ref: Carrots...Whats wrong.

Luke Allen 8/6/2012, 10:40 am

Inorder to keep my carrots from being too thick and having to
thin them, I mix my seeds with very fine sand. When I sow they
are already thinned.
Luke Allen

**gwennifer** 8/6/2012, 12:05 pm

Turan wrote:Crowding does not do that. Crowding makes carrots twined around each other.

Thanks Turan, that's what I was wanting to point out.

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Dunkinjean wrote:Last yr when I grew the same carrots they were fantastic. I think it was due to them being too crowded.

So did you plant them more thickly this year than last then?

By the way, the reason I asked Dunkinjean if they'd direct sowed them into Mel's Mix is twofold: Carrots don't like to be transplanted, too easy to damage the taproot and you'll get forked carrots. And carrots are notoriously lazy. Put them in anything less than loose, friable soil, and you'll get stunted, short, stubby roots. Carrots that grew like that in Mel's Mix goes beyond my experience! Sorry.

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FamilyGardening wrote:...I even tried to eat ours and they were bitter.

Plantoid posted in the Carrot Week thread that overfertilized carrots will not taste good. Could that be the problem?

Goosegirl 8/6/2012, 6:03 pm

FamilyGardening wrote:.....i even tried to eat ours and they were bitter

hugs
rose

Carrots, like parsnips, like a few frosts to sweeten up. My fall carrots (or spring carrots left by a lazy gardener until fall) are always sweeter than any I pull in summer.

GG

ericam 8/6/2012, 10:56 pm

That's interesting about the frosts, I don't get any frost here but the carrots I planted in Feb and Mar (late summer to autumn here) were still beautiful and sweet.

Then again, I'm comparing them to shop bought so maybe my winter carrots will be better than the summer ones!

littlesapphire 8/7/2012, 8:34 am

I wonder... Ok, we've found out that carrots get stunted when their tap roots are disturbed. Do you think that since MM is so soft and friable, do you think that when you thin the seedlings, if you pull the out instead of snipping them out, will that disturb the seedlings you leave behind? And cause them to be stunted like that?

cheyannarach 8/7/2012, 12:44 pm

Carrots...what is wrong??? - Page 2 370856013

That is an excellent suggestion! Carrots...what is wrong??? - Page 2 998388915

Dunkinjean 8/7/2012, 1:13 pm

I also did something with my carrots that I never did before. After I planted the seeds and carrots came up, instead of thinning by elimination and pulled alot of the carrots that were crowding and replanted them therefore disturbing them.
Anyway, this fall I am going to plant them, thin out by cutting off the tops and directed as I did last yr.
I guess, live and learn and go by the rules! Very Happy

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