Deformed carrots

ado

Has anyone got any ideas about how to grow relatively straight carrots? About 3/4 on mine have come out of the ground with two or even 3 legs, if they have grown at all. They taste fine but there isn't much left of them after cleaning all the crevices to get the muck off.

Thanks.

LavenderBees

ado wrote: »

Has anyone got any ideas about how to grow relatively straight carrots? About 3/4 on mine have come out of the ground with two or even 3 legs, if they have grown at all. They taste fine but there isn't much left of them after cleaning all the crevices to get the muck off.

Thanks.

Has the bed been manured? I believe that can cause the roots to fork.

ado

LavenderBees wrote: »

Has the bed been manured? I believe that can cause the roots to fork.

I don't think it has, or at least not recently. When we got the house the garden was just soil and weeds and I don't think the previous owner had done anything to it for at least 5 years. I get the impression that the previous owner to that was a keen gardener but that means that the garden wasn't manured for at least 5 years.

I've just dug the rest of the garden over and dug in some home made compost.

Soil_sister_1

Carrots will also fork if they hit a stone or other obstruction in the soil or it is heavy clay and ther root splits rather than pushing through. I am told it can also be because of damage to the root tip caused by pests and too much muck or nitrogen fertiliser in the soil.

kayl

Can you tell me whether I should start lifting my carrots now? This is the first year I have tried them, and the leafy part is about 2 foot tall

dzug1

kayl wrote: »

Can you tell me whether I should start lifting my carrots now? This is the first year I have tried them, and the leafy part is about 2 foot tall

Dig one up and see what they look like.

s_b

dzug1 wrote: »

Dig one up and see what they look like.

and give it a chomp with your nashers:)
cant beat a fresh carrot for sweetness direct from the ground

Orange_King

In my experience the soil needs to be dug to a decent depth to get good carrots. I'm talking at least a good spades depth and maybe more. I have tried them in raised beds the past 2 years and had very few problems with them. Prior to putting the seeds in give the ground a good digging over and apply nutrients if necessary. Then firm down the ground and water prior to putting the seeds in.

Rovver125

We always used to grow carrots in the ground but for the past two seasons have grown them in large containers and will never go back to growing them in the ground again!

The results have been amazing! Lovely straight carrots everytime and all beauties! Even smaller pots work, we have a couple of smaller pots ready for pulling at the moment and they have produced smaller carrots which are lovely for roasting whole!

I believe I read somewhere that growing them in pots also helps to combat carrot root fly, as these pests always pass close to ground level and carrots grown in pots being higher off the ground usually avoid this.

Gone a bit OTT this year, got more then we know what to do with!!