[teflon]

I know there are a lot of things you can do to grow impressive carrots(plenty of sand, endlessly riddled soil, drainpipes etc) but these all seem to involve quite a lot of effort,in fact some on my site are a bit obsessive about this.As i'm quite a laid back(some would say lazy) gardener this all seems a bit much to me.
  With this in mind, whats the easiest(idiot proof) method of growing carrots? They dont have to be enormous,just big enough to eat.
  Cheers
  Tel.

[Beetroot queen]

I havent managed to grow decent carrots in the ground on the plot they dont seem to germinate 

however I used some of those tiny carrots the free ones from BBC grow seeds and threw them in a morrisons flower bucket and blow me they have all germinated 

small is good hehe 

[JayG]

The only thing that will ruin your carrots (rather than just make them mis-shapen or smaller than you would like) is carrot-fly.

Leave the fancy techniques to the perfectionists; you will get perfectly edible carrots in soil which has not been recently manured if you protect them from carrot fly (covering with environmesh is the most foolproof method but there are others.) 

[strangerachael]

In my experience there is NO easy way to grow carrots. Even if you can get them to germinate, and they survive attacks from slugs, they then have to contend with the carrot fly. Peering through my enviromesh fortress this afternoon I could see some very small seedlings, although considing I sowed them over a month ago, it's not very encouraging. If you don't want the bother of covering them up, your best bet is some sort of container, well up off the ground.

[stompy]

I always get good germination but end up with forked roots.
I've seived the ground to about 1ft deep to remove as many of the stones as possible from my carrot bed.
It's about 4ft x 3.5ft and as i said 1ft deep, so fingers crossed this year.
If this doesn't work i'll be growing in tyres next year.

[Ice]

Carrots grow best in a poor soil.  If the soil is too nutritious the carrot says wahey, it's feeding time and sends out roots in all directions.  If the soil is too full of stones the carrot will fork to get around the obstacle in it's way.

I learned this the hard way and now have a dedicated carrot bed full of spent compost and sharp sand.

If your soil is not very deep grow a variety such as Chantenay.  Delicious.

[teflon]

In my experience there is NO easy way to grow carrots. Even if you can get them to germinate, and they survive attacks from slugs, they then have to contend with the carrot fly. Peering through my enviromesh fortress this afternoon I could see some very small seedlings, although considing I sowed them over a month ago, it's not very encouraging. If you don't want the bother of covering them up, your best bet is some sort of container, well up off the ground.

  The ones i planted last year all germinated in the ground but between the slugs&carrot fly i was only left with a few tiny stunted ones.If i were to use something like a water tank a couple of feet of the ground(this is higher than the carrot fly are i take it) would  i have more of a chance?
  Also i may be able to get my hands on about twenty big bags of potting compost,can this be used to grow them or would it be too rich?

[chris23005]

When does carrot fly start to "hit"? My carrots are in the raised bed so will that help them do you think. I am sure someone told me that carrot fly only fly at a certain height.

[SUTTY1]

i try every year but no luck with them in beds!!!!!!!!!!

but very goods results in buckets 3foot up on bunker with multi-purpose or spent compost. just sow every month or or so and that keeps the family supplied. adding some sand helps too.

there was a lottery winner last year who said he was going to get an expert in to show him how to have success,lol
wonder how he got on???

[JayG]

Especially with the way the climate is varying at the moment you can expect carrot fly to be around at any time during the summer.
As far as flying height is concerned 2'6" to 3' is considered to be the maximum height they can achieve but 100% safety can't be guaranteed using this technique.

Carrots can be grown in potting compost but it would be better mixed with some stone-free soil.