Sad carrots - it's been 3 months!

lzalvis 6/15/2014, 6:37 pm

I live in 7a/b, Atlanta, GA. I planted a whole box of carrots about 3 months ago (as soon as I could before our last frost date). They. Are. Pitiful. The tops aren't very big, and the carrots underneath are barely a pale orange.

My first try ever at carrots was in a fall season, and I had an amazing bumper crop in 3 months. Maybe it was beginner's luck. Heck, I forgot about those first carrots for much of the time as I'd had my second baby, and they still did great!

Now, I've been growing them in the same box for 2 years - could that be the problem? That I didn't rotate crops? I do add some organic fertilizer each season, but maybe that's not enough. I also read they need lots of potassium. ?

thoughts appreciated, because I don't know if I just keep letting these grow, or if I yank them by August so I can grow a new batch for fall.

giant_trainer 6/15/2014, 6:50 pm

I can't answer that question but am interested in the answers you will get. I didn't know carrots could be grown as a fall crop.

**camprn** 6/15/2014, 7:24 pm

Top dress with a quality compost, homemade if you have it, and water regularly. Feed the soil not the plants.

Can you post a photo?

plantoid 6/15/2014, 8:44 pm

lzalvis wrote:I live in 7a/b, Atlanta, GA. I planted a whole box of carrots about 3 months ago (as soon as I could before our last frost date). They. Are. Pitiful. The tops aren't very big, and the carrots underneath are barely a pale orange.

My first try ever at carrots was in a fall season, and I had an amazing bumper crop in 3 months. Maybe it was beginner's luck. Heck, I forgot about those first carrots for much of the time as I'd had my second baby, and they still did great!

Now, I've been growing them in the same box for 2 years - could that be the problem? That I didn't rotate crops? I do add some organic fertilizer each season, but maybe that's not enough. I also read they need lots of potassium. ?

thoughts appreciated, because I don't know if I just keep letting these grow, or if I yank them by August so I can grow a new batch for fall.

Carrots grow best in a soil that has had a different ( not a root one ) crop in it ,where there has been no new compost of fertilizer added for the carrot crop.
This keeps the nitrogen levels down and helps prevent the carrots growing extra carrot legs ( forking ) so it looks a bit like a cows udder.

They like a long grow season in temperate climes and some water to give the bed a soaking deep down once a week or so .

Too dry and they will come out like greenish orange three inch round wire nails & be just as hard .

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Sad carrots - it's been 3 months!

Sad carrots - it's been 3 months!

Re: Sad carrots - it's been 3 months!

Re: Sad carrots - it's been 3 months!

Re: Sad carrots - it's been 3 months!

Re: Sad carrots - it's been 3 months!


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