1 lb. of Carrots for dinner

gary350

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Garden soil is frozen carrots are hard to pull up. Frozen carrots are brittle, wiggle them and they break in half. I managed to pull up about 1 lb. of carrots for dunner. Carrots are a nice winter crop to have we can pick carrots for 5 months as we need them. I have a mix of, orange, red, yellow, carrots. Red is the best flavor. Better flavor than Danvers.

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Meadowlark

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Here carrots are growing in my garden 9 months out of the year.
I like to stagger plant to guarantee fresh carrots continuously but do a main crop for canning that matures just before high temps set in.

Carrots grown in nutrient rich soil are by far the best tasting.

carrotts.jpg

carrots canned.JPG
 

gary350

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Here carrots are growing in my garden 9 months out of the year.
I like to stagger plant to guarantee fresh carrots continuously but do a main crop for canning that matures just before high temps set in.

Carrots grown in nutrient rich soil are by far the best tasting.

View attachment 106600
View attachment 106601

Which variety of carrot grows best for you? I planted some red carrots this year, wow they have very good flavor better than orange carrots. I need to experiment growing other varieties to learn what grows best in TN.
 

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Which variety of carrot grows best for you?
They all grow very well here...but some taste better than others to me. The Nantes is probably our favorite but others like the little finger are very good especially grown in containers which I do sometimes for their protection. All benefit taste wise from nutrient dense soils.

The Nantes...
nantes.jpg

The little finger...

carrots short.JPG


The Nantes half long...
carrots half.JPG
 

gary350

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I grew carrots last year in a 10 gallon pot and two 5 gallon buckets filled with 2/3 potting soil mixed with about 1/3 garden soil. Carrots did good until we had -7° carrots froze in the 5 gallon buckets. Aug seems to be the best time to start carrots from seed in TN. When it gets 45° or colder carrots just set there waiting for warm weather to grow. I have about 4000 carrots in 4 rows we hope to get maybe 600 good carrots by May 10. Corn needs to replace carrots May 10.
 

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... Carrots did good until we had -7° carrots froze in the 5 gallon buckets. ...
The entire purpose for me of growing in a container is being able to move them to protection from that kind of weather. o_O o_O

5 gallon is nothing to move to protection.

By the way, 5 gallon is way too small for carrots for me...definitely not enough room for roots...maybe that's just me. My carrot containers are 25-gallon Hügelkultur containers.
 
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gary350

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The entire purpose for me of growing in a container is being able to move them to protection from that kind of weather. o_O o_O

5 gallon is nothing to move to protection.

By the way, 5 gallon is way too small for carrots for me...definitely not enough room for roots...maybe that's just me. My carrot containers are 25-gallon Hügelkultur containers.

How do you move 25 gallon container of carrots. I would need a forklift to move 25 gallon container of carrots unless contain has wheels.

Farmers Co-op sells 2 oz carrot seed packs for $8. 2 oz of carrot seeds is 40,000. seeds. I plant all 40K seeds in 4 rows each row is 30 ft long. I rake soil up like potato hills then flatten the top of the hills so I have an 7" wide flat surface to sprinkle seeds on. Then I cover seeds with 1/2" of soil. Then I cover soil with 6" wide boards 4 ft long to hold in moisture for good germination. I water seeds 3 times a day for a month. Once I have good germination I remove the boards. With boards gone I need to keep plants wet to keep plants alive. After all that 40,000. seeds are about 4000. good carrots. I see seed packs that claim carrots are a 65 day crop that can't be turn its more like 6 month crop in temperature above 50°.
 

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How do you move 25 gallon container of carrots. I would need a forklift to move 25 gallon container of carrots unless contain has wheels.
Hügelkultur containers... See the thread...


By following the suggested layering as described in the above thread, the large cattle tub comes in around 55 pounds and no forklift needed.

In the above experiment, we set out to determine the feasibility of planting in Hügelkultur containers to enable portability in veggie gardening as we age. Not only did we establish that feasibility but found a highly effective planting method for certain veggies, carrots among them.

Hügelkultur containers are now an integral part of my gardening approach not only for their portability but also their productivity for selected varieties.
 

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The only months I don't have carrots growing are July and August.

I stagger plant them to have a continuous supply most of the year starting with plantings early Sept., October, November, and early Dec. skipping starts most of Dec., January, and February and resuming in March continuing through April.

I just checked my carrots today after the temps were in the teens several days...and they were fine for the most part.
 
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The only months I don't have carrots growing are July and August.

I stagger plant them to have a continuous supply most of the year starting with plantings early Sept., October, November, and early Dec. skipping starts most of Dec., January, and February and resuming in March continuing through April.

I just checked my carrots today after the temps were in the teens several days...and they were fine for the most part.
thx i was curious

just was so hot this past aug and september when i planted them they didnt germinate finally got some going but nothing compared to what i planted
could have been badd seeds mabe idk
 

Meadowlark

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No, it probably wasn't bad seeds @Tundra20, it was probably the high temps we had.

I find carrots just do not germinate well at temps above 80 deg F and we had a lot of those days and nights last Aug. and Sept. in fact all of them. The "board" technique I saw first mentioned here by @Durgan helps with keeping the seeds moist but it isn't effective at those high temps.
 

gary350

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thx i was curious

just was so hot this past aug and september when i planted them they didnt germinate finally got some going but nothing compared to what i planted
could have been badd seeds mabe idk

The hardest part for me growing carrots is getting good seed germination. I planted this years carrots seeds Sept 4 then cover seeds with 1/2 of soil then cover soil with boards to hold moisture for a month. It is very hard to get good seed germination seeds need to stay wet. We have rain 6 days a week Feb to May 25 then rain stops and we have no rain 100° desert June to Sept 30. Planting seeds April 1st will be good for me but I would need water seeds several times a day for 6 months. Some of the $2 seed packs claim carrots are a 65 day crop that is not true carrots are a 6 month crop for us. This year I bought 2 oz seed packs at Farmers Co-op $8 for 40,000. carrots seeds. Hill up soil for 4 carrot rows 12" tall then flatten the hill tops so here is a 7" wide flat area for carrots seeds. Cover seeds with 1/2" of soil then cover soil with fertilizer then cover with 6" wide boards. I have 4 rows spaced 32" apart. 4 rows 30ft long = 120 ft of carrots. It took almost a month to get good generation. I have to water 3 to 4 times a day 40,000. seeds grew about 4000. carrots. I also have good luck planting carrots in 10 gallon pots in the shade for good germination then move pots to a sunny place Sept. it took me a lot of experimenting to finally get good carrot crops. Years ago I use to plants carrot seeds in the snow you can see the seeds laying on the white snow you know exactly where seeds are an how many but nothing grows until warm weather then carrot crop harvest is Nov or Dec. I refuse to baby plants to keep them alive, I try to learn maintenance free gardening, if mother nature does not keep plants alive they will all die. I live 30 miles south of Nashville TN last frost is April 20 and first frost is Nov 1. Our winter lowest temperature average is 15° but no this year of the past 2 years is was 4° a few days ago, -3° last winter, 7° year before that. Try several experiments every year to lean what works best for you.

At the moment my carrots are all frozen into the soil. soil is frozen 2" deep. It has been 35 yes since our soil has frozen more than 1" deep. We have 5 days of 50° day temperature coming i will put some carrots to see how they are doing. In the past freeze rotted carrot top off and there was good carrots down deep. i might end up with carrots with top 2" gone.
 
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ya getting carrots to go is a learning curve im gona try again here soon i did get some here other day and they are really good just didnt get many for what i planted
but gona use some of this info from u and meadowlark
thx again
 

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