Carrot Week 2012!

Today is the first day of Carrot Week!!! Let the planting begin You have from now till the 18th to plant your Nantes, so get out those seeds you've been sittin on and get those squares planted you've been savin.
I've seen lot's of comments about kids, so get them involved! This is a great time for them to learn a little about gardening.

I closed the other Carrot Week announcement thread: https://squarefoot.forumotion.com/t10069-2nd-annual-carrot-week so use this thread to post your plantings, progress, pictures, etc.

Have fun and please share your carrot progress!

I am waiting till Monday, we had a freeze overnight and I will be away at the weekend. Nantes are poised and ready !

I'll be doing mine Monday or Tuesday. I'm out of town today through Sunday, but I've got the topper box ready to filled and then I can plant! Hopefully it's not too warm already for them to do well.

Planted my son's on Mon as I left on Tues. Mine go in tomorrow.

Kay

Its raining today, so my sowing is on hold but I'll get them in on time.

I'm in! I didn't find the variety I wanted and bought Scarlet Nantes at WalFart a few days ago.

They are in the ground!

grow, Grow, GROW!!!

I'm REALLY hoping the Home Depot has Nantes seeds! Our little WalMart didn't have any. If/when I find seeds, I'm going to tell my boys about the contest...can't tell them anything until the day of an event; they get too aggravating otherwise...I'll just bet you that my 10y/o will want to grow the biggest carrot. My 5y/o will just be tickled to see things growing...and to see me put pictures of our progress and results on the computer.

Finished the MM on Monday and was eager to plant but it was down to freezing the last two nights. I did plant seeds yesterday - peas, spinach, lettuce and radishes yesterday, but held off on the carrots. Today I'm planting my broccoli and brussel sprouts starts and carrot seeds. Still cool tonight, but lots of rain for the next few days so I want to get it done.

givvmistamps wrote:I'm REALLY hoping the Home Depot has Nantes seeds! Our little WalMart didn't have any. If/when I find seeds, I'm going to tell my boys about the contest...can't tell them anything until the day of an event; they get too aggravating otherwise...I'll just bet you that my 10y/o will want to grow the biggest carrot. My 5y/o will just be tickled to see things growing...and to see me put pictures of our progress and results on the computer.

Burpee (@ Walmart) had both 'nearly coreless' Nantes, and Scarlet Nantes. ($0.98 each). Be sure to look at the 'burbee wall' in the store, and not the cardboard kiosk display in the garden area.

Home depot had Nantes only in Martha Stewart's collection @$3.99

Seeds of Change (Walmart) did not have nantes, nor did Biological Interest (small stores).

I've read Nantes are considered the easiest to grow, but aren't done on commercial scales because they are too brittle and break easily.

The other popular ones out here are long imperators and danders.

AvaDGardner wrote:

givvmistamps wrote:I'm REALLY hoping the Home Depot has Nantes seeds! Our little WalMart didn't have any. If/when I find seeds, I'm going to tell my boys about the contest...can't tell them anything until the day of an event; they get too aggravating otherwise...I'll just bet you that my 10y/o will want to grow the biggest carrot. My 5y/o will just be tickled to see things growing...and to see me put pictures of our progress and results on the computer.

Burpee (@ Walmart) had both 'nearly coreless' Nantes, and Scarlet Nantes. ($0.98 each). Be sure to look at the 'burbee wall' in the store, and not the cardboard kiosk display in the garden area.

Home depot had Nantes only in Martha Stewart's collection @$3.99

Seeds of Change (Walmart) did not have nantes, nor did Biological Interest (small stores).

I've read Nantes are considered the easiest to grow, but aren't done on commercial scales because they are too brittle and break easily.

The other popular ones out here are long imperators and danders.

The Home Depot website said they have Ferry Morse Scarlet Nantes organic seeds at my local store. Really hoping that's true! I'll find out in a couple more hours...

I'm excited to start planting! My calender doesn't have me planting carrots just yet though... since my last frost date is May 21st! But I guess one square of carrots won't hurt...

i've cheated folks ( Dave hangs his head in mirthful shame ), I sowed my seeds two days too early when it was convieniently warm and not peeing it down with rain or nut freezing cold like to day

Sometimes the weather forecasts in the UK do come in handy even if they are remotely correct , I actually used their advice of a good weather slot to get them in .

One of my varieties is a German Nante called " Frubrund " another is called Carlton and the third is the simple straight forward nante 2 .

