Carrot Week 2012!

Carrots are so difficult this year because of Queen Ann's Lace(from the carrot family) that blew into the boxes. It comes up looking like carrots. Found sprouts of it in every single box and every single square. Even the 2 month old new strawberry box. Does anyone have a foolproof method to tell the difference between carrot sprouts and QAL sprouts? I'm not sure anymore but I think when carrots first sprout look like 2 blades of grass on a single stem right? And if I can catch QAL the second it sprouts it seems to immediately have mini micro branches looking like slightly older carrots. Still....I'm not really sure what is growing anymore. Last year I had wonderful squares of real carrots. This year? :scratch:

Mine are growing. I thinned them earlier in the week and pulled just a coupla to see whats happening. Tiny carrots are forming.





Kay

How are all the Carrot Week carrots doing? Mine are FINALLY perking up a little bit



A few perished so I tossed in a couple of lettuce seeds for fun...

Early morning shot.

As a test, I picked my first carrot this morning...Danver's half Long...not sure how much time to give them.

I also have som Scarlet Nantes that are not quite ready to test. I have around 11 squares of carrots total.

landarch wrote:As a test, I picked my first carrot this morning...Danver's half Long...not sure how much time to give them.

I also have som Scarlet Nantes that are not quite ready to test. I have around 11 squares of carrots total.

Carrot Week carrot?

I just found this thread! Very exciting! I have 3 'squares' of Scarlet Nantes carrots planted, at different times of which I know not except 1 ea at mid to end of March, April, May. I'm sure one of them must qualify for the proper time frame.

I've never grown carrots before so I don't really know when to see if they are done. Also, do they need warmer weather than 50's & 60's to mature faster? They seem to take a very long time.

The March and April (photo) ones seem to be about the same size as Roosters right now:


Can I play, too???

I'm sure I qualify to play now...I just found a photo from the 15th and the box wasn't planted but in a photo on the 19th I see it in the background and it was! So somewhere in there my April carrots got planted. I'm good to go, right?

Here they are slowly getting the get along!

I just planted several more squares but of Danvers half longs and rainbow mix. Then I found posted here the link on carrot varieties. So those rainbow carrots are chatenays?, hmmmm,,,,,, I should not of planted them below corn. O well. When I pull the bac choi I will mix some sand into those squares and plant more of the rainbow carrots.

Yeah carrots!

our sqaure with the one carrot had some brothers come up from a second planting...but....went out a day or so later....and they are gone.....AGAIN!!.....what's up with that...... ...i did snap a pic before *poof*



our son's in his self water container with MM is doing very well....but...dont think they are nates so not for carrot week......eeerr



our daughters self watering container with MM had large green tops.....planted the same day as our son's above....we were gone for two days last week and came home to find ALL of her carrots were GONE!....talk about disapointment for her so she planted a cucumber instead......blah....whats up with the carrots?....hers wernt little seedlings either....what would come along and eat ALL of her carrots and not touch her brothers sitting right next too?



did try the pre soak carrot seeds to see how it works.....well...we have seedlings now i think it did help germ a little bit faster....planted them in a black pot



i know we have a couple nates in our raised beds.....they had a hard time as well...for some reason the nate types are just not doing as well as others.....

hugs

rose........

RoOsTeR wrote:How are all the Carrot Week carrots doing?

Hey RoOsTeR!! My box of Nantes is growing well too, 'bout like yours.
Late evening pics...



Here's hoping a winner is in there, somewhere!

Here is my Carrot Box - all 12 sq ft of it. Notice the volunteer Cilantro and the tomato cages in the back? I still have 5 volunteer toms - hoping the 2 cages will be enough if I prune mercilessly! Center strip was planted with Danvers 1/2 Long but the seeds were at least 8 yrs old. I will have at least 3 sq ft of unsprouted box to replant with whatever I choose. The back strip with the most sprouts (other than Cilantro) is the Nantes.



