carrot question

my carrots aren't growing straight. The soil is loose all around them but they are still growing all crooked, why? Do I need sand in the soil??

is the soil rocky? i grow mine in topsoil from a gardening store, mine were growing crooked before that, in loose but rocky soil.. small rocks too- pebbles-.. I don't know if it's nutrients or the pebbles so I got topsoil and now they are fine..

-joe-

did u direct sow or transplant?

Transplant? It matters?? I'm curious.

I've never transplanted them, didn't think you could. I just let a few go to seed and they just keep coming. I occasionally toss seed in to fill any
bare spots.

-joe-

taproot veggie, not good for transplant, probably ur problem. try direct sow, u still have time to do it now and still get a harvest in. carrots hate to have their root system disturbed in any way. sorry!

jj, r u cutting away ur doubles as they grow?

I pull them out when I weed to thin them out if it is too crowded, but don't usually need to, I now have carrot patches all over the garden self sowing.. the only problem is that the patches move twice a year, is it hard to collect the seeds, not sure how to keep them in place without hand seeding. They are really a nice carrot - don't know the name. but stopped growing crooked two years ago when I sifted out rocks and added bagged topsoil.

Will try direct sowing next time. I thought carrots were a cool weather crop? don't I have to wait until august before I try again?

no, august is too late. you are similar to my weather in ct, and I cave carrots year round. they taste best in january. they will freeze over in feb. and are hard to pull out, but you can eat them when you set out seeds in march. If I don't get carrot volunteers, I put seeds out in early april, july, and around labor day labor day ones fill up where cucumbers were with turnips and swede for soups all winter long. By now, I have volunteers all over the garden year round.

basically, carrots just don't like february or july. but they grow. I think 'cool season crop' is for the carolinas. if you sow now, they will be nice for aug, and september. let some go to seed.

In my neck of the woods they are a cool season crop. They don't like our summer heat. In Zone 5 though you should be able to sow them all summer long... Maybe every two weeks for continual harvest . . .

kelly ur summer heat gets pretty hot i bet.

Yipper!

104 F forecast for today, 108 F tomorrow - and it only gets worse from there - lol. We had an unusually hot May with 14 days over 100 F and then the first part of June was cooler than normal. But, I fear, the heat has arrived. Amazingly, though, we can grow something year round here in the desert, including the summer. Who would have thought??????

So if I let them go to seed they will grow on their own next year? Sorry I'm a newbie. Or do you mean to collect the seeds? It gets pretty cold here in the winter -20.

Never heard of anyone transplanting carrots.

I HAVE heard of folks building a purpose-built box for carrots to grow in. A 1 foot tall, by 6 inch wide, and several foot long box full of potting mix, and the carrots are direct seeded into the top and thinned to one row.

dpoitras - they will sow themselves, and be there in the spring, Not in an orderly fashion, but there, They tend to start popping up in the end of feb. or early march. whenever the thaw lets the rain in. They grow right through the frosts in march. We get as low as zero here and usually only two or three weeks below 20.. the carrots from the fall are pulled and sometimes i pry them out and thaw the dirt off them in jan, they are perfect, and honestly carrots pulled when the ground is frozen 2-3 inches deep are the best you'll ever taste. something happens to the flavor when the ground freezes. fantastic.

I will be going to upstate in aug. near three mile bay at point peninsula. Beautiful up there.

dpoitras-don't fret, your crooked carrots will taste just as nice as the straight ones (giggle). My dog loves carrots - she trys her darndest to pull them out of the garden if I don't give her one quick enough.

I sowed carrot seeds for the first time this year and they were a great success. I used homemade seed tape. I had seen seed tapes in catalogs before but they seemed like a lot of money for what you got. Then I read a post on DG that explained how to make them, it works for any seeds but I like them for small seeds, they can be made a head of time and stored, and you don't need to thin the seedlings once they have germinated. Here's how you make them, its really easy. Lay 3 feet of toilet paper on a flat surface,
Place the seeds towards the edge of the TP at the appropriate space, fold the TP in half lengthwise (so the seeds are sandwiched between the TP) then spray with water and let dry. Once they are dry roll them up or take them to the garden. Lay them on the soil, cover lightly and keep them damp until they germinate. Saves a ton of time and is so easy.
Lisa

1lisac - I assume I would skip the "spray with water" part if I prepared seed tapes this way ahead of time. I'll have to give this a try - thanks for the info.

Spraying them with water is what makes the TP stick together. Its not enough water to make them germinate. If you skip that part the seeds will fall out. Just let them dry before you store them.
Lisa

Thanks, Lisa.

I sowed carrots around the beginning of June and they are about two-three inches high already. Didn't bother with rows, just scattered them like grass seed, then covered them with a light weight white row cover until they had sprouted to keep the birds from eating the seeds. Hubby misted the area three times a day so the young shoots wouldn't dry out.

That sounds like a great way, just throw them out there. I just hate to thin them out. I had never grown carrots before so I was happy with whatever I got. I just really like the seed tape method when working with small seeds and crops that don't like to be transplanted. It always seems like I inevitably spill the seeds in the dirt so this way I don't have to worry about it and my kids can help.
Lisa