Carrot Week 2012!

I know I bought some nantes carrot seed, but of course I so disorganized sometimes, I can't find them time to go to the grain store...

camprn wrote:I know I bought some nantes carrot seed, but of course I so disorganized sometimes, I can't find them time to go to the grain store...

The grain store is neat huh? I go to one in town here and it's got an old-fashioned feeling. Awesome

Thanks for the compliments Rooster. With our chilly weather here, mine are in the hoop house until they sprout.... Its going to be 76 today..so maybe we'll get the soil nice and warm for awhile..

Got mine put out,

Planted Danvers Carrots, while it's not in a true SFG (it's a grow-bag my parents brought over from the UK, since I don't have any deep boxes yet) it was planted with about 50% Mel's mix, and 50% compost.

We'll see what comes up, my last attempt at carrots (in the regular soil) was a complete disaster, so we'll see.

AvaDGardner wrote:

JennAndCompany wrote:My first post (I just found the forum last night)! I am SO excited to have found all of you and this great place about SFG!

My MM and squares have been ready for about two weeks and I have been eager to get things growing! So, Carrot Week is a perfect excuse to get my hands dirty.

I planted two squares of Scarlet Nantes this evening. I planted them in the same squares as my radishes. I read on the back of a carrot seed packet that you can plant radishes and carrots in the same spot, because the radishes will be done before the carrots get big enough to 'need' the entire space.

I am wondering if anyone has anyone tried this before? Did it work?

Jenn! What is that in your avatar?

What a cool idea to save space! I've not had that instruction on my seeds. Does it matter if the radishes are round or icicles?

The only thing I can think of is pulling the radish would disturb the roots of the carrot. But maybe it would be anchored enough.

I have certainly replanted 'pulled to early' plants from many types. When my first round of carrots were mere thin blades of grass, my DD weeded them. We immediately replanted, and now they are about 4" high with frilly carrot-looking leaves.

Next time I plant carrots, I'll try it with the radishes! Let us know how your's does, too.

Ava

My avatar (avatar of the month) is my son's Molly fish, Honey (she went missing in November). We are pretty sure she died, but we never found the body - LOL. We do still have 5 of her babies - they are fully grown now. This is the only photo of a pet/animal on the laptop right now - and is my favorite of the fish. (Currently i am in the process moving all photos to the external hard drive to make room on the laptop).

I will let you all know how the radish/carrot space sharing goes. The radishes are Giant Crimson (big round red) and the carrots are Scarlet Nante. I might try and get another square planted tomorrow (and see how the squares compare).

got my carrots in too.....on the 13th......i will have to go out and take a look at what kind i planted.....LOL....we planted so many...i know its a nate carrot but which one ?.....will post pics when we get them up loaded to the computer

my five year old still needs to put his in.....hoping to do that tomorrow ....he still needs to pick which ones......he has a self watering container with MM and wants to do carrots and a cherry tomato in there this year

....he was just too cute over the weekend.....i didnt notice until tonight when we were going to add more compost and fluff up his MM.....he already put in his markers.....ha ha ha.....he layed out red rock in lines....they wernt straight or anything....they were goining up, down, in circles....you name it....it look like a race course...... he said....*see mommy*....*i can plant some here....and here*....LOL....he knows about using grids in the SFG and he made some last year in his container.....with red rocks.....but he decided to make it fancier this time.....

hugs

rose.......who really enjoyed the sunshine this weekend!

Jenn, did you check the filter?

jamesindetroit wrote:Jenn, did you check the filter?

LOL - yes we checked the filter and took all the plants out to see if she was hidden in them. I think she died when my son and I were on vacation (my husband stayed home). Pretty sure the cloudy water we had for a few months was "Honey" (eewwww). The cloudy water cleared up in about 6 weeks.

Did anyone else have snow today?? Do carrots like snow?

Went to the orange box store for a new elbow for my bean trellis. They had 3g packets of nantes carrots $1. I am going to plant em before I lose them again!

Got my new bed done and watered in this weekend. This morning I planted 3 squares of Nantes coreless (the only Nantes carrot I could find here). I put a bit of weed block over them as a soil warmer (thanks Plantoid for the idea). In June I will plant Danvers for a fall crop.

