Carrots Aren't Easy

We always have carrots. We eat carrots almost daily, in salads, in soups, in stews, in stir fry, raw for snacks, steamed and mashed, and any other way we can think of. When carrots are cheap we buy extra and freeze them.

Unfortunately, when it comes to the garden, I haven't been taking carrots seriously.



I usually plant a few rows of carrot seeds and then plant a few around my tomatoes and along side my onions. And then I forget about them. I usually plant Nantes, Chantenay, Danvers and a few other varieties just for fun. My carrot seedlings appear sparsely and then grow slowly. I forget to thin them until I'm weeding and notice how crowded they are.

Carrot seeds need to be babied. They need to be watered daily or even more often to make sure the thin layer of soil they occupy stays moist. Carrots take a week or more to germinate, so they need some attention every day to monitor their condition. They also need to be well watered while they grow and all the way to harvest.

Carrots will live all summer with very little care and very little water, but they will be small and woody.



My harvest was small this year, but the carrots are big and sweet and crisp because I realized what I was doing wrong and began to make sure they got an adequate amount of water.

Next year I'm going to focus more on producing an abundance of well-formed carrots and not worry about planting novelty types. I plan to line the rows of carrots with drip hoses and I plan to feed them well, both when planting and later by side dressing with compost. My notebook is full of thoughts on how I can plan better for 2018 and produce better results in my garden.

And one thing I plan to do is take carrots more seriously.

Stephen

All photos are copyright 2017, Stephen P. Scott

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