
-
Yet again I have done all the right things and somehow my Autumn King carrots have been pathetic. I sowed them late summer as Monty Don advised and even now the foliage (what has actually grown) is tiny with what looks like no roots.I can't dig down because soil is frozen.
Is that it ? Will they not grow anymore ? :(
-
No and mine are the same -
If you'd watched the programme when Monty lifted his, you'd have seen that his were the same :nowink:
He and I both blame the weather >:(
-
I put in 1 packet of Autumn king I had more carrots than I wanted so I supplied 18 homes with 6 nice size carrots each.
-
Sorry to admit, Hubbers, but we sowed a packet of Autumn King in September, and netted them against any late carrot fly, and they're the best crop we've had for years!
We still think the netting made a warmer environment too, but please don't think this is a smug comment, it really is a relief for us that this year, we have some carrots instead of a load of expensive compost! I'm sorry your's have not gone well; next year, they'll be much better of course!
-
Huh! *grump grump*
thinking about it - mine were 'viromeshed last year, but not this :dry: so you may have hit on the reason why mine failed ::)
-
we sowed a packet of Autumn King in September, and netted them against any late carrot fly, and they're the best crop we've had for years!
We still think the netting made a warmer environment too
Growster, I had to do a double take here - do you mean September just passed and harvesting just weeks
later? Ours go in mid spring and don't get to any size til August :unsure: Have only been successful with a late sowing of early nantes.
Been a decent year for carrots though.
-
I planted some small variety in a container with fresh compost. 8 months later they were still thin and wispy. Hardly worth pulling. Looked after all the while I had them.
-
I planted mine in a container three times.
The slugs ate them.
-
we sowed a packet of Autumn King in September, and netted them against any late carrot fly, and they're the best crop we've had for years!
We still think the netting made a warmer environment too
Growster, I had to do a double take here - do you mean September just passed and harvesting just weeks
later? Ours go in mid spring and don't get to any size til August :unsure: Have only been successful with a late sowing of early nantes.
Shooz, I think I mistook the date here, I'm soooo sorry!
Looking at my diary - if you can call a scrawl of impenetrable gibberish in an excercise book a diary - I think (know) they went in in July - the 23rd to be precise...:0(
Oh, bum, I really thought I'd cracked them...
Sooo sorry again; Monty has a lot to answer for!
edit to clarify quote
-
Late July is still good going Growster :D
I planted some small variety in a container with fresh compost. 8 months later they were still thin and wispy. Hardly worth pulling.
Out of interest, what was the variety? That's a disappointment, I'd be disappointed too - we've usually had good enough results in pots using the compost from the year befores potato bags topped up with grow more - not big but fine for salads. Usually Nantes, though have used those packaged from the suttons Speedy (I think) range (what variety I don't know). Not especially speedy, but a tasty carrot and reliable in pots and troughs
-
They were Amsterdam. They had great foliage but hardly anything down under, even for the finger variety. Again, it doesn't make sense but as always these kind of weird things happen to me. I can't think of a single thing I have done wrong. Of course I would be the first to admit if I had. The same with rocket. Supposed to be easy but when sowed in new compost in a container the growth cames up small, thin and wispy. I didn't get a single salad harvest from them.
-
Oh, and ditto for radish and beetroot. Not a single one to harvest, radish being impossible for me :(
-
Like Growster I sowed my Autumn King in mid July and have had a great crop, pulled the last ones last weekend. At the end of August I had a spare bed and lots of seed which I broadcast over the area. I'll get a few little finger size but most are not going to be worth having. Green manure!
-
They were Amsterdam. They had great foliage but hardly anything down under, even for the finger variety.
My Amsterdam were very small this year too, not even finger sized. I'd never grown them before so wasn't sure if that was normal. The chantenay I grew at the same time (spring) were small but then they are supposed to be.
-
Because we seem to get carrot fly every time in the open, I sowed Autumn King late July in the tunnel. They've been absolutely superb. Pulled the last dozen today
-
It has been said by someone on the local allotment that nobody can grow carrots in this village. Unknown forces seem to be at work.
-
In that case, it sounds like you need a shamen or witchdoctor :wub:
-
They were Amsterdam. They had great foliage but hardly anything down under, even for the finger variety. Again, it doesn't make sense but as always these kind of weird things happen to me. I can't think of a single thing I have done wrong. Of course I would be the first to admit if I had. The same with rocket. Supposed to be easy but when sowed in new compost in a container the growth cames up small, thin and wispy. I didn't get a single salad harvest from them.
Have you put any manure on your plot?
-
I've not had much luck with carrots in the past so next year I'm planning on growing them in two old baths in a mixture of MP compost and horticultural sand with a sprinkling of FBB.
-
I've not had much luck with carrots in the past so next year I'm planning on growing them in two old baths in a mixture of MP compost and horticultural sand with a sprinkling of FBB.
Good idea, Allot2!
Also cover them with some sort of thick netting like debris net, as baths are only so high...
-
I have 2 half rows of Autumn King still in the ground... they are not the best I've grown but some reasonable roots of 6 to 8 inches - considering the miserable summer - not bad.
Mine will be lifted as needed, when I get there and whenever the ground is ice free. Damage from carrot fly is about the same as usual so mostly only surface.
I sow Autumn King from late spring until mid summer. I find them the most reliable carrot with a lovely orange colour, good flavour and smell. :)
Single rows between onions, beetroot and lettuce seem to miss the worst of the carrot fly but it depends on the weather too I think as well as when they are sown / thinned / hand weeded.
-
That sounds good I would think that a late summer sowing has just not given them long enough time in the ground . ;)
-
That sounds good I would think that a late summer sowing has just not given them long enough time in the ground . ;)
I'm pretty sure you're right especially as this was a low on sun / low on heat summer. :(
-
Sowed Autumn King on 24th April under enviromesh and they were mostly a decent size in early August, so I dug half of them and re-sowed the bare area with some more.
I'm still harvesting the remainder of the original sowing - some of them are rather too big (not surprisingly) but the early August sowing are a little on the modest side (to be kind to them!)
Agree that late sowings of anything require everything to be in their favour weather-wise, which of course it wasn't this year, and also suspect that enviromesh must have a slightly detrimental effect on light levels when sunshine is in such short supply, although growing out in the open is not an option for me (once was enough - great maggot harvest, no edible carrots!)
-
The big problem with root veg this year is that they "drowned" in many areas, the saturated soil settled around the developing roots and starved the feeder hairs of oxygen.
-
Lack of sunshine was also a problem here. Not enough to get the old photosynthesis going for long so smaller, less sweet roots.
-
Hubbali, if all your root crops have grown a lot of leaf but not much root could you have been feeding them a high nitrogen fertilizer? ;)