I’ve had mixed results with growing crops of early carrots over the years, and have probably
had overall better success with the batches of larger main crop carrots that I grew for storage.
This season I sowed batches of early carrots in 4 of the outside gardens that I manage, I sowed
2 batches in the smaller and older Polytunnel Garden, and one batch in the larger polytunnel
of the Black Plot. These 7 batches were sown in different conditions, on different dates and
with a few different varieties, and I was able to harvest some really good carrots, and there have
also been significant disappointments. Although the soil conditions of the various gardens
likely plays a role in the differences here, and there's no doubt a bit of chance involved, I think
that the success or failure of an early crop of carrots really comes down to me getting a few key
tasks done, and in a timely fashion. Although I'm still uncertain about a few key issues.
I try to avoid sowing carrots into freshly dug soil, mainly because I have had issues
with the carrot roots forking quite a bit and suspect that freshly incorporated
organic matter could have been messing with the tiny tap root of the carrot seedling. I
also prefer to prepare a seedbed well in advance, so that the initial flush of weed seeds can
cleared before the delicate carrot seeds are sown. In the No-Dig garden, the soil hasn’t been dug,
and the thick layer of weed free compost had been added to the surface last year,
and that has had a chance to mature. In both of the polytunnels I've recently shifted to a
minimum tillage approach, with compost and fertility added to the surface of the soil,
that had been dug in previous years. In the beds of the other gardens that had been designated for
carrots, I had done any digging or cultivation last autumn so that the soil would have had a
chance to settle over the winter. So the only thing I had to do in the spring was to clear
any weeds and to ensure that there was a fine seedbed on the surface of the soil.
One if the issues I have had in the past with growing carrots is getting consistent
seeds germinate. These days I generally sow a lot
more seeds than I needed to as a way to get around possible germination issues
and I rely on thinning to clear out excessive amounts of seedlings if they do appear. But
for the two rows of the early carrots that I sowed in the larger polytunnel of the Black Plot,
I tried sowing only one seed per station, partially to avoid the task of thinning. This
didn’t work out very well, as it seems that the fresh layer of compost wasn’t great at retaining
moisture and I didn’t water it frequently enough, which resulted in sporadic germination. In
most of the other gardens I covered the beds with sheets of plastic or fleece to help retain
moisture and to warm the soil in order to speed up germination in the cool spring weather. This
gave some good results with full germination in the No-Dig Garden and in the Intensive Gardens
as well as in the two batches of early carrots in the Polytunnel garden. But there was problematic
germination in the Extensive Garden, were I suspect I wasn’t consistently removing the sheet
of plastic during the sunny days and the seedbed possibly over-heated. I ended up abandoning this
first batch of seeds and sowed again but still had poor germination even though had covered the
bed with fleece instead, and the seeds of the main crop carrots that I sowed in the adjacent
row had really good germination, and I suspect that slugs might have been eating the seedlings.
Weeds crowding out the young slow growing carrot plants has also been a big issue in the past,
but this season I managed to greatly reduce the competition from faster growing weed
seedlings. Not having freshly tilled beds was a real benefit, which allowed me to kill off any
weed seedlings before sowing the carrot seeds. I also used a flame torch to singe the tiny weed
seedlings in a few of the gardens before sowing the carrots, without disturbing the soil and
bringing a fresh batch of weed seeds up to the surface. With the first batch of early
carrots in the Polytunnel Garden I also timed a second flaming of the surface of the beds
to just before the carrot seedlings emerged, and had very little weeding of the crop after that.
The other issue with competition in the past has been from the dense sowing of carrots themselves,
especially when I am a bit too exuberant with the number of seeds that I've sow, and in these cases
timing is really key. This season the task was done reasonably well, with some batches thinned
quite early, and a few left a bit late which could have caused a small amount of competition. But
in the Polyculture Garden I failed to thin adequately, partially because I find it hard
to judge the appropriate density of carrots in these broadcast sown beds and to figure out how
many plants to leave in amongst the onions, garlic and parsnip. The two rows of carrots in the Black
Plot polytunnel definitely were affected by the competition from the faster and more
aggressive rocket plants that they were planted beside, and this really reduced the growth.
Another key issue is preventing pest, and I've had three different types of pests damaging my
carrot crop in the past. This spring we managed to keep the slug population under
control for the most part, but I suspect they played a role in some of the gaps in the rows
of carrot plants in the Extensive and Intensive gardens. We have also been mostly successful with
avoiding carrot fly getting into the crop, whose larvae can cause quite a of damage to the roots. I
have found that covering the crop with a fine netting is the best way to prevent this pest,
but only if it covers the crop for the full season. And I have to make sure that
there are are no holes in the mesh, as well as burying the edges of the material with a bit
of soil or wood chip. The only batch I didn’t cover was in the Black Plot polytunnel, and I
got away my with it I think mainly because this garden is quite removed from other growing spaces,
and the carrot fly didn’t have time to find the crop before it was harvested.
