Growing Carrots ...

[Millie1]

Just doing a seed order - first year doing veggies. Can I put maincrop carrots in after I dig up my Charlotte potatoes (which I'll put in next weekend). They take about 12 weeks? So they'd be ready around beg July. Is that an okay time to plant carrots - how long do they take. Am thinking of these

Lisse de Meaux' Long Carrot - SWEET , GOOD FOR STORAGE OVERWINTER

Here's a medium long orange carrot with rounded tips. We like the flesh which is particularly tasty and sweet, and gets sweeter after lifting.

It is a late-season carrot, best planted for a maincrop, and we chose it for its very long-keeping qualities once harvested.

Good keeper, maincrop.

... from Real Seed Co. Any advice please before I order?

I don't know about Lisse de Meaux, but July should be OK for planting a late maincrop variety like Eskimo (which is supposedly the most cold tolerant variety).

You could grow them under fleece, which would let you get away with planting later than usual and protect from carrot fly too.

Im doing carrots in a bath tub full of compost this year., will be planting Nantes F1 next weekend.

I ordered quite a few things from the real seed co a couple of years ago and they were all, well, failures and some of them didn't resemble description of variety in the catalogue at all. I would say, especially if you are new to doing veg, choose standard varieties Flakkee, Autumn King for example are maincrops which do really well and are relatively easy to grow. The RSC make their varieties sound marvellous but they are not at all easy to grow well and contrary to what they say -- remarkably susceptible to disease, drought, pests and so forth.

Thanks for the replies. I placed an order on Sunday night - the above variety from Real Seed (worried after what you experienced, Niminypiminy) and earlier variety from Sarah Raven. Am not planning on loads and loads - this year is going to be put down to experience

I have a friend grows carrots in 4 inch drain pipes, in compost.

Im growing them in a bath this year.

carrot fly is a huge problem on our allotments - hardly anyone manages to grow uninfested carrots. Is that the reason for the bath idea lincstash? They're not supposed to be able to fly up over barriers are they? Where we are it's so windy though, I think they'd blow over anything even if they couldn't fly there unassisted.

I've been thinking of what to grow on our balcony. There's something really satisfying about bringing your own produce in from the garden to cook and it tastes so much fresher!

Can I just grow charlotte potatoes in a bag of compost, if so when should I be planting them and how long before I can dig them up? Sarah

Instructions here

Carrot fly apparently don't fly higher than about 30/35cm so the higher you plant them the less likely you are to get an infestation. Ours are in a raised bed then I make a fleece fence around it about 30cm above ground and we have never had a fly problem but that could also just be down to luck.