For the last three years I've planted carrots well after last spring frost and dug them in November at first winter frost to put them in the root cellar. They grow big around here. Individual carrots can weigh 3 pounds or more. But they tend not to look quite like carrots ought. They might have four inch shoulders and five tap roots. They might have two roots twined. They might be split and grown inside out. They're perfectly good to eat if I can clean all the dirt from their various crevices, but the split ones where the cores boil out like brains sometimes look so - ugh! - that it's kind of hard to face them.
There's no sign of bugs or disease, and the soil is a relatively light mixture of sandy dirt and manure. I thought maybe I'd selected the wrong planting date. So last year I planted one row at the usual date and three more after that, each a month apart. The fourth batch barely sprouted in the heat of summer and had no roots at harvest time. The third batch looked like baby carrots but they were all perfectly formed. The second batch were about the size of grocery store carrots with a fair share of sports. And the first batch, as usual, were big but about half had odd shapes.
The pile from the oldest row weighed twice as much as all the rest combined. They were brighter orange and tasted sweeter too, so I don't think I want to give up starting carrots right away after last frost. But is there any way to grow them that big and NOT get carrot monsters?
Kathy