Long Carrot Experiment

[Pavel314]

My wife got some seeds for a Japanese carrot which is supposed to grow two feet long "in the proper soil". So I spent the morning making the soil prop er in one of the garden rows. The area is about three feet across and six f eet long.

I dug it out to a depth of two feet, hitting red clay about a foot down. Th e red clay will go in some low spots in the back pasture. I then put some p erlite and sand in the bottom of the pit and dug it into the base clay a bi t. Next came about a foot of compost, followed by another sprinkling of per lite and sand. Finally, the topsoil which was removed was replaced and rake d smooth. A bit of compost on top of that gave her a good bed for the seeds . Seems like a proper carrot bed to me.

Very strenuous work for an old man but good exercise. I'll report back in a few months on the length of the carrots. I hope they appreciate all my eff orts.

Paul

[songbird]

the few times i've had carrots here they've done ok, but i also planned on the soil being poor down deep so bought the short and sweet kind. they did ok, but Mom is now hooked on baby carrots so she just didn't like the ones i grew.

as far as soil prep, the compost would need to be fairly well graded to remove the bigger pieces otherwise you risk splitting or other odd shapes. mound it slightly to get a little more elevation and after the carrots have been growing make sure to keep the tops slightly covered to avoid them going green.

my body really likes it when i dig as long as i don't do something stupid and twist my leg or back. so far this season i've finally managed to clear a large weedy garden by digging holes and burying what i scrape (using a flat shovel). if there is grass roots/stolons in there that i'm worried about growing back up i cover it with newspaper or cardboard before burying with about a foot or more of dirt. all of that buried organic material is prime worm food and also having all those air gaps in there makes it a great place to collect extra rain when it happens. it just so happened that yesterday we had a pretty severe downpour and those buried holes probably soaked up several hundred gallons of water that would have otherwise run off that garden.

going to have to weed it again this week, but with a quick scrape of a strap/stirrup hoe i can do the whole thing in a few hours now.

songbird

[Pavel314]

two feet long "in the proper soil". So I spent the morning making the soil proper in one of the garden rows. The area is about three feet across and s ix feet long.

. The red clay will go in some low spots in the back pasture. I then put so me perlite and sand in the bottom of the pit and dug it into the base clay a bit. Next came about a foot of compost, followed by another sprinkling of perlite and sand. Finally, the topsoil which was removed was replaced and raked smooth. A bit of compost on top of that gave her a good bed for the s eeds. Seems like a proper carrot bed to me.

in a few months on the length of the carrots. I hope they appreciate all my efforts.

A few years ago, I dug what I call "compost holes" around two filbert trees that needed help. I used a posthole digger to put four or five holes about three feet deep around the drip line of each tree, then filled the holes w ith manure and weed clippings, topping them off with the grass which had be en growing there. It seems to have worked; the trees produced a good crop o f nuts that year, all of which were eaten by the squirrels.

Which reminds me of a project back in junior high school. There was a lot i n our neighborhood where we played baseball but there were several large bo ulders scattered around the outfield which deflected grounders and interfer ed with our fielding efforts. One day, I went out with a shovel and dug a b ig hole by each boulder. I then rolled the boulder into the hole and covere d it with dirt. They've probably built something there in the last fifty ye ars. I bet the excavators were puzzled when they found those boulders burie d out there.

if there is grass roots/stolons in there that

[Bloke Down The Pub]

I dug it out to a depth of two feet, hitting red clay about a foot down. The red clay will go in some low spots in the back pasture. I then put some perlite and sand in the bottom of the pit and dug it into the base clay a bit. Next came about a foot of compost, followed by another sprinkling of perlite and sand. Finally, the topsoil which was removed was replaced and raked smooth. A bit of compost on top of that gave her a good bed for the seeds. Seems like a proper carrot bed to me.

Very strenuous work for an old man but good exercise. I'll report back in a few months on the length of the carrots. I hope they appreciate all my efforts.

Paul

How is your wife going to get a 2 foot carrot in to a pot? I am imagining a bratwurst shaped carrot.

Many years ago, when we lived on a clay sub base, in order to get a decent crop of parsnips we would hammer in a metal stake and then whirl it around making a hole like an hour glass, this we would fill with compost and then plant the seed on top. I am not sure if this really worked but we always got parsnip shaped parsnips, broad at the top and tapering down to the bottom. The only "problem" was we had to do this every year whereas digging over a suitable bed would have saved a little effort.

Mike

[Pavel314]

I'm sure she'll cut them up before cooking. She's just growing these as a fun project.

Very clever idea of the metal stake method for growing parsnips. Just give them a column of compost to grow in, instead of digging up the whole bed.

Paul