Tomorrow afternoon might be promising weather to get my weird carrots underway , but those are Hush hush ones so are the methods employed . I just have to make up a heap more MM before hand .

plantoid wrote:i've cheated folks ( Dave hangs his head in mirthful shame ), I sowed my seeds two days too early when it was convieniently warm and not peeing it down with rain or nut freezing cold like to day

Sometimes the weather forecasts in the UK do come in handy even if they are remotely correct , I actually used their advice of a good weather slot to get them in .

One of my varieties is a German Nante called " Frubrund " another is called Carlton and the third is the simple straight forward nante 2 .

Tomorrow afternoon might be promising weather to get my weird carrots underway , but those are Hush hush ones so are the methods employed . I just have to make up a heap more MM before hand .

Dave my DD thinks you are enamored with one part of your body (!). I think the way you phrase things is a scream!

Weird carrots? Like the one you aren't going to thin? I did a 2 rows of 2 seeds per, and a 2 rows of solo seeds. We'll see how the contortions happen!

Sapphire, it's PAST my season to plant them, but I did it anyway. And the temp has dropped 15 degrees the past few days. They are JUST guidelines!!! Go for it!!

Well, I found some Scarlet Nantes! It wasn't the Ferry Morse, but Martha Stewart...which I had bypassed initially looking for the FM and couldn't find. I thought I'd seen someone here say they were like $4, but I got mine for $2, so I was okay with that...at least they're organic!

Do we need to plant an entire box or is a couple of squares ok for this
challenge? I only have 2 boxes and I want to do this, but I also have
other plans as well. I am planning on planting carrots tomorrow, so
this timing works out perfectly.

gingeandhales wrote:Do we need to plant an entire box or is a couple of squares ok for this
challenge? I only have 2 boxes and I want to do this, but I also have
other plans as well. I am planning on planting carrots tomorrow, so
this timing works out perfectly.

just a square

My boys planting their carrot seeds for the contest. Since we are going to be moving this summer they are in pots. I had to take our gardens out at the end of last season so we could get grass growing again for when we move. Gotta love living in military housing. Just so you know my boys decided to be goofy for the picture. They would not take a nice one. Oh well!

Lol! That's awesome How can boys be to serious when they're planting carrots

Lego Batman!! My sons (and I on occasion) have put some serious hours into that game.

Good luck with the carrots and keep us posted on the progress!

I wish I could get into this carrot week business. My boxes won't be ready for planting for another month.

TTT - can you put some in a pot, bucket, tub, etc? I don't think they HAVE to be in a box...

Rooster my boys can not ever be serious. And we play lego batman maybe one day a week for his choose of quite activities to do with mom during little brother's nap time.



Ours are in pots as you can see from the picture of my boys. So try them in a pot and join in the fun!!!

UnderTheBlackWalnut wrote:TTT - can you put some in a pot, bucket, tub, etc? I don't think they HAVE to be in a box...

Well the boxes are built but my compost isn't done just yet. Should be done at the end of this month. And then I have to make the mix. Work has been kind of slow the past few weeks and I will have everything I need for Mel's Mix sometime during the 1st or 2nd week of May. Since I don't want to tap into my savings, it's going to take me a few weeks to buy the rest of the ingredients.

@ mschaef: What an adorable couple of boys you have! Like Rooster said, it's hard for boys to be serious planting...it's even harder for them to be serious in front of a camera! My boys and I will be putting our carrots in this weekend.

@ TTT: Go ahead and pot up some carrots like Walnut said! There's not even a rule that says we have to use MM, so if you don't have it mixed then use something else. You may be looking at starting early, but here in the Coastal/Tropical region it's nearly too late to start carrots...and with the unbelievably early heat we're having I doubt my carrots are going to win any medals.

@ everyone: I'm looking forward to getting my boys involved in this. I'm going to give them a list of potential places to plant their carrots, and they'll get to choose a spot or two each. I'll put their names on garden markers, mark where they chose to put their seeds (and where I choose to put mine, I'm participating too!!!) and we'll watch things grow!

Maybe my husband will even get in on the fun...though with end of term approaching he's getting tougher to get along with. I STILL can't believe the amount of stuff he has to grade at the end of the term, and it's been six years (3 terms/year) of watching him go through this. (I'd help him, but down here I'm not FERPA qualified like I was at the university in NC.)

If I'm allowed to use something other than Mel's Mix, I can definitely get into it then.

've cheated folks ( Dave hangs his head in mirthful shame ),

and here I have been holding off until the 15th.... that was the start of the contest....RIGHT?

OK then if all the rules have changed, then I can change too
So tomorrow is the day I plant the Nantes, I have been "sitting on" for awhile.

Thanks for the heads up......