GG

My carrots are going slow too, but then my weather is getting colder whilst yours is warming up!

llama mama you need to be sure that none of the queen Ann lace is actually the poisonous hemlock a close look alike to QAL and very common in disturbed soils. While QAL is edible and many foragers do the hemlock will kill with only a small amount consumed. Here is a link to pictures of the poisonous one for identification. I get rid of hemlock from my garden all the time and do forage some but still won’t try the QAL as a carrot substitute even though I can tell the two apart. http://www.google.com/search?q=pictures+of+poison+hemlock&hl=en&client=safari&rls=en&prmd=imvns&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=aJDVT6aEEqLW2gWVhICtDw&ved=0CGAQsAQ&biw=1181&bih=550 . Poison Hemlock is what Socrates ate in his state ordered suicide in 399bc. At least it was something organic.

Westie,
That's right they organically eliminated Socrates...
I'm aware of poison hemlock. Between that and Queen Anne's Lace I'm going to stay away from any pale colored carrot type of root that might sneak into the beds.

QAL when it develops a stem is hairy and if you rub it a bit your hands will smell like carrots. Unfortunately that does not simplify your identification problem. Hemlock always has a smooth stem and does not develop a root of enough size to be confused with carrots. QAL roots are quite a bit smaller than carrots and does not have normal carrot color. Some people use carrot leaves, I use them in pot liquor so was more worried about any leaf usage. That could get confusing unless the whole plant was pulled to assist with identification. I will drive by a QAL patch tuesday and if there are any small seedlings will get a few pics to share and compare.

Nice to hear from you again Windsor.Parker and the carrots are looking good

GG, your volunteer cilantro looks better than any cilantro I purposely try to grow

RoOsTeR wrote:GG, your volunteer cilantro looks better than any cilantro I purposely try to grow

Thanks RoOsTeR! It is rapidly approaching weed status in my yard, so of course it grows well! It did not grow so well the year I intentionally planted it - but the seeds from that generation have been keepin' on keepin' on! (originally planted approx. 10 yrs ago, never replanted, never had to!)

GG

The only way I can tell what's a carrot from similar plants , is to use the sowing mask and let any thing that looks like a carrot develop .

Once a box square is several inches high the carrot looking weeds soon become obvious and its just a simple case of snipping the weedd off below the ground level .

Occasionally I've found a carrot looking plant that has started to develop into tiny pink flowers when it is three or so inches high ... SNIP .. exit one more weed.

Not a very clear pic, but my carrot week carrots are in the left side of the topper box. They are doing well.. I pulled on the other day, while small it was definitely carrot looking lol!!


When does "carrot week" end? Is there a date range where we are suppose to pull them up? According to the harvest date on my packs mine should be close by the beginning of July..

Its over when you pull your carrots.

I pulled a 1 1/2" long, thin (but definately a good carrot shape) carrot week carrot today. Out of the square blue pot.
pic 5/29/12 carrots are taller now.

Kay

Aw, come on you guys, I want to see pictures of these little carrots you've pulled!

My boys are just ; they really want to pull their carrots!!! I told them not until ten days after we pull our first carrot batch, which is the end of June. After all the rain we've had recently, a lot of soil has been knocked out of the top hat, and we can see orange shoulders in both plantings of carrots. That has them pretty stoked about seeing what has grown underground.

Hmm...my carrots seem to be the same size as last week. Maybe an inch higher. I stuck my finger down there yesterday and didn't feel a carrot...just root. You might be able to see them in this photo, in the 3rd black box in the back w/ the 5th crop of radishes.



And in the front black boxes are my cucs climbing waaaaay up the 6ft trellis that I built especially for them. Actually, they've been about 2 inches tall for about oh...3 mths now...? I'm wondering if I should start over with cucs for the 3rd time.

CC

Aw, come on you guys, I want to see pictures of these little carrots you've pulled!

Agreed!!

Baby Danvers Half Long... they still have two-ish weeks until they hit the package harvest date, but will probably end up having to leave them a bit longer than that.

The Scarlet Nantes I pulled earlier this week was about half this size so they'll stay in the ground I would guess another month at least.

As an aside: This fall I'm totally planting globe carrots. Atlas, Paris market... or some other as long as it's round!! (not sure which I'll end up ordering yet) Mainly because I think they're so cute lol!!!