[CathD6]

Hello! This is my first post!
We got our allotment last year and true to form were not able to grow carrots. I've NEVER been able to grow carrots! We have pretty heavy Devon soil and the bed I've planned them for cracked last week after the first week of dry weather. I guess I need to improve the soil structure a little before planting as the same happened last year (before it rained solidly for 3 months) and the seeds never sprouted, but wary of adding too much enrichment for the carrots as I read they don't like that sort of thing. How about a bit of compost and a bit of horticultural sand? Is there anything else I can do to try and help them on their way? Tips for sowing the seed? When would be best to start them - not too early?
The bed has overwintered onions and garlic growing happily already and I reckon I have space for 3 rows of carrots.
Thanks for your patience with a beginner. We did manage a fine harvest of potatoes, garlic, strawberries, raspberries and a ton of slugs, so aiming to better that.

[devon]

Last year out of 4 packets of seeds in excess of 6000 seeds I got the grand total of 3 carrots. Wet cold weather destroyed the crops. This year I have warmed the soil with plastic cloches and hopeful that will help. Otherwise sow in raised beds if you have them.

[8doubles]

I have never had good lines of carrot in the ground.

If you like small carrots (dislike the term baby applied to veg) grow in a large container of compost /sand mix .
Sew close together water and cover with polythene which you remove when the plants are 2"-3" high.
When the poly is on do not let the sun cook them!

No carrot fly just wall to wall little carrots.

[Ivor Backache]

I was in exactly the same situation 3 years ago so I switched to pots. (the black plastic ones that supermarkets display their cut flowers. Asda staff gave them to me) I grow early potatoes. half fill with own compost add soil with chicken manure and one early seed. About 10 weeks later tip into barrow-sort potatoes and sieve soil. Bulky stuff goes in bottom and refil, with no extra feed. Pinch of carrot seed-aim for 12-15 plants cover and keep moist. When the seedlings are established I take them to the allotment, put them on the paths. Keep covered. Still have 12 pots still to eat. You can skip the potatoes and sow now. Also sow at end of season to overwinter. It's the only way for me.

[upthetump]

i used to get very severe fly attacks, to the point where i stopped growing carrots. now, i use tall plastic barrels filled with soil (over 3 ft) and wrap fleece in a cone at the top. not lost a carrot for 3 years now. i empty top 18" of bin every year and replace with sieved soil (molehills normally)

[JayG]

At a soil temperature of 5C (which it probably isn't up to in most parts of the UK yet) carrot seed will take an average of 7 weeks to germinate - at 10C it's down to 10 days.

In clay soil I'd draw drills 6" deep and fill with a mixture of compost and sand and sow into that (you could go deeper of course but we all have our limits.)

You will get nothing edible if you are unlucky/don't find a way of avoiding carrot fly - covering with fine netting is the best way of avoiding that...........it might not sound like it but carrots are actually quite easy crops (honest!)

[Totty]

Grow in trugs filled with spent compost with a little fertiliser added to give it a boost. Or just use fresh multi purpose, pass it through a sieve first  if you want corkers.

Totty

[agapanthus]

I used to grow mine in baths, with a mix of compost soil and sand. Sowed the seed and covered the bath with a piece of glass.....it was an old window that was thrown away.....kept them well watered and took the glass off when the seedlings were strong. Had really good results