I have planted radishes mixed with carrots in the past. Totally forgot about it this time. It works nicely because it helps keep one from over planting hte carrots and needing to thin them. Basically you are 'thinning' by pulling finished radishes thus making room for the expanding carrots yet up till that time the radishes kept the ground covered . Round radishes are best because they pull so easy and do not disturb the surrounding soil much.

Planted my Nantes this afternoon, it was real gusty wind so I might have some growing in the lawn shortly !

One square in a top hat and another square non top hatted.

We'll, my boys got their carrots in today (Mommy had a migraine yesterday before the shade hit the garden).

First we have my younger son; he gets the top hat to grow the "big" carrots:






Then we have my older son, who wants to grow "weird" carrots:




Mommy and Daddy have yet to plant their carrots. Mommy will plant under the tomatoes, to see how well the really grow there after reading that they companion well. Daddy wants to see what weird things he can come up with, too.

Thanks for the photos Michelle! I can't wait to see what "weird" carrots look like

FINALLY got my carrots for carrot week in today! I was out of town Thurs-Sun and still needed to fill my topper box. Of course while out of town we got a call from the kennel where our lab was staying for training (he'd been there about two weeks so far) saying that he wasn't eating and had a lump on his back... so the took him to their vet and he ended up having surgery for a massive abscess and drains put in so more joys of driving upstate to pick him up on Monday. SOOO finally today I had time to mix up the soil mix and plant carrots.

I planted the carrots in the two left squares of the topper box. I planted one square of Scarlet Nantes on the seed tape and then the other square I did Danvers Half Longs.
I opted to plant some snap peas in the two boxes on the right so I made a trellis for those out of a two 1"x2"x6' screwed into the box and then used to leftover galvanized hardware cloth, so hopefully that works. It did end up being on the east side of the box (hence why I leaned it out some). Will need to get some rebar with the bent end to secure the topper box since I put all the weight on that one side lol.

Has anyone here experimented with the purple carrots, or some of the other different colors? I picked up some seed for them a few months back, and am thinking of growing a few squares worth...

I planted 4 varieties of carrots (YaYa, Bolero, Nelson, Scarlet Nantes) on 4/13 and today (4/17) the Bolero have sprouted.

Looks great Carolinagirl! Thanks for participating in Carrot Week and hope the pooch is ok.

I've got pretty nasty weather to contend with again, peeing it down and/or cold enough to worry a brass monkey, but I got round it last year by sowing in a round square foot and a bit container and covering with glass. So that's how I am doing my Carrot week batch. Last years were very nice.

Yesterday I planted my yaya's...who knew they were Nantes carrots!

Well, while y'all are planting I'm pulling.

With temps expected to hit 100+ degrees this weekend and my plan to run new drip lines thru the carrot patch, I pulled my batch that had grown over the winter and early spring.

Orange carrots looked like little pumpkins, but cosmic purple and amaraillo carrots are tasty!

This moring I was looking into the pots that my boys planted their carrots seeds in and I see some green peeking through the dirt. I was so excited until I took a closer look and realized that they were not carrot sprots. I think that my boys decided to plants some other seeds too. Guess the I should not have turned my back on my boys with my basket of seeds sitting beside them and their pots. oh well we shall see what else pops up. I my need to get some more pots though.

jkahn2eb, those look really neat! I wonder how my boys would like some funky carrot colors...would they even believe they're carrots???

mschaef, don't worry, I think my 5y/o planted at least 50 carrots in his 1' square top hat. It'll be really interesting to see how many come up from each of the spots I made for him. He'll probably get angry if I pull any, so he might wind up with the "weird" carrots and my 10y/o may just wind up with "smooshed" carrots in his square.

Jkhan some of those look really suspect lol

Barkie wrote:I've got pretty nasty weather to contend with again, peeing it down and/or cold enough to worry a brass monkey, but I got round it last year by sowing in a round square foot and a bit container and covering with glass. So that's how I am doing my Carrot week batch. Last years were very nice.

Barkie ... eat your heart out .. the funny opaque structure in the raised bed is a two half portable perspex carrot starting box ,also useable as a big airy cloche . Mine went in on the 10 th April as the weather was ideal .

@ Plantoid....You make me drool every time I see your raised beds. I'd love mine to be so easily accessible as yours. Bending over is my downfall.