I wasn’t so fortunate with the first crop in the smaller Polytunnel Garden, which I left uncovered
for too long in the spring, and a few of the roots were damaged, but this damage was minimal
compared to what the rats did to the same crop later on. I've had issues with rats eating the
exposed part of carrot roots at the surface of the soil, but this one crop suffered the most
damage I've ever experienced, with almost every single root damaged or eaten by a rat. Because
the carrot fly mesh and the carrot leaves was hiding everything, I didn’t notice the damage
until I started harvesting and it was too late.
It is only when the crop is harvested that I can confirm that the carrot fly netting
has been successful, but also the extent to which the roots are forked, split or otherwise damaged,
as well as the size of the crop. All of this can be a pleasant or a nasty surprise, and it was the
crop from the Intensive Garden that I was most disappointed. Most of the roots that I pulled out
of this garden were forked, or split, and many of them were starting to rot, something that I
had only seen before when the carrots had been in the ground for too long in the winter. This
batch of carrots were sown earlier, and harvested later, so perhaps had more time to crack and split
as they got larger, or for other damage to be done by soil organisms and for diseases to set
in. But the length of time that the roots were in the soil wouldn’t have been the only issue,
and there were signs that the seed had been cross pollinated at some point in the past
as several of them were a completely different colour, and perhaps this cross pollination could
have led to an increased tendency of the roots to fork, given the wrong conditions.
Perhaps this crop would have done better if I had added additional fertility to the soil,
or if I had dug over the soil to loosen it up a bit. But some of the best shaped roots were from
the No-Dig Garden, with very few roots split or forked from soil that has never been cultivated.
This was a big change from last year where most of the roots in this garden had forked,
probably due to the fresh addition of a thick layer of compost to the surface of the soil,
and the compost had had a chance to settle in before this season’s crop was sown, which did much
better. And the second crop of carrots that I grew in the Polytunnel Garden were really good as well,
with very few forked or damaged roots. But both of these gardens were sown with different varieties
of carrots than the other gardens, and I suspect that the variety or seed quality may be an issue.
But all of this comes down to how abundant the harvest is, and how useable or marketable the
roots are, or at least how much work it takes to process the forked, cracked or otherwise
damaged roots into something we would want to eat. Measuring yield is an interesting one for these
carrots, as in the past I always wanted to wait longer so that the carrots could get bigger so
that I would get higher yield and more carrots to eat. But I am beginning to rethink that strategy,
as it seems the longer these early varieties are in the ground the more likely they will
reduce in quality, and I need to work on the timing of harvest of some of the gardens for
next season. Of course the taste of the carrots is a very important factor, and I did sample a
few of the roots from each of the gardens, but because they were available at different times
and there was a few different varieties involved, I couldn’t really do a proper taste comparison.
But I did think that the second crop of carrots from the Polytunnel garden were very good,
as were the carrots from the No-Dig Garden. They seemed to have a better flavour than the carrots
from the other gardens, but that could also be a bias based on how well they looked.
So in summary, the crop of early carrots from the Polyculture garden were not great at all
as they seemed to struggle beside the more established onions and garlic plants that
were in the same bed, with possible competition for scarce fertility
and soil moisture, and I added to the issue by not thinning them enough.
Most of the carrots from the Intensive Garden were split, forked or rotting,
and I am not sure if this was an issue with late harvesting, poor variety or seed quality,
issues with the cultivation or fertility of the soil, or some other factor. The
early crop from the larger Polytunnel of the Black Plot was small but good,
and would have been better with full germination and less competition. The
crop in the Extensive garden was much smaller than it could have been mainly because of
germination issues or slug damage, but what was harvested was pretty good quality. I
was pleasantly surprised how well the carrots in the No-Dig Garden did, especially after the
serious issues last season, and the roots were consistently high quality and tasted really
good. The earlier batch in the Polytunnel Garden was a write-off due to the excessive pest damage,
but the later crop in the same polytunnel was perhaps the best of the season. They
were a fast crop of really well shaped roots that were very clean and beautiful. The yield was
pretty good with a lot of carrots harvested from this relatively small area, and they tasted really
good. I think the well developed soil condition and fertility balance in this garden was a big
reason for this success, as well maintaining consistent soil moisture throughout the season.
We had succeeded in keeping the carrot fly away from this crop, and the rats seemed to
be distracted by other crops and I think these carrots were harvested at the right stage,
where there was a good balance between yield and quality. There was a lot to learn from all
of this, and a few remaining questions about some of the failures that I need to work on for next
year. And there's also a number of different options that I would be interested in exploring,
and a lot of different varieties of early carrots that I could try.
But more importantly I want to work on the timing of successive batches
so that I can harvest great quality fresh carrots like these over a much longer part of the season.