Nantes Carrots as of July 4, 2011 (Carrot Week!)

I cannot find a single original Carrot Week thread, so I am starting this new one for July...'cause I am curious to know how your Nantes carrots are coming along! If you are participating in this unregulated experiment that started back in April, take a minute to post your carrots' progress here.

I planted two squares of the Nantes on April 15. The tops of my carrots are very tall and lush-looking, and I could see a couple of larger ones peaking above the soil. So today I decided to pull a couple to see how they were doing. I am very happy with what I found!







Also, if someone has saved links to some of the other Carrot Week threads and and would post them here, that would be nice! That way if new members want to know what it's about they can find it here for now.

pattipan

The official announcement, all 14 pages!

https://squarefoot.forumotion.com/t5124-if-you-carrot-all-for-sfg

Here is a picture of a couple of mine I picked from a few days ago:

https://squarefoot.forumotion.com/t6417p60-what-are-you-eating-from-your-garden-today#74371

I picked about half of mine yesterday.

Ok, ya'll. How to describe my Carrot Week carrots? Do you see the second picture pattipan posted, above? The one with the ruler showing that the plant is over 12 " tall? See the carrot on the left? Ok, now, see the tiny little leaf kinda shooting off to the left? Well, that's about as tall as my carrot tops got. I just went and dug down a little ways beside the biggest one and there's no sign of any carrot.





But I'm going to try them for a fall garden and think that will work much better for me here in the south! I do enjoy seeing the success stories from Carrot Week!

sherryeo, is this what your carrots look like? I started mine a few weeks after carrot week on Apr. 30th. I know I started too late, however, I thought they would be bigger than this. I pulled these on July 18th. I ate the 2 "big ones" on the left. Even though they were small they were tasty. I thought they would be bitter.

AZDYJ2K - Ha! In my dreams, my carrots looked as good as yours! I didn't ever get any tiny carrots - all I had was a bit of greens and just the white roots the carrots start out with. But I'll try again! I think it was just too late to plant them here.

I'm blaming mine on the weather. When I planted it was probably in the 70's and was pretty mild here until around mid June then it really got hot! How hot has it been in Mississippi?

I hope your going to eat the tops of them carrots they look great:D

It's been fairly consisently in the 90s during the days, AZDYJ2K. HOT!!!

Here in the lower south my carrots are taking 4-ever too!!! Going to give it some more time to make me some carrots...Crazy Heat here is soooo the problem.

I don't think it was the heat. I think it was the nutrients in my soil. I don't know if anyone did anything special to the soil specifically for root crops but I am going to try putting Bone Meal in my carrot beds. This fall and in the spring. Spring will tell if the bone meal makes a big difference. Bone Meal is organic and high in phosphorus which is good for root and bulb development. If you had problems with green tops not being very vigorous, You might want to try Cotton Seed Meal which is higher in nitrogen and also organic.

Good Luck with your Fall Carrots.

I pulled one square of my Nantes carrots back on August 2. After the record hot temps in July, some of the tops were beginniing to turn brown...plus I wanted to eat some! Here's the harvest...



As you can tell, I did not do a good job of thinning, but they are all of edible size, so I'm pleased. I'm going to leave the other square alone, just to see what happens, or until we eat up the first batch.

I also have three squares of a red-cored Chantenay type in our 8" deep box. They are puny in comparison, pulled a couple and they were barely 2" long. Go figure. Might try working in some bone meal as Carolyn suggested.

pattipan

I don't think it's the heat, either. One year, about three ago, I planted a carrot strip of Nantes right in the flipping dirt. I also put it on the west facing side of my garden shed (a place I thought only tomatoes would grow in summer). I literally left them alone thinking I'd be lucky to ever see anything in my clay.

I never thinned them. They were small when I checked in June (I think I planted in late April or mid-May-ish). They were more or less forgotten after that. I never watered them. I allowed them to be completely overrun by crabgrass (they weren't in any sort of garden bed or anything). By September, I had more carrots than I could shake a stick at....and I was hooked on carrots. And, that summer was hot! Especially, in full sun like they were.

You truly need patience with carrots. Since they are a bi-annual plant, why rush? Next time, don't pull the square. Pull one, maybe two. Check them before emptying a square and consequently giving up on them. I know we all love to hurry our veggies. I am one of the biggest culprits when it comes to lettuce and/or something I've never tried. But, the occasional ignorance can really be bliss. Ignorance my first year trying carrots turned out to be the biggest blessing I could have asked for. Otherwise, I may still be trying to get a full sized carrot....judging by the days on the package (the biggest gardening no-no ever when it comes to carrots).

BBG,
I had been pulling a carrot now and then as needed for salads, but this time after I pulled one really big one I was curious to see what the rest looked like. So...before I knew it, one square was emptied! I'll plant some pak choi in the square soon anyway.

pattipan