Carrots are very easy to grow, but very hard to grow perfectly, especially in lovely Brinkworth clay soils.
Carrots prefer a fine, loose, well-drained, sandy soil, with not too much in the way of fertiliser. Both stones (and lumps of clay!) and too much fertiliser will cause forking. They may still be OK to eat, and on the upside, you may have an entry for the “most unusual looking vegetable” category at the village show.
Clay soils also lead to problems with the carrot rotting in the ground in Autumn, if you overwater or it is a wet summer (after last year’s drought I’m guessing a summer of deluge is due).
So, for carrots destined for the kitchen, I suggest a raised bed with a sandy, well-drained soil. Compost from last year’s tomatoes, etc is ideal, especially with a bit of sand mixed in.
I sew seeds mid to late spring (April to June) with some successional sewing. The earlier you sew, the more sporadic the germination is. I tend to sew 2-3 seeds a hand’s width apart. You also need to make sure the soil does not get too dry during germination.
Once established, other than weeding and thinning, the only other thing to be aware of is carrot root fly. These are minuscule critters that cause black marks and holes in the carrot and can render them inedible. There are two main defences - netting and carrot fly resistant varieties (e.g. Flyaway F1). I’m not a fan of the taste of Flyaway F1, so I go for the netting option. The netting needs to be very fine - strong garden fleece will work, although purpose-made carrot fly netting (e.g. Enviromesh) is stronger. You need to make sure there are no gaps – carrot root flies are very persistent. Apparently, carrot root flies stay close to the ground so you only need to surround your carrots with a “wall” of netting a couple of feet high. I’m not so sure, the ones in my garden seem more adventurous, so I now fully net carrots.
Picture – My carrot palace – fully enclosed in fleece to combat carrot fly
You need to be careful when thinning carrots, the smell of freshly uprooted carrots will lure in all the carrot root flies, so be gentle and try and keep as much of the netting in place as possible.
Carrots come in many shapes, colours and sizes. The commons shapes are long and pointed, short and pointy (Chantenay style), stump rooted, round, and everything in between! Despite being most commonly orange in colour, purple, white, yellow and pink varieties exist. Purple is thought to be the original colour, with orange and white varieties becoming available in the 16th century.
I grow a variety called “Sweet Candle”, which is the carrot of choice for the “stump-rooted” category for vegetable shows. As well as being ideal for vegetable shows, it has a good flavour (very, erm…..carroty!), and not much core even when grown quite large. It will easily grow to about 30cms in length.
Picture – Pipped to the post by another Robin at this year’s Brinkworth Show!
For vegetable shows you will need to put in a lot of effort. The carrot categories attract a lot of entries, often of a very high standard. For the national shows, perfect matching carrots with no flaws or pests are required. To grow these requires constructing a sand bed, making cores in the sand and filling with finely sieved compost. Perhaps the topic for another article at a later date.
Picture – for the national shows expect lots of entries and perfection!
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