2nd Annual Carrot Week

Woot! Woot! It's finally here! Where you interested enough in the "big announcement" to save yourself a box or two?
This year we're going to stick to the Nantes type carrot, and you can choose a single variety, or several if you are so inclined.
Planting week will be the week of April 15th. Like last year, let's do three days either side of the 15th. So you can plant your carrots anytime from Thurday, April 12th thru Wednesday the 18th. During the excitment, don't forget to have your taxes done by the 16th!!

How about a little friendly competition this year? Plant a normal 6" box and let's see who can come up with the best L shaped carrot!
And how can we have a carrot competition without a longest carrot? So get out your carrot extenders and stretchers and plant a deep box too.
Also up for bragging rights how about the ugliest carrot and sexiest carrot competition! And since everyone is going to have so many carrots, how's about best carrot recipe (with pictures of course!) to tease the taste buds!

It would also be great for growers to check in around the 15th of every month with a progress report of their carrots, so we could
compare effects of climate for different regions. Let's take lots of pictures of our progress and track growth and compare our progress, successes and failures.

So let's have some fun with this! Lot's of friendly forum rivalry and competition. Get those cameras ready and keep sitting on those boxes or plan to have them cleared by April 15th! And let's plant us some carrots!

Does anyone recommend their favorite Nantes type to plant for carrot week?

Ha! I didn't even know what a Nantes type carrot was so I looked it up on Bing. Little did I know I have a Nantes type carrot, alas it is a baby carrot, "Little Finger", so I don't think it would do me much good to enter that one, LOL

I'm also going to be growing "Atomic Red" carrots, which grow quite long, however, I don't know if it's a Nantes type carrot or not.

So alas, I don't believe I will be entering the contest, but I will be watching with great interest, as I caught the tail end of the contest last year and found it quite entertaining!

Sounds like fun off to check if my carrots are the nantes type lol

I just pulled my last "carrot week" carrot on MON. Stubby but tasty..

Kay

Woo! How exciting. Unfortunately, the only nantes type I have is also little finger! I'll be planting them anyway, along with some Danver half longs.

I'm going to try again this year. Last year mine got off to such a slow start with growth in the north country that I forgot all about the contest and was just grateful when I was able to harvest in late summer and fall. This year I marked it down in my journal. I like the idea of 'contests' within the contest. Sounds like fun.

I'll give it a shot!

I've got some scarlet nantes seeds right here, perfect! Now to just go build some deeper boxes

This will be fun!

Great ideas, rooster! But since this is my first SFG, I'll just admire everyone else's efforts as I learn to do this the right way.

Thanks Luci. They weren't my ideas, I'm just trying to carry-on what hopefully becomes a great tradition. And this is just a little forum friendly fun! Everyone who wants to should join in whether a beginner of seasoned SFG'ner.

Sounds good and looking forward to it

http://www.carrotmuseum.co.uk/today.html


Great Read about carrots.

I knew it would be carrot week!

Rooster - you need to come up with some carrot emoticons for this challenge!

sounds like great fun, I am still eating my nantes carrots from last year, that I stored in wet sand, in cool place....

Here's a link with different varieties of Nantes listed.
http://www.grow-it-organically.com/carrot-varieties.html

Being in So. Cal., I'll be planting my carrots a little earlier. I'm planting Tonda Di Parigi and Chanteray Red Core mid March. I'll wait to plant my Nandes, little fingers and purple haze until the start times in April. Sounds like fun....can't wait to get them in the ground!

labour rn
The ones I have on order are just called Coreless nantes, , would this be yet another varietal?

I'm up for growing an ugly carrot or two perhaps & a big one in deep MM .
Hope the ground has thawed by then as today i discovered it was frozen 5 inches below the surface and by the weather forecasts it's going to get much colder over the next thre weeks .

GWN...I don't think the list I posted includes all varieties. Is coreless nantes a heirloom variety? Also, please excuse my misspelling in my previous post. Guess I should really read before posting!

plantoid did you dig down through 5 inches of ice to find you had 5 inches of ice
I am so curious about my overwintering artichokes that I pulled off the cover today (above freezing today and everything is thawing) and I could not dig at all, still frozen at least an inch...
Or is there another way to determine the depth of the frozen soil?

http://stellarseeds.com/content/nantes-coreless

Here is a link to where I bought them, perhaps just another variety of carrot.
GENTLEMEN start your engines

GWN wrote:plantoid did you dig down through 5 inches of ice to find you had 5 inches of ice
I am so curious about my overwintering artichokes that I pulled off the cover today (above freezing today and everything is thawing) and I could not dig at all, still frozen at least an inch...
Or is there another way to determine the depth of the frozen soil?

I wacked a three foot long 3/4 inch pointed steel bar into the new lawn area with a four pound hammer and found it got easier just after 4 & 1/2 inches down .

The top was still rock solid at 15.40 hrs this afternoon ,it's not thawed all day & tonight is going to be minus 3 to 4 C ( about 25 F )
My wheel barrow has a solid 4 inch block of ice in it .. that will teach me not to turn it upside down when I've finished playing with it.

Thanks for the link GWN.....they look wonderful!

well then despite my 5a zoning, it is clearly much warmer here.
I had to drag my 16 year old dog out of a ditch in our yard filled with water, NO ICE......
Either way I guess it will be awhile before either of us plant carrots.....

What to aim for

Carrot (heavy)

WR: 8.61kg (18.81lb) - John Evans - United States - 1998
UK Record 5.9kg (12.98) Dave Thomas - United Kingdom - 2011 NEW
Carrot (long)

WR: 584cm (19ft 2in) - Joe Atherton - United Kingdom - 2007
UK Record - 584cm (19ft 2in) - Joe Atherton - United Kingdom